[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 66 (Thursday, April 28, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2548-S2549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING BORDER AIR LTD.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, you don't have to look too far in Vermont
to find any number of unique businesses. One such business is Border
Air Ltd., led by its owner Cliff Coy. Cliff is the airport manager and
unofficial ``aviation ambassador'' at the Franklin County State Airport
in Swanton, VT. He also owns and runs Border Air Ltd., a maintenance
and restoration company. He purchased Border Air Ltd. in 2007 from his
father, George, who founded the company in 1989. Border Air specializes
in restoring Soviet-era aircraft and is one of only five companies in
the country with the qualifications to sell, maintain, and inspect
them.
In addition to providing many services for the aviation enthusiasts
who call Franklin County home, Border Air imports and exports planes to
and from former Soviet nations, a practice that began after the senior
Mr. Coy took a trip to Lithuania in 1989. George Coy heard of an
Antonov An-2, the largest single-engine biplane ever built, which had
just been restored and was listed for sale. In spite of a major
malfunction while crossing the Black Sea with the An-2, the Coys were
hooked on the idea of importing similar aircraft and selling them to
American pilots.
Since then, over 300 planes have passed through Border Air's hangars,
some purchased by customers as far as Chicago. Through their work with
pilots and aviation enthusiasts across the world, the Coy family has
brought business to Swanton and helps to keep citizens safe by
inspecting planes once a year to ensure they are up to Federal Aviation
Administration safety codes. Though safety is most important, Cliff Coy
also aims to inspire a love of flying in children and adults across the
country by bringing students from nearby Missiquoi Valley Union High
School to the airport to watch air show practices or speaking with
anyone interested in planes from flying to skydiving.
The Coys represent an entrepreneurial spirit that is at the heart of
Vermont. In Cliff Coy, we see a true commitment to and leadership with
the community.
I ask unanimous consent that the April 14, 2016, article from Seven
Days entitled ``Border Air in Swanton Keeps Imported Planes Alive,''
which chronicles the Coys' history with Border Air Ltd., be printed in
the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From Seven Days, Apr. 14, 2016]
Border Air in Swanton Keeps Imported Planes Alive
(By Ken Picard)
A stiff snow squall swirls around the main building at
Franklin County State Airport in Swanton as a large, twin-
engine turboprop prepares to roll out of the hangar. Airport
manager Cliff Coy watches silently as the King Air B200 revs
its engines with a high-pitched whine and slowly inches its
way onto the tarmac.
The plane's wingtips are upturned for improved aerodynamics
and fuel efficiency. It's just a fringe benefit that the
design also allows the plane to squeeze through the hangar
door.
``That's a 58-foot wingspan going through a 60-foot
opening,'' Coy notes with a bemused smile. Once the wings
clear the sides, he flashes a quick thumbs-up to his
mechanic, Dan Marcotte, who's directing the pilot from the
tarmac.
Unlike busy commercial hubs, such as Burlington
International Airport, Franklin County State Airport doesn't
have its own air traffic control tower. Many planes that use
this runway lack radios, lights or onboard electrical
systems.
The 46-year-old Coy wears many hats at this small, state-
owned airstrip that's just a hop from the Canadian border.
Besides managing the airport, he's the owner of Border Air
Ltd., which was founded by his father, George Coy. As an FBO,
or fixed-base operator, Border Air performs various functions
for the flying public: fueling, inspection, maintenance,
flight training, and providing hangar and tie-down space for
parking aircraft. Coy calls its headquarters ``a cross
between a boat launch and a state park--and I'm the guy
wearing the green shirt and the hat.''
Beyond Coy's official duties, he's the airport's unofficial
``aviation ambassador,'' which involves more than just
greeting white-knuckled travelers when they land safely in
inclement weather. Coy is Franklin County's go-to guy for
anyone who's interested in learning more about airplanes,
whether that means fixing them, flying them, building them or
jumping out of them with parachutes.
And, with fuel prices at historic lows, interest in
aviation is soaring. That's not readily apparent on the
morning I visit: Aside from the departing turboprop, about
the only thing moving on the airfield is a semierect orange
wind sock. But, according to Coy, KFSO--the airport's Federal
Aviation Administration abbreviation--is usually more active.
``This is the busiest airport in Vermont for general
aviation,'' he says, referring to noncommercial and
nonmilitary air traffic. ``Come out here in six weeks on a
Saturday, and this place will be humming with airplanes.''
Those planes aren't just local flyers. In recent years, Coy
has carved out a unique niche for himself in the wider world
of aviation: He imports and exports planes to and from Russia
and other former Soviet-bloc countries. One of only five
companies in the country with the expertise to sell, service
and inspect Soviet-era planes, Border Air also maintains,
repairs and modifies them--an unusual specialty that Coy fell
into almost by accident.
Coy got his degree in mechanical engineering from Vermont
Technical College and studied computer science and physics at
the University of New Mexico. Then, as he puts it, he faced
an important life choice: ``Am I going to spend the rest of
my life in front of a computer screen, under bad fluorescent
lighting? Or am I going to solve problems out in the field
and get dirty?''
Coy began answering that question in 1988. That year, his
uncle Bob, who was working on a sister-city exchange program,
offered Coy a chance to travel to the Soviet Union after an
injury forced a student in the program to drop out at the
last minute.
Coy jumped at the opportunity--and not merely to see the
Soviet Union as it began to open up to the West. Coy's
father, George, himself a pilot and flight mechanic, was
keenly interested in a Russian-built aircraft called the
Antonov An-2. The 1,000-horsepower, 12-passenger plane is the
world's largest single-engine biplane ever built. As Coy
recalls, his father ``became infatuated with it and
absolutely had to have one.''
While that trip offered the chance to see an An-2
firsthand, the Coys wouldn't get their hands on one until
1989, when George Coy learned that a company in Lithuania had
a freshly overhauled An-2 for sale. As the Soviet Union
neared its collapse, the Eastern Bloc countries were becoming
like the Wild West, Cliff Coy recalls, with everything being
sold off at bargain-basement prices.
[[Page S2549]]
``So he strapped a pile of cash to a belt and flew out to
Lithuania to go look at an airplane,'' says Cliff.
Since George didn't speak Lithuanian, and all the
instrumentation was in Russian, the sellers taught him how to
fly the plane. Convinced it was worth the investment, the
Coys hired a Russian pilot and a farmer from Shelburne to
help fly the An-2 back to Vermont.
Like many aviation adventures, Cliff Coy says, theirs began
with a mechanical malfunction: The plane lost all of its oil
above the clouds during a night crossing of the North Sea.*
As he recalls, ``The Russian pilot knew very few words of
English, and two of them were `Very bad!' ''
The An-2 managed to run for another half hour without oil
before landing safely. Despite the mishap, the trip stoked
the Coys' interest in importing more Russian and Eastern
European planes--such as two aerobatic trainer planes called
Yakovlev Yak-52s that they'd seen in Lithuania. Sensing a
business opportunity, the Coys began importing Russian and
Eastern Bloc planes to the U.S. for American buyers.
Since 1989, Border Air has imported more than 300 such
aircraft, including a Yak-55, which is currently under repair
in the hangar in Swanton. With only about 250 Yak-52s still
actively flying in the United States, Coy has loyal clients
who fly to Swanton from as far west as Chicago to get
their planes serviced.
What's the plane's appeal? For one thing, Coy points out,
Yak-52s closely resemble World War II fighter planes. And,
given the Soviets' efficient engineering, he adds, ``You're
basically able to maintain it out in a farmer's field with a
flathead screwdriver and a wrench. So they're incredibly
rugged and inexpensive.''
The Coys pretty much stopped importing Russian aircraft in
2005, when the dollar-to-Euro exchange rate made them
prohibitively expensive. The sale price of the Yak-52, for
example, jumped from $120,000 to $380,000.
In 2007, Coy bought Border Air from his father. These days,
much of his business has reversed direction--it involves
moving planes and pilots from the U.S. to Russia instead of
vice versa.
In the Soviet era, the only Russians who flew planes were
military pilots; when the country opened up civil aviation,
many Russians became interested in flying American aircraft.
Until the Russian ruble crashed last year, Border Air was
exporting about two containers of American-made planes to
Russia every three months.
Recent changes overseas have brought a whole new crop of
flyers to Swanton. In 2011, a wave of bad aviation accidents
in Russia killed scores of people. Putting the blame on
pilots who had obtained their licenses fraudulently, the
Russian government closed flight schools across the country.
The virtual shutdown of civil aviation in Russia could have
sent Coy's business into a tailspin. But then Russians began
coming to the United States--including the flight school in
Swanton--to obtain pilot's licenses. Apparently placing
greater trust in American flight schools than in its own, the
Russian government converts U.S. pilots' licenses into
Russian ones, Coy says.
Just as Coy is explaining the process, two Russian men with
crew cuts and black coats pass en route to a small trainer
plane to begin their flight lessons. According to Coy,
they're former Russian fighter pilots who are logging flight
time and learning to fly in U.S. airspace. ``There's a bit of
a mind shift when you go from flying something at 300 miles
per hour to flying something at 60 miles per hour,'' he says.
Of course, not all of Coy's work involves Russians and
Russian planes. As an FAA-licensed inspector, he ensures that
the aircraft he encounters are flightworthy. By law, every
aircraft, from a commercial Boeing 777 to the one-seat
Ultralight hanging from the hangar rafters, must be inspected
annually.
``I've seen things where you wonder how these people even
made it here alive,'' Coy says. ``Unbelievably scary stuff.''
For example, he recalls encountering a pilot who reported
that his plane was flying funny When Coy checked it out, he
noticed that the bottom of the fuselage was blue--from the
dye used to identify aircraft fuel. Coy instantly spotted the
problem: The fuel line wasn't hooked up. When he went to
adjust the propeller control, it broke off in his hand. Next,
he discovered that the starboard engine wasn't bolted onto
the frame and the landing gear wasn't installed correctly.
The result: a 60-page report to the FAA.
Getting people passionate and up in the air is Coy's
mission. And, notwithstanding the back issues of Cigar
Aficionado in the airport waiting room, he says he meets a
diverse cross-section of people who are aviation enthusiasts.
Granted, it's not a cheap hobby: The costs of purchasing
and maintaining airplanes may seem daunting enough to
dissuade anyone without a seven-figure trust fund. But, Coy
points out, most people who fly these days rent their planes.
(Coy himself doesn't own one.) And enthusiasts who decide to
take the next step can buy a plane for as little as $15,000,
on par with the price of a boat.
Coy does a lot of outreach to local schools, hoping to get
the next generation interested in flying. Sometimes that
means showing the kids his various ``museum pieces''--the
historic aircraft parked in various hangars on the airfield.
Or he'll invite students from nearby Missisquoi Valley Union
High School to watch his mechanic, Marcotte, practice his
air-show maneuvers during his lunch hour. (Burlingtonians
know Marcotte as the pilot who flies acrobatic stunts over
the waterfront before the annual July 3 fireworks show.)
``Look, if you have any interest in flying, we'll take you
for a ride in an airplane,'' Coy says. ``That's what we do,
because we want to get people interested in flying.''
Correction, April 14, 2016: An earlier version of this
story misreported Coy's age--it is 46. The body of water over
which Coy's plane experienced engine trouble was the North
Sea, not the Black Sea. Additionally, aviation enthusiasts
can buy a plane for $15,000, not the higher number originally
reported.
(At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to
be printed in the Record.)
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