To maintain funding for
the Redwood Falls airport, a full-time manager was needed, and life-long
flying enthusiast Winston Venable jumped at the opportunity.
Winston Venable was born on an Air Force Base in Arizona, and has been fascinated by airplanes ever since.
He got his pilots license
about 15 year ago, just because he could, and was once part-owner of an
airplane based at the Redwodo Falls airport.
When the opportunity to become the new manager of the Redwood Falls airport on January 1, Venable grabbed it.
The opportunity came about because the city’s funding for the airport was threatened.
The Federal Avaition
Administration (FAA) gives up to $150,000 a year for improvements to the
airport, and another $30,000 for maintanence to keep the runways safe
for pilots.
The city is currently
putting together a long range plan for the airport’s next 20 or so
years. New hangers and longer runways are part, so keeping that state
and federal funding continuing is a must.
However, to maintain
enough funding to continue with airport improvements over the next 20 or
so years, the city needs to get that number up to at least 20,000
operations a year. (An operation is ever time an aircraft takes off
or lands. If a pilot takes off from the Redwood runway, then comes back
to land there, it’s counted as two operations.)
According to Redwood Falls City Project manager Jim Doering, the airport had 9,828 operations in 2012.
Having North Air Care
based at the airport helps tremendously. Every time a North Air Care
helicoptor takes off and lands, that counts at two operations.
According to Doering,
having more businesses and private pilots based a the Redwood Falls
airport is vital to keeping the state and federal funding coming.
“The change to a full-time position came from wanting full-time attention given to the airport,” said Doering.
Marketing is going to be a much more important part of the airport manager’s job in the future.
“The job description now
includes working with pilots and industry,” said Doering. “We’d like to
see the offices rented in the terminal, and more pilots basing their
planes there for business and contract flying.”
Just being available at the airport is an important part of Venable’s new position.
“Pilots like to talk. If
they stop by to get gas, or to plug in their airplane overnight, and
there’s no one here, they won’t stop by again. I’ve also noticed they
like good stiff coffee, so strong a spoon stands up in it.”
The better word of mouth the airport gets, the more are likely to stop by.
“The price of fuel is
down (since Jan. 1),” Venable said. “A lot of general aviation pilots
were concerned about prices. If a pilot thinks Redwood charges too much,
he might not stop here to refuel on his way back.”
“We used to have a lot of
North Dakota aviation students from Grand Forks fly down here to
refuel, then fly back again,” Venable said.
And he’ll have the strong coffee on for them when they’re here.
Story: http://www.redwoodfallsgazette.com
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