New aerials have been released of the construction progress at the new aiport site in West Bay in North Bay County. The new airport in Panama City Beach is located on 4,000 acres of land donated by the St. Joe Company with the current infrastructure footprint using 1400 acres of the property.
This photo shows the terminal and main parking area. The left side of the picture is south whereas the right side of the picture is north (or approximately). The U-shape onthe bottom is the pavement around the main wing of the terminal with the T-shape (with the stem of the T fitting in the U) being the actual terminal footprint. The box-shapes above the terminal area is the main parking with the cleared area above it (I beleive) will be auxilary parking. The area to the left is the general aviation area.
On the Heavy Civil and Airfield Lighting contract, the construction team has completed 75% of the contract work and used only 51% of the contract time. The following milestones have been reached:
85% of the 15” concrete paving lanes have been placed on 8,400 linear feet of Runway 16-34.
Runway 16-34 Touch Down Zone and Centerline light cans are being set.
On Taxiway D and main terminal apron, all lime rock base and the first lift of asphalt paving is in place.
Production volumes in place are as follows:
62,354 tons of asphalt pavement in place (both airside and landside).
151,307 square yards of landside lime rock base and 130,885 square yards of flightline P-211 lime rock base have been installed in accordance with the project specifications.
47,000 cubic yards of the 67,200 cubic yards of 15” concrete runway pavement is in place.
98% of the original RCP storm sewer installations are complete (33,086 linear feet).
66,258 linear feet of perforated under-drain has been installed along the taxiways and runways (42% of total).Storm sewer installation within the General Aviation Area is 30% complete.
5.7 million cubic yards of earth has been moved (99% of total).
Mass grading within Pond C now 98% complete.
105 pieces of heavy equipment in operation at any one time with approximately 123 personnel on site.
Contract 2: Terminal Building, ATCT and Support Buildings
On the Terminal Building, ATCT and Support Buildings contract, the construction team has completed 14% of contract work and utilized 19% of the contract time. Specific work includes the following:
Terminal: Shoring for Level 2 areas B and C continues in the terminal building.
Terminal: Plumbing rough-in continues.
Air Traffic Control Tower: Excavation around auger cast piles is complete and ready for installation of pile cap.
Air Cargo Facility: Completed slab pour at truck well/forming retaining walls.
Public Safety Building: Rebar at perimeter footings nearly complete.
Contract 3: Utility Contract
On the Utility Contract, the construction team has completed 4% of contract work and utilized 6% of the contract time. On the Main Access Road:
Since apparently I’m all about people having to pay more for stuff, you would think that I would agree with Bay County deciding to charge the same fee as Panama City Beach did (and will in the future) for using the pier – and you would actually be correct. However, not at first.
I’ll be frank, the only real objection I have to paying a fee at a place like this is because I’m not usually carrying cash. I don’t remember if they accepted credit cards, but who likes to charge a dollar anyway. Plus, who wants to pay $6 just to take the wife and kids out to the end of the pier for 10 minutes on the remote chance that we’ll actually see a fish that is radical enough to entertain the kids. I mean, seriously, $6 for something that I’ve already paid for through being a tax-payer?
But, the reality of the situation is that the tax dollars that I’ve put towards (or actually will put towards in the future as I’m sure this was financed through bonds) our new pier(s) is actually going to the construction, not the upkeep. An article in the paper this morning quoted Mike Thomas as stating that Bay County has never run a pier, they just built M.B. Miller Pier and let it run down. This brings up an interesting point.
Why did I never go to the county pier years ago even though there is tons of space and could be a perfect place for families to hang what with all the setting areas, boardwalks and wide open spaces? *pause* Because it was scary. That’s right, I said it – SCARY. With the fees, the county would be able to pay for running operating expenses, such as security and pay staff to be onsite. Now, I know what some of you are thinking – Eliminate the fees and pay for the running costs with other county fees, just reallocate, adjust budgets in other categories or fire a couple unneeded people. I know, I know, sounds like a great idea, but you know that the county doesn’t work that way, in fact what municipality does? You can’t expect government to pay for something NOT directly associated with it.
So, with that said, knowing that the money can’t come from anywhere else, I totally agree with the usage fee. I want both piers to be on an equal playing field and I want to be able to use either one safely. Do I like paying the fee? Not really, but it isn’t because I’m always broke, its more of just an inconvenience, but I’ll find a few bucks if I want to go to the pier, as long as there will be tons of other people there enjoying it with their families and not a bunch of punk drunks.
The twin county and city piers, dubbed M.B. Miller and Dan Russell, respectively will be identical, measuring 1.500 feet long. The cost is a little more than they style pier that was there before, but they are designed to sustain damage in a more efficient way in order to minimize the cost of repair in the future.
The fees for access to the pier are $5 per adult fisherman, $2 per child fisherman and $1 if you just want to watch.
"The nature of our area will change forever, and in a great way."
Dr. Ed Wright, former Dean of FSU-PC and current stand-in director of the Bay County Economic Development Alliance was gracious enough to start our series of Leader Profile interviews that will showcase the local talent that our area possesses. Dr. Wright shares with us his former role as Dean, his current role as EDA Director, and what we may see in the future of Bay County.
Koertge: You are the former dean of FSU-PC, how long were you the dean?
Wright: Almost seven years.
Koertge: Did you move to Panama City for that specifically?
Wright: I did. I was serving as the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Colorado State University when The Florida State University position was advertised. My wife and I had long connections with Panama City, had come here to the beach many times, plus my wife had family just outside New Orleans, so it was close. In addition, I had done a lot of work with Gulf Coast Community College. I was happy where I was, very successful and doing well, but when I told my wife about the position, she said four words to me – ‘get your typewriter out.’ This was the only time I applied for a job in several years and low and behold, we ended up coming.
Koertge: So, tell us about the timing of your move.
Wright: It was just the right time for me, and it was time for real growth at FSU-PC. FSU had been fairly unresponsive prior to my coming to the needs of the community and the community was getting a little restless about it. That was communicated to me pretty quickly. When the dean before me, Larry Bland, who was the founding dean – great guy, had been here for years – retired, they put together a commission of city and university people to talk about the future of the campus. This group came up with a plan or rather an inventory of needs. Part of my role in the beginning was to respond to that inventory of needs. Of the many things we did, we brought in daytime programs, as well as other educational programs to help broaden our teaching capability. However, one of the most important programs we brought on was the engineering program. The initiative was to create a real full time or day time campus.
After about 6 years in the seat, we decided it was time to retire. It was time to spend time with family and my mother, and also we timed it because the new buildings coming along. We figured with the new buildings and a great enthusiasm and buoying up of support – what a great time for a new Dean to be here and benefit from that very important time. And, now they are online, and what a great thing that is. I walked through them the other day, and they are very nicely done.
Koertge: If you could name one, what would you say was the highlight of your career at FSU-PC? Wright: One highlight of my career is crystal clear to me, and it is a story that I’ve told hundreds of times. This story captures the mission of a regional campus, it captures Panama City, and it captures what FSU Panama City has become. The first graduate of the Electrical Engineering program was a young woman. The commencement was always the highlight for many of us because you get to see all these people that have worked so hard come to the conclusion of their educational career with high hope for what the future will bring them. Many of them, for a long time were non-traditional students achieving their goals and making a difference in their life and in their future. So, here’s a gal who was a single mom with three kids, living at home with her parents, working as much as she could – the day she walked across that stage, her life changed forever. Now she’s working a great job, has been there for years, and has been able to offer her kids a life they never could have had before. And, importantly, the life of the community changed forever because her role in It will be different, her contribution to It will be different. That’s really what this is all about.
Koertge: What is the Bay County Economic Development Alliance? Wright: the EDA is a public/private partnership consisting of county municipalities in partnership with private companies such as St. Joe, Gulf Power and various others that contribute or have an interest in the economic development of our area. The whole purpose of the EDA is to attract new businesses and employment opportunities and help existing industries to expand and bring new business. The board is a volunteer board led by Lisa Walters, a partner in Burke and Blue. She’s a great gal, works so hard.
Koertge: What roles does the Economic Development Alliance play in the community?
Wright: The whole purpose of the EDA is to develop proposals, to target businesses that could benefit from it, provide industry related information to businesses, participate in marketing events (sometimes jointly with the Great Northwest), working with companies that may want to relocate here to perform site location studies among other things, and to structure and develop packages of incentives that are provided based on certain qualifications of the businesses. The EDA’s job is to market the region and work with those that would like to develop as potential employers in our area. Nextel and Oceaneering coming to Bay County are some examples of past EDA efforts.
Koertge: What is your role as the temporary director of the EDA? Wright: Well, first, try to keep the place running (laugh). I came down the week before Ted [Clem] left and received lots of briefings about the current goings-on in our program. 2008 closed out with 11 active projects in the works and I’m also involved in facilitating the building of new relationships. I’ve worked with three inquires in the two weeks I’ve been here from companies interested in our area or in the Southeast that may develop into fruitful relationships – we are in the business of developing proposals catering to these types of solicitations.
In addition, equally important, and maybe even more important, rather, is the search for a new executive director. We’ve got to develop a process to bring about that search and to find the right kind of person for this position.
Koertge: People, locals and tourist alike, tend to overlook Port Panama City, what do you see on the horizon as far as economic development with regards to the port? Wright: Certainly, I think, Wayne Stubbs has done a terrific job as the director of the Port; he has certainly expanded their capability. They have some land constraint issues, but that is alleviated by their having an industrial area right up 231 that is directly connected by rail that is actually being developed – that’s a really important site for future development. I think that we’ll see some activity that will make that land more interesting to a potential business that may come here in the near future.
There is a lot of potential, and we are going to try and accelerate that process so some of the ground work is complete for that future potential business. Then of course, there is the distance from the Yucatan. You know, this port is closer to the Yucatan than Miami, because from the Yucatan, you have to go around Cuba to get to Miami. Not to mention the progress with the new Panama Canal and the possible future activity that could open our area up to with the capability to accommodate much larger ships.
Koertge: Can you speak into those things unique to our area that are setting the stage for Bay County to explode? Wright: The industrial park around the airport and the developable property within the fence, about 400 to 500 acres, in terms of aviation related business is a huge advantage that our area will have. In the future, we will have tremendous opportunity that may be difficult to foresee at this time. For example, with the airbus A380 project, if the timeline of the new airport were more further along, we would have very likely been the site instead of Mobile. So, there are lots of things that could happen that are related to access to an airstrip or runway that this site certainly affords.
And of course, the whole commerce park outside the fence has the potential for logistics and cargo-related types of businesses, and its a great opportunity for businesses to build what they want as opposed to trying to retrofit something that is already there. Something else that is sometimes overlooked is the growing number of defense contractors that support the Navy base, Air Force research lab, and the Civil Engineering center at Tyndall. We’ll see that number grow.
The Navy base has become, really, a hub for a lot of different technologies. In fact, one of the things I tried to do after I retired but was still doing some work here was to get the new airport to be a test bed for new technologies. It is a great place and opportunity because you can bring a new system in, plug it in and see how it works.
Finally, where in the southeast can you land a large cargo aircraft with relative ease, and with ease, I don’t mean in regards to the length of the runway, but in regards to the amount of airspace. This airport will have lots of available airspace, timewise, with regards to cargo operations. Now, nothing is happening in this specific arena, so I don’t want to mislead anybody, but I’ve always believed that we have the opportunity when the economic base is sufficient to talk about a regional cargo kind of location. We will have lots of space to develop the kinds of distribution centers that you would need and plenty of space in terms of airspace and times that you can have access to the airspace.
And I still believe that if Airbus will manage to become profitable in their manufacture of their huge cargo carrier, the A380, then FedEx and UPS may pick up a dozen a piece. Where are you going to fly that huge plane into? Currently there is only one airport in Florida that can handle a plane of that size in terms of runway length and turning radius capabilities – Miami. As I understand, our airport should be able to handle something like this, however, they may have to do some modifications to accommodate turn radiuses and taxiway requirements, but again, we’re dealing with a clean slate. These are some of the kinds of things that we will have to offer.
Koertge: What sort of regional impact does the new airport potentially have? Wright: Oh, its huge. And we haven’t even begun to talk about the impact it will have on The Beach, if you will, the destination of Pensacola to “the bend”. And the way it potentially changes this tourism market in terns of access, if we get a low cost carrier. We’ll get people coming out of larger cities that have never heard of our area before and the potential to bring international travelers. This will change the nature of this destination forever, in a great way.
The Krewe of Dominique Youx is Bay County’s original organization of over 185 members who have celebrated the festive Mardi Gras season here in Bay County for over 22 years.
According to custom, Shrove Tuesday (“Fat Tuesday” to the English-speaking settlers, “Mardi Gras” to the French) is the last day to indulge, or overindulge, before Lent and its 40 days of fasting. The celebrations that take place before Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Mobile, and Galveston set off a carnival season that is notorious.
The Mardi Gras tradition came to Panama City in 1986 when a group of local residents headed by Errol Legasse and the late Jerry Castardo decided that we should not miss out on the excitement of Mardi Gras and formed the Krewe of Dominique Youx.
Dominique Youx is the nickname used by the eldest member of the famous Lafitte family of buccaneers who sailed the southern seas in the early 1800’s plundering vessels of those deemed to be their enemies. Dominique Youx was actually Fredric Alexander Lafitte, brother of Jean and Pierre Lafitte. He was the first of the Brothers to become a buccaneer. He was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte as a privateer and served for France during the war with Spain. When the Lafitte’s moved to New Orleans, the charismatic Jean Lafitte organized hundreds of rogues into a band of pirates who became the scourge of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Local rumor has it that some of their loot is still hidden in the estuary of St.Andrew Bay.
The present day Krewe of Dominique Youx, like other famous Mardi Gras Krewes, celebrates the season in a carnival atmosphere. For the first time, the krewe will parade on Panama City Beach. Pirates dressed in colorful costumes will be throwing beads to revelers along the parade route beginning at Hill Road, proceeding down Front Beach Road, and into Pier Park. This year, King Rob Fernandez (Dominique Youx XXII) and his Queen, Joyce Muller, will spearhead the Krewe as beads, doubloons, and other throws are tossed to the huge crowds lining the parade route. This parade is free to the public and suitable for the whole family.
In Panama City Beach, the season begins in mid-November with a black-tie evening celebration. The Krewe presents a local, non-member dignitary with the “Baratarian Cup”, a Mardi Gras honor unique to Panama City. This year’s recipient is Robert “Bob” Myers. Bob was an Air Force officer who settled down in Bay county after retiring and over the years became one of Bay County’s most prolific charity volunteers. Bob will lead this year’s parade as Grand Marshall.
The Krewe also holds a formal, costumed Mardi Gras Ball for the coronation of the new King, Queen and court members for the following year.
The Krewe of Dominique Youx is self-financing, paying for its own equipment, floats, costumes, as well as the beads and doubloons thrown to the watching parade crowds.
The Panama City Krewe of Dominique Youx is proud to use the name of an historic buccaneer to promote the carnival spirit of Mardi Gras for the enjoyment of the people of Bay County.
In response too a letter to the News Herald editor on Sunday January 11th:
For years, the Bay County Tourist Development Council has discussed increasing the bed tax from 3 cents to 5 cents, and finally the motion was made and passed to do so. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. Now more than ever we need to be using every resource possible to increase awareness of our destination. With increased inventory and overall traffic down, now more than ever we need to be sure that vacationers and tourists alike know that our little slice of paradise is here waiting for their arrival. Thus, when the Bay County Commission meets January 20 to give final consideration to the issue, I urge a “YES” vote to increase the bed tax collection from 3 cents to 5 cents.
The idea of raising taxes during a recession is gut-wrenching for some, but for this specifically, there is no reason to puke – we’re only talking about 2 percent! And, we’re not talking about 2% on hundreds of thousands of dollars, the average rate increase a visitor to our area would experience is around $20. $20! Opponents make this increase into a huge number that would serve catastrophic results to our area during an economically failing time. This just isn’t true.
Look, I don’t like taxes being raised as much as the next guy, but we have a growing area and are on the cusp of being nationally and even internationally recognized as a world-class desination and we need to be sure that we are financially prepared to take full advantage of this. Furthermore, our competition has higher overall revenue/visitor AND a higher bed tax, not to mention lifeguards (a whole ‘nother can of worms) putting them at a competitive advantage. I’m not even mentioning the other destinations in other parts of the country that have a higher bed tax affording them great marketing and beautification capability.
The author in the letter states that we should promote that we are the lowest bed tax collector. I can see the ad now: “Extra, Extra, read all about it! Panama City Beach is offering $20 discount for every $1,000 spent – Vacation in Sunny Panama City Beach Florida and save an Andrew Jackson that won’t even take you to the Grande Movie Theatre anymore.” Yea, real clever, that’ll work. (please note the sarcasm)
As a destination we have to look at this as a business decision. This is not emotional. We simply have to analyze the balance of risk versus reward. If the reward is greater than the risk, we need to increase the bed tax – and in this case, the reward far outweighs the risk. We stand to gain many more visitors to our area by increasing the bed tax, ergo increasing our ability to enhance our visibility to the vacation traveler than we stand to lose from an average increase of $20 per 1 week stay. You always have to spend money to make money – anyone that is a business owner knows that. I mean, this is a no-brainer.
Recently it was estimated that the new airport will bring approximately 500,000 new visitors to our area. There are varying factors in making that estimation a reality. One of those factors is ensuring that travelers in the cities that will have direct flights to PCB know about us. Direct flights are great, but you have to MARKET to those visitors or they won’t even know the flights are available. Marketing is expensive – very expensive, and we need to have a dominant presence in our new feeder markets. People don’t realize how much an infusion of 500,000 NEW visitors to our area would change the dynamics of our local economy. Everything here would pick up – restaurants would stay at capacity during peak seasons, there would be long lines at the movie theatre, you would have to search for a parking spot at your resort, etc. And, yes, these are good things as it will mean our area is booming! That’s right, I said it – booming. And that’s just with the airport.
2008 was a pretty good year for events. Panama City Beach has grown tremendously and is truly on the path to becoming a real destination resort town. With Pier Park alone, we have been placed on a map that we’ve never before been on. In addition, with the great events that we had last year and the promise of more to come this year, we will become a stronger destination each year in the future. We need to upgrade our facilities. We can’t keep doing the same thing year after year and expect the same results. There was a quote in Rowland’s first issue of 850, which debuted last fall: “If you are doing the same thing this year you were doing 5 years ago, you’ll be out of business in 2 years.”
The quote said “out of business,” “not your business will be slow,” or “you won’t be doing that good,” but out of business. We cannot go out of business in Panama City Beach. Our whole local economy depends on it. Sure it would be great to have some other industry here that supported us in addition to tourism, but there isn’t, and we need tourists to come to our area. We need them!
I totally agree that a complete and total overhaul needs to be done on the current collection methods. One person managing the collecitons and tracking down those who aren’t paying just isn’t enough. I mean, just look at the IRS? They employ like 700 billion people. We need to have a team working on our local bed tax collection – funding cannot be an issue, it needs to be worked into the current operational budget – this is one area we can’t skimp on. This is just another risk versus reward scenario. The funds that we will be able to collect will more than pay for the increase in operational budget and we will have a more efficient system that is ready to handle future growth.
Furthermore, we need to enforce the tax collection with swift and strict consequences if you do not pay. The criminal justice system uses deterents to persuade criminals to not commit crime – if you steal a car, you go to jail for X years. So, if you don’t pay your bed tax, you are fined $1,000 for the first infraction, $2,500 for the second infraction, and $10,000 for the third infraction. If you don’t pay your fine, a temporary injunction will be placed on your business license and you will not be allowed to operate. If you are not a business, a lien is placed on your property. Sounds severe? You bet, but some people need the threat of consequence in order to obey the rules. Sad isn’t it?
Another part of our area that is lacking and in need of improvement is our beach sporting facilities. We have been counseled by Richard Sanders, our Director of Sports Marketing that as other destinations are spending millions in improving their sporting facilities they are becoming a more attractive tournament location for their events. These events pump millions into our economy every season and if they go away, we will hurt. If you don’t beleive me, just wait and see – this isn’t something we can overlook. Not to mention that we were counseled by an independent third party that an increase in facilities and sports infrastructure was required to remain competitive and that if something wasn’t done immediately, we could be at risk of losing events now.
The author of the letter to the editor mentions that if the need was so great for increased sporting facilities then it would be a money-making opportunity for a private developer, therefore seemingly disqualifying this as a valid need. Now, this is just ignorant and plain untrue. What the author fails to recognize is that the increase sporting facilities will not benefit one entity directly (a developer, etc.), but our destination as a whole, therefore it would NOT be a good money-making opportunity for a developer. In fact, a developer wouldn’t touch this with a 20 foot pole – why would he? Public sporting facilties should not be privatized if they effect a destination as a whole.
Commissioners, I urge you to consider the future of Bay County in your decision tomorrow morning. From one business owner to another, we need to make a good business decision and provide a vehicle to generate more money to grow our area. We have an opportunity to give our area a shot in the arm that almost no other destination has at this time. We can continue to grow, thrive and bring our children into an area that we are all proud of, an area that we grew through our good business decisions, an area that is alive because we chose for it to be, or we can watch it slowly wither away and die. This is a long term decision and we need to think about our future.
At tomorrow’s meeting I urge you to vote yes for the increase in bed tax from 3 cents to 5 cents.
A proposed road from State Highway 77 in Bay County to Highway 98 in Walton County is up for discussion. Initially, the two lane Highway 388 that runs by the new airport will be widened to 4 lanes between Highway 79 and Highway 77.
The new addition to the roadway will extend from Highway 79 west to Highway 98 in Walton County just east of Peach Creek. I’m unsure at this point how they will get over the water – maybe use the Highway 79 bridge as the connector?
Through a series of public meetings, planners will devise strategic development plans and engineering ideas to bring together both new sections of the proposed roadway. Early estimates for the planning portion of the widening Highway 388 ring in at around 36 months.
Thursday, January 22 a public workshop will be held at the Panama City Beach City Hall at the intersection of Back Beach Road and Highway 79 from 5:30 to 7 pm.
October’s Panama City Beach Seafood, Music & Wine Festival was in my opinion a huge success. Now, some of my readers may think that I’m taking after many of the local media outlets in reporting things successful just because the TDC said it was, even though the numbers don’t support it. *cough- Summer White Sale -cough* But, I do believe it was a success because it was good for our area, and did something that was never before done with an event on Panama City Beach – provided good solid numbers that are irrefutable.
You see, some may scoff at the attendance of 9,526. But I say, what do you have to compare it to? Previous Indian Summer Music Festivals? You mean the events where 30,000 attendees were estimated, but never substantiated? You do know those numbers were pulled out of the air, don’t you. What about the Thunder Beach numbers? I was told by a reliable inside source that those numbers were also pulled out of the air. 60,000 attendees is VERY pie in the sky. But of course, to their credit, how could they determine their rally attendance – they don’t charge for anything. What has made it a success has also created limitations as to determining what it really is.
The single element that made the PCB Fest a success was that they came back to the table with real figures. The end result is clear and concise. Although the numbers aren’t what some had hoped, they are real none-the-less.
Jack Bishop said in the TDC meeting last week when he presented these numbers that they made some mistakes and learned a lot and to his credit, this is the first time he’s pulled anything like this off. Of course, he had help, but still, I think this is the most promising event we have right now for our area.
I attended and talked to countless people – many of which came down from Alabama and Georgia just for this event. In many instances the goal of this event, actually worked. I know Lee Sullival was critical of this event, and you know I was in the beginning as well, but kudos to Jack, CJ, and their team for not only putting on a good show, but bringing back some solid numbers that are real and will help us build not only this event, but others in the future.
Please enjoy the stats below:
First festival in area to offer advance discount tickets online
First tickets sold online were to Troy, Missouri
Total attendance over the 3 days = 9526
Zip Codes of Pre Sale Tickets were 62% out of Bay County
Parking lot surveys taken during the evening hours of the festival reflect a 40% non Florida attendee!
The Largest supporting areas outside of Florida are Alabama & Georgia respectively
Percentage of all tickets sold were sold in advance online = 28.21%
Percentage of tickets sold that were 3-day = 15.3%
In-Kind marketing partners provided an estimated $300,000+ in advertising of the event between July-Oct
Marketing efforts were focused on drive-to markets and included an emphasis on AL, GA, TN, MS, LA and Florida and included radio, television, outdoor, print, internet and over 2.25 million e-mail blasts between Sept 4-Oct 1
Local marketing included 9 radio stations, 4 television/cable outlets, 6 print media outlets, outdoor media, internet campaign
The organizers of the festival will be forming an advisory committee made up of hoteliers, food vendors, retail vendors, volunteers and others
Well, someone else has outdone me. There is a new video of the new Panama City airport up in West Bay that has been posted to the newpcairport.com web site.
Of course, I could probably put something together equally as awesome had I been given the opportunity to get on a helicopter! Kidding, but not really. Actually, I don’t know how to do those cool transitions – after effects?
Anyway, kudos to the creater – this vid is awesome.
PCBDaily 