At a safety meeting hosted at the Wings of Honor Museum located next to the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport on Friday, members of the Air Force landed a C-130 military cargo plane for those attending to tour. The meeting was hosted by the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport to address and identify potential safety hazards involved with the large planes. Pilots from Little Rock Air Force Base explained to those in attendance that in the next two years runway repairs at their facilities will change the normal flight patterns of the aircraft for training and since the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport has such long runways, the military will begin landing and taking off from the local facility.
According to military spokesman, the C-130 fleet flies around 30 flights per day from their Little Rock airfield and operates Monday through Friday with an occasional Saturday flights. The normal hours of the flights is 8 am to the following 3 am. Air Force spokesman informed those in attendance that they expect on average to land at the Walnut Ridge facility about 3 times per week, flights will be both daytime and night according to the pilots.
Several dozen pilots from the area were in attendance for the safety meeting along with members of the airport commission, Walnut Ridge Fire Department, Lawrence County Office of Emergency Services, airport staff and representatives from area ambulance services. Once the briefing was over, local pilots from the crop dusting industry ask several questions concerning air space and other safety concerns. Pilots from the C-130 air group gave responses to all questions and concerns brought up during the informative meeting. Lunch was provided to those in attendance and as the meeting adjourned, guest were given a tour of the C-130 aircraft parked just outside the airport terminal.
During the tour, the C-130 pilots and crew explained to the guest the amount of room needed to take off and land, basic safety features of the aircraft, explained what type of missions they were generally involved in and gave an overall hands on tour of the aircrafts features and functions.
For more information on the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport, visit their website at www.walnutridgeairport.com .
