My Name Is John Cooper. I Have Been an Active Pilot for 42 Incident Free Years, and Have Owned 3 Aircraft During That Time
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Greetings, District Councilors; Firstly, allow me to introduce myself: My name is John Cooper. I have been an active pilot for 42 incident free years, and have owned 3 aircraft during that time. I have been a Muskoka cottager for 49 years and a permanent Muskoka resident for 5 years, and I plead guilty to having a passionate commitment to the economic health and well being of Muskoka. I have been on the economic development advisory board for the town of Gravenhurst for several years. I am on the board of MCN, the high speed internet, not for profit corporation, whose mandate is to bring high speed internet to as many Muskoka and Georgian Bay residents as today’s technology will permit, with all the significant economic benefits that accompany this initiative. I am a member of the Gravenhurst Rotary Club and a director of the Sparrow Lake Assn. Prior to retirement, I was the CEO of a TSE listed public company that was Canada’s largest sporting goods manufacturer and the world’s largest manufacturer of ice hockey equipment, and Canada’s largest manufacturer of business and personal leather goods under the Buxton name. After the sale of Cooper Canada, I was the partner of an aviation company that designed, engineered, and produced all of the insulation for all Canadair regional jets, all Dash 8 turboprops, and all Lear jets. I attended the first public meeting on the subject of the future of the Muskoka Airport about 3 years ago, where chair Adams had called for depositions from all interested parties and superb presentations were made by aviators, business people, environmentalists, and others, as requested. At the completion of these presentations, chair Adams stood up and said, and I quote “I hate being dictated to”! You could have heard a pin drop! A major disappointment for a large number of people who went to a lot of trouble to do exactly what they were asked to do, and to a large audience who could not believe their ears! Anyhow, I digress! I have heard and read and studied all of the presentations from the two public meetings, so I approach this vitally important issue both as an aviator and a business man. I have no axe to grind or bias. I fly floats mainly, so runway configurations in the future will not affect my flying! There is not a long range plan for “our” airport, but there is one certainty. Over time, aviation north of Toronto is going to grow in a major way; how big and how fast, we don’t know! The cost of aviation in southern Ontario has already become prohibitive, and capacity for aircraft is scarce. King and Maple airports have long closed and Buttonville is soon to close. There is already a frenzied scramble for these aircraft to find a new home. There is no room at Brampton or Markham or Toronto Island to accommodate more aircraft. They have to come north to find a home! Parry Sound Airport is lengthening their north south runway and will soon be working on the addition of an east west strip. They are seeing the growth of aviation traffic in Muskoka and want to steal some of the Muskoka airport traffic. I know Keith Saulnier, the owner of Georgian Bay Air, well, and buy much of my avgas from him. Keith is on council in Parry Sound and believe me, they have a plan! With tongue in cheek, I add that their planners have pilot’s licences, but are also business people who are trying to build a better Parry Sound! They have expanded their apron area and have attracted more aviation business to their airport. And they have a restaurant. More hangars have been added! So we have serious competition close by! Much has been stated so clearly about the safety issue surrounding the necessity of having an east west runway with the excellent presentations by Earle Robinson at both public meetings, so I will not add to the overwhelming evidence so well compiled and stated by Earl. In order for Muskoka Airport to be what it can be in the future, the 32-14 runway option will not allow us to optimize the opportunities that the true east west runway, already in existence, will provide. As the air traffic opportunity grows and makes lengthening and paving runway 27-09 affordable, we will have the best near north airport facility by far! 27-09 will be the prevailing wind runway and about 75% of the landings will be on that runway. There is an old saying that capital migrates to where it is treated best. The same applies to aircraft, whether it be visitors or those who want a permanent home. With a combination of true north south and east west runways we will attract more permanent aircraft and more visitors as they will always know that they have an ideal and totally safe landing option. We will attract more flying school students, and commercial aviation scheduled flights with the right runway configuration. Do you know that there is a large flight school at Buttonville. 80% of their students are Chinese, and they have to go somewhere within 2 years. We have the strong Bethune connection; what a great place for these future Chinese pilots to be trained! The big growth in aviation is in the Orient. Canadian trained pilots have global respect and demand. Why? Because pilots trained here have to learn to fly competently in all kinds of weather. That is why they are at Buttonville. These students need accommodation and food and things to do when they are not flying, and Muskoka has lots for these students to do! Other General Aviation aircraft bring tourists, house hunters for retirement, business people, investors, doctors, lawyers, and a wide range of other people to the community. It's not about av-gas sales, although they help! Several of our universities have flight schools and aviation management courses. We have been working hard in Muskoka to attract more post secondary education institutions for all the community development reasons we know so well. Another opportunity to explore with the right airport configuration! Flight schools won't base at an airport without a prevailing wind runway. It’s all about safety! With more aircraft activity, comes more aircraft business related activity. Some of these businesses have to be on the airport, but many just have to be close to the airport. There are hundreds of aviation related businesses within 3 miles of Pearson, who could never afford to be on the airport property, but close by is adequate. Our aviation business was 5 minutes from the west end of runway 23 at Pearson, and we were surrounded by others who need to be close, but not on the airport. A great example of a business that is doing really well at the airport is the North Restaurant in Gravenhurst. Robbie and Alain cater to the needs of many of the executive aircraft and this grows every year. Many of these customers expect high end food and service and North sure knows how to do that well! Even at the small privately owned airport east of Orillia where I have all my service work done and rent winter hangar space, there are small shops off the airport who provide service to the Orillia Aviation shop. They repair starters, alternators, do cylinder and piston work, and supply machine shop services! Close is fine; on the airport is not a necessity for all aviation businesses. I submit that we can, in time, and with the right air field runway configuration that will bring substantial traffic increases, attract a collection of aviation related businesses close by to our airport, just as there is around any substantial airport. The more air traffic, and resident aircraft, the more businesses are attracted. If we remove runway 27-09 to build a hanger there, we have lost forever the optimal economic opportunities that the ideal runway configuration can bring to the Muskoka Airport. We just can’t go back once this hangar location is accepted! There are alternatives for placing this business so that we can “have it all”! Thanks you for reading this submission! Sincerely; John Cooper .