Noteworthy

Ports of Entry serve up lunch for commercial drivers during Truck Driver Appreciation Week

By Mark Horan

As part of the national Truck Driver Appreciation Week campaign, the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) helped to provide more than 500 commercial vehicle drivers with a free lunch on Sept. 15-16

Lunches were available at the I-80 Port of Entry on Wednesday, and at the I-25 and US 85 Ports of Entry on Thursday.

Some truckers went for the full meal deal – a freshly grilled hamburger or hot dog, chips, cookies and bottled water. Other truckers just stopped by for a snack. Small giveaway items were also handed out.

The event was led up by volunteers from WYDOT’s Division of Motor Vehicle Services and the Commercial Carrier section within the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

Other volunteers and all supplies came from the following organizations: Wyoming Trucking Association, Western Distributing Company, North Park Transportation Co, Bar S services Inc., TransPro Inc., Tri-State Generation & Transmission Assoc. Inc.

WYDOT has taken part in this initiative for more than 20 years and looks forward to participating next year. It’s a small way to say “Thanks” to the tens of thousands of men and women who drive commercial trucks throughout the state every day.

According to the American Trucking Association’s website:

“This year’s National Truck Driver Appreciation Week is Sept.

WYDOT, WHP and Ports of Entry got a big thumbs up from this grateful trucker. 12-18 and takes on a special significance considering the crucial role truck drivers have played during the COVID-19 pandemic. Americans in all fifty states have taken extraordinary steps to show their appreciation for the important work that professional truck drivers have done as we navigate our way through the coronavirus pandemic. From children passing out lunches, to “I ♥ Truckers” signs across America’s highways, the public has taken notice of the essential role truck drivers play in their lives.

This week is a way to show appreciation to the 3.6 million professional men and women who not only deliver our goods safely, securely, and on time, but also keep our highways safe.” n

Photo: Mark Horan

Wildlife is on the move and travelers are reminded to stay alert while on the roads.

Watch for deer and wildlife on highways; they’re on the move

By Cody Beers, District 5

The Wyoming Department of Transportation cautions drivers about an increase in wildlife/vehicle collisions and other wildlife crossing highways.

An increase in Wyoming wildlife/vehicle collisions normally occurs in the fall and winter months, partially due to migration and shorter daylight hours. This wet spring, the extremely hot and dry summer, and green grass in the state right-of-way seems to be encouraging deer and other wildlife to move toward and across highways, according to WYDOT District Engineer Pete Hallsten, of Basin.

“Our maintenance personnel are seeing an increase in dead deer. Be extra careful,” Hallsten said. “Hitting a deer can also be a very costly expense, and sometimes it can be a life-threatening incident.”

WYDOT offers tips for avoiding wildlife/vehicle crashes:

• Avoid swerving your vehicle; swerving may cause drivers to lose control of their vehicle, which may result in a more serious incident; • Pay attention to changes in habitat types along roadways.

Creek bottoms and where agricultural fields meet trees are prime areas for wildlife to cross roadways; • Deer are herd animals; if you see one, watch for more; • Deer crossing signs show where high levels of deer/vehicle crashes have occurred in the past; • Pay extra attention when driving at dawn and dusk when animals are most active; • When you see deer, activate your vehicle’s horn several times and flick your headlights (if no oncoming traffic is present), and reduce your speed. The horn and flicking lights may

spook the deer into running across the road, so remember to reduce your speed; • Wear your seat belt, use appropriate child safety seats and drive at a safe speed; driving slower at dawn and dusk may help you avoid a collision; • If possible, use your high-beam headlights as much as possible; watch for the shining eyes.

If you hit a deer or other species of wildlife:

• Slow down, pull to the highway shoulder and turn on the emergency flashers; • Don’t worry about the animal. Law enforcement and WY-

DOT will arrange to have the animal removed from the roadway or shoulder. Tell the dispatcher if the animal is still in the roadway when you’re calling for help; • If possible, remain buckled up in your vehicle, protecting yourself and your passengers in the event there is a secondary crash involving another vehicle; • If you and/or your passengers must exit your vehicle, stand as far off the roadway as possible; • To report a crash, call the Wyoming Highway Patrol at 1-800442-9090.

“It doesn’t matter if you, the driver, are traveling on rural roads or busy highways, the threat of hitting a deer or other wild animal is very real,” Hallsten said. “All drivers should take extra precautions this time of the year to enhance safety while traveling on our highways.” n

Photos: WYDOT The passive reflector on top of Dome Peak bounces a microwave signal from Sheridan to the Duncan Lake/Burgess Junction area in the Bighorns.

Emergency Communications goes airborne with the U.S. Forest Service

By Mark Horan

If you were to ask Daniel Spencer and Chris Perkins what they did last summer, you’d get a unique and interesting response – they rode a helicopter to the top of Dome Peak in the Bighorn Mountains.

Spencer and Perkins are technicians for WYDOT’s Emergency Communications Program. Over the summer, the pair was tasked with providing service maintenance to a passive reflector on the top of Dome Peak, elevation 10,828 feet.

The reflector is an approximately 30ʹ x 50ʹ foot metallic wall that bounces a microwave signal from Sheridan down to the Duncan Lake/ Burgess Junction area in the Bighorns. Although there are no electrical parts, the reflector was installed more than eight years ago and in need of an inspection and general maintenance.

But getting to the top of the peak is no easy task because it’s a roughly 2-mile aggressive trail that’s not accessible by road – so trucks or ATVs aren’t an option. On foot, the hike takes around two hours each way and requires more

than 90 pounds of maintenance equipment and climbing gear for techs to get the job done.

That’s where the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) came in.

The USFS maintains radio systems in the Big Horn Mountains and contracts with the Wyoming Forestry Division (WFD) to use their helicopter when the need arises.

District 2 Supervisor/Microwave Systems Manager Troy Berg had planted seeds with USFS several months ago to see if they’d be willing to give WYDOT techs a ride the next time a helicopter was sent up the mountain.

On June 29, a small window of opportunity opened for the USFS to conduct their communications maintenance when they were notified that a WFD helicopter normally used for fighting forest fires would be available the next day.

Because they had already established a relationship, the USFS then contacted Berg to see if any WYDOT techs wanted a ride up in order to complete their project on Dome Peak. Despite the short notice, Spencer and Perkins assembled their gear and prepared for the mission the next day.

“It was a natural choice to employ the expertise of the USFS Flight Crew, since high altitude landings and remote landings are their specialty, and they’ve flown in that area before,” said Nate Smolinski, WYDOT’s Emergency Communications Program manager.

Piloting the helicopter were Ryan Morgan and Chris Fallbeck out of the USFS Big Horn National Forest.

After a 15-minute ride up, the helicopter was brought down on a landing area not much wider than the chopper itself.

Spencer and Perkins proceeded with the reflector inspection, which took about two and a half hours. The helicopter then came back to pick up the tech team, and everyone returned home safe.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience for both technicians.

“Even though it was a short flight, it was a beautiful scenery,” said Spencer. “I was surprised I was actually getting paid to do this.”

Perkins and Spencer commended everyone on the flight crew and ground crew for doing an excellent job.

“I can’t say enough good things about them,” Spencer said.

The opportunity to get up the mountain by helicopter not only saved WYDOT time, it also made the operation safer according to Spencer. “It would have been tough for us to make that hike and then turn around and climb a tower,” he said. “From a safety perspective, going up by helicopter made it a lot easier for Chris and me because we weren’t drained of energy before the maintenance even started.”

Smolinski pointed out that the success of the mission was due to having formed a good partnership with outside agencies. “As a government agency, anytime we can work with another state, federal or local government agency is a win-win,” he said. “We can accomplish a lot of great things, and often times save the state some money when we work together.”

Smolinski noted that future situations could arise where WYDOT and the USFS would help each other out now that a positive working relationship has been established. For example, the USFS might be in need of a snowcat in the winter, or the Forest Service might be called upon to assist with an aerial drop or to slush a WyoLink communication site during fire season. And in all likelihood, the USFS will get a call in a couple of years when it comes time for WYDOT techs to head back to the top of Dome Peak.

“The more friends that we have in this type of business, the more we can get accomplished,” Smolinski said. n

Piloted by a U.S. Forest Service flight crew, a helicopter lands on the top of Dome Peak in the Bighorn Mountain Range.

Emergency Communications Program technicians Chris Perkins (left) and Daniel Spencer after their flight to the top of Dome Peak on June 30, 2021.

2021 Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame induction

By Mark Horan

The Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame (WAHF) is pleased to announce that Bob Hawkins has been selected as its inductee for 2021.

For more than 50 years, Hawkins operated many types of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters across Wyoming and the West. Most of his flying was in highly specialized applications, including high-altitude mountain flying, heavy-lift hauling, firefighting, long line, surveying, and wildlife management. He was co-owner of Hawkins & Powers Aviation, Inc., in Greybull, from 1992-2005 and was general manager and director of operations of Sky Aviation, in Worland, from 2005-2018. He also flew with Bighorn Airways in Sheridan.

Growing up in an aviation family, Hawkins quickly took to the skies. As a high school student, he first soloed after 11 hours of flight time in 1967, and his first helicopter solo occurred in 1975. He attended Casper College before joining the Air Force, where he served his country from 1970 to 1974. He was trained in corrosion control and spent most of his time with the 366th Field Maintenance Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. After his honorable discharge, he returned home to Greybull and became a pilot with the family business Hawkins & Powers. While at Sky Aviation, he was instrumental in the purchase of four ex-military, twin-rotor, Boeing CH46E helicopters. In 2015, two of the helicopters were converted for firefighting and heavy hauling operations. These have the distinction of being the first CH-46 helicopters to be converted from U.S. Military to civilian use.

Hawkins hauled firefighters and assisted with firefighting in Yellowstone during the 1988 fires. He had many other opportunities to fly in Yellowstone, including the wolf reintroduction program that began in the late 1990s. In 1989, Hawkins was part of a National Parks Service project to make measurements of the faces of Mount Rushmore. The dimensions of the popular national memorial were previously unknown. With a special camera mounted to his helicopter, he made several passes to take a set of photographs that were used to determine the actual measurements of the memorial. He also hauled construction equipment and fireworks to the top of the memorial. He has been part of wild horse and buffalo roundups. He frequently flew for the Wyoming Game & Fish Department conducting aerial surveys, planting fish in high mountain lakes, and net gunning and darting, and he hauled equipment to highway projects for the Wyoming Department of Transportation. Hawkins also served the industry as president of the American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association, and he continued a fun tradition of his father, Dan, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020, by flying Santa Clause to several Big Horn Basin communities to greet children during the holiday season.

During his flying career, Hawkins operated 19 different helicopters and 34 different airplanes. Before retiring from commercial flying on October 1, 2018, and before offering his last Part 135 check ride for Sky Aviation in April 2019, he had logged nearly 21,000 hours of flight time – about 17,000 of those in a helicopter. Hawkins was born on June 4, 1950, in Rapid City, South Dakota, and moved to Wyoming in 1964 when his father took employment with Avery Aviation in Greybull. He and wife Becky raised four children – Erik, Aaron, Daniel, and Nicole. In his retirement, Bob has been president of the board and director of the Museum of Flight and Aerial Firefighting in Greybull and is restoring a 1949 Cessna 190.

The WAHF was founded in 1995 as a non-profit, publicly supported, tax-exempt organization dedicated to honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the establishment, development, and/or advancement of aviation in Wyoming. The organization comprises a board of directors and operates in conjunction with the Wyoming Aeronautics Commission. Board members include Kent Nelson, retired USAF colonel and former Wyoming Aeronautics Commissioner; Dean McClain, who operates an aerial spraying business in Torrington; and John Waggener, a University of Wyoming archivist and Wyoming transportation historian. For more information about the WAHF, to nominate an individual, or to make a donation, please contact WAHF President John Waggener, in Laramie, at 307-7662563, or by email at waggener@uwyo.edu. Biographies of all of the inductees can be found on the WYDOT website at: https://www.dot.state.wy.us/home/aeronautics/aviation_hall_of_ fame.html/ n

Photo: Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame