The ONZ "Tetrahedron" 

Spring is just around the corner and so is summer fun at Grosse Ile Airport! The Yankee Air Museum and ONZ have been busy planning another spectacular airshow on June 19 and 20, 2004, which is Father’s Day weekend. Several new static and aerobatic demonstrations are booked, including the F4U-5N Corsair, P-51D Mustang, and T-34B Mentor warbirds pictured above. The airshow is also a golden opportunity to celebrate the Airport’s heritage, given that 2004 will be the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Grosse Ile Naval Air Station. Along with the Corsair, the T-34B Mentor was part of a reserve squadron based at NAS. Other booked aircraft include current military aircraft flybys, a top aerobatic flying act by Jim LeRoy, the TBM-3E Avenger, a US-2B (designed for anti-submarine warfare), a J4F-1 Widgeon (representing the station’s amphibious heritage), a T-6 Texan with a superb smoke system, and the B-25D from the Yankee Air Museum, which will offer once-in-a-lifetime WWII bomber rides. (See the article inside this issue.) Visit www.greatlakesairshows.com or contact the Airport for more information about the event, including pilot and aircraft backgrounds and reduced-price, advance ticket sales.

The best choices of airshow sponsorship opportunities are available now. Corporate entertainment chalets and bulk ticket packages are also available. For more information visit www.greatlakesairshows.com, contact Air Show Director, Kevin T. Walsh at airshowdirector@greatlakesairshows.com, or call the Airport.

In addition, the 6th Annual Michigan Model Jets event will be held the weekend of July 23-25, 2004. As well, the Airport will offer a static display and aircraft rides at the Grosse Ile Island Fest on June 4-6, 2004. More event information including pictures is at www.grosseileairport.com/events.htm

Pilots gain renewed confidence in their ability to make the right decisions before every flight.

Chesapeake Aviation Training, of Baltimore, Maryland, announced the next location--Grosse Ile Airport-- for a two-day aviation safety weather seminar for pilots, on May 15 – May 16, 2004. This two-day weather-based seminar will introduce pilots to many aspects of weather planning not taught in traditional aviation training. The pilot will walk away from the seminar with a renewed confidence in their ability to make a well-informed judgment before every flight.

"Weather is a factor in many fatal aviation accidents," this according to seminar author and presenter, Scott Dennstaedt. "The goal is to help pilots recognize the location of adverse weather prior to flight and develop a plan and route to avoid it while in flight. This planning must start days in advance and not just hours before the flight."

Pilots need to balance their desire to fly with their need to minimize exposure to hazardous weather such as icing, thunderstorms and fog. Mr. Dennstaedt designed the "Weather or Not" seminar for that very purpose providing guidance on how to use various web-based tools to accomplish this task.

Mr. Scott Dennstaedt will present the two-day seminar. Mr. Dennstaedt is an experienced FAA-certified instrument flight instructor (CFII) and meteorologist based in the Baltimore-Washington area. Besides presenting weather seminars, he is a contributing editor and writer for IFR Magazine and is a columnist for Aero-News.Net.

The weekend-long seminar dissects two familiar weather products and introduces several weather products that are extremely useful, but may not be familiar to most pilots. The featured segments teach pilots how to understand and make practical use of:

· NEXRAD images
· Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs)
· Tools to assess atmospheric instability to include thermodynamic diagrams.
· Weather forecasting models for short- and long-range planning.

The "Weather or Not" seminar is accepted as an industry-conducted recurrent training seminar under the FAA's Pilot Proficiency Awards Program (also known as the Wings Program). In addition to the topics above, there will be plenty of time available for an interactive discussion about all facets of weather planning.

Chesapeake Aviation Training is holding the "Weather or Not" seminar at the following Detroit location:

· May 15 – May 16, 2004, at Detroit, Michigan (KONZ) – Grosse Ile Municipal Airport

The price of the two-day seminar is $350. An early registration discount price of $300 is available until April 30, 2004. Student pilots holding a valid student pilot’s certificate as well as FAA-certified flight instructors can receive a discounted price of $250. The price above includes a light lunch on Saturday and Sunday and a CD containing the presentation slides.

Chesapeake Aviation Training is committed to providing the most comprehensive one-on-one flight training as well as the most comprehensive and unique ground training the aviation industry has to offer. Founded in 2001, Chesapeake Aviation Training, Inc. is a privately held firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. You can contact Chesapeake Aviation Training by phone at 1-410-379-5731 or by e-mail at contact@chesavtraining.com. You can also visit their web site at http://chesavtraining.com for more information on their upcoming seminars and flight training options.

Contact: Kathy Dennstaedt, Chesapeake Aviation Training, Inc., 410-379-5731 or 443-745-8400, http://chesavtraining.com

Hot News About Airport Improvements

Late last month, we met with State Aeronautics staff members to review the Airport’s five-year improvement plan. As a result of that meeting, the plan was revised to improve the chances of obtaining additional funding in this Federal fiscal year to rehabilitate Runway 4-22 and Taxiways C through H. We were just informed that the State has submitted a request to the FAA for discretionary funding to do just that, which could result in as much as $3 million being allocated to perform the work this year. Previously, the runway and taxiway projects were to be phased over two to three years; however, the unexpected availability of additional discretionary funds this year has given us a possible window of opportunity that was too good to pass up.

The project as revised and resubmitted to the FAA will involve milling the existing pavement to level it, concrete surfaces to replace the current asphalt, new taxiway and runway lighting (to include running the cables in conduit), new directional signs, a PAPI to replace the VASI on R/W 4, relocation of the R/W 22 PAPI from the right side to the left, and new runway end identification lights (REILS). We will also be reconfiguring the south end of the airport to meet FAA requirements for runway safety areas. If the funds are made available, we anticipate the work will commence in August.

The State Aeronautics people have been exceptionally proactive throughout this process. We applaud and appreciate their initiative and their support of the Airport’s improvement plans! Stay tuned...we hope to have some good news for you by late spring or early summer.

Minimum Altitudes

FAR Part 91.119 defines minimum safe altitudes over populated areas. It calls such areas "congested." But the term congested is not defined anywhere. How do you know if you are over a congested area?

A: When there is no specific definition of a term used in the regulations, its meaning is clarified through NTSB case law and FAA chief counsel opinions. Although it is typically understood as an area of a city, town, or settlement, you'll probably be surprised to learn that the Civil Aeronautics Board (now known as the NTSB) has also considered these areas to be congested: 10 houses and a school; a university campus; a beach along a highway; a camp with people on the dock and children on the shore. If you are not sure, treat the area as if it were congested. And remember, the requirement of the regulation is not only to remain 1,000 above the ground but also to clear towers and obstacles by 1,000 feet vertically or 2,000 feet horizontally.

Here is the ultimate Father's Day gift! The Yankee Air Museum will be offering rides in their extremely rare B-25D Mitchell bomber throughout the Air Show weekend. For only $360 (special Father's Day weekend price), jump on board the Yankee Air Museum's B-25 bomber, thunder down the runway and soar through the skies over Grosse Ile. Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to re-live history though the sights and sounds of an actual WWII bomber flight. With the purchase of a B-25 flight, each rider will also receive a free one-year Associate's Membership to the Yankee Air Museum!

The following language and policy is under consideration for our Hangar Lease Agreements:

"In the event the registered owner of the aircraft authorized herein sells the aircraft to another party, this Agreement may be assigned to the subsequent aircraft owner upon prior written approval and at the sole discretion of the Airport Commission."

The Hangar Waiting List Policy would read:

ASSIGNMENT OF HANGAR LEASE PURSUANT TO PURCHASE OF AIRCRAFT. If the registered owner of the aircraft stored in a hangar sells that aircraft to another party, the hangar lease agreement may be assigned to the subsequent aircraft owner upon prior written approval and at the sole discretion of the Airport Commission. This provision will take effect after the last person on the Hangar Waiting List as of __________ ____, 2004 has been placed in a hangar or has refused a hangar that has come available as the result of the sale of an aircraft stored in that hangar.

By Norm Donaldson, EAA Chapter 457 President

The Great Lakes International Aviation Conference on February 6^th to 8^th was a great winter get away weekend for pilots and mechanics. This year’s convention was held in the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing.

In two and a half days there were fifty- seven individual pilot seminars and twenty-nine mechanics seminars from which to choose. Each seminar lasted fifty minutes. One seminar named "What did you say?" delved into how verbal instructions are processed by the brain and identified the factors affecting accurate understanding. We then took a test and found out exactly how limited our retention of verbal instructions was. Robert Shafer of Grosse Ile taught another very interesting seminar in Water Survival.

General session speakers ranged from Dr. John Wood, the lead optics engineer for the Hubble Telescope, to Lane Wallace, a regular columnist for Flying Magazine.

Over two thousand people registered for the weekend conference. If you have never attended this conference – you do not know what you have been missing!

EAA Chapter 457’s March 11^th meeting will feature a presentation about ballooning by balloon owner and pilot Larry Novotny. Our meetings are held in the Township Board Room starting at 7:00PM. Join us at 6:30 before the meeting for an informal hanger flying session. Visitors and their spouses are welcome.

Historic WW II Officers Club

Overnight and Long Term Lodging

734-671-2295 Art Cortis

Boyer blasts CBS for slanted GA security story
Sends stinging letter to CBS news president

Jan. 15 - AOPA President Phil Boyer today sent a stinging letter to the president of CBS News, complaining about the "slanted, incomplete, factually erroneous, and salaciously inflammatory" story on general aviation airport security. That story aired Wednesday night on the CBS Evening News and claimed that there was "no security" at GA airports and that "nothing had been done" since 9/11.

Boyer took the story apart piece by piece.

"Your irresponsible reporting techniques included ... failure to mention a wide range of security initiatives developed by AOPA and other organizations in concert with the FAA and Homeland Security that are now in practice across the country," Boyer wrote the head of CBS News, Andrew Heyward. Boyer said that the "security expert" in the story was in fact a PR consultant with grief counseling experience at the NTSB. The other "expert" was a real estate agent.

"On the basis of the voluminous emails and calls we have received today, I can confirm that your reporter, Bob Orr, has badly tarnished his reputation in the aviation community. Had he or anyone from CBS simply called, we could have provided the information that the story was completely lacking," wrote Boyer.

He said the story was void of any evidence that GA should be considered a security threat.

"To suggest otherwise is to be blind to an enormous body of facts that could never produce the sensationalistic sham that you deign to call a news story."

Boyer pointed out that the 5,400 public-use airports in the U.S. have adopted security measures appropriate to their situation. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has acknowledged that "one size does not fit all" when it comes to GA airport security. Some, home to large business aircraft, are fenced with controlled access, for example.

Most airports have implemented pilot vigilance programs using AOPA's Airport Watch guidelines. An aviation industry committee (which included representatives from TSA, the Department of Defense, Secret Service, and FBI) has compiled "best practices" guidelines for airport security that the TSA has adopted and will distribute. The guidelines recognize differing security needs for the wide range of GA airports.

Boyer again reminded CBS that a typical GA aircraft is incapable of causing much damage. "The typical general aviation aircraft, when fully loaded, weighs less than an empty Honda Civic and carries about the same amount of fuel as a large SUV," he wrote. "By comparison, an airliner like the ones used on September 11, 2001, can weigh as much as 180 Civics and carry nearly 24 thousand gallons of fuel. In stark contrast, a general aviation aircraft has limited ability to cause damage as evidenced by the unfortunate incident in Tampa. It was an extremely rare act by a lone individual that, while horrifying to imagine much less see, caused relatively minor damage.

"Since 9/11 we are all living in a world marked by a heightened state of fear," Boyer continued. "Many organizations and members like ours have worked hard to address opportunities to keep those events from being repeated. By planting deep seeds of fear that are totally without merit, your report did a major disservice not only to our members, but to the general public as well.

"We are outraged and you should be ashamed."

Reprinted from www.aopa.org. Grosse Ile Airport participates in AOPA’s Airport Watch Program.

Airport Web Site

Check the Airport web site for up-to-date information.

Recent additions include Tennis and Walk Program information and an application, as well as pictures of the newly renovated Tennis Center.

Airport Commission agendas and meeting minutes are available also, as are fuel prices, tenant info, forms, and rules and operating standards. They are updated regularly, so visit www.grosseileairport.com and be informed.

Set up Easy Rent Payments

Hangar tenants and commercial operators are eligible to have rent payments debited from any bank account. We can set you up with automatic debit. It’s easy and safe. Just ask the Airport office for an Authorization for Automatic Debit form. We’ll have you set up in no time. Then you won’t have to remember to pay your rent—and no more late fees!

Report Suspicious Activity around Airports and on the Water

Help ensure the security of GA aircraft and airport operations across the country. Call toll-free 1-866-GA SECURE (866-427-3287) to report suspicious activity at any airport. The Airport Watch Program has been established with AOPA. To learn what to watch for, see www.aopa.org/asn/watch.html. Report suspicious activity on the water to River Watch, a Homeland Security Watch Program, at 1-800-537-3200. You may also contact the Airport office during business hours at 734-675-0155 or call the G.I. Police Department at 734-676-7100.

Tenants: Notification of Changes

Is your information up-to-date with the Airport? Let us know of any changes of aircraft, email, addresses, or telephone. Got a cell phone number to give us?

Commercial Office and Industrial Park Space Available for Lease

Know of someone looking for raw land or industrial space to begin or expand a business? The Airport has some space available for lease at very reasonable rates. Email us or give us a call at 734-675-0155 for information or a visit.

Located just 5 miles from major expressways, our Commerce Park is great for light industrial, technical research and development facilities.

Office space is also available in hangar two. Call Horizon Properties at 734-283-4355.

"Working with you to provide the energy that propels aviation"

Arrow Energy, a Nationwide Independent Supplier of Aviation Fuels, and Phillips 66 are sponsors of The ONZ ‘Tetrahedron’ newsletter.

Arrow Energy’s distribution network has grown to over 150 terminals nationwide. Their customers include FBOs, corporate flight departments, specialty airlines, cargo operators, ag-operators, and hospital med-flights.

Grosse Ile Airport thanks them for their support.

For more information, visit www.arrowenergy.com, call 1-800-968-2853, or email info@arrowenergy.com.

Terminal Waiting Area and Lounge.

Airport Commission  

Chairman	Robert Harris
Vice Chair	Joe Lemanski
Trustee	Les Neal
Commissioners:	Tom Dunne
	Jim Lowlor
	Jim Weaks
	Tom Burkhart

Airport Staff

Administration

 John Lawson – Airport Manager, A.A.E.

Caryn Johnson – Office Coordinator

 Joe Wierzbicki – Airport Intern  

Business Jets Refuel. Low Fuel Prices at the Airport.

Maintenance

Lyle Eastom—Supervisor/Leading Chief

Rodney Eastom

Gerald “Jerry”  Dionne

Jim Farrell

Airport Administration Office

Office – 734-675-0155

Fax – 734-675-0932

Web—www.grosseileairport.com

   Historic Naval Air Station Terminal and Picnic Tables.

Calendar of Events  

Mar. 10 - Airport Commission Mtg 7:30 PM

Mar. 11 - EAA 457 Mtg 7 PM

Apr. 8 - EAA 457 Mtg 7 PM

Apr. 14 - Brownfield Mtg 7 PM; Airport Commission Mtg 7:30 PM

May 15, 16 - Chesapeake Aviation Training Weather Seminar at ONZ

June 4,5,6 - Island Fest (including Air Display)

June 19 and 20 - Grosse Ile Air Extravaganza (2004 Air Show)

July 23,24,25 - Michigan Jets (Model jets)

Meetings are held in the Grosse Ile Township Board Room, 9601 Groh Rd., 2nd floor, Grosse Ile, Michigan 48138.

For previous online newsletters, please click here or visit the other Grosse Ile Airport links below.

Newsletter Distribution

If you know of anyone who would like to receive the newsletter, contact the Airport office. And, thank you for reading this issue of the Grosse Ile Airport newsletter!