TWO NEW AVIATION LEADERS COME TO RENO-STEAD AIRPORT
Marily Mora, A.A.E.
President/CEO Reno-Tahoe Airport
Marily Mora is the President and CEO for the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority, and is responsible for leading and directing the Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO), and the Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), with an operating budget of over $46 million.
Formerly the Assistant Director of Aviation for Oakland International Airport, Ms. Mora was recently named the new CEO of the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority following a five-month long nationwide search.
Ms. Mora brings 24 years of airport management experience from three international airports including San Jose, Oakland and Reno-Tahoe International, where she served as Chief Operating Officer for 12 years before moving to Oakland in 2011.
Marily Mora is a true aviation professional and is prepared to lead both Reno-Tahoe International and Reno-Stead Airports into the future. Ms. Mora understands the importance of strengthening air service, pursuing business development and leading a customer service organization.
Her community involvement includes past Chair of the Washoe County Human Services Advisory Board, Past Board Member of the Nevada Women’s Fund, and past member of the Development Committee of the Reno Air Racing Foundation. She is a graduate of the 2003 Reno-Sparks Leadership Class and a 2002 Nevada Women’s Fund Woman of Achievement.
Mora is an Accredited Airport Executive and has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of California-Davis and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
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Steve Katzmann
RTAA Trustee and Liaison to RSAA
Steve Katzmann is a Commercial Pilot with ratings in Helicopters and Airplanes. He grew up in Las Vegas and in Southern California, and graduated from University of Nevada, Reno. He is a former U.S. Army Officer, Airborne Ranger and Helicopter Pilot for over 10 years. He worked with Lear Fan Corporation at Stead and in Northern Ireland.
Steve is a member of Rotary International and Past President of the Auburn, California Rotary Club. He is also a member of the Quiet Birdmen at Stead and serves on the Advisory Group to the Nevada Military Support Alliance. He recently retired from the position of CEO of the Dolan Automotive Group. Steve was named by the City of Reno as its appointment to the RTAA Board of Trustees. He was recently selected to be and welcomed as the Reno-Stead Airport Liaison.
Reno-Tahoe and Reno-Stead Airports’
Operational Activity
The operational activity for the two Reno airports is categorized by air carrier, general aviation and military aviation on a monthly basis. The Reno-Stead Airport operational activity is estimated based on acoustical counter information and some subjective adjustments made by Reno-Stead Airport Manager Mike Dikun. Because there is no tower at Reno-Stead Airport, there is no better way.
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Montana airport busy enough for federal funding
By Tom Lotshaw
The Daily Inter Lake
October 19, 2013
Some people opposed to a realignment and expansion of Kalispell City Airport are questioning if City officials improperly — or even fraudulently — inflated the airport’s estimated flight operations to get it listed on the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems and make it eligible for federal funding.
The formal answer from the City is “No”. And if anyone suspects wrongdoing or fraud, they should report it to the proper authorities, Kalispell City Attorney Charlie Harball said.
That hasn’t happened.
But some people point to annual operations estimates that they say grew from 12,000 to 33,000 and then to 41,300 as the City applied and then got its airport
listed on the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems.
Stelling Engineers installed an acoustic counter at the airport for one year and reported approximately 13,270 operations as part of the latest master plan update, a level of activity far below what was estimated in the past.
Chad Graham, an unchallenged candidate for the Kalispell City Council, raised the issue of widely varying operations estimates during an airport forum sponsored by the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce.
“Are we just talking about bad math? Was a number transposed or is something else going on? Was this fraudulent? How did this number get arrived at? They can’t both be right,” Graham said about the past estimates and the actual count. Other people have raised the same questions.
It’s rare for a small airport such as Kalispell City Airport to have an actual operations count.
Estimating annual flight operations at non-towered general aviation airports such as Kalispell City Airport is an imprecise exercise subject to a range of multipliers and it’s “very common to have disparity” between operations estimates and the number of operations detected if an actual count is done, said Gary Gates, an airport planner with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airports District Office in Helena.
Furthermore, he said the estimated number of annual aircraft operations is not the basis for getting a small general aviation airport listed on the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems.
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The Nevada Airport Association
Introduces a New Specialty
License Plate
What is NvAA? The Nevada Airports Association, a non-profit organization registered with the Nevada Secretary of State, is an association of airport executives, airport policy makers and airport supporters whose mission is to promote and sustain the development of all airports in the State of Nevada. Formerly known as the Nevada Airport Managers Association (NAMA), and formed by a handful of aviation enthusiasts, airport managers, the State of Nevada’s office of aviation planning and local government elected officials, NAMA was created as a forum for airport managers to exchange ideas, information
and personal experience, as well as to promote aviation and educate public officials about how airports benefit their local communities. In 2008, NAMA changed its name to the Nevada Airports Association (NvAA) to encourage the participation of not only airport managers, but also operators and users of Nevada’s 49 public-use airports.
How will license plate proceeds be used? Until 2001, Nevada was the only state in the Union with no state level funding assistance program for aviation elated
projects. NvAA worked successfully with the Nevada State Legislature to establish a trust fund that provides Nevada’s general aviation airports (excluding Clark County and Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority) with a funding source to provide the required 5% local match for FAA funded grants that pay 95% of an airport improvementproject. However, when the trust fund was created, there was no appropriation of money to the fund. NvAA continued to work with the State Legislature to allocate money to the fund, and in 2005, a one-time appropriation of $500,000 was authorized by the Legislature. The revenue generated
by sale of the Nevada Aviation specialty license plate is the ONLY on-going revenue source for the Nevada Aviation Trust Fund.
How will this benefit Nevada? Since the creation of the Nevada Aviation Trust Fund, the one-time State appropriation of $500,000 has been leveraged by NDOT and local governments into $22,479,151 of capital projects at Nevada’s rural airports. The $500,000 state investment has resulted in an additional $22.5 million of Federal capital project investment in the State of Nevada. This $22.5 million of capital projects has a direct and indirect economic impact on our rural communities of over $30 million, for a return on investment ratio of 60:1.
The Bottom Line: Since the Nevada Aviation Trust Fund was created and funded by the Nevada State Legislature in 2005, 21 rural Nevada communities have
seen over $22.5 million invested locally. These same dollars equate to over $30 million of direct and indirect economic benefit to Nevadans, in the form of jobs, material sales, services and community pride. The other important factor to consider is the ability to continue to invest in a key economic engine in our vast State; our State aviation system. Given the current State budget challenges, this specialty plate will allow the Nevada Department of Transportation to continue to support a very important transportation resource within the State of Nevada, the Nevada Airports System.
Lastly, please support Nevada’s General Aviation Airports through the purchase and renewal of the Nevada Airports Association Specialty License plate, and
more importantly, remind your State Senators and Assemblymen of the economic importance of funding the Nevada Aviation Trust Fund.
Sandoval Proposes $5 Million
for UAV Test Site Application
State of Nevada Website
May 10, 2013
CARSON CITY, NV – Governor Brian Sandoval announced that he will propose a budget amendment totaling $5 million to support the state’s application to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to be one of six locations chosen as a center for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle development in the United States.
In February of this year, the FAA issued a UAS Test Site Screening Information Request (SIR), the official mechanism by which the FAA is soliciting information from applicants for being designated one of six FAA UAV test sites in the US.
“Team Nevada is very experienced and Nevada has been home to UAS operations for decades,” Governor Brian Sandoval said. “With the climate and air space of Southern Nevada, we are uniquely equipped to help expand the development of UAVs. Further, the potential economic benefits from being chosen as a site for UAV development are exponential. I support Nevada’s application and believe that we will see great return on this investment.”
If Nevada is selected as a UAV development site, the most likely economic forecast shows that there would be thousands of jobs for UAS direct employees with an average wage of approximately $62,000; an estimated $2.5 billion in economic impact in present dollars; and an estimated $125 million in annual State and local tax revenue.
Nevada responded to the request with the State of Nevada as the Applicant, and a 28-member team including the Nevada System of Higher Education, the Nevada National Guard, Bowhead Systems, Navigator Development and Drone America. Team members, who represent a cross-section of public and private
partners, industry and academic leaders, within the northern and southern regions of the State, identified three test ranges and four test sites in the State’s
Application.
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AREA AIRPORT NEWS
Minden-Tahoe Airport gets two federal grants
The Record-Courier
August 11, 2013
Staff Reports
The Minden-Tahoe Airport received two federal grants for 2013 for maintenance of existing pavement. With the receipt of these Federal Aviation administration grants the airport will have received $2 million in grant money over the last two years, all for the repair and maintenance of airport asphalt.
The first grant awarded in 2013 is for $550,000 to repair and slurry seal taxiway delta and the adjacent ramp. The second grant was awarded for $84,375 for
engineering to complete the design for the repair of taxiways E, F and G at the Minden-Tahoe Airport. The county will be requesting bids to complete the work for both projects.
The airport also received recognition from the FAA praising the work of the airport staff during the Bison Fire. The recognition stated the operations team providedairport tours and operational briefings, helping controllers quickly adapt to a complex situation and ensuring a safe transition from an “uncontrolled airport” to a “controlled airport” concept.
The ratio of powered to non-powered aircraft operating crossing runways is a rare configuration, according to Airport Manager Bobbi Thompson.
During the Bison Fire, the large number of helicopters and five single-engine air tankers operating out of the airport required a portable FAA control tower.
“The rapid activation of a control tower and transition to a controlled airport would not have been possible without the support of your staff, Soaring NV and the Minden-Tahoe Airport Community,” the letter stated.
The Minden-Tahoe Airport is home base to approximately 350 aircraft including 80 gliders.
Annual aircraft movements are estimated at 90,000 with about 40 percent of these as glider/tow plane operations and motorgliders.
The airport has an annual economic impact of over $42 million.
The Minden-Tahoe Airport is one of the leading airports in the Lake Tahoe region and is the only financially self-sufficient general aviation airports in Nevada.
August 16, 1928
ON THIS DAY IN SAN DIEGO HISTORY San Diego’s airport, Lindbergh Field, was dedicated. It was named for Charles A. Lindbergh, who was the first person to fly alone and nonstop from the United States across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
The same year that Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic (1927), San Diego Bay was dredged to make a turning basin for two of the Navy’s large aircraft carriers, the USS Lexington and the USS Saratoga. The dredged sand and mud was used to fill in the location for the new airport.
When Lindbergh returned to San Diego for a celebration of his historic flight he spoke to the people of San Diego, promoting the idea of the new airport that was being constructed. He said:
“I want to bring before you the necessity of keeping your city in the foreground of American aeronautics by constructing and equipping a good airport such as you are considering, and by backing the air development program of your city . . . . There are very few cities that have this opportunity so close to them – so near to the business section as the proposed site here. I hope that you will continue to back a progressive airport in San Diego and keep this city on the airways of the United States . . . . San Diego has always been in the foreground of western aeronautics and, I believe, it will always be in the foreground.”
The new San Diego airport, Lindbergh Field, was indeed built on the location next to San Diego Bay created by dredged material, and was dedicated on August 16, 1928.
Today you can see a large mural of Charles A. Lindbergh standing in his flight suit painted on the side of the commuter terminal as you approach the airport from downtown on Harbor Drive.
Reprinted with permission from This Day in San Diego History by Linda Pequegnat and published by Sunbelt Publications.
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Whether outwardly or inwardly, whether in space or time, the farther we penetrate the unknown, the vaster and more marvelous it becomes.
—Charles A. Lindbergh.
Autobiography of Values.
August 14, 1928
Reno Evening Gazette
Reno Gazette-Journal
August 15, 2013
The $500 Garcia saddle, given annually as the first prize in the Elko Rodeo, was put on display today. The fame of the Garcia saddle has spread to all parts of the country. Deputy Sheriff Simpson of Ely has declared he will bring a horse to Elko this year that is tougher than Lindbergh. Last year, he brought the horse named for the famous aviator.
August 11, 1984
Reno Gazette-Journal
Promoters for the North American Aerospace Exposition say they’ve settled their differences with the Airport Authority of Washoe County and will go ahead with plans to display the world’s largest cargo jet at the Reno Cannon International Airport. Promoter Bob Schott said Thursday the Airport Authority was blocking his plans to land the four-engine C-5A cargo jet, claiming authority officials were reneging on an earlier agreement. Airport Authority director Bob Esperance denied there was an agreement, but pointed out that the promoter still had time to make necessary “prearrangements” needed to display a plane that size. Schott and Esperance are scheduled to meet Monday and set further plans for the 13-plane display at the airport.
