Tweed-New Haven Airport (HVN) vs. Reid-Hillview Airport (RHV)?

As the Tweed discussion continues I’d like to make a comparison of Tweed-New Haven Airport to Reid-Hillview (KRHV) of Santa Clara, California. Why, you ask? Well, not just because of rampant Social Media posts by town-criers who elect to do so themselves, but because one such “high ranking” member of the 10,000 Hawks goes on public record ( TNHAA authority meeting May 2022) making wildly assertive claims to such comparisons… and nobody challenges them. Further, in their efforts to appear knowledgeable, they unwittingly tie the issue issue of airport capacity into their other grossly inaccurate claims.

First, credit where credit is due!
The statement thrown around the Tweed discussion about leaded fuel is an important one. AVGAS or 100LL is used by piston engine airplanes. Small single and twin engine planes use this kind of fuel. For the record, Not AVELO jets or any jets or any turbo props. I think the Hawk forgot to tell you this. But anyhow…

Rest assured, this 100LL or AVGAS fuel is indeed ‘expended’ by airplanes that use Tweed New Haven Airport. You should know however, that there are efforts industry wide to limit, reduce and eventually terminate production and use of this fuel in certain kinds of airplanes. As such, Reid-hillview Airport (RHV) in Santa Clara , CA is an airport that does not pump or disperse this fuel into aircraft (or sell it as another way to describe). That said, 100LL is not prohibited from use at this airport by piston propeller aircraft as the 10,000 Hawk lead us to believe in her comments for the public record. Simply, this fuel is not sold or pumped at this airport. Airplanes that use this fuel are free to come and go at this airport. 100LL simply can’t be purchased here. This is great for the environment. I look forward to the day when we switch to another kind of fuel.

Incidentally, Reid-Hillview Airport sells UL94 fuel. This is unleaded aviation fuel and obviously already exists…proof positive that efforts are well under way to switch piston engine propeller aircraft to Unleaded Aviation fuel. This movement is gaining traction and lifting off from RHV airport.

The problem with the AVGAS story is the contribution (or really lack of) that the 10,000 Hawks make in this regard. They forget to tell you that Jets use a different kind of fuel. They want to make Tweed and the AVELO jets sound villainous by using leaded fuel arguments and statements whilst conveniently referring to AVELO. They purposely (or ignorantly ) blur the two separate (but important) issues to help their cause.

Further, they site real life facts up to and just short of telling you other important facts to the whole picture. And that is, no airport has banned (nor can they) the use of 100LL. These and other airports can certainly limit use of such fuel in various ways, but they cannot ban it. Maybe the Hawks didn’t know 100LL is still in wide use at Reid-Hillview Airport? Maybe they didn’t care to know. Also, they arm themselves with studies. While studies are indeed important, relevant and useful…are they factual conclusions? Any Hawks care to take that question? Remember, studies are important and can be useful but they are not absolute until they are proven such.

Rest assured, when the switch is turned off on 100LL AVGAS, it won’t be the 10,000 Hawks doing it. That will be the government’s job. And it will happen.

How silly a comparison.

This same Airport Protester went on in their public comment at the TNHAA May 2022 meeting to state that Tweed and Reid-Hillview Airports are similar. They sounded so authoritative when this was said. But guess what? They are wrong.

I attached with this article the FAA fact data sheets for the two airports so that you can see and make for comparison yourself, that this person is completely wrong in their comparison. This said, I can’t help but highlight key points:

1. Tweed has one (1) runway. Reid-Hillview has two (2). RHV runways are parallel (see below).

2. Tweed has sixty three (63) based aircraft. Reid-Hillview has three hundred twenty nine (329).

These are just about all piston engine propeller aircraft (90 precent or so).

This is not a typo! RHV has five times the number of based aircraft. 5 times!!!

3. Tweed has 36,000 yearly operations. Can you guess how many operations RHV airport has per year? I will let you pause and think….209,000 !!!! Yup. That’s about 7 times busier than Tweed.

7 times busier than Tweed.

How can a smaller airport be busier than a bigger one?

I want to share a unique fact in relation to the above points. This fact relates to technical aspects that determine the ‘busy-ness’, ie activity of an airport that such does not solely depend on size of the airport.

Tweed Airport is 400 acres in size. Reid-Hillview Airport is 179 acres in size. How can an airport less than half the size of Tweed be 7 times busier? Parallel runways. Tweed has no parallel runways and never will. Parallel runways handle the greatest flow of traffic.

Also, Tweed’s runway is almost twice the length of Reid-Hillviews’. 5,600 versus 3,100 feet. Yet somehow RHV Airport is 7 times busier. Does runway length mean a busier airport? I hope by now, you know that it does not.

Airport design, layout, airspace capacity and market demographics have everything to do with making an airport busy or not (like I have already written to you about)…it isn’t just how long a runway is going to be…it’s many things and I’m afraid our 10,000 Hawks just don’t know or understand this technical fact. I want you however to understand. A bigger airport doesn’t always mean busier.

The Tweed Airport Master Plan proposes to lengthen the runway. The lengthening will be done on current airport property. The airport is not getting bigger by this…the runway is being made marginally longer. And again, repeating, a longer runway does not mean busier.

Tweed could become 10 times bigger in terms of acreage and runway length than it is now, and for reasons described, it could still be quite the sleepy ‘little airport’. Tweed is not planned to be 10 times bigger. Size does not ONLY matter. In the Master Plan proposals, Tweed airport does not increase in acreage, this, for the record.

In closing.

Are these airports really similar? More importantly, are you going to be shown the light 💡 by someone who makes this assertion on anything related to the Tweed discussion? If their level of expertise as shown by this airport comparison is any indication, we are in trouble. They shout, “do your research” . Are they doing theirs? And just how far are they going with it.

The environment is assuredly a worthy cause. We all have a vested interest in doing things respectful of nature. The aviation industry is making plenty of efforts in terms of new and improved fuels and new forms of aircraft propulsion. Reid-Hillview Airport is one of those airports that is helping to improve the environment by its efforts to limit use of 100LL. The entire industry, of which Tweed is a part, is going in flying in the right direction.

As far as the 10,000 Hawks flying in the right direction goes, I’m afraid their internal compass is a bit off. From the perspective of an aviation minded person, I see nothing but emotional rhetoric and misuse of information being the domain of the 10,000 Hawks. Are these the people you want to listen to?