The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 13

Hie Daily Sentinel 'Sunday, December 25, 2005 5B Carpefime the 10th Horth 1 'For unto us a child 15 b0m Grand Junction, CO (970) 243-0807 Please follow the progress of the Stearman's restoration by clicking on www.vintageaviation-lfd.com Photos are updated regularly. Thanks to Our Customers tor a Great 2005 Flying Season. Merry Christmas Best Wishes for the New Year Any pending gift certificate holders con contact us to re-scKeojIe 2006 or to hove 6 refund issued (if required) Thank you! VINTAGl AVIATION imnx. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TIM MIKUS STANDS beside the military plane being refurbished at Hawkins Powers Aviation Inc. in Greybull, on Dec.

9. This plane is set to be finished early next year, and the future is uncertain for workers at Hawkins Powers as a buyer for the company is sought. A LENNOX High-Efficiency Home Comfort System pays for itself. We'll show you how. Former aerial firefighting giant, industry facing uncertain futures Replace your older, Inefficient home heating and cooling equipment now with a new, high-efficiency LENNOX Home Comfort System, and you can: Stop pounng money into an old.

melticient HVAC system Save hundreds now Save thousands ov time on your home energy costs Put money In your pocket instead ol into fuel bills Discover how a hlgh-effidency LENNOX Home Comfort System can save you money. CaM your local LENNOX dealer SAbsShil I HEATING (AIR pONDITIONING 257-7300 www.aireserv.comswcoloraclo TS 55 EQ PLUNGE-CUT SAW ing Hawkins Powers unable to fly most of its planes for the federal agencies, company officials said. Hawkins Powers got one of its P2V-7s into the air, briefly, in 2004. But that May the government terminated the contract it had for all 33 air tankers after concerns were raised with the planes airworthiness. Though some aircraft were later cleared for service, Hawkins Powers eventually decided to get out of the aerial firefighting business, officials said.

It left a dent in the industry when they folded, said Bill BroadweU, of the American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association. It wasnt just the cancellation of contracts that hurt Hawkins Powers. Bills were mounting, and the company owed the Justice Department $1.6, million as part of a settlement over the transfer of surplus military planes with incomplete flight data, according to U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas office.

Layoffs began in late 2004; the number of employees, at one time around 200, fell to about 19 by years end, President Jim Taggart said. Secured debt was between $14 million and $15 million, he said. Most people, I think, are amazed we didnt have to file for bankruptcy, hq said, though the company did sell all its assets. Taggart, a crisis manager, assumed leadership of the flailing company late last year in a bid to turn it around. Dan Hawkins and Gene Powers, who had run the company since the late-1960s, did not respond to interview requests.

Taggart hopes an outside group will take over what he says has become a profitable, promising refurbishing business and maybe give it a new name, a fresh start. The 50 or so workers left in Greybull know, though, that they could be out of work come February if that doesnt happen. Mikus respects the company name and the work the firm still does but he fears Hawkins Powers legacy will be forever defined by 2002. 1 dont believe it was Hawkins Powers fault that those airplanes crashed; I know the facts, he said at one point. I think there were just a lot of bad circumstances and bad luck, he added later.

Its not been a good few years, but everybodys learned. I figure, even if this whole thing goes out of business and I have to find another job somewhere, were a whole lot smarter because of it We might not like it but were a whole lot smarter. On the Net Hawkins Powers Aviation: http:Hwww.hawkinsandpower scorn National Interagency Fire Center: www.nifc.gov By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS GREYBULL, Wyo. In the three years since two of its large fire-retardant bombers broke up in mid-flight, Hawkins Powers Aviation Inc. has gone from being one of the countrys largest aerial firefighting firms to the brink of bankruptcy It has lost key government contracts for the use of most of its heavy air tankers and essentially has been forced from a business it helped pioneer.

There have been lawsuits, layoffs and a change in direction: New management has taken over in an effort to satisfy creditors and turn the company into a viable airplane refurbishing business that could be sold to a new operator. With what may be its final refurbushing job, fixing up a C-130 as part of a military contract, only a few weeks from completion and no buyer for the company committed, maintenance director Tim Mikus and other employees are weighing job offers and hold only dim hope that the doors here will stay open. If it had been one accident, I think the air tanker business would still be going strong and that the company would still be going strong, Mikus said in a recent interview at the companys headquarters in rural northern Wyoming. But the two of them Like Hawkins Powers, the entire aerial firefighting industry is facing ah uncertain future. Some companies are struggling to regain financial footing in the 19 months since the federal government canceled contracts for large air tankers used to fight wildfires.

The move was prompted by concerns raised about the planes airworthi- ness and public safety after the crashes. While some were allowed to return to service later, their numbers were sharply reduced. And the government has fortified its firefighting arsenal with single-engine air tankers and large helicopters. Though tanker operators like Len Parker, an owner of Minden Air Corp. in Minden, maintain that their planes are safe and are even more so today questions remain about what role the aging fleet of modified military bombers and other aircraft should have in the future.

The operators in business now put every effort they possibly can into ensuring these aircraft are safe, Parker said If you look at this business, you could make the argument that, without the two structural failures, maintenance-wise, this business has been a very, very safe business. Aerial firefighting is inherently risky involving the use of low-flying air tankers that must endure high-stress maneuvers in the turbulent air over forest PEOPLE STROLL DOWN a main street in Greybull, on Dec. 9. Hawkins Powers Aviation Inc. has been a major employer in the community and area, and some here say the cuts and changes at the company have been felt in this small town.

Save $35 Until 1.31.06 Advantage Tools, LLC Tim Tyler 970-240-4290 970-596-2738 Montrose, CO strong pany known about the potential for fatigue cracking iri the wings, they would have looked for and corrected it. At least one lawsuit is pending that lists the company and a number of others as defendants and alleges wrongful death, among other things. It was filed by relatives of the two men killed in the Colorado crash. We knew that it wasnt our fault directly, but if wed known then what we know now, then our friends would be here now, Dubryr said. The federal government, which for years relied on the private companies it contracted ith to ensure the air tankers were safe to fly; never terminated contracts with Haw kins Powers for inspection or safety violations, said Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

But after the crashes, the government stopped using both types of aircraft involved, leav- been one think die air would still and that would sdll be But the two MIKUS director fires. Since 1974, 62 people have been killed in 39 air tanker accidents, according to a U.S. Forest Service official in Boise, Idaho. Some say the loss of five aerial firefighters in June and July of 2002 was a wakeup call for the government and industry. But so were the later findings of federal safety investigators, that fatigue cracks in the wings of the planes a C-130A and PB4Y-2 probably caused the fatal crashes, with inadequate maintenance procedures for detecting such cracks contributing.

The PB4Y-2, whose left wing snapped in Colorado, killing two, was among the oldest aircraft in the firefighting arsenal, dating to the mid-1940s. according to a fire official and accident repeal by the National Transportation Safety Board. Mikus and George Dubry, Hawkins Powers chief inspector maintain the cracks were in areas that couldn't be seen without taking the plane apart and that had the com lf it had accident, I tanker business be going the company going strong. of TIM maintenance Buy any pair of regular priced shoes or boots and receive 50 off your second pair of equal or lesser value! Sale ends 12-31-05 Your 2nd Pair No special orders Stock shoes only 514 Main StM Downtown 10-6 Mydy Fnctoy 10 5 Saturday.