iE(DEOW 

MAR 11200 9 

AIRR. K rtiV^''RONiV!ENTAL 

1-7 

'-'3 

March 2, 2009 

Jonathan W. Cross 

Acting Manager 

Airports Low Branch AGC-610 

Office of the Chief Counsel 

Federal Aviation Administration 

800 Independence Ave., S.W., RM 923M 

Washingon, D.C. 20591 

RE: Docket 16-08-13 

• — , 

Dear Mr, Cross, 

ThanRyoufbrtheopportunitytoadd^s^^^gationag^ ^ 

management (MMI) and reinforce my position as to why tnis allegation v» , 

is factual. '['^ 

, h,.e l^ed >n «c«inn County for '"^^J.^^^^yT^.'^^^^^^^lS^^ ^ 

wW. tl« SwW awoSaUon and other pHots at the airport. 

Airport. 

, hav. ,on, bean an advocMo o, ax^n-nng »-I^P-.^^^^^^^ ^ 

concept arose when County Executive Ron Ban^s tirei miroauc ^^^^^ 

not one of the negath^e P«>P|e about the expans^^^^^^^^ ^^ ,^^ 

were many. I became and stiH am.» repr^ent^t j ^l^l^'^^^^ ^ £^^0 severely crippled in 

definitely wrong! 

Sincerely 

Dewitt T. Ferrell, Jr 
ALLEGATION AGAINST THE MANAGEMENT OF McMINN COUNTY AIRPORT 

in my allegation against the management of the McMinn County Airport, I would like to document 

each occurrence as it actually happened. 

But first I would like to state that I think that Mayor Gentry is a fine young man of high character 

that has used bad judgment in some areas of his jurisdiction and that his cousin, Mrs. Kristi 

Gentry-Cox is a fine young lady that has also used bad judgment in her business practices in her 

management of the McMinn County Airport, especially customer relations. 

In Mayor Gentry's response letter he stated that I referred to him "...equate his past battles with 

North Korean and Chinese communist regimes..." that I fought against during the Korean War as 

a Naval Aviator. I am sorry that Mayor Gentry perceived that interpretation. Ironically, Mayor 

Gentry mentioned in his response, about the "Battle of Athens" that happened in 1946 when the 

Worid War II veterans came home and found that the Democrats had taken tyrannical control of 

the McMinn County government. The veterans countered with an all out shooting event that put 

McMinn County back in perspective of using the democratic processes. Bill Keyes, our wives 

and I went to view a presentation at Tennessee Wesleyan College last year about the "Battle of 

Athens". A video presentation by Mr. Steven Pell for the History Chanel. After the presentation, 

Bill Keyes and I looked at each other and said, "Does that ring a familiar bell"? So I might add 

that perhaps there were traces of "over control" by McMinn County government, and the airport 

management. 

Mayor Gentry is a good American citizen and we at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which I am the 

Event Chairman, requested Mayor Gentry for one of our Veteran's Day Ceremonies, to be our Key 

Note speaker. He did a great job. Mayor Gentry is a patriotic American who is an avid believer 

in our Constitution, i stated that, "Some of us were taking "hits" as I did during the Korean War 

when my Navy plane was hit by enemy fire." In that war, the enemy was "clear cut" and our 

fighting against one another was with military options. In this case, we are dueling with words 

and letters as our swords. One of the problems that we have...Only a very few have made all of 

the decisions concerning the airport expansion program. With Mayor Gentry having little 

aeronautical experience, he could have used an advisory committee of some type. When I flew 

with the airiines, it had been policy in the eariy days that the Captain had all of the authority and 

did all of the decision making. Due to a high number of accidents that involved this kind of 

leadership, the airiines decided to start using ail of the pilots in the cockpit to come up with a 

collective decision, called Cockpit Resource Management. (CRM) We also incorporated company 

dispatch and called them in their main Communication Center in Chicago to help us with tough 

decisions. This is what I was referring to when I related to the County Management as to an 

elusive proponent that did not want our suggestions or input into his decision making. This is 

why we are here today writing ail of these letters. There was a lot of talent that Mayor Gentry 

chose NOT to use. Mr. Keyes is an accomplished, bright engineer that could have certainly been 

a great asset to Mayor Gentry,but during the construction process when Mr. Keyes attended most 

of the meetings between McMinn County and the construction company, Mr. Keyes was 

considered a "pest" that they had to tolerate. Any of us would have been only too happy to help in 

anyway we could. Mayor Gentry was determined to use the County Engineer that blotched up the 

entire project even though FAA guidelines were available and should have been strictly adhered 

to in building and establishing a safe runway. When Mr. Witt, in desperation, went to the media 

after exhausting communication contact with Mayor Gentry, the County Mayor, became very 

angry. I was an eye witness to this anger. This happened after the radio host, Howard Hill of 

Knoxville told of the "McMinn Airport Debackle". I had already written a letter to Mayor Gentry 

concerning what I thought was a very unsafe runway that the County had built, and was not in 

accordance with FAA guidelines. 

Page 1 of 4 
I have high regard for Mayor Gentry. We have been long time friends, and I hope that we always 

remain friends. My objective here is to try and end this discrimination issue that has taken place 

at the McMinn County Airport against Mr. Kenny Witt, Mr. Bill Keyes, and myself. Mayor Gentry 

may, or may not be aware of this discrimination, but I have documented it as factual. 

My relationship with Mayor Gentry is good. But my relationship as a customer and user of 

Athens Air, LLC. is not good. In my opinion, Mrs. Gentry-Cox is in a position that she is not 

qualified to be in. Her customer service skills are inadequate. I thought when she became the 

Fixed Base Operator of the McMinn County Airport that she would do a good job. I was wrong. 

As I stated in my verbal statement to the McMinn County Commission in 2007,1 recite the Pledge 

of Allegiance to our Flag probably four times a month, and I stand up for that recital, "...FOR 

LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALLI" 

My purpose for my allegation is to end this senseless discrimination. We can certainly try to do 

better, and take positive steps to make things better for everyone. It will take effort and 

compassion on everyone's part. 

I have tried to solve some of these problems locally, but to no avail. I then decided to go to 14 

CFR Part 16, to try and put this behind us. 

In Mayor Gentry's first response as to the Fixed Base Operator, Athens Air, LLC, "Not renting the 

company plane to Mr. Witt..." Mr. Witt was not the one who requested renting the Athens Air, 

LLC company plane, it was myself. I talked to Mr. Jim Gentry, who was standing in for his 

daughter, Kristi Gentry, and asked Mr. Gentry if the airplane was available for rent, as I was 

coming up on my Bi-Annual check flight, and since my Mooney 201 did not have a right seat in it, 

due to the fact that I take vertical aerial photographs from a STC made window at that seat 

position, and the instructor should be sitting next to me in an adjacent seat. Mr. Gentry told me 

that the airplane was available on the date that I requested it. I called Mr. Witt and related to him 

that I had made preparations to rent the Athens Air, LLC company plane at the planned date and 

time of our bi-annual check flight. Mr. Witt met me at the airport, and I walked into the terminal 

building to do the required paper work to rent the airplane. Mr. Curtis Bible was on the desk, with 

Mrs. Gentry-Cox a short distance away at the time. Mr. Curtis must have been pre-briefed, 

because he told me immediately that the rental of the Athens Air, LLC airplane could not be rented 

because Mr. Witt was not on their Insurance form. Of course, I was taken back, and while Mrs 

Gentry-Cox was within "Ear Shot" of the conversation, and even though she was the 

owner/operator of Athens Air, LLC, she did not step forward and explain her position. 

The Cessna 172 belonging to Athen Air, LLC. is used for training. Much of their training is done 

with aspiring pilots. When the student pilots has enough time to do his solo flights at perhaps 10 

hours of flight time in the training aircraft, they are permitted to take the airplane up by 

themselves to do their required solo maneuvers. These student pilots ARE NOT on the Athens 

Air, LLC. Insurance Form (Mayor Gentry's Exhibit 2) I...NOT Mr. Witt requested the rental of the 

training aircraft I have an FAA ATP Certificate with type ratings of Boeing 737 and Boeing 727, 

Commercial privileges single and multi engine land, over 26,000 flight hous and was an airline 

Line Check Airman with my airiine before I reti\red. I held a current Second Class FAA Physical 

Examination Certificate. It seems strange that under the above circumstances that I was denied 

rental of the Athens Air, LLC's Cessna 172. 

Page 2 of 4 
If a Fixed Base Operator has an aircraft rental service, and a certified FAA pilot wants to rent the 

aircraft, the normal procedure is for a company pilot to take that pilot out, and give him a check 

out and make sure he is safe, and qualified to fly the airplane, and then the rental contract can be 

carried out. This did not happen. If Mrs. Gentry-Cox had called me at home, and explained to 

me the circustanes of why she did not want to rent the aircraft to me, I would have understood her 

position. This was an inconvenience for me and Mr. Witt, and highly un-called for. There was 

no apology for the misunderstanding, and actually no explanation except that Mr. Witt was not on 

their insurance form which was irrelevant since Mr. Witt had not contracted for the aircraft. 

Therefore, Mayor Gentry is incorrect in this assumption. THE ALLEGATION IS FACTUAL! 

After this incident, I was out in the parking lot and Mr. Bill Johnson's cousin, Ray (unknown last 

name) came up to me and said, "Jack, if you continue to associate with Mr. Witt, you will no 

longer be welcome at this airport!" As Mr. Johnson's illness progressed, Ray assumed the 

majority of the day to day operations of the airport, essentially becoming the airport manager until 

control was passed onto Ms. Gentry. 

A short time later I noticed that my pick up truck had been "keyed" down the side as stipulated in 

my statement to the county commission. 

The next Sunday in church, where Mrs. Gentry-Cox and I both attend, Ms. Gentry came up to me 

and said, "I love you, God loves you, but you are really making it difflcuit!" 

I used to get Emails from Athens Air, LLC. that were disseminated to ALL of the pilots who flew 

out of the McMinn County Airport as to the happenings at the airport, who had soloed, pilot safety 

brieflngs, random get together events, etc. but that dramatically stopped with this incident. At 

this time, almost two years later, I have not been inside the terminal building at the airport, or 

received any hint of an apology from Mrs. Gentry-Cox. 

My Docket 16-08-13 had no references or complaints concerning Notams or any of the airport 

facilities. 

I really thought that when Mr. Witt and Mr. Keyes presented the Line of Sight problem of McMinn 

County Airport the to the Tennessee Department of Transportation Aeronautical Department, and 

to the FAA, and the Line of Sight correction was made, that the airport problem was over. 

My friend, the former Fixed Base Operator, Mr. Bill Johnson, who died shortly thereafter of 

Cancer, sold his interests in the Fixed Base Operation of McMinn County Airport to Mrs. 

Gentry-Cox and Mr. Newman. The McMinn County Airport is now in ship shape condition. The 

new Fix Based Operators now had a greatly improved runway whereas corporate jet aircraft could 

operate safely. I would think that Mrs. Gentry-Cox and Mayor Gentry would be forever grateful to 

Mr. Witt and Mr. Keyes for devoting their expertise and efforts in accomplishing this task at no 

benefit to eKher of them. Mr. Witt had originally been concerned about the safety of his flight 

students flying in this very dangerous Line of Sight problem. 

Page 3 of 4 
Upon completion of the runway expansion project I was delighted. Mr. Jerry Poat told 

me..."There is something that I want to show you!" He took me down to the end of runway 20 

and showed me the Line of Sight problem. I was aghast at what I saw. Exhibit A and Exhibit B. 

I still do not know the problem that Mrs. Gentry-Cox has with Mr. Witt. One day she told him, and 

I was not a witness, "I don't want to see you back at this airport!" I heard this minutes after the 

alleged incident occurred. I can only assume, that Ms, Gentry was exercising her wrath upon Mr. 

Witt for being a "Whistle Blower" on the Line of Sight problem and embarrassing her cousin. 

Therefore my ALLEGATION is reinforced for DISCRIMINATION against Mr. Witt, Mr. Keyes, and 

myself. 

Very respectfully, 

Dewitt T. Ferrell, Jr. 

P.O. Box 206 

Athens, TN 37371-0206 

MAR 0 ? 2009 

Page 4 of 4 
Federal Aviation Administration 

800 Independence Avenue S.W., RM 923M 

Airports Law Branch, AGC-610 

Washington, DC 20591 

Attn: FAA Part 16 Airport Proceedings Docket 

Subject: McMinn County Part 16 Complaint Re: Docket 16-08-13 

Certificate of Service 

I hereby certify that I have this day served the foregoing McMinn County Part 16 

complaint on the following persons at the following addresses by United State Postal 

Service mail: 

Mr. John Gentry, County Mayor 

McMinn County Courthouse 

6 East Madison Ave 

Athens, TN 37303 

Mr. David Crews, Chairman McMiim County Commission 

McMinn County Courthouse 

6 East Madison Ave 

Athens, TN 37303 

Dated this day of 2"** March 2009 
SUPPLEMENT: EXHIBIT " C 

DOCKET 16-08-13 

Exhibit "0 " clearly states that an Fixed Base Operator DOES rent his RENTAL AIRCRAFT 

WITHOUT the renter having to be on the FBO's "Insurance Form"! 

Dewitt T. Ferrell, Jr 

March 2, 2009 
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