1955 McClairs (now White Sulphur Springs) Johnny trying to fly without an airplane :)
Flying high!
Sorry the pictures are not in better chronological order. I have about 30,000 hours in the cockpit but very few website-builder hours :)
This photo is of me the year before, in 1959, working on the Borate Crew at Quincy (I am the middle person and Larry McNutt is on the far right). I had just soloed.
Fueling C. A. King's Aztec about 1960
Part of my job for the Wardman's was to fuel airplanes. This one belonged to timber magnate and family friend, C. A. King. My commercial pilot story began as a 20 year old that just had to fly! The place was Quincy, California flying for Wardman Flying Service. The airplane in the picture below is a 1948 Luscombe 8A at the old Sacramento Sky Ranch in 1960. The strip had gravel wired-in runways.
Back for a second year of fire patrol and charters at Quincy.
Lead plane and fire bombers in 1960
Flying U. S. Forest Service Recon for Frank Nervino. This is my Cessna 180 (originally purchased from Bridgeford Flying Service at Napa) and daughter Teri.
My boss/company owner of Interior Airways and C-46/47,s Widgens, and other transport & bush aircraft, Captain Jim Magoffin, author of "Triumph Over Turbulence."
Young family-Judy, Teri & Jack at Round Valley Lake located just south of Greenville, CA.
Home base at Fairbanks, AK
Camping at Columbia, CA with Al Ewald
Rec time
Enterprise Sky Park, Redding, CA. (That is my wife, Judy, in case you were wondering).
Red and Jerry at the end of the ESP gravel runway. Over loaded and under powered!
The Dr. Mansells at ESP. I gave Denny dual instruction in his Beech Musketeer, Navajo, and Aztec.
I also entertained at night to help the ESP party rock on (making for a long day, sometimes).
Bob Lockwood was the founder of the crazy ESP scheme which came to dominate the student pilot market in Redding.
I spent a few years attending Chico State where I graduated in 1972 with an Masters degree in Anthropology
I also studied Dan Zan Ryu Jujitsu with Prof Bud Estes and Lamar Fisher at the Chico Chapman Center.
Some nights I would entertain for a buck and drinks. That's Larry Crayton to my left, and Associate Professor (Anthropology) Hal Nelson, on my right playing his Tahitian gut bucket.
Hal Nelson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, would help me out with his Tahitian gut bucket and booming voice.
Crop dusting 1972 to 1978
Home base at Lovelock, NV, flying for Chuck Stangle in Northern Nevada spring alfalfa.
My good friend Don Hale wreaked Chuck Stangle's Stearman due to a fuel problem. Unfortunate, but I moved from loader to pilot at loader's wages
That is Cliff Anderson in the photo--one of Chuck's pilots. Sadly, he died years later in a Pitts during an aerobatic exhibition at a Fresno Air Show.
Fuel was pumped by hand through a chamois.
"Boomer" Bob Nelson's ag flying operation. I flew Gary Hendrickson's Stearman.
The family lived at Eagle Field for awhile before buying a home in Dos Palos.
Agair ground crew
Eagle Field
Dusting sulfur on cotton
Cool photo
Another cool shot, different girl
Judy was he best flagger boss. She knew her stuff!
Gary Hendrickson, a prominent character in the book, "I Must Fly!
FLYING FOR AERO UNION CORP
B-17 Co-pilot Redding, CA
Another Luscombe I owned and kept at the Redding Air Tanker Base.
Well, here we are, homeless for the moment and heading for the promised land (Plumas County).
Between jobs and roughing it at Round Valley Lake (near Greenville, CA).
Sugarpine Aviators was established in June 1978.
Our second air ambulance. Same Cherokee 6-300 that I once flew out of Chico, CA for Stuart Air Service in 1966.
Cherokee 290HA purchased in early 80's for $8,500
Cherokee 180C 9722J purchased to keep 290HA company
This beauty once belonged to Terry Reeson. Sugarpine Aviators put over 8,000 hours on it.
Paint jobs by Herschel Beal and Rick Clift
Making the movie "A Cry In The Wild" featuring Ned Beatty, Pamula Sue Martin and Jared Rushton + our Cessna TU 206.
Sugarpine Aviators Martial Arts dojo attached to the flight office at Gansner Field, Quincy, CA. I am about 72 in this picture. At 78 I earned my third Black Belt, a Shodan with AJJF.
About 2007 we retired from FAR Part 135 operations and branched out, focusing on teaching flying, jujitsu and anthropology.
Teaching at Feather River College
I am now retired from most commercial aviation. but still like to teach stick & rudder fundamentals. As of May 1, 2019 I retired as Sensei of Sugarpine Aviators Martial Arts at the age of 82. At this writing (2022) I still teach Anthropology for Feather River College.