Rolling The Film Backward

ROLLING THE FILM BACKWARD

It was a cool fall day in Biloxi, Mississippi and I had some time off from my USAF Air Traffic Controller School. I decided to take a stroll down to the ocean and see if I could get a few pictures. I had my 4 x 5 Speed Graphic camera with me when I saw a huge white lighthouse located between a highway and the ocean, the Biloxi Lighthouse. I fell in love with it right away and wondered about it’s history. I decided to take a picture and framed it with a huge oak tree in the foreground in order to show it’s proximity to the ocean.

The 48-foot lighthouse was constructed in 1848 at the cost of $12,000.  It has survived the Civil War and several hurricanes. It still stands today.  With it’s fourth order fresnel lens, it remains an aide to navigation.  It has the distinction of having the most female keepers of any other lighthouse.

In 1973 it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.  In 1987 was declared a Mississippi Landmark. It’s history has given rise to a number myths. In days gone by, one of the popular legends about the Biloxi lighthouse was that it was painted black following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. What actually happened was that the lighthouse was originally painted black and then repainted white so as to make it stand out more against the background of live oak trees. This occurred in 1867 -- two years after the president's death. The Biloxi lighthouse is also the only lighthouse in the world situated on a highway median.

This experience taught me not only to be aware of the image I was photographing, but to also contemplate it’s historical background. I find lighthouses go far back in time and share so much of our early history of exploration and navigation.

A year later, I was transferred to Otis USAF Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

*Next will be Lighthouses of Cape Cod.

Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame

I wanted to share some exciting news.

October 20, 2018 I will be inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame.  This is a great honor and my family and friends will be on hand as will be colleagues from Wisconsin Aviation to help me celebrate.

I was also employed by Wisconsin Aviation Inc. which is a full service Fixed Base of Operations and is totally separate from the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame. 

Here is the article from the Midwest Flyer Magazine.

From the Midwest Flyer Magazine, August/September 2018:

Madison, Wisconsin-Don Winkler of Madison, Wisconsin, will be inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame on October 20, 2018 at ceremonies to be held at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Winkler worked for Wisconsin Aviation, Inc. at Dane County Regional Airport as the company's public relations chair from 1996-2014.  He remains involved with fundraising for the company's hangar dance and Madison's Honor Flight.

Winkler has worked with the media to promote Wisconsin Aviation, aviation careers and aviation in general by coordinating school tours at Dane County Regional Airport.

As an employee of Wisconsin Aviation, Winkler has also coordinated special appearances of warbirds and aircraft groups flying to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and television coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh by KIDS4TV cable television program in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

Prior to joining the staff at Wisconsin Aviation, Winkler was an air traffic controller the U.S. Air Force from 1951-1955, and later with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) in Madison.  For the majority of his career, Winkler was a sales manager at Sears, Roebuck and Company, in Madison.  He is a long-time pilot and passionate photojournalist and has been an active member of the Civil Air Patrol beginning in 1971.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Bureau of Aeronautics presented Don Winkler with it's "Carl E. Guell Aviation Education Award" in 2005 in recognition of his efforts to provide tours for more than 1,000 children at Dane County Regional Airport.  Guell, who was a senior staff member with the bureau, founded the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame in 1985.  In 2015, Winkler received the Wisconsin Airport Management Association (WAMA) "Lifetime Service Award" for his dedicated service to aviation in Wisconsin.

HANGAR

HANGAR

Talking with my granddaughter, the subject of a Spelling Bee came up. I asked her, “How do you spell the word that identifies the building where an aircraft is stored?” She said, “I think it is Hangar.” I was pleased to say the least.

Over the years, actually 60, I have heard it spelled like something that you hang your garment on, Hanger. This misspelling is common not only with the general public but journalists, teachers and even aviators. Realizing this, I decided to incorporate it into the tours I held while working at Wisconsin Aviation Inc., Madison, Wisconsin. 

Over a period of some 16 years I hosted an average of 800 children a year at the Dane County Regional Airport. The tours were held on the east ramp of the airport, more notably known as the “General Aviation” side. The average age of the children on the tours ranged from 5 to 7 years old, as well as some requests from day care centers for some as young as 3 years old.

 As school budgets dwindled, I then went to the class rooms of various area schools. No matter where I held them, school or airport, the tours all started out the same. “How many of you know where an aircraft is stored when it is not flying and how do you spell the name of that place?” Depending on the age and reading experience, less than 10% knew. At this point I would tell them how to spell the word. I would tell them if they remembered it by the end of the tour, or movie if at the school, they would receive a balsa wood glider, a cookie and a coloring book about the airport. 

At the airport, they got to sit in a Cessna 152 and fly on an imaginary flight to wherever they dreamed up. When returning to the terminal building I could hear them reciting, “HANGAR”!

My hope is that with the early exposure to Aviation, youth would be more inclined to pursue careers as pilots, mechanics and in customer services.

My next Blog will be remembering 16 years of HANGAR DANCES, with an amusing, but embarrassing situation.

AN AIRSHOW EVERY DAY

When you mention the word Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, out pops the name Pat O’Malley’s Jet Room Restaurant. The two are synonymous in most people’s minds. Where else can you find ease in parking, great viewing framed in huge glass windows, outstanding cuisine and a glorious selection of Corporate Jets, General Aviation aircraft and Home Built Experimental planes. The thrill prevails seeing people departing and arriving, even celebrities now and then.

After 20 years of service in the Waunakee, Wisconsin area, Pat sold the O’Malley Farm Café in 1996 to pursue other interests. A year later, missing his former love, that of being a successful Restaurateur, Pat and his wife Pam opened the Jet Room Restaurant in the then 1937 vintage Terminal Building, on the east ramp of Truax Field. The restaurant continued operating under the auspices of Wisconsin Aviation/Four Lakes until the building’s demise in 2002,

The old stone building was replaced by the new state-of the-art Wisconsin Aviation 2.5 million dollar General Aviation Terminal Building. O’Malley’s Restaurant reopened then in a more illustrious motif to better serve the General Aviation public.

Most recently announced, Pat and Pam have decided to retire and purchase an RV (Recreational Vehicle) to travel on to new horizons. The restaurant will remain as the Pat O’Malley’s Jet Room, under new ownership with the O’Malley’s assisting in a smooth transition for as long as needed. It will be lacking their personal ambiences and colorful memories but aspire to continue serving its patronage in the same spirit. 

1937 Transitioning to 2002

Vintage Jet Room

Pam and Pat O'Malley 

Pam and Pat O'Malley

New Wisconsin Aviation Terminal

All photo credits to Don "Wink" Winkler

THE HOPE FOR PEACE AND JOY

                   

As I look forward to the new year of 2017, hoping that it will be a year of peace and joy, I reflect back on one memorable occasion. While photographing arrivals at Wisconsin Aviation, Madison Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of recording photographs of the Dalai Lama’s visit.

Having been the Director of Media/Public Affairs, I had the opportunity to film many celebrities over the years, but this had a special atmosphere. He is not someone who was pretentious in manner, but one who projected kindness and peacefulness. I hope I have recorded this in my images of him.  A man, truly one of love and joy.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

MY dear friend Robert, who was a WWI German Pilot, was a gentle soul with a heart as pure as his white beard. After the war Robert migrated to the United States and had an illustrious career with Research Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, retiring after 37 years of service in 1967. Robert resided with his wife and 5 children in Madison Wisconsin. They later moved to Lodi, and that is where I first met Robert.

Robert had a collection of sepia tone prints he had taken while serving as a Reconnaissance/Aerial Photographer in the German Airforce. We talked about converting them into slides so that he could share them with interested aviation enthusiasts. Being a member of the Civil Air Patrol, I thought this could provide him a venue to accomplish this. As our friendship progressed I found another side of this man. With his beard and a smile, he would transform into Santa Claus. In fact he became known as the “Lodi Santa” and would preside at the Lodi Library during the Christmas Season. He once remarked that children would pull on his white beard and be astonished that it was real and not like that of the ones worn by the Store Santa’s!

I knew it was Christmas when I would receive a phone call opening with “Ho, Ho, Ho”.  I would respond to this in the same manner and then he would say, “Acht Donnie, Fröhliche Weihnachten, (Merry Christmas)”.  Later in the morning he would make his annual stop at WIBA and be on the radio program with Jim Mader, a well-known host. Robert would play his precious Music Box which would play O’Tannenbaum. Robert would sing along and this became a tradition. Robert has left us now, but his voice still resides in my mind each Christmas. Jim Mader has passed away also and WIBA's radio format has changed to Fox Radio. Robert’s family still has the precious music box. 

Robert truly was a Man For All Seasons.

SpaceShipOne and the White Knight

On July 24, 2005 the White Knight, a manned twin-turbojet high altitude research aircraft, carrying SpaceShipOne (SS1) landed at the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin.  The SS1 is a manned sub-orbital spacecraft. The SS1 and the White Knight were designed by Burt Rutan, the owner of Scaled Composites. The aircraft and attached spaceship taxied in on the East Ramp at Wisconsin Aviation FBO and spent the night in the 1938 vintage Stone Hangar on it's way to the EAA Airventure 2005 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The SS1 and White Knight were going to the EAA Airventure 2005 to commemorate the historic first flight of a civilian-built spaceship out of the earth's atmosphere (62 miles, 100 Kilometers) twice to capture the highly sought after Ansari X Prize.  The prize awarded the feat with $10 Million dollars.

Mike Melvill is the world's first civilian astronaut and flew the first of two missions on SS1 to the outer edge of the Earth's atmosphere to compete for the Ansari X Prize.

The White Knight and attached SS1 departed our facility the next day for the EAA Convention site.
It was on display in Oshkosh until July 31, 2005 and then flew to Dulles Airport in Washington DC to  deliver SS1 to the National Air and Space Museum.  The White Knight then flew back to the Mojave for another project.

Looking back on this memorable event, I found it ironic that this historic aircraft and spaceship spent the night in the first building constructed at the Madison Airport back in 1938.  This stone hangar was built by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) which was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal Agency.

I was honored that same week with the Carl E Guell Aviation Education Award at the EAA.  After the presentation, we went down to the Flight Line to view the White Knight and SS1.  As I approached the roped off area, protecting the aircraft I was told by the guard that I could not come near it.

I chuckled and said: "Hell, I babysat it last night!"