RENO STEAD AIRPORT ASSOCIATION Meeting Minutes
August 8, 2017
The Reno Stead Airport Association (RSAA) monthly meeting was called to order by President Tom Hall at 5:18 pm at the Reno Stead Terminal Conference Room, Tuesday, August 8, 2017 as follows:
1. Welcome and Attendance: Tom Hall, President, welcomed all at the meeting, including Association Officers Jack Buchold, Secretary and Dave Miller, Treasurer. Board Members in attendance were: Terry Matter, RARA Representative, Tracy Rhodes, IT Manager, and Mike Scott, RTS Manager. Board Members absent were Lew Gage, Lin Manning, Alby Redick, Aviation Classics, Dan Ross, and Ken Wiegand, Vice President.
Members/Guests In Attendance: Jan Bishop, and Bob Meurer, RTAG. Special Guest(s): Dean Keck, NIAS-UAS, Ken Moen, RTAA GA Property Specialist, Laura Robb, RTAA Property Specialist, Titus Robertson, RTAA, and Dean Schultz, RTAA COO.
2. Welcome RTAA Trustees: From the information available from the RTAA Board Meeting last Thursday, it appears that our new representative may be Sean Cary, however, it will be finally determined at a later date. It is anticipated that he will be Bill Eck’s replacement.
3. Minutes of Last Meeting: The Approval of the Minutes of the July 11, 2017 meeting was unanimous.
4. Financial Report: Dave Miller reported that we held $2,281.77 as compared to $3,248.35 in the previous month. Expenditures of $1,475 for the BBQ activities were partially offset by the generous contribution of $500 from Mike Scott, representing the Airport. Dave further noted that usually we have about 65 people in attendance, however, this year we only had about 55 people and as a result we had leftovers that were donated to a food bank. He suggested that due to summer vacations and other activities in June, the BBQ be moved to May. After a general discussion concerning this issue, it was agreed that May will be set for next year’s BBQ.
We were reminded that we are now well into the new membership year with dues payable. The new membership year began January 1, 2017 and ends December 31, 2017, dues are $20 per year. Dues can be paid: check or cash by mail at:
Reno Stead Airport Association
5499 Alpha Avenue
Reno, NV 89506
or PayPal from the Website (www.steadusers.org), or cash/check to Dave Miller at the Miller Speed Sports hangar.
5. Membership Report: Dave Miller said that there were 123 names on the membership roster, however, paid renewals were less.
6. Program: Dean Keck, Deputy Director Northern Nevada, Flight Operations and Technical Manager (Contractor) Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems – Unmanned Aerial Systems (NIAS-UAS) had a video program detailing various aspects of the mission, organizational structure, services, test sites and current activities underway in the non-profit corporation. He recounted his Army flight history retiring after 20 years, and his current responsibilities here in Reno. Their mission is to coach, teach, and mentor public and commercial UAS companies to develop advanced and innovative UAS techniques. In December 2013 the State of Nevada and the NAS were designated as test sites, and they have been working towards their mission since that time. They have done testing in Denver as well, and in Texas they believe to have flown the longest drone flight on record.
Mike Scott reported that Marily Mora is on a national drone advisory committee, and Dean Schultz is on a drone advisory sub-committee. It was reported that our region is well connected and sensitive to the needs of the general aviation community, and that within a year we may have a flight simulation center in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas as well, there is a drone racing league simulation that may be available to the NIAS at some later date.
7. RTS Manager’s Report: Mike Scott, RTS Airport Manager reported that they had a very busy July, including both short and long term planning activities. He said that pavement maintenance activities were now starting at 4:30 AM, so that it will be ready for all eventualities. Among long term planning items was the RNO Master Plan process, and more immediate planning centered around the runway maintenance on 8/26. The funds have been received, the engineering team is getting ready to put the project out for bid, with an anticipated cost of about $20 million. He is planning on a weather permitting early start in March or April, with final electrical and signage after the races. There was a general meeting about the process a couple of weeks ago, attended by a number of interested personnel from the Stead users base.
Mike reminded all in attendance that if you would like to contact him, his twitter feed is @RTSAV8TR
8. RARA Trustee Liaison Report: Terry Matter reported that they had completed registration for 130 race planes, the Formula group was full, as were the T-6 and Sport groups, and there was one further opening for the unlimiteds, where nine more had registered than last year. Some exhibitor aircraft were coming, a Falcon, a Honda, and a Mooney. The Texas Legends group is bringing six warbirds, which will be performing with pyrotechnics on Saturdayand Sunday. The Saturday before the Races, there will be a “mini-PRS” for some racers that missed the June session. The Tower will go into effect from 8-5 before race week, and it just so happened that he got the FCC license today, to operate the Tower. He also said that there will be a “drone zone” again at the air races, as there was last year.
9. RTAA Report: Ken Moen said The RTS GAMS went into effect July 1st and he was involved in rolling it all out and getting permits distributed. He mentioned that Tom Hall was the first one out, and he and Tom were discussing sending out a generic lease agreement that hangar owners could use if they didn’t have an agreement specific to their use. If you are subletting a hangar or hangar space check that the landlord is permitted and check the GAMS to confirm that the documents the landlord is requesting are the ones required by the GAMS.
GAMS are now available on the RSAA website under the Airport menu item in the top menu bar.
Laura Robb, RTAA Property Specialist said that she had nothing to report.
10. RTAA Trustee Liaison Report: Dean Schultz said that there had been an RTAA meeting on Thursday to discuss four items, one of which was a new maintenance contract for Reno and Stead, and a side issue was the Trustee Liaison at this meeting, and when we would see a RTAA liaison replacement for Bill Eck.
11. Webmaster Report: Tracy Rhodes said that we now had an SSL certificate installed, the address is https://steadusers.org.
Work Accomplished Statistics over the last month were: twelve articles published, 775 spam attempts to access the site were deleted, and the website software was updated 10 times. There were 445 visits by 368 different users, 159 (36%) of those visits were by mobile devices. Tracy said there were 1139 total page views with the most visited pages: For Sale 430, Home Page 260, Join/Renew 12, Calendar of Events 19, Airport Businesses 17, Aviation Medical Examiners 44, and Contacts 44. He said that the EAA 1361 Club monthly general meeting on August 5th featured a guest speaker, CarolAnn Garatt who had flown her Mooney around the world three times in support of ALS research. The meeting was well attended and the session was very informative.
Tracy is now in the Web Hosting business, if you need web site assistance or a new web site developed, please give Tracy a call.
12. RTAG Report: Bob Meurer reported that there were two upcoming meetings to discuss aircraft property taxation issues, and they had received conflicting statements from the County and the State. On August 14 there is a meeting in the legislative building in Carson, and September 6 the same will be discussed at the RTAG meeting. He thanked all those that had attended the
Advanced Aviation Reno, LLC. grand opening BBQ on August 5th, and although they expected about 100, around 130 had shown up.
13. Next General Meeting: President Hall showed three newspaper articles about airport development at KMEV in the Gardnerville-Minden area. He noted that the next regularly scheduled meeting would normally be held during the September Air Races, and it was the general consensus that the next RSAA meeting would then be held in October.
14. Other Matters: Mike Scott thanked all for their fire activities assistance, and said there were a couple of handouts at the back, one of which noted public meetings and an open house, both in September for discussion of the Reno-Tahoe International Airport Master Plan – Update. The other document is “Option 1 – Full Runway Closure Construction Schedule for RTS. Ken Moen said that he had received questions about hangar space availability, and had referred those individuals to the RSAA web-site, noting that activity was up lately.
15. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 6:13 PM
Jack Buchold, Secretary
RENO STEAD AIRPORT ASSOCIATION (RSAA) MISSION STATEMENT:
To represent the interests of all Tenants on the Reno-Stead Airport including Aircraft Owners, Fixed Base Operators, Aircraft Repair Facilities, United States Government Agencies and all parties of interest;
To ensure that all Tenants have the opportunity to speak with a united voice to the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority (owner of the airfield facility), the Federal Aviation Administration and the Local Governments relative to safe and affordable flying in Northern Nevada;
To enrich and promote the reputation of General Aviation within our community; and To promote a “Good Neighbor” policy with the Nevada National Guard, support facility improvements that enhance the Tenant experience and encourage affordable services, fuel prices and hangar rentals from all service providers operating at the Reno Stead Facility.