Save Our Airport

Keeping his head in the clouds; Airport manager Bob Michalchuk plans to keep flying after he retires Monday
Posted By Heather Ibbotson
http://www.theexpositor.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=963941&auth=Heather+Ibbotson
Posted 4 days ago

As a youngster, Bob Michalchuk was fascinated by aircraft. Unlike most children, he never outgrew it.

After a career spanning nearly 40 years, Michalchuk is retiring on Monday from his long held post as manager of the Brantford Municipal Airport.

But the 64-year-old won’t feel grounded for long. The next day, he’ll be piloting a charter trip to North Bay, he said in an interview this week.

Michalchuk was born in Brantford and raised in the Norwich and Burford areas.

He earned his private pilot licence in 1965 and joined the Brantford Flying Club as an instructor in 1968. He also worked as a crop sprayer over Norfolk County tobacco fields.

Michalchuk joked that while working as a flight instructor, he was “hijacked” into becoming airport manager after the former manager left for Winnipeg to run a flight school.

“They were looking for someone to fill his shoes. The next thing I know, I turn around and it’s been nearly 40 years,” he said.

With instructing, piloting charter flights and recreational flying, Michalchuk has clocked 13,000 hours of flight time, including 8,000 hours of instructing. Put another way, he has spent 18 solid months, night and day, in the air.

As manager, Michalchuk was also required to know how to stay grounded.

He has overseen notable events and met fascinating people who set foot on the municipal tarmac.

Most memorable was the visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984. She arrived by plane from Windsor to visit the Mohawk Chapel.

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The monarch’s visit was months in the making, Michalchuk said. Of concern to military transport personnel who co-ordinated aspects of the visit was the 4,000-foot length of the airport’s main runway. It was considered too short and so was extended to 5,000 feet.

Security was impressive. Michalchuk recalls men carrying mysterious black attach‚ cases and military security snipers on the rooftops of airport buildings.Other notables have included prime ministers, premiers, Wayne Gretzky and family, Rob Blake, the Snowbirds and the SkyHawks parachute team.

Actor Gene Hackman flew in to shoot scenes for the 2004 comedy Welcome to Mooseport. Similarly, Kevin Bacon was here for scenes shot for the 2005 drama Where the Truth Lies.

While visits from a reigning monarch, an occasional celebrity and the annual United Way airshows are thrilling, most of Michalchuk’s days involved ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the airport.

Business opportunities for the city got a boost with a longer runway that allowed more corporate users to use the airport, Michalchuk said.

He is pleased with city plans for a $1.9-million runway reconstruction project.

“The city neglected us for a number of years,” he said, adding that a renewed commitment to the airport sends a message that Brantford is open for business.

Michalchuk is proud of the airport’s safety record. No fatal accidents have occurred on the airfield during his tenure, although there have been fatal crashes of small aircraft in nearby countryside over the years.

In 1968, before Michalchuk took over, an airshow accident claimed the life of a pilot during a simulated dogfight with another aircraft. The pilot looped too low and crashed, he said.

lucky landing

He also recalls an unorthodox but successful landing of a small plane that did not make the airport runway but made an emergency landing on nearby Highway 53 where it “slid into a snowbank,” Michalchuk said.

Luckily, the pilot’s only injury was a cut over one eye, he said.

“We’ve got a good safety record. I’m pleased nothing serious has happened.”

Changes in technology over the past 40 years, especially from ground-based to satellite navigation, have been tremendous, Michalchuk said.

“When I started flying in 1964, a radio was a real luxury in an airplane and if it worked that was even better,” he joked.

Michalchuk’s plan for retirement is not to make any plans, he said. He will continue working as a part-time flight instructor and conduct flight tests - the final “driver’s test” for would-be pilots.

“This has been a good place to come to work,” he said.

Help pay for airport, city urges county
Posted By John Paul Zronik
http://www.theexpositor.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=919153&auth=John+Paul+Zronik

City Coun. Greg Martin says it’s about time Brant County paid its fair share of expenses toward the upkeep of Brantford Municipal Airport.

“We’re not getting any funding from the county even though they enjoy the benefits of having the airport in the community,” Martin said Tuesday. “They haven’t done anything except collect taxes. It would be nice if they kicked in.”

During a presentation to county council last week, Martin requested the county provide $600,000 in funding for airport capital projects during the next two years. Half of the money would be paid this year and the remainder in 2009.

The county funds would be in addition to $1.97 million the city has agreed to pay for capital upgrades at the airport this year.

“It’s a very reasonable request,” Martin said. “There’s businesses in the county that use the airport.”

County politicians will consider the funding request at a corporate development committee meeting next month.

Operating the Brantford Municipal Airport is a city responsibility, but the facility is located within the borders of Brant County. Because of its location, Martin said any municipal taxes paid on the airport property go into county coffers.

Martin said the county’s $600,000 would be used to construct new T-hangars, the aviation equivalent of single-car garages, which are needed because the airport is running out of space to house airplanes. The city’s $1.97 million will pay for runway improvements.

About 15 years ago, federal grants that helped pay for airport operations stopped flowing and the city was left to contribute capital to keep the facility running. Martin said Brantford has contributed as much as $90,000 a year to keep the airport open in recent years and the county has contributed nothing.

“Once the federal grants dried up, the airport was no longer able to sustain itself,” he said.

If the county does decide to provide funding, Martin said a name change for the airport may be considered, from the current Brantford Municipal Airport to the Brantford and District Regional Airport.

Cleared for takeoff; $1.9 million to be spent on airport runway reconstruction
Posted By Michael-Allan Marion and Vincent Ball
Updated 1 hour ago
http://www.theexpositor.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=851401

Brantford Municipal Airport manger Bob Michalchuk is flying high after city councillors cleared the way for $1.9-million in runway improvements.

“It’s wonderful news and we’re feeling really happy to be able to move ahead,” Michalchuk said Thursday of council’s unanimous support the evening before to include runway renewal project in this year’s list of public works projects.

“I’m really, really pleased that it was unanimous. We’d heard that there could be some opposition, which would not have been surprising because a lot of money is involved. But having everyone vote for it sends a big signal.

“We’ve proved to council and the community that the airport is an important component in the area’s transportation network.”

Plans call for reconstruction of the airport’s main runway and a secondary one.

The unanimity of the vote stems partly from Coun. Greg Martin’s persistent lobbying of colleagues from his position as chairman of both the finance and estimates committees.

“I was confident that it would win, but I was surprised that it was a unanimous vote because some I spoke to would not give a definite answer when I was lobbying them,” said Martin.

big turnout

He said the ability of airport supporters to get about 500 people to a public meeting on the future of the facility when it was up for a service review last year probably influenced many councillors.

“Obviously, the message that we had to show a strong commitment to improving the airport resonated enough that all councillors could support it.”

Local flyers are delighted.

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“I just spoke to a couple of people from the flying club and they’re ecstatic,” Dr. Lee Deimling, chairman of the airport commission, said Thursday.

“I think it’s fantastic news because those runways were almost to the point where they were unusable.”

A recent report rated one of the runways as being fair to poor, while the other was on the verge of becoming unusable.

One of the runways hasn’t been repaved since 1941.

Airport officials were also receiving complaints from corporations who said the landing gear of their planes is being harmed by the poor condition of the runways.

The Department of National Defence recently sent airport officials a letter highlighting concerns with one of the runways.

The airport is the site of the annual Brant United Way Air Show, a huge event featuring the Snowbirds that attracts thousands of people. Although no one from the Canadian Forces said the Snowbirds would not appear at the show unless the runways were repaired, local officials cited the letter as another reason to back plans to upgrade the runways.

“That letter really makes you think,” said Martin. “The military will tell us they’re not coming to the airport because of the shape of the runways, but how many corporate executives don’t tell us that? How many investment opportunities are we losing that we don’t know of, because corporate fliers don’t like the state of a runway?” Michalchuk said winning more corporate clientele is the way of the future for the Brantford airport

“If you want to get the corporate aircraft flying in, you have to make them comfortable with the facility,” he said.

“A lot of people don’t see the corporate aircraft coming and going, because they think mostly of small aircraft. We’re trying to build a better image for the city. The airport is the corporate front door.” The airport runways allocation is expected to receive final approval when the 2008 operating and capital budgets come before council later this month.

That allocation is part of a total capital works plan of about $3.1 million. The other $1.2 million is for upgrades to ramp areas.

Martin says he’s already working on gaining support for that project.