The Greeneville-Greene County Airport Authority on Monday discussed, but took no action, on the need to repair a key navigational aid called a "localizer" at the Greeneville-Greene County Municipal Airport.

Airport Authority members were told the localizer had been out of service at the airport since Nov. 24.

Steven Neesen, of Greeneville Aviation, the airport's fixed base operator, said after the Monday meeting that the localizer is a type of ground-based navigation beacon that enables pilots making instrument approaches to Runway 5 in bad weather or darkness to be certain their aircraft are lined up with the center of the runway.

Without the localizer, pilots attempting to land under instrument conditions (such as darkness and bad weather) have only the airport's less-precise non-directional beacon (NDB) on which to rely, Neeson said.

Walt Stone, a veteran local pilot who is president of American Aviation, Inc., said during the meeting that at least three cables leading from the localizer antennas at the end of the runway apparently had been cut in a construction accident last week.

But Bart DeVore, vice-president of Baker's Construction Services, Inc., the firm that has been doing site preparation at the airport as part of the first phase of a runway realignment project, said today that no one had reported the problem with the localizer's underground cables to him.

Stone told Airport Authority members that he estimated the cost of repairing the existing localizer at about $70,000. He also quoted the cost of installing a new localizer as $219,800.

Stone also said a temporary repair could be made to the localizer, if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approves, by installing new cables and leaving them above ground.

But Airport Authority Chairman Janet Malone said the authority does not have the funds needed to either repair or replace the existing localizer.

She stressed that she had checked with state aviation officials and had been told that neither state grant funds nor federal "Vision 100" funds can be used to repair or relocate the existing localizer.

However, Malone said it might be possible to secure federal funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission to repair and relocate the navigational aid.

She told the Airport Authority members present that she would need specific information about how the absence of a localizer at the Greeneville-Greene County Muncipal Airport could have an impact locally before applying to the ARC for funding.

One corporate flight that had been bound for the local airport on Monday had diverted to Tri-Cities Regional Airport because the localizer was inoperative, said Neesen, of Greeneville Aviation.

Malone asked Airport Authority members to send her as much specific information about the problem as possible.

Malone told Airport Authority members that Baker Construction, the contractor working on the first phase of the airport runway realignment project, had wanted to shut down and move the localizer in order to enable more earth-moving to take place.

But Malone said she had told the contractor that the localizer should not be moved until next spring when construction work is scheduled to begin again after a winter break.

Malone said construction is scheduled to end this week and is not expected to resume until next April.

The break in construction, Malone said, will give the Airport Authority some time to decide what to do in the long-term about the localizer.

Complicating the matter, Malone said, are plans by the Federal Aviation Administration and state aviation authorities to move away from ground-based approach aids, such as localizer systems, to satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) approach systems.

During the Airport Authority's October meeting, members had a lengthy discussion of plans to replace the airport's non-directional beacon (NDB) and existing localizer with a global positioning system (GPS) localizer.

Malone said in October that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has selected Greeneville as one of three airports in the state for a GPS localizer survey at no cost to the airport.

This survey will not require a third-party contractor, saving the airport an estimated $70,000, she said.

She and Stone noted in October that the existing localizer is obsolete and is no longer supported by its manufacturer.

But the localizer problem has placed the Airport Authority in a "very difficult position," according to Chairman Malone.

As she had in October, Malone maintained on Monday that if a new GPS-based localizer is installed at the local airport, some 90 percent of the 86 general aviation aircraft based there will be unable to use it.

She noted that most general aviation aircraft, as well as large numbers of corporate and business aircraft, are not equipped with GPS equipment that is approved for use in making instrument approaches to airports.

Such GPS equipment would cost general aviation aircraft owners at least $17,000, pilot Walt Stone said in October.

In other action, Malone said she plans to ask state aviation authorities to fund an emergency repair to pavement on the airport taxiway.

If state authorities agree to funding the repairs on an emergency basis, she said, the state will pay 90 percent of the cost.

A cost estimate is not yet available, she said.

Malone also noted that Greeneville's Civil Air Patrol unit is being featured in the state Aeronautics Department's newsletter.

Derek Metcalf, the local CAP commander, said his unit took part in a search-and-rescue drill in the Viking Mountain area of southern Greene County last week and over the weekend.

He also said the Greeneville CAP unit was called out on Sunday night after commercial aircraft flying over this area detected a signal from an "emergency locator transmitter" of the type that would send a signal from crashed aircraft.

A CAP aircraft that was launched from Tri-Cities Regional Airport on Sunday night determined, however, that the signal was coming from a hangar at "the old Johnson City Airport" in Johnson City and search operations were discontinued here, Metcalf said.