THE PIEOmOniTOR
VOLUME III, NO. 4 -
APACE WITH THE PACEMAKERS
APRIL, 1960
NEARLY EVERYONE including young Steven Johnson, reads The
- Piedmonitor. Steven is the son of Huntington station agent Jay Johnson.
The photo comes courtesy of Johnson and the HTS reporter.
Passengers Board
SHD Agents Muster Efforts
And Master Runway Snow
You have to get up early—
perhaps ^even bring a snowplow
with you—to outdo the agents at
Shenandoah. When the field
there was'covered by about 10
inches of snow March 16, dis
patch closed ' the • field for the
next day’s optiration.
But SHD had 10 passengers
booked on flight 312 for March
17 and rather than cancel their
reservations, the agents decided
to clear the field and get them
out on their flight.
The local communities had no
snow-removal equipment to use
at the airport, so the agents took
on the job themselves. They
brought their cars to the field
and drove them back and forth
over the runways and taxiways
until the snow turned to slush.
Next came the shovels. By the
time 312 landed, the field was
clear of all ice and slush. The 10
passengers boarded the flight
and the Shenandoah agents sat
down for a little rest. Their lei
sure was short-lived, however.
They boarded 103 passengers the
following day, March 18.
Federal Aid Granted
12 System Airports
COMING DATE
April 20—Annual Shareholders
Meeting at 11 a.m. Directors'
Meeting immediately after.
Federal fund allocations for
airport development for the fis
cal year beginning July 1, 1960,
were'made to 12'airports on
Piedmont’s system, according to
an announcement by the Federal
Aviation Agency.
The federal grants, matched
by. the sponsoring cities or air
port commissions, ranged from
$8,000 to $485,465. There were
five Piedmont system airports
which requested funds but did
not receive any portion of their
request.
Airport Act
The current grants are the last
to be allocated by the federal
government under the Federal
Airport Act which expires June
30, 1961. Future financial partici
pation by the federal govern
ment in airport development
must await an extension of the
airport act. There are no bills
currently pending in Congress
to do this.
Piedmont system airports re
ceiving the grants were:
Greater Cincinnati Airport re
ceived $485,465 out of $614,644
requested. Improvements will in
clude the installation of high in
tensity runway lights on the in
strument runway.
McGhee-Tyson Airport at
Knoxville received $402,500 out
of $732,912 requested. Major im
provements will be the construc
tion of 75-foot taxiways to con
nect the instrument runway with
the terminal area and the widen
ing of stub and apron taxiways.
Norfolk Grant
Norfolk Municipal Airport will
get $18,00 out of $55,500 request
ed for marking runways and
fencing airport perimeter.
Raleigh-Durham Airport was
allocated $52,319 out of $371,912
requested to acquire land for a
southwest clear zone, construct
warm-up pads, light terminal
apon and mark runway.
Richard E. Byrd Field at Rich
mond received $8,750 out of $107,-
500 requested. The funds will go
to acquire land for a clear zone
on runway six.
Asheville Municipal Airport
received $8,000 out of $100,600
requested which will go toward
construction of an FAA engine
generator building and lighting
of.the terminal apron.-
Greensboro-High Point
Greensboro High- Point Airpo"!
was given $234,280 for extending
and lighting two runways and
constructing paz'allel taxiways.
Only $150,780 was requested by
the airport.
Tri-State Airport at Hunting-
ton-Ashland will get $39,773 out
of $43,708 requested for con
structing an apron extension.
Blue Grass Field at Lexington
was allocated its request for
$208,539. The funds will go
toward extending, widening and ;
lighting of the NE/SW taxiway.
Patrick Henry Airport at New
port News-Hampton received its
$197,600 request for lighting and
extending runways and taxiways.
Wood County
Parkersburg-Wood County Air
port received $91,250 for . extend
ing taxi way and. installing high .
intensity runway lights. The air
port’s request was $86,250.
Roanoke Municipal Airport
will get $124,000 out of $185,000
requested for the installation of
high intensity runway lights and
strengthening of runway por
tions.
No allocations were made to
the following airports requesting
federal funds; Port Columbus;
Douglas Municipal at Charlotte;
Standiford Field at Louisville;
Tri-City at Bristol, Kingsport and
Johnson City; and Smith Reyn
olds at Winston-Salem...
Charter Takes ACC Cage Champs
RALEIGH-DURHAM—Basket
ball season is a special time of
year around the Raleigh-Durham
area. During the past season
very few out-of-state trips were
made by the Duke, N. C. State or
North Carolina teams without
using Piedmont chartered planes.
Several of the charter opera
tions were hampered by bad fly
ing conditions and unusual cir
cumstances. For example, Pied
mont flew the Duke team back
from its appearance in the NCAA
play-offs only as far as Wash
ington due to ice and snow. The
team arrived Durham at 11 p.m.
—by train.
The next morning only one
agent made it to the Ralegh-Dur-
ham office due to hazardous
driving conditions. However,
through a series of telephone
calls and teletype messages a
charter was sold and a plane was
here for a 2:15 p.m. departure to
Charlotte for the Duke team’s
participation in the eastern reg
ional NCAA championship play.
... Because of the heavy snow it
was difficult to compose a flight
crew on such short notice.
Special thanks go to Captain
Conary, who happened to be
snowbound at the Winston-Salem
field; First Officer Rowe, who
. was interrupted from his snow-
shoveling job at home; and Stan
Brunt, who was called out of his ner, the accurate price-quoting
office to serve as purser.
Through the super salesman
ship and tireless efforts of Dis
trict Sales Manager Harold War-
of Charter and Convention Sales
Supervisor T. Taylor Davis and
the cooperation of crews, flight
control office, stations at the
other end of the Raleigh char
ters and Raleigh-Durham station
personnel, the Raleigh-Durham
station considers the past basket-
bair season’s charters very good.
' !
BASKETBALL CHAMPS the Duke Blue Devils, boarded a Piedmont charter flight to New York City
where they were winners in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Basketball teams used Piedmont.char
ters extensively during the past season. - . -
Pres. Davis
Is Director
For ARINC
Piedmont President T. H.
Davis has been re-elected to the
board of directors of Aeroni..
cal Radio, Inc., and ARINC Re
search Corporation for 1960. Mr.
Davis has served previously as
a director of the organizations.
The present activities of Aero
nautical Radio, Inc., include the
furnishing of air-ground-air aero
nautical mobile and point-to-
point aeronautical fixed com
munication services. Also techni
cal and pro
gramming as-
sistance is
furnished t o
airlines, g o v-
ernment agen
cies and other
groups. This
assistance per
tains to var-
i o u s service
requirements DAVIS
and equipment characteristics.
ARINC Research Corporation
encompasses research and de
velopment work in the fields of
reliability, maintainability and
availability pertaining to electro
mechanical systems, equipments
and components for both com-
merical and government applica
tion and use. The research group
has been in existence about one .
and one-half years. It was pre
viously a part of ARINC.
ARINC celebrated its thirtieth
year of service December 2, 1959.
Gross revenue for the corpora
tion in 1959 was over $6.5 mil
lion of which the bulk came
from services rendered to 26
U. S. scheduled air passenger
carriers.