Flight School Move to Boeing Field Triggers Controversy

RFS is positioning 12 aircraft at KBFI in tie-downs located on the southwest side of the airport, and school officials report they are also in pursuit of a small hangar to conduct maintenance operations and pilot briefs.

Rainier has flight schools at Snohomish County-Paine Field (KPAE) in Everett (KPAE) north of Seattle, Auburn Municipal Airport (S50) south of Seattle, and Tacoma Narrows Airport (KTIW) in Gig Harbor west of Tacoma.

Until January 31, Rainier's main facility was at Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT), 4 nm to the southeast of KBFI and literally over the hill. The airports share a Class D boundary.

According to Gordon Alvord, co-owner of Rainier Flight Service, the cost of doing business at KRNT became unsustainable when the airport sponsor—the city of Renton—announced it would no longer pay for maintenance on the building the flight school leased.

At one point there were discussions about RFS moving into the building at KBFI that had been vacated by Galvin Flying Service, which shut down in November with just three days' notice. Galvin had been in business for 94 years, but according to an email sent to the staff three days before the shutdown, business costs had grown too great.

According to Alvord, King County approached RFS about the possibility of the flight school positioning aircraft at the airport using 12 tie-downs located next to the Museum of Flight.

While good for those who want fixed-wing flight training at the airport, the suggestion angered the more than 100 people who were on the tie-down waitlist at KBFI, some of whom accused  King County of treating them unfairly.

"The decision to prioritize a commercial operation (in this case a flight school) was not made lightly," said Cameron Satterfield, communications manager for King County Department of Executive Services, saying that the county is following the FAA edict of the "best and highest use" of airport property.

"Around the same time as Galvin shut down, Rainier Flight Services came to us looking for space, as their lease had not been renewed at Renton Airport," Satterfield said. "The airport administration consulted with industry trade organizations, airport tenant groups, and the airport roundtable chair about prioritizing flight training at KCIA. They all agreed that due to the circumstances, it was best to prioritize this commercial activity to ensure there was a flight school based here."

According to Satterfield, in addition to the tie-downs RFR is also renting a T-hangar in the Southwest Airpark, and the county is in negotiations with it for office space for a ground school and preflight and postflight briefings.

The pilots who were on the tie-down waitlist reached out to aviation organizations such as the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) for help, asking for the organization to step in on their behalf.

"Although we all recognize that the folks who have been on the waiting list are unhappy, by my assessment, Boeing Field has done nothing contrary to FAA policy, statutes, or grant assurances in coming to this decision," Brad Schuster, Alaska and Northwest Mountain Region manager for AOPA, said in a statement

"One can draw their own conclusions on whether 12 aircraft owners generally operating their aircraft intermittently would generate more activity than 12 flight training aircraft. Boeing field airport administration believes that utilizing those spaces for flight training would be the best use, particularly in light of the recent closure of Galvin Flying at KBFI and Rainier Flight service at KRNT."

Schuster said that the FAA does not require airports to maintain waitlists for hangars or tie-down spaces, and to his knowledge, the people on the list remain on it.

"In our (AOPA's) assessment, the decision was not taken lightly, appears to be fair and reasonable and not contrary to FAA policies or grant assurances, and is likely the highest and best use of these coveted spaces and in the best interest of the BFI and aviation community at large," he said.