When you add the two other runways, the taxiways, and ramps, the crew must clear over 75 million square feet of pavement to FAA standards that cover everything from aircraft braking coefficient and snow bank height to mutual aid access roads and gates for aircraft rescue and fire fighting.

Snow removal is a choreographed effort that involves two 18-foot plows,  a 12-foot rollover plow, a 12-foot plow, a 9-foot blower, and an end loader with a blade instead of a bucket, says Airport Operations Manager John Dorcey. Who leads depends on Mother Nature.

Last winter was huge and heavy, so plows led the way, followed by the blower, which throws the snow over the runway lights. This winter has been light and dry, perfect work for an 18-foot rotary broom, he says. Or it would have been if it hadn’t expired at a point where it cost more to fix than to replace. 

A new broom truck, like the one pictured above, was in the works, says Airport Director Peter Moll. Disbursed by the state Bureau of Aeronautics, the FAA provides funds for 80 percent of such purchases, and Wittman had approval for a new truck with a 20-foot broom 48 inches in diameter. 

When the county arrived with its 20 percent, it learned that the FAA had cut back on the funds. So Wittman is pursuing county approval for bonds to cover the 80 percent, because the broom is an critical weapon against the snow. At many airports, brooms start work when the first flakes fall. Green Bay, for example, has three brooms and three plows.

Attacking light and dry snow with a plow doesn’t so much move it as compress it, turning it into ice that’s packed into the grooved pavement, says Dorcey. When that happens, they have to apply chemicals to achieve the required braking action. Using sand is the last and least desired option. It provides the necessary friction, but its abrasive nature does bad things to propellers and jet engine turbine blades.

In terms of time, money, and effectiveness, a broom is the best way to remove light and dry snow and clean up after plows that have moved the heavy wet stuff. Chemicals work, but they aren’t free, and neither is the fuel required to cover Wittman’s 75 million square feet of pavement.

Winnebago Flying Club, which has called Wittman Regional Airport home for roughly three decades, is now accepting new members, says Tim Lemke, president. In its 12 for 2012 membership drive, the club welcomes active and lapsed pilots, and those who want to become pilots.

Four club members are flight instructors, says Lemke, one of the four, and another, Keith Myers, is a designated examiner who gives FAA pilot checkrides. Everyone flies the club’s 150-hp Cessna 172, which is certified for instrument flight and sports a new Garmin 430 GPS navigator and radio.

The Winnebago Flying Club meets monthly, and an educational and/or social activity follows the business meeting. Monthly dues are $30, and there is a $150 membership fee. The club’s 172 goes for $79 an hour wet, meaning gas is included.

A not-for-profit organization, Lemke says the majority of the airplane’s hourly fee pays for gas. A website handles the airplane’s schedule. Given its membership limit, conflicts are few, Lemke says, aside from a few serene summer evenings and weekends. For more information, visit the club website.

When these fuels will be consumer-ready at airports nationwide is unknown, but it won’t be long. Earlier this year, at the Paris Air Show, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said,“I think we’re nearing a tipping point” in terms of building momentum toward use of biofuel on commercial flights, he said. “I think [biofuel powering airline flights is] not long-term. In the short term you’ll see the benefits.”

For airports, the important question will be, however, how will the introduction of new fuels affect the fuel farm, the bulk storage area where the FBOs’ trucks refill their tanks? With both fuels still in test and validation stages, we’ve been unable to find any newly proposed handling requirements, so we’ll peer into the crystal ball of logic.

Many of the jet flights have been made on a blended mixture of bio and petroleum-based fuel. This suggests that both fuels have like storage and handling requirements, so the transition from one to the other may not require new equipment or facilities.

Things don’t look so bright for avgas, primarily because of the ingredient that led to the new fuel’s requirement—lead. Storing and/or distributing no-lead avgas in anything once used for 100LL offers the chance of contaminating the new fuel with the substance the EPA is trying to get rid of. Right now there is no hard date for the avgas change, but forewarned is well prepared, and we’ll keep an eye on its development.

All we want kids in grades 3-12 to do over their break is think a bit … about aviation … and telling stories about aviation to be specific. 

We wondered what kids think when someone mentions flying.

An interesting trip on an airliner?
A ride in a small airplane?
A career in aviation?
Building their own airplane?
A first flight they’ve yet to take?

No matter what someone’s aviation interest might be, we’d like to hear their story in 500 words or less … after the holidays … when they enter the airport’s Writing Contest for Oshkosh-Area Grade & High-Schoolers. We want kids to tell us – in their own words – what makes flying and aviation special to them. The contest is open to all Oshkosh-area students in either of two categories – grade school (grades 3-8) or high school (grades 9-12), but not both. Each category will include a first, second and third place winner to be announced by March 1, 2012. All winning entries will be published on the Wittman Airport blog.

Contest details can be found under the What’s Your Story button on the airport’s home page.

Entries must be delivered electronically not later than 6 PM, Monday, February 6, 2012. Stories received after the deadline will not be considered.

Prizes will be awarded in a ceremony at Wittman Airport’s terminal building on March 15^th, 2012 and include – a local airplane flight, an hour in a professional flight training simulator and even Visa gift cards worth up to $35.

So get started on your essay … right after the Christmas break. And tell your friends.

The Wittman Airport Writing Contest was conceived to promote solid writing and communication skills in kids, a necessary element for success in today’s workplace.

The contest is sponsored by the airport, as well as Fox Valley Technical College, in cooperation with the Oshkosh Area School District.

Questions may be directed to rmark@wittmanairport.com

A study in perpetual motion with an ever-present smile separating his neatly trimmed beard and mustache, he’s responsible for everything “inside the fence,” he says, the runways, taxiways, their lights and signs, and the buildings on the ground around them. In his spare time he teaches people to fly and serves several aviation groups.

Dorcey’s aviation career began at age 8, when his father paid a penny a pound for the youngster’s first airplane ride at Janesville’s old  City Airport. The U.S. Air Force took him away from his Wisconsin birthplace for just over six years. A missile systems analyst, a healthy re-up bonus paid for his pilot training.

“I was in North Dakota, and there wasn’t a lot to do there,” Dorcey says of his Grand Forks duty station, so “I drove down the road to the airport and started flying like crazy.” He became a private pilot in 1971. When he got out of the Air Force in April 1975, he was an instrument-rated, multiengine  commercial pilot and flight instructor with 700 flight hours.

Flying jobs were scarce then, so Dorcey followed the advice given by the chief pilot for Johnson Wax, who said a pilot who was also an airframe and powerplant mechanic never has to look for a job. He earned his A&P at Janesville’s Blackhawk Technical College in 1977. He also earned his instrument instructor rating and worked as a flight instructor.

Afterwards Dorcey flew freight for awhile, and then people in a DC-3 out of Rockford, Illinois, where he earned his DC-3 type rating and airline transport pilot certificate. Later, he added an inspection authorization of the A&P ticket. He’s always taught people to fly, and it was among his flying duties at a Janesville FBO, until he joined Wisconsin’s DOT in 1985.

For nearly three-quarters of his 22-year career with the state Bureau of Aeronautics Dorcey traveled the state teaching seminars and clinics for pilots and mechanics. He spent the last five or six years working with the state’s airports, advising them on operations, land-use zoning, and the ins and outs of airport improvement grants.

In 2007, Dorcey followed his wife, Rose, to Oshkosh, where she took a position with EAA, an organization he’s belonged to since 1972. Peter Moll had just been promoted to Wittman airport director, moving his responsibilities outside the airport fence, like working with city, county, state, and federal officials. So Dorcey applied for—and won—the open position.

Flexibility is the key to success, Dorcey says, “use your skills and talents and provide those to people as you can.” Beyond his day job, he’s a charter member, secretary/treasurer, and webmaster of the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame. (Rose, also a pilot, is president.) And he’s secretary and a director of the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators.

He’s also a member of AOPA, Women in Aviation, the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators and the Wisconsin Airport Management Association, who elected him a director after he left the DOT and, two years ago, its vice president. “Aviation, for 52 years, has always been a big thing in my life,” he says, adding that he’s always been a big believer in giving back, whenever the opportunity arises.

Access to this field is from the rear of the parking lots at Friar Tucks, Super 8, and the Charcoal Pit. For a spur of the moment picnic, you can get your order to go at either of the restaurants. You can also enjoy the view from the back deck at the Charcoal Pit, unless it’s been rented for a party.

For an elevated view of airplanes coming and going, visit the Kitty Hawk Observation Deck at the Hilton Garden Inn. It’s open to the public during regular business hours, unless its been reserved for a private party or wedding. It also gives spectators a pretty good look at airplanes flying to and from Runway 18/36, when airplanes are landing to the south. If the weather is either too hot or too cold, head downstairs to the Lindbergh Lounge, which serves its patrons after work and on weekends and has a pretty good view of where airplanes touchdown when landing to the east.

For balcony seats to Runway 9/27 activity, head to the terminal at Wittman Regional Airport. There are several comfortable seating areas on the second level. And if you get the urge to do more than just watch, check out  Orion Flight Services, located at the west end of the terminal building. It offers scenic airplane rides, Wings Over the Fox Valley, Monday through Sunday all year from 7 am to 7 pm (reservations not needed but a good idea), which will give you an entirely different perspective of Wittman Regional Airport.

Taking place on a beautiful October Indian summer Saturday, the WAI Chapter event raised roughly $500. The support and donations by the airport, Basler Turbo Conversions, Caramel Crisp & Café, LaSure’s Catering, McDonald’s, Oaks Chocolates, Rhapsodies Frozen Custard, Starbucks, Woodman’s Markets, and the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame made the event a success said thankful chapter members.

Chapter members made their own contributions. Kelly Nelson displayed an array of kitchen tools from Pampered Chef. She held a raffle for an array of tools with 20% of all sales going to the scholarship fund. As a past WAI scholarship winner, she said it was the least she could do to pay forward the opportunity afforded her.

The judges—Winnebago County Airport Committee Chair Kathy Lennon, retired Mercury Marine exec Ken Ruehl, Tamara Mugerauer, owner of Tamara’s Cakes in Oshkosh—assessed each team on taste and theme. For a $5 donation dozens of cupcake connoisseurs sampled each team’s entry and voted for their favorite, the people’s choice winners.

First—WAI Chapter President Rose Dorcey: Lemon Cranberry with a theme that presented the history of cranberries in Wisconsin and how this crop inspired her love of aviation.

Second—Chapter member Margaret Viola: Gluten-free Double Chocolate presented by an appropriately-attired Gluten-free Cowgirl. (Judge Tamara said it tasted better than her gluten-free items and asked for the recipe.)

Third—WAI Chapter Scholarship Chair Linda Grady: Tiramisu with My Cupcakes are Fly, surrounded by aviation accouterments such as charts and headsets.

People’s Choice: Dorcey’s Lemon Cranberry and Chapter member Mary Jones Tequila Lime cupcakes presented with a Margaritaville (TM) theme.

If you missed the event, either as a cupcake competitor or connoisseur, don’t despair. Given the success of the inaugural event, chapter members are already talking about 2012. It’s not official yet, but the working title is the Flight Fly-in & Fundraiser. Stay tuned for date and details.

We spoke with him recently about the value of Wittman Airport to Sonex Aircraft, but also to the Oshkosh and Winnebago County community.

The success of this event is clear as soon as one pulls into the parking lot or taxis up to the terminal. Even with people and pilots coming and going, they stayed full from 7:30 to 11 a.m. The planes that kept leaving and coming back were not binge & purge eaters. They were taking youngsters on their first ride in a general aviation airplane.

Before and after eating, people  visited the tabletop displays from a half-dozen airport businesses from Sonex Aircraft and Basler Turbo Conversions to the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame and the local chapter of Women in Aviation, which is holding an Iron Cupcake fundraiser in the Wittman terminal on October 1.

At the Fox Valley Technical College display two students answered questions about the school’s aviation programs and the careers growing from them. Orion Flight Services was promoting its $99 introductory flight lesson. Parked on the ramp were examples of what they could fly as pilots, from the kit-built Sonex to the twin-engine Beech Duchess.

At every turn people were laughing, chatting, and smiling as brightly as the sun in the cloudless sky. New friends met and got acquainted and old ones caught up on what they’d done last, what adventure was next, and how their gardens were doing. In the isolated age of Facebook, it was good to see that people still see the airport as a social center worth visiting.

We sat down with Bill Hare recently to talk about the issues he believes will foster the growth atmosphere Wittman Regional Airport needs, but also was quite frank about some of the things that could just get in the way. Hare is a member of the CHAMCO Board of Directors as well as serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Bemis Company Inc in his regular worklife.

Tell us what you think.                          Bill Hare