June 10--LONGMONT -- Linda Belleau has operated a restaurant at the Greeley-Weld County Airport for 22 years, the last 12 of which have been in the airport's terminal building, which opened in 2000.
The Barnstormer restaurant leases space from the airport authority, which built and owns the building and has its offices there. Peak Flight Support, a "fixed base operator," as such businesses are known that provide services for pilots and airplanes, also occupies space in the terminal.
The Barnstormer seats about 105 at capacity. Asked how it looks on a typical Saturday morning, the owner smiles.
"Packed to the gills," Belleau said. "Usually on Saturday mornings we have the tarmac full of planes.
"We get them from, actually,
almost anyplace that has an airport."
It's not at all unusual for customers to come from Grand Junction, and just about every pilot at airports around the Front Range has frequented the place.
Don Dolce, a flight instructor at Twin Peaks Aviation at Vance Brand Airport, took one of his students, Greg Rademacher, to The Barnstormer for lunch just last week.
Vance Brand has no restaurant, although the Flight Deck Grill, a food truck owned by Dian and Chad Rennicke, is now in its fourth season and has developed a strong following.
New plan, new outlook
The new Vance Brand Airport master plan, recently passed by the City Council, includes plans for a restaurant at the airport as well as a new fixed base operator, since Larry Kuebrich, owner of Air West Flight Center, is retiring.
"We look at other airports and wish we had some of their amenities," said Kuebrich, who has owned Air West for 21 years. "Greeley's sitting up there with a terminal building and a restaurant and offices, which we don't have here.
"Longmont's a unique airport but it's a little behind the times, because the last major improvement, not counting the hangars, (was in) 1988 (when the runway was last extended)."
Jayme Shroyer, owner of Twin Peaks Aviation, agrees that Vance Brand is due for an upgrade.
"If we had a restaurant, people from all of those airports would come here," Shroyer said. "It would be good for us but it would also be good for the city.
"I think the airport's important. I think it's a good thing for the city. And I think it brings in a lot more money than people realize."
Dian Rennicke said she and her husband would love to build a restaurant at Vance Brand. But it's not as simple as if they were simply building a restaurant on land they owned, airport manager Tim Barth said.
The city owns the land at the airport and leases space to the private operators who own hangars and other businesses there. They can own their own building, but the city will always own the land.
Barth said the Federal Aviation Administration, which heavily funds the airport, has very specific rules about who may do business at the airport, and two of those rules -- concerning competitive access and non-exclusive rights -- will require a careful handling of who is chosen to build a restaurant. It might be, Barth said, that Flight Deck's owners have to go through a competitive bidding process similar to the process under way right now for the new FBO.
He's had others beside the Rennickes express an interest in having a restaurant on the airfield, Barth said. But his priority for the time being, he said, is finding that new FBO.
"We want a restaurant out here, but until we have completed the (request for proposal) process for the FBO and we know what that's going to look like and how much land the FBO is going to take, we're not going to look at putting a restaurant out here," Barth said.
But that doesn't mean a restaurant is years away. Barth said he expects the FBO to be chosen by this fall.
"Depending on what the city gets in there, it might change the face of the airport," said Shroyer.
More than cheap gas?
Barth said changing the face of the airport is exactly the city's intent in choosing a new FBO.
"It's going to be the biggest event that has happened to this airport in 25 years," Barth said.
The
RFP the city issued is specific in its demands, asking for a pilot's lounge, a courtesy car that visiting pilots and crew can use to go into the city for any reason, a public waiting area and restrooms, and catering services for visiting aircraft. The RFP also requires the new FBO to offer turbine, jet and aircraft instrument repair, all of which are unavailable at the airport today.
Boulder's airport, which is slightly smaller than Vance Brand, has its own terminal building, built in 1969. While slightly dated from the outside, inside it offers a comfortable area where pilots can relax, and last year the Free Bird Coffee Bar opened, offering a limited menu of mostly snacks and drinks. About five businesses in all rent space in the terminal building, which was built by the city.
"I know that's not common for airports this size, so we're kind of lucky," said Tim Head, manager of Boulder Municipal Airport.
As with its restaurant, the pilot's lounge at the Greeley airport is on another level.
"I have to tell you that this is a valuable part of the operation," said Dolce, who makes frequent trips to Greeley's airport. "The pilots can come in here and turn on the computer, check the weather, they can watch TV and relax a little bit."
Unlike Vance Brand, Greeley-Weld has both a 10,000-foot and 6,000-foot runway, so it can handle corporate jets that will never fly into Vance Brand. About 235 aircraft are based at Greeley-Weld, along with 15 businesses. According to Dolce, Greeley-Weld even has active oil wells on the property, which further contribute to the airport authority's coffers.
About 350 aircraft are based at Vance Brand, along with 14 businesses. Some of those businesses, such as Western Aviators, operate multiple businesses under one roof.
Western does individual and commercial charter flights, corporate aircraft sales and management, and repair work. It owns a 10-bay hangar at Vance Brand, out of which operates R&S Enterprises, another company owned by Western's president, Rick Fowler. R&S Enterprises invented and manufacturers a lift-type piece of equipment that is used to perform aircraft inspections and maintenance.
Fowler said Western plans to break ground before the end of the year on a new 26,000-square-foot building it will use to house large corporate aircraft.
Fowler bases his operations out of several airports but said he prefers to keep Vance Brand as his headquarters.
He said he thinks a restaurant at the airport would be a positive.
"I think that would be a beautiful addition if it was done right," Fowler said. "I think a lot of people would come to see the airport."
He said by that he means people flying in from other airports and people who live in and around Longmont.
With the changes coming to Vance Brand in the near future, Longmont residents who maybe never go to the airport might soon have a reason to venture out there and see what's going on.
After all, it's no longer "three miles west of Longmont," as it was advertised on the program for the airport's dedication in 1945. Named after Longmont's one and only astronaut, the original Longmont Municipal Airport actually opened in 1942, making this its 70th birthday.
As it stands now, Vance Brand is known primarily to Front Range pilots as the place to buy the cheapest gas.
Sue Wolber, whose plane is based at the Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport, pulled her single-engine Beech plane up to the tanks outside Twin Peaks last week and filled up. The bill was $272.22 for 52 gallons.
"Gas here is quite a bit cheaper," Wolber said. "I do trips to Kansas City a couple times a year and I will stop here. Here or Platte Valley (Airpark, in Hudson) are the cheap places."
Asked whether Vance Brand having a full-on restaurant would be of interest to her, she said she's eaten at the Flight Deck Grill and likes it but she's a regular at The Barnstormer just because she knows it's open every day.
Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291 or at [email protected].
Copyright 2012 - Daily Times-Call, Longmont, Colo.
