Pilot takes serious airport art seriously by creating 'rose'

GIVING DIRECTIONS

By Sam Blackwell ~ Southeast Missourian

If he had followed protocol, pilot Jack Rickard says, the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport's huge new navigational aid might have cost $8,000 in survey work and labor. Doing it himself cost about $800 and the city nothing.

"That's the best way to do it in some situations," Rickard said. "Then it's best to apologize profusely in the end."

That he did after Cape Girardeau Regional Airport manager Bruce Loy spotted Rickard painting the 177-foot, four-inch green-and-white circle called a compass rose next to the hangar the pilot leases.

During much of the 20th century, pilots used the compass rose -- named for its resemblance to the flower's petals -- to help get their bearing and to assure the accuracy of their compass. The points on the compass rose represent the directions of the winds.

But in the age of Global Positioning System and VHF Omni Range navigation, the compass rose has become more decorative than necessary.

"Today they're relegated to airport art," says Rickard.

Ninety-Nines' projects

The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, has been re-marking airports with names and compass roses that were removed during World War II. Since the Ninety-Nines aren't active in this area, Rickard decided to make the project his own in every sense of the word.

"Anytime any bureaucrat is involved in doing anything, they want to know, What's it going to cost and isn't somebody going to sue us over this?" he said.

When Loy saw the work in progress, he told Rickard not to add the N,S,E and W directions, hoping to discourage pilots from using the compass rose. His concern was its accuracy.

Some pilots do use the compass rose to check the calibration of their own compass. They do so by driving their plane onto the image. But Rickard contends that compasses aren't that accurate anyway.

The Federal Aviation Administration told Loy they don't regulate compass roses, only recognized runway markings. He said he may have the city survey the markings so pilots can use the compass rose with confidence.

The work was surveyed, Rickard said, and the arrows are quite close to the magnetic directions pilots use. "You'd have to be Superman to tell the difference."

Public ramp

The new compass rose is on a public ramp just outside the hangar where Rickard keeps eight of his aircraft. Loy says it may be too close to a steel structure hangar to set magnetic compasses by anyway.

He is not upset with Rickard, Loy said. "I'm fine with the compass rose."

Airport Advisory Board chairman Gary Keene said the compass rose came up in the board's meeting in May when still being painted. He questions Rickard's initiative. "That would be like going to the middle of the interstate and painting it," he said.

But Keene said he would be unlikely to use a compass rose when piloting a plane whether it was an authorized one or not.

Rickard has two helicopters and says the compass rose does serve as a good visual reference when hovering.

He has talked to Cape Girardeau muralist and sidewalk chalk artist Craig Thomas about finishing the compass rose with flair once he gets permission.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182