BY GARY WAYNE COX
Aircraft: Big Sandy Unicom…experimental…5…1…5…Bravo…Alpha…inbound for landing from the southwest…airport advisory please…
Unicom: We have aircraft in the pattern…please use caution and report your position inbound…winds favoring runway 3…
Everyone remembers the first time they were in an airplane or a helicopter, their first time leaving the bonds of earth and taking flight. The first time I ever flew was from Miami International Airport in an Eastern Airlines 727. My wife Rossalene and I were in Miami on vacation in 1977 and planned a three-day trip to the Bahamas. The big shiny new Boeing 727 took 19 minutes to travel from Miami to Freeport, Bahamas. We had just gotten seated when we traveled the approximately 100 miles to Freeport! Our return flight was a different story.
I used a travel agent to set up our trip. We had tickets issued on Eastern Airlines over to the islands and Bahama Air on the way back. I must have gotten spoiled on that new jet on the way over because I was shocked to see the plane we were flying back into Florida. I don’t remember what kind of plane it was, but it was a high-wing, propeller-driven 20-passenger plane, bright yellow with island scenes painted on it; some people call island jumpers.
On the way over, I was amazed at the power of those jet engines and the acceleration of the jet down the runway. It was just the opposite taking off in the small prop plane. It seemed to labor down the runway while gaining speed; the wings seemed to flap a little after taking off. I remember looking down at all that water. It took almost an hour to make it back to Florida, and I was relieved when it was over.
Knowing a lot more about aviation now than I did then, I bet that plane probably did about four flights per day for several years. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that plane is still flying somewhere in the world now. Most of the planes I keep in the hangar at Big Sandy are over 40 years old. My Piper Cherokee 6 was made in 1967. I saw a documentary on TV about the Boeing B52 bomber, developed in 1950. It has been retrofitted several times, and the military expects it to still have a useful life till 2050. That’s 100 years of service.
During Airport Day at Big Sandy, I got to see many people take their first flights, which was what I enjoyed most about the event. We would usually have four airplanes doing rides, and there would be a line waiting to fly. Sometimes the wait would be two hours or more. It was like being at Disney World. We finally started using a numbers system so people wouldn’t have to wait in line, just be there when it was their turn to fly. I especially liked talking to people after they landed. I always got the feeling they just felt like they cheated death for about 20 minutes.
Eastern Kentucky’s mountains and trees look so beautiful from a thousand feet or so, in any season, the landscape is gorgeous and it is so special when you see it for the first time.
I don’t do Airport Day anymore. I started Airport Day to promote aviation in the community and give people a chance to fly. It actually got so big I just couldn’t handle it anymore. The crowds were always well behaved, but with so many people wandering around on the ramp among the 30 airplanes parked and moving around, the pressure was more than I could handle. When pilots start a plane, they can’t see if a child is near their propellers. Pilots are trained to yell, “Clear prop!” before starting, but children and those unfamiliar with aviation aren’t aware of what will happen. When an airplane engine starts, the propeller is quickly spinning — so fast it’s hard to see.
I would usually ride my bicycle around the ramp escorting the running planes, trying to keep the crowd away, but it wasn’t easy. There were just too many moving parts. On the last Airport Day, a small girl was very close to a plane when the propeller started, and it startled her and absolutely scared me to death. She ran away from the propeller, and I realized I had created something that I just couldn’t control anymore. The pandemic happened the following year, and I decided it was time to quit.
I did Airport Day for 18 years in a row, without an incident, only one rainout, but I worried about the liability I was exposing myself to and the pain I would feel if someone did get hurt. I had to end it.
I would estimate just over 2,000 people did plane rides, many for the first time. My favorite memories are of two first-ride customers. One was a young girl from Johnson County, who signed up for a ride on one of the Cessna 172s.
I had made friends with a guy from Smyrna, Tenn., Bill Austin. Bill had been flying a guy into Prestonsburg on an MU2 turboprop. Bill sold airplanes and houseboats and ran a radio station. He was definitely a guy with a type A personality. If there were 500 people in a room, Bill would be the one everyone would be asking about. When Bill would fly his friend in, we would sit and talk all day.
Bill heard me talking to people about Airport Day and offered to fly one of the L39s he had for sale to the airport. At the time, I didn’t know what an L39 was; it’s actually a Czechoslovakian-made fighter jet. The Soviet Union used to train their MIG pilots in these jets before they moved them up to the MIGs. If a pilot had a bunch of money and wanted to fly a fighter jet, the L39 was the way to do it.
I advertised on the radio and in the local newspapers about Bill’s L39 fighter jet coming to Airport Day. We always started Airport Day at noon, and it was about 2 o’clock and I still hadn’t heard from Bill when a call came over the Unicom. “Hey Gary, I would like to do a low pass over the runway. Make sure there is no traffic while I fly by.”
I asked all traffic to stay clear of runway 3 and Bill flew by at about 200 miles per hour in his L39, made a steep turn and returned to runway 3 and landed. He caused quite a scene when he got out of his jet, the entire crowd gathered around Bill, and he enjoyed telling everyone the history and capabilities of the L39.
A guy in the crowd asked, “How much money will it take to take me for a ride?”
Bill said, “Since this is considered an experimental aircraft, I’m not allowed to charge people for a ride. I do, however, like helping out the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life raising money. If someone will set up a raffle for the local relay, I’ll take one lucky person for a ride.”
We sold 30 tickets for $10 each, held a drawing and a young lady from Johnson County who had never flown before won the drawing. The man who asked how much it would cost for a ride offered her $200 for her raffle ticket and she turned him down.
Bill buckled her in and off they flew. He took the L39 up to 5,000, put it in a steep descent, and came down runway 3 at a high speed, pulled up steeply, did two barrel rolls, returned to the airport, and landed. Her $10 ride, the first ride she had ever taken, was one she will never forget.
My favorite memory, though, was the very first ride on the first Airport Day. The first Airport Day was held on the third Saturday in September 2002. I had advertised starting at noon, and I had no idea how many people would show up. At 8 o’clock that morning the fog was so thick you could hardly see the ramp when I started pulling planes out of the hangar to display.
When I returned to get another plane to park on the ramp, I noticed an elderly woman sitting on the bench in front of the airport. I asked her if I could help her with anything.
She said, “Is this where they are going to be doing airplane rides today?”
I said, “Yes, ma’am, when the fog lifts. I think it will be at least noon before the fog will lift today. Are you interested in a ride?”
She pointed at the sky and said, “I’m 81 years old and all my life I have wondered what this world looks like from up there, and I plan on finding out today.”
I told her she could wait inside and when the fog lifted, she would be the first to take a ride. As the sun slowly burned away the fog and planes started to fly in, flight instructor Larry Short arrived in his Cessna 172 from Combs Airport. I asked him to go ahead and take her for a ride. They stayed up for about 30 minutes. When she got back on the ground, she hugged Larry, and as I helped her out of the plane, she hugged me. She was so happy at what she saw.
“I knew this world would be so beautiful from up there,” she said. “I knew these mountains would go on forever and ever. I have always wanted to see what the birds see. Thank you, guys, for making this happen.”
My guess is she had always wanted to fly in an airplane. She had imagined her entire life what the view would look like from up there and she didn’t have to wonder anymore. Larry and I were so glad we could make that dream happen for her. She was one happy woman.
Aircraft: Experimental…5…1…5…Bravo…Alpha…departing runway…3…
Unicom: Have a safe trip home…thanks for coming Bill…
(Gary Wayne Cox is airport manager at Big Sandy Regional Airport, owned by Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin and Martin counties.)
