25 members and guests attended the May 7th meeting of the Heartland Chapter of the Missouri Pilots Association. The meeting was held at Shoney's Restaurant in Rolla.
John Butz, the City Manager of Rolla, presented a program on the City's economic impact study of Rolla National Airport. Included in his presentation was historical information about the airport, as well as a breakdown of how the airport is doing financially (averaging about $79k/yr deficit covered by the city), as well as future plans. They are expecting to put in ODALS or PAPI on runway 22, and new lighting for 4/22. He also went over private and industry responses and results from the survey that the city sent out.
Discussion followed John's presentation, with numerous suggestions for improving the visibility and public awareness of the airport. John invited all the pilots to come to the city council meetings and make their voices heard so the council will hear firsthand what people think of VIH.
Dr. James was the was the Joker's Wild raffle winner for the evening, but didn't draw the Joker. The raffle pot is now at $214. The chapter treasury is now at $681.64.
The June meeting will be a carry-in dinner/Bar-b-que at the Rolla National Airport on Tuesday, June 4. The meeting and barbecue are scheduled to start at 6:00pm. The speaker will be Jack Wheeler who worked at the Rolla National Airport Flight Service Station.
The July meeting will be a carry-in dinner/bar-b-que at the Cuba Airport on Tuesday, July 9. The speaker will be Bob Lynch and other members of EAA chapter 429 and their RV-6 projects.
The August meeting will also be at Rolla National, but we will be having dinner at the Vichy Y buffet style starting at 5:45PM, with the meeting continuing at the airport at 6:30. The program for the evening will be Zenair, from Mexico, MO. They will be bringing at least one of their aircraft if the weather is reasonable.
Chapter information, future meetings, and minutes of the meetings are available at the chapter web site: http://www.mopilots.org/heartland
Safe flying.
Update 2002-05-09: A copy of John's presentation is available in our files section linked off the main page.