CEDAR CITY REGIONAL AIRPORT BOARD MEETING APRIL 13, 2017

Transcription

1 CEDAR CITY REGIONAL AIRPORT BOARD MEETING A regular meeting of the Cedar City Regional Airport Board was held on Thursday, April 13, 2017 at 8:00 AM in the Conference Room of the Airport located at 2560 West Aviation Way, Cedar City, Utah. PRESENT: Jyl Shuler, Chairperson Burt Poulsen, Board Member Bill McVay, Board Member Terri Hartley, Board Member Karl Hugh, Board Member Ryan Marshall, Public Works Director Jeremy Valgardson, Airport Manager Kathy Dahl, Executive Secretary J.J. McGuire, Sphere One Aviation Loren Barney, Sphere One Aviation Mike Mower SUU Ryan DeJong, SUU Craig Davis, SUU Kirk Nielsen, Jviation John Burnett, Citizen ABSENT/EXCUSED: Dale Brinkerhoff, Board Member Mark Leavitt, Board Member Scott Truman, Board Member Shuler welcomed everyone to the meeting. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Poulsen moved, McVay seconded and motion carried unanimously that the minutes of the February 9, 2017 meeting be approved as corrected. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS GDA Valgardson reported that the engineers are working on the final chapter of the master plan, including financial and environmental review and compliance. Their big push right now is getting the drawings ready for FAA coordination. The drawings should be completed and in for review in the next few weeks. GDA will schedule another public meeting to present this information when they have a better idea of when the FAA review will be completed. This is tentatively scheduled prior to the Airport Board meeting in June, 2017, possibly June 7, 8, or 9, They will also present this information at the Airport Board meeting. TSA No one was present. BLM No one was present.

2 PAGE -2- FBO J.J. McGuire of Sphere One Aviation reported to the board on their activities. They are gearing up and getting ready for summer and fire season. They are working through everything with SUU and are fueling their aircraft again. McGuire reminded the board that they have customer appreciation lunch every Friday. With the warmer weather they will be grilling instead of serving soup. They are seeing the traffic starting to pick up for general aviation due to the warmer weather. They have been informed that the tanker base will be under contract beginning May 1, McGuire commended her crew for following the emergency procedures in conjunction with the accident that occurred on April 5, The 84-year old pilot ran his plane off the runway into the secure area. He received only minor injuries. MSC Aerospace No one was present. SUU Craig Davis with SUU reported they have created a flyer of the practice areas SUU is currently operating in. This is available on line and copies have been distributed to Sphere One, and will be in Triple A. The flyers showing the practice area will also be available at the St. George Airport, and Provo Airport. There is a coordinated effort on the part of all the flight schools in the state of Utah to put the practice areas on the map. This should be released in about 2 weeks through the FAA safety team. SUU has also received permission from the FCC to use frequency for their airto-air communication as well as ground-to-air for their dispatch office. They are inviting all pilots to monitor that frequency when they are in the SUU practice areas. SUU aircraft will monitor the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) which is frequency 123.0, but most of their communications will be over As they approach the airport within 5 miles of the field, they will stay on the CTAF, As they head out to the western practice area, they will call on CTAF that they are headed in that direction. This is not on a NOTAM and the airport staff will not be able to put this on a NOTAM. It will also take time to get it in the airport/facility directory (A/FD), and also to put a special notice on the aeronautical charts. It took at least a year to be able to note the intensive flight training on the A/FD. There is a NOTAM for intensive flight training. SUU will hold an open house sometime in mid-july, They will have a large map showing the practice area. They had a meeting with Eric Bell from the Salt Lake Air Traffic Control (ATC) last month and several local pilots where in attendance. This information was presented at that time. They encouraged feedback for the information presented and recommendations and suggestions for making improvements from that information.

3 PAGE -3- McVay suggested they try to get a blurb about the intensive flight training and the frequency on the weather Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS). Davis stated he will check into this. Davis stated he would also like to put out a newsletter for the local occupants of the airport from time to time. Valgardson will get him a list of the airport occupants. SUU is also working on new call signs for their aircraft that will be simpler and easier to work with. They also have an aircraft recovery plan for everything from a flat tire to an aircraft going off the runway. Valgardson is reviewing that. There was concern expressed about other student pilots in aircraft with only single radios, and which frequency to monitor. Davis stated that the SUU aircraft have dual radios and will have both frequencies monitored, but the single radio aircraft will have to be very aware when they are in the SUU practice area. In response to query from Hartley, Davis stated he is working on aircraft congestion on the ground and the dispatch times for the aircraft to take-off, segmenting it out to different times. Davis also stated they have coordinated with the BLM and will be out of their area when they come in for the season. Mike Mower with SUU reported they are taking delivery of their first new R-44 helicopter tomorrow. The new fleet scheme for SUU will be bright red with white stripes with the university mascot, Thor, on the tail. Purchase of the Saunders hangar has been approved by the university administration and they are anticipating Board of Trustee approval. The flight school will hit student capacity of 300 students this fall. Any future expansion of the SUU flight school will be off this field. Jviation Kirk Nielsen from Jviation reported they have 3 projects underway right now. The Apron Project has the final paint scheduled for the last week of April, When that is done we will be able to close that project. The survey on the Prairie Dog Fencing Project, AIP 32, has been completed. We have been coordinating this project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and did a walkthrough on the project site a couple of weeks ago with them, which will hopefully cut down on the required 45-day review by them. The Prairie Dog fence will be offset 15-feet from the existing fence. We are looking at having a 95% review of the submittal on May 10, 2017, and then get the project out for bid. The third project is Taxiway Charlie. The survey work has been completed and the geotechnical engineers will be coming out in the next couple of weeks to pull core samples in that area. This will give us a good idea of what is under the existing asphalt and if we need to do a full tear out or just rotomill.

4 PAGE -4- SkyWest No one was present. Enplanements for February, 2017 were 2,044 compared with 1,036 for February, March, 2017 enplanements were 1,225 compared with 1,192 for March, AIRPORT MANAGER S REPORT Valgardson reported that WECCO, located at West and 6400 North, has requested that aircraft not fly directly over their facility. They are concerned with any potential aircraft crashing into their facilities due to the rocket fuel located there. Valgardson has told them to check on getting the air space over their facility restricted. Amendment to Rules & Regulations (Flying Clubs) Valgardson reported that we need to make an amendment to our rules and regulations with regard to flying clubs. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) drafted a proposal to the FAA to change the regulations with regard to flying clubs and it was adopted by the FAA. Poulson brought it to Valgardson s attention that we need to amend our rules and regulations to comply with the change. The FAA defines a flying club as a nonprofit or not-for-profit entity organized for the express purpose of providing its members with aircraft for their personal use and enjoyment only. The ownership of the club aircraft must be vested in the name of the flying club or owned by all its members. The property rights of the members of the club shall be equal; no part of the net earnings of the club will inure to the benefit of any individual in any form, including salaries, bonuses, etc. The flying club may not derive greater revenue from the use of its aircraft than the amount needed for the operation, maintenance and replacement of its aircraft. Basically, it is a way for a group of general aviation people to get together and be able to fly cheaply. We don t have any flying clubs that have applied at the airport yet, but as part of our 139 grant assurances, if we are going to allow flying clubs at the airport, we have to get a copy of their by-laws and rules and regulations and make sure they meet all the FAA standards pertaining to this type of organization. They can t take business away from the FBO on the airport unless they register as a commercial operator, so we have to make sure their by-laws and regulations show they are not flying to make money, pulling customers away from the FBO for flight training, etc., but they are flying for their own enjoyment. One of the major changes we made is the Equity Club Clause versus the Non-Equity Club Clause. An equity club would be a fractional ownership. All members go in and purchase the aircraft equally. A non-equity club would be a lease of an aircraft, such as one member owning the aircraft and the others pay an equal lease amount and distribute flying rights within the leased aircraft.

5 PAGE -5- One stipulation, and this isn t unique to flying clubs with flight training and other aviation businesses, is if they lease the aircraft they have to have exclusive rights to that aircraft. Of the proposed changes we have made to this section of the Airport Rules and Regulations, there is one more correction in Section 4.b. The proposed change states: They may not conduct or receive aircraft flight instruction except for regular members We need to delete or receive. The new wording in the FAA Airport Compliance Manual states: An exception applies when the instruction is given by a lessee based on the airport who provides flight training and the person receiving the training is a member of the flying club. So, if for example, Sphere One has a flight instructor the flying club would like to use, they are allowed to do that. These changes, with the exception of deleting or receive, have gone through Cedar City s legal department and through AOPA and the FAA, so Valgardson will send the documents back through the City, AOPA and FAA with this deletion, because the guidance says they can receive flight training. Poulson also asked about the wording for the insurance. Right now the wording holds the City, its officers and employees harmless. He stated that in talking to an insurance company, they would like to add the City as additional insured. Valgardson will check with the Legal Department on this. Valgardson asked the board for their support of these changes, as discussed, in order to take this to the City Council for approval. McVay moved, Hugh seconded and motion carried unanimously, that the board support these changes to the Airport Rules and Regulations, Section 4 Flying Clubs, as presented and with the additional corrections as discussed. Assignment of Lease from Saunders to SUU Valgardson reported to the board that SUU is requesting that the board approve the transfer of a raw land lease for the Saunders hangar to them. Their flight school is growing and they need another hanger and more ramp space to take care of that growth. This is the third lease for SUU in the last 3 months. This lease began is 2007 and was due for a CPI increase in the lease amount on April 12, This is a longterm lease of 45 years with another 35 years remaining. Hartley moved, Poulsen seconded and motion carried unanimously that the board approve the transfer of the lease to SUU. There was some discussion as to the reason we don t terminate a lease and start a new one. Valgardson stated that this has been the practice of the board in the past. There is the option to start a new lease, but it would begin at the current rate, and transferring a lease keeps the lease at the lower rate. The board directed staff to explore the option of no longer transferring a lease, but terminating and starting a new lease, as this would be a new relationship and the new lease would also be subject to

6 PAGE -6- any changes to the rules and regulations, and would be more favorable to the airport s revenue stream. Marshall asked if SUU was looking at expanding anywhere else on the airport. Mower replied that they are still considering the area off the approach end of runway 26. Even if they move to that area, they are seriously considering a second location somewhere else to take the load off the Cedar City Airport. If they grow beyond the proposed 300 students, it puts an undue burden on the rest of the general aviation traffic at the airport. They are talking with Valgardson about areas where they can park their aircraft. The main reason for the acquisition of this third hangar is office space and being able to park all the aircraft inside every night. They are anticipating 20 aircraft by the end of August, 2017, with 10 parked in front of their facilities and the remainder on the east ramp. OTHER BUSINESS Shuler discussed an 8-page article that appeared in the Sky Magazine featuring Utah, including Cedar City and the National Parks and recreation found here. She stated that in looking for ways to best utilize the limited advertising budget the airport has, she has drafted an 8 ½ x 11 two-fold brochure for Valgardson to review. She has talked with Maria Twitchell, director of the tourism bureau who said she would be more than willing to take any materials we give her to the conventions and tourism shows she attends. Shuler also spoke with Megan Cannon about the cost and possibility of putting something about the airport on the digital billboard on I-15. Marshall stated that he and Valgardson were approached with the possibility of partnering with SkyWest for some advertising as well. McVay requested an update on the legal process of evicting the current tenant from the domed hangar, owned by Cedar City on the airport. Valgardson stated that notice was served the end of February, 2017 which gave the tenant 60 days to respond or pay the past due fees, which would be April 28, They have done neither. They are 6-7 months behind on their rent. Right now, the plan is to give them until the end of April, 2017 and then lock the hangar. If no payment is forthcoming, we will put a lien on the items in the hangar. We are working through the legal process now, but it could take several more months. Valgardson reported that there will be a roll-off dumpster available on the airport for tenants to use to clean up in and around their hangars. The City will be working on the City-owned hangars and the T-hangars. As there was nothing further, meeting adjourned at 9:03 AM.