FW: kalispell airportFYI.
From: Nancy Kimball [mailto:nkimball@dailyinterlake.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 2:41 PM
To: Jane Howington
Subject: Fwd: kalispell airport
Hi Jane -- Here's another email regarding the airport, again just in
case it has any bearing on your process. Being from a bush pilot in
Africa who was trained at Strand Aviation, this one brings an
interesting twist.
Thanks,
Nancy
Begin forwarded message:
From: "rijks.agrometeo" <rijks.agrometeo@wanadoo.fr>
Date: December 5, 2009 4:17:00 AM MST
To: <nkimball@dailyinterlake.com>
Cc: <aopahg@aopa.org>
Subject: kalispell airport
Bonjour,
Just want to say how far the benefits of Kalispell City airport have
reached.
I followed my pilot's training at Kalispell in 1981 with instructor Ken
Byers of Strand Aviation, I have flown since then many many hours,
mostly in the Sahel, first for the development of the Senegal River
Basin and later for the strengthening of the meteorological and
hydrological networks, and the training of techniciens and engineers to
do meteorological data analysis for application for better food
production in these semi-arid areas.
At the moment I work the major part of my time as a volunteer on the
Sudan-Tchad border to teach refugee women how to use solar cookers in
the desert area where there is no wood to cook the food brought in by
the World Food Programme of FAO/UN. If refugee women did not have this
solar cooking technique, they would have to go out for many miles every
day to search, often in vain, for just a little bit of wood and run a
50% risk of being beaten or raped or killed by errant scoundrels.
Just to say how much I am grateful to the City of Kalispell and Ken
Byers to have given me a chance to become a long-term bush pilot. I do
hope that you will decide to continue to give such chances to many, even
if they come from Europe and go to work in the worst security regions of
Africa. To me this is part of America's technical and human heritage
shared with the whole world. And you just need a well functioning
airport to continue to play that role.
Best regards, Derk Rijks
Agrometeorological Applications Associates
B.P. 102
F-01213 Ferney-Voltaire Cedex
France
Tel +33 450 40 88 41
Fax +33 450 40 88 42
Mobil +33 6 85 70 61 88
Email: rijks.agrometeo@wanadoo.fr
Nancy Kimball
Kalispell City Reporter
Daily Inter Lake
727 East Idaho
P.O. Box 7610
Kalispell, MT 59904
Phone: 406.758.4483
Fax: 406.758.4481