The Golden Age of Flying
There have been a lot of viewings of this thread but only one subsequent post - it pays to have an attention getting title perhaps. Special note to RV9aviator - flew into Harrison Saturday saw no RVs.
Back on subject. People talk about the Golden Age of this or that and in flying the Golden Age is often alledged to be the 1920s and 1930s. Some remarkable things took place in aviation then for sure but for sheer aviation density, 1947 would be hard to ignore. I my case though the Golden Age of flying was from October 1982 through February 1994.
I belonged to this flying club at the Orange County Airport (later named John Wayne) that started out being associated with the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company - West in Huntington Beach, California. There was this guy named Doug Bowles that took on the job of organizing "fly-ins" for the group. Doug flew a 1967 Mooney Executive and resembled Ernest Hemmingway. I think he had a similar spirit. Once we were at the destination he kept things "interesting" without a dominating presence. He reserved a block of rooms at group rates, arranged for economical ground transportation, organizing onsite activities like touring or participating in the prominent attraction and we always had the opportunity for least one meal together.
The first one was 200 miles or less to the Furnace Creek Inn in Death Valley, California. 52 people flew in to that one and it was the largest crowd we ever had.
Our second fly-in was to the Lazy K Bar dude Ranch in Tucson in January of 1983.
The next month was probably not a wise choice but we were young enough and adventurous enough to agree to a trip To South Lake Tahoe in February. Those that made that trip still remember the ice and scud running with individual deviations to Sacramento Executive and Cameron Air Park. By some miracle we all got together (no cell phones back then) and took a rented 14 passenger van up US 50 to Tahoe. We, along with everyone else on the highway, were required to stop at a checkpoint and install chains.
In April we took a challenging but not life threatening trip to Mulege, Mexico. For most of us, this was our first border crossing flight and we did STUDY(!!!) the official procedures and requirements as well as Arnold Senterfitt's remarkably informative 16th edition of "Airports of Mexico & Central America". After our weekend at the Hotel Serenidad we flew back to "the states" as seasoned international pilots.
In May we flew to Cameron Air Park to spend two days taking rafts down the South Fork of the American River with an overnight camp in a site by the river. My wife fell overboard, was in the water for over a mile and was in great danger before we were able to catch up with her her and pull her out (me personally) - this was serious. We did not get back on the raft the next day in spite of the coaxing.
In September we flew to Durango, Colorado, went to an outdoor Chuck Wagon dinner show and rode the train through some of the most beautiful country you ever want to see to Silverton.
In December we flew to Tombstone, Arizona, saw Boot Hill, the OK Coral and visited artist Marjorie Reed who painted scenes form along the old Butterfield Stage route. My wife and I had her paint a large oil painting for us for $500 that we flew back and picked up later. Marjorie Reed died in 1997 and I have seen ads on the internet trying to locate and buy her work but ours will remain in our home.
So ended 1983 but not the wonderful string of fly-ins. Doug hung it up after a few years but others of us stepped in and carried on with what we had learned from our experience on his fly-ins. We learned that seemingly distant places were well within our capability, even in the slowest airplanes. We flew to all five National Parks in southern Utah (Bryce, Zion, Capital Reef, Arches and Canyon Lands on four separate trips. We flew to the Reno Air Races twice. We returned to Mulege and made flights to Alamos, Meling Ranch, Loretto, Guaymas and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Any place in California, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada or Oregon was fair game in the United States. My personal favorite was Hood River, Oregon but Gold Beach, Oregon and Silver City, New Mexico along with 30 or 40 other places also bring back special memories. Many places I would never have flown to if left to my own devices.
The EAA Chapter I belong to is not motivated to do this kind of thing and perhaps that special time, my golden age, ended with the demise of the aerospace industry and will never come again in my little orbit. Anyway, if you are into something like this that is working, treasure it. Like I said before, I like what I see the Kansas City RV pilots are doing and if you get a chance it might be nice to accept their invitation and join them in one of their weekend flights. I'm sure going to keep my eye on that opportunity.
Bob Axsom
