TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS CONTINUE AT CREIGHTON ISLAND

A happy young visitor to the December Creighton Island Fly-In.

RAF Georgia Ambassador Eric Davis reports another successful weekend fly-in at Creighton Island December 6-8. Attendees Eric and Sandy Peyrot flew their C182 in from Summerland, FL and said it was a “fantastic fly-in location,” adding, “getting to see the area by air and then get up close on an undeveloped island was a real treat.”

While there, Davis installed additional radios on the tower and at owner Frank WIlliams’s lodges to extend wifi service to structures on the west side of the island. “The tower wifi signal reaches the tie-down area east of the runway as long as you can see the tower,” Davis said. He reports that the SSID is  CREIGHTON  and the password is  landshort.  See the Airfield.Guide for further details. Davis reminds that access is only during announced fly-ins, unless you contact owner Frank Williams prior to flying in, and receive a field report. This is for safety concerns, as field conditions can change rapidly.

“The eventual plan is to build a solar/battery stand on the east side that will provide enough generation and storage capacity to power camp lighting and fans during summer nights,and device charging and wifi access,” Davis said, all improvements to benefit visitors who fly in. Davis has also engineered a system that monitors the solar charging and battery status at the tower. Battery voltage has remained steady at about 12.5 volts and the solar voltage rises and falls with the sun. 

In the planning stage is an ADS-B tracker on aircraft that land or take off from Creighton Island. Mr. Williams will get an SMS text whenever someone arrives or departs. “The objective is to increase safety since the airfield is not continuously attended,” Davis said. “Also, we’ll have an electronic visitor log.”

Submitted on December 20, 2019

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