SPRINGDALE - Pilot and aircraft mechanic Paul Wedin sipped coffee Friday morning and leaned against the spotless engine of a 1957 Cessna 182 at Springdale Municipal Airport.
He waited for a governor, a piece of equipment that regulates the engine's RPM. He had just replaced the propellor, and once the governor was installed, he could fly the plane back to Siloam Springs where its anxious owner waited.
Wedin, owner of Wedin Aircraft Sales and Maintenance, is one of the dozens who lease hangars at the airport. He and the other occupants soon will have new neighbors.
Springdale is building six hangars southwest of the terminal and expects to finish the project by September.
Clients already have leased the new spaces.
Architectural Contractors of Springdale is building the sixhangar complex. The project is funded by $320,000 in grants from the Arkansas Department of Aeronautics and $80,000 in matching city funds. Each hangar is 1,920 square feet and will rent for $230 per month. When the project is finished, the airport will have 112 hangars.
Hangar construction is the latest in Springdale's efforts to compete with regional general aviation airports such as Drake Field in Fayetteville and Rogers Municipal Airport, Carter Field.
Springdale built six hangars in 2006. On Tuesday, the City Council approved the condemnation of 6.6 acres for expansion of the 5,302-foot runway by as much as 300 feet.
Airport improvements are clearly meant to enhance Springdale's standing in the competitive pecking order of Northwest Arkansas.
"When businesses and executives look at a place they look at everything," city finance manager Wyman Morgan said, referencing schools, streets, parks and housing. "Business coming in and out generates more business. We have the need and the demand." More hangars could be built on the 6.6 acres now headed toward condemnation. If those hangars are built, Springdale doesn't foresee any problems leasing them.
"We keep a waiting list on hangars," Morgan said. "They're all rented even before they're built." A study by the Arkansas Aeronautics Department shows Springdale third in the state in the number of aircraft based at its airport. With 150 planes and helicopters, Springdale trails Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, with 179 and North Little Rock Municipal Airport with 163.
On Friday, Wedin's cell phone rang all morning with clients.
Explaining repairs and delays in the shipment of parts, his conversations veered from serious to jovial. Wedin understands the importance of repairing aircraft. Engine trouble at 2,000 feet is a bit more serious than engine trouble on U.S. 412.
Behind the Cessna 182 sat "Arctic Annie," a 1943 Beech-18. The silver, twin-engine plane was used by the Royal Canadian Air Force for transport and navigation training. A drawing of an alluring woman clad in a large fur scarf adorns the nose.
It took two weeks for Wedin to inspect the plane.
"There's a lot to it," he said. "It's had a lot of upgrades to make it dependable." When the weather improves, Wedin and the owner will fly "Arctic Annie" back to the M. Graham Clark-Taney County Airport in Point Lookout, Mo.
Planes aren't his only passion. He and wife, Janice, use the aircraft profits to support Christian Air Missions Support, a nondenominational mission that promotes charitable deeds in the United States and Mexico.
Wedin admits that at 64, he's been able to meet his dreams. But it didn't start out that way.
In 1960 he applied to the U.S. Air Force because he wanted to be an aircraft mechanic. He wasn't admitted because he has a harelip and cleft palate.
Undeterred, Wedin went to civilian mechanic's school. The Federal Aviation Administration has recognized him as an airframe and power plant mechanic with an inspection authorization for more than 20 years.
"I still got to do what I wanted to do had I went into the Air Force," Wedin said.
This article was published 07/14/2007
