Meeting Minutes

Monday, February 12, 2001

1. Meeting called to order at 7:00p.m.

In attendance: Dan Dobson, Jake Hamlin, Wynn Gustafson, Cindi Holton, George Ibach, Dave Johnson, Alan Lindquist, Bill Marhoun, Becky Pope, Ruth Peterson, Barb Schommer, Tom Schommer, Glen Terry, Matt Wiederkehr.

2. Approval of 1-22 Meeting Minutes.

Motion: Bill Marhoun moved that the 1-22-01 minutes be approved. Glen Terry seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

3. Treasurer’s Report.

Glen Terry reported a balance of $2,130.56 ($37.00 cash, $275.00 pin sales, $514.00 safety seminar fund, and $1,304.03 general membership fund.

Motion: Becky Pope moved that the 1-22-01 Treasurer’s Report be approved. Dan Dobson seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

A total of $175.00 was collected at last month’s meeting to contribute toward the Ed Yost Marker. The bank collecting the donations will be contacted prior to the March meeting to determine the status of the marker.

4. Safety Seminar

Motion: George Ibach moved that a direct mailing be conducted for the 2001 MBA Safety Seminar. Matt Wiederkehr seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

Thank you to Glen Terry for his effort on posting information regarding the safety seminar on the MBA web site. Registration forms are now available via the WWW.

Dave Johnson sent Marlon Perhaus of the FAA information regarding the seminar. All balloon pilots registered in western Wisconsin, northern Iowa, the Dakotas, and Minnesota will receive notice via a FAA mailing.

Motion: Glen Terry moved that a web link on the safety seminar page be posted for any business/organization contributing door prizes and other materials for the safety seminar. Matt Wiederkehr seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

5. Elections

Motion: Barb Schommer moved that a white ballot be cast for the unopposed offices of Secretary (Cindi Holton nominated), Treasurer (Glen Terry nominated), and President (Jake Hamlin nominated). Wynn Gustafson seconded the motion. The motion passed.

A vote was taken by the members present and the above nominated persons were elected to the positions.

Curt Shippy was elected as Vice President.

Dave Johnson volunteered to chair the Jr. Balloonist Program for the MBA.

6. Class B Airspace Expansion (Alan Lindquist).

Mr. Lindquist, a representative of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Air Traffic Control Tower, is familiar with and has participated in ballooning events.

Representatives of the tower have held two public information meetings at Holman Field and Flying Cloud Airport. The presentation at Flying Cloud was quite different based on the reaction of participants at the Holman Field meeting. Specifically, the intent by representatives of the tower was to present the airspace expansion as a draft proposal. Unfortunately, this was not clear at the first meeting and changes were made prior to the Flying Cloud meeting.

Mr. Lindquist emphasized that this is a draft proposal that was based on the review of criteria for Class B airspace. Specifically, Class B airspace criteria include the transportation of 3,500,000 people and occurrence of 300,000 aircraft operations. Minneapolis/ St. Paul transports 35,000,000 people and has 545,000 aircraft operations.

Further, due to the limitations of the current air traffic control system, expanding the Class B airspace is a potential solution to accommodate the air traffic.

The Minneapolis Air Traffic Control Tower is proposing to modify the Class B Airspace by:

extending the radius of the uppermost layer of the Class B Airspace from 20 to 30 nautical miles;

extending the floor of the Class B Airspace at 4,000 feet MSL from 20 to 30 nautical miles; and

establish the upper limit of the Class B Airspace at 10,000 feet within the 30 nautical mile radius.

There is no standard/uniform method to expand the Class B Airspace, rather Mr. Lindquist emphasized that the expansion would be based on the needs of the aviation community.

Comments are being accepted until March 10, 2001 on this proposal. If you would like a comment form contact Jake Hamlin at 651-690-3987 or pboeandjhamlin@qwest.net .

After comments are received in March an ad hoc work group representing various aviation interests will be formed to further review the expansion proposal. There are three more steps and three more opportunities for the proposal to move forward or be discontinued. All comments are being sent to the Regional Office in Illinois. If the Regional Office decides the proposal should move forward, then it is forwarded to FAA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The FAA Legal Office is the final authority to determine the status of the proposal and if the proposal continues, then a notice of a proposed rule is sent out for comments. The entire process takes over two years to complete.

The next monthly meeting of the MBA will be Monday, March 19, 2001.