Small planes grounded at Fresno Chandler Executive Airport due to fog

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fog has been an issue this week for small planes flying in and out of Fresno Chandler Executive Airport in southwest Fresno, including students trying to complete their flying sessions.

Fresno Flight Training was supposed to have several students take flight this week.

Most had to cancel their lesson because of the fog and low visibility that it came along with.

Even though it's not good for business, the owner, Marty Bevill, is trying to stay positive.

"Foggy days are ground school days, paperwork days, aircraft cleaning days, no flying on days like this," Bevill says.

He says his students need at least 3 to 5 miles of visibility and that's just not something they've seen a lot of this week.

Many of the airports have reported visibility down to a quarter of a mile or less.

And while he can catch on other work, he says it does take a toll on them financially.

"If we could have flown Monday we would have 6 or 7 student pilots' flights and probably a couple of continuing education pilot flights on those days. It's several thousand dollars of income," he says.

However, on good weather days, they put in long hours to make up for these foggy days.

He's hopeful those students who had to cancel can get back in the plane, take off and complete their lesson.

Looking forward, there may be a chance this weekend for that to happen.

"We are optimistic that Friday, Saturday everything will be back to normal and if we keep the air cleaned up we won't have to deal with this too much," he says.

He will be watching the forecast closely.

He says student pilots do have to learn a little about weather and will take a look at forecast models.

Bevill says while most his students can't fly in fog, there are a handful who actually can under certain conditions because they are training to fly with special equipment on board.