SAN JOSE — Saturday’s Neighborhood Competition at Reid-Hillview Airport in east San Jose drew 1000’s of individuals desirous to get a close-up view of quite a lot of flying machines.

Shei Sutton stated the response of her 4-year-old niece Tahliya helped her really feel like a child once more, too.

“After some time, you get on a airplane and it isn’t a giant deal however having to return and see the precise airplanes inside after which see the enjoyment of their eyes — it is nice, ?” Sutton stated.

Aviation fan David Hovey stated it helped that the occasion was taking place at a smaller neighborhood airport like Reid-Hillview.

“It is extra enjoyable as a result of they’re smaller and every thing’s in a smaller area and, yeah, it isn’t as busy and it is only a nice occasion,” he stated.

Not everybody shared his enthusiasm.

At a park throughout the road from the runway, a gaggle of neighborhood activists gathered to resume their demand that the airport be closed. They stated a county-commissioned research reveals elevated ranges of lead in youngsters residing inside a half-mile of the airport.  Though leaded gas has been banned at Reid-Hillview for 3 years, they are saying airplanes are nonetheless burning it.

“The lead has been banned however the pilots will fly to Mineta, they’re going to fly to Palo Alto and so they deliver the leaded gas again to our neighborhood,” stated Maria Reyes, a home-owner who’s main the hassle to shut the airport. “This isn’t truthful. Our youngsters have to be protected.”

Again on the airport, pilot Diane Gaskill acknowledged that homeowners of some plane are, the truth is, filling up with leaded gas elsewhere.

“They must! They do not have a alternative. (Unleaded gas) would destroy the engine,” she stated. “(Lead) protects the engine in opposition to misfiring, firing too quickly and burning a gap within the prime of the piston. That is what may occur — very severe harm.”

The irony is that Reid-Hillview is already scheduled to be closed in 2031 when an settlement between Santa Clara County and the FAA expires.

San Jose metropolis councilmember Peter Ortiz stated it is necessary to maintain the stress on so they do not backtrack on that plan.

But when unleaded gas is hazardous at Reid Hillview, what about those that stay close to Mineta Worldwide?

Ortiz stated he wouldn’t advocate closing that airport.

“There are neighborhoods however they’ve distance,” he stated. “They do not have people proper right here within the center. They do not have small planes flying over the households over there.”

For the county, the well being situation might not be the actual purpose to shut the airport. Whereas neighbors wish to see a park with swimming swimming pools and open area, the pilots suspect the county is eyeing the land as a primary location for high-density housing developments.

“That is all San Jose is all in favour of having constructed in the mean time so that is what the residents are going to get right here,” stated a member of a corporation known as CAAPSO, for Neighborhood and Airport Partnership for Secure Operations. “They usually really don’t desire that. They need this was some large park and open area and the factor they do not notice is, airports are open area.”

Reid-Hillview has been right here for greater than 80 years however, for the reason that Nineteen Eighties, there have been efforts by opponents — together with Santa Clara County — to close it down. The neighbors need the airport to shut instantly. The pilots hope it is going to keep open without end.

The county might have its personal causes for wanting the ability to fly off into the sundown eight years from now.