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Letters: Airport is not a drag strip

Editor: I am a regular private user of the airport as a pilot owning my own aircraft and I write in response to the letter from David Kipling in the July 16 edition (“SCDRA’s gift to the airport”).

Editor:

I am a regular private user of the airport as a pilot owning my own aircraft and I write in response to the letter from David Kipling in the July 16 edition (“SCDRA’s gift to the airport”).

I was not on the Sunshine Coast in 1999 and have to take his word for the work that was done and by whom. I do seriously doubt his claim about the supposed safety benefits to pilots, who make no use whatsoever of the land on the north side of the runway.

I would suggest that, if the work was done solely by the SCDRA, it has been more than adequately compensated during the last 22 years.

The runway was in pretty bad shape prior to the extension and repaving and it is an open question just how much of that deterioration was due to drag racing.

It makes no sense to me to ever again allow drag racing at a facility that is an airport with a mix of private and some commercial use.

Whatever was done in 1999 is long in the past and does not (nor ever did) give SCDRA a permanent right of use of the runway.

This is an airport to be used by aircraft. It is not a drag strip.

I urge the District of Sechelt to permanently ban drag racing on the new, quite costly runway and find an alternative site.

Buzz Bennett, Gibsons