RENO STEAD AIRPORT ASSOCIATION
Meeting Minutes
July 11, 2017
The Reno Stead Airport Association (RSAA) monthly meeting was called to order by President Tom Hall at 5:15 pm at the Reno Stead Terminal Conference Room, Tuesday, July 11, 2017 as follows:
1. Welcome and Attendance: Tom Hall, President, welcomed all at the meeting, including Association Officer Ken Wiegand, Vice President. Dave Miller, Treasurer, and Jack Buchold, Secretary, were not in attendance. 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, and Dan Ross.
Members/Guests In Attendance: Jan Bishop, Bryan and Cheryl Herter, Duane Holiday, Bob Meurer and Steve Phillips, RTAG, Titus Roberson, Randy LaRoche, Greg Stanley, and Paul Watson. Special Guest(s): Ken Moen, RTAA GA Property Specialist, and Laura Robb, RTAA Property Specialist.
2. Welcome RTAA Trustees: Our new representative will be determined at the August board Meeting, Bill Eck’s replacement has yet to be selected.
3. Minutes of Last Meeting: The Approval of the Minutes of the June 13, 2017 meeting was unanimous.
4. Financial Report: Dave Miller was not at the meeting, but at the previous meeting he had reported that we held $3,248.35 in our account, with expenditures underway for the BBQ activities. During June, the major expenditure was the annual license fee for the website. At the May meeting, cash was $3,401.75 and we were reminded that we are now in the new membership year with dues now payable. Please do not forget that 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 at the previous meeting had said that there were 123 names on the membership roster, however, only 63 had paid as of the BBQ held on June 24, for 2017 membership renewals.
6. Program Dean Keck, Flight Operations and Technical Manager (Contractor) Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems – Unmanned Aerial Systems (NIAS-UAS) was not available, and the program was postponed. Jack Suiverveld of Ace Aviation provided a short presentation and handout on professional radio techniques. The handout was written by Earl Kessler and will be posted on the RSAA website when a digital copy is obtained.
7. RTS Manager’s Report: Mike Scott, RTS Airport Manager reported that they had a very good RSAA BBQ – he thanked the RSAA for the great event, and President Tom Hall thanked Ken Weigand for the use of his hangar. Airfield maintenance continues to progress. Runway maintenance on 8-26 will result in its closure, fire operations permitting. Notices will be given and AWOS will be updated as necessary.
Fire-fighting operations continue out of the Stead base. Aircraft types cycle in and out depending on operational needs. The helicopter operations on the west end may be moving to another location. In the last 20 days the fire base has dropped 635,000 gallons of retardant. In their most active year they dropped 1.5 million gallons. 2017 is shaping up to be a bad fire season.
Ed Martin retired from RTS on Friday, July 7th after 30 years of service with the RTAA and Stead. A very nice potluck lunch and ceremony were held in the RTS maintenance shop. A great cross section of people from Stead, RNO and the RTAA came out to wish Ed good luck in retirement.
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 a good PRS. Registration is in progress for racers in September, and both Strega and Voodoo will be attending.
9. RTAA Report: Ken Moen said The RTS GAMS were passed on June 8th and went into effect July 1st. Email went to tenants on July 11th explaining the implications. He asked RTS tenants to check with anyone with whom who they do business on the airport to make sure that they business is permitted to operate on RTS. 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 the RTAA recently sold an improved parcel that used to be part of the Stead airport. It is a small parcel with a very small building that used to have radio antennas. It is on top of a small knoll southwest of the corner of Military Road and Echo Ave. (very visible in Google Maps). The RTAA was paid $100,000 for the parcel by the developer who owns the surrounding parcels.
10. RTAA Trustee Liaison Report: Ken Moen reiterated that the Trustee positions will be voted on in August, so that would be the earliest that we would see an RTAA liaison replacement.
11. Webmaster Report: Tracy Rhodes said that the RSAA website has been migrated to a new hosting company and now has an SSL certificate installed, the address is https://steadusers.org. You will be redirected automatically. You will see the green lock symbol in your browser url bar.
Work Accomplished between 12 June and 10 July Statistics were: three articles published, 1425 spam attempts to access the site were deleted, and the website software was updated 8 times. There were 400 visits by 325 different users, 172 (42%) of those visits were by mobile devices. Tracy said there were 1114 pages visited with the most visited pages: For Sale 444, Home Page 196, Join/Renew eight visits, Calendar of Events 37, Airport Businesses 17, Aviation Medical Examiners 59, and Contacts 13.
He said that the EAA 1361 Club had a good STEM presentation to the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows. 25 kids attended. Six chapter members helped out with the Hayward Air Rally. The Chapter flew 45 kids at their Young Eagles event. The August 5th EAA monthly general meeting, (9am at the Stead terminal) will feature a guest speaker, CarolAnn Garatt who has flown her Mooney around the world three times in support of ALS research. A flyer is up on the RSAA and EAA websites.
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 RTAG had a fly-out on July 8th to Livermore, CA for breakfast at the adjacent golf course clubhouse. Eight aircraft and 26 people participated.
Advanced Aviation Reno, LLC. a new flight school and maintenance facility (replacing Reno Flying Service) will have its grand opening on August 5th in the hangar to the south of the Atlantic Aviation hangar. A tour and BBQ lunch will be available.
13. RSAA BBQ Review – the Saturday June 24 BBQ at Ken Weigand’s hangar, with a menu like last year’s, was very successful.
14. Next General Meeting: President Hall said thanks to all in attendance, and noted that the next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at 5:15 PM at the Freedom Center (Terminal Building) Conference Room located upstairs.
15. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:XX PM. Minutes graciously provided by notes written by the Webmaster, Tracy Rhodes.
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.