Pilots association starts Moses Lake chapter

MOSES LAKE — The newest chapter of the Washington Pilots Association (WPA) voted itself into existence in a garage at the Moses Lake Municipal Airport on Saturday.

According to Don Fitzpatrick, vice president of the WPA for the eastern portion of the state (everything this side of the Cascades), Moses Lake is a natural fit for the organization as the hub of a number of aviation activities and home to a number of pilots and training programs for pilots and mechanics.

“We’re here to generate membership for the association and establish new chapters,” he said. “This is a big aviation area, so we’re a natural here.”

The WPA brings pilots together to engage in shared social activities — fly-ins and fly-outs, where pilots and family members go someplace together to have fun, meet, and listen to industry speakers — as well as advocacy with the state government in Olympia.

“We need to make sure our airports aren’t taken away from us, which they frequently are,” Fitzpatrick told a group of about 20 who gathered at the Jackson Flight Center. “And we need to attract young people, we need to get them involved.”

The center is part-owned by Darrin Jackson, who currently serves as a member of the Port of Moses Lake Commission.

George Steed, president of the Washington Pilots Association, said that private pilots can also play a useful role after disasters. He cited to the role of pilots airlifting supplies into Watsonville, Calif. after the city was cut off from the outside world following the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

“We will have disasters, and pilots will be banned from disaster areas unless they are part of a county approved group,” Steed said.

So, the WPA is putting together a list of pilots willing to consider “the call to help” in the event of a disaster, and is working with state emergency officials to get the word to counties across the state.

State Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, who made his living as a pilot for many years and never had a local WPA chapter to belong to, said he is also working to get 1 percent of the state’s 6½ percent aviation fuel tax set aside for aviation related investment and construction projects.

Dent said he’s shown the legislature that such projects would return nearly ten-fold their initial investment to the state legislature thanks to the additional jobs and business activity.

“It seems like a good idea, but we couldn’t get it out of committee,” he said. “We’ll try it again. Sometimes legislation like this takes a while.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.