Graduate enthused as K-State Poly anticipates more pilot job demand when COVID subsides |
K-State Poly graduate and flight instructor, Zak Kierstein, of Denver, is confident in his future while pursuing a career as a professional pilot. (Courtesy photo) |
Tim Unruh
December 4, 2020
Job prospects played a big role in Zak Kierstein’s pursuit of a professional pilot a career.
“Demand was insane” in 2016 when he graduated high school in Denver.
“I thought I’d give this a shot,” Kierstein said, and he opted for enrollment at Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus in Salina — among the top five flight programs in the nation.
“It was the smaller size of the program, the smaller feel, proximity to the airport, everything is in the same place,” he said, “and their good quality airplanes.”
But like many industries these days, commercial aviation has taken some hits this year, along with flight education, thanks in large part to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The spread of coronavirus that spiked through the spring and summer — worse this fall — has posed a threat to scheduled air service and corporate/ business jet travel.
Young people pursuing careers as pilots, have wagered their futures on demand for flight remaining high, yet current events pose worries.
Fret not, young flyers.
Experts predict the dip in demand to be relatively brief before activity soars again, along with job prospects.
“When we get to the other side of COVID, we hope to return to the hiring levels we experienced pre-COVID,” said Prof. Terry Hunt PhD, aviation department chair at Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus in the Salina Airport Industrial Center.
Flight operations “shut down” this past spring when COVID-19 hammered the world.
K-State Poly instruction went to remote learning and flight operations ceased, and while “the fairly aggressive hiring” of airlines slowed thanks to the drop in passenger numbers, not all was lost for long.
“After COVID safety protocols were developed, we were able to resume flight operations in early June and through the summer, and this fall semester,” Hunt said.
Through the uncertainty and lulls, Kierstein stayed the course.
“There might have been a couple times when I was not sure what was going to happen,” he said.
Kierstein remained focused.
He graduated in December 2019, and reached the required 1,000 hours of flight time in early September to achieve a Restricted Airline Transport Pilot Certificate.
Professional Pilot graduates are typically hired by regional airlines, Hunt said, where they advance in rank from first officer to captain.
“Many of them will desire to finish with regional airlines, and other go to legacy carriers (among them Southwest, United, American and Delta),” he said.
After a short stint as a K-State Poly flight instructor, Keirstein will pursue work as a professional pilot.
“Luckily, I have a good job here,” he said. “I have all this training and I’m qualified. I figure I can find something.”
COVID safety measures are strict. Students and instructors must remain masked. Aircraft are deep-cleaned every evening, Hunt said, and surfaces are sanitized between each flight.
Students and instructors are COVID-tested twice a week.
“There have been a few positive cases, but students have been able to return to campus after quarantine,” he said. “I think the department of aviation has worked very hard to minimize the spread.”
As the United States and countries around the globe are on the cusp of releasing COVID vaccines, good pilot prospects have returned.
Analysts at CAE, formerly known as Canadian Aviation Electronics, expect civil aviation to need more than 260,000 new pilots over the next decade. CAE released those findings in its 2020 Airline and Business Jet Pilot Demand Outlook.
A worldwide aviation training leader, CAE predicted “that the active pilot population is expected to return to 2019 levels in 2022.”
The 2020 to 2029 CAE Pilot Demand Outlook reported that “retirement and attrition” will add challenges to the civil aviation industry as air travel recovers progressively.
“This is expected to drive an acute demand for pilots, resulting in an estimated short-term need for approximately 27,000 new professional pilots starting in late 2021,” the report reads.
Those words are golden to the K-State Poly’s aviation department, which is full and stands a good chance of staying that way or gaining in size.
“We at K-State are definitely enrolled to capacity, and we’re moving students forward,” Hunt said. “We are enrolling additional aviation students for the spring semester, and for next fall we expect similar numbers. We expect the inflow of students to remain very strong.”
Many of the airlines use CAE as a reference point, said Gary Foss, owner of the ArkStar Group, and air service consultant for the Salina Airport Authority.
“They are a world leader in training for unique professional positions; pilot training, flight attendants, medical training,” he said. “They need to make estimates for how many flight simulators or medical infrastructure that they need.”
Getting back to normal in aviation is “tied to the (COVID) vaccine,” Foss said. “The story as I see it is the existing pilot shortage will be fairly short-lived. While the industry is long on pilots, I think, by the end of 2021, you’re going to see demand back in a robust fashion. With the herd immunity, we will see people flying unfettered and be back to the demand for pilots that you had previously.”
Forecasts keep plans alive for a department expansion, K-State’s Hunt said.
“We are certainly passionate and optimistic about aviation,” he said. “The airlines, business and corporate aviation are still very strong, and have been hiring pilots. Private aviation within the industry is quite strong.”
Looking at the situation a bit more long-term, Hunt said the past 10 to 12 years have seen “an amazing trend of hiring and growth within the airlines. What we’re seeing now is a COVID-driven slowing of that trend.”
K-State Poly prepares Professional Pilot graduates for more than the airlines, he said. Graduates pursue careers in agricultural aviation, military, corporate and business flying, and air taxi/charter.
“The airlines are the most visible facet of the industry, but the other facets are hiring as well,” Hunt said. “We are producing high quality professional pilots that will successfully compete in any of those facets. They’re definitely going to be more than qualified to compete out there in the workplace.”
The pandemic has so far been just a blip to Kierstein’s plans and those of his K-State colleagues.
“It’s basically just a delay at this point. We’re just kind of waiting it out, basically doing all we can do,” he said. “It looks pretty good.”
Four years ago, mentors lauded Kierstein’s luck, because the forecast for 2020 was a good time to enter the pilot job market, given the expected pilot shortage.
That hasn’t changed for the 22-year-old.
The same number of veteran pilots “are still going to reach 65, and the underlying demand remains,” he said. “The cause is still there. This is just delaying some of the hiring, just a bit.”
Did You Know?
Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus counted 291 students enrolled in aviation programs in 2018; 334 in 2019, and 376 this year. Enrollment is “at capacity and maybe a little beyond” this year, said Prof. Terry Hunt, PhD, aviation department chair, and interest remains high for next year.
“Enrollment for the spring and fall will be very good,” he said. “This is a great program. It has quite a history of excellence and a very bright future.”
|
|
Sen. Moran’s Bill to Help Alleviate NOAA Pilot Shortage Heads to President’s Desk |
|
Lockheed WP-30 Orion, NOAA42 "Kermit" at the Salina Regional Airport |
|
Angela Lingg
December 4, 2020
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies – to help alleviate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) pilot shortage. This legislation will now be sent to President Trump to be signed into law.
NOAA pilots are charged with collecting airborne environmental data, such as real-time weather data on hurricanes. This legislation creates an aviation accession training program for the Commissioned Officer Corps of NOAA to prepare students for commissioned service as pilots. Functioning similar to Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at many universities, this program was designed in coordination with Kansas State Polytechnic due to their expertise in training pilots.
“As the chief appropriator for NOAA, it has been a priority to address the pilot shortage that utilizes Kansas’ strong aviation programs, and I’m pleased this legislation will head to the president’s desk to be signed into law,” said Sen. Moran. “In addition, Kansas State Polytechnic has a history of producing well-trained pilots and can create a pipeline of NOAA pilots ready to fly in a wide-range of weather conditions to deliver critical data to scientists on the ground.”
"Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus is really excited about the potential for a NOAA ROTC program focused on pilot training,” said Kansas State Polytechnic CEO and Dean Alysia Starkey. “Training pilots is one of our core missions and the opportunity created by this bill would provide a high-quality corps of fully-funded students who are ready for university-level flight training in a variety of weather conditions.”
“The dedicated men and women of the NOAA Corps provide the scientific and operational expertise for NOAA to meet its mission to protect lives and property every day,” said Neil Jacobs, Ph.D., acting NOAA administrator. “They deserve the level of personal and professional support that is rightfully afforded to other uniformed services.”
“We’re grateful to the Administration and Congress for recognizing the immense value that NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps officers provide each and every day,” said NOAA Rear Adm. Michael J. Silah, director of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps and NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO). “This reauthorization act will ensure that the NOAA Corps will be able to support NOAA and the nation more effectively than ever before and we look forward to establishing a pipeline for NOAA Corps aviators in the State of Kansas.”
Sen. Moran’s legislation, S. 2910, was included in S. 2981, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps Amendments Act of 2020, which passed the Senate on November 16. Additionally, Sen. Moran’s FY2021 Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies bill included $1.5 million within NOAA to support programs aimed at recruiting and training pilots for service in the Commissioned Officer Corps of NOAA.
|
|
Burgeoning Kansas Erosion business eyeing more expansion soon in Salina |
Tim Unruh
November 16, 2020
Besting challenges through common sense has proven a valuable hallmark of Kansas Erosion co-owners Steve and Larry Ade.
Some key decisions have fostered fruitful results for them and the local economy on several levels — from adding to the incomes of wheat producers in central and north-central Kansas, to filling vacant buildings in the Salina Airport Industrial Center.
The makers of wattles, straw blankets and other products, have seen demand double in the past two years.
By renting more and more warehouse space to store raw materials and their production, Kansas Erosion avoids work stoppage through the winter. The company with operations at 3600 Airport Road, has also kept rolling for more than eight months during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Demand has so far not weakened because of the deadly disease, and the company is flourishing.
“A lot of companies lay off some employees when fall comes and construction stops,” Steve Ade said. “We won’t lay anybody off; don’t ever stop. We come out of the winter with a huge warehouse supply.”
Having no shutdowns saves the company time.
“It gives me people in the spring that I don’t have to train,” he said. “If I had to start over with a new crew every spring, it wouldn’t be efficient. Employee retention is important. You don’t want to lay anybody off if you don’t have to.”
In addition to 140,000 square feet of warehouse space — most of it in airport buildings — some of Kansas Erosion’s inventory is trucked to 30,000 square feet of rented space in Minneapolis for sales in the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois areas.
By having products ready when the construction season begins each spring, customers in middle America have become accustomed to calling Kansas Erosion to fill orders.
“We come out of the winter with a full line of products,” he said “All of the customers are able to get what they need.”
Kansas Erosion is on the brink of more expansions.
“We’re negotiating for another new wattle machine that will put another 10 people on our payroll (raising employment to the mid-50s),” Steve Ade said. “It will eat up another 3,000 square feet of warehouse space.”
That equipment addition has prompted the Ade brothers to seek a 60,000-square-foot add-on to the wattle and erosion blanket factory on Airport Road, at the southwest corner of the airport industrial center.
Kansas Erosion runs two full shifts, five days a week, and plans a move to three shifts in March, running around the clock, Monday through Friday.
The growing company has a partnership with Cherokee Manufacturing of Minneapolis, Minn.
“We do the straw blankets and Cherokee brings the plastic netting,” Steve Ade said.
Their partners from up north also makes wire baskets for nurseries and all plastic erosion fence.
“We have two manufacturers coming together to create one distribution arm,” he said.
Kansas Erosion makes blankets out of wheat straw, also a blend of straw and coconut fiber that’s imported from Sri Lanka in southern Asia. This year, 18 shipping containers were brought here, loaded with the fiber.
Some of the erosion blankets are made with plastic netting, a domestic component, but there is also natural netting made from jute, imported from Indonesia, this year bringing 35 containers from that region of Southeast Asia. Fifty containers are on order for 2021.
A typhoon in that spot on the globe affected the jute availability some this season, Ade said, and COVID forced suppliers to shut down for two months.
“That put a little bit of a pinch on us,” he said, “but with the warehouse space, we can stay ahead of those shortages, because we’ve got so much in stock.”
Kansas Erosion normally has three months supply of jute, in case imports stall.
“We could always go back to plastic and straw and run unaffected,” Ade said.
One potential hitch to adding the new wattle maker might be scheduling German technicians to fly into Salina and install it.
Filling the positions may not be easy either. He would like to have the new equipment ready for service and have the 10 positions filled by March, 2021.
“There’s some pressure here with the Schwan’s expansion and Kubota,” he said. “We have competition for those workers.
The main market includes Colorado and Nebraska and from Canada through Texas, but Kansas Erosion also supplies customers on the West Coast and the Carolinas.
“The lions share (of sales) is right here in the middle,” Ade said.
Transportation is going to be an issue down the road, moving your products,” he said, referring to a shortage of trucks.
“We use the railroad to bring in shipping containers,” Ade said. “Salina needs a rail hub or a rail terminal. it would be great for the growth of central Kansas, and allow me to be competitive on the east and west coasts. We can’t afford to truck product to Kansas City and put it on the trains.”
The Ade brothers buy wheat straw from farmers across much of middle America. They occasionally buy from those who prefer to keep their plant matter on the farm.
“Some no-till farmers will work us into their rotation, “Ade said, “when they have too much straw.”
|
|
United's number one priority is the safety of their customers and employees.
Learn more about flexible options if you need to change or cancel travel plans and the steps they have taken to ensure your safety from before takeoff to after landing.
|
|
United, Salina airport have “Clean” covered |
Tim Unruh
November 5, 2020
Today’s all-important phrase for flying Salina is “Make a Clean Getaway.”
Stressing efforts of United Airlines and SkyWest Airlines, which operates service to Chicago and Denver — and the Salina Airport Authority — “Clean” is more than covered.
Pulling from three national studies, officials can attest to those claims, and they’re confident of no pandemic danger in United jets or the M.J. Kennedy Air Terminal.
“Getting on a plane is safer than going shopping,” said Gary Foss, owner of the ArkStar Group, and the airport authority’s air travel consultant.
Terminal custodian Amy Green and Rebecca Stegman, station manager of SkyWest in Salina, “are making travel to and from Salina safe for people,” said Tim Rogers, airport authority executive director.
“SkyWest Airlines follows United’s industry-leading COVID-19 protocols for cleaning and disinfecting,” he said, referring to United’s Clean-Plus program, a partnership with Clorox and the Cleveland Clinic.
“It’s putting health and safety at the forefront of the entire customer experience,” Stegman said.
The building is cleaned and disinfected daily, Rogers said, and United jets are cleaned thoroughly before and between flights.
“It’s cleaner now than it’s been before,” said Stegman, who has been with SkyWest for five years.
“Amy’s efforts and work are completed before passengers arrive,” Rogers said. “I appreciate her commitment to keeping the terminal building disinfected for them.”
Once passengers and luggage are off the aircraft, “we go in and clean all the tray tables, armrests, belt buckles and lavatory. We clean the galley area where the flight attendants work,” Stegman said. “Our main focus is the high touch points.”
Next, they go over the cabin with cordless electrostatic sprayers, same as in the terminal. “We’re passionate about what we’re doing and that includes cleaning. The aircraft is up to passengers’ standards,” she said. “We wouldn’t want to be in a position where they question whether the aircraft is clean.”
The cordless electrostatic sprayers “charge the particles and allows the disinfectant to adhere to surfaces, the touch points,” Rogers said.
Green implemented a “not on my watch” attitude from the start, and began intense cleaning before the 2019 flu season.
“I make sure to get the light switches, charging stations, chairs” and all the nooks and crannies where germs and viruses may lurk.
“I have an immuno-compromised child, and I clean the airport like he’s gonna be in it,” Green said. “I feel like if my son can be here, it’s safe for anyone. “I care about people.”
The multi-layered attack involves deep cleaning, wearing masks and social distancing, Foss said. “It’s one of the safest activities you can do because of the layers of protection,” he said.
A Journal of Travel Medicine report “highlights minimal transmission risk on planes with rigid mask policies.”
That’s why the rule is strictly enforced in Salina.
“Someone choosing not to wear a facemask is also choosing not to fly,” Stegman said.
Studies by the Department of Defense and Harvard University, are supporting conclusions from airlines that air travel is safe.
“Evidence is building through multiple studies that the risks of contracting COVID while flying is very low,” Rogers said.
Foss calls it “extremely rare.”
The DOD study “equated it to being hit by lightning,” he said. “In spite of the fact that the virus is increasing across the country, Scott Kirby (United CEO) says the virus is kind of decoupled from aircraft enplanements. They’re no longer linked.”
Before, when the virus spiked, enplanements dropped, he said, and now the fluctuations “are running more on an independent track.”
Seats are starting to fill up for the holidays, Rogers said, referring to one flight out of Salina the day before Thanksgiving.
“There are only 10 seats left on a 50-seat aircraft. That’s an 80-percent load factor,” he said.
Compare the activity to April when there were zero to single digit passenger numbers on flights out of Salina.
“The best measure in passenger confidence is in the number of bookings,” Rogers said.
Foss senses a welcome and widening gap between COVID and flight. “I think people are feeling they can manage risks by wearing masks and being cautious,” he said. “My family flies often. We will be flying this Friday and we haven’t had a problem, and I’m flying for business.”
The industry is moving forward in a refreshing way.
“We’ve missed passengers a whole lot,” Stegman said, “and we’re so excited that they’re coming back.”
|
Watch SLN airport and airline staff prepare the terminal and jet for a clean getaway. |
|
Symbiotic Relationship With State University Helps Propel Salina Regional Into the Future |
Paul Nolan & Tim Unruh
Airport Improvement Magazine
December 2020
Some say that when one door closes, another one opens. Turns out that when one Air Force base closes, a lot of doors can open.
Salina Regional Airport (SLN),located about 175 miles west of Kansas City, is currently a thriving municipal airport fed by a busy industrial park and a satellite campus of Kansas State University. But that wasn’t always the case.
When Schilling Air Force Base was shuttered in October 1965, the ripple effect on the local economy was devastating. The growing Salina community, which was expected to hit 50,000 residents by 1965, instead lost 13% of its citizens. By 1970, its population was down to 37,714.
“We had just moved to Salina in 1962 and wondered if we had made the right decision,” local resident Karen Graves told the Salina Journal in 2014. “Every marginal business closed. 4,000 people left almost immediately. Even some churches shut their doors.”
Moving On
Graves, who later served on the city commission and then a stint as mayor, explains that those who remained in Salina learned the painful lesson that the town should never again rely on only one industry—even the military—for economic survival. Local and state officials acquired the base and converted it into a regional airport and business park.
Today, SLN and the Salina Airport Industrial Center are home to 2,100 companies and organizations that account for more than 6,000 jobs and almost $1.2 billion in total economic impact—14% of the county’s total employment, according to the Docking Institute of Public Affairs.
Tim Rogers, executive director of the Salina Airport Authority, attributes the successful transition to the efforts of forward-thinking citizens and governmental
bodies, including the Kansas legislature, the Kansas Board of Regents, city and county officials and the Salina Economic Development Organization.
“From the beginning, community leaders realized the need to work as partners to achieve the successful development of the former base,” he remarks.
Kansas State University has been another key partner. The airport industrial park originally included Schilling Institute, which offered two-year degrees in aeronautical technology and other technical fields. Then in 1991, Kansas State University began operating its Polytechnic Campus on airport property. The
program offers four-year degrees in aviation maintenance, professional piloting, unmanned aircraft systems flight and operations, and airport management, its most recent addition.
The SLN campus also offers instruction in non-aviation fields such as web development and automation engineering, but the majority of its 600 students are enrolled in aviation programs. Last year, the university paid $73,752 in rent and fees to the airport authority.
Having three runways—one that is more than 12,000 feet long— allows SLN to accommodate “everything and anything,” Rogers says. Airfield traffic routinely includes massive military transporters, air refueling tankers, jet fighters, A-10s, bombers, air ambulance helicopters, corporate jets, scheduled commercial flights to Denver and Chicago, crop dusters, Civil Air Patrol planes and a wide range of general aviation aircraft. Moreover, Air Force One is occasionally spotted in the skies overhead, and Stealth Bombers from nearby Smoky Hill Air National Guard Range take training runs in the area.
Needless to say, K-State students see a lot of variety at SLN. And throughout the years, many have completed management internships just a couple thousand yards from their classrooms.
Rogers notes that many of the airport authority’s interns have gone on to successful careers in airport operations and management. Others have followed up with law school and now specialize in aviation law. Many graduates go to work at the airport and nearby industrial park. Aviation businesses in Wichita are also
common employers.
The university’s professional pilot program and the unmanned aircraft program are both nationally recognized. In fact, SuccessfulStudent.org ranks Kansas State Polytechnic sixth in the nation for drone training programs. The website also says that it has more master-certified flight instructors than any other university.
On the Leading Edge
“I’ve had the pleasure, over the past 25 years, to work with K-State, to support the growth of those programs,” Rogers says. “I’m looking forward to more great news coming out of K-State’s Global Aeronautics Initiative, which will guide the manned and unmanned programs’ growth over the coming years.”
The university launched the Global Aeronautics Initiative last year. In short, the new program is designed to develop and leverage strategic partnerships with people and organizations outside the aviation world to explore opportunities for continued expansion of UAS technology. K-State, which trailed only the University of North
Dakota in introducing a UAS degree, is in its 10th year of offering the program.
“Compared to other career options, it really is a new industry,” says Kurt Carraway, executive director of K-State Polytech’s Applied Aviation Research Center and department head of the school’s UAS program. “Five years ago, we did not have a commercially viable set of regulations for unmanned aircraft systems operations. Our graduates were largely going to work for defense contractors flying Department of Defense-owned aircraft.”
Now, unmanned aircraft are used for a variety of agricultural purposes, conducting power line inspections for utility companies, collecting data about municipal infrastructure, assisting law enforcement, firefighting and cinematography. A number of K-State Polytech graduates have tapped into the growing number of applications to start entrepreneurial ventures, Carraway reports.
“One of the things we’d ultimately like to be able to do is help airport managers incorporate unmanned aircraft systems into a broader airport maintenance program,” he adds. “It’s not just about integrating large unmanned aircraft into the air traffic system, which is something that will happen.”
Carraway notes that airports can also use smaller UAS to perform pavement inspections, help with wildlife mitigation efforts and airfield infrastructure such as signs and lighting. He largely attributes the increase in commercial viability of unmanned aircraft systems to the FAA releasing commercial UAS regulations in 2016.
Lindsey Dreiling, the university’s executive director of aviation strategy, foresees an
important role for UAS in the future. “These initiatives are building toward the global air transportation system for the next century,” Dreiling says. “As we talk about urban air mobility, we have to have an integrated system. That takes partnerships between state and federal agencies, as well as universities and private industry. We have to have a global air transportation system that will integrate all of the partners that are active in the airspace.”
Real-World Lessons
Just north of the K-State Polytech campus, another SLN tenant offers a different style of education. 1Vision Aviation, a maintenance, repair and overhaul center, regularly opens its doors to students and university instructors alike.
Students are drawn to the company’s hangar, known fondly as Big Bertha, for real world lessons on the shop floor and the chance to snare part-time employment. Jim Sponder, the president and owner of 1Vision, takes an old-school approach to enhancing their formal education with a healthy dose of practicality.
“All these kids come out of school with participation awards,” he remarks. “I teach
them you don’t get a paycheck just for standing around.”
Sponder encourages maintenance students to train on many different airframes and stresses the importance of maintenance training for pilots. “We’ve got some work coming up on Boeing 777s, so I reached out to the school to see if they have any students interested,” he says. “I’m sure they will.”
Instructors from K-State Polytech regularly visit Sponder to see what kind of employees he and other industry employers will need. In August, Sponder told them that good avionics technicians are still worth their weight in gold, and that sheet metal mechanics will be in demand in the near future.
From casual cooperation between airport neighbors to long-term contractual relationships between the airport authority and its tenants, SLN seems to be brimming with partnerships and diversification that airport and city leaders hoped for after the Schilling Air Force Base was decommissioned.
|
|
Feature Facility
Hangar 506-2
2010 Kneubuhl Ct.
The Salina Airport Authority has available for lease, a 4,900 sq. ft. hangar located at the Salina Regional Airport. Located in a great location on the field as well as easy access to I-135 & I-70.
Commonly known as Hangar 506-2, this well maintained facility features 4,486 sq. ft. of hangar bay and 414 sq. ft. of office space.
Call the Salina Airport Authority today at 785-827-3914 to schedule a tour, or email shellis@salair.org.
|
|
 |
Greetings!
Since our last update, the Salina Regional Airport, has seen both increases and decreases in traffic tempo from Kansas State University, events organized and or scheduled through the Salina Regional Airport’s administrative office, Sky West, and other cross-country flights. In total 13,741 operations have been recorded while staffing remains one controller short due to a vacancy created back in August due to a member being selected for a position with the Department of Defense.
Although short staffed, Salina’s team of air traffic controllers has been able to stay healthy amidst COVID-19 and has continued to manage air traffic fluctuations without error. Some aviation enthusiast’s may have witnessed some unusual operations around the third week in October when the airport hosted some C-130s, an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. During the latter stages of their visit to Salina they practiced several low-level flights from the west across the airport to the east side with an immediate climb before the highway that separates the control tower from the city of Salina to enter the traffic pattern in a manner in which they could safely land. These maneuver’s, called random shallows, provided timely training to pilots deploying overseas who will have to fly into hostile environments where they may have to fly in low to avoid detection.
Winding down the year, we have notably seen decreases in the number of flights worked as the seasons are changing in weather that slows flying down a bit as well as with the holiday season that is upon us. Weather slows were mostly caused by extremely high winds and lower ceilings that force pilots to fly using the instruments inside the cockpits rather than flying with a visual reference of their surroundings.
As 2020 winds down we still are diligently screening resumes for a potential new hire to fill our tower vacancy but to date we have not found anyone. In the previous letter we had mentioned someone of interest who was returning from an overseas position, but our companies’ presence overseas is still needed and his absence with them there, at this time, could not be authorized. That wraps up my time this post … until next time,
Stay Safe, Merry Christmas, and to all a very Happy New Year!
Scott Hillegeist
Air Traffic Manager
Salina (SLN) FCT
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On the Flightline at America's Fuel Stop - 2020 |
|
Salina Airport Authority | www.salinaairport.com
3237 Arnold Avenue
Salina, Kansas 67401
785-827-3914
|
|
|
Copyright ©2020 | Salina Airport Authority | All rights reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
