SERVING THE VILLAGES OF: BREVIG MISSION COUNOL DIOMEDE EL!M GAMBELL GOLOVIN KING ISLAND KOYUK MARY'S IGLOO NOME SAVOONGA SHAKTOOUK SHISHMAREF SOLOMON STEBBINS ST. MICHAEL 'TELLER UNAI.AKI.EET WALES WHITE MOUNTAIN**~ ~**  b.. ,e,.. J!!:J. J!!:,..**~** & TEL: (907) 443-5231 • FAX: (907) 443-4452 

### Sent Electronically and Via Certified Mail Aprill4, 2015 Albert Muldoon Office ofAviation Analysis United States Department ofTransportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 · Re: 

### Native Village of Diomede and Kawerak, Inc.'s Comments to Erickson HeUcopters, Inc.'s Proposal in 

### Response to US 

### DOT's Order Requesting Proposals for providing HeUcopter Air 

### Service to Diomede, Alaska, Docket DOT-OST-2009-0260 Dear Mr. Muldoon: The Native Village of Diomede (Diomede) and Kawerak, Inc. (Kawerak) hereby jointly provide comments to the above referenced proposal from Erickson Helicopters, Inc.'s (Erickson) proposal dated April 11, 2015 to provide helicopter services to Diomede (the Proposal) through the United States Department of Transportation's (US DOT) 

### Air Transportation to Non-eligible Places (ATNEP) program. 

### Diomede and Kawerak are grateful that Erickson has again this year chosen to respond to the US DOT RFP and offer to provide helicopter services to Diomede, and, should Erickson be selected, look forward to working with Erickson in partnership over the next year. The Proposal is acceptable to Diomede and Kawerak generally, with a few areas that require some clarification between the parties:
• The Proposal contemplates 24 regular scheduled flights to Diomede, to occur every other week throughout the year long contract period (Regular Flights), and an additional12 flights to be used by Diomede at its discretion (Additional Flights). Our understanding of the intent of the Proposal is that if for any reason Erickson is not able to fly during a Regular Flight, that Regular Flight will be rescheduled and made up by Erickson at the first available opportunity still as one of the 24 Regular Flights. A make-up of a Regular Scheduled flight will not be counted against one of the 12 Additional Flights Diomede has to use at its discretion.
• The Proposal provides for "two scheduled trips monthly (24 trips)
.... " It appears to us that this means Erickson will be flying all twelve months (twice monthly), regardless of whether there is an ice runway for some period during the term of thePage 2

contrac t. A tab le pro v id ed at the end of the Propo sal, h owever, lists th e "Weeks of Service per Year" as "4 4 " which might be confused as mean in g that for a t wo m onth period during the yea r no s ervices are provided. We ass ume this is probably a clerical error and that the "Weeks of Service pe r Year--44 " i s n o longer acc urate and should instead state "Months of Service per Year

- 12" in accordance w ith the narrative of the Proposal.

• The Proposal refers to "t h e Customer" hav ing discreti on to ch oose when to u se the 12 Additional Flights
. W e ass ume "t he Customer" is Di omede.

• Though there was encouraging inf o rm ation in the Proposal regarding the aircraft b eing u s ed and t he approach being taken to address m ai ntenance downtime , we wo uld like clarification th at the intent of Erickson durin g the contract p eriod w ill be to make e v ery attempt not to sc hedul e routine m aintenance of aircraft u sed to serv ice Diomede , during time s in which Regular Flights are scheduled fo r Diomede.

• The Propos al references 4 8 ho urs' notice to adjust the schedu le to " meet emergent req uirement s or acco un t for severe weather." We ass um e tha t, as has been t h e practice in prior years, w ith resp ect to weather , Erickson w ill b e monitor i ng weather and will make decision s abo ut can ce ling and rescheduling flight s as necessary , and will not need 4 8 h o ur s' notice from Kawerak or Diomede to reschedule a fl i ght cancelled due to weather wh en a window a ppears with t he we ather a nd the y have an opportunity to make the flight into Diomede. It is our hope t hat Ericks o n concurs w ith these clarific a ti ons regarding their Proposal and , if so, we look forward to working with thi s outstanding A i r Carr ie r again th is next year. Sincerely,



### Robert Soolook, resrdent Native Village of 

### Diomede CC: Denni s DeVan y, US DO T Kevin Sch lemmer, US DOT