David Algyer hopes idea will help promote Tracy’s airport
By Per Peterson
David Algyer would love nothing more than to see more activity at the Tracy Municipal Airport. To that end, Algyer is spearheading a training course for anyone interested in getting their pilot’s license.
“We have a wonderful airport here and there’s no activity,” Algyer said. “I want to get more activity out here. It would be nice to fill the hangars. I’d like to get people more interested in flying and promote the airport.”
Algyer, who also has visions of starting some kind of flying club at the airport, is offering plane rental and flight instruction out of Tracy.
He’s sub-contracting an instructor.
Potential pilots first need to fill out an online form called Med Express which they give to an FFA-certified physician (in Marshall it’s Dr. Steven Miester) This is part of the student pilot certificate and is needed before actual instruction begins.
The instruction includes 20 hours of dual and 20 hours of solo flying.
“They try to go twice a week; if you don’t do that, you start to regress,” Algyer said.
The course winds up with a check ride with a designated examiner. From start to finish, the entrée course takes a couple months to complete.
The training is expensive, Algyer admitted. It cost $6,000 to go through the whole course.
“Fuel and instance, and the cost of an airplane,” Algyer said, listing reasons why the training comes with such a price tag.”