July 2018

314 315 of your size, we still can’t justify that.’ So if we want this to happen, we’re going to have to come up with other funding sources, in addition to what PennDOT may be willing to provide for us.” Hudson’s wish list also includes the addition of virtual air traffic control capability. “Right now, there are some safety concerns because we are a non-tower airport,” he laments. “If we were able to get a virtual tower here that would make things run a lot more smoothly where safety is concerned.” He believes that the Federal Aviation Administration would probably pay the bulk of the costs, but the hang-up is that the technology is still in the testing phase. “A facility of that type is being tested now at Leesburg Airport, in Leesburg, Va.,” Hudson re- ports. “It’s my understanding that the first phase went very well and now they’re going to Phase Two.We’re probably talking two-and-a-half to three years before the FAA approves something like that. The cost of that would be much cheap- er than us actually building a control tower and staffing it, so it’s a win-win for everybody.” reports that the Airport received a Department of Community and Economic Development grant from the state for the construction of a new corporate hangar and a new corporate apron. The grant requires a 50-50 match by the recipient, so the $337,000 received for the apron will cover half the cost. A grant of $515,000 was received for the new corporate hangar. “I’ve passed that information on to the board,” says Hudson. “The board always meets the first Tuesday of the month, so I put it on the agenda. From there, we’re going to come up with a game plan or at least begin discussions on a game plan for how we want to proceed with those two projects.” Peering into the future, Hudson hopes that money can also be found to finance the reloca- tion and extension of the airport’s runway - it’s 5,400 feet long and they want to extend it to 6,100 feet, which will require shifting the run- way’s path 400 feet to the south to improve the separation between it, the taxiway, and airplanes parked on the apron. “That’s our long term plan,” he says. “The prob- lem is trying to get funding for it.We did a run- way feasibility-justification study in 2011 and, at the time, the price was going to be about $73 million.What happened is PennDOT (Pennsyl- vania Department of Transportation) came to us said, ‘Look, we can’t justify paying that kind of money for that project, but if you could shave off $20 million, it would probably be justifiable.’ Our engineering firm did an excellent job shaving costs and we got it down to about $52 million. PennDOT came back and said, ‘You guys did ex- actly what we told you to do, but for a GA airport PREFERRED VENDOR n Signature Flight Support www.signatureflight.com Signature Flight Support, a BBA Aviation plc company, is the world’s largest fixed-base operation (FBO) and distri- bution network for business aviation services. Signature services include fueling, hangar and office rentals, ground handling, maintenance and a wide range of crew and passenger amenities at strategic domestic and internation- al locations. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Signature currently operates at more than 200 locations in the Unit- ed States, Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. THE CHESTER COUNTY G.O. CARLSON AIRPORT