RENO STEAD AIRPORT ASSOCIATION Meeting Minutes
October 13, 2015
The Reno Stead Airport Association (RSAA) monthly meeting was called to order at 5:15p at the Reno Stead Terminal Conference Room, Tuesday, October 13, 2015 as follows:
1. Welcome and Attendance: Tom Hall, President, and Dan Ross, Secretary. Board Members: Terry Matter, RARA Representative, Bill Eck, RTAA Trustee and liaison to the RSAA, Mike Dikun, Reno-Stead Airport Manager, Tracy Rhodes, IT Manager, Lin Manning,. Board Member(s) absent: Don Osborne, Mike Walsh, Dave Miller, Treasurer, Ken Wiegand, Vice-President, Lew Gage, and Alby Redick. Guests/Members: Steve Katzmann, Joe Stabler, visitor, Cricket Clark, Tim Nichols, Bob McLaughlin, Jack Buchold, and Wes Waltenspiel. Special Guest(s): Dean Shultz, RTAA Executive Vice President and COO, Ken Moen, RTAA General Aviation Specialist II, Bob Meurer, RTAG.
2. Minutes of Last Meeting: Approval of the Minutes of September 9, 2015 meetings was unanimous.
3. Financial Report: Cash on hand: No Report. Dave asked that all members be reminded that we are now in the new membership year with dues now payable. The new membership year has changed and now began Jan 1, 2015 and ends December 31, 2015, 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.
4. Membership Report: Currently there are No Report members; several members have not yet renewed their membership for the current fiscal year.
5. RTS Manager’s Report: Mike briefed that Taxiway C, Phase II, is on schedule and will be completed the second week of November. Taxiway C will be closed until the project is complete. Check Notams and ASOS for latest updates to the Phase II construction schedule.
Mike said the Air Races were not only good by safe with only one incident reported and it was a ground incident, not reportable to the FAA.
Residential water well drilling activity near the airport boundary is almost complete and should be finished by next week.
There is much activity in the Guard compound this last month which will continue into the foreseeable future. They are repaving and rebuilding and adding new capabilities to the existing facilities.
The Freedom Flight Center, “AKA The Terminal Building”, will host the new grand opening of historical military displays which recognize the historical past of the Reno Stead Airport. Stead’s military past started as Reno Army Air Base, then Stead Army Air base until 1947 then was renamed Stead Air Force Base until it closed in 1964.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wike/Stead_Air_Force_Base.
The open house is scheduled for November 4th, starting at 10:00a.
NASA UAV flight operations are coming to Stead in the near future. The University of Nevada at Reno, UNR, has signed a two year lease for the vacant space on the Terminal’s bottom floor to develop a UAV Traffic Management Test Site with flight simulators.
During normal business hours, both the mission planning room and associated bath room are accessible from the flight line side. The flight lounge available after hours by card lock (the same card issued to tenants) or using a code posted as previously located. There also will be an EXIT ONLY door from the mission planning room to the south side front parking lot. Open WiFi is available. The Terminal Building is available during and after hours for training, seminars, and other activities. Contact Patty at the Airport Manager’s Office at 775-328-6570 or pedgington@renoairport.com for details.
6. RTAA Trustee Liaison Report: Trustee Bill Eck said the Aviation Classics has signed another five year lease with Reno Tahoe Airport Authority and will supply support to the air races. Bill said that Alby Redick and the employees of Aviation Classics were invaluable to the continued success of the Air Races.
Dermody Properties was making slow but determined progress in developing commercial activity at Stead.
He also mentioned that the Reno FSDO has been reorganized and now reports to the Las Vegas FSDO.
Dean Shultz is attempting to identify individuals to volunteer for the reorganized Community Outreach Committee. If you are interested, contact Mr. Schultz.
Bill said if anyone wanted to contact him, his email address is Bill.Eck@sbcglobal.net
For more information about the Board of Trustees and their bios, go to www.renoairport.com/airport-authority/board-trustees).
7. RARA Trustee Liaison Report: Terry Matter said the event was good, would like better, but good. The crowds and sales were good, would like better, but good, much better than last year. He said despite the high winds, the hard work of the volunteers manage to get everything accomplished on time.
Bill Eck, Director of Operations for the Air Races is retiring after 21 years. Bill is known around the race circuit as Mr. Air Race. Terry said Bill was invaluable and would be missed. Planning for the 2016 race season has started. Looking ahead to the 2016 Air Races, Terry said the Blue Angles have committed to perform.
8. Webmaster Report: Tracy said he published 3 articles, added 10 items to the calendar, deleted 5053 spam attempts to access the site, and updated the website software 15 times. There were 433 visits by 364 users with a 1:30 minutes average duration, viewing 3.9 pages. 201 (46%) of those visits were by mobile devices. Tracy said there were 1695 pages visited with the most visited pages: Home Page 290, For Sale 527, Calendar of Events 72, Airport Businesses 76, Fuel Prices 14, Aviation Medical Examiners 54, Contact 32, About 20, and Air Race Procedures 48.
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.
9. WiFi Status: Current Stead_Users_West Password is: Jan2015-SteadU. The Stead Users internet transmitter is intended to be Ramp Access WiFi Only and coverage is not expected to extend to hangars located south of the parking apron. If you experience your navigation devices timing out before download is complete, please contact the secretary, RSAA.
For those desiring their own personal high speed internet connection, please contact Robert Andrews at: robert@avantwireless.com.
10. Newsletter Report: Tom said the newsletter is on track and awaiting an article by Ken Moen. Ken said real soon.
11. Open House: November 4, 2015, 10:00 am.
12. Next General Meeting: President Tom Hall gave a special thanks to all for attending the RSAA Meeting and extended an open invitation to the entire Airport Authority Management Team.
The next General Meeting is scheduled for 5:15p November 10, 2015 at the Freedom Center (Terminal Building) Conference Room located upstairs.
11. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:01p.
________________________
Herman D. Ross, 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.