CLEVELAND, Texas — At its Jan. 6 Cleveland Airport Advisory Board meeting, members proposed a voluntary traffic-pattern mitigation initiative to reduce congestion and improve safety at Cleveland Municipal Airport.

The initiative, read aloud by meeting facilitator Hugh McFarland, would ask pilots "when there are five or more aircraft in the local traffic pattern for Runway 16/34" to complete a full-stop landing, perform a touch-and-go, or execute a missed approach and depart the pattern. McFarland said the threshold of five was suggested from his experience as a former tower controller and framed the measure as voluntary guidance, not a regulation.

Airport manager Eric Galindo told the board tenants have reported congested patterns and unprofessional radio communications from some visiting flight-school pilots, prompting informal outreach to nearby flight schools before any formal action. "I've been paying attention to this, and I want to reach out to some of the flight schools to see what I could do before we start doing something more formal," Galindo said.

Board member Greg Modell urged an education-first approach, citing existing federal guidance. "All the documents that apply to it — Advisory Circulars, the FARs, the AIM — all of those things speak to that," Modell said, arguing that outreach and professional standards on radio use should be the first step.

Members discussed limits of a voluntary policy, including that aircraft on the ground do not always appear on ADS‑B and that self-policing can be imperfect. "I like it on paper," Modell said, but he noted potential unintended consequences if pilots cannot see ground operations on surveillance tools.

Next steps agreed by the board include scheduling a tenant meeting and contacting five nearby flight schools for input. Staff will draft verbiage for publication in the Airport/Facility Directory and on aviation apps such as ForeFlight and AirNav while continuing informal conversations with the flight schools. The board did not adopt a formal rule; it directed staff to pursue outreach and return with findings at a later meeting.

The board plans to revisit the item after tenant and flight-school meetings; no vote to adopt a mandatory procedure was held at the Jan. 6 meeting.