The Wrangell sentinel., 1947-02-14
AIRPORT TERMED BORDER-LINE'
 BY CAA OFFICIAL

l CAA official, who talked 10 mass meeting of citizens at Elks hal. last night Mr Cusack is here in connection with the Federal Air port Aid Act which is an act pass ed by Congress to set up atrports in the States and Territories. the Federal Government to put up 75| per cent of the cost and the muni- cipality or responsible agency the remaining 25 per cent
 Mr. Cusack termed Wrangell's field as 'border-line" after visit to the site yesterday afternoon. but hastened to explain 1T was simply a eursory judgement; that many things would have to tyanspire be- fore Wrangell could know whether or not il would receive CAA ap-I proYal Us a public field. In order to benefit under the FAA Act. the field must have this approval.
 Cusack began his outline last night by pointing to weather as the Jonah" in Southeastern Alas ka as far as commercial land fly ing is concerned He explained that there were two types of flying -| contact and instrument lu contact flying the pilot is in visual obsery- ation of the ground at all times and has clear visibility of lhe ter rain In instrument flying, the| plane is flying either through oi above clouds and the pilot depends ! upon radio beams and his instru-I ment board to guide him.
 In Southeastern Alaska, Cusack | continued, 50 per cent or more orI the time the mountain tops are .obscured by clouds and instrument | landings would be out of the ques- tion. An instrument landing 1e- quires the pilot to zigzag across the beam in his let-down and, be- cause beams sometimes wander the CAA requires that a com mercial field, for accommodation of scheduled airlines have a leveiI surrounding area of, roughly, lOI to l5 miles. He pointed to Juneau's airport, It has no radio beam but planes, flying above or through the overcast, must go to Gustavus for their let-down and then hedge bOp. into Juneau.
 There are only two let-down su-I tions in Southeastern Alaska, Ju-I neau and Annette Island. On Dm. can Canal thefa k a radio beam [. aId piloes in checking courses l5 tween the two let-doWn points out il can Be9,r De l. f.l.a .srIuse 0, the mountainous terrain. eitka is suitable fer a let-doHn station and Held because il has d long opsn approach over water.
 Cusack said, however. that i, | was not his province to say wheth CT or not Wrangell should orI should not have an airport. He ex- plained his job was simply to look over sites and explain to a com nunity what building of an air port would entail under the Feder- l al Airport Aid Act. He said before expending a great amount of mon ey necessary for surveys and flight tests in preparing to submit plans to CAA for approval, a town should ask itself certain questions, ie will a field have enough traffic here to make it pay? He pointed out that CAA regulations specify the field must be kept in Al shape at all times; the runwayg must be kept free of show in the winter; oiled in the summer if dusty and an attendant must be on duty to service planes at any time. The town must ask itself, ] who will use this field?,, he said.
 Will the income warrant the ex penditure of it's original cost ana maintenance?" turn it's thoughts to seaplanes in- stead of land planes, as far as CAA is concerned and the FAA Act, MT. Cusack went on to point out that all Southeastern Alaska commun- ities were located on tidewater.
 If l had wheel plane at Wran- gell airport, where would I fIy?> he continued. About the only places would be to Annette Island, Juneau and occasionally, to Tele- graph Creek. If I had a fishing boat at Tenekee, or Point Alex ander a seaplane would be much more feasible to fly out and take look at it than a land plane"
 He pointed out that airport building in muskeg- is an expen- sive proposition and said if the town wished to go on with It's airport plan, under the Airport Aid
 Act, it would have to have the site surveyed by a competent en, gineer and flight-tested from its