This has got to be one of the best, non-biased articles on this topic. Thanks Mack, this is why I regularly visit your blog (and recommend it to all in this city).

-Francois

I kind of figured that Villneuve would be the likely candidate to take over the GA side of things but it seems to me that the ECCA has the infrastructure in place already to support a massive GA operation. It would be a lot of money to tear down YXD and build it up into the city (although i can see how it would be beneficial) and to also spend on getting Villneuve up to par with what the ECCA is currently at.

But then again I’m not from edmonton, nor will i pretend to know a lot about the airports or what edmonton needs. I’d put me on the fence as well with a slight list towards keeping the ECCA.

The city actually has four regional airports. the principal training airport would become Villeneuve, which has the same four runways and is a control zone than ECCA. There is also Cooking Lake, which is where a lot of GA pilots who own planes fly from.

As a Pilot I love the convenience and coolness of flying into the city core, without a doubt. that said, I see a very unique opportunity to reinvent the urban nature of our City, with a huge piece of central land.

Park me on the fence on this one.

Most interesting report and comments. I, too, feel that the ECCA is past it’s best before date.

To address those concerned with medivac, I’ll bet creative minds could design ground/rooftop space to receive a chopper and access to the RA.

However, as one of, what may be called, the older generation, I feel that heritage, (community, city, provincial, national), is vital. If the ECCA land is to be converted to degrees of residential/commercial/educational use, I really hope that a strong visual legacy is left for present and future generations to enjoy and understand the importance Blanchard Field played in the history of Edmonton. And I don’t mean a few plaques hither and yon.
I would love to see some large sculptures, (possibly life size), of the aircraft and people who are synonymous with aviation history in Edmonton.
Wouldn’t it be cool arriving at NAIT and, as you step out of the LRT, be greeted by a biplane bearing down on you?
Just yesterday a client and I were discussing some of the past that Edmonton has lost because of short term thinking, (our perspective). Let’s get Edmontonians celebrating what has been, what is, and what can be.

Cheers.

Cheers

I wonder if that is how the pro-ECCA crowd feels…

I’m not sure what Primeau’s deal is. I think it’s a little bit of resistance to change, and a little bit of fear. I would have thought she’d have been more open to learning as well.

(also, I think you mean 1995 instead of 2005 when referring to the ECCA plebisite).

All very true…a lot of that is addressed in the EIA’s fact sheet they released on ECCA. I’m not a pilot, and I haven’t looked into the numbers too closely, so I probably am not in the best position to analyze it. It’s linked on my resources post if you’re interested.

If I had more time, I’d break out the YEG/YYC numbers by domestic and international, because I think that would tell a bit of a different story.