LifeFlight will house chopper and crews at municipal airport

In order to provide the quickest response and better service to the local community and surrounding area, LifeFlight will be building a new hangar at the Mountain Home Airport.

The hangar, located near hangar row on the northeast taxiway, will include a holding area to keep the helicopter out of inclement weather, a mechanics' office, a pilots' office, a day room, two crew offices and a concrete launching pad.

The concept of the project has been approved and the paperwork is being processed. An application for a building permit has been submitted to Mountain Home Building Department.

The construction on the project would begin after various approvals from the FAA are granted and the issues associated with the building permit are resolved.

Contractors Rod and Dave Thomas will build the hangar on land leased by the city, which would then be leased to LifeFlight for its use.

During construction, LifeFlight staff will have temporary facilities located south of the airport office and will include an office, crew quarters and a gravel landing pad.

The three-month project will cost approximately $200,000-$250,000. Life Flight hopes to begin construction within the next three weeks.

New construction at the airport requires FAA approval because the Mountain Home Airport is a Class II airport and receives annual funding from FAA for improvements. With the new hangar, approval from FAA required more information to be submitted because of the crew quarters to be located in the hangar.

Based on FAA regulations, no one would be allowed to live on the property, so there had to be clarification that the crew would not live there, but the facilities were needed for the nature of the shift work, pilots on 12-hour shifts and crews for 24-hour shifts, who will eat and sleep at the hangar, but not live there.

The city has an ongoing project to extend city water to the airport facilities primarily for fire protection. The water line will also serve the airport office and landscape irrigation systems. The new hangar would be able to connect to the new water line.

The LifeFlight hangar would gain electricity from the existing electrical service lines running along hanger row.

Sewer service for the new hangar will be provided by way of a septic tank and a drain field, because the airport doesn't have a city sewer service. The hangar owners are working toward getting approval through the Central District Health Department for the septic system.

The LifeFlight staff thanked all those who took part in bringing the project together, especially the Airport Board, the city council and Mayor Tom Rist.

"Thank you to all for their effort in welcoming us into the community and for assisting in getting this project going," said Bill Patterson, Program Aviation Manager (for bases in Boise, Mountain Home, McCall and Ontario) with Air Methods Corporation.