Category Archives: General

There were only happy smiles, and no alarmed screeches, as a giant, one-eyed, yellow, alien-looking creature sailed over the Central Coast on Tuesday and Wednesday. The unusual sight was the Despicablimp, advertising the movie “Despicable Me 2,” in theaters next Wednesday. Even blimps need an energy boost sometimes, and the aircraft stopped to gas up …

Casualty Drill Held as Training Exercise Local emergency responders experienced the training benefits of a plane crash without the tragedy during an exercise Wednesday. The drill held Wednesday morning at the Santa Maria Public Airport simulated a mass-casualty plane crash involving 40 to 50 passengers with a post-crash fire and a fuel leak. A school …

Crews Completing, Improving Fire Lines; Mopping Up Hot Spots By the numbers Location: 6 miles north of Santa Barbara Size: 1,984 acres as of Wednesday Percent contained: 90 percent expected by 6 p.m. Wednesday Estimated cost: $1.5 million Resources (Committed for Wednesday): 6 air tankers, 2 air attack planes, 12 helicopters, 14 crews, 33 engines, …

Former Pilot, Paratrooper Revisit Old Friend at SMX There was a World War II reunion of sorts this week in Santa Maria, as three Army veterans came together. Frank Goins, a flight officer with the U.S. Army Air Corps, Bindo Grasso of Guadalupe, a paratrooper with the U.S. Army who served in France in the …

Thanks to Nonprofit, Two Local Veterans Fly High in a 1942  P-17 2013-05-05T00:15:00Z Seasoned vets get a taste of heavenBy Kenneth Klein/Contributing Writer Santa Maria Times When two seasoned veterans showed up at the Santa Maria Airport for free rides in a single-engine warplane, they did not seem to have a health care in the …

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain that was recently restored by volunteers and staff at ArtCraft Paint at the Santa Maria Public Airport rolls out of the hangar headed for the Lightning Strike Chino air show. The plane, owned by a group associated with the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles, carried both troops and cargo for …

Military Aircraft may be Absent at Thunder Over The Valley Thanks to federal budget cuts, the forecast for the 2013 Thunder Over the Valley Air Show looks partly cloudy with a chance of rain. The Santa Maria Airport district Board of Directors will hear a report on the air show and the airport’s 10-year Capital …

Sequester Could Impact Thunder Over the Valley The Santa Maria Public Airport air traffic control tower is not among the more than 200 towers targeted for closure by the Federal Aviation Administration due to the $85 billion in automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration. The F.A.A. released the list of airports that would be …

Board Moves to Make Airport More Competitive The Santa Maria Public Airport District Board of Directors likes having the U.S. Forest Service’s air tanker base here and showed it Thursday when it cut the tanker landing fees in half. The board amended its contract with the Central Coast Jet Center to include collection of landing …