My name is Joseph A. Costa I am a licensed pilot and have received the Wright Brothers master pilot award. I have over 4,361 flying hours. I am 88 and still fly once in awhile.

I worked for the Steamship Authority for 45 years, the last 25 to 35 years as a purser. I have flown out of Trade Winds airport for over 50 years and it was never a dog park, it was an airport. I worked for the land bank for several years as an all-around handyman, mowing the field, fixing fences and hangar doors. I had a 1945 Cessna 150 airplane I kept in the hangar. It was nice until the dog people came on the property. I have had dogs all my life and loved every one of them, but now come the people, some are not so nice. I asked a man if he could not have the dog poop on the taxi way. Well the next day there were about 14 or 15 dog poops where I needed to taxi out to the runway. I have wheel pants on my airplane and if anything gets in the brakes it could make a brake lockup and cause an accident.

The last time I landed on the field, the other pilot said stop — in the middle of the runway was a 10-foot steel pole upright. Now that could kill someone. Why you ask? That’s what I would like to know. I had to stop my engine three times because a dog was running to my plane. That is not good for my engine. Now that they have a fence around the field to keep the dog people out, it will be safer for the planes to land at the airport. If you look on any map you will see Trade Winds airport. I once had 83 permits and tie downs for pilots to land at Trade Winds to play golf, eat and go into town. They stopped coming because of the dogs and people on the runway.

Joseph A. Costa

Vineyard Haven