Working to preserve Idaho's irreplaceable airports and backcountry airstrips.
The Idaho Aviation Association was organized in 1989 to give Idaho a general aviation voice locally and nationally. Our mission is to represent our members in forums where decisions are made that affect general aviation; to inform our members about aviation issues; to work with public and private entities for the preservation, maintenance and enhancement of aviation facilities; and to promote safety, education and public understanding of general aviation in Idaho.
Latest News
Tradeshow Aviation Idaho
Idaho Falls (KIDA). Workshops and speakers throughout the day. Catered show lunches will be available both days, with a social from 5:30-6:30pm. on Friday, and a dinner on Saturday with guest speaker Addison Pemberton. See agenda for each day on the calendar at the right. For more information contact Aero Mark at 208-524-1202 or info@aeromark.com.
Eastern Idaho Chapter Now a Reality
On February 17th, local aviators from various Eastern Idaho cities including Aberdeen, Ammon, Blackfoot, Idaho Falls, and Rigby filled a small room at KIDA and officially formed the Eastern Idaho Chapter of the IAA. Mike Hart is chapter chair with James Hoff as co-chair. Members will volunteer at the upcoming Tradeshow Aviation Idaho (KIDA) on May 18th & 19th, and airstrip maintenance workparties will be planned for this summer. The next meeting will be Friday, April 20th, 6:00 p.m., at the Blackfoot (U02) airport. For more information call Mike Hart at 208-528-7672.
ACE Academy Applications Now Available
ACE (Aviation Career Exploration) Academy is open to Idaho students in grades 9-12, ages 14-18. The Academy runs June 25-27, 2012 and applications must be submitted by May 4th. If you know a student that might be interested Additional information can be obtained by contacting the Division of Aeronautics at 208-334-8776 or better yet, visit their webpage at http://itd.idaho.gov/aero/ACE%20Academy/Ace%20main%20page.htm
Featured Member
Robert Patrick
When I was in grade school in Northwest Iowa I used to watch the B36s flying over our farm and fantasize what it would be like to fly. It was about 1952 when I was asked to ride in a J3 cub on skis and show the pilot where the foxes were hanging out. The pilot was spotting the fox for a group of hunters who were hunting them with greyhounds. It was so cold and the Piper Cub leaked so much air in the back seat that I froze the side of my right leg and the skin peeled of like a sun burn after a few days. I didn’t complain though because it was my first airplane ride. The summer of 1954 I worked for Lawrence Flinders, a farmer who owned an Aeronca Champ. If I really worked hard and we caught up on the farm activities, we would go for a ride in the Champ to cool off. Sometimes he would let me fly, and make turns and etc. I graduated from high school in 1955 and went off to college at Fort Hays Kansas State and lived with my uncle Kenneth White who was a professor at the college. I worked a couple of jobs and whenever I was able to save up $6.00 I would buy one half hour of flight instruction. My CFI was UR Montgomery, a no nonsense World War II pilot. What impressed me the most as I looked in my log book was his entries: “shooting landings”. So after 5:40 minutes of 30 minute sessions of ”shooting landings” he soloed me in the Aeronca Chief. Then the next day he soloed me in a Luscombe model 8A. The Luscombe had this powerful engine of 90HP. I returned to Iowa and worked for my father on the farm that summer. I was still flying whenever I had an extra dollar. I went to the Cherokee airport one Sunday morning and Chuck, a flight instructor, said “Andersons over by Aurelia were having a flight breakfast”. He briefed me on the hay field they were using and sent me off to my first flight breakfast in June of 1956 in a 65Hp Aeronca Champ. I had no problems landing in the fresh cut hay field. The Anderson brothers were flying farmers and gave all pilots attending a card with the quote, ”May the good Lord guide you safely home - Anderson Flight Breakfast June 17, 1956”. I still have that card.
That winter I moved to Montana and attended college at Bozeman, Montana. My first job upon graduating was teaching high school at Valdez, Alaska. On Good Friday March 27, 1964 Alaska was hit by an earthquake of 9.2 magnitude, the second most powerful ever recorded at that time. The epicenter was 40 miles west of Valdez. Many of the residents in Valdez lost everything they owned. We lost some things in the tsunami, but I made some money on the earthquake selling pictures to Saturday Evening Post magazine. That summer I completed my private pilot training at Great Falls, Montana and passed the check ride at Cutbank, Montana with an Ag pilot check airman. His words of wisdom after he handed me the temporary Private Pilot paper work was “the only difference in your ability as a pilot from when you flew in as a student Pilot and when you leave here as a Private Pilot is one hour of dual”. On the flight back to Great Falls I kept thinking about the parting words of the check airman. It was words of advice from someone who had been there. I believe his parting advice kept me from doing something stupid until I gained enough experience to be cautious. I taught high school for the next two years at Fairbanks, Alaska. Using the money from the sale of the pictures to Saturday Evening Post I purchased a J-3 Cub with a 75 HP engine and a metal propeller. It wasn’t fast, but it would break ground and fly with just about any load you could put in it. I obtained my commercial license about this time period and made a little money hauling everything you can imagine in and on the Cub. There were some very enlightening moments in the J-3 at times. I also worked for Fairbanks Air Service for two summers while living in Fairbanks.
In March of 1966 United Airlines came to Fairbanks interviewing pilots to hire for their projected expansion with jet aircraft coming on the line. I was sent to Seattle for a full day of Stanine testing and then flown to San Francisco for a physical. The flight out from Fairbanks to Seattle and the flight to San Francisco was the first time I flew in a pressurized aircraft. I started training in July of 1966 and completed training in October. My first domicile with United was Seattle flying a DC-6 engineer. I was on the DC-6 for 1 ½ years and moved on to the B727 as the airline went to all jets. There was the controller strike, fuel shortage, and a long recession in the 1970s that stopped all growth on the airlines. The only way to advance was to commute to where the flying was located. Seattle was really a dead domicile plus I really didn’t like all the rain. The last 20+ years of my career was spent commuting to various United Air Line domiciles. In 1977 the move was made to the Boise area to commute to Chicago for a copilot bid. I flew out of Chicago for two years and then took a lateral bid on the B727 to San Francisco. That was a lot easier commute since there weren’t the Midwest snow storms to contend with during the winter months. I flew the B727 for a total of 19 years as engineer and copilot.
My first captain bid was on the 737-200 in Denver in 1986. I flew out of Denver for about two years and then transferred to San Francisco. It was about this time period that Boeing introduced the B737-300; this was my first glass cockpit airplane. I finished my time on the B737-300 as a check airman as we had a lot of training going on and lots of pilots upgrading. The last two aircraft I checked out on were the B757 and the B767. We were cross qualified and flew both aircraft on the same rating. My last 3 years with United I flew mostly to Europe, mainly Paris. We flew the B767-300 which had a higher gross weight and a longer range. The return trip from Paris to San Francisco usually was real close to 12 hours in the winter with the strong artic flow from the Northwest. The B767-300 was the real Cadillac of the 767’s; it had all the improved systems with a third generation navigation system. It was very user friendly, and a joy to fly. The strongest two crosswind landings of my career were at Charles De Gaulle airport in March flying the B767-300.
I continued to fly in general aviation during my 31 year career with the airline. I was a member of two different flying clubs in the Seattle area. The first club had an Aeronica 7AC and a C182 which was IFR. There were trips made to the Midwest, Montana, Canada and around the state of Washington in the C182. The second club had a C182 plus two 185 on floats. There were exciting trips to Canada and the ocean inlets of Washington in the C185. There was a fall trip in a Super Cub on floats for a moose hunt to Alaska. I purchased a 1955 C180 after a couple of years in Idaho. I used the C180 to explore the backcountry of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. It was also about this time period that I joined a new pilot group that was just getting off the ground, called Idaho Aviation Association. After a year or so as a member I volunteered for position as a director with the Treasure Valley group. About two years later while serving as vice president, I missed a meeting and was elected president of the Treasure Valley Chapter. It was several years later while living in McCall that the IAA was having some growing pains, and I was elected to the position of president for the State of Idaho. I did a three year term as president and we developed a core of members who have carried the organization forward and upward.
Since my retirement from United Airlines I have completed the construction of my Taper Wing Waco and flown it over 300 hours. I like to refer to the Taper Wing Waco as the B727 of the biplanes. It is quick and very responsive, but an honest airplane. Mary Sue and I have made many trips in the Waco and met many great people and pilots. We hope to keep seeing everyone at airplane gatherings for many more years.