AUGUSTA – For 51 weeks a year, a plane takes off or lands at Augusta Regional Airport every 30 minutes or so. This week that increases to one every five minutes.
That’s because a little old invitational golf tournament is being conducted 13 miles down the road. You might have heard of it. It’s called The Masters.
And that’s just at the regional airport. A mere 2.8 miles from the gates of Augusta National Golf Club sits a much smaller airport known as Daniel Field. Established in 1940 as Augusta’s first aviation service, it has two short runways and doesn’t feature a traffic control tower. Well, they brought in a portable one several years ago, but it is manned only the week of the Masters. An outfit known as “Air Boss Inc.” deploys retired air traffic controllers who are contracted to come in just for this week.
Even with pros at the controls, it can be a challenging assignment. There’s no radar. So, controllers use binoculars to identify planes and line them up for landings. Their most common refrain is “come in right over Bi-Lo,” the grocery store across the street.
There are other complications with Daniel. Its runway is just 4,002 feet long. Typically, the larger jets such as Gulfstreams and Challengers require at least 5,000 feet of runway for takeoffs and landings.
But that doesn’t keep the big boys from sometimes putting down at Daniel, especially during Masters week.
“Our philosophy is, if you can land it, we can park it,” said Becky Shealy, Daniel Field manager.
The increased air traffic is not limited to Augusta airports. This week are flights coming into nearby Aiken Regional Airport to the east and west down Interstate 20 into airports in Thomson and Greensboro.
Credit: Photo provided
Credit: Photo provided
For perspective, the amount of traffic occupying the airspace in and around greater Augusta this week exceeds that of the Super Bowl and the Kentucky Derby. The difference is the Masters is a week-long event of ticketed golf rounds from Monday through Sunday.
“Everybody looks forward to it every year,” said Shealy, who has been at Daniel for 22 years. “Everybody’s just as gracious as can be. Well, mostly.”
Augusta National’s activities now span nearly two weeks. It includes the Women’s Amateur Championship, which is played at Champions Retreat and Augusta National the week before the Masters, and the youth Drive, Chip and Putt championship which was conducted this past Sunday.
“Now we’re starting to see a lot more planes come in the week before,” Shealy said.
Augusta Regional – long known as Bush Field -- bears the lion’s share of increased traffic during Masters week. Delta and American airlines started servicing Augusta in 2011. The number of flights and the size of the aircraft increases during Masters week.
But the bulk of activity remains in the general aviation wing of the airport. It is there the majority of golf’s biggest and brightest stars land their private jets and have them serviced. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus and Ernie Els all own Gulfstreams flown by private pilots. Rory McIlroy travels in a Challenger.
Some pro golfers pilot their own planes. The late Arnold Palmer famously became a pilot and circumnavigated the globe in a variety of aircraft. In his later years, he flew a Citation in and out of Bush. But for many years he frequented Daniel Field and befriended the staff there.
Behind Shealy’s desk in her office at Daniel is a picture of a smiling Palmer posing next to an antique “Jenny” airplane that used to be parked there.
“It’s just the sweetest picture of the sweetest man,” Shealy says adoringly. “Before he got into the Citations and Gulfstreams, he used to always fly into Daniel. He was the perfect Southern gentleman. He would always ask (Augusta Aviation owner) Steve (Gay) about his daughters, remembered their names and ask about his wife. Just the sweetest man.”
Many of the golfers charter jet service through NetJets and Wheels Up. They park fleets of smaller jets at Bush and Daniel. Wheels Up reserves the entire north side of the terminal at Daniel.
But golfers represent only a small percentage of the passengers flying in and out of Augusta this week. Most of the passage is booked with corporate clients entertaining customers.
Shealy can tell what day of the week it is just by who she sees flying in and out.
“The whole dynamics of who we see changes on Thursday,” she said. “That’s when we see the badge-holders and a lot of times we’ll see the same aircraft. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we’re not going to see those airplanes for the rest of the week. They come in one day, then they’re gone. Starting Thursday, we’ll start seeing the same aircraft coming in every day. They might have different people on board. It’s just interesting to see that whole shift.”
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and his Challenger jet, Shealy said, are frequent visitors to Daniel. In addition, EC-130 and Robison 206 helicopters chopper back and forth from Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro.
Regardless of who’s coming in, it’s big business for greater Augusta and the state of Georgia. At Daniel, they stay busy the rest of the year serving five local medical facilities and the Augusta National membership that regularly comes in for events when the club is open.
Shealy said they might go through a “load” of jet fuel – approximately 7,500 gallons -- in a week the rest of the year. During Masters week, they might do two loads in a single day. Over the course of the week, they’ll go through about 75,000 gallons.
Over at Augusta Regional, they’ll go through seven times that. They’ll service about 1,500-1,600 corporate jets this week, according to operations director Tim Weegar. That’s in addition to the ramped up domestic air service.
Parking all those aircraft is another issue. At Daniel, they eventually will close one of their runways to park the planes. In some cases, pilots will drop their passengers at Bush or Daniel, then turn around and fly to Thomson, Greensboro or Athens to park and await their call to return.
Shealy said Wednesdays and Saturdays are typically the busiest days. And Sunday afternoons are always interesting.
By then, many of the planes have left as the most ardent golf fans prefer to watch the final round on television from the comfort and convenience of their living rooms. There are some challenges for those that remain to the bitter end.
“We have to ask everybody for the estimated departure time, and everybody says, ‘when it’s over,’” Shealy said with a laugh. “Everybody ends up taxiing into position to leave all at the same time.”
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