ALTUS — Bob Shingledecker spent most of his adult career immersed in technology - first as an aircraft mechanic for the U.S. Air Force, then as an automotive technology instructor. When he took his first flying lesson in 1988, he knew he had found an all-consuming passion.

“That was kind of the end of it,” Shingledecker said. “It was aviation from then on out.”

Shingledecker, who maintains and flies a 150-horsepower Piper Cherokee, is one of a handful of landowners at Winfield Airpark, about 5 miles south of Altus. The park, which is divided into 24 tracts used for hangars and homes and has a 2,600-foot grass runway, is one of more than 200 privately owned airfields throughout Arkansas, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a national organization that promotes the interests of aviators. It claims 400,000 members.

Winfield Airpark is registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as a private airstrip, but it’s not listed as restricted, meaning pilots who are not co-owners or residents may land there without being considered trespassers.

Dave Myrick, a neighbor to Shingledecker at Winfield Airpark, said most private airfields permit outside use primarily in emergencies.

“The big advantage of having an FAA designation is that it puts your strip on the navigational charts,” Myrick said. “They’re generally used in case of an emergency landing, known as an unscheduled, off-airport landing.”

But unscheduled users can sometimes invite unintended consequences. In Arkansas, as in all but 16 other states, the Recreational Use Statute, which indemnifies owners of private lands against lawsuits stemming from public recreational activities, does not extend to aviation.

Lobbying by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has recently put small, privately owned airstrips like Winfield Airpark on Arkansas legislators’ radar.

Yasmina Platt, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s manager for the central southwestern region, said she has been actively engaging lawmakers in Arkansas and Oklahoma over the past year to amend the states’ respective recreational use statutes.

Arkansas Rep. Joe Jett, D-Success, is sponsoring House Bill 1020, which would amend the state’s Recreational Use Act to include aviation. Although the bill was unanimously approved by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Jett chose to resubmit it with a members-only amendment, allowing other representatives to add their names as co-sponsors of the bill.

The bill passed through the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and is seen as likely to arrive on the House floor for a vote Thursday. Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould, is sponsoring the Senate version of the bill, which Thompson said will likely arrive on the Senate floor for a vote late next week.

If the bill becomes law, it would extend to private airport owners the same protection against lawsuits that private landowners have who open their grounds to public hunting or other recreational activities.

Like most of the half-dozen full-time residents at Winfield Airpark, Shingledecker is retired. Asked why he would want to live so close to an active airstrip, he explained that it’s no different from other hobbies that ultimately become lifestyles.

“To people who don’t understand it, I liken it to a golf community,” Shingledecker said. “It’s basically the same concept.”

To be clear, Winfield Airpark is not like a commercial airport. The airstrip has no lighting, so it isn’t used at night. And while large planes generally fly above bad weather, a low-cloud ceiling on a blustery day often grounds small aircraft like those kept in private, residential hangars similar to Winfield Airpark.

Also among the airports that the current legislation would affect is the private, but not restricted, Lost Bridge Village Airport, about 6 miles southeast of Garfieldin Benton County.

Lost Bridge Village Airport is among airstrips in the state that attract aviators because of their unique geographic features. Ken Bell, manager of the airport, said aviation instructors throughout the region use his airport for their students to practice takeoffs and landings on the 3,100-foot airstrip situated between Beaver Lake at the south end and Whitney Mountain at the north.

“I wouldn’t say it’s particularly dangerous, but you do need a certain skill level,” Bell said. “There’s not a lot of room for error.”

While Lost Bridge Village is home to about 200 year round residents, it also caters to pilots who simply fly in for weekends, Bell said. The airport has no hangars, although the community’s board of trustees has commissioned a study to consider the feasibility of building hangars.

Myrick, who has been building his own airplane for about 16 months, said he thinks the bill’s passage would prompt many owners of private restricted-use airports to open their facilities.

Regardless of the bill’s outcome, he said, his love of aviation and his habits regarding it won’t change. “The twisted little thing about us flyers - we need very little excuse to go fly,” Myrick said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/30/2013