Help Us Save The Indianapolis Downtown Heliport!

Hi, Randy Sharkey here with Sweet Helicopters and we need your help. This is a call to action. We need your help to stop the closing of the downtown Indianapolis Airport identifier 8/4. The Indianapolis Airport Authority, which is governed by the city of Indianapolis has proposed to the Chicago Airports District office to close the downtown Hilliport. So what can we do? We can go to the FAA website and place a public comment. The best way to get there is through rotor.com there is an email that was sent to me from Rex Alexander and he is the president of 5 Alpha LLC. Let me just read you this email from Rex. It says it would be a shame to see this highly valuable and I dare to say one of a kind vertical flight infrastructure location turned into condominiums due to mismanagement and the lack of vision. Out of the 6112 heliports currently listed by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Indianapolis Hilliport is one of only 57 public use hilliports in the United States, of which Indiana only has two. The other one happens to be the Wilbur wright Birthplace Hilliport 8 Alpha 4 is one of only eight heliports that is identified at the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems and in fact has the largest public use hilliport physical footprint in the United States. Having reviewed the other 56 public use hilliports I can safely say that 8 Alpha 4 is only one of a handful that actually meets FAA standards. As someone who eats, breathes and sleeps vertical flight infrastructure, I can't think of a better place in the United States for someone to set up an advanced air mobility transport transportation network. This site literally checks all of the boxes. It has a large physical footprint, clear airspace, it has instrument approach and departure procedures, excellent ground access, electrical grid access, rail access, multimodal capabilities. It is central to downtown, has a large nearby sporting of venues and you talk about an opportunity for research and development with companies like Rolls, Rol and Raytheon Technologies just down the street as well as aerospace and aviation universities such as Purdue University and Vincennes University. Given the proper coordination and administration, this site has untold potential to make Indianapolis a leader in the aviation and advanced air mobility industry. Hopefully those involved will see that before the opportunity gets lost. So what can we do? We can go to rotor.com and we can get to the FAA website and make a public comment to oppose this closing. Now we do have a deadline. It is on Thursday March 9th. So on behalf of Sweet Helicopters, we appreciate your time and we ask you to help us save the Indianapolis downtown heliport. Thank you.