Club PodvigVisits

The cadets from Club Podvig a boy scouts group(ages 10-17) from Magadan Russia toured the west-ern United States. Loren Smith and Jane Mart ofGreat Falls hosted Club Podvig at the KOA Camp-ground.

Club Podvig cadets are very interestedand involved with aviation in Russia. Most of thecadets have already made their first parachute jump.

On September 10, Club Podvig came toHelena for an aviation day; the cadets flew on anorientation flight with Jeanne Lesnik and Jim Greil.They were also treated to a tour of the new ArmyNational Guard Flight Operations at the HelenaAirport with Captain Tom Malee.

On September 15 the cadets invited theMontana Aeronautics staff and Lt. Governor JudyMartz for a special Russian dinner and an eveningof entertainment produced by the cadets.

Pictured clockwise: Boy scouts from the Club Podvig of Magadan Russia fly as part of the YoungEagles Aviation Education Program with pilots Jeanne Lesnik and Jim Greil. LieutenantGovernor Judy Martz greets cadets before enjoying a delicious Russian dinner of cabbage rolls,borsch and pork chops. Cadets perform their own rendition of Swan Lake

MDT- Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division Vol. 49 No. 10 October 1998

Board Recommends FederalAircraft Meet Safety Stan-dards: The Aircraft Management Policy Ad-visory Board (AMPAB), at the request of the Gen-eral Services Administration, conducted a study offederal, non military aircraft operators and have rec-ommended that the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) provide oversight and enforcement of fed-eral civilian aircraft operations and that these fed-eral aircraft operators should meet a mandatory mini-mum safety standard. The AMPAB said that theOffice of Management and Budget (OMB) shoulddraft and send to Congress the necessary statutorylanguage to provide FAA with the necessary author-ity to conduct such oversight and enforcement. TheAMPAB found that even though the federal agen-cies have set standards that are generally less strin-gent than requirements imposed by the FAA on civilaviation, most of these lesser standards are not be-ing met. The AMPAB also addressed the use ofsurplus military aircraft used by federal, state, countyand local governments. The report states that whenthese aircraft were operated and maintained by themilitary, they had established excellent safetyrecords, however many have now been modifiedwithout adequate documentation and that it will bedifficult and costly to certify them under the FAR=s.Implementation of a mandatory minimum safetystandard will require some acceptable form of certi-fication and airworthiness for these aircraft. TheAMPAB recommends that the FAA, in consultationwith the Committee for Aviation Policy (ICAP),Department of Defense (DOD) and the originalequipment manufacturers develop a Aformer mili-tary@ category certification process for those aircraftthat cannot be reasonably certificated under theFAR=s. One approach would be to maintain suchcertification by maintaining them in accordance withapproved military practices, including compliancewith manufacturers safety bulletins. It is recognizedthat some surplus aircraft may not be able to meetthese standards and for safety reasons should not beflying. The AMPAB acknowledged that its workdid not include a detailed examination for publicaircraft use at the state, county and local levels, itstated that Athe principles enunciated in this reportare relevant for all public aircraft regardless of theirownership. The Board urges non-federal entities towork for their acceptance and adoption.@

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No Decision on Ticket Pro-gram: There is still no word from the FAA onif anything has been decided about the controver-sial Aticket program@. Although Ahigh level@ FAAofficials recently met with FAA Administrator JaneGarvey there has been no announcement on whetheror not a decision was made. The program, dubbedas the Aticket program@ has drawn almost unanimousopposition from all segments of the aviation indus-try and will, if adopted, allow FAA inspectors toissue administrative actions on the spot without thebenefit of appeal.

Administrator�s ColumnEmergencyRevocat i onAmendment Killed: The amendmentto the FAA reauthorization introduced by SenatorJim Inhofe of Oklahoma which would have alteredthe appeal process for emergency certificate revo-cations was rejected in a Senate vote of 51-46.Montana Senators split on this very important avia-tion issue: Senator Burns voting for and SenatorBaucus voting against. The legislation dubbed asthe AHoover Bill@ would have established an expe-dited appeal process for emergency revocationsthrough the National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB). Inhofe argued that the current process hasallowed too Amany cases where the individuals havebeen abused@ and said his bill is a compromise be-cause it Amakes it very clear if there is a hazard outthere, if there is any risk to anyone�s safety, the fly-ing public or the pilot himself, the pilot is not goingto be able to fly. It is as simple as that.@ SenatorMcCain of Arizona who is Senate Commerce Com-mittee Chairman, objected to the amendment, say-ing it goes too far, but added AI intend to work withInhofe on the provision. Noting that the reauthori-zation bill still must go to conference, he said Inhofehas a legitimate concern here and the closeness ofthe vote indicated that. I will work with him onthis.@ The outcome of the vote was extremely dis-appointing to the aviation industry who lobbied forits passage and believed that the amendment offeredcommon sense reform and much needed due pro-cess int he FAA�s revocation authority.

Montana and the SkyDepartment of Transportation

Marc Racicot, GovernorMarv Dye, Director

Official monthly publication of theAeronautics DivisionTelephone - 444-2506

P.O. Box 5178Helena, MT 59604

Michael D. FergusonAdministrator

Aeronautics BoardRon Mercer, ChairmanByron Bayers, Member

Fred Booth, MemberJoAnn Eisenzimer, Member

Leland Ford, MemberDouglas Freeman, Member

Robert Hector, MemberArnie Lindberg, Member

Will Metz, Member

Montana and the Sky is publishedmonthly in the interest of aviation in

the State of Montana.Third Class postage paid at Helena,

Montana 59604

Subscription: $5 per yearEditor: Debbie AlkeEditorial Assitance:

Patty Kautz

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Pictured above is Crystal Dorne�s 1st Place En-try in Category II of the 1998 Montana AviationAwareness Art Contest. Crystal is a student atSalmon Prairie School in Swan Lake.

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WAI Scholarship Opportunities

Women in Aviation International (WAI) announcesoutstanding industry support for its 1999 Scholar-ship Program with committed funds to date of$203,150. The purpose of the program is to pro-vide financial assistance to high school, college oruniversity students as well as other individuals pur-suing an aviation career. Individual scholarshipsrange from $500 to $50,000. The scholarshipawards will be presented at the 10th Annual Inter-national Women in Aviation Conference in Orlando,FL on March 20, 1999.

Fifteen organizations and companies aresponsoring the general, flight and maintenancescholarships. General scholarships include an Air-bus Leadership Grant of $1000, The Amelia EarhartSociety Career Enhancement Scholarship of $500,The Boeing Company Career Enhancement Schol-arship of $1000, the Colleen Barrett Aviation Man-agement Scholarship of $750, two Flight TrainingMagazine Scholarships valued at $1000 each andthree WAI Achievement Awards of $500 each.

Flight scholarships include two AirbusA320 Type Rating Certification Scholarships val-

ued at $30000 each, two American Airlines B-727Flight Training Awards valued at $18000 each, aCessna Aircraft Company Private Pilot Scholarshipof $3700, two Jeppesen Sanderson Company Pri-vate Pilot Scholarships for $1000 each, a North-west Airlines Type Rating Award of up to $50000,a SimuFlite Citation II Corporate Aircraft TrainingScholarship valued at $10500 and two United Air-lines Type Rating Scholarships of $10000 each.

Scholarships in the maintenance categoryinclude an Aircraft Electronics Association Avia-tion Maintenance Scholarship for $1000, an ATPMaintenance Technician of the Year Award of$1000, a Bombardier Challenger Initial Mainte-nance Scholarship valued at $8400 and a SimuFliteMaintenance Scholarship for $3800.

The scholarship application deadline isDecember 10, 1998. For additional information orto request an application, contact Women in Avia-tion International headquarters at 3647 S.R. 503South, West Alexandria, OH 45381 or call(937)839-4647.

Does your flying club or pilot group want to rein-force its emphasis on safety and conduct a profes-sional group meeting? The AOPA Air SafetyFoundation may have your answer in its �Semi-nar-In-A-Box� program.

ASF�s Seminar-in-a-Box provides thematerials and guidance to hold one of ASF�s top-notch safety programs for your pilot group. Ev-ery kit contains video and/or slides, guidance forpresenters, handouts for participants, a free doorprize video to encourage attendance and seminarevaluation forms to gauge success.

An ASF Seminar-in-a-Box is currentlyfree to any bona fide pilot group which will hold asafety meeting or meetings for 50 pilots or more.During this introductory period there is not chargefor seminar materials.

Available seminars include:

Trigger Tape I and Trigger Tape II �Six video scenarios in each program present pilotswith unfolding in-flight problems depicting a chainof evens leading to an accident. Each scenarioends at the final chance to break the accident chain,

AOPA�s Free �Seminar-In-A-Box�triggering discussion by the group on mistakes madeand remedial action needed.

Collision Avoidance and Non-ToweredAirports � Midair collision scenarios are depictedwith slides and video, plus there�s an important re-view on operations at uncontrolled airports.

Airspace Refresher � is a two-part semi-nar that demystifies the new airspace classificationsystem. After the presentation, a seminar workbookallows each group member to �fly� a cross countryflight and apply their knowledge of new airspacerequirements.

Never Again � This gripping seminar rec-reates actual accidents and incidents in an interac-tive video format. Attendees develop their own riskassessment balance sheet. The reenactments allowpilots to learn from the mistakes of others.

For more information call Air SafetyFoundation at (800)638-3101.

Cut Bank Customs Service ResumesThe U.S. Customs Service will resume part-timeservice at the Cut Bank International Airport.

The airport has been without customs ser-vice since it lost its lone customs agent six monthsago. The part-time service will be offered until afull-time customs agent can be hired.

Under an agreement between U.S. Sena-tor Max Baucus and the U.S. Customs Service, anagent will commute from the Sweetgrass station tothe airport in Cut Bank. Services will be provided

between 9 and 11 a.m., Mondays, Wednesdays andFridays.

Incoming international aircraft will be re-quired to give two hours notice in advance of ar-rival in Cut Bank.

Notice can be given by telephone to thePort of Sweetgrass at (406)335-2434, or through theFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) flight noti-fication procedure.

CalendarNovember 17 � Fixed-Base Operator andAir Service Access Teleconference, Departmentof Transportation, Helena.

February 5 - 6, 1999 - Flight InstructorRefresher Clinic, Helena.

February 25 - 27, 1999 - Montana

Aviation Conference, Copper King Inn, Butte.

Big Sky AirlinesAnnouncesExpansion

Big Sky Airlines, a regional passenger airline withprincipal place of business in Billings has been se-lected by the U.S. Department of Transportation toprovide Essential Air Service (EAS) operations inthe south-central United States. The DOT selectionorder was docketed on October 8. The selectionorder provides that Big Sky shall take over EASoperations to eight communities in three states:Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Big Sky is to serveas an emergency replacement carrier for AspenMountain Air, which has been providing these ser-vices.

The communities to be served in Arkan-sas are Hot Springs, Mountain Home, Jonesboro,Harrison and El Dorado; in Texas, Brownswood;and in Oklahoma, Enid and Ponca City. Servicehubs will be Dallas, TX and St. Louis, MO. Ser-vices will be phased in by Big Sky over the nextsixty days. Aspen Mountain Air is required by theDOT to continue providing service to the affectedcommunities until Big Sky�s services begin.

Big Sky projects that by December 1,1998, it will be operating a fleet of thirteenMetroliner III Aircarft to twenty-four communitiesin seven states. Big Sky�s employment will increasefrom 105 to approximately 185 persons. Ten of thenew employees to be hired are expected to be sta-tioned in Billings, increasing Big Sky�s Montanabased personnel to approximately 115 persons. BigSky hopes to employ displaced personnel from As-pen Mountain Air to fill positions needed for opera-tions in the south-central United States. Under theselection order Big Sky Airlines shall received anannual subsidy of $6.3 million for the new servicesthrough November 1999.

Best of luck to Kim Champney, President,Craig Denney, Executive Vice President and BigSky Airlines as it begins this new venture.

3

Antique Aircraft Fly-InThere were enough 1930�s and �40�s era airplanesin the sky over Three Forks to make aviation enthu-siasts drool. For many years the Montana AntiqueAirplane Association has been gathering at ThreeForks Progreba Field for their annual get-togetherand this years fly-in proved to be the best ever.

The community went all out to make avia-tors feel welcome and more than 200 aircraft attendedthe aviation gathering.

Several new events were added this yearincluding flight classes for youth ages 8 thru 17 withparticipation from the Montana Aeronautics Divi-sion and the Ninety Nines, an organization of womanpilots. Sponsoring the flight classes was the ThreeForks Flying Club.

Over 30 antique engines dating from 1908to 1932 were shown by the Roberts Jones family attheir residence in Three Forks. All the engines havebeen collected in Montana and were operatedthroughout the day.

The volunteer firemen served breakfastand local restaurants provided lunch and dinner alongwith snacks.

The Chamber of Commerce membersmanned a hospitality area at the airport.Complimenting the antique airplanes and engineswas a display of vintage automobiles.

The aviation gathering is not limited toantiques and a number of modern, experimental,military, homebuilts, and ultra-lights were in ThreeForks, many on their way home from the world�slargest fly-in in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Patty Bass, Frank Bass, a willing volunteer andWanda Rickman have fun giving away the manydoor prizes that were donated for the event. Atright, folks enjoy some shade and �hangar talk�under the wing of Alan Drain and Steve Kleimer�sCessna 180.

Allen Rickman, President of MAAA, awards VernUlrich with the prestigious award of being the old-est pilot attending the event. At right, the crowdwatches as many attendees performed �fly-bys �inundating the skies over Three Forks in their vin-tage aircraft.

4

Search and Rescue MeetingThe Western International Search and Rescue Advisory Committee or WISARAC annual meeting washeld in Banff, Alberta, Canada on September 21 and22.

WISARAC was founded in 1978 by the states of Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Itwas set up to facilitate the exchange of information, techniques and resource lists between the agenciesresponsible for air search and rescue. WISARAC was then expanded to include Alberta, British Colum-bia and representatives from the military SAR community.

Represented at this years WISARAC were Montana Aeronautics, Civil Air Patrol, the Thir-teenth Coast Guard District, NAS Whidby Island, Canadian Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Centre,Langley Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, Disaster Services Branch Alberta Transportation & Utili-ties and Civil Air Rescue Emergency Services.

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Donna Sartain, CAP Montana Wing Administrator; Lyle Sartain, MT Aeronautics District Coordina-tor; Jeanne Lesnik, MT Aeronautics Bureau Chief Safety & Education; Joe Kilminster, CAP MT WingOperations; Captain Bill Peterson, Chief, Coast Guard Search and Rescue; Lt Reed Bernhard, SAROfficer Whidby Island; Harold Blalock, Msgt. Retired USAF; Lt Col Peter Graf, AFRCC and JerryMulder, Director, CARES.

Peter Dalton, Chief of Ship Radio Inspection, Ca-nadian Coast Guard demonstrates the 406 MHzEmergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon(EPIRBs) testing equipment which consists of atesting valued at $1600 CND and made with anickel copper alloy cloth. The test receiver costs$6000 CND and determines if the 406 code is trans-mitting.

ELT Found in Bozeman DumpOn September 30th at 0410 MDT, Clayton Wilhelm on duty SAR person from Montana Aeronauticsreceived a call from the AFRCC concerning an ELT which plotted out east of Belgrade, MT. The ELT onlater satellite passes went negative and the incident was closed.

At 10:20 MDT, Jeanne Lesnik, Montana Aeronautics was called by AFRCC about an ELT at45.45�7� North, 111. 00�7� West. The ELT was again plotting out east of Belgrade. Jeanne Lesnik calledthe FBOs at Gallatin Field and airstrips in the Gallatin Valley. Linda Marshall SAR Coordinator forDistrict # 11, took direction finding equipment out to track the ELT signal.

Mike Kreikemeier was one of the local airstrip owners called. Mike flew his aircraft and homedin on the ELT signal and reported the signal strongest at the city dump and Wal-Mart of Bozeman. BudHall and Leonard Heydon flew with direction finding equipment and worked with Mike Kreikemeier whoat this time was on the ground homing to the ELT signal and communicating to Bud Hall. The teamworked along with the sanitation engineer at the Bozeman dump who had a backhoe and unearthed theELT along with aircraft parts.

Pictured above is Colt Ferguson�s 1st Place Entry in Cat-egory I of the 1998 Montana Aviation Awareness Art Con-test. Colt is a student at Nashua Elementary.

( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( Truths in AviationIt�s better to be down here wishing you were upthere, than to be up there wishing you were downhere.

An airplane will probably fly a little bit over gross,but it won�t fly without fuel.

Speed is life; altitude is life insurance.

Never let an airplane take you somewhere your braindidn�t get to five minutes earlier.

Too many pilots are found in the wreckage withtheir hands around a microphone. Don�t drop theaircraft in order to fly the microphone.

An airplane flies because of a principle discoveredby Bernoulli, not Marconi.

Fly it until the last piece stops moving.

No one has ever collided with the sky.

Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increaseheadwinds.

A thunderstorm is natures way of saying �Up yours.�

Keep looking around, there�s always something youmissed.

Remember, you�re always a student in an airplane.

Big Sky Airlines Celebrates 20 Years!

Big Sky Airlines of Billings celebrated 20 years ofbusiness last month. Big Sky provides essential airservice to seven Montana communities. In addi-tion, Big Sky serves five other Montana cities andoffers direct service linking Billings and Great Fallswith Spokane, WA.

Last year, Big Sky completed a majormodernization and expansion of its aircraft fleet andconversion to FAR part 121 operating regulations.Big Sky operates a fleet of Metro III aircraft.

The Governor�s Essential Air Service TaskForce and the Board of Directors of Big Sky Air-lines conducted separate business meetings and thetwo groups joined together for an informal luncheonmeeting prior to the evening celebration.

Governor Marc Racicot was in attendanceto give the keynote address at the banquet. Alsorepresented were Montana�s three congressionaloffices each offering congratulations to Big SkyAirlines for a job well done and successful 20 yearsof conducting business in Montana.

Delight Michelle Scheck, Miss Montana 1999 ofBillings and Roosevelt County Commissioner LeeMatejovsky of Wolf Point enjoy the festivities.

John Rabenberg, Chairman of the Governor�s Es-sential Air Service Task Force and SharonPeterson of Senator Max Baucus� office have seenmany tribulations and successes since airline de-regulation. Montana is very fortunate to have suchavid essential air service support from its congres-sional offices.

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Mountain Search Pilot ClinicMountain Flying Safety Rule quoted from SparkyImeson�s new Mountain Flying Bible and Flight Op-erations Handbook, �Never maneuver the airplaneinto a position where it has the opportunity tocrash,� which translates into basic premise #1�Always remain in a position where you can turn tolowering terrain� and Sparky�s premise #2 �do notfly beyond the point of no return.�

This year was Montana Aeronautics 20th

Annual Mountain Search Pilot Clinic. Thank you tothe quality instructors that instruct at the clinic andmake this a first rate program.

The 1998 Mountain flying search flightinstructors: Fred Hasskamp, Wayne Turner, BillWerner, Stan Read, Sparky Imeson and JeanneLesnik.

Emergency Locator Transmitter Instruc-tors: Will Mavis, Hugh Wilkins and Lyle Sartain

Survival Instructors: Chuck Thout andMark Reis

Other presentations included: Jim Cooney,FAA with the FAA Wings Program, Lt. Col. PeterGraf presented The Air Force Rescue CoordinationCenter and the SARSAT System, Sparky Imesonwith Mountain Flying, Jeanne Lesnik with the Ob-server Program and Chuck Thout with Surviving theoff field landing.

A big thank you to all of you who eachyear devote your time to the Mountain Search PilotClinic. Kudos to Patty Kautz and Clayton and DonnaWilhelm who put in many long hours to make theMSPC happen.

1998 Mountain Search Pilot Clinic Participants:Lori Smith, Bob Davis, Ron Trippet, Lee Davis,Kelly Gebhardt, Jim Garrison, Kristi Schmidt, PerryBrown, Larry Ashcraft, Rowland Adkins, T.J.Reynolds, Jim Steffeck, John Patten, Ted Kopp,Greg Lee, Gary Hallenberg, John Seeland, JeffWash, Warren Wash, Jim Folston, Dave Falmand,Brad Tomsheck, Dan Todd, T.S. McIntyre, PaulSebesta, Elaine Yelverton, Darrin Lynch, JoeLynch, Brad Koch and Steve Yates.

ATTENTION: a coat and hat were left in theNational Guard Armory, if any of this year�s par-ticipants are missing a coat or a hat please call

Montana Aeronautics at 444-2506.

7

Lyle Sartain and Will Mavis demonstrating thedirection finding capabilities to John Patten. Be-low, Joe Lynch and Darrin Lynch return from agood afternoon flight with Sparky Imeson.

Sparky Imeson, Mountain Flying Instructor,marks the airport obstructions (gopher holes)at the Meadow Creek Airstrip. Below survival

school is conducted on the Flathead River.

Pilots fill the Outlaw Inn in Kalispell for Moun-tain Search Pilot Clinic ground school.

Clayton Wilhelm of Helena first flew his RV-4 August 11, 1998. It took 11 years to build and couldn�twait for paint. It has a 150 HP Lycoming engine. Clayton says, �it is a sweetheart to fly, first flightgave no surprises�.a real honest airplane!�

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

Congratulations Clayton! Thank YouI would like to take this opportunity to publicly thankall the pilots from the Cut Bank Hangar that helpedme out of a real tough situation in the back country.What could have ended up an even worse scenario,does have a silver lining�.Maggis is alive and wellwith much thanks to all of you!! I will leave thestory for you to tell. Thank you again.

Lora BeckBear Creek Outfitters, Inc.

The Department of Transportation attemptsto provide reasonable accomodations for anyknown disability that may interfere with a per-son participating in any service, program oractivity of the Department. Alternative ac-cessible formats of this document will be pro-vided upon request. For further informationcall 406-444-2506 or TDD 406-444-7696.

Twenty nine hundred copies of this publicdocument were produced at an estimatedcost of 39 cents each, for a total cost of$1,123. This includes $120 for production,$783 for postage and $220 for printing.

PO Box 5178Helena, Montana 59604-5178

Bulk RatePostage Paid at

Helena, MT 59620Permit No. 141

OCTOBER 1998