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| Fairchild 24 |
Rushford is located in the Driftless area in Fillmore County in Southeast Minnesota. It's an area I've described before (In My Backyard) in a motorcycle visit to towns along the Root river, near Lanesboro and Whalan. In this case, it was simply by coincidence, made a destination only because it was a small field near LaCrosse Wisconsin that I hadn't been to before.
The topography is as appealing from the air as it was from the ground on a motorbike. Flying over the Sand Barrens Scientific and Natural Area, the approach from the south took me over a substantial bluff just before the runway threshold. Surrounding the field was, well, not much, since it lies a fair bit downriver from the actual town of Rushford. From the air, I could see just a few hangars, and taxiing in I saw what I assumed to be the pilot lounge. Turning into the ramp area, I saw an older gentleman watching me from the deck of the building as I spun the plane around to park. It always makes me a little self conscious when someone watches my shutdown or startup. My imagination has them saying, "yup, low time pilot. He forgot to (fill-in the blank).""Hi there, thanks for stopping," he said as I walked up from the Arrow, it's engine still ticking as it cooled in the seasonable temperatures. "Where are you flying in from?"
"From the cities, just out on a random cross country," I replied. "I thought I'd stop by and check out your fine looking airport and service my 62 year old bladder," I replied.
"Well come on in. Just be sure to sign the guest log on the right as you enter."
"Are you the proprietor of Rushford Aviation," I asked after seeing the sign on the side of the building."Well, not anymore, really. I'm mean there's not really a Rushford Aviation, anymore. I retired three years ago, and now I just take care of the airport," he said as he smiled. "I still do work on my own projects and help with friend's airplanes, give a few lessons here and there, but we don't service aircraft anymore. Just pump gas. You need any gas?"
"No thanks, sorry. So you get the best of all worlds, to keep working on projects and flying but without the deadlines and customer hassles, huh?"
"Exactly. I'm here every day, but on my own time."
"That's kind of a sweet deal. It's a municipal airport, right? So are you the airport manager for the city, then," I asked, trying to stir up some conversation. He didn't seem to be the chatty, self-revealing sort.
"Oh, no, nothing like that. I work for the airport manager. He keeps me here because he really doesn't know anything about aviation, but does all the paperwork and bureaucratic stuff."
"Man, you are in hog heaven," I acknowledged.
As we entered the terminal, it immediately felt very comfortable. It wasn't just the living room-like couch and lounge chairs, or the dining room feel of the briefing room, or the fact that there was a second lounge area with comfort chairs, end tables and library. The homey feel crescendo'd when I came around the corner and saw the fully equipped kitchen."Wow. This is unlike any pilot's lounge I've ever seen," I admired. "It really does feel like home. Tell me a little bit about the airport, and how such a small town comes about such a nice facility. You must have quite the aviation community here."
"Actually, back in the 90's they were about to plow this airfield under because it was in such disrepair."
As he explained, I saw old newspaper articles on the wall featuring the airport, Rushford Aviation, and the man I was speaking with.
"I thought it was a shame, knowing that once they did that, there would never again be another airport in the area. So I went to the city and asked if it would make them feel any differently if I set up a new FBO (Fixed Base Operator) business on the field."They weren't sure, they said, but asked him to make a official proposal so they had something to consider. The local flying club also eagerly jumped on board. Soon, the proposal to bring the runway and hangars up to a reasonable condition was in front of the city council, along with some state and federal cost sharing resource possibilities.
Mike Thurn is actually from Winona, Minnesota, twenty five miles away. He had always dreamed of having his own FBO, being an Aircraft and Powerplant Mechanic (AMP) for a number of years already. His wife was a nurse with a good job, so they both thought they could risk Mike's income on the new venture.
"I went to that meeting assuming I'd be fairly lonely at the podium. Instead, the room was packed. I then thought they were all there to protest the idea of keeping the airport open. Only a few airplanes were from the local community. A number of others, like me, were from outside Rushford, so the local folks really didn't have anything vested in the old airport. It made me pretty nervous"
When it was built in the 70's, Richard Burke - for whom the field is now named - had a lot of resistance to establishing it in the first place. How many people would it impact, after all? It didn't actually contribute much to the local economy.
In fact, the opposite happened. The crowd was mostly supportive, arguing to keep it open. And eager to support Mr. Thurn in his business start-up.
Encouraged, he and his wife worked to come up with ways to fulfill the part of the proposal that called for them to construct bathrooms and a small pilot's lounge. They originally thought to build a lean-to onto their hangar, but with research found the costs to be higher than they thought. For what they calculated, they could almost build an entirely new new building. In looking for options, his wife came up with the idea of buying a ready-built double wide trailer home to put alongside the runway. Again, the costs of a new double wide were much higher than they could afford. So she started looking at used double wide's, in spite of a very skeptical husband.
"Ever seen a used trailer home? Usually not much left of it. So one day she pulled out another of many classified ads for a double-wide located about 40 miles away. The owners needed to sell the home to be moved off the land so they could develop the property. I thought, well let's just get this over with so we can get back home quickly, not giving it much chance of being usable. My wife can't be detoured when she smells a deal. So we went out there to take a look. It was only about five years old and so clean it looked like they never lived in it. We could immediately see how the layout could be changed to serve the purpose at the airport. So we made a kinda low ball offer right then and there. Fortunately I knew the guy since he was a old classmate of mine so we were able to come up with a deal that was pretty good for me."
They moved the building to the airport, moved and removed some walls and created the layout I was now standing in. The best news was the city offered (not agreed, but actually offered) to submit for state funding to share the cost. All they wanted was for me to deed the building to them. After they got the funding, they gave the proceeds to Mike, basically relieving him of the financial obligation. All he had to do was maintain it and welcome visiting pilots.
His business never made any money in the fifteen years he operated it, but the benefits in covering the costs of what is now a spectacular mechanics shop, nice hangar space, a place to spend his retirement, and a way to keep flying worked out quite well.
As he wrapped up the story, he asked, "would you like to come out and see some of the fun I'm having, take a look at my pride and joy?"
How could I refuse?
He walked me to his adjacent shop and introduced me to his two children. Two Luscombe aircraft fuselage's, one with a single wing attached, were under (re) construction. Fundamentally he's replacing everything with new metal fabricated in his sheet metal shop. Good thing, too, because in order to be able to fly them, he's going to need to register them as experimental aircraft and, rules state, experimental aircraft cannot be built from commercially manufactured airplanes, which a Luscombe is. His friend in the FAA pointed out that all the metal in the aircraft was being manufactured by him, right?
"No, it's original metal from the original plane, but I've completely refurbished..." Mike said before his friend cut him off.
"Newly manufactured by you," his friend repeated, giving him that look of 'you're not listening to me.'
"Oh, right, I manufactured everything here."
"And you can't call them Luscombe's anymore," he advised.
"How about Luscombette's?"
"That'll work."
All you need is someone, or a community, on your side, enabling instead of disabling.
But the prize was straddling carpeting in the middle of the hangar. You NEVER see carpeting in a hangar, unless it's there to catch oil, and this carpeting was a perfectly clean beige in color. Above it stood a gorgeous 1940's era Fairchild 24, a single engine, four place tail dragger perfectly restored to better than new condition. As Mike explained, the only thing he's really done is keep it maintained and polished, along with replacing the old Ranger engine. As he removed the cowling, one screw at a time, he explained that in working with older aircraft you really need to be able to talk to folks that have expertise in working with specific models. He worried about what will happen when all those experts move on, as there are very few apprentices.
The Fairchild smelled of leather, used in the seats and the headliner. It's panel was authentic, with a few modern conveniences (GPS) added. The control stick was a shiny, polished chrome with what looked like a dark pearl handgrip, matching the shiny chrome foot pedals. No wonder the plane won the Grand Champion trophy for restored vintage aircraft in Oshkosh. All the work was immaculate. But the most amazing thing was the lack of oil on the carpet.
All aircraft leave oil behind on the hangar floor. The Fairchild, as Mike reported, was no exception. It's Ranger engine, a notorious consumer of oil - normally 1 quart per engine hour - gave signs of exhaustion when it began consuming three quarts per hour. He had to use the entire baggage compartment just to carry the oil on a longer trip. So his only personal overhaul on the plane was that engine, which he replaced. He also made some modifications, including one that places a diaper in the cowling that catches whatever little oil drips onto the pan. No more belly stain. No more post flight wipe down. No more hangar floor puddles.
There are lots of Mikes hiding in hangars in lots of small airports like this all over the country. Guys who just have the feel, the skill, the passion to rebuild and renew airplanes to flight status. It's hard not to be envious of that skill and that interest. Their reward is obvious when they sparkle in explaining their work and the outcome of that work. It's almost the best part of these visits, the people you meet and the passion they share.
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