Local flight school possible: Huntingburg Airport and VUJC explore partnership

A partnership between Vincennes University Jasper Campus and the Dubois County Airport Authority will potentially kick start a local flight instruction program.

Vincennes University already operates the Aviation Technology Center in Indianapolis and VUJC is exploring options to begin a seed program in Dubois County.

Huntingburg Airport Manager Travis McQueen is excited about the prospect of bringing the university into the fold for instruction. “It’s an awesome opportunity. Students get credit for it and it becomes a feeder program for the Vincennes University Aviation Technology Center in Indianapolis,” McQueen said. “What it does for us is it creates new pilots. Which means new airplanes; which means revenue for the airport.”

Jim McFaul, Director-Continuing Education at VUJC, met with McQueen last week and floated the idea of creating a ground school program for VUJC students. Ground school provides all necessary information to pass the Federal Aviation Administration knowledge test — necessary for the student to receive a prep pilot license and begin flight training.

McFaul reiterates that it is a good opportunity for the college to be involved in offering a private certification for residents in the community.

“This idea is in its infancy at this point, but we could possibly be offering the class later this spring or summer,” McFaul stated. “It’s a good opportunity to get this completed locally at the Huntingburg Airport.”

McFaul and McQueen have just begun to discuss the potential for the partnership, but two local residents who are certified flight instructors, Reid Teaford of Santa Claus and Eric Becher of Ferdinand, have already expressed interest in serving as instructors.

The Huntingburg Terminal building would serve as the classroom.

The Airport Board gave McQueen permission to further explore the opportunity with VUJC.

The board also approved a capital improvement plan at their meeting Monday night, focused on continued expansion and construction between 2014 and 2019 — the proposed time frame to complete the runway extension project.

Priority projects for 2014 include a new T-hangar to house up to 10 private planes. The T-hangar could add revenue for the Dubois County Airport Authority. “Private pilots prefer these hangars over the large, open hangars we currently have available,” McQueen said. “And our current hangar space is nearly full.”

“A year ago, I never thought we would be talking about this,” McQueen said. “This discussion about adding a ground school to the airport and building a new hangar at this level wasn’t even a thought a year ago. Two years ago we had an empty hangar over here and now we need to build hangars.”

The board also heard and took the following actions.

• Reviewed a profit and loss statement regarding the sale of fuel since the airport took over fixed-base operations in March of last year. At the end of December, McQueen reported, fuel sales had resulted in a profit of $76,232.27 for the airport, including the initial $60,000 allocated to purchase fuel when the airport took over operations.

• Discussed an incident in which an airplane collided with a deer after landing at the airport on December 19.

• Discussed another incident that occurred around the same time in which a private prop aircraft was damaged. The plane was taxiing behind a corporate jet while the jet was revving its engines. Although the private plane was about 100 feet away from the jet, the exhaust pushed the lighter plane over onto its wing, which collapsed under the weight causing the propeller to hit the concrete and shatter. This was a private incident not involving the airport authority and was handled between the two parties.

• Heard HNB Terminal Corporation will host breakfast and a program on Saturday, January 25 at 8 a.m. The program will cover the Lancair Evolution, a single engine plane. A $10 donation is recommended to cover expenses.

• Learned phone lines at the airport had been down for four days and McQueen is attempting to work with Frontier Communications. The outage is affecting both private hangars and airport buildings. McQueen is also unable to run credit cards for fuel sales and has been recording them manually.

• Heard four waterlines burst during the recent freeze. No major repairs are necessary according to McQueen.

• Will pay Mabel Bartelt $6,000 for an easement where several trees and three towers have to be removed to gain approval from the FAA for planes to perform instrument approaches from the west at night. Work on the easement to remove the trees and towers is expected to begin in mid-February.

• Approved paying Woopert and Associates $7,358.78 for continued engineering and grant work on the airport expansion project.

• Agreed to review plans for the proposed T-hangars.

• Elected board officers: Brian Craig – president; Michael Cummings – vice president; Harvey Berger – treasurer; Bill King – assistant treasurer; Robert Johnson – secretary; and Fred Souders (who replaces Bret Yourgans as the Huntingburg appointment to the board) – assistant secretary.

• Approved the contract with attorney Phil Schneider for another year with an addition $50 added to last year’s rate of $475 per month. Schneider stated the additional $50 per month is due to the larger amount of work he has taken on during the planning phase that will continue in the foreseeable future for the expansion project.

• Approved sending packets to three interested contractors for the tree and tower removal on the Bartelt easement.

• Heard the next meeting, scheduled for February 10 is around the same time McQueen’s wife is expected to deliver the couple’s second child. If it impacts McQueen’s ability to attend the meeting, it would be the first meeting in 14 years he has missed.

• Approved a portion of a proposed service contract with Woolpert Engineering to complete the quote on the Bartelt easement and manage the demolition project. The board approved the quote completion but held off a decision on onsite engineering services.

• Approved sending the environmental assessment for the runway extension project to the Indiana Department of Transportation and Indiana Department of Environmental Management for review.