North Carolina Newspapers

me pieomonmm Turkey Shooting Shirt Tail Shearing See Page Four VOL. IX, NO. 1 THE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL — ALL OVER PIEDMONTLAND JANUARY, 1967 ARCHITECT'S DRAWING OF NEW FACILITIES AT INT. Details of New Building; Plans For Hangar, And Office Facilities Have Been Announced Piedmont’s home-base expan sion plans, though not yet final ized, are definitely taking shape. The $7 million program an nounced by the company in con junction with the Forsyth Coun ty Airport Commission late in December will include extension and strengthening of the present runways. The cost of this facet of the project will be about $1,- 580,000. The new office facilities which Piedmont will lease from the Commission will replace the pres ent, greatly overcrowded space now used by the home office per sonnel. Upon the completion of the new building it is anticipated that the old building will be used for some of Piedmont’s other op erations such as training or fixed based operations. Flight Training Center Currently, the brick warehouse located behind the home office is being partially converted into a flight training center where the Boeing 737 simulator will be lo cated. . The planned office building, which will be located at the north end of the present runway net work at Smith Reynolds, will have 40,000 square feet of floor space on two levels. The new hangar facilities which will adjoin the office building will make up the re mainder of the 334,000 square foot building that will encom pass a total of three levels. Hangar Section This hangar structure will have double cantilever roofs, one over each of the two sections. Each section will be 360 feet wide, or more than the length of a football field, and 135 feet deep. The center core between the han gars will house the sheet metal, painting and ground equipment shops as well as a small parts stock room. This particular sec tion will be 120 feet wide, with a ceiling height of 46 feet. By comparison, the present hangar facility at INT is of sin gle cantilever construction with a total width of only 375 feet. Final plans for the building are expected to be completed within the next 40 days. It is hoped that the contract for con struction will be awarded by early March. Actual building should begin shortly thereafter. A tentative moving date has been set for March, 1968. The site will be made up of a total of 21 acres for the building and improved parking facilities. Note the picture above. At the present time it is ex pected that the maintenance work on the 737’s will be carried out primarily in Winston-Salem. Although several outside stations are now involved with Pace- maker maintenance, Roanoke consistently conducting major in spections for some aircraft, it is not anticipated that these sta tions will have immediately the staff or facilities for mainten ance, inspection and overhaul of the new aircraft. New York News Notes by Eddie Jones Seems we forgot to men tion the highlight of our first day of scheduled operations into New York in the last issue. Stew ardess Connie Hale tells us it was a rather bumpy flight inbound when one of the passengers be came ill and proceeded to the blue room. Shortly before land ing at LGA the passenger return ed to the cabin, looking rather embarrassed in addition to being so pale. He advised he had lost his chompers in the honey buck et! So a radio message ahead had all alerted locally and one of Eastern’s employees obliged the gentleman by going on a fishing venture. After retrieving the denture, the man made a rush for the drug store. Later the druggist tells us there was sure a demand for soap, tooth paste, listerine, polident and scrub brushes. Must have done a great job though as he went smiling on his merry way! The Eastern agent said, “Is this the way we have to please Piedmont custom ers?” December proved a pretty good month for us when our boardings reached 2,225 and de- planed passengers numbered 2,220. Total boardings for each flight were 391 on 39, 507 on 33, 192 on 715, 581 on 35 and 554 on 31. Sure would like to see 715 pick-up and hope you folks aren’t forgetting to book on 715 to SHD and 705 to CHO! It’s a good con nection and the passenger doesn’t even have to change planes. Mo- I hawk Airlines’ Mechanics have been on strike since December 12th and as of this writing I there’s no end in sight. That’s rough for us when they do our maintenance locally. However, our maintenance department has helped us out by sending our own mechanics up on a tempo rary duty basis. I certainly have enjoyed working with these fine fellows and hope they will come back for a visit. Our maintenance department must be proud of this fine group of employees and we do appreciate all their efforts while here. We just received a pamphlet from the Flushing Chamber of Commerce, which lists some mighty interesting facts concerning the “Aviation Family.” It indicates that 57,500 people work for aviation in the metropolitan area. About 45,000 go every day to the four major airports, Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark and Teterboro and the remaining are in ticket offices, etc. I might add, I can vouch for these 45,000, I believe, especially when trying to find a parking place in the employee parking lot. Guess it takes all these em ployees to handle the traffic since nearly 26,000,000 people moved through the metropolitan area’s air terminals last year. During our managers’ meeting at the Port Authority this week, many of us were astonished at the figures given us by our local tower chief, Mr. Skaggs. He in dicated 302,000 operations at LGA last year, averaged about 832 per day. We’re looking for ward to more of your visits, and if any of you Southerners want to get out of all the snow, just come on up. We’ve only had one snow this year and it really wasn’t bad!! President's Prospectus All Piedmont employees can be justly proud of their efforts which made 1966 the most outstanding year in the history of our company. The record established is truly fantastic. The Airline Division attained the highest load factor in the local service industry and became the first local service airline in the U. S. to earn a profit for a full year without the necessity of government subsidy. The General Aviation and Central Piedmont Aero Divisions achieved far greater sales and earnings than ever before. For all of this, I am deeply grateful for the part you have played in making it possible. As indicated in the December 1942 letter appearing below, it has been traditional for our company at each Christmas-time to share with those who have contributed to its success. During the Christmas gathering of employees in the hangar, Santa Claus has, I believe, each year since 1942, announced a bonus or salary and wage increase. I hope and believe we can continue to do this for at least another 24 years. It is a good feeling to reflect on these accomplishments, but I am sure we all realize we cannot “rest on our laurels” despite the outstanding record we have made. I am sure, too, that you want to know at all times where we stand and what is ahead. Therefore, I want to be frank with you and point out a few things that indicate it is going to be very difficult to do as well or better in 1967 than we did in 1966. First, we will be getting into our new equipment program with the FH-227’s and the 727 jet. From past experience, we know that the “learning curve” and “teething problems” of putting new airplanes into operation are expensive and trying undertakings. Second, the debt to finance our new equipment will require interest payments alone of approximately 2V2 million dollars per year — that is $7,000.00 every day, rain or shine, and whether or not we take in a nickel. Third, the big bundle Santa had on his back for most em ployees will require several hundred thousand dollars. Fourth, we cannot reasonably expect an increase in our ex ceedingly high load factor to help offset these cost increases. We will have to get any additional revenue from more miles flown with bigger airplanes. Fifth, we will not, I hope, have the windfall of the large amount of additional business we got last summer as a result of the two-month strike against five airlines. Sixth, the tight money market will undoubtedly have an effect on general aviation aircraft sales. These are just a few of the things that indicate clearly that we have really got our work cut out for us. Without constant dili gence, we could stump our toe and be in serious trouble. I don’t mention these things in a pessimistic way at all. I mention them because I know our Piedmont gang is a mature, realistic group of people and want the truth. I know, too, that when you see clearly the job to be done you are the kind of people that get at it without a grumble and make a success out of even the most difficult challenge. We have that challenge ahead of us this year. I know I can depend on you to do your part so we can have another pleasant gathering on Christmas Eve, 1967. Happy New Year and God Bless You. —T. H. Davis LEWIN S. MCGINNIS PRESIDENT THOMAS H. DAVIS V. PRES, a TREAS. J. FRANK GROAT SECRETARY MILTON F. FARE ASST. SECRETARY PIEDMONT AVIATION, INCORPORATED WINSTON-SALEM. NORTH CAROLINA December 24, 1942 TO THE PERSONNEL OF PIEDMONT AVIATION, INC.: A year ago it was the pleasure of the officials of the company to express to the entire personnel our appreciation for their efforts by awarding a small bonus. Last year we had in our organization twenty-nine boys and one girl, and we were indeed proud of the growth of the organization during the previous year. During the past year we have continued to grow. Now, we are forty-one boys and two girls, and with even more effort, cooperation and teamwork we can continue to grow and do more for the successful prosecution of this war. Now that 99% of our operations are war work, let's all see if we can't do just a little more and get it over with quicker. Enclosed you will find our gift to you (based on a per centage of your total income with this company for the past year.) With fondest wishes for a happy holiday season and very successful 1943. Sincerely, THE MANAGEMENT PIEDMONT AVIATION, INC.