§ 11.28.030. Definitions and interpretation of language.

A.

For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions and meanings shall apply unless otherwise specified:

"Air carrier" means any person who undertakes directly, by lease, or other arrangement, to engage in air transportation of persons or things. They operate, in various categories, under authority or certification by the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board and/or the California Public Utilities Commission. Categories include certificated route air carriers, trunk carriers, flag carriers, local service carriers, all-cargo carriers, helicopter carriers, commercial air operators, air taxi operators, and charter air carriers.

"Aircraft" means a device that is used, or intended to be used, for flight in the air. It includes airplanes, helicopters and gliders, and lighter-than-air devices such as blimps or balloons, but does not include hang gliders.

"Airport" means the Napa County Airport, its buildings and facilities, all lands owned by the county contiguous to the airport, including airspace above such land, and the designated approaches thereto.

"Air traffic" means aircraft operating in the air or on an airport surface, exclusive of loading ramps or parking areas.

"Air traffic clearance" means an authorization issued by air traffic control personnel for an aircraft to proceed under specified traffic conditions within controlled air space.

"Autorotation" means a rotorcraft flight condition in which the lifting rotor is driven entirely by action of the air when the rotorcraft (helicopter) is in motion.

"Balloon" means a lighter-than-air aircraft which is not engine-driven.

"Ceiling" means the height above the earth's surface of the lowest layer of clouds or obscuring phenomena, that is reported as "broken," "overcast" or "obscuration," and is not classified "thin" or "partial."

"Commercial operator" means any person who, for compensation or hire, engages in the carriage of persons, property or mail in air commerce, or engages in other aerial activity such as flight instruction, aerial photography, fire-fighting, agricultural aviation activities or traffic surveillance.

"Commercial use" means the use of the airport for revenue-producing commercial activities.

"County" means the county of Napa, California.

"Fixed-base operator" means any person who rents, leases or owns facilities located on the county airport who, by virtue of his specific type of aviation (or aviation-related) activity, requires the occupancy of a site with contiguous aircraft apron and direct access to the aircraft operation area, and who engages in a business activity providing aviation sales or services, including, but not limited to any of the following:

1.

Selling and/or servicing new and used aircraft and component parts;

2.

Aircraft maintenance and repairs;

3.

Sales and/or repair of avionics;

4.

Aviation training, including ground or flight instruction;

5.

Aerial photography;

6.

Air ambulance service;

7.

Aircraft agricultural operations (crop dusting, spraying, or the application of seed, fertilizers, pesticides, defoliants, etc.); and

8.

Aircraft rental, charter, leasing.

"Flight visibility" means the average forward horizontal distance from the cockpit of an aircraft in flight, at which prominent unlighted objects may be seen and identified by day, and prominent lighted objects may be seen and identified by night.

"Ground visibility" means prevailing horizontal visibility near the earth's surface.

"Helicopter" means a rotor-driven aircraft (rotorcraft) that, for its horizontal motion, depends primarily on its engine-driven rotors.

"IFR" means instrument flight rules covering meteorological conditions below the minimums for flight under visual (VFR) conditions.

"Maintenance" means inspection, overhaul, repair, preservation and replacement of parts, but excludes preventive maintenance.

"Maximum gross landing weight" means the maximum landing weight stipulated for a particular aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

"Night" means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the American Air Almanac, converted to local time.

"Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint-stock association, or governmental entity, and includes a trustee, receiver, assignees, or similar representative of any of them.

"Traffic pattern" means the traffic flow that is prescribed for aircraft landing at or taking off from the Napa County Airport.

"VFR" means visual flight rules covering meteorological conditions, above those requiring flight under IFR conditions.

B.

Word Construction. The following construction applies throughout this chapter:

1.

Words importing the singular include the plural:

2.

Words importing the plural include the singular; and

3.

Words importing the masculine gender include the feminine.

(Ord. 628 § 1 (part), 1980: prior code § 8990.4)