In 1992, Joel Long was sitting in an aerospace class at Middle Tennessee State University when the instructor asked people to raise their hands if they worked as a pilot. Half a dozen students did.
Then the instructor asked how much they got paid. One said $8 an hour. Several said they worked in exchange for health insurance or other remuneration. The highest paid person made $500 a week, Joel said.
The sad part — he knew those students had paid $80,000 to get their pilot’s certification.
That’s not true at this time, Joel said, because commercial airline pilots are in short supply. Airlines are offering cadet programs that pay a large percentage of the cost of training in exchange for coming to work for them.
“It’s a viable opportunity to step into,” Joel said.
With a degree in aerospace management, Joel stepped into the manager job at Clinton Regional Airport in June, after two months working under the wing of former manager Wallace White. White is now retired and enjoying time to travel, not something the manager, as the only employee of the airport, has much of.
“This is more than a full-time job,” Joel said.
Joel formerly worked as an aviation operations specialist at the Cape Girardeau airport, but took the Clinton job because he likes general aviation, as opposed to working at a commercial airport.
He enjoys having the opportunity to talk to pilots who fly in to the Clinton Airport, he said, which serves corporate business activity, aerial agricultural sprayers, the armed forces, medical facilities, search and rescue operations and recreational flying, plus is a place to go for flight training.
Two to four planes come in a day, he said, which he keeps track of with an app on his phone that lets him know when they are arriving. Last week, he had two planes bringing people to Clinton on business, he said, and two crop-dusters who came in to refuel. Crop duster pilots buy upwards of $20,000 worth of fuel at a time, Joel said.
The airport makes good revenue, but airports are an amenity, not a profit center, he said. He likes to be on hand to help with refueling, although there is a self-service option.
The airport manager’s job is both physically and mentally demanding. His day starts with maintenance of the lounge area, then he goes out to sump the fuel tanks, meaning to drain the low parts of the tanks to remove water that condenses in the tank. He also monitors fuel tanks and logs fuel levels to check for leaks.
Next is airfield inspection, including lighting systems. Runways have four approach lights, he said, red and white, that let the pilot know if their plane is coming too high or too low, or is on the right approach, known as the “glide slope.”
Then he takes the Kubota on a “FOD” drive, inspecting the runway for foreign object debris. He also has to check imaginary surfaces, meaning any obstruction to a plane coming in to land.
He also has to keep the grass mowed, which takes several hours almost every day. While operating the mower, he wears earphones to alert him to any arrivals. After inspections and mowing, he spends several hours at his desk, doing bookkeeping and paying bills.
An airport is a community asset because when businesses are looking for places to locate, he said, they have two major questions — “How close is the Interstate? and “What condition is the airport in?”
The Clinton Airport is in good condition, Joel said, and is getting better. There are two runways, Runway 18/36, 5,000 feet long and 100 feet wide, and the crosswind runway, 4/22, 4,000 feet long. Runways at public and military airports are numbered by rounding to the nearest 10 degrees of the compass bearing of the approach, and then truncating the last digit. The opposite end of the runway is numbered 180 degrees from the other.
Having a crosswind runway, at an angle to the main runway, allows planes to land no matter what direction the wind is coming from, Joel said. Pilots can call the airport’s Automatic Weather Observation System to get wind direction, speed and cloud height, Joel said.
The City of Clinton owns the airport property, the runways and the navigational aids, and is overseen by a board of citizens, the Clinton Airport Association.
Now on Joel’s desk: plans for the new terminal building, which has been funded. The project went out to bid the first of June, he said, with bid opening scheduled for the end of June. State and federal grants cover 90 percent of the cost, he said, and the economic benefit to the city of Clinton is more than the 10 cents on the dollar it cost the city to improve the facility, he said.
Missouri receives grants from the federal government, he said, letting the state decide where to put the funds, depending on need. In exchange for grants, the airport agrees to 39 assurances, including maintaining the property and navigational aids, and providing equal access to anyone who has a legitimate aeronautic purpose. Last week, he got a request from a family of stunt pilots, looking for a place to practice for air shows.
His job is also about extending hospitality to pilots, Joel said. Pilots in west central Missouri have a choice of places they can fly into and buy fuel, he said. Clinton Airport offers a crew car that it lends to pilots, so they can go to a restaurant or motel. Pilots also like airports that have a quiet room to rest, Joel said, and company pilots, who often have to wait for their passengers, like a place to shower, neither of which the current building has.
Joel is pretty much on call 24/7, but does have an intern in an aviation management program from UCM. He also values having mechanic Mark Bentch of Magpie Aviation on site. Pilots fly into Clinton Regional Airport to have Mark work on their planes, Joel said.
The skydiving business no longer exists, he said, and the planes are being sold.
Joel said he hopes once the new terminal is built, the city will hire another employee, but until then, you won’t see him around town. He’s either at the airport, he said, or driving on Hwy. 7 South between the airport and his apartment.
Joel grew up in Pickwick Lake, Tenn., which is similar to Clinton — farming being the main occupation, with hunting and fishing close by and a large city about an hour away. He learned to fly in a Cessna 150 that belonged to a friend of his father’s when he was 17, he said, and when he turned 18, got his pilot’s license. He does plan to get back into flying, but for now, is focusing on making sure everything is safe and efficient at the airport.
Joel will be even busier the fourth week in July, when the EEA - Experimental Aircraft Association — holds its annual fly-in to Oshkosh, Wi. Airports with a 1,000 mile radius of Oshkosh stock more fuel to meet the demand, he said. In Clinton, 600 miles away, his problem is figuring if and how much to discount fuel to attract customers.
The advantage to not discounting: “You can be the only one with any fuel left,” he said.
Another advantage to working at a general aviation airport is being able to help local youth interested in flying to get started, he said. He noted that Clinton doesn’t have a Young Eagles program, but Wallace White helped many Young Eagles get their wings.
Middle Tennessee State University is a space-grant university, part of a network of schools established in 1966 to promote outer space-related research. The Missouri Space Grant Consortium offers programs at UMKC, MSU, UM/Columbia, Lincoln University and other schools in the state.
For more information about Clinton’s airport, google Clinton Regional Airport.
