Saskatchewan Aviation Council Annual General Meeting 2012-2013 Area
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SASKATCHEWAN AVIATION COUNCIL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2012-2013 AREA REPORTS REGION 1 - SWIFT CURRENT Swift Current Airport (CYYN) Century Flight Club launched their Maritimes 2013 tour from Swift Current Airport in July. The group is comprised of aviators from across Canada that assemble to complete a large journey each year. The group started in Swift Current and stopped in Brandon, Dryden, Elliot Lake, Gatineau and eventually Charlottetown, PEI. The group is led by John Lovelace, former host of the TV series Wings Over Canada. The Southwest Flying Club assisted with refueling and provided a delicious steak dinner, complete with entertainment. Two new private hangars have been constructed this year and a third is underway. An additional mile of wildlife fence was completed along the north perimeter. The final mile should be completed next year. The concrete apron adjacent to the fuel pumps was re-surfaced with asphalt. Other asphalt maintenance included line painting and completion of a Pavement Load Rating study. A back-up power generator will be installed this fall to provide redundancy to the ARCAL system. PAPI lights on Runway 30 will be installed this fall. Submitted by Todd Schultz Shaunavon Shaunavon continues to be a busy airport. There have been inquiries into building hangers at the Shaunavon airport but does not have any more room for hangers. Possibly if the runway way extended this would open up some land for hangers. There have been some problems with the AWOS calibration, showing wind being variable when it isn’t and direction being out by as much as 90 degrees to the right, hopefully this is now resolved. Submitted by Ted Anderson REGION 2 - MOOSE JAW/ASSINIBOIA No report submitted. REGION 3 - ESTEVAN/WEYBURN CARLYLE: Carlyle airport and aviation in general continue to thrive in SE Sask. Our fuel sales hit record volumes in the past year. At last count, there were 23 aircraft based at the Carlyle airport. We saw rain for the first time in many years for our annual fly in breakfast held on June 23 but still fed about 100 people. There were still a few planes come through the rain but most of the traffic was drive in. Next year our fly in breakfast will be June 29th. Submitted by Duncan Brown 2012-2013 AREA REPORTS Page Two REGION 3 - ESTEVAN/WEYBURN (continued) ESTEVAN: 2013 has been an exciting year for the Estevan Regional Airport; the following are some highlights for the year: Traffic volumes have been steady this year and we continue to offer complete flight training and aircraft maintenance here at the Estevan Regional Airport. This year we hosted our annual fly in breakfast in July, and also our COPA for kid’s day in September. We have been getting more requests for hangar lots and to prepare for more aircraft and hangars in the future we have completed a new groundside master plan that will lay the foundation for future groundside development. To facilitate the groundside master plan, we also started work on an airside master plan with hopes of completing it in the near future. Starting January 1st, the Estevan Regional Airport was happy to welcome a new business to the airport! Sharp-Tail Air is Saskatchewan’s newest charter company and operates a King Air 200. We wish them well and look forward to the new service based in the south east. Like the rest of Saskatchewan, this was a tough winter! It started early and went late into the year. This cost extra time and money, but with the addition of several key pieces of equipment over the last few years, we were well equipped to handle it. We started the year with big plans for construction at the airport. This was a long process that took a number of studies and several engineering firms were consulted before final approval was given. As a result of some hard work by many people working for both the City of Estevan and the Province, we were approved through a partnership between the City of Estevan and the provincial disaster assistance program (PDAP) to repair several areas of the airport that were damaged by flooding in 2011. The first and most critical area we addressed this year was the asphalt on the main apron. The existing surface had been in desperate need of repair. We set a start date of July 15th and even though we were slowed by rain and other challenges the construction was completed on August 20th. We were able to completely grind up the old surface; we installed subsurface drainage under the apron, and then rebuilt the surface including using geo-grid and geo-textile to give more strength. We also added more granular material to improve both strength and to improve water drainage of the area. We are very pleased with the results of the new apron knowing that it will give us another 20 plus years of service. We also did some major work to the runway and taxiway lighting by replacing all the sub-surface electrical transformers. This again will continue to provide reliable runway lighting for years to come. We are looking forward to continuing construction next year as we hope to start work on the runways and taxiways in 2014 as long as we can qualify for funding from both the city and the province. One of the other exciting items that have taken place this year is the design of a G.P.S. W.A.A.S. approaches for the airport. We had applied for a grant to install the approach which unfortunately we did not receive. As a result we gave some of the local businesses that have aircraft at the airport the opportunity to invest into the airport and community by funding the approach installation. Three of the businessmen immediately came forward and have 100% funded the project. Many thanks to them! We expect the new approach to be published the first quarter of 2014. 2012-2013 AREA REPORTS Page Three REGION 3 - ESTEVAN/WEYBURN (continued) ESTEVAN (continued): Other items of development at the airport are the construction of a new airport equipment storage shed. We have out grown the existing building that we keep the snow equipment in and we are very excited about the new building going up to keep the investment of equipment we have here out of the weather. This fall we purchased from Tradewind Scientific a TRACR 2. This will give improved real time airfield condition reporting to both local and itinerant traffic. Southeast Aviation has purchased a jet refuelling truck that we are looking forward to having at the airport soon. This will give the airport more jet fuel capacity and flexibility in the future. It has been an exciting year for the Estevan Regional Airport and we are continuing to work toward our goal of having schedule flights into and out of Estevan in the future. We are excited by what he future has in store for southeastern Saskatchewan! Submitted by Richard & Doug Reetz REGION 4 - REGINA ROLAND GROOME (REGINA) CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN AVIATION HISTORICAL SOCIETY The chapter has begun its 2013-2014 season of monthly meetings. Each month from September until June, we hold a public meeting with a guest speaker, usually on the second Thursday of each month. This past year we combined our December meetings with the RCAFA 600 Wing. Our speakers included Terry Yarrow, a former RAF fighter pilot, Dr. Howard Leyton-Brown, a distinguished Regina musician and former bomber pilot, lawyer Garret Wilson speaking on Walter Johnston from Carrot River Airways. The joint December dinner meeting hosted Chief Warrant Officer Alan Blakney from 431 Squadron, the Snowbirds. In 2013 our speakers included Robert Watson flying for the RCMP, Todd Lemieux, Chairman of the Board at Vintage Wings of Canada, Linda Kort with a presentation of her father’s experiences in the RCAF, Bill Cameron and his long years of service with Canadian Pacific, and finally in June, Doug Reetz, the regional representative or advocate for the Mission Aviation Fellowship. We continue to hold our meetings at the Royal United Services Institute next to the Regina Armories. We have had a great line up of speakers for the remainder of this year and are confirming speakers for the 2014 monthly meetings. In September of 2013, three of our members traveled to Ottawa, Ontario for the Society's 50th annual AGM and convention, The BIG FIVE O. This year the convention was held in conjunction with the Vintage Wings of Canada Air Show and the Ottawa recognition of the Battle of Britain Parade at the Canadian Air & Space Museum at the Rockcliffe Airport. This included a fly past of the CWH Mynarski Memorial Lancaster and three of the vintage fighter aircraft from Vintage Wings. I was re- elected to serve as the National President of the CAHS for the next year. Our 2014, 51st anniversary convention will be held in Regina in early June of 2014. The chapter participated in the open house at the Regina Flying Club in June 2013. We also continue to help organize the historical displays at the Regina Airport throughout 2013. Submitted by Gary Williams President, Roland Groome (Regina) Chapter National President, Canadian Aviation Historical Society REGINA AIRPORT REPORT See next two pages for report submitted Regina International Airport (YQR) had another record year in 2012, once again realizing a historic high in passenger traffic of 1,185,715 passengers – a growth of 3.9% over 2011. Passenger numbers in 2013 also continue to remain positive, exceeding the 2% growth prediction (up 3.7% year-to-date as of August 31, 2013).