Vintage Airplane Rides Planned At Warsaw Airport In August
March 15, 2017 at 6:22 p.m.
By David [email protected]
At the Board of Aviation Commissioners Tuesday afternoon, Airport Manager Nick King said he’s been working with the Waldo Wright Flying Service.
“They were here for the airshows that we had. They gave biplane rides in their 1923 de Haviland D4 New Standard. It’s one of eight of this particular type of aircraft that are still flying, so it’s pretty cool,” King said.
Waldo Wright gives airplane rides to as many as four people at a time. It’s open cockpit and a lot of fun, he said.
“They are proposing to come down the weekend of August 4 and 5, a Friday night, Saturday morning. And the reason they’re coming down Friday night is so they can hopefully hit up First Friday downtown, set up a booth, and get some rides so people can even come out Friday night and start all of that up,” King said.
Along with that, Waldo Wright is partnering with Nostalgic Flights for a North American T-6, which is a World War II trainer aircraft that also will be giving rides.
“It is a different group than what was here for the airshow, but we did have a T-6 here during the airshow, so that was a lot of fun,” King said.
While it won’t be an airshow, he said he hoped to have a “deviation type day on Saturday to promote the airport and kind of explain to the public what it is that we do out here. So we’ll start with the airplane rides from here and see where we can go as the summer moves along.”
According to a provided flyer, rides in the 1929 New Standard D-25 are $75 per passenger. Rides in the 1943 North American T-6 are $250 for 15 minutes and $415 for 30 minutes.
Information on Waldo Wrights can be found online at www.waldowrights.com, and Nostalgic Flights has a website at www.nostalgicflights.com.
King also told the board that he is trading in two lawnmowers, one in its 17th season of service and one that is 10 years old. Maintenance to the older mower, a Toro, is exceeding its worth every year. The other one, a John Deere, isn’t as bad, but King said he wants to trade it in to get as much value for it as possible.
He said he’s been working with a few different companies in town. After he and his staff tested several different lawnmowers, everyone liked the Toros.
“That total would be $15,918 for the two mowers, including the trade-in. The total cost of the mowers if we weren’t trading anything in would be $22,918. So it’s my recommendation that we do purchase these two mowers,”?he said.
Since the amount was under the threshold required for board action, King said he was just informing the board of what he was going to do.
In the last bit of business, Board President Jay Rigdon said he noticed sections of fencing along the county road to the south of the airport “are starting to look a little bit raggedy and beat up. I didn’t know if you paid any attention to that, if you had a review process set up to review the fence. Obviously, we’re not looking to get bells and whistles on it to make it look too pretty; on the other hand, it gives a bad impression if it looks too banged up.”
King replied, “We are working on that. That is not something that’s gone unnoticed. Right now the issue is, if we were to replace – we can repair the fence that we have, but if we were to replace large sections, they (Federal Aviation Administration) would want us to go to what the new standards are for an airport our size, and that is quite cost prohibitive.”
He said the FAA would want the fence to go from 6 feet to 10 feet in height, and the cost involved with that would be quite a lot. He said he does know that are some repairs that are needed at that end of the airport from some trees and bushes that were killed by “the train company when they go through and spray, they took out a few of our fences, and we’re working through that process of who is going to cover what.”
Rigdon asked, “Why in God’s name do they care how high the fence is?”
“Depending on what type of aircraft you have, flying out of your airport, and the size of the aircraft will determine what height of fence you have,” King said.
“Whatever it is, you want it above 10 feet, don’t you?” Rigdon asked.
“I would think,” King said. “They have their standards for different classes of airports and different sizes of airports.”
He said the 6-foot fence is good for about everything the Warsaw Airport has except for young whitetail bucks. He said three to six bucks every summer find their way into the airport but don’t have the energy to get out again.
“So chasing them out has always been a fun afternoon project for myself and the guys because it takes two to three people to wrangle them around,” King said.
Eventually, after some other projects are completed, the fencing is an issue he wants to address. It would not be an FAA matching grant project, but an Indiana Department of Transportation one.
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At the Board of Aviation Commissioners Tuesday afternoon, Airport Manager Nick King said he’s been working with the Waldo Wright Flying Service.
“They were here for the airshows that we had. They gave biplane rides in their 1923 de Haviland D4 New Standard. It’s one of eight of this particular type of aircraft that are still flying, so it’s pretty cool,” King said.
Waldo Wright gives airplane rides to as many as four people at a time. It’s open cockpit and a lot of fun, he said.
“They are proposing to come down the weekend of August 4 and 5, a Friday night, Saturday morning. And the reason they’re coming down Friday night is so they can hopefully hit up First Friday downtown, set up a booth, and get some rides so people can even come out Friday night and start all of that up,” King said.
Along with that, Waldo Wright is partnering with Nostalgic Flights for a North American T-6, which is a World War II trainer aircraft that also will be giving rides.
“It is a different group than what was here for the airshow, but we did have a T-6 here during the airshow, so that was a lot of fun,” King said.
While it won’t be an airshow, he said he hoped to have a “deviation type day on Saturday to promote the airport and kind of explain to the public what it is that we do out here. So we’ll start with the airplane rides from here and see where we can go as the summer moves along.”
According to a provided flyer, rides in the 1929 New Standard D-25 are $75 per passenger. Rides in the 1943 North American T-6 are $250 for 15 minutes and $415 for 30 minutes.
Information on Waldo Wrights can be found online at www.waldowrights.com, and Nostalgic Flights has a website at www.nostalgicflights.com.
King also told the board that he is trading in two lawnmowers, one in its 17th season of service and one that is 10 years old. Maintenance to the older mower, a Toro, is exceeding its worth every year. The other one, a John Deere, isn’t as bad, but King said he wants to trade it in to get as much value for it as possible.
He said he’s been working with a few different companies in town. After he and his staff tested several different lawnmowers, everyone liked the Toros.
“That total would be $15,918 for the two mowers, including the trade-in. The total cost of the mowers if we weren’t trading anything in would be $22,918. So it’s my recommendation that we do purchase these two mowers,”?he said.
Since the amount was under the threshold required for board action, King said he was just informing the board of what he was going to do.
In the last bit of business, Board President Jay Rigdon said he noticed sections of fencing along the county road to the south of the airport “are starting to look a little bit raggedy and beat up. I didn’t know if you paid any attention to that, if you had a review process set up to review the fence. Obviously, we’re not looking to get bells and whistles on it to make it look too pretty; on the other hand, it gives a bad impression if it looks too banged up.”
King replied, “We are working on that. That is not something that’s gone unnoticed. Right now the issue is, if we were to replace – we can repair the fence that we have, but if we were to replace large sections, they (Federal Aviation Administration) would want us to go to what the new standards are for an airport our size, and that is quite cost prohibitive.”
He said the FAA would want the fence to go from 6 feet to 10 feet in height, and the cost involved with that would be quite a lot. He said he does know that are some repairs that are needed at that end of the airport from some trees and bushes that were killed by “the train company when they go through and spray, they took out a few of our fences, and we’re working through that process of who is going to cover what.”
Rigdon asked, “Why in God’s name do they care how high the fence is?”
“Depending on what type of aircraft you have, flying out of your airport, and the size of the aircraft will determine what height of fence you have,” King said.
“Whatever it is, you want it above 10 feet, don’t you?” Rigdon asked.
“I would think,” King said. “They have their standards for different classes of airports and different sizes of airports.”
He said the 6-foot fence is good for about everything the Warsaw Airport has except for young whitetail bucks. He said three to six bucks every summer find their way into the airport but don’t have the energy to get out again.
“So chasing them out has always been a fun afternoon project for myself and the guys because it takes two to three people to wrangle them around,” King said.
Eventually, after some other projects are completed, the fencing is an issue he wants to address. It would not be an FAA matching grant project, but an Indiana Department of Transportation one.
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