RENO-TAHOE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT USERS COMMITTEE BRIEF OF MINUTES February 6, 2017 4:30 p.m. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Adam Mayberry, Chair Bill Eck, Vice Chair Tom Hegge Robert Meurer Patrick Wink Karl Scribner Lt. Col. Tony Machabee Tracy Kalbfleisch Melissa Ogg-Farnsworth REPRESENTING Trustee Trustee Reno-Tahoe Aviation Group Reno-Tahoe Aviation Group Atlantic Aviation (FBO) Federal Aviation Administration Nevada Air National Guard Dassault Aircraft Services (SASO) Southwest Airlines MEMBERS ABSENT/EXCUSED None RTAA BOARD MEMBERS/STAFF PRESENT Marily Mora Dean Schultz Mike Scott Tina Iftiger Ken Moen Laurie Weeks Jamie McCluskie Jaime Edrosa Claire Johnson The Reno-Tahoe International Airport Users Committee met at the Airport Authority Rescue and Firefighting Facility, Reno, Nevada. Committee Chair Adam Mayberry called the meeting to order at 4:33 pm. 1. ROLL CALL Roll was called. 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES November 7, 2016 The Reno-Tahoe International Airport Users Committee unanimously approved the minutes from the November 7, 2016 meeting. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 4. TRIENNIAL DISASTER EXERCISE
Page 2 of 6 Mike Scott, VP of Operations & Public Safety, opened the presentation by stating that every 3 years, as part of the Airport s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airfield certification requirement, the (RTAA) must conduct a triennial exercise. This is a full-scale emergency response exercise conducted to evaluate the Airport s ability to respond to a disaster. Mr. Scott introduced Jaime Edrosa, Manager of Airside Operations/Communications, to discuss the plan for the upcoming triennial exercise. Mr. Edrosa stated that the last triennial exercise was held in 2014. He continued by reviewing the FAA Part 139 requirements for an Index C airport which include 1.) holding a full-scale airport emergency plan exercise once every 36-months, 2.) triaging, treating and transporting a minimum of 60 casualties, 3.) testing the RTAA s emergency operations plan, 4.) exercising and evaluating 8 specific phases of the emergency operations plan, and 5.) sustaining cooperative relationships among responding staff and agencies, and providing training and feedback to participants. Mr. Edrosa discussed the objectives of the triennial exercise and the various groups both internally and externally who will participate in the exercise. He described the scene set up for this year s exercise which will simulate an international flight with 144 passengers and 6 crew members on board, 6 ground handlers and 4 security agents stationed around the aircraft, and while deplaning the aircraft explodes. Mr. Edrosa indicated the timeline for the exercise is May 1, 2017 for delivery of equipment and preliminary staging, May 2nd for the actual exercise, and May 3rd for final removal of equipment and clean up. (Subsequent to this Users Committee meeting, the dates of the Triennial Exercise were changed to April 26, 27 and 28th respectively). Mr. Edrosa ended the presentation by reviewing the location map of the exercise and related activities. Committee member Lt. Machabee asked if there is anything the Guard can do to help out with the exercise. Mr. Edrosa responded that as in years past, there are certain components that the Guard will be asked to help out with such as the location for the volunteer moulage and a few other items. He indicated that as soon as more details are worked out, contact will be made to coordinate with the Guard. Committee member Tom Hegge asked who the aircraft for the exercise would be acquired from. Mr. Edrosa responded that a bus or some other container type of equipment will be used to simulate the aircraft. Trustee Mayberry asked if some type of trigger point will be used to start the exercise. Mr. Edrosa said potentially yes, but that as much as possible, in order to maintain a real-world aspect, the actual exercise start time will remain somewhat elusive. Trustee Mayberry asked if members of the public are permitted to come out and watch the exercise take place. Mr. Edrosa responded that as part of the planning process, invitations will be sent out to people potentially interested in observing the exercise. 5. MASTER PLAN UPDATE
Page 3 of 6 Jamie McCluskie, VP of Planning, Engineering and Environmental Management, presented an update on the RNO master plan project. Mr. McCluskie began by stating the project is currently in the inventory of existing conditions phase. He emphasized the components of the project vision and goals. Mr. McCluskie discussed in more detail the purpose of the inventory of existing conditions and provided highlights of what that phase includes. He also reviewed the location attributes of RNO: an airport set in an urban environment, on +/- 1,540 acres, with the nearest commercial service airport being in Sacramento approximately 150 miles from Reno, a passenger catchment area that includes northern Nevada and some counties in California, and location in a high desert environment. Mr. McCluskie continued by discussing the annual climate factors of the Airport including elevation, temperature, precipitation, prevailing winds, and the challenges of the surrounding mountainous terrain. He mentioned the catchment area population based on 2015 data which totaled 752, 347 at the time. Next, Mr. McCluskie reviewed data related to RNO s commercial air service, i.e. 23 non-stop destinations serviced by 8 airlines providing 54 daily flights for a total of 6,354 seats available on a daily basis. He discussed the RNO passenger numbers which in 2016 were estimated at 1.83 million enplanements and displayed a pie chart showing the percentage share of enplanements by airline, with Southwest Airlines holding the lions share at 43%. Mr. McCluskie also showed the distribution of aircraft operations at the Airport for both commercial and noncommercial and provided a brief overview of the existing facilities located in the 4 quadrants of the Airport. Mr. McCluskie discussed land use and zoning which is very important, and explained that the RTAA does not oversee its own land use, and due to the fact of being a separate entity, he stated that the final responsibility for zoning rests with the City of Reno. The RTAA does follow guidelines for specific land uses as identified in a Board-approved land use plan, and also adheres to FAA regulation and conforms to local and regional planning efforts with respect to Airport planning. The last physical related aspect of the project that Mr. McCluskie covered were the important environmental considerations such as noise, air quality, threatened and endangered species, water quality, wetlands, and floodplains to name a few. Looking ahead, Mr. McCluskie discussed the approach and techniques to be used in the next chapter of the master plan project which is aviation forecasting. Lastly, he reviewed the project schedule and next steps. Bob Larkin asked if the team will be doing a comparison of the aircraft operation trends over a longer period as opposed to just 2016 data which was depicted in the power point slides. Mr. McCluskie responded that yes, the Consultants and the Planning team will be looking at the past 10 years or more, but for purposes of this presentation only included 2016 data. Trustee Mayberry asked how people can provide input and comment on the master plan process. Mr. McCluskie stated that it can be done informally by contacting himself or Dan Bartholomew, RTAA
Page 4 of 6 Project Manager, and also referred the Committee and meeting attendees to the online survey mechanism as well as the public forums that are scheduled to occur. Trustee Mayberry encouraged attendees to voice their input on this very important project. Mr. Larkin asked if there could be a link placed on the Reno-Tahoe Aviation Group (RTAG) website to the master plan survey. Mr. Hegge stated he will get in contact with Jim Rundle, President of RTAG, regarding this suggestion. Dean Schultz, Executive VP/COO, referred attendees to the button on the RTAA website that provides a link to the master plan webpage and survey, but he agreed that a link on the RTAG website would be beneficial as well. 6. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGARDING UAS REPRESENTATION ON RTIA USERS COMMITTEE Trustee Mayberry referred the Committee members to the Users Committee bylaws included in their packet and indicated that this item came about as a suggestion brought up by Mr. Larkin at the last Committee meeting. Trustee Mayberry stated that in his opinion it would be a good idea to expand the Committee to include someone to represent the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) community. He emphasized it should be someone who is on the commercial side of the industry, not just a hobbyist, and that there are a number of individuals to choose from within the community. Trustee Mayberry opened the item for discussion. Committee member Bob Meurer indicated that he very much supports having a UAS representative on the Users Committee. Mr. Meurer stated his concerns with the Committee bylaws with regard to what he referred to as unresolved questions the Committee members had back when the bylaws were last approved by the Board of Trustees in March of 2014. Mr. Meurer asserted that the Committee was originally set up so that RTAG, representing the general aviation (GA) pilots, not just tenants, would appoint 2 members. Mr. Meurer said the bylaws indicate that only hangar tenants can be appointed to the Committee and in his opinion that is wrong. Further, the original intent was that candidates to serve on the Committee would be proposed by Airport user groups through an open application process. Based on how the bylaws are written, the Airport Authority is appointing members to the Committee, not the users of the Airport. Mr. Meurer also stressed his disagreement with the fact that term limits are only set for the GA representatives. Trustee Mayberry responded by saying he appreciates Mr. Meurer s comments and that he does not disagree that there may be some inconsistencies within the bylaws. However, he stated his direction would be to defer that conversation to a later meeting and that the focus for this meeting is the UAS representation on the Committee. Mr. Meurer suggested that a discussion of the bylaws be placed on the next meeting agenda. Mr. Meurer made a motion for the Committee to approve the recommendation to add a UAS representative to the Committee. Mr. Hegge inquired as to whether there is a local UAS association to which the representative would report information from the Users Committee meetings. Mr. Shultz responded that there
Page 5 of 6 is an organization called Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and that organization has various chapters, however, there is not a northern Nevada chapter. He added there is a Nevada chapter of AUVSI but that it is based primarily in southern Nevada. Mr. Schultz also mentioned the existence of the American Modelers Association (AMA) and that they have a local chapter. Mr. Hegge said that if it were someone from an organization, there would be a greater impact, rather than a lone wolf individual. Mr. Hegge seconded the motion. Committee member Tracy Kalbfleisch indicated his support of the UAS representative being a commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operator. Mr. Meurer amended the motion to include that the representative be a commercial operator, seconded by Mr. Hegge, and the Committee unanimously approved the recommendation to add a commercial UAS representative to the membership. 7. FIXED BASED OPERATOR (FBO) UPDATE Patrick Wink, General Manager of Atlantic Aviation, reported that since the last Users Committee meeting in November 2016 there has been 8 calls for maintenance requests related to gutters/downspouts, electrical/outlet issues, water in T-Hangars, and T-Hangar door repairs. Mr. Wink provided additional information on the water in the T-Hangars stating that it stemmed from the roof repairs and was not related to the excessive rain. He stated that Atlantic s response time resulted in 80% of the maintenance requests being resolved within 2 days and 10% within 1 week. Mr. Wink said the remaining 10% represent pending calls. Next, Mr. Wink stated that there was no damage found in any of the Hangars or GA areas as a result of local flooding. In preparation for the potential of flooding, Mr. Wink reported that Atlantic worked with the GA West tenants to temporarily relocate 5 of their aircraft to vacant GA East Hangars during the storms. As far as T-Hangar occupancy, Mr. Wink provided an update of the current status, stating that GA East is 100% occupied with no vacancies and there are 3 vacancies at GA West, which translates to an overall occupancy rate of 96%. Mr. Hegge inquired if there was a schedule for repairing the tie downs on the East side. Mr. Wink responded that hopefully those repairs will be taken care of by the end of the week. In response to a question from the audience, Mr. Wink further discussed the timeframe for mitigating the water in the T-Hangars caused by condensation. Trustee Mayberry inquired how the coordination between Atlantic Aviation and the RTAA is going with regard to managing the T-Hangar repairs and maintenance. Mr. Wink indicated that overall it is going well. Mr. Larkin congratulated Mr. Wink for the occupancy rate in the T-Hangars. He asked about what provisions are being made in the master plan update related to the analysis for expanded Hangar facilities. Mr. McCluskie responded that the master plan project had not progressed to that point yet, but that as part of the aviation forecast chapter, shortfalls in facilities needs will be identified. Mr. Schultz added that the aviation forecast, which is due to come out later this week or next, will establish the demand through a 20-year projection of need. The facilities
Page 6 of 6 requirements will be looked at by comparing the existing to market to identify the excess or the deficiency. Mr. Schultz said that a chapter after the forecast is the analysis of alternatives and that will identify the locations where any additional facilities would be accommodated. Mr. Larkin asked if that analysis will be available to the public. Mr. McCluskie and Mr. Schultz both responded yes, the process is the same for all the chapters and all are posted on the website. 8. FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA) TOWER UPDATE Karl Scribner, FAA Tower Manager, indicated he had no update to report. 9. MEMBER ITEMS FOR FUTURE AGENDAS Mr. Meurer stated he would like the Users Committee bylaws placed on the agenda for the next meeting. Burnham Moffit inquired if there was any plan to develop the old golf course. Mr. McCluskie again referred to the master plan project with regard to future development. Mr. Larkin referred to the GA commercial minimum standards, asserting the need for a second FBO to attract additional business to the Airport. He suggested that a conversation needs to be had on that issue. Trustee Mayberry indicated he will take these comments under advisement. Trustee Mayberry announced that the next meeting of the RTIA Users Committee is scheduled for Monday, May 15, 2017 at 4:30 pm. 10. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 11. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.