AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2017 - 85

"When is my hangar going to be
ready?" he asked.
"I'm working on it," Murray said.
The red-and-white-striped hangars
at Williamson-Sodus are not quite big
enough for the Widgeon or Holtz's other
twin, so he keeps his airplanes at Greater
Rochester International Airport. He flies
26 nautical miles to Williamson-Sodus
every weekend to buy fuel and have lunch
with his friends in the flying club.
Chris Karpenko's V-tail Bonanza
taxis onto the ramp. Karpenko shuts
down, opens the door, and starts offloading luggage and his dog, Alex. During the
week, Karpenko works for the U.S. Postal
Service in Washington, D.C., and keeps
his Beechcraft Bonanza at College Park
Airport within the flight restricted zone.
On the weekends, he heads to WilliamsonSodus. Soon he, too, is standing in line for
Saturday lunch with fellow club members,
some of whom take turns minding Alex
while her owner gets a sandwich.
Why would airplane owners belong to
a flying club? Maybe it's because they love
the many and varied social activities the
club offers. Or maybe it's because of the
fuel discount they receive. But probably
it's because they feel a sense of ownership
toward this airport.
"We are the only flying club that
owns and operates a public airport," said
Murray. "The club is the airport owner,
the operator of the FBO-we fulfill all
these roles."
Williamson Flying Club has owned
and operated Williamson-Sodus Airport
since its earliest days in 1956, when it
was a short, narrow grass strip on 30
acres. Back then, five charter members
flew Aeroncas and L-birds from the airport, situated about four miles from Lake
Ontario in Wayne County.
Jake DeGroote is one of the charter
members. "When we started there was
a field-a guy who did crop dusting," he
said. "He got out of it and we ended up
with [the airport]."
The club and the airport have flourished in the decades since. Five members
are now 227 members. Thirty acres has
mushroomed to 106 acres. The original 2,000-foot, 10-foot-wide runway
has been paved; in 1996 it was enlarged
to 3,801 feet long and 60 feet wide. The

KEEP 'EM FLYING
Williamson Flying Club keeps
aircraft and pilots in top shape
With just four aircraft for about 170 actively
flying club members, the pressure is on to
keep the Williamson Flying Club fleet in
top shape, and Chief Flight Instructor Mike
Bjerga takes that responsibility to heart.
The federal aviation regulations don't
require a 100-hour inspection for clubowned aircraft, but Bjerga preflights each
airplane himself every 75 hours. The aircraft
get a firewall-forward inspection every 100
hours, and a complete annual inspection
every 200 hours. He tries to schedule
extensive maintenance for colder months
when pilots aren't flying as much. "It keeps
the airplanes in rotation," he said. The
club relies on Ray Chapin, who operates
a maintenance shop and helicopter flight
instruction business at the airport, to keep
the airplanes in top shape.
Just 26 nautical miles from Rochester,
New York, the region experiences raw
weather during winter. "With the general
membership, people hang up their headset
in September and don't pick it up until May,"
Bjerga said. The club added a FlyThisSim TouchTrainer to help pilots maintain
their club currency requirements. The
TouchTrainer can be easily configured as a
Cessna, a Piper, or a Beechcraft, which
covers the club fleet and many flying members' airplanes.
Bjerga wears many hats at the airport-
he is the airport manager as well as its chief
flight instructor-and occasionally he'll add
a new hat. He learned computer coding
so he could design a new scheduling and
dispatching program. The finished product
is personalized for the club and more userfriendly. Best of all, it saves the club $1,000
per year that is no longer paid to an outside
company.
Bjerga also conducts Boy Scout and Girl
Scout aviation activities and hosts airport
tours for local schools. "I stay busy," he said,
but he noted that he can outsource many
tasks-grounds upkeep, snow plowing, and
the like-to willing club members.
-JWT

airport has two GPS approaches and is
a reliever airport for Greater Rochester
International Airport. There are more
than 70 based aircraft, 51 hangars with
a waiting list, a self-serve fuel pump,
and an independently owned maintenance shop/helicopter flight school (see
"Keeping the Lights On," p. 86).
DeGroote's hangar is a focal point
of the airport. He is here most days,
restoring his 1939 Taylorcraft while also
helping other club members work on
their aircraft projects. An airframe and
powerplant mechanic, DeGroote knows
how to repair tube-and-fabric aircraft-a
skill that is disappearing-and he shares
that knowledge with the club.
"I'm only 82," he said. "I've got
another 10 years before retirement."
Denny Angstrom wants a visitor to
know: DeGroote is not the oldest actively
flying member-he is. "This is the only
club I've ever belonged to," Angstrom
said. The 81-year-old flies a Piper
Comanche and an Aeronca Champ. He
owns a small group of hangars that operate as a through-the-fence business on
the airport. The hangars were the original candystick-painted buildings on the
property, and all the other hangars built
since are painted similarly.
AFFORDABLE FLYING

A prime directive of the club is to provide
affordable flight training to its members.
Operating with four aircraft, a full-time
flight instructor, and a few part-time
instructors, the club offers astonishingly
low rental rates: $69 per hour wet for a
Piper Cherokee 140; $79 per hour wet
for a Piper Archer; $89 per hour wet for
a Cessna 172. Instruction is $35 per hour.
The club purchases fuel from itself at
pump prices and makes no profit off the
aircraft rental.

FROM TOP LEFT, Chris Karpenko and his

dog Alex travel to Williamson-Sodus
Airport every weekend; Barry Holtz and
his Grumman Widgeon are frequent
visitors; Chief Instructor Mike Bjerga is the
sole employee of the airport; Williamson
Flying Club members line up for the
popular Saturday lunch.

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2017

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