NERISSA YOUNG
Working with the nation’s busiest air base in just one part of the multifaceted role of Golden Triangle Regional Airport.
Other facets include economic development, business travel and passenger air service.
“They’re a key enabler to our training environment here,” said Rick “Sonic” Johnson, chief public affairs officer for Columbus Air Force Base.
That enabling will go a step further this summer when part of the base’s pilot training operation moves to the airport while the base’s runway is renovated.
Mike Hainsey, airport executive director, said the airport will play a larger host role to student pilots for six to eight months beginning in June. One of the hangars will be renovated for classroom space, and a ramp is already marked to park the 12, T-1 training planes.
Hainsey explained the hangar was built in the 1970s for student mechanics from East Mississippi Community College. Although planes are parked in it, the classrooms have dingy floor tile and falling ceiling tiles. The entire hangar will get a full makeover.
Johnson said the base has dealt with runway resurfacing before without the benefit of GTRA. It was akin to turning Interstate 20 into a one-lane road, he said.
Using the airport for temporary instruction means less congestion and improved safety, he added. The Columbus air base has the most planes of any base, and the Air Force expects it to keep turning out 350 pilots a year.
Without GTRA, Johnson said, there’s a chance the base would have to decrease its normal class size of 30. He added that he didn’t want to think about that scenario.
The base already uses the runway for takeoffs and landings. Hainsey said it comprises 40 percent of the airport’s traffic.
Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.
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