By Chris Sasser
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
Though the attendance may have been down a bit from previous years, the spirit and camaraderie felt by the gathered attendees at the 2021 Texas Aviation Conference more than made up for that shortcoming.
The 2020 conference was held virtually during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With enhanced protections including capped attendance numbers and additional space for attendees, this year’s conference resumed in-person at the Embassy Suites Hotel Conference Center in San Marcos.
“Last year’s virtual conference was good,” said Aviation Division Director, Dan Harmon during his opening session presentation. “It was the result of a lot of hard work by a number of people to ensure that the conference continued despite everything. But I think we can all agree that in-person is better. To say the last year and a half has been challenging is an understatement, but hopefully smooth flying waits for us ahead.”
The conference kicked off with Harmon’s State of the Aviation Division address, which he began by introducing the members of the Texas Aviation Advisory Committee. The Committee advises the agency and public officials on aviation issues affecting the state.
Harmon then spoke about the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), noting that of the nearly $12 million in CARES funding, the Division executed 138 grants for $5.8 million. That was followed up by two more additional rounds of COVID relief: the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act for $3.3 million, and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for nearly $13 million.
“The airport funds in each of these bills came with their own set of challenges,” said Harmon. “So we appreciated the patience of the airport sponsors as we worked through the requirements of each one.”
Following that update, Harmon presented new Aviation Division staff. In the Grants and Administrations Section, Contract Specialists Annette Trevino and Daniel Bolden joined the group, and HUB/DBE Coordinator Eli Lopez was also introduced. At Flight Services, Raul Rivera was introduced as the new Director of Flight Services.
Harmon then provided an Aviation Funding 101 overview. In his presentation, he explained how the $88 million, the Division received, was allocated.
The $55 million in federal funding consists of:
- $19 million apportionment funding as a block grant state from FAA,
- $24 million as the non-primary entitlement (NPE) of $150,000 for eligible airports,
- $12 million discretionary funding for specific projects selected by the FAA.
The $20 million in state funding consists of:
- $5 million for the RAMP program,
- $15 million for capital improvement projects.
“For the 182 airports in our system that qualify for federal funding, excluding discretionary projects, we have about $19 million to spread across our 182 airports combined with their individual NPE available for project funding,” said Harmon. “For the 90 or so airports only eligible for state funding, there is about $15 million per year to disperse at our discretion for projects.”
Harmon then discussed improvements to the Division’s processes and tools, which include an update to the Texas Aviation System Plan and updating the software systems to make them more user friendly and resilient.
To round out his address, Harmon spoke about Senate Bill 763, that created an Urban Air Mobility Advisory Committee to examine the state’s laws and infrastructure needed to support the next generation of air mobility.
“The committee will have a broad group of members, including aviation experts, industry groups and operators, local and state officials and law enforcement, and members of the public, with a report due to the public this time next year,” said Harmon. “It starts the conversations that need to be had about how this next generation of both manned and unmanned aircraft will operate in the state.”
Following Harmon’s State of the Aviation Division address, Barry Molar presented on using the ACRP guidebook on FAA grant assurances followed by a Texas legislative session. Molar highlighted work done through the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) that developed a guidebook to better understand FAA grant assurance obligations. The legislative session included comments and discussion from a panel consisting of Rep. John Cyrier (TX-17), Rep. Gary Gates (TX-28), and Joe Magruder from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. After the morning break, Col. Mark Tillman delivered the keynote address: Air Force One: Zero Fail Mission.
Chosen as the nation’s 12th Presidential pilot, Col. Tillman served as pilot and commander of Air Force One from 2001-2009. Col. Tillman was at the controls of Air Force One through numerous national events. Most notably, he protected the President on September 11, 2001, by keeping him out of harm’s way and connecting the flying oval office to the nation’s first responders.
In his inspirational keynote, Tillman outlined the harrowing events of that historic day and how the plan was put into motion to protect the President.
“Colonel Tillman’s speech was amazing,” said TxDOT Aviation Director of Grants and Administration, Kari Campbell. “I had chills listening to him relate the story of how the events of 9/11 unfolded. It was certainly one of the more memorable keynotes, out of many great ones, that we’ve had.”
After the keynote speech, the luncheon featured an awards program for the 2020 airport awards and the 2020 and 2021 aviation art contest award winners. The afternoon breakout sessions offered conference attendees the chance to learn and share information on a variety of topics including aviation education strategies for your airport, and economic development and impact at your airport. The perennial favorites, airport manager’s roundtable, pavement management, and RAMP session were also included in the sessions.
“Every year we work hard to identify those issues and challenges our airports are facing on a daily basis. We also carefully read through the evaluations to determine how we may best serve our conference attendees with timely, relevant topics,” said Texas A&M Transportation Institute Senior Research Scientist and co-conference planner Jeff Borowiec. “We stick to some of our favorites, but also strive to offer new topics based on that feedback.”
The annual banquet was the highlight of the busy day. The 2021 TxDOT Awards Program winners were announced (sidebar for winners), and then retired TxDOT Aviation Director David Fulton received the 2021 Aviator of the Year award, and was inducted into the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor (see accompanying story).
The conference concluded with a morning session on airport compliance where planning and programming director, Jim Halley presided over an informative and entertaining session of Airport Compliance Jeopardy. This was followed by the popular Aviation Division Section Director’s Forum. The FAA/TxDOT Listening Session was not held as usual due to the FAA’s inability to attend the event. However, Aviation Division director, Dan Harmon, did make himself available for any questions before ending the conference.
“I was very pleased with how well the conference went,” said Campbell. “From the speakers to honoring Dave Fulton, it was a special event and was great to see everyone in person again!”