Airfield Letter March 2024

March 1, 2024 already!

It’ll be flying time soon … break out the oil changing tools, tweak those things that need tweaking and get ready for spring!

The airfield grass is getting its first dose of lime and fertilizer in memory, thanks to the efforts of Museum Directors Jerry Moore, Glenn Gordon and, bringing up the rear, Bob Gardner, who kept the lime broken up to sift through the spreader. This week’s rain will help. Traffic across the grass between the Johnson Field hangars has been greatly reduced after the reintroduction of the gate on Eastbrook Drive. With some preparation such as rolling the surface and directing water, that area should see some improvement right away.

Warmer weather will bring more opportunities to contribute to the renovation of the airfield and we’ll be posting projects from time to time. If you can pitch in for an hour or two it’ll help a lot. Our airfield stands to become a lot more popular among aviation minded people with activity from our local Paramotor club. Ed Saunier and Mark Huneycutt will be holding some familiarization sessions this month to bring us all on the same page with procedures for safe operations. Ed is a retired Delta Captain; Mark H is an Army Blackhawk pilot and paramotor instructor. Club members are being introduced to Johnson Field, too, and how machines of widely varying performance and maneuverability can operate safely at our non-tower-controlled airfield. Some orientation topics will be mandatory use of radios, traffic patterns, altitudes to fly in the vicinity of the airfield and right of way rules. We’ll try to post opportunities to attend such sessions both in this newsletter and through the group discussion/email list. The first such chance will be the EAA Chapter 1016 meeting at the Museum on March 12th (second Tuesday each month) beginning at 6pm. Ed and Mark H will be presenting the program. Stay tuned for details. (For more information on powered parachutes and paramotors, take a look at: https://usppa.org/brochures/ or: http://usppa.org/

This gives an idea of where the powered parachutes/paramotors are planning their operations. Alex Nelon and Mark Cigal are working with Ed and Mark H on the details. The best meeting with all airport parties would be as part of the EAA meeting on March 12th …

How to pitch in and help: We’re making progress with identifying projects but it would be great to have a member serve to coordinate the efforts of our volunteers. What we’re seeing is there are a number of people willing to pitch in and make improvements but, frankly, we’re swamped and
some of these projects are outside our areas of expertise. If you’re interested in doing this, please let us know. Currently, we are working on the grounds. That, and other items:

• The Museum has a failing culvert that runs under the parking lot to the stream bed behind

  the maintenance building and hangars 7, 8 and 9. Work to replace it is in progress, culvert

  pipes were picked up and delivered by Jerry Moore and Bob Gardner, and the digger is

  ready to start digging on this as well as the ditches. Jerry and Bob have the lead on this as

  well as the grass prep on Johnson Field

• We need some carpentry talent to enclose a vestibule in Hangar 2 for member access to

  the restroom there. The exterior door lock will be moved to an interior door for hangar

  access and a keypad entry installed on the exterior door.

• The old fuel shed is ready to be consigned to history. Eric MacMahan has volunteered to

  help with that. The electricity has to be turned off, vent pipes removed, tanks removed and

  the shed and foundation dismantled. A friend of Jeff Moore will remove the old gas pump.

  Help much appreciated.

• Stencil numbers on hangars.

• Electricity to be run to Hangars 7, 8 and 9.

• Door repairs to several hangars.

• Wiring cleanup in Hangars 1, 2 and 3.

• Signage on Eastbrook Drive gate and crossovers to 0A7.

• We need a network guru to either expand the current internet connection at the museum or add another connection for the hangars. Bandwidth should not be an issue since use will be occasional rather than continuous (except for a weather station and camera we’d like to have).

One change that has made your volunteer airport coordinators’ lives a lot easier is a switch from Champion Credit Union to First Citizens Bank. That may not seem like a big deal but it means we can manage the money for the airfield mortgage and improvements more easily. Alex is in the process of having a bank-to-bank transfer verified, which takes a couple of days. We want to make sure First Citizens’ system names the depositor so we can credit the proper hangar account. Once that is done, we’ll forward the routing number and account number in another email, hopefully in the next few days. Many of us have automatic payments set up for various subscriptions and by using direct bank-to-bank transfers to our account it saves time and possible human error by our not having to process checks from the post office. Direct transfers are usually free. Hangar rents, again, are due on the first of the month and we truly appreciate your timely payment.

The hangars are at 100% occupancy. Check the Current status here.

We learned that the owner of the Steen Skybolt in the Museum Hangar, John Gritta, passed away. John was a Museum member for many years and a regular attendee at Member gatherings. Our condolences to John’s family and friends; he was of America’s Greatest Generation , flying the legendary P-51 Mustang and has been restricted by declining health for several years.

As always, Mark C and Alex are available to answer questions or take your recommendations. Our goal is to make the Airfield a vital community resource where aviation enthusiasts and families can come to enjoy the flying machine sights and sounds we all love.

Fly safe!

Alex Nelon 828-595-5950

Mark Cigal 860-930-5453