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Meigs Field dream destroyed
6 July 2003
The first time I landed at Meigs Field in Chicago was not a
landing I'm particularly proud of. I was about 20 years old, flying a
Cessna 172. The weather was perfect, there wasn't a lot of air traffic to
distract me, yet there I was on my approach, barely able to hold a steady
descent. Hell, I was barely able to keep the plane pointed at the
runway. When I eventually landed, it was on the grass just to the left of
runway 36; I bounced twice and ended up running into one of the hangars.
Thankfully, I didn't cause any real damage because this flight was done on my PC
using one of the first versions of Microsoft's
Flight Simulator software. I was able to reset the simulation and try
it again, and again, and again, eventually learning to do it right.
Photograph by Steve Whitney
Some years later, after I had "grown up" and had
been working for a few years, I started taking flying lessons for real in
Boston. I joined the East
Coast Aero Club and started flying a Diamond
Air Katana. Part of the reason I had wanted to fly in the first place
was my simulated experience taking off and landing at Chicago's Meigs
field. Although I never made any concrete plans, in the back of my mind
there was always the assumption that, after I had obtained my pilot's license
and got some more hours under my belt, I would someday go to Chicago and land at
Meigs field. After hundreds or thousands of landings on my PC, I wanted to
do it for real, and I never thought that things completely outside my control
would prevent me from doing that.
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Photo by David Klobucar of the Chicago Tribune
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On
March 30, 2003, in the middle of the night, in an act of despicable cowardice,
Chicago's Mayor Daley ordered bulldozers to rip up the runway at Meigs (see photo
to the left).
Using the excuse of security threats due to possible terrorist attacks, he
fulfilled his decades-long dream of closing Meigs without going through the due
process of public consultation, discussion, and open decision. As a result
of this heinous act, Daley not only destroyed a Chicago landmark but also
stranded many privately-owned General Aviation aircraft. Shame on Daley
for this undemocratic act and for destroying the dream of one person, and
possibly those of thousands of others around the world.
In executing his midnight madness, Daley angered the Chicago
population and generated stronger opposition to the closing of Meigs than the Friends
of Meigs could ever have mustered on their own. Friends of Meigs is a
non-profit organization devoted to saving Meigs (it's still not too late to
repair the damage done). I encourage anybody interested in maintaining
General Aviation as an alternative means of transportation and recreation to go
to their web site
and donate whatever they can to help this organization in its fight. In
the meantime, I will continue to imagine the approach to downtown Chicago and
hope that one day I will be able to see it for real.
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