Delta To Pull Out Of Casper Airport, Last Flight Is Dec. 3

Natrona County Passenger Increase

Nearly 30% more passengers flew out of Casper/Natrona County International Airport in July than did a year ago, airport officials reported Monday.

Casper Star Tribune, August 14, 2024.

City of Casper Councilmen grill Airport Board

This over withdrawing support for the subsidy payments for the flight to Salt Lake City.  Casper complained it had received no notice of this occurring, and is concerned what it will mean.

Blog Mirror: Frustrated Natrona Commissioners Call $650K SkyWest Guarantee ‘Extortion”

Frustrated Natrona Commissioners Call $650K SkyWest Guarantee ‘Extortion”

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 28, 1923. Bert Cole, local pioneering aviator, killed.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 28, 1923. Turkey's first election, H...: Bert Cole, famous local pilot, but one already known for a tragic airborne death in Evansville, died in an airplane accident himself.

Fly Casper Alliance lobbies for city subsidy.

A new Natrona County Advocacy Group, Fly Casper Alliance, is seeking $50,000 from the City of Casper to help secure the present Delta (Sky West) flight to Salt Lake City.  The flight already receives subsidies from Natrona County, but this one time payment is hoped to help continue to secure the flight.

Related thread:

Delta receives a subsidty to continue serving the Natrona County International Airport

SkyStar Kitfox III

This Skystar Kitfox III was spotted with its wings folded back, and on a flatbed trailer in Mills, Wyoming.

 

Bell UH-1 with Nose Mount

This is a UH-1, a "Huey", in Casper, Wyoming painted in old Vietnam War era camouflage.  It's fitted with a nose mount, which can house cameras and electronic devices.  Nose mounts were fitted to UH-1s during the Vietnam War, and they continue to be offered for commercial UH-1s.

The odd thing about this helicopter is that even though it retains the USAF or US Army Vietnam era camouflage scheme, it lacks national markings, which most surplus aircraft which retain military paint schemes do.  Additionally, I could not see a registration number on it anywhere.  That may be because I took this photograph from a distance, with an iPhone, and it could be painted in black on the dark green aft of the helicopter.  It obviously should have this painted on it.

When I happened to arrive at the airport on the day this photo was taken, a crew was standing by it as the refueling truck was getting ready, and they were having their photograph taken.  I thought they were a military crew, but I wasn't paying much attention.  UH-1s are no longer in common US use, but the UH-1N is still used by the USAF in connection with nuclear missiles and missile silos, and that variant does in fact often have the nose mount fitting, although it should have USAF markings and this old camouflage scheme would be a surprise.

Practice Fire Suppression Airplane Mock Aircraft.

Some time ago we took some photos of this when it was still in construction:

The Aerodrome: Practice Fire Suppression Airplane Mock Up, Casper...: These are all photographs of a very realistic looking mock up of a mid sized passenger jet being built out of steel at Pepper Tank in Casper...

And here it is now that it has been placed in use.

 

Delta receives a subsidty to continue serving the Natrona County International Airport

 I'm really not too certain what my view on this is.  Overall, I suppose it's a good thing.

Delta is one of the two carriers, relying on regional contractors, serving the Natrona County International Airport, and hence all of Central Wyoming.  It flies to and from Salt Lake, while United flies to and from Denver.  

It used to have great connections.  A businessman in Casper could take the red eye to Salt Lake and then catch the late flight back. That's no longer possible  Frankly, depending upon what you're doing, it's nearly as easy to drive to Salt Lake now.

And perhaps that's cutting into their passenger list, along with COVID 19, although I'm told that flights have been full recently.

Anyhow, losing Delta would be a disaster. We'd be down to just United.  Not only would that mean that there was no competition, it'd place us in a shaky position, maybe, as the overall viability of air travel starts to reduce once a carrier pulls out.

A couple of legislatures ago there was an effort to subsidize intrastate air travel, and I think it passed.  While Wyomingites howl about "socialism", as we loosely and fairly inaccurately describe it, we're hugely okay with transportation being subsidized.  We likely need to be, or it'll cut us off from the rest of everything more than we already are, and that has a certain domino effect.

I don't know what the overall solution to this problem is, assuming there is one, but whatever it is, subsidies appear likely to be part of it for the immediate future . . . and maybe there are some avenues open there we aren't pursuing and should be.

Wyoming Air National Guard C130s taking off at Natrona County International Airport

Wyoming Air National Guard C130Hs arriving at Natrona County International Airport (automatic focus, i.e, out of focus)

C130Hs at Natrona County International Airport (poorly focused).

 

C-130Hs of the 153d Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air National Guard. Natrona County International Air Port

 

Practice Fire Suppression Airplane Mock Up, Casper Wyoming

These are all photographs of a very realistic looking mock up of a mid sized passenger jet being built out of steel at Pepper Tank in Casper, Wyoming.

Upon completion, it will be located at a fire practice facility at the Natrona County International Aiport.

 

Fire Bombing Air Tractor AT-802s at the Natrona County International Airport

A common summer site in the Rocky Mountain states.

The Hanger. Wardell Field, Bar Nunn, Wyoming.

This is, and isn't, what it appears to be.

This is "The Hanger", a restaurant in Bar Nunn, Wyoming.  But originally it was what it looks like, an aircraft hanger.

Radial engine on display in The Hanger.  A decommissioned small airplane hangs from the roof.

Wardwell Field was Natrona  County's second airport (the first sits down in what is now Evansville).  The field served from 1927 up until the early 1950s when what had been the Army Air Force's training base west of Casper was turned over to the county. That latter facility, with its much larger runways and much flatter surface was obviously superior, so Wardwell was abandoned in favor of what is now the Natrona County International Airport.  During the boom of the 1970s the old runways were developed into streets and the town named in a playful fashion after the developer.

The fact that it was built on what had been runways was never forgotten and the town uses it as its symbol.  The old central hanger remains, but its now this restaurant.

CallAir Model A3

These are all photographs of a CallAir Model A-3 being towed down a highway.  

The Model 3 was designed by Wyoming's Call family, who were ranchers, which would explain the Steamboat symbol on the tail.  Their initial design, the Model A, was ready by 1940, but World War Two interrupted production of the aircraft and the company was accodordingly launched in 1946.  This example was built in 1947.

The Call Aircraft Company was sold at auction to Intermountain Manufacturing Company in 1962 and ultimately on to North American Rockwell.  A museum dedicated to the Call company is located in Afton, where Aviats and Pitts are still produced.

Piper Seneca. Natrona County International Airport

Boeing 737 Max, Natrona County International Airport.

 

 This is the new Boeing 737 Max, Boeing's new narrow-body airliner which is the fourth generation of the venerable Boeing 737.  This example was at the Natrona County International Airport undergoing some testing at this famously windy airport featuring very long runways.