Philosopher Camus wrote “Always go too far, because that’s where you will find the truth. “
Airport Advisory Board April 3, 2018
Airport Usage Report –
Tim Parish
2018 – 2017
Private Planes 39 38
Commercial 38 44
Medical 19 20
Government 31 32
Enplanements 334 316
Update on Ely Air Races to be held on June 13-16, 2018 & Community Committee- Lance Gale
Gale handed out a preliminary schedule of events .
“I have Tuesday in there and that is incorrect our balloon rides will start on Wednesday morning. We will have two balloons tethered from 5:30 to 8:00 am.
At 8 a.m. every morning we will have the High School Choir out here to do the National Anthem and we will honor a Veteran from each Military Branch.
We really needed to simplify everything to make sure we get into our waiver. We did have other things we had planned but being it was our very first event we needed to simplify it down a little bit. We will have T6 planes and other aircraft here on display, the Commemorative Air Force will be here with their planes.
There are 16 planes coming here to race. We will have an opening ceremony the first day and there will be several dignitaries here. The Governor or a member of his office will be here. Senator Heller will have someone here to represent him.
The gliders will be operational and without being part of the event they will become part of the event. Instead of a few people to watch them take off, there maybe thousands.
The pylons have been shot in with the helps of Lloyd Phillips and with Basin Engineering. There will be 7 total pylons, the ones next to the runways will have to come out after each race. We have to close the airport set up the pylons, do the race, remove the pylons, and open the airport. This is all to do with the waivers we have.
The smokejumpers are going to jump, they have to stay above 1000 feet to jump down into this area. That is part of the waiver process.
The Rodders will be here with the display of their cars. On the final day the Steptoe trap shoot will have shooting out here for anyone who would like to go out and trap shoot. The trap shooting will be available all week for anyone interested.
The NRA will have a banquet for anyone who is interested on Saturday evening at the Convention Center.
Thursday there will be the Ely Ghost Train ride, this will take everyone for a ride and back to the Renaissance Village and then there is an opening Barbecue at Broadbent Park. On Friday the Rotary Golf Tournament and Barbecue.
This is kind of a simplified schedule.”
“This is our logo that has been voted on. Will be printed professionally soon. “
The Navy hanger area will be for the pit pass area. People having pit passes must remember they have to leave the area whenever the planes are ready to take off or land.
As far as the groundwork at the airport Lloyd Phillips is putting in all the roads and berms that are needed. The equipment was lent to us by Wheeler Machinery. This donation is valued at about $7,000.
The ticket sales should go online this next week with e- tickets.
Tickets are less if ordered in advance online.
There will also be booths setup at the entrances to buy your tickets as you come in. There will be wristbands to indicate that you have paid for a ticket.
June 2nd at 9 a.m. will be Air Race clean-up day. We will have volunteers come and clean up the airport. We have NDF coming to clean up a lot of this.
Volunteers, we are going to have about 350 volunteers, we figure anywhere from 70 to 90 volunteers each day. We have a Committee Member who is in charge, they will schedule for each day. One of the coolest things to do as a volunteer is to be a pylon judge. We will have two volunteer at each pylon to make sure the planes don’t cut the pylon. So there will be 12 different opportunities to be a pylon judge. It only lasts for 20 or 30 minutes so it’s not long, but you can see the rivets when they fly by. We are going to hold a volunteer night, within the next 40 days, so we can get volunteers and also get them trained.
We have already contracted with the EMS, so we will have the EMS here in case of any emergency. There will be on call EMS at the EOC building. We will actually have people walking around through the crowds who are EMTs.
Lloyd Phillips went over a map of the area indicating where every function will be. Lloyd has also been on a skip loader moving gravel to ensure the safety of everyone who is attending the event. The statement was made that accidents happen when you’re impaired or your backing up. All parking spots will be drive thru eliminating the possibility of the backing up accidents.
NDOT will be putting up signage indicating event ahead. The sides of 93 will have one mile of cones, preventing people from pulling off to the side of the road to watch the event, 485 cones will be used.
Geri Wop
