Peachtree City's

Falcon Field will be a stop on the National Air Tour 2003, a recreation

of the historic National Air Tours that took place between 1925 and 1931

when air travel was still a mysterious novelty to most of the nation.

Nathan Roust

of the National Air Tour appeared before the Peachtree City Airport Authority

last week to seek permission to land up to 30 antique planes of various

makes and models at Falcon Field Sept. 17.

The planes

will be making the journey that day from Birmingham, and will stay overnight

on the taxiway, Roust explained.

"We're

recreating an airshow tour from 1932, and Atlanta was one of the stops

then," he said. "But clearly, we can't land at Hartsfield, and

Charlie Brown (Fulton County) and other airports wanted to charge us fees.

You were our best choice."

The tour, which

starts Sept. 8 in Detroit, is being flown by members of the Centennial

of Flight Commission. The airplanes likely to land in Peachtree City include

three Ford tri-motors, Sikorsky flying boats, Stinson tri-motors, Speedmails,

and other rare vintage planes from "America's Golden Age of Aviation,"

Roust said.

The planes

are scheduled to arrive at Falcon Field starting at noon Sept. 17, and

will depart starting at 9 a.m. Sept. 18. Airport Manager Jim Savage said

local partnerships with civic groups and the like will be sought to help

the air tour organizers stage an open-house that evening on the field,

so local residents can see the craft up close.

But the tour

was denied its biggest request, other than the right to land: The donation

of 2,000 gallons of fuel.

"We're

in a tough budget situation," said authority chairwoman Cathy Nelmes.

"I don't see how we can provide that."

Roust seemed

content with the airfield itself and expressed confidence that Peachtree

City and Fayette County were a right fit for the event.

Savage pointed

out that the fly-in will come right on the heels of the annual Great Georgia

Air Show, scheduled for Sept. 6-7 and expected to draw 20,000 spectators.

He told Roust that the Commemorative Air Force and Civil Air Patrol might

be willing to help out.

In other business

last week, Savage told authority members that the airport's financial

footing is "sound," but "2004 is going to be an interesting

budget year."

Savage, of

course, likely won't be around Falcon Field to see much of it, since a

recent contract negotiation has him entering early retirement in December.

But still, he warned Airport Authority members not to put too much into

comparisons of month-to-month revenue fluctuations and annual income.

"With

the economy the way it is, and fuel prices the way they are, we are selling

more fuel in bulk," he said. "And that looks like a lot on paper,

but the markup on bulk fuel does affect us."

With that in

mind, perhaps, the authority played it safe when funding equations were

offered last week.

On a 3-2 vote,

the authority gave Savage the OK to authorize spending $56,921 in airport

funds to relocate utility lines along Stallings Road, a narrow gravel

lane south of the airport that some in the city want to develop for offices

and industry. But only after reviewing the source of the price.

The original

estimate provided by engineers for relocating the lines was about $30,000,

Savage said, and eventually hit $45,000. Nobody on the authority seems

to know where the $56,000 figure came from.

"We're

going