“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 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.

“Air traffic” means aircraft operating in the air or on an airport surface, exclusive of parking areas.

“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 Sierraville-Dearwater Airport, its facilities, all lands owned by Sierra County contiguous to the airport, including airspace above such land and the designated approaches thereto.

“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, traffic surveillance.

“Commercial use” means use of the Sierraville-Dearwater Airport for revenue producing commercial activities.

“County” means Sierra County.

“Fixed base operator” means any person who rents, leases, or owns facilities located on the Sierraville-Dearwater 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:

“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 the 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, assignee, 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 Sierraville-Dearwater Airport.

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

“Word construction.” The following construction applies throughout this chapter: