The gaggle
Every
morning at the Santa Ynez Airport office a group of men congregate for
conversation, coffee, and general camaraderie.
For lack
of a better term, this group could be called the airport gaggle, as all are
current or former pilots and the conversation often is noisy and centered on
the subject matter of the airport, pilots, or airplanes.
This group, comprised of as many as a dozen individuals and
sometimes as few as two, meets informally every morning for conversation and
walks around the airport apron. They sometimes assist visiting pilots with
information about the community, how to get airport services if the office
attendant is unavailable, and the availability of rental cars or taxis.
Inevitably, if an opinion is required, more than one will be immediately
available, which in turn creates additional conversation.
There is
no head goose for this gaggle, but the senior members are recognized easily by
their graying feathers. James Kunkle, 85, is the most
senior of the group and cuts a trim figure by keeping fit with walks up the
taxiways of Santa Ynez Airport. A decorated P-38 pilot who flew during the
invasion of Normandy in World War II, Kunkle still
flies regularly in one of the many aircraft he keeps hangared
at the airport.
Burt
Mack, 78, of Buellton, still flies a twin engine Cessna 310. Retired after 24
years with Granite Construction, Mack has owned 14 airplanes since he started
flying in 1952. Mack is a native of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Gerry Foxwell, 76, is another senior member of the gaggle, having
been a user of the airport for the past 31 years. The Santa Ynez resident
retired as a mechanical engineer from Delco Systems and is still active as an
airframe and power plant mechanic with inspection authorization from the FAA.
Flying since the mid-1960s, Foxwell still pilots his Beechcraft Bonanza single engine airplane.
Ron
Murphy, a Solvang resident, also keeps his Bellanca
Cruise Master hangared at Santa Ynez Airport. The
73-year-old retired electrician has restored the yellow single engine aircraft
twice.
George
McClellan retired from the Santa Fe Springs fire department. At 69, McClellan
still actively flies a Cozy III experimental aircraft. The Cozy is a
canard-design plane with a small wing at the front and the main wing at the
rear.
Chuck
Potter of Solvang, is a 73-year-old retiree from McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft and
Boeing Aircraft companies in Long Beach. Potter was the owner of a
single-engine Navion and at one time owned and flew a
rare Republic SeaBee, an amphibious aircraft with a
pusher engine mounted atop the fuselage.
The
gaggle is comprised of other members: Alan Jones, a charter pilot and owner of Sunwest Aviation; Ellis Clark, a Solvang resident and pilot
of an award winning Piper J-3 Cub; Mike McCann, a corporate business jet pilot;
and the youngest member, 28-year-old Travis Foss, who flies several different
aircraft and has the distinction of saving the life of another local pilot who
crashed in the San Rafael wilderness area by searching the area and finding the
crash site before the passengers of the crashed aircraft could perish from
exposure. Jim Kunkle, the son of James Kunkle, is the airport manager and president of the Airport
Authority. He occasionally joins the gaggle when time permits.
During a
recent stormy Friday at Santa Ynez Airport, the gaggle proved to be more than
just a social and conversation group. As the wind gained strength and began
moving airplanes that were not securely tied down on the ramp, some of the
members of the gaggle patrolled the airport area and secured those airplanes,
saving them from certain damage.