Landing system will boost local aviation volume

The next time you visit with an experienced pilot, ask him, or her, how important it is for an airport to have an "ILS."

For most of us, those three letters don't mean much, but for a pilot in severe weather conditions, they are all-important. The letters stand for "Instrument Landing System" and, when ceilings are low and visibility is limited, the system is the difference between safe landings and overflights to other airports.

Despite repeated pleas to the Federal Aviation Administration, the McCook Airport does not have an Instrument Landing System, but, with the help of Nebraskans in the U.S. House and Senate, that may soon change.

At the urging of members of the McCook Airport Advisory Committee, working through the McCook City Council, U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel and U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne have all included an Instrument Landing System for McCook in their priority spending requests for the 2004 U.S. budget bill.

The cost is significant, with Doug Vap, chairman of the McCook Airport Advisory Committee, estimating the total expenditure for the system in McCook at between $750,000 and $1,000,000. But the good it will do for aviation in this region is of immense proportions.

"By having an ILS, we could lower the ceiling at which landings are possible from 400 feet to 200 feet," said Dick Trail, a former Air Force officer who now flies for private and corporate clients in McCook. In addition, Trail said an Instrument Landing System would cut visibility minimums from a half mile to a quarter mile.

The effect of that would be to allow many more flights to land here than is currently possible. "This is important for flights for life," said Vap, as well as for the medical specialists who fly in regularly and the daily scheduled stops here by Great Lakes Airlines.

The Instrument Landing System is actually a series of specialized pieces of equipment, including a glide slope, a localizer and special electronic beams which guide pilots up and down the runway. "It would be a great help to local flight volume," said Griff Malleck, owner-operator of Red Willow Aviation and a strong supporter of the ILS installation.

Funding is at least a year or more away, as Congress is still debating 2003 appropriations. But, area aviation enthusiasts are encouraged because the dream of an Instrument Landing System in McCook is closer to reality than ever before.