Formation training clinic to be held

Fresh off the success of last weekend's Airport Day activities, the Fort Scott Municipal Airport will be full of aircrafts for four more days.

After four years of planning, Fort Scott Municipal Airport Manager Kenny Howard and staff will host the Red Star Pilot Association's formation training clinic. According to Howard, upwards of 30 planes will arrive Wednesday afternoon and evening with classroom training beginning Thursday morning. He added that the planes will take to the sky in small groups Thursday afternoon, Friday, and Saturday.

"This will be the first formation clinic has ever been held in Fort Scott," Howard said. "To my knowledge it might be the first one held in the state of Kansas."

Howard said that he has been collaborating with Terry Calloway who owns a business near the Pittsburg Municipal Airport to bring the event to Fort Scott.

"We thought this would be a good year to take the opportunity to put it together," Howard said. "We've had a really good response from all the pilots coming in."

The clinic will consist of a mixture of Chinese Trainers from the Red Start Pilot Association and homemade planes from the Falcon Flight Formation Team, that performed at Airport Day. Howard said that the Red Star Pilot Association is made up of 500 pilots from across the country while the Falcon Flight Formation Team is made up of 5,000 pilots across the country. He added, the two organizations have never flown together in the past.

Howard said the planning of the event took a while because it was a struggle to find an airport that was big enough to host the event. With recent improvements to the airport, Howard felt he could host the event.

"With some of the improvements that we've made at our airport over the last couple of years, we feel like we can accommodate them now," he said.

Thursday night the pilots will enjoy a dinner at the Buffalo Grill, according to Howard. He added they will have dinner at the Liberty Theatre which will be followed by a guest speaker, a FR-71 pilot from the Cold War. The public is invited to attend the speaker's presentation. Friday night the pilots will head back to the Liberty Theatre for dinner and will be treated to a performance by Moonlight Serenade. Howard said the public is invited to join in the show and to contact the Liberty Theatre at (620) 223-4060 for more information.

The culmination to the event hopes to be a spectacle. Howard said that the goal is to have all the pilots attending the clinic participate in a flyover during the pregame festivities at the Pittsburg State University's football game Saturday afternoon.

"However many planes are here will be involved in that formation group when they go over the game at PSU," he said.

Howard said that the practices are open to the public, and there will be an area fenced off where the public can watch. He said it will not be like an air show and there will be no vendors. The formation practices will begin Thursday afternoon until about 5:30 p.m. and all day Friday.

With the Fort Scott Municipal Airport hosting the formation clinic over several days, there will be quite an impact on the local economy.

Fort Scott Director of Economic Development Dale Bunn said that the economic impact could be anywhere from $4,000 to $5,000 of additional income to local hotels, restaurants, and shops.

The pilots attending the clinic will most likely bring at least one guest with them, according to Bunn. In addition they will pay for their own fuel, lodging, and food. With the exception of providing transportation to and from the airport and organizing lodging and dining arrangements, the City of Fort Scott has nothing financially invested in the clinic.

Bunn said that events such as last weekend's Airport Day and the clinic are excellent ways to promote the airport and Fort Scott.

"It shows off our airport ... it's a great asset for the community as far as economic development," Bunn said. "Maybe out of all this there will be some executives that fall in love with Fort Scott, its happened before."