GT Aeronautics makes pitch to Powell Airport

Posted 6/22/17

Tom Rullman, the owner and CEO of GT Aeronautics — an unmanned aircraft manufacturer based in Cody, spoke at length at Friday’s airport Board of Directors meeting about his desire to help make that happen. A number of local pilots attended the …

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GT Aeronautics makes pitch to Powell Airport

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CEO Rullman addresses unmanned aircraft with local pilots, airport board

Powell Municipal Airport leaders are mulling how they can safely become one of the first airports in the country to allow planes and unmanned aerial vehicles to operate simultaneously.

Tom Rullman, the owner and CEO of GT Aeronautics — an unmanned aircraft manufacturer based in Cody, spoke at length at Friday’s airport Board of Directors meeting about his desire to help make that happen. A number of local pilots attended the meeting, and it was Rullman’s intention to dispel any preconceived notions about the aerial vehicles.

“Most people’s perception when they hear ‘unmanned aircraft,’ or ‘remotely-piloted aircraft system’ or especially if they hear the word ‘drone,’ they think of a kid and his little quad-copter,” Rullman said. “That is not what we do. ... What we’re doing is building fixed-wing professional aircraft with the intent of approval of the Federal Aviation Administration. That’s an entirely different thing than flooding the toy market with a bunch of drones, flying them in national airspace and calling yourself a pilot.”

Because of the Powell airport’s isolated location and designated aerobatic box of restricted airspace, Rullman says it would be the ideal location to integrate manned and unmanned aircraft. Because of the meteoric rise in popularity of remotely piloted aircraft, and the difficulty of regulating who can fly and where, pilots have been concerned about sharing air space with unmanned craft and the qualifications of the individual controlling them.

As a former naval aviator and current pilot for Delta Airlines, Rullman assured the pilots any UAV flying in the aerobatics box would be operated by someone with the proper training and qualifications.

“People spend a lot of time to get their pilot’s license, and when they get that license, they’re proud of it,” Rullman said. “When a kid goes to the store, buys his quad-copter and goes flying and says he’s a pilot, a real pilot is offended by that.”

At the meeting, Rullman also passed around the specs on the GT 380, one of the aircraft GT Aeronautics currently develops. This gave the board and the pilots in attendance a bit more information on what Rullman hopes to fly out of the Powell Airport, as well as what it takes to operate it.

“I think after reading the information, they realized this a totally different ball game then someone opening up a little box and launching his drone up willy-nilly with no intent,” Rullman said. “There is intent here to do flight training.”

He added that, “When someone says ‘drone,’ for me that means a giant, fixed-wing aircraft with all of the systems capable of operating like a real airplane does.”

Rullman left Friday’s meeting encouraged by the feedback he received and hopes the pilot left feeling like their concerns were addressed.

“I did feel like it made an impact to people who may have, at one time, been skeptical,” Rullman said. “Now they can look at it and say, ‘Wow, this is actually a really good thing that can happen for the community.’”

Powell Airport Operator Debbie Weckler agreed, and said it’s her hope Rullman can schedule another meeting for the pilots who were unable to attend on Friday. For Weckler, safety and communication will be the determining factor as to whether unmanned flight operations at the Powell Airport will become a reality. Of major importance is how pilots would communicate with whoever is operating a UAV over the airport.

“We have a standing rule at our airport, and it’s gone quite well for safety: That rule is to use your radio,” Weckler said. “About the time you don’t use your radio, something is going to happen. Communication is going to be extremely important.”

Should Rullman be granted access to the airport for flight-training purposes, Weckler doesn’t foresee any major changes to standard operating procedure, save for the addition of a few new rules to accommodate more traffic.

“I’ve talked with quite a few pilots, and they’re more comfortable after that meeting,” she said. “They would also like another meeting, just to talk over a few more things. Not allowing people to just drive out on the tarmac and having some absolute rules for the runways and taxiways, those kinds of things need to be figured out.”

Rullman said he’s been approached by the airport board to provide a demonstration of the GT 380 at the Wings ’N Wheels Fly-In and Car Show in August. For that to happen, he will need to familiarize himself with the workings of the Powell Airport with multiple test flights, with an eye toward one day conducting flight training at the location north of town.

“For that to happen, I have to get comfortable with that airport — roughly 20 flights with the GT 380 up there,” Rullman said. “I’m going to go to the FAA, find out everything I need to do. It’s not flight testing; the airplane has already flown. But it is flight testing from the standpoint of operating it at that airport; I can’t put it up in front of people until I have all that stuff squared away.”

Interest in manufacturing facility remains

Beyond wanting to alleviate any fears about the operation of UAVs, Rullman also wanted to make GT Aeronautics’ case for building a manufacturing facility at the Powell Airport.

After receiving tentative approval by the Wyoming Business Council for a $435,400 state grant for the project in March, GT Aeronautics and the City of Powell decided against moving forward at that time. However, if negotiations with the airport continue to move forward in a positive direction, Rullman said he’d like to see that project back on the table at some point.

“We’ve got to get by those little stumbling blocks, and to me they’re very minor,” Rullman said. “My recommendation to Christine [Bekes, executive director of Powell Economic Partnership] is to re-submit, do it again, and this time let’s get past these little minor details.”

Rullman said he had two goals at Friday’s meeting: To alleviate any fears that exist with the operation of UAVs at the Powell Airport and to make GT Aeronautics’ case for building the manufacturing facility.

Rullman said he was unsure of what the process is for re-submission with the project, though he’s confident PEP will continue working on selling the idea.

“I’m standing here ready to help, no matter what,” Rullman said. “It’s a benefit to me of course, and it’s certainly a benefit to the City of Powell. Wyoming is where I live now, and the business is going to go here whether Powell does it or not. But I want it to happen in Powell. The FAA wants it to happen in Powell — they’re fired up about using Powell Airport. ... My personal feeling is, Powell can do this; let’s get ’er done.”

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