Logan-Cache Airport provides locals with service
Located three miles northwest of the hustle and bustle of Logan City, surrounded by fields and pastures, is Logan-Cache Airport.
Logan-Cache Airport is the home of the Utah State University Flight Operations and a host of other activities. Although aviation students are well-familiarized with the facility, other students attending USU may have little or no knowledge of the airport.
In addition to flight schools, the airport offers other services such as charter flights, aircraft rentals and aircraft sales, said Brooke Blossom, a third-year flight dispatcher for Great Western Aviation.
Logan-Cache is relatively small with 111 aircraft based on the field, according to airport statistics published on www.airnav.com. These aircraft include five jets, three helicopters and two gliders. The largest bulk of flights from Logan-Cache Airport are local general aviation, although 29 percent of the operations are transient general aviation, according to the Web site. Air taxi aviation only encompasses 4 percent of flights, and 1 percent goes to military purposes.
Unfortunately, Logan-Cache Airport does not offer commercial flights. Expansion, however, is a possibility in the distant future, Blossom said. However, the facility would have to be expanded and enlarged to meet FAA regulations, which is not likely anytime soon, despite recent additions, Blossom said.
In September, Logan-Cache Airport finished a new runway to extend its capabilities, but the facility remains small enough it does not necessitate a control tower, Blossom said, and cows have been known to meander onto the runway from neighboring pastures.
Keri Vagason, a two-year employee of Great Western Aviation, said a cow planted itself on the runway approximately two years ago, refusing to budge, and halting business until animal control came to the rescue. A fence has since been erected.
Being a small airport has its advantages.
“Compared to the big airports, it’s [Logan-Cache Airport] definitely a lot smaller and more laid back,” Blossom said.
With fewer aircraft and only a fraction of the personnel, Logan-Cache can provide a much-less-tense atmosphere.
Although the events of Sept. 11 and the recent copy-cat act of a flight school student in Florida have not yet necessitated procedural changes at the airport, these events have served to increase the awareness of the employees there, Blossom said.
The Olympics, combined with the terrorist acts of Sept. 11, however, will bring additional security measures.
“We [the airport employees] all have worked here long enough to recognize when something is wrong, and now are much more aware of what to look for,” she said.
During the Olympic Games, Logan-Cache Airport will have police personnel located on the premises to ensure the safety of the facility, Blossom said.
In addition, the official Olympic Flight Plan brochure states that temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) established by the Special Air Regulation, will be enforced from Feb. 6 until Feb. 24. This will help officials monitor the airspace, and regulate who should and should not be there in an attempt to reduce risk to airports, planes and potential targets.