Mountain View County council has received a report that includes 18 recommendations regarding the future operation and maintenance of the county-owned Sundre airport.
Chris Atchison, director of legislative services, presented the report to council at a recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
In conjunction with Explorer Solutions and Tetra Tech, the county undertook a development plan for the Sundre airport in 2018.
The intent of the plan was to identify a future land use at the airport, to identify potential future growth for the facility, and to identify any areas that required immediate attention or future consideration to maximize the potential of the Sundre airport, located west of Sundre and south of Highway 587.
The development plan was presented to council by Explorer Solutions in Feb. 2019 with a total of 18 recommendations. “Administration has reviewed each recommendation and has developed a prioritization of recommendations to ensure that they are each considered,” administration said in a briefing note to council.
“The prioritization was shared with, and supported by, the Sundre Flying Club at their meeting on June 13.”
The recommendations relate to budget, airport operations and management, runway safety and fueling procedures.
The prioritizations set out in the report are divided into four categories: safety issue; immediate; short-term; and long-term.
Four safety issue priorities were identified. One safety issue priority involves training.
“We would recommend an official training program and associated budget be put in place to ensure all volunteers and staff receive the same required information to ensure safety and security of operations,” administration said.
“An overall training matrix including annual recurring training would be necessary and overdue. The aviation industry is constantly evolving, particularly where risk and safety management is concerned.
“In the short-term, the following areas are those where we felt training is quickly required: obstacle limitation surfaces; fuel management; winter operations; radio communication training; reporting of training; and runway markings.”
A second safety priority calls for the posting of signs along Rge. Rd. 55 in both directions warning of low flying aircraft and another one indicating that there is no vehicle stopping allowed along the road near the runway end.
A third safety priority calls for a note to be placed in the Canadian Flight Supplement describing Rge. Rd. 55, the potential for vehicle traffic on the roadway and its proximity to the end of the runway.
The fourth safety priority involves makings on the airport property.
“There are no or very limited markings informing the pilot of the runway threshold and side limits. The threshold markers are very important as pilots and their aircraft need to be high enough when flying over Rge. Rd. 55 to avoid any impacts with vehicles passing at the time.
“One thing that could be helpful is distance-remaining signs along the runway to help with pilot situational awareness.”
One of the short-term priorities calls for the preparation of a standard operating procedure manual to help staff and volunteers understand the details of the inspections of the fueling system at the airport.
“This manual should be available to any public works and airport staff that may be tasked with working at the airport and their name could be added on the training check sheet once they have received training.
“The review component of this would be particularly important where there are staff members who frequently are tasked (with) working at the airport.”
Council passed a motion to receive the report for information.
The complete report is available on the county’s website.
