Business View Magazine | Volume 9, Issue 3

226 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 ramping up this summer.” BVM: Describe Marshall University’s importance to the airport. Keller: “We were able to complete the construction of the classroom building, the apron, and the hangar within 363 days with a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. It came in at $400,000 higher than the grant and we were fortunate that the Kanawha County Commission provided a grant for the remaining funds. The ribbon cutting was on August 10th, 2021 and Marshall welcomed its first class of about 20 students in August. They have three Cirrus SR20s in their fleet and will be taking delivery of a twin-engine Piper Seminole any day. Using these four aircraft, students will be able to attend full time and earn a bachelor’s degree as pilots – it’s great for us, and is also playing a role in helping to reduce the pilot shortage. We are happy to be partnered up with Marshall University on this as to make it even stronger in that we received authorization from the Defence Logistics Agency to start doing hot refueling, or rapid refueling. Hot refueling is when the engines of the aircraft are still running; the rotors of a helicopter or an osprey are still turning while refueling. Outside of the military, there are only three civilian airfields east of the Mississippi River that can do hot refueling. It requires extensive training and a lot of equipment – but you can see the advantage to the military. They don’t have to shut the engines down like at other airports. There is always a risk, whenever you shut down, of a mechanical issue or that the aircraft may not restart and then they are stranded far from their home base. “The other advantage to hot fueling is the turnaround. Military aircraft can land, refuel and be on their way in about 20 minutes, versus what could be over an hour if they must shut down and restart. This certification is going to attract a lot more military traffic, which will begin RPORT