November 2015 - Idaho Aviation Association

Wings over Lake Powell
Photo © Paul Bowen
Many Thanks to Our Renewing Corporate Sponsors:
Peterson Performance Plus, El Dorado, KS
McCall Mountain/Canyon Flying, McCall, ID
FUEL/OTHER DISCOUNTS FOR IAA MEMBERS!
Print your IAA membership card for your wallet, and call:
Western Aircraft
Boise
338-1833
Turbo Air
Boise
343-3300
Jackson Jet
Boise
383-3300
Arnold Aviation
Cascade
382-4844
Aero Mark
Idaho Falls
524-1202
Atlantic Aviation
Hailey
788-7511
Back Country Fuel
Emmett
861-9055
AvCenter
Nampa/Pocatello
866-3740
Reeder Flying Service Twin Falls
733-5920
Rapid Refueling
Caldwell
454-1669
Granite Aviation
Sandpoint
263-9102
Northern Air Inc.
Bonners Ferry
267-4359
Sulphur Creek Ranch Sulphur Creek
(254)378-7473
West Fork Lodge
West Fork, MT (406)821-1853
More information available at www.IdahoAviation.com
“Fly Idaho” License Plates!
Got Yours Yet??
Did you know Idaho’s “Fly
Idaho” license plates raise
money for the Idaho
Aviation Foundation?
Since January 1, 2012,
when they were first issued, these plates have raised over
$31,773 for Idaho aviation!
BUT—We could lose these plates. We currently only
have 730 plates in circulation. Starting last Jan. 1, 2015, if
this number remains below 1,000 for two consecutive
years, the Idaho Transportation Department will stop this
program and eventually confiscate the plates already in
circulation. We just need 270 more to get to 1,000!
What can you do?? If you already have one plate, we
thank you. Buy another one for your other car! It’s easy,
and you don’t have to wait until your registration is up. ITD
will pro-rate the fees. Customized plates are $60 the first
year and $40 yearly thereafter. But non-personalized
plates are only $25 each year, and the Idaho Aviation
Foundation gets $12 of that. So if we have 1,000 plates in
circulation, the IAF will get $12,000 every year!!
You can make a real difference. Just go online to
www.ITD.Idaho.gov/dmv/online_services.htm
and your new “Fly Idaho” plates will be mailed to you!
Show that you’re a proud pilot and help support Idaho
aviation! And tell your friends! Thanks!
November 2015
Events Calendar
December 8 Treasure Valley Christmas Party: Warhawk Air
Museum, Nampa. Speaker: Paul Bowen, aviation photographer
extraordinaire! 6 p.m. no-host cocktail hour, 7 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m.
speaker and raffles. Silent auction with multiple aviation-specific
donated prizes. Tickets $40 if ordered by Nov 25; $50 after; tickets
sold until Dec 3 or when sold out–only 225 available. We expect a
sell-out so get yours soon! Emails will be sent out with a link to order
tickets online. Questions? Contact Andrew George at 208-794-4480
or Andrew@baseconstructors.com.
Meet your friends, peruse the entire Warhawk Air Museum
collection, and place a bid at the silent auction. Paul Bowen, a
commercial photographer based in Wichita, Kansas, has been
shooting aerial photos since 1972. He is credited with over 1,000
magazine covers and countless advertising campaigns. Paul shoots
from various airplanes while flying in tight formation to achieve his
fabulous photos. He’s often strapped in to the open tail-gunner’s
position of a B-25 bomber. His headset and microphone connect him
to the B-25’s pilot, and the pilot relays directions to the crew of the
airplane Paul is photographing. As the target plane gets closer, Paul
directs them with hand signals.
(more photos on Page 2)
Photo © Paul Bowen. Used with permission.
The Flyline is in FULL COLOR online!
The online version has more photos—Just log on to
www.IdahoAviation.com
Click on “IAA Newsletters”
for past and present newsletters
Please send calendar and editorial submissions to:
editor@IdahoAviation.com
Deadline is the 20th of the month
Paul Bowen’s Aerial Photography
President’s Corner
Photographer to speak at TV-Chap Christmas Party
Kerry Requa
Every
aviator
will
recognize
the
photographs of Paul Bowen. He’s most
famous for his vortices aerials, which
capture the spinning currents of air
produced at the tip of a moving airplane
wing, revealed in clouds or fog. His four
coffee-table books, Air To Air, Volumes I
and II, Air To Air Warbirds, and Air To Air
Mustangs and Corsairs have gained critical
acclaim, along with his annual calendar, Air
To Air Warbirds. Here are a few, © Paul
Bowen, and reproduced with permission.
From the top:
P-51D Mustang
“Old Crow,” owned and
flown by Jim Hagedorn
TF-51 Mustang
“Crazy Horse,”
owned by Stallion 51 corp.
Citation
With
Vortices
Global Express
Jet off
Oahu, Hawaii
You may have heard rumblings
about what is going on with the
Big Creek 4 airstrips. First, for
those of you who might not be
familiar with these four airstrips,
they are: Dewey Moore, Mile Hi,
Simonds, and Vines. They are
located in the federally-designated
Frank Church River of No Return
Wilderness Area. They have a long and colorful history as
backcountry airstrips. They are viewed by many as a valid
destination, yet the Forest Service (USFS) does not share
this view. The issue has been looked at several times over
the years and at times the USFS and the backcountry
aviators agreed they were usable. The 1980 Central
Wilderness Act, which created this wilderness area, states
very clearly that the landing of aircraft, where this use has
become established prior to the date of enactment of this
act, SHALL be permitted to continue. This is not the first
time this issue has been addressed. Many letters and
comments have been looked at and we thought the issue
was resolved in 2004 and again in 2009. In meetings with
USFS officials over the last two years and I sensed they
may have changed their minds and wanted to consider the
airstrips as closed. I’ve had numerous discussions with
Mike Pape (Idaho Div. of Aeronautics Administrator) about
the use of these airstrips. Mike assembled a group
of interested parties to see if we could once again resolve
this issue. Our first meeting was Oct. 19. We have agreed
to participate in future meetings as well. The first meeting
was simply to voice our opinions and concerns and see
what opposition there is to the continued use of these
airstrips. We seem to have very different opinions on the
status of these airfields, and the USFS considers them as
emergency use only. It is frustrating that the USFS seems
to change direction and disregard past agreements when
they have a change in Regional Management.
I will remain engaged and work toward our goal of
continuing to have these airstrips remain useable. I have
heard many comments and reviewed many letters on this
subject. A large and diverse group of private and
commercial aviators support the continued use of these
airstrips. It will be a long process if we need to have the
Forest Service amend the management plan to include
these airstrips. It will also be costly to litigate this issue in
court and I don't think either side wants to go that route. So
at this point I believe our best way forward is to first
participate in the process and see if we can identify a way
to keep these airfields available for use. We need to move
forward in such a manner that this time we have a
permanent solution and don’t find ourselves going through
this every five years. The IAA has a very dedicated group
of people (all volunteers) who are working to preserve our
right to access our backcountry airfields. I can say with
confidence if we do nothing we will lose them. We need to
be respectful of the process as we move forward. I will
provide updates as the meetings continue and we can
identify a clear direction.
Kerry Requa
Page 2
District 2 – Lewiston/Moscow
Bill Ables
Well, the time I have left to get
into some of the airports and
airstrips in District II is coming to an
end fast as the weather is changing
daily. High temperatures are now in
the 50s, not the 70s and 80s, and
the fall colors are as pretty this year
as you’ll see. If you hunt, most deer
seasons are behind us, and the
temperatures we had to endure this
deer season were way too warm. I must admit that I’m
complaining a bit, as I was unsuccessful in harvesting a
buck, but was quite successful in catching a good dose of
poison oak (ivy).
It was another good season for successful work parties
and we just concluded the last work party of the season,
that being at Big Bar in Hells Canyon. Ten hardy folks
showed up in eight aircraft to tend to the chores of setting
up the outhouse and weed-eating the runway end markers,
hazardous rocks and the windsock area. Folks flew in from
Coeur d’ Alene and Boise, Idaho, and Redmond, Joseph,
Enterprise, Oregon. Jack Kotaki was the first to arrive at
Big Bar and thought the others had slept in, as he had to
eat way more of the fresh donuts he had brought than he
wanted to, because of the late arrival of the others.
Needless to say, Big Bar is in great shape and ready for
your winter use because of these fine folks.
Four of the aircraft that eventually came to Big Bar had
first stopped off at Pittsburg Landing and erected the new
windsock stand on the cement base that was poured
earlier in the spring. They then continued on upriver to Big
Bar to help Jack consume the rest of his fresh donuts and
coffee. If you fly into the Canyon and notice a somewhat
“small” windsock on the new windsock stand there, it is
because “someone” took the wrong size sock with him. But
rest assured: that same someone will replace it with the
proper windsock soon!
Fly safe and watch those canyon winds,
Bill Ables
Aircraft at Big Bar for the work party Bill Ables photos
District 3 – Treasure Valley/McCall
Andrew George
Ho Ho Ho...(really, already?) We
have an incredible Christmas party
ahead in the Treasure Valley and you
are all invited!! Paul Bowen, the
famed aviation photographer, will be
our speaker this year!!! I urge you to
get your tickets early, as we will limit
the seating. This should prove to be
an incredible presentation!! Log on to
www.AirToAir.net to read about this
man and see how he has given us over 1,000 magazine
covers since 1972! Most out of the back of a B-25! I can't
even imagine how cool of a presentation this will be.
We will have new and easier ticket ordering procedures
in place for this event, new procedures at the door for
faster entry and enjoyment, and, as always, great food,
music, and beverages of your choice. Notifications will be
sent to all members in the next couple of weeks via email.
You may purchase via check by mail or Credit Card
(handling fee $3) online. Watch your emails for info soon!!
CHALLENGE TO YOU ALL! The Christmas party is a
FUND RAISER so let's keep the focus. The Treasure
Valley Chapter of the IAA hereby calls out all members to
make this event better than ever...we want an exciting
silent auction and raffle give-away this year and we can't
do it alone...it takes help from sponsors, businesses, and
members who are willing to donate an item or time that is
unique, special, and/or just fun to help create excitement
and raise funds. I challenge you all to secure a special
donation. The funds we raise will go to airstrip
maintenance, windsocks, paint, tools and implements for
repair, and more projects like bike sheds for pilot use, as
well as the food and drinks we always provide for
volunteers who help at our work parties, and exciting
speakers like Hoot Gibson and Paul Bowen! Yes—ask
your friend or contacts whom you may know, and bring
something to help us do what we need to do—raise money
to keep the airstrip network viable and healthy for us all!
Ideas include lodging getaways, unique airplane rides,
electronics, clothing, books, aviation memorabilia, gift
cards, etc... Contact me directly so I can get your donation
for the party picked up by December 1, 2015.
Andrew@baseconstructors.com or 208-794-4480 (text
ok) or www.Facebook.com/andrewgeorge. I challenge you.
Christmas Party 2014 Crista Worthy photo
Page 3
District 6 – Idaho Falls/Salmon
Mike Hart
This week my trusty C180
returned from Sulphur Creek
Ranch at full gross weight. My
first elk hunting trip—actually my
first real hunting trip of any kind
was a success and 320 pounds of
elk, my brother and myself, gear,
and gas put the 180 right up to full
gross. I had always thought the
runway at Sulphur Creek was super long, but I needed a
lot more of it on the trip out.
The choice to go for a guided trip was the suggestion of
my avid hunter and fellow pilot friend, David Irvin. Elk (the
grand piano of the forest) can be elusive so a new hunter
would have a difficult time finding them. If successful, it
would only get more complicated. A newbie would have a
major handful prepping and packing a successful hunt. He
suggested having a guide would be good tuition for a
degree in elk versus spending years chasing the critters
around with no success. Since I have an airplane and like
the folks at Sulphur Creek Ranch, I decided to live large
and combine the two.
Ceilings and visibilities allowed me to make it to
Blackfoot and I was more than happy to use the city’s
courtesy car to fetch my brother’s truck. By the time we
returned to the airport, conditions at KIDA were VFR again
and my plane was put back in its stall.
As I plowed ahead in crap fall weather, it was great
having the desert strips of Big Southern Butte, Cox’s Well,
Midway (Atomic City), and even the small paved Rockland
strip as options to bail. The desert strips are not used
much, but they give pilots outs across one of the more
empty parts of the state.
Contacts
I am happy to say that thanks to the folks at Sulphur
Creek, I had the opportunity to shoot at several critters but
managed to score a younger 6X6 rag horn bull for my
freezer. Thanks to ValDean, Kiere, Kirk (and horse Black
and mule Thomas). I had no idea hunting would be as
much fun and as much work as it turned out to be, but my
wife is quite happy with the new addition to our freezer (elk
is her favorite red meat).
In addition to flying right at gross weight, I also had the
pleasure of flying in marginal VFR weather. It had been
reasonable getting from Sulphur Creek to Arco, but the
Snake River Plain was getting covered in scud. I could see
all three buttes from Arco and made it across the desert to
East Butte (20-30 miles from my Idaho Falls homebase).
Unfortunately, the small storm cell was over KIDA and
ceilings were IFR with rain. I requested a special VFR
clearance but too many IFR arrivals had booked the
airspace ahead of me. Rather than getting a pop-up IFR
clearance, I took a right turn toward Pocatello which was
still VFR.
State President Kerry Requa
221-7417
Vice Presidents:
Bill Miller—Gov’t Affairs/Scholarships
853-8585
Larry Taylor—Agency Liaison
855-0261
Jerry Terlisner—Activities
859-7959
Doug Culley—Membership/Scholarships
861-6926
Joe Corlett—Communications
336-1097
Dave Rigby—Awards
343-1985
Don Lojek—Legal Affairs
484-2292
Andy Patrick—Commercial Operators
383-3323
Nadine Burak—Secretary/Treasurer
861-9056
Directors:
Director-at-large Jim Davies
859-5537
Dist #1 Don McIntosh
946-8490
Dist #2 Bill Ables
(541) 263-1327
Dist #3 Andrew George
331-1774
Dist #4 Kerry Requa
221-7417
Dist #5 Jeanine Lawler
221-4741
Dist #6 Mike Hart
528-7672
FLYLINE Crista Worthy
(310) 560-7324
editor@idahoaviation.com
Page 4
Three Killed in Cabinet Mountain Crash
Pamela Bird, “Tookie” Hensley, Don Hensley
Scarcely two months after the death of Dr. Forrest Bird,
pilot and inventor, the aviation community is now mourning
the loss of Dr. Pamela Bird, 59, Bessie O. Loy (Tookie)
Hensley, 80, and Tookie’s husband Don, 84, on October 8
in the Cabinet Mountains near Hope, Idaho. The Cessna
182 departed from the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention
Center in Sagle, Idaho, enroute to Boise. The trio planned
to fly to Maine before heading south to Florida, west to
Arizona, and back to Idaho. All were active members of the
close-knit community surrounding the Air Race Classic, the
all-women air race flown for four days every June.
Tookie and Don Hensley resided in Riverside, California,
until a few years after Don and his partner sold their RV
business. They moved to Arizona with the intention of
retiring but changed their minds after they earned their
pilot’s licenses at Riverside Municipal Airport. At the time
of the crash, the couple owned a flying service in Bullhead
City, Arizona. Tookie Hensley was a CFI-I with over 30,000
hours logged, an FAA designated examiner and a mentor
to Bird. She was also a veteran of 24 Air Race Classics,
won in 2002, and placed in the top 10 six times. Bird flew
the race with Hensley in 2013, when they placed eleventh.
In 2014 they flew the race with pilot Tonya Rutan, wife of
aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. Don Hensley raced “in
any race where men were allowed,” according to the
Press-Enterprise newspaper, which also commented that
“Tookie Hensley was a 40+-year member of the NinetyNines, while Don was considered a 49 1/2.”
Bird founded Innovative Product Technologies in 1990
and was active in encouraging and facilitating inventive
entrepreneurship as the founder of nonprofit charity
Inventors Educational Foundation. She moved to Idaho
after meeting and marrying Forrest Bird. The two of them
met in 1995 at a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
convention at Disney World and shared a passion for
aviation. Bird also was interviewed on and has served as a
consultant to the ABC television show “20/20” as a national
new product development and commercialization expert.
She served as the president of the United Inventors
Association and helped start various inventor organizations
in Florida, as well as in Idaho, including the Inventors
Association of Idaho. The author of over 70 publications,
she was quoted and featured in newspapers throughout
the country and appeared as a guest on numerous
television shows. She wrote the best-selling book Inventing
for Dummies, published by Wiley Publishing Company,
owner of the “Dummies” series.
Pamela and her late husband, Dr. Forrest Bird, were the
founders of the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention
Center in Sagle, Idaho, near Sandpoint. Pamela was a
licensed building contractor in both commercial and
residential construction. Other interests included,
horseback riding, hiking, snow skiing, traveling, gardening,
card making, cooking and boating.
Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler confirmed on
Friday that the trio departed at 8:16 a.m. Ten minutes later,
the U.S. Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall
Air Force Base in Florida notified the sheriff's office that it
had received a signal from an emergency locator beacon
in Bonner County. It's believed Bird was at the controls
because she was in the left front seat when the Cessna
lifted off. However, Tookie Hensley was seated in the right
front seat and could also have operated the aircraft. A
report from the rescue coordination center indicated that
the plane was flying 71 feet above the ground and
traveling at 47 knots, immediately prior to the crash. "At
this point, we don't have any indication that there was any
mayday (call) or that they were reporting any problems
with the plane," Wheeler said.
A Civil Air Patrol aircraft located the downed Cessna in
rugged terrain on the flank of Round Top Mountain using
the coordinates provided by the rescue coordination
center. Wheeler said choppers Air-1 Sandpoint Helicopters
and 2 Bear Air in Whitefish, Mont., assisted in the search
for the downed Cessna. Two people were found dead in
the plane's front seats, but Don Hensley remained
unaccounted for. Sheriff's investigators returned to the
crash site last week, when the plane wreckage was
hoisted from the mountain by an Air-1 Sandpoint
Helicopters chopper. The following day Wheeler
commented that no further searches will be conducted for
Don Hensley and that, "We didn't find any evidence that he
left the plane, but we did find some other evidence that
was turned over to the coroner's for examination." The
wreckage is being warehoused for examination by the
NTSB, which is expected to post a preliminary accident
report soon. The final accident report may take over a year
to complete. The Bird family made a request to preserve
the plane's tail section for possible display at the Bird
Aviation Museum & Invention Center.
A celebration of life was held for the Hensleys on
October 25 at Riverside Municipal Air Terminal
A memorial Mass was celebrated on October 16 at St.
Joseph’s Catholic Church in Sandpoint, and a Mass of
Christian burial was held October 22 at St. Patrick Catholic
Church in Gainesville, Fla. In Sandpoint, the hymn "On
Eagles Wings," was sung by hundreds who gathered to
pay their respects. If you would like to send a thought,
memory or photo you have of Dr. Pamela Bird, please
send them to Bird Aviation Museum, Attn: Rachel
Schwam, P.O. Box 817, Sandpoint, ID 83864. Family and
friends are invited to sign Pam’s online guest book at
www.CoffeltFuneral.com.
747 Pilot’s New Book
Crista Worthy, Editor
Mark Vanhoenacker, a
British
Airways
747
Captain, has written a
new
book,
entitled
Skyfaring: A Journey With
a Pilot (Knopf). Rather
than a memoir, it’s a
thoughtful meditation on
flight, on the experiences
of a pilot behind the yoke,
and the physical act of
whizzing through the air
in a giant aluminum tube.
He
writes,
“I
am
occasionally asked if I
don’t find it boring, to be
in the cockpit for so many
hours. But I’ve never had the sense that there was any
more enjoyable way to spend my working life; that below
me existed some other kind of time for which I would trade
my hours in the sky.”
He writes about what he calls “place lag,” that
bewilderment that you get when, for example, you begin
your day in London, take off from there at night, and 12
hours later you’re making an approach into Singapore and
it’s mid-afternoon the next day. He continues, “Then you
land and go through customs and immigration and
suddenly you’re on a bus and off-duty for the first time in
16 hours. You look around, and all around you it’s just a
regular afternoon. People are sitting in their cars and their
houses and listening to the radio, listening to news
programs about events and people that are as foreign as
any could be to us, and yet airplanes connect us in that
way…I think we probably evolved as a species to be born,
to live and to die within a few dozen square miles of forest
or savanna. We will simply never be accustomed to that
kind of change of place. I think in a way it’s a good thing.
It’s kind of the wonder of travel and it’s something that I
have not become more accustomed to. It only gets more
wondrous to me, really.”
As a child, he once went to the airport with his parents to
pick up a relative flying in from Belgium. He recalled
watching a plane that had just come in from Saudi Arabia,
with Arabic writing, a palm tree, and swords painted on the
tail or fuselage. He felt “blown away” thinking that that
plane had started its day in Riyadh or Jeddah. He
continues, “I almost wonder if the sort of dream of flight
doesn’t perhaps have its own biological origins…People
often ask me if flying was something I always wanted to
do. I really like that question because I wonder if people
are asking not about me as an individual but if they’re kind
of referring to the species.”
In an interview with Dan Saltzstein of the New York
Times, Vanhoenacker was asked about not being able to
see the vast majority of an airliner from the cockpit. He
replied, “You develop this sense of the length of the plane
and the width of it. Often, an aircraft controller will say,
‘Plane hitting the runway.’ One of the things you learn
when you’re training is that when we in the cockpit have
left the runway, there’s 200 feet of plane behind us that is
still on it. So you develop this whole kind of awareness.”
Regarding the sealed-off quality of flying in general, he
said, “The whole flight is based on calculations. Air is the
medium and we’re dealing with it in so many technical
ways. So where there are breaks in that cocoon-ness, like
where the jetway bridge meets the plane, we often get this
blast of heat or cold. To me, it’s kind of this nice reminder
of what it is we’re actually moving through.”
With regard to the walk-around, he said, “Nobody likes
getting wet, but I really love doing the walk-around when
it’s really terrible, heavy rain or snow and strong winds.
Then you come back into the cockpit and it’s warm and
dry. And you know that you’re accounting for all the
weather you just walked through, and it changes your
calculations that cover the takeoff and various other things.
The airplane is moving in an alien environment at high
altitude, of course. In terms of the temperature and the air
pressure, it’s alien to us. To get that sense of the vessel
when you’re still on the ground is quite lovely.”
When asked whether flying can ever become routine
when an airline pilot is constantly reminded of the alien
environment the airplane is passing through, and with the
views out the front cockpit windows, he replied, “One of the
reasons I wrote the book was to remind myself how
amazing it is, the extraordinary things that we do all the
time that become ordinary. When you see the Northern
Lights for three hours a night a week, or see the sun
setting on the Alps, or fly over Istanbul and see the gold
glitter in morning light, how can you be amazed by that all
the time?
I’ve gotten some emails from colleagues who’ve read the
book and were happy to re-encounter that enthusiasm.
Flying is a wonder for everyone. Kids are always a good
reminder of what we should try to rediscover or shouldn’t
get used to. Kids are amazed by airplanes.
I’ve flown as a passenger in places like Brazil—domestic
flights between secondary cities. And everyone is looking
out the windows. Even in the middle seats, people are
trying to look out of the window. Maybe that’s just because
Brazil is a really beautiful country from the air. But I often
wonder if it’s because, in these countries that have rapidly
developed a middle class, flying still seems like a new
experience for a lot of people.”
When asked, as a pilot, what feelings about flying he
would like to convey to his passengers, Vanhoenacker
said, “I guess the sense that I was trying to capture in the
book is the one I had as a child. I can’t think of an easier
thing to find a sort of basic human joy in. It’s really quite a
spiritual experience, and it’s also this amazing
technological achievement. A lot of pilots have those
things as the two halves of their personalities. They have a
romantic sensibility about the world but are also amazed
by science and technology.
Flying is a very old dream of our species, and when we
look out at a 747 waiting to take us halfway across the
world, we’re looking at a dream come true. It maybe
doesn’t feel like that because we do it so often now, but
planes are literally a dream that’s come true.”
Page 6
Page 8
Idaho Aviation Association
PO Box 2016
Eagle, ID 83616
The FLYLINE
November 2015
The Monthly Newsletter
of the
Idaho Aviation Association