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Montana convenes working group on historic airway beacons

Mike Rogan climbs the 90-foot aviation beacon tower on MacDonald Pass near Helena, Mont., to perform routine maintenance Wednesday March 15, 2006. The 90-foot climb is required to maintain the historic airway beacon, one of 12 navigational beacons still functioning in Montana – the only state in the country that spends the time and money to maintain them. (MARTIN KIDSTON / AP)
By Tom Kuglin Independent Record (Helena)

HELENA, Mont. – After announcing it would be shuttering all but three historic aviation beacons in the state due to funding, the Montana Department of Transportation’s division of Aeronautics is now convening a working group to study and make recommendations on the beacons’ future.

Montana is the only state to operate a system of airway beacons, with 17 allowing pilots to fly by sight through the western mountains.

The practical use of the beacons and whether the annual cost of maintenance is worth their benefit has been a recurring question since the 1960s. At that time, the FAA decided the beacons no longer served a great public purpose, and by 1972 Montana was the last state to maintain a beacon system.

In late 2015, Aeronautics allowed several of the beacons to burn out and received little feedback. Late last year and after dialogue with pilots, the division said it would only maintain three of the beacons going forward. The remaining beacons would light a path from MacDonald Pass to Helena to Townsend to Bozeman.

The decision irked some pilots and historic preservationists, but the $30,000 annual savings was better served elsewhere, Aeronautics said at the time.

In a recent Aeronautics newsletter, administrator Debbie Alke announced that the beacon language had been stricken by the Legislature. A following meeting between Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, legislators and department staff led to a request for the working group, the newsletter says, consisting of industry representatives.

The department will also hold public hearings to gather feedback.

“At the request of some legislators and hobby pilots, I facilitated a discussion and suggested that all voices be represented from the broader pilot community in future conversations,” Cooney said in a statement. “It’s my hope that we can gain a better understanding of the impact of a decommission to the general public before making final decisions.”

The news was welcomed by Helena pilot Mike Korn, who had penned an opinion piece that ran in the Independent Record and other newspapers critical of the process. Due to the beacons’ historic nature and current use, Korn wrote that Aeronautics had failed to fully engage the public in making the decision to shutter 14 of them.

“I think it’s great they decided to revisit the issue,” Korn said in an interview with the Independent Record.

The beacons have a lot of fans beyond pilots, including people interested in historic preservation and even some of the landowners where the beacons reside, he said.

Kate Hampton at the Montana Historical Society is currently working on registration of the entirety of the beacon system on the National Register of Historic Places. The MacDonald Pass beacon is the only site currently registered.

Alke said the working group is expected to start meeting next month. While they have no timeline for delivering recommendations to the department, September was floated as a possibility but “that might be ambitious,” she said.

In the meantime, Aeronautics does not plan any additional maintenance on the 14 beacons it initially decided to shutter, she said, and will work toward the final decision.

“There are differing opinions, and we’re a public agency and want to do what’s the right thing,” Alke said, adding her confidence in the working group.