Sundance Airport Sold

[OKCTalker]

CEO buys private Oklahoma City airport, plans to remodel | NewsOK.com

Jerry Hunter, chief executive of US Fleet Tracking, says he's almost embarrassed to show visitors inside Sundance Airport, his latest business venture.

With its pink bathrooms, gaudy '80s decor and overgrown brush surrounding the runway, it's clear Sundance could use a face-lift. But the before, he says, is essential to appreciating the after.

Hunter purchased the airport at NW 122 and Sara Road on Dec. 31 and is planning to invest $1 million to remodel the terminal building, adding an aviation-themed restaurant and other first-class amenities, as well as 80 new aircraft hangars at a cost of an additional $2.4 million.

[Lauri101]

My son-in-law is the architect on project - it's going to look very nice when done!

[bombermwc]

I never even knew the place existed....cool.

[MonkeesFan]

I never even knew the place existed....cool.

Me either!

[OKCTalker]

I wish the guy well. The City of OKC doesn't do a good job of managing their general aviation airports (Wiley Post & Clarence Page), and the previous owners of Sundance similarly neglected that private airport at NW Expressway & Sara Road. The OKC Department of Airports dragged their feet for more than a decade on making improvements to meet consumer demands, while both Downtown Airpark and Expressway Airpark were closed. Meantime, the cities of Edmond & Guthrie worked together to expand, improve and promote what is now known as the Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport, and aircraft owners in N OKC & Edmond are basing their aircraft there.

Hunter could hit it out of the park on this. They have a good runway with good instrument approaches in place, the competition from Wiley Post is negligible, the turnaround should be fairly simple, and he's well-capitalized.

[catch22]

I wish the guy well. The City of OKC doesn't do a good job of managing their general aviation airports (Wiley Post & Clarence Page), and the previous owners of Sundance similarly neglected that private airport at NW Expressway & Sara Road. The OKC Department of Airports dragged their feet for more than a decade on making improvements to meet consumer demands, while both Downtown Airpark and Expressway Airpark were closed. Meantime, the cities of Edmond & Guthrie worked together to expand, improve and promote what is now known as the Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport, and aircraft owners in N OKC & Edmond are basing their aircraft there.

Hunter could hit it out of the park on this. They have a good runway with good instrument approaches in place, the competition from Wiley Post is negligible, the turnaround should be fairly simple, and he's well-capitalized.

They aren't exactly the greatest at managing WRWA either...

[LuccaBrasi]

My son-in-law is the architect on project - it's going to look very nice when done!

What firm is doing the project?

[Lauri101]

Michael Allen Riley, PLLC - he's in LeFlore County but up and coming with projects throughout the state.

His website is still a work in progress - he's been overloaded with projects in multiple locations. I know he'll be looking for an intern and/or draftsman by this summer if anyone is interested.

(note - I think he's brilliant, of course - but so, evidently do a lot of other companies, school districts, municipalities and individuals)

[ManAboutTown]

Has anyone else wondered why a hay bale was located in the flight path of this plane? I assume it was taking off south to north and just didn't get enough altitude to miss the hay bale, but it doesn't seem smart to have anything at the end of a runway, especially in case of an emergency.

Was the plane overloaded? Did it malfunction? Pilot error? I'm sure the NTSB will release a report eventually, but what a tragedy for this family.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...d/74752662007/

[Dob Hooligan]

Has anyone else wondered why a hay bale was located in the flight path of this plane? I assume it was taking off south to north and just didn't get enough altitude to miss the hay bale, but it doesn't seem smart to have anything at the end of a runway, especially in case of an emergency.

Was the plane overloaded? Did it malfunction? Pilot error? I'm sure the NTSB will release a report eventually, but what a tragedy for this family.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...d/74752662007/

I 'think" I saw a quote somewhere that the plane veered hard to the left off of the runway and then hit the hay bale. Like I said, I "think" I heard that

[Bellaboo]

It was also an extremely hot day, which affects lift.

[PoliSciGuy]

Oh excellent, they're adding a restaurant. With the restaurant at Wiley Post closed after Covid, we need a new place to go eat and watch general aviation movements.