Ground work at the Annapolis Valley Airpark is underway, widening access to Valley skies. A second hangar space is under construction this winter, expected to be complete in March.
“We’re very excited to have this new facility at Greenwood to help expand flight operations,” says Paul Easson, chairman of the Freedom Aviation Society, which manages the airpark located at 14 Wing Greenwood since 2016.
“We had a business plan when we started, and we’re almost there – we’ve almost achieved all of what we had in that plan.”
Roscoe Construction is building the privately-financed hangar, a bit larger than the society’s first 9,000-square-foot hangar. This new hangar will feature 8,800 square feet of heated aircraft parking – room for eight to 10 small planes, and a 1,200-square-foot reception area for pilots and passengers on the ground floor. Upstairs will be a 1,200-square-foot office and classroom space for lease to the Annapolis Valley Flight Centre, located at the airpark since January 2021, for its flight school and charter programs.
Easson says components of the original airpark business plan are actually further along than hoped: the flight school operation is regularly seeing trained pilots certified, and has a solid class of students going through ground training now, with a second course starting in April. The school also offers flight bookings for sight-seeing tours and discovery tours, designed to give passengers a more hands-on experience to potentially whet their appetite for flight training. A recently advertised March break two-day camp for youth filled its 25 spots almost overnight, with another 25 youth hoping for a space. That camp is a partnership between flight school instructors and volunteers, and includes an orientation to flight, training, maintenance, aircraft – and a flight over the Valley.
Additionally, an aircraft mechanic was coming from the Debert airfield to service Greenwood-based planes; demand has now grown to have a local maintainer hired here permanently, working on the flight school’s aircraft and privately-owned planes.
Freedom Aviation itself is in solid shape, with just one vacancy on its board of volunteer directors, and developing plans for spring and summer fly-ins and an open house. There’s also indications of increased charter plane use of the airpark, and float plane activity, including training, getting underway.
“Now, we just need more pilots, planes and customers,” Easson says.
The airpark opened in 2016 as a small aviation facility for recreational and light contracted and commercial air traffic, as the Municipality of the County of Kings transitioned the municipal airport from Cambridge to Greenwood, and Freedom Aviation Society responsibility. It operates at the Greenwood base with several partnership agreements, including arrangements for use of the airfield, air traffic control and airfield emergency response.
