Colfax Airport beacon off line for rebuild work

The beacon atop this hanger at the Colfax Airport is being replaced.

Port of Whitman County staffers last Thursday advised Port commissioners of a needed repair at the Port of Whitman Business Air Center (POWBAC) in Colfax.

The necessary repair is to a navigation light, or beacon, which was mounted on a hangar and provides guidance for flyers approaching the airport.

“We thought some of the bulbs were burning out, but actually some of the brushes in the motor had burned out,” reported Debbie Snell, Port properties and development manager.

Snell said the rotating beacon was mounted on the roof of a hangar and has been at the airport for several years.

“That beacon’s been on that building for a long time,” she said. “Thirty-five, maybe 40 years.”

Snell told the Gazette that beacon was on the hangar when she started at the port 20 years ago.

Finding parts for the beacon has been difficult.

“It’s so old; they don’t have parts for it,” said Snell.

Johnson Electric out of Lewiston is working on the repair and plans to complete it with a new motor.

“The base is brand new, and you can still get parts here,” said Snell. “We’ll retain the existing as a back up.”

Snell said the stem of the beacon and the rotating light will be the same when the new motor is added.

“The electrician has a brand new motor that he had from another airport project,” said Snell. “He’s marrying the two.”

A new beacon would cost around $7,500, but with the plan Johnson Electric has put in place, the cost has come in at $4,492.57.

“He has a very high confidence … that this will work,” said Snell.

She added that the repair is being completed as a “stopgap measure.”

“The ultimate plan is in 2020 or 2022 to replace the current beacon on top of the hangar with a ground-based folding beacon,” she said.

That change will come with the aid of a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. Snell said she spoke with the FAA on Friday, and “everyone was very receptive.”

“It will be a life-safety issue,” she explained. “Every time a bulb burns out, they have to climb on that hangar. So for life-safety and efficiency reasons we’ll move to that ground-based beacon.”

Snell said when the change does occur, the current beacon will remain in place.

“We will shut it off, but it will be the back up,” she said.

Snell reported that a notice has been issued to area pilots that the beacon is non-functioning. She said this is a standard procedure to follow when equipment such as this goes out, and pilots can still land at the airport if they choose to.

“From a distance, it’s way easier to locate an airport with the rotating beacon,” she said. “But someone could land. The airport runway lights are very bright.”

Snell estimated the project would take about two weeks to complete. A boom crane will be brought in to re-install the beacon when the time does come. She noted the project is also weather-dependent.