Blog Mirror: Pilot Makes Emergency Landing On I-25, Fixes Plane, Then Takes Off Again

Pilot Makes Emergency Landing On I-25, Fixes Plane, Then Takes Off Again

Lex Anteinternet: Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or les...

Lex Anteinternet: Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or les...: 

September 7, 2024

The Natrona County International Airport had its busiest month in a decade.

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: Natrona County OKs Another $600,000 To Guarantee Salt Lake Flight

 

Natrona County OKs Another $600,000 To Guarantee Salt Lake Flight

Blog Mirror: Casper WWII Pilot Flew B-29 Bomber With Nose Art Drawn By Walt Disney

 

Casper WWII Pilot Flew B-29 Bomber With Nose Art Drawn By Walt Disney

Seminoe and Kortes Reservoirs from the air.

 

Helicopter lifting linemen.

You have to look carefully to see them, but this helicopter (I don't know the model) is lifting two linemen to check the power line in the photograph.

Challenging airport funding and looking at subsidization of transportation in a different light.

Should this be the fate of most of Wyoming's airports?

In an interview with Wyoming News Now, Casper Mayor Bruce Knell came out against providing subsidies to Sky West and went on to suggest that Wyoming had more airports than it needs.  He specifically stated, regarding SkyWest

SkyWest is a 1.2-billion-dollar company. They absolutely should not receive any of taxpayers’ money … to help them with their business.

Knell also went on to accuse SkyWest of "feasting" off of the revenues and basically threatening the communities by indicating they may pull out. 

And he went on to challenge the Minimum Revenue Guaranty concept, stating, according to Oil City News:

We need to do away with these MRGs statewide. The state needs to quit funding them. We need to do away with the airport in Gillette, in Rock Springs, in Evanston, in Sheridan, in Cody, in Riverton. They all need to go away. We need to have one international airport in Casper, and one airport in Jackson.

Not too surprisingly, the communities which Knell feels should lose an airport reacted. Officials from Sweetwater County wrote a letter in reply which stated.

The Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport is a critical economic driver for Southwest Wyoming, supporting over $36.9 million in annual economic activity including $25.5 million in annual spending and 324 jobs resulting in $11.4 million in annual payroll,” the letter states. “Much like your local airport, our airport provides critical connectivity to the global economy for dozens of commercial and industrial employers in Southwest Wyoming while also providing residents connectivity to healthcare, friends, family and leisure destinations, improving the overall quality of life for our workforce.

While you may be willing to risk your local economy’s vitality, we are not. Our airport and its air service are foundationally critical assets to our community.

Casper's mayor, it should be noted, serves in a different capacity than those of most cities and towns, and accordingly is not elected as mayor, but appointed to that position by other councilmen.  This is not to say that it's wholly influential, however.

As for doing away with airports, it's hard to imagine any of these airports going away. The real question is whether they shall continue to have commercial air service.  Knell's view seems to be that if they didn't have regional service to Denver and Salt Lake, that would mean that the Casper and Jackson airports would succeed by default, something that's not really clear.

FWIW, at one time or another I've been in planes that landed at every one of these airports, although I've only been on regular commercial flights to Casper.  Having said that, I've known people to take commercial flights into Jackson, Cody, Riverton and Rock Springs, and I've never heard any complaints about those flights.  Being able to fly regionally, and with much greater access than currently exists, is something that outside business entities often ask about.

Knell's overall point is that he feels that the free market should take care of all of this.  The truth of the matter is, however, that only rail transportation isn't subsidized in the U.S.  Highway transportation is heavily subsidized by taxes, which fund the roads, various transportation departments, and specialized police forces.  Air transportation is subsidized by the creation and maintenance of airports, and the maintaining of the TSA and FAA.

Given that, we might really wish to ask the question of what transportation we wish to subsidize and in what amounts, assuming we wish to subsidize any, and of course we do.  Nobody is going to suggest we abolish highway funding, for example. So the real question is what is most efficient, socially productive and serves our long term goals.

 

A Wyoming highway closed for three hours so The Air Force could land planes on it

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Commercial Pilot Scholarship

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. End of the f...: HB202 would provide for scholorships for students wanting to be commercial pilots.

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0202

Pilot student loan payments.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Walters, Northrup, Sherwood, Sommers and Western and Senator(s) Gierau and Landen

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to education; providing financial assistance to students obtaining commercial pilot certificates; requiring pilots licensed under this act to fly commercially as specified or repay funds expended by the state; requiring students to satisfy a residency requirement to qualify for the program; allowing the community college commission to forgive student debt where undue hardship exists; requiring reports; providing an appropriation; requiring rulemaking; and providing for effective dates.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 21‑18‑227 is created to read:

21‑18‑227.  Wyoming airline pilot loan repayment program; eligibility criteria; procedures; program reporting.

(a)  The Wyoming airline pilot loan repayment program is created to be administered by the Wyoming community college commission established under W.S. 21‑18‑201. Applicants shall have a Wyoming residence, as defined in W.S. 22‑1‑102(a)(xxx), or shall be graduates of a Wyoming high school and may apply for loans from the program in accordance with this section.

(b)  To qualify for a loan under this section, the applicant shall:

(i)  Be enrolled in good standing in a program at a Wyoming community college for the purpose of receiving an aviation or related degree and a commercial pilot certificate;

(ii)  Intend to obtain an airline transport pilot certification; and

(iii)  Apply for federal financial assistance.

(c)  Subject to the availability of funds appropriated for this program, loans under this section may be granted to qualified applicants to pay the cost of attendance for the aviation or related program and the commercial pilot certificate specified under paragraph (b)(i) of this section.

(d)  A loan provided under this section shall not exceed the cost of tuition fees for the approved program and the cost of earning the commercial pilot certificate, reduced by the amount of any Pell or other federal grant and any employer based financial assistance received by the applicant.

(e)  A recipient of a loan under this section may repay the loan without cash payment by earning an airline transport pilot certification and actively engaging in commercial aviation as an airline transport pilot employed by an airline that regularly flies into airports within Wyoming for three (3) years.

(f)  Any recipient of a loan under this section who fails to:

(i)  Complete the academic program for which the loan was provided shall commence cash repayment of the loan no later than forty‑five (45) days after the recipient leaves the academic program;

(ii)  Obtain employment in the targeted occupation specified in subsection (e) of this section within two hundred forty (240) days after successfully obtaining the airline transport pilot certification, shall commence cash repayment of the loan within two hundred eighty‑five (285) days after successfully obtaining the airline transport pilot certification;

(iii)  Obtain the airline transport pilot certification within two and one‑half (2 1/2) years after completion of the aviation or related program and commercial pilot certificate shall commence cash repayment of the loan.

(g)  Loan repayment options under this section may be deferred for a period not to exceed five (5) years while a loan recipient is serving on full‑time active duty with any branch of the military services of the United States.

(h)  The Wyoming community college commission shall have the powers and duties specified under W.S. 21‑18‑202(c) to implement this section and shall establish terms and conditions of loans issued under this section, including:

(i)  Interest rates and loan terms;

(ii)  The form and process for loan application, review and award;

(iii)  Criteria under which students may be relieved from having to repay loans and interest thereon, in whole or in part, where the requirement to repay would cause undue hardship;

(iv)  Criteria for determining the cost of attendance as used in establishing the loan amount for aviation or related programs and commercial pilot certificates based upon each semester or summer school session of full or part‑time program attendance.

(j)  Funding of the loan program established under this section shall be by appropriation of the legislature. The community college commission shall transfer approved loan amounts to the appropriate Wyoming community college.

(k)  Cash repayment of loans and interest thereon shall be credited to the general fund.

(m)  The community college commission shall annually review the loan program established under this section and report to the governor and the legislature in accordance with W.S. 9‑2‑1014 regarding program results, funds received and loans issued during the preceding academic year, together with the status of all outstanding loan commitments and repayments under the program. 

(n)  Any person who receives a loan under this section shall continue to receive funding for the program as the person remains eligible as required by this section.

(o)  Repayment of loans provided under this section shall continue as specified by this section until all loan obligations have been satisfied.

Section 2.  There is appropriated one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000.00) from the general fund to the Wyoming community college commission for purposes of providing loans for students seeking aviation related degrees and commercial pilot certificates under W.S. 21‑18‑227 as created by section 1 of this act for the period beginning July 1, 2023 and ending June 30, 2026. This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation on June 30, 2026 shall revert as provided by law. It is the intent of the legislature that an appropriation to fund the student loans authorized by this act be included in the community college commission's standard budget request for the 2027‑2028 fiscal biennium.

Section 3.  The community college commission shall promulgate all rules necessary to implement this act.

Section 4.  

(a)  Except as otherwise provided by subsection (b) of this section, this act is effective July 1, 2023.

(b)  Sections 3 and 4 of this act are effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

Blog Mirror: WYOMING'S HISTORY OF FLIGHT

 A really nice episode from the My 307 blog.

WYOMING'S HISTORY OF FLIGHT

Wyoming's Airports to receive $15.1M in Infrastructure Money

The Federal funds can be used for terminals, runways and parking lots and the like.

Of Wyoming airports, Jackson's will get the most, receiving $3.38M.  Natrona County International Airport gets the second-largest amount at $1.34M.  Natrona  County's airport will use the funds for electrical work.

Only two airports in the Continental United States gained passengers in 2020.

And those were the Rawlins Wyoming and Riverton Wyoming airports, both of which are part of Wyoming's Capacity Purchase Agreement program, which is a state program guaranteeing some level of ongoing air service.

Neither airport has been featured here, even though at one point or another, I've seen both (but of course haven't flown into either).

Medicine Bow Aiport (Site 32 SL-O (Salt Lake-Omaha) Intermediate Field Historic District).

Teletype hut and beacon tower.

I didn't know that Medicine Bow had an airfield at all until MKTH photographed it.  I've never been to it myself.

But it does, as these photos show.

As these photos show, not only is a strip still there, but one of the big concrete arrows (which I've never seen in person myself either) is on the strip, indicating that it was once part of the Transcontinental Air Mail system.  It must have been part of a connection between Cheyenne and points further west, but what the next western airfield was, I don't know.  My guess would be Rawlins, but that would be just a guess.  According to the submitting material for its placement on the National Register of Historic Places, it was an emergency field on "Route T".  This was "Site 32" on the route.

Today the strip is owned by the Town of Medicine Bow, and is little used, apparently.  It's still there, however, including the noted remnants of the near century old teletype hut and its beacon tower.

 

Bell UH-1. Downtown Laramie, Wyoming.

 

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 Mail Centennial Talk by Dave Marcum, Cheyenne 6-30-2021

The 2020 Wyoming Department of Transportation Aviation Economic Impact Study.

 Well, worth reading in its many subparts.

2020 Aviation Economic Impact Study

The Hanger. Rock River, Wyoming

 

I have no idea how old this hanger is, but it's been in this field just outside of Rock River as long as I can remember, and that goes back to the 80s.

I dimly recall, and perhaps inaccurately, that back then there was an airplane in it. If there was, that plane has long since departed forever.