View over Michiana
Published 4:08 am Saturday, June 21, 2008
By By Jessica Sieff / Niles Daily Star
NILES – On a Friday afternoon, I steer my car towards the last hangar at the Jerry Tyler Memorial Airport and park just across from it. The hangar is a timeless structure. Looking at nothing else, it looks like it belongs in the 1940s. Like any minute a group of young flyboys are going to emerge from the dark garage – all clean shaven and innocent and in love with only one thing: flying.
A small plane, however, is what emerges from the direction I just drove in. It pulls around the corner and it's small and looks like if you folded up the wings – it could be smaller than a large SUV.
I rethink my decision to take a flight lesson.
My lesson is under the instruction of Bob Baird, president of the Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) Niles Chapter 865. When he hops out of the plane, he is the image I had in my head of a flyboy. He has a warm smile, silver hair, crystal blue eyes that seem to be alive with something I can't quite pin down. I have a feeling, to ask any member of the EAA and they'll tell you it is the love of aviation. The whole process. The design, the building, the take-off and the way the aircraft almost floats – at 12,000 feet – through the air.
EAA chapters are scattered across the nation. The first Fly-In was held at the Curtiss-Wright Airport in Milwaukee Wis. Now, it is considered by many as "one of the world's largest and most significant aviation events."
Until that afternoon, the only flying I'd ever done was sitting back in a jumbo jet. In that respect, I'm not afraid to fly. This was obviously going to be much different. When it comes to flight, most people may only be familiar with the kind that includes in-flight movies, reclining seats and tray tables and emergency exits. But the airplane's birth, life and continued transformation is as vast as the clear blue sky itself.
It was that love of aviation that began the Experimental Aircraft Association and it is that love that will bring aviators from all over to the Jerry Tyler Memorial Airport in Niles for the Sunday EAA Niles Chapter's 22nd annual Fly-In Drive-In breakfast, 7 a.m to noon.
The event, which is expected to draw in more than 100 different aircraft, features an 'all you can eat' breakfast of pancakes and sausage, biscuits with sausage gravy, orange juice and coffee.
There will be door prizes at the event as well as helicopter rides by Buzz Bolton and Airplane rides by Michiana Aviation.
Baird explains to me that anyone who builds 51 percent of an airplane can fly that plane – but that it is considered "experimental." "As risky as experimental airplanes sound," he said, "they have very good statistics."
Before our flight, Baird walks me over to yet another hangar. As he and vice president of the EAA Niles Chapter, Jerrid Burdue -just 13 years old – slide open the hangar doors, I find myself staring into the eyes of a 1941 Skyranger. A small plane with an even smaller cockpit that Baird says "flies beautifully."
Planes like the Skyranger, built before the start of WWII, would have been used for millionaire businessmen, Baird said. I think now of the jumbo jets with flat screen televisions and "we've come a long way baby," he laughs.
I excitedly fold myself into the cockpit, stare at all the switches and dials. Move the steering – a double joystick-like apparatus -move it around a bit just to get the feel.
"There's no electrical system in this plane here," says Baird. "No lights, no radios. But it is the newest oldest plane I've every flown." Baird acquired the Skyranger with only 1,260 miles on it. It is a rare gift that plane.
Baird says he's been flying since 1980 and aviation is in his blood. His uncle flew in the Second World War, as part of the Flying Tigers division – and he later became a stunt pilot, according to Baird, he even gave lessons to Errol Flynn. " I was just spellbound by his stories," he said.
The Niles chapter of the EAA has between 20 and 25 members. Those members, the EAA is proud to acknowledge, consist of anyone with an interest or a love for aviation.
Our conversation quickly ends, however. My lesson begins.
Baird takes me on a pre-flight check of the plane. We do three walk-arounds, checking for any irregularities or abnormalities to the exterior of the plane. We check the lights, the oil, the fuel, and the propeller. Baird opens the left-hand door, explaining that the left seat of the plane is for the "pilot in command." You're going to have that seat, he says.
I – again – rethink this decision.
We go through more switches and I'm desperately trying to remember everything. Where the fuel gage is, which knobs go to what. Pushing the steering handle (the appropriate name I was too nervous to remember) inward means putting the nose down. Pulling it towards me means raising it up. I think. We put our headphones and mics on. The unit, "sucks all the noise out of your head," Baird says. After a few more checks and details, Baird has me start the engine.
I grab on to the steering handle immediately. But to drive the plane on the ground, Baird explains I have to use my feet. We take it out to the end of the runway – and I'm still rethinking my decision when before I know it we're moving, we're accelerating and we're in the air.
That feeling I was having? That was my throat in my stomach.
In just a few minutes – we are soaring over Niles. We can see Michigan City and Lake Michigan. I assume Baird is just letting me have the experience of gently moving the plane through the air -steering for me all along. But when I look over, his hands are off the handles. "You're doing good," he says.
I want to turn and look around me – but I'm too focused. Unlike a jumbo jet – I can feel everything in that plane. I can feel the way it floats through the air and the ground below me – the horizon is so much more … real.
Cruising at that altitude, everything looks unlike itself. Patches of land, the river. Where I used to work, where I used to go to school. I can see why these boys love to fly. It's quite a view from up here.
I glance over at the speedometer. We're going 135 mph.
We fly out over the lake and I turn the aircraft back towards land. Baird has me point out emergency landing spots and shows me how to set coordinates in order to course my way back towards the airport. He brings the plane back down towards the ground – and my stomach shifts as we hit some turbulence on the way in.
When we hop out, I'm glad to get my feet back on solid ground. "It takes a few times before you stop being nervous," Baird says. The whole experience was over in an hour – but sadly, it felt like only minutes. A few more in the air -and I might have loosened up my grip on the handles. I might have felt the air a little more.
As I walk back to my car – I consider doing it again.
Until then – there is the EAA and their events for anyone with a love, a passion or even an interest in aviation. At the breakfast will be antique and hot-rod cars on display as well as "the first of five" WWI style fighter planes. "There will be a lot of planes on display," Baird added.
Breakfast is only $5 for ages 12 and up, $3 for 12 – three and children three and under can eat for free.
Flights will be available for a designated fee.