Local Airport Takes Club Under Wing

Local aviators are preparing for a shift in the amount of driving involved when they want to fly.

The Chapel Hill Flying Club will relocate Sunday to the Sanford-Lee County Regional Airport, located between Raleigh and Fayetteville, after UNC told the club in May that it would have to leave the University's Horace Williams Airport.

Flying Club President Stan Munsat said most club members feel good about the move.

"We are generally optimistic," Munsat said. "The membership will shift as we change our geographical location, but we haven't seen any large exodus of members."

He said the relocation will be more of a blow to Chapel Hill than to the club.

"It's a loss to the people in this area," Munsat said. "It's been a tremendous resource for the town of Chapel Hill to have a place where people could learn to fly. It's certainly appropriate in a university town that an educational club like the Flying Club could do something for the people and students."

The move will also make it harder for members of UNC's Carolina Flying Club to take lessons with the club, Munsat said. But he said the move could bring positive changes for the group as well.

"It's a new chapter in the club's history," Munsat said. "We're going to be known as Wings of Carolina Flying Club. We're going to start using that name from now on."

He said he expects the club's membership to grow as it becomes more accessible to Raleigh's larger population.

The club was originally told it would have to leave Horace Williams Airport in May, when Chancellor James Moeser cited recent accidents as the reason for his decision not to extend the club's lease after it expired June 30. Three club planes have been involved in crashes since 1999.

The University extended the club's relocation deadline by a month when members were having difficulty finding a new location, said Associate Vice Chancellor for Auxiliary Services Carolyn Elfland.

"I think they've been very cooperative," Elfland said.

Elfland added that University officials feel ending the club's lease was the right decision. "I don't think that anything has changed. The reasons the decision was made are still valid."

Geoff Wessel can be reached

at vrooom@email.unc.edu.