A plan to construct a wind farm near Treynor, Iowa has recently been met with opposition from operators of an aviation school in the area.

Revv Aviation Flight School has raised concerns about the wind farm, stating that the proposed site is the field where pilots learn to fly aircraft.  The turbine would create obstacles to training and possibly graduation, the company added.

“It’s very convenient, very short flight for our students to get there, do the maneuvers that they’re required to do, and then get back,” Jerome Howard, the school’s chief flight instructor, told KETV.  According to the statement, students fly to the location about eight miles from the school to practice emergency situations and maneuvers.

On Tuesday, Revv partnered with the Council Bluffs Airport Authority to explain the issue to county officials.  The windmill blades, they argued, can reach up to 800 feet.  Students, who would have to fly at a safe distance above such blades, could also interfere with commercial air traffic.  “That’s a lot to keep track of, so to the extent that they can have that separation of traffic, that’s very important,” Andy Biller with the Airport Authority told KETV’s Alex McLoon.

Revv noted that students would most likely have to shoulder the burden to fly elsewhere if the wind farm is in fact constructed.  That location has not been revealed yet.  Howard said that the extra fuel needed “is going to increase the costs for the student.”

According to Boeing, the air transport industry needs about 649,000 new pilots in the next twenty years in order to sustain commercial fleets worldwide.

County officials will hold another public hearing on the topic of the wind farm at the Oakland community center on Wednesday, November 29th from 6-8 pm.