Talk:Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport

Former airlines

Below is the original list of former airlines and destinations from ROA. The information has been incorporated into prose, but I wanted to keep the original list here for reference. Patriarca12 (talk) 02:17, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Former airlines and destinations

American was ROA's first airline, not even on the list.

• Aeromech Airlines (Charleston (WV))
• Air Virginia (Charlotte, Philadelphia, Richmond, Washington-Dulles, Washington-Reagan)
• Allegheny Airlines - Operated between October 29, 1978 and February 1979. (Pittsburgh)
• American Eagle (Raleigh-Durham)
• Continental Express – Operated between January 1996 and November 1, 1997. (Newark)
• Eastern Airlines - (Atlanta, Charlotte, Pittsburgh)

Eastern never served ROA to ATL or CLT. But they did serve ROA to PIT and GSO (and on the MIA)

• Jetstream International Airlines (Dayton)
• Piedmont Airlines - Operated between November 1, 1945 through its merger with USAir on August 4, 1989. (Asheville, Atlanta, Bluefield, Charleston (WV), Charlotte, Charlottesville, Chicago-Midway, Danville, Dayton, Fayetteville (NC), Greenbriar, Greensboro, Lexington, Louisville, Hot Springs (VA), Lynchburg, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, Newark, Pittsburgh, Pulaski (VA), Richmond, Staunton, Tri-Cities, Washington-Reagan, Winston-Salem)
• Northwest Express (Newark)
• TWA (Charleston (SC), Charleston (WV), Greensboro, Louisville, Lynchburg, Richmond, Tri-Cities, Washington-Reagan, Winston-Salem)

TWA never served Roanoke —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.134.94.215 (talk) 00:08, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

• U.S. Airways Express (Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Washington-Reagan)

References

GA Review

History

"The original purpose of the facility was to provide for a landing strip, aircraft storage as well as serving as a flight school for local residents."

Put a comma after "storage".

"The location for the airport was secured on July 1, 1929, when the city signed the lease on the land to operate the Roanoke Municipal Airport."

Which city?

"The original facility featured a single 83 feet (25 m) x 100 feet (30 m) hangar and a pair of dirt runways, with the first commercial service commencing in 1933 with Ludington Airlines making Roanoke a stop on their New York to Nashville route."

Put a comma after "1933". Also, you could probably use a semicolon after "runways" and then just eliminate the "with" (I don't think it's being properly used here).

"By 1934, American Airways would begin service to Roanoke only to move their operations to Lynchburg in 1937 due to the poor conditions in Roanoke."

Keep the tense consistent (past tense; i.e. began, moved, etc.).

"Taking control of the facility in 1937, Roanoke City purchased the original hangar, with WPA funds paying the costs of paving the runways."

You said before that that the city had signed the lease, so doesn't that mean they would already control it? Try to clarify. Also, what is WPA? The link you provide is a disambiguation page. Say what the initials mean.

• I clarified this statement, as the book referenced indicated the city of Roanoke owned the land, but leased it to private operators for airport operation from its opening through 1937. Roanoke then took over all operation in 1937. I hope this clarifies the issue raised.

"After being declared a national defense project, federal funds became available to complete the facility, and on December 15, 1941, the new facility was dedicated."

According to the sentence structure, "After being declared a national defense project" is describing "federal funds". I don't think that's what you mean. Maybe say "After (something) was declared..."

Named Woodrum Field in honor of Clifton A. Woodrum, the congressional representative from Virginia's Sixth District, American reestablished service to Roanoke with its opening."

Again, the beginning phrase is modifying "American" (American what? Clarify), and I don't think you want that. Change something

"With facilities at maximum capacity, the need for upgrades became necessary for the airport to continue to grow."

Say "when", not with.

"A proposal for runway expansion as well as facilities upgrades was developed in 1975, but subsequently put on hold while a new regional airport was being studied."

Say "was subsequently". Also, was an actually "regional airport" being studied, or were they studying plans for an airport, or what?

"During this time airline deregulation occurred and Roanoke's facilities resulted in a decline of service to the city in the wake of deregulation and the phasing out of turbo prop aircraft in favor of jet aircraft by the airlines."

Put a comma after "time". Also, don't say "airline deregulation occured", say "airline deregulation was put in place" or something like that. Deregulation didn't just happen randomly.

"With the runway extension underway, the airport would officially change its name from Roanoke Municipal Airport to Roanoke Regional Airport in 1983. The runway expansion project would be complete by 1985."

Use past tense.

"Between 1984-1985, Roanoke City developed an Airport Master Plan calling for $43.8 million to be spent in the development of a new terminal building in addition to other improvements throughout the site."

Put a comma after "building"

"With $15.4 million secured in state and local funds for its implementation, the remainder of the costs was to be covered by local authorities."

Again, use past tense.

"From this need for funding, the idea for the creation of Regional Airport Commission to oversee airport operations was proposed."

"a Regional Airport Commission" would be correct.

"Approved by the Virginia General Assembly on February 18, 1986, and initiated on July 1, 1987, the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission consists of 5 members with three coming from Roanoke City and two coming from Roanoke County."

First of all, past tense. Also, comma after "members."

"The creation of the commission ended Roanoke's role as the sole operator of the airport which had stretched from 1934 through 1987."

What is Roanoke here? The city, the airport, the county? Clarify. Also, put a comma after "airport".

"Although Roanoke has never had international passenger service, by 2001, the Airport Commission was prepared to change the airport's name to Roanoke International Airport."

Past tense.

"As of 2007 the prospect of changing the airport's name has been mentioned as a possibility by the Airport Commission."

Past tense. Add a comma after "2007". And, maybe say "In 2007, the prospect of changing the airport's name was again mentioned as a possibility by the Airport Commission."

Previous airline service

"Prior to airline deregulation, carriers such as TWA and Eastern Airlines provided service. However, the original Piedmont Airlines would leave the most lasting legacy on commercial aviation in Roanoke."

TWA has never served ROA, I have removed this from the above. --[[User:D'oh|]] (talk) 02:52, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

If you are going to use "have ..." (which is present perfect tense) then use it consistently throughout the section. Please. There are other instinces of this in this section, so I'll just say it one time only.from Roanoke

"From Roanoke, Piedmont provided non-stop service to many cities including but not limited to: Asheville, Atlanta, Bluefield, Charleston (WV), Charlotte, Charlottesville, Chicago-O'Hare, Danville, Dayton, Fayetteville (NC), Greenbriar, Greensboro, Lexington, Louisville, Hot Springs (VA), Lynchburg, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, Newark, Pittsburgh, Pulaski (VA), Richmond, Staunton, Tri-Cities, Washington-Reagan and Winston-Salem."

This list is way, way too long. Use a table to show the data, or better yet, cut it down a bit, maybe?

• I have trimmed the list down to major airports served by Piedmont from ROA.

Piedmont became the airport’s dominant air carrier through its 1988 merger with USAir.

This statement is not true, PI was the dominant carrier at ROA LONG before the merger with US Air. I'm removing the sentence. --[[User:D'oh|]] (talk) 02:52, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Facilities

Terminal

"Due to the extremely simple layout of the terminal, during off-peak times, check-in to departure gate travel time rarely exceeds 7-9 minutes."

Reference needed.

• I removed this statement all together as it was more anecdotal in nature and difficult to reference with a reliable source.

"There has been talk of a terminal expansion for some time now, though official plans have yet to be announced."

"For some time now" is rather informal. Use something else.

Runways

"However, expansion was delayed until the early 1980s while a proposed new regional airport serving Roanoke, Lynchburg and Martinsville to be built in Bedford County was evaluated."

Put a comma after "Martinsville" and "County".

"Once the regional airport proposal was scrapped, the expansion was completed in 1985 and added 900 feet (270 m) to its eastern end to allow for fully loaded jet aircraft to take off and land with a full load."

Say "900 feet was added".

"The most recent runway refurbishment was completed in 2002 in addition to the relocating one of the taxiways to prevent runway incursions."

Put a comma after the year.

There were originally three runways at Woodrum Field. The third one was oriented approximately 11-29 or 12-30 or thereabouts, and was turned into a tiedown area in the 1960s or 70s. That area is now a general aviation area including tiedowns and hangars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.255.7.123 (talk) 12:42, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Control tower

"Throughout its history, Roanoke Regional's has had five separate control towers serve the airport."

"Roanoke Regional's"? Use the full name, maybe.

"Federal funding for a new tower fell through in both 1993 and 1997, but in 1999 the FAA announced they were restarting the Roanoke project paving he way for its construction."

Put a comma after "project". And correct the typo.

Accidents

This section is very short. Maybe combine it with "History".

• I have incorporated this section into the History section.

Also, check this. :There are two broken links. Noble Story (talk) 15:14, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Noble Story (talk) 10:03, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

• Thank you for the detailed set of comments. I do appreciate it as this is the first article I have worked on by myself to bring up to GA status. I have addressed the above comments, and look forward to your reassessment. Thanks! Patriarca12 (talk) 23:22, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Lead

It seems that the three paragraphs after the first one should be made into a whole new section, as the information is not mentioned anywhere in the text. The lead is supposed to introduce and summarize the article, so the lead needs to cleaned up somewhat.

• I have moved a few of these paragraphs into the history section and added a more generalized paragraph about the history of the airport. I have left the final paragraph referencing general airport statistics in the lead as has been fairly standard in other airport articles. Please advise as to how to proceed if what has been changed is not sufficient.

History

"The original facility featured a single 83 feet (25 m) x 100 feet (30 m) hangar and a pair of dirt runways, and the first commercial service commenced in 1933; Ludington Airlines made Roanoke a stop on their New York to Nashville route."

Use "when" instead of the semicolon.

"The airport was named Woodrum Field in honor of Clifton A. Woodrum, the congressional representative from Virginia's Sixth District, and after it reopened, American Airways reestablished service to Roanoke."

Roanoke what?

"There were 82 fatalities and no survivors making this the deadliest accident associated with Roanoke Regional Airport."

Put a comma after "survivors".

"During this time airline deregulation was put in place, and combined with its aging facilities resulted in a decline of service to the city in addition to the phasing out of turbo prop aircraft in favor of jet aircraft by the airlines."

First of all, what is "its" referring to? Also, put a comma after "facilities". And put a subject for resulted.

"The runway expansion project would be complete by 1985."

Past tense, please.

Previous airline service

"By the 1970s, Piedmont established a regional hub in Roanoke with 45 daily flights, that served 330,000 passengers by 1973."

Say "In the 1970s..."

"Between October 29, 1978 and February 1979, Allegheny Airlines provided non-stop service to Pittsburgh, Aeromech Airlines briefly provided service to selected West Virginia destinations in the early 1980s and Air Virginia provided service from the 1970s through the mid-1980s."

Put a comma after the first "1980s".

"Other carriers still operating at Roanoke decreased the number of destinations served from Roanoke since the early 1990s."

I think you should say "have decreased."

Facilities

Terminals

"Construction of the terminal commenced in 1987 and opened in October 1989 at a final cost of $25 million."

Put a comma after "1987". And what opened (not the construction, I think)?

"The Y-shaped building features a front of blue-tinted, reflecting glass with exposed white triangular tube steel trusses. The lobby interior features an arched brick wall leading out into a central plaza and front courtyard at the main entrance. "

Two straight uses of "features" would warrant some variety.

"Landside facilities include check-in, car rental, baggage claim and a taxi hire. The upper-level has a small cafe and newsstand. The upper-level Airside boasts 7 gates (Gates 1-6 and 5A), and a small cafe area."

What does "Landside" and "Airside" mean?

"Designed to accommodate future expansion, there has been talk of a terminal expansion, though official plans have yet to be announced."

What has been designed to accomodate?

"However, with the gate space being used to 100 percent capacity at peak times, there is very little capacity available for new flights unless they arrive and depart at off-peak times (10 AM-12 PM),(7 PM-10 PM)."

Reference, maybe?

Runways

"There are two primary air carrier runways. The largest is Runway 6/24 6,800 feet (2,100 m) x 150 feet (46 m) and Runway 15/33 is 5,810 feet (1,770 m) x 150 feet (46 m)."

"6/24 6,800 feet" is an unintelligible string of numbers.

Control towers

"The total airspace controlled by Roanoke stretches from the Mountain Empire region to Farmville."

That really means nothing to most people reading this. Maybe some sort of distance, perhaps (square miles)?

Parking and ground transportation

"Future improvements to the parking areas envision the construction of a multi-level parking garage atop the site of the existing long term lot."

I don't think "envisions" is the right word here. Maybe "will create" or something like that.

Also, according to this, there is still a broken link.

• I have searched the page and cannot find where this broken link is posted on the page. The page that is showing as a broken link is to the airport diagram that has been correctly linked in the first reference. There is not another link on the page referencing a FAA diagram. I do not know how to address this at this point.

Noble Story (talk) 12:13, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Again, thank you for the detailed set of comments. Please advise how to proceed if this is still not quite to GA status. Patriarca12 (talk) 03:50, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

More Comments

OK, a few more things to address: "By 1934, American Airways began service to Roanoke, but later moved their operations to Lynchburg in 1937 due to the poor conditions in Roanoke."

Should be "they later moved".

'"During this time airline deregulation was put in place, and combined with the airport's aging facilities and the phasing out of turbo prop aircraft in favor of jet aircraft by the airlines, its outdated infrastructure and deteriorating condition resulted in a decline of service to the airport."

What is "its" (the airport)?

Also, when you have a city (Baltimore, Atlanta, Charlotte, etc.) you need to wikilink to that city' article.

• Done, wikilinked properly now.

Noble Story (talk) 07:47, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

• Thanks again for your detailed comments and time in helping this article become GA. Please let me know if anything else needs to be cleaned-up. Patriarca12 (talk) 11:29, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Final GA Review

Review of Roanoke Regional Airport

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose quality:

   B. MoS compliance:

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. References to sources:

   B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary:

   C. No original research:

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects:

   B. Focused:

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

   B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

Well, after the necessary cleanup, this article is now a GA. Congratulations. Noble Story (talk) 11:40, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your time and patience in helping pass this as a GA. Patriarca12 (talk) 22:41, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

What are primary air carrier runways?

"There are two primary air carrier runways." This statement implies that there are other types of runways. Is this the case? I think the answer is that there are two runways and that both runways are capable of being used by the primary air carriers (i.e. Delta, American, United, etc.) and the types of planes they use for their primary air routes (i.e. Boeing 737, 757, 767, Airbus A320, A340, etc.). --Born2flie (talk) 15:38, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

• I clarified that statement as what you stated is the case and there are only 2 runways. Thanks. Patriarca12 (talk) 16:42, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Flying Schools

Hillman Aviation - Wes and Edith Hillman ran the business. Wes, along with instructor Don Brown, taught many Roanokers to fly from the 1940s to the 1980s. Wes Hillman was known to fly his antique red Waco biplane over the Roanoke Valley. LC's Flying Service - a more recent flying school served the public as well as a special competitive admission program through Roanoke City Schools in which high school juniors and seniors could study for and receive their pilots licenses as part of their school curriculum. The expansion of Runways 6-24 in 2008 necessitated the destruction of two historic hangars on the north side of the airport, and the relocation of two businesses. Roanoke Aero, which was housed in the airport's original terminal building hangar from the 1940s, relocated it's business to Hangar 22. LC's Flying Service, Roanoke's only remaining flight school as of 1Q 2008, relocated to nearby Blacksburg/Virginia Tech Airport. It is ironic that as an indirect result of improvements to the airport, no flying schools currently exist in the Roanoke Valley today. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.255.7.123 (talk) 12:38, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

External links modified

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Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Great well refrenced article, could become GA if the red links are fixed and Sections re-arranged. -Marcusmax (talk) 02:48, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Substituted at 01:12, 12 June 2016 (UTC)