Saves State $40,000 A Year

In South Dakota, aviation is a good thing.

So says Governor Mike Rounds, a pilot since the age of 17. Whenever he takes the state's 1988 Beech King Air -- he flies the aircraft as part of the crew. Not only does the governor get some stick time, but he saves the state the cost of another crew member.

"I don't know how how we'd do the job without an aircraft anymore. I spend almost 400 hours a year in the airplane now. A lot in one hour trips back and forth from one end of the state to another," Rounds told KELO-TV.

Rounds aviation fever seems to be catching. "Our usage of the aircraft up 70 percent since last year. That's a savings of 800 hours of labor per month just by having people fly instead of drive," he told KELO.

That's after the April 1993 aviation tragedy that took the lives of Governor George Mickelson and seven other state leaders. They died when a propeller spun off their state aircraft while in flight.

"This state's not had a real fortunate history of successful air travel all the time," Rounds told the TV station. "So we're very sensitive to the safety of state employees traveling. I expect them to travel, and they travel every single day. If we're going to do that, have equipment that they can depend on and gets efficiently as possible."

Like New Mexico, however, South Dakota is dealing with the problems of an air fleet that's aging -- sometimes, less than gracefully.

"There have been times with our older twins, if it's a matter of taking four people to western part of state on a hot day, you tell them no and we'll either take fewer people or larger aircraft," Rounds said.

So South Dakota is getting rid of its two oldest aircraft, replacing it with a younger used plane. "It'll be smaller than king air 200, but it should be more efficient in moving passengers around the state for us," Rounds said.

In fact, it looks like the governors plane will also have to be replaced. Rounds said new FAA regulations will make his regular trips to Washington more than one-day affairs. But under the new regulations, he said, the aircraft will have to fly lower, slower and burn more fuel.

So there's now talk of procuring a jet for the governor. His office says a jet aircraft would be more efficient than the King Air.

FMI: www.state.sd.us/governor