PAGE FOUR
THE PIEDMONITOR
MARCH, 1959
Station to Station
BLUEFIELD—Marvin Dillon
WORLD WIDE TRAVEL
SHOW . . . Bluefield Automo
bile Club was host to the “World
Wide Travel Show” held on Feb.
17-18 at the Bluefield Auditor
ium. Usin^ the theme “Gateway
to the World of . . . Travel,” the
Motor Club sponsored the show
in order to introduce the public
to its World Wide Travel Serv
ice.
The beautifully decorated
auditorium was jam-packed with
30 exhibits representing domestic
and international steamship and
airline companies and tourist
commissions from several states.
Piedmont had an attractive booth
(■picture at right) manned by
Messrs. W. G. McGee, General
Sales Manager, Robert Miller,
Roanoke District Sales Manager,
and Mr. Ted Arnold, Station
Manager.
WASHINGTON—John Simmons
November 1958, Piedmont
moved to its new quarters in the
north concourse of the sprawling
terminal here. Prior to this time,
our operation here was handled
jointly by Piedmont and Al-
leghen'^ Airlines. Our hats off to
Allegheny for the fine job they
did for us, not forgetting the
restricted circumstances under
which we operated.
RICHMOND—E. R. Sanders
Things in Richmond have been
very quiet through the winter.
However, we have several new
people to liven things up: David
McGregory from Winston-Salem,
Pat Rendwick from St. Louis, and
Buaciy Kobinsoii who iransferred
from Lynchburg. Also, D. K.
MacPherson is back with us.
An important new addition has
taken place - one of the run
ways has been extended from
5,000 feet to 8,000 feet.
Cases
NEW SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED
NITE SERVICE TO BLF INCLUDED
The new flight schedule to be
come effective April 26, has been
released and included several
important changes.
Perhaps most outstanding is
the approval of the FA A of
night service to the Mercer
County Airport (Bluefield). On
February 16th representatives of
Piedmont Airlines and the Fed
eral Aviation Agency made a
proving flight in connection with
Mercer County’s request for
night operations. The FAA has
approved this night service and
it will begin April 26, pending
the receipt of Form 5-11 which
includes approach specifications
and ceiling minimums.
tions, but lucky
Other changes include: ne
F-27 round trip between Louis-
gain R. E. being a country boy, he never Norfolk additional
from knew there was so much night
life. Sharing the experience is
Gene Shore, who transferred
from AVL. Another nsw addi
tion to the staff is Dick Shelton.
Bullard who transferred
INT in February.
ASHEVILLE^J. L. Fields
We are getting ready for the
summer schedules and the way
it looks, at the present, Ashe- LYNCHBURG . . . W. L. Bullock
ville will have plenty of good, A refueling and defueling
connections. With these extra! system designed especially for
flights it is believed this station j the F-27 has been installed at
will be in the 2,000 passengers LYH by the Shell Oil Company.
a month class this summer.
For all the baseball fans Ashe
ville now has a team and the
name chosen was “Tourists”,
which is very appropriate.
RALEIGH-DURHAM . . .
Dan Berry and Jack Vann
News from the Raleigh News'^vering construction ^ of
and Observer headlines legisla-j
tion to authorize the City
sealed
Charlotte to operate feeder heli-
It is one of the few in the Pied
mont system and represents a
sizable investment.
Another step in the improve
ment of the airport here was
taken by Lynchburg City Coun
cil when they advertised for bids
a new
terminal and relocation of a
The opening of the
bids is scheduled for
afternoon flight from Washing
ton to Asheville, additional F-27
round trip from Cincinnati to
Norfolk, first F-27 service to
Newport News, and a new morn
ing flight to Norfolk originating
in Tri-Cities. Also seasonal ser
vice to Myrtle Beach will begin
May 15 and the Morehead City-
Beaufort service will start June
1.
lAoril 3.
ccptcr sErvice into the Charlullei
Airport. This bill was introduced iLEX/iVGTOJV . . . Beverly Todd
in the N. C. House several weeks We were all glassy eyed to
ago. Under the measure. Char- see the sparkling little Carolyn
lotte would have authority to [Montgomery leave to join her
operate helicopter service trans- husband in Germany, but from
porting passengers, freight and all reports she is evidently in
m.ail within a 65 mile radius of i complete rapture in her new
TRI-CITIES—Milt Ward cjty. home.
To those of you who haven’tj RDU control tower re- Keeneland opens next month
had the opportunity of being in ported February as the busiest and we’re expecting all kinds,
Tri-Cities recently, a new run-^they have ever had. One! shapes and forms of people in
way is under construction which (jgy gjone 750 takeoffs and land-,for the races. We’re all taking
will be 6600 feet. This will be a jj^gg took place here,
tremendous help to us due to I
the present restrictions on Blake
■p_2'! "J^'he greatest news in Hunting-
GREENSBORO—Term. Crouch |ton is that we had the honor of
In has been a long time since .being named All American City!
we have communicated with There have been several things
each other and a lot of things j happening around our Tri State
have happened in GSO. For one Airport, and they seem to be
thing we have moved from our
old building into a million and
a half dollar terminal building.
Everyone’s moral has certainly
been lifted by working in such
nice new surroundings.
We were sorry to lose James
Vestal last Nov. to DCA opera-
The
PIEDMONITOR
Published Monthly
By & For
The Employees of
PIEDMONT AVIATION, INC.
Smith Reynolds Airport
.Winston-Salem, N. C.
Editor
Moonyeen R. Wright
■noving at a terrific pace. The
taxi strip lights have been com
pleted and are in operation. Al
so, there is a possibility that the
Air National Guard will be com
ing to our Airport.
The contract for the new Ter
minal Building has been award
ed to one of our local firms in
Huntington which is Jimison and
Sons, construction should be
started sometime in April.
COLUMBUS, OHIO . . .
Gene Shore
Piedmont was the main attrac
tion on the opening day of the
new $12 million terminal at Portj
Columbus . . . our flight 390 was
the first flight out. Our passen
gers, crew, employees and all
newsmen were guests of the City
for breakfast in the new dining
room of the port.
Don Shanks, our chief agent,
transferred to CMH from TRI
and is now proud to say he is a
full-fledged “buckeye”. Don has
been keeping a fast pace . . .
wrestling lessons on the side to
handle the tough ones who re
fuse to pay excess luggage.
NORFOLK . . . R. H. Wylie
and H. J. Eisenbath
Since the last publication of
the PIEDMONITOR, situations
around our station have remain
ed pretty much the same. How
ever, they are still in the process
of expanding our terminal build
ing and with all the construction
going on, we encounter a few
problems^you know, things like
parking 500 cars in a 300-car
parking lot. They expect to have
us moved into our new quarters
sometime in May or June.
HICKORY . . . Bill Isenberg
At long last it seems that our
terminal building is a reality.
The contracts were let for site
preparation, grading, etc., and
this work started before Christ
mas. Now the final contract for
the building has been awarded
and it is hoped that we will be
in it before December of this
year. Also, in a bond election a
few weeks ago, we had $100,000
approved for runway extensions
. . . things are on the “forward
move” here at our station.
CHARLOTTE . . . Jean Winslow
Certainly the biggest news
event of the year for Charlotte
was the “Big Airlift” of the
General Assembly from RDU to
CLT. Here is a quote from a
letter just received from the
Hon. Erwin Belk, a member of
the House of Representatives: “I
would like at this time to state
that Piedmont Airlines was most
cooperative and helpful in ar
ranging transportation tor the
members of the General Assem
bly to Charlotte. Also, I want to
express my appreciation to you
and your fine organization for
arranging transportation for us.”
PARKERSBURG . . .
Virgil Flinn
1959 looks like a big year here
in Parkersburg with so many
things on the slate. Face-lifting
around the station includes the
extension of runway 3-21 and
the enlargement of the ramp.
Also, after celebrating our
fourth anniversary on March 1,
everyone is all set to make this
a record year.
WILMINGTON ... Ed Kerr
Levy Heath, a former Wil-
mingtonian, is now working as
station agent in CLT. Good luck
ole buddy.
Congratulations are in order
to Mr. R. H. Dekay for the re
cent promotion from Station
Chief Mechanic-ILM to Super
visor of Class 2 Stations.
BECKLEY ... Bob Wilson
From this station on top of the
hill in the “Do-it-yourself-city”
of Beckley, things are pretty
much the same. The only change
is the transfer of Jay Johnson
to HTS, and leaving Jack Guy,
Charles Field and Bob Wilson
still to make the weather ob
servations.
The big winter news from this
mountain station is the new Bald
Knob Ski Slopes located just
outside of BKW. There were a
few NRSA people in for some
broken bones and sore spots,
but this didn’t dampen the fun
at all. Next year with more snow
and with the interest shown this
year, the turnout should be
great.
From Front Page
the Board itself is the next and
last step in this proceeding. The
date has been set for March 31.
PIEDMONT AREA CASK
Hearings before the Examiner
in this proceeding will begin
April 6 at 10 a. m., at the Char
lotte Public Library, Charlotte,
N. C. The second session will
begin April 27 in Washington.
The hearing at Charlotte will
be limited to presentations by
cities, states, and other civic par
ties. The hearing in Washington
will complete the presentation of
the civic intervenors and airline
presentations will follow im
mediately thereafter. Piedmont
applications for the following
routes will be heard in this case:
Charleston-Atlanta via Tri Cities
and Asheville,-Baltimore-Atlan
ta via Washington, Charlottes
ville or Staunton Lynchburg,
Roanoke, Princeton - Bluefield,
Tri Cities, Asheville, Alanta; and
an alternate segment from Ly
nchburg to Danville, Greensboro-
High Point, Winston-Salem, Hic
kory, Atlanta-Washington to At
lanta via Richmond, Rocky
Mount, Goldsboro or Kinston,
Fayetteville, Florence Colum
bia, Augusta-Washington-Atlan-
ta via Newport News,-Norfolk,
E'izabeth City, Kinston or Golds
boro, Jacksonville, (Camp Le-
jeune,) Wilmington, Myrtle Beach
Florence, Columbia, Augusta,
Atlanta-Norfolk, Knoxville via
Elizabeth City, Rocky Mount,,
Raleigh-Durham, Greensboro -
High Point, Winston-Salem,
Charlotte, Hickory, and Ashe-
ville-Charlotte-Myrtle Beach via
Florence. In this case we are
also asking the Board to amend
our certificate for existing and
proposed routes so as to permit
a skip-stop type operation.
EXEMPTION REQUEST
From past experience it would
appear that route extensions
which may be granted in the
Piedmont Area Case cannot be
operated before late 1960 or per
haps early 1961. Capital, in the
Piedmont Area Case, is seeking
relief from the responsibility of
providing local service between
Norfolk and Knoxville, and we
of course are seeking authority
to provide same. On March 1
Capital reduced service on this
route to one round trip per day.
It appeared to us that it would
be most logical for the Board
to permit Capital to suspend,
and for us to commence, this
operation immediately rather
than waiting for final decision
in the Piedmont Area Case. On
March 12 we filed an application
with the Board asking tempor
ary exemption which would per
mit us to operate between Nor
folk and Knoxville via the in
termediate points mentioned
above. We are asking that this
authority be effective until six
ty days after final decision in
the Piedmont Area Case. If the
Board acts favorably on this
application, we would plan to
inaugurate the service almost
immediately.
Because of lack of space it was
impossible to include the March
birthdays in this issue. Birthdays
for both April and March will be
listed in the next issue.