“The students get to build an aircraft and then it gets to fly and this is huge. At the end of the year all the students sign the plane and they auction the plane off and sell it and the proceeds pay for the plane kit for the next year,” Brown explains. A program such as this, Brown points out, goes a long way to peak the internet in younger kids to explore the aviation world which is needed right now with the ongoing workforce challenges facing the industry. “You hear about pilot shortages however we would like to see more of the aviation mechanic side of this and this requires vocational training which is a big aspect,” Brown determines. UPGRADES TAKING OFF Beyond the need to fill aviation positions, Brown speaks to vital airport upgrades that are landing general aviation traffic safely and efficiently at Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport. “We have a project right now that is underway that represents a maintenance project that involves remarking all of our runways. We have precision markings that show different touchdown points and the numbers of the heading of the runway and all of those are getting re-marked which we are looking at pretty soon in the next couple of months.” “The first major capital improvement project is going to be designed as well, which will help to open up 70 acres. It is going to involve adding a parallel taxiway to gain direct access from that development area and it is going to realign some of the taxiways that had been added when the airport was built.” “We have been looking at the layout and realigning some of the taxiways. It will help with safety and also capacity; being able to land an aircraft and get off the runway surface onto a taxiway to its parking destination as efficiently as possible.” “The actual construction is to start soon after the completion of the engineering,” he adds. GATEWAY TO THE REGION Although Montgomery owns Conroe-North Houston 128 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 11
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