Harsh words. Bad blood. Even a physical confrontation near a runway. These are turbulent times at the city-owned airport in Morris, Illinois. Now the FAA is investigating an incident between several pilots on the airfield.

“You’ve heard of road rage,” said veteran pilot John O’Connor. “This was more akin to runway rage.” O’Connor, who spent 35 years as a military aviator, is describing a confrontation on a taxiway at the Morris airport in July.

O’Connor was applying for a new certification with flight instructor Nick Scholtes. They were idling just shy of the runway while completing their final checklist when they say a larger crop duster landed from the opposite direction. They say the pilot of that plane passed several open taxiways and brought his plane almost nose-to-nose with theirs.

“I’d never seen a face on a human being look like that,” flight instructor Nick Scholtes said. “[The crop duster] was just livid.” Cell phone video recorded by Scholtes captured the tail end of the confrontation. The crop duster got out of his plane with the propeller still running. “He was making arm gestures and telling my pilot ‘get out of the plane! Get out of the plane!’”, O’Connor said. “He seemed to want to fight.”

The pilot of the crop duster is seen on video reaching his arm through the window and swatting away the cell phone as he yelled words to the effect of ‘get off the runway.’ When Scholtes and O’Connor refused they say the crop duster attempted to spin their small plane around and violently shook the plane’s wing.

After the two men say they refused to comply, the other pilot walked back to his running crop duster and spun it around. “His wingtip couldn’t have been more than an inch-and-a-half from our propeller,” O’Connor said. “It’s still amazing to me they didn’t hit. Then he prop-blasted us and our little plane was bounced back and forth.”

The two were rattled enough they called Morris police. Initially, they said they didn’t want to pursue criminal charges. That changed when they felt like they were portrayed as the aggressors. The responding officer’s report describes “bad history” between two camps at the airfield. On one side: The flight instructor and other pilots who use the airport for leisure flights. On the other: The crop duster and the airport manager who referred to flight instructor Nick Scholtes as a “trouble maker” in the police report and talked about getting him “kicked out of the airport.”

The pilot of the crop duster claims the flight instructor intentionally blocked his path, the latest move in an ongoing feud. He said he only got out of his plane because he thought the other pilots were having trouble. “I grabbed the strut and shook it like that. But that’s all I did.” The crop duster insisted shaking the other plane was safe.

And who is the owner of that crop duster? His name is Sid Nelson. And he’s not just a crop duster. He is also the former manager of the Morris airport and a current member of the Morris city council who was appointed to that position by the mayor. That’s why it raised eyebrows when the responding officer noted in his report that he delivered a copy to Morris mayor Dick Kopczick “for his review.”

The mayor directed the cop to re-interview the airport manager, who offered a new witness who would say the flight instructor “intentional[ly] pulled in front of [Sid] Nelson.” Police took no further action. The case was closed.

Mayoral intervention is a no-no according to the Grundy County state’s attorney. “I’ve been a career prosecutor for 13-and-a-half years,” Jason Helland said. “I’ve never seen a mayor get involved in a police investigation before.” State’s attorney Helland said his initial requests for police to more thoroughly investigate the case were rebuffed. However, after WGN began asking questions and confronted crop duster Sid Nelson nearly one month after the incident, Morris police reached out to the flight instructor to gather more information.

Mayor Kopczick, the Morris police chief and Morris airport manager Jeff Vogen did not respond to repeated requests for comments on the incident.

The crop duster insists he did nothing wrong. “I’ve been flying for 41 years,” Nelson said. “I got over 15,000 hours. This is the first time I’ve ever encountered anything like this.”

The two pilots who felt they were threatened by Nelson say they simply want the friendly skies to return to the city-owned and subsidized Morris airfield. “They get money from us as customers and money subsidized from the federal government but it’s not managed that way,” Scholtes said.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://wgntv.com/2017/08/31/an...-city-owned-airport/

Regardless of any 'bad blood' I don't think it was smart for the crop duster pilot to get out of his plane and confront while engines on both were turning.

Then you have the 2 verses one. I'm inclined to go with the the two over the crop dusting pilot, without knowing more.

I wonder if the airport has received any federal funding. If so, and the managment, city etc are harassing users there will be trouble.

I've seen this at a couple of airports where people who have been there a long time and try to run the show in a good ol boy cronie type system.

Getting out and messing with an airplane. I'd have had to oblige the guy with an ass whipping. Ridiculous.

Thanks for sharing. I'll be sure to put this airfield on the ignore list.

thats likely a good enough reason to have the FAA yank his ticket

quote:

thats likely a good enough reason to have the FAA yank his ticket

I'd bet the FAA leaves it to the locals to deal with as the offense was not in the air. Brakes set might mean the aircraft was secure although I'd never leave one in that condition. dangerous for him to be walking around spinning props.

Felony arrests, DWI ok. But they probably never faced "air rage" from the pic, only passengers.

There are three turnoffs on the 5000 foot runway. Hard to believe a duster could not make one instead of using one an aircraft was holding short. Or taxi another few hundred feet to the end and use the return taxiway.

Shit. Next thing you know, guys will be putting guns on airplanes and shooting at each other in the sky...

Where will it end?

Which direction was the wind from? What is the airport policy on which direction is in use at any given time? The answers to those two questions will indicate who was wrong.

I was involved in an airport rage incident at Our Little Airport a few years ago.

This is an airport that has no governmental funding of any sort. No federal, no state, no county, no city. Each plot of real estate for each of the 100 + hangars is owned by whoever bought it. Each hangar owner is a member of the Owners Association, which in turn owns the common property like runway, taxiways, etc. The rules of operation are set by the Association.

Hangars are supposed to be used primarily for aviation related purposes, although secondary additional uses are allowed if the primary use is aviation related. That's a rule.

'Nother rule: there is a yellow stripe painted on the ramp in front of each hangar, parallel to the hangar door and the taxiway. This stripe designates how much wingtip clearance must be left for airplanes to taxi past. Vehicles must be parked on the side of the strip away from the taxiway. That's another rule.

I returned from a flight, landed, taxied into taxiway A-3 where my hangar is located, and came to a stop. One of the hangar owners who has no aviation use for his hangar (rule violation) collects cars and motorcycles. He had them scattered all over the taxiway in front of his hangar (rule violation).

V-Tails can not back up under their own power. Shut the engine down, attach the tow bar, manually push the airplane back, get it turned around, remove the tow bar, restart the engine (a feat unto itself when the fuel-injected engine is hot), taxi all the way "around the block" to get to my hangar, shut down, get out, and walk over to the other hangar owner whom I had never met before this.

I politely informed him that the yellow line in front of his hangar had been painted by the Association to designate required clearance for airplanes to taxi. He exploded, with generous use of language that would not be appropriate in most situations. He had an accent that Tac could probably identify, all I could tell was that it had British influence. Could have been Welsh, Irish, Scot, Australian, I don't know. But it certainly seemed that he was just itching for a fight.

I reminded myself that I was packing heat and a fight would not be A Good Thing, so I just shut my mouth and walked back to my hangar. I had visions of handcuffs, jail cells, and lawyers, if I had remained to continue the "conversation." I had the opportunity to disengage safely and it seemed to be the prudent thing to do.

Later, I told the president of the Association what had happened. Since then, whenever that collector's vehicles have been outside of his hangar, they have always been on the proper side of the yellow taxiway boundary line.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Hangars are supposed to be used primarily for aviation related purposes, although secondary additional uses are allowed if the primary use is aviation related. That's a rule.
Later, I told the president of the Association what had happened. Since then, whenever that collector's vehicles have been outside of his hangar, they have always been on the proper side of the yellow taxiway boundary line.

Does he fly his cars and motorcycles now? Or did he get an airplane in there somewhere since too?

quote:

Originally posted by 83v45magna:
id he get an airplane in there?

Nope. The guy has absolutely nothing aviation-related in his hangar. It's just a 5,000 sq. ft. warehouse for his cars and motorcycles.

The Association has rules, but I have never seen them enforced.