A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

For the U.S. aviation community, July means Oshkosh, otherwise known as EAA’s AirVenture, the world’s largest aviation gathering, held annually at Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH) in Wisconsin. However, for the Appleton Flight Center, the county-owned FBO 25 miles away at Appleton International Airport (KATW), Oshkosh means booming business.
“It’s a big deal for us as we get as much revenue in that one week as we would for an entire month,” said Scott Volberding, KATW’s assistant airport director. “We will get traffic starting to arrive in that July 18 timeframe, and they will be with us until that July 28 timeframe. Over that week, we’ll see 700 aircraft in and out. It’s a big deal!”
During the show, the airport’s 16-acre ramp will be inundated with aircraft, leading to the overflow of light aircraft parking on neighboring fields. With all the aerial activity swirling around KOSH during the event, the EAA will move its fleet of revenue-generating vintage warbirds—consisting of a Stearman biplane, P-51, B-24, and B-25—to KATW to conduct passenger flights.
Additionally, the FBO is preparing to host its first electric aircraft with two on hand during the show. “From a handling perspective and from a safety perspective, we’ve never seen a fully electric aircraft,” said Volberding.
Outagamie County took over operation of the FBO, the lone service provider on the field, in 2021. The complex features a 5,000-sq-ft, two-story terminal built in 2014, with an airy double-height passenger lobby, pilot lounge, snooze room, shower facilities, crew cars, onsite car rental, and—being Wisconsin—no fewer than four flavors of cheese curds in its new refreshment bar. Upstairs, a 14-seat conference room has floor-to-ceiling windows offering “distracting” views of the airfield.
The FBO has 55,000 sq ft of heated aircraft storage space, including a 31,000-sq-ft, $7.4 million hangar that opened last year. Volberding describes it as a “game changer.”
“Before that, we didn’t have any place for the large business jets, those [Bombardier] Globals, [Dassault] Falcons, and Gulfstreams,” he told AIN, adding that the facility’s pair of smaller 12,000-sq-ft hangars could not accommodate those aircraft size-wise. “Now our revenues are doing quite well this year because of that. It’s been a great addition for our FBO.” The facility is home to 19 jets, ranging from a Gulfstream GV down to an Eclipse 550.
An Avfuel-branded dealer, the location also conducts fueling on the commercial side with its fleet of four 5,000-gallon jet-A refuelers, with a fifth due later this year. It also has a pair of 1,000-gallon avgas trucks and offers self-serve for both fuels. Over the past decade, Volberding has seen the facility’s volumes rise from 2.4 million gallons a year to a predicted 9 million this year. KATW’s fuel farm holds 100,000 gallons of jet fuel and 20,000 gallons of 100LL, and he believes that it is overdue for an expansion. “We’re up to 36 loads of fuel a week at times; that’s a lot of fuel going through here,” he said.
Open every day from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m., the FBO has a staff of 40, and its line service staff benefits from training through NATA’s Safety 1st and Avfuel’s programs, along with in-house instruction.
As an international gateway, arriving private aircraft will clear customs on the ramp at the main terminal before proceeding to the FBO, which is certified to handle international refuse.
KATW is also situated 25 miles from Green Bay and it is the favored airport for visiting NFL teams heading to play the Packers on the “frozen tundra” of Lambeau Field. The FBO’s staff helps support the fueling and ground handling of those large charter aircraft.
According to Volberding, the FBO sees 50 to 70 operations a day on average. With its 8,000-foot main runway, KATW is also home to Gulfstream’s largest production facility outside of Savannah. With a staff of more than 1,300, it can accommodate more than a dozen ultra-long-range business jets and does full completions, along with MRO operations. The airframer has invested more than $60 million in the location, with its latest addition being a paint hangar. While Gulfstream does conduct fueling operations for customers at its facility, some choose to fill up at the FBO before departing.
Given its slogan, “Where top-tier amenities meet first-class service,” Volberding noted that the FBO regularly surveys its clients to see what amenities they want and will need in the future. “We keep trying to improve those amenities out there for the pilots flying in and out.”
He recalled a recent incident where a Learjet was waived off from landing in Green Bay due to snow in the middle of the night. His staff had just finished plowing the runways at KATW, the only open airport in the Northeast part of the state, when the pilot decided to divert. Volberding met the arriving jet at the then-closed FBO, opened it to welcome the crew, helped them find a hotel room, and then drove through the unplowed roads in an FBO vehicle to get them there, much to their gratitude.

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