EYE ON THE SKY WHITEMAN AIRPARK TO GET RADAR.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

PACOIMA - Old-timers at Whiteman Airpark remember bitterly when a control tower was built in 1989, a symbol to them of government restraint on their free-flying attitude.

Now the sleepy little airport is getting a radar system, but this time pilots, including Les Stobbe, say they couldn't be happier, even if it means someone will track their every move.

The need for a radar gained new urgency last week, when a midair collision killed four people in the Newhall Pass, which funnels planes into Whiteman, Van Nuys Airport and Burbank Airport, the busiest airspace in the region.

None of the planes were from Whiteman or headed there, but they shared the same airways with planes from there, which concerns pilots and controllers alike.

``If there's a lot of aircraft, and it's a smoggy day, it would be very difficult to see someone, so radar in that sense would make it a lot safer,'' said Stobbe, a 65-year-old Granada Hills man who has been flying out of Whiteman since 1972.

Without radar, Whiteman air traffic controllers must rely on binoculars to keep planes safe, but visibility can be limited and the turbulence from jumbo jets can toss around prop planes.

There has been at least one near-midair collision in Whiteman's airspace in recent years, but no accidents related to the lack of radar, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Near disaster

Still, the six-story tower was built after a near-disaster in the late 1980s when a Boeing 737 airliner mistakenly lined up to land at Whiteman instead of Burbank, where alert controllers caught the problem just in time.

In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration last month, Whiteman's safety committee warned that the danger of overlapping airspace remains.

``It puts them on issue that we have a safety issue here at the airport,'' said airport manager Jake Godown. ``On hazy days the visibility is very bleak and you cannot see the airplanes. The radar will allow us to pick them up and keep them separated.''

Los Angeles County, which owns the airpark, plans to install the $100,000 linkup with Burbank Airport's radar system this year with money raised by Whiteman and the county's other four small airports. Whiteman's controllers will then have a view of Burbank's radar to keep track of planes throughout the area.

``The controllers will be able to see all the traffic in the area on the display where now, during periods of lower visibility, the traffic is out there but they can't see it,'' said Ted Gustin, chief of the Aviation Division for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, which owns the airport.

Pilot Jon Bergstrom, 58, said the airfield he worked at as a teen-ager finally has had to grow up.

``It used to be you just jumped in your plane and took off without talking to anyone because you didn't have a radio,'' said Bergstrom, a pilot there since the 1960s and manager from 1988 to 1991. ``Then when the tower came you had rules. Nobody wanted it here because we were free spirits. Actually it made the airport a whole lot safer.''

Certainly, Whiteman is different than its namesake envisioned some 50 years ago.

Carved out of farmland

During the 1940s, businessman and pilot Marvin E. Whiteman Sr. carved the airport out of carrot and corn farmland to store his fleet of retired Civilian Pilot Training planes, Interstate Cadets, PT-19s, Stinsons and Beeches.

But anticipating a boom in post-war civilian aviation, Whiteman decided to open the airpark for all pilots in 1946, clearing a north-south runway. He also built a hillside home with a large swimming pool that later became the unofficial headquarters of the Motion Picture Pilots Association.

Aviators fresh from the war sipped coffee with student pilots and crop dusters in the Crosswinds Cafe, an old farmhouse where planes sat tied down out front like horses at an Old West saloon.

``It used to be people could just fly up, pitch a tent and camp by their airplane,'' Godom said.

From the start, Whiteman lured pilots with the promise of no cost beyond tiedown and fuel fees. Even today, the tiedown fees cost roughly half that of Van Nuys Airport, accounting for a steady relocation of planes from Van Nuys and Burbank airports, Godown said.

``They're trying to cater more to business jets over at Van Nuys but here they look after the little guy,'' said Doug Johnson, 47, of Pacoima, an aircraft mechanic at Whiteman who once ran a flight school at Van Nuys Airport.

Whiteman has other advantages as well, from easy access to hangars and runways to the bonds fostered over the years between aviators.

``Half the people come here just to talk,'' Johnson said. ``They gather in their hangars to socialize and not do anything. They just spend hours `hangarizing.' ''

Inside those hangars and out on the tarmac of the 158-acre airport lie about 700 mostly single-engine planes, from weathered banner-towing planes to beautifully restored antiques, trainer helicopters to gleaming new experimental kit planes.

About half the planes are used for recreation, the rest by small businesses, Godown said. As the number of planes grows, so too does pressure for the airport to become more a hub for small aviation, a development that longtime tenants watch warily.

``The airport's growing by leaps and bounds,'' Godown said, noting the on-going construction of two new hangars and various deals to bring more aviation businesses.

Lagging interest

What hasn't grown is interest in flying by a new generation of pilots, said the airport's unofficial mayor, James Robinson, who continues to fly at age 80 and was readying a test flight of his new kit plane.

``There used to be a lot of young kids hanging out and now you just don't find as many younger people,'' Robinson said. ``I don't know what that is. Maybe it just doesn't seem to challenge their interest anymore.''

Los Angeles County saw the potential of the airfield, buying it from Whiteman in 1970 after years of leasing him part of the airport property. Now a private company, Comarco, is under contract to run the county's five small airports, including Fox Field in Lancaster. The county has undertaken several improvements, including a new, 4,185-foot runway that parallels San Fernando Road.

The runway is not long enough for large business and commercial jets, so the airport has maintained fairly cordial relations with neighbors, avoiding the war over jet noise that has engulfed Van Nuys Airport.

Little-known outside the aviation community, Whiteman drew unwanted attention when a string of seven accidents, two fatal, occurred in and around the airport in just over two years ending in November 1997.

Of 13 accidents since 1989, none have been attributed to tower operators or the ``visual flight rules'' they work under, according to records from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The accidents and crashes renewed a push for safety, although there have been no reported accidents in more than two years.

Operating without radar can be just asking for trouble, officials said. Smog and haze can cut visibility to just a mile or two, half that of a clear day, according to tower chief Laura Carr. ``There's been instances where the aircraft got closer, in my opinion, than they should have.''

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, map

Photo: (1 -- color) Whiteman Airpark, on 158 acres in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, is home to about 700 mostly single-engine airplanes, from Cessnas to World War II fighter trainers.

(2 -- color) The six-story air traffic control tower at Whiteman Airpark was built in1989.

(3 -- color) Laura Carr, tower chief at Whiteman Airpark, uses a light gun to signal a person in a car that it's safe to cross the runway.

(4 -- color) Glendale College aviation student Joyce Samuelson checks the wings of a plane as part of the pre-flight check for her class.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(5) Businessman and pilot Marvin E. Whiteman Sr. carved Whiteman Airpark, shown here in a photo from the mid-1950s, out of carrot and corn farmland to store his fleet of retired airplanes.

Map: Whiteman Airpark