News
Bottineau Airport offers many services
Scott Wagar
09/10/2013
The Bottineau Airport plays many important roles in the City of Bottineau and assists the state of North Dakota in aviation contributions which equal $1.25 billion throughout the state.
The airport which was established in 1959 has a long history of service to the local community. The airport was first located just south of the current day city shop with its hanger standing where the Bottineau County Museum is today. It was located in that spot until around the late 1960s when it was moved to its present day location.
Today, the airport provides a number of services, which includes:
- Flying in doctors and nurses to the community’s health facility
- Aerial spraying and crop protection
- Aerial photography and surveying
- Air freight movement of parts to mines, oil fields and agriculture where agriculture is the biggest industry where local pilots fly to Langdon, Fargo and Bismarck to pickup parts, especially during harvest
- Power line and pipeline safety control
- Wildlife control and law enforcement observation where local pilots support law enforcement on an as need basis
- Rain enhancement and hail suppression
- Basic Flight Training for private pilot license up through commercial, instrument, multiple engine, instructor and Air Transport Pilot
Another service that is being offered at the Bottineau Airport is Angel Flight.
“Angel Flight is a group of volunteer pilots that volunteer their aircrafts and services to individuals who need medical attention,” said Leo Jostad, member and flight instructor of the Bottineau Airport.
“They will arrange for pick-ups for things like cancer patients for transportation to such places like Rochester. The scheduling is done by national or state organizations and at no cost to the patients.”
When it comes to power line and pipeline safety control, the airport is assisting All Season Rural Water Users through technology that is presently only being utilized in Bottineau County throughout the entire nation.
“There is a power line patrol operating in and out of Bottineau. Curt Aalund, who heads up the local airport, does patrol for rural water system support with a new way to read the water meters,” Jostad said.
“A company is putting equipment on an airplane with radio receives that hook right into an onboard computer, which reads all rural water meters from the air through radio transmission. Aalund flys around and the equipment reads all the rural water meters.”
Aalund is also a mechanic at the airport, which has full maintenance capability that includes full air frame and engine maintenance, repairs and rebuilding. Besides Aalund, there is one other full time mechanic and one part time mechanic which assist in the work that is conducted at the local airport.
Outside of the mechanic department, there is a couple of part time jobs and ground maintenance at the airport, which grants a total of four to six jobs.
Aalund holds inspection authorization certification, too, for inspecting aircrafts, which is a requirement for all planes that are utilized.
When it comes to Aalund’s customer area, it extends east to Devils Lake, west beyond Kenmare and Bowbells and south to Highway 2.
On the grounds of the airport, there are two runways where each has two directions for a total of four active runways and 10 hangers, one of which is a carousel hanger that holds a rotating floor that allows pilots to store and retrieve their airplanes with more ease. Bottineau is only one of four airports that have a carousel hanger in the state.
The hangers are completely full at the moment with a waiting list. To fix the hanger situation the airport is working on plans to construct a new hanger in the future.
Economically for the airport, the direct impact to the Bottineau area runs from $220,000 to $260,000, while the total impact factor is about $250,000.