Martha Lunken

ATIS “Tango” was advertising 43 degrees C when we landed Sunday afternoon. Although I’m “mathematically challenged” I think that works out to about 110 degrees F, which might explain the eerie quiet on the Lunken tower frequency. David Zombek had just flown an outstanding private pilot check ride in the 172. He’d worked long and […]

“Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can.” This is from a colorful, abstract picture on my wall, a gift from a friend who knows I passionately believe that’s the way to live. And for me — since I’m not good at anything else — that usually involves airplanes […]

I think it was the summer of 1983 when a nasty line of thunderstorms moved across DuPage Airport west of Chicago, upending a number of airplanes and damaging even more. I was not having a good time as a novice FAA operations safety inspector in the DuPage FSDO. Taking any initiative — doing something — […]

Read Once I Built an Airline (Part I) here. Every summer weekend through most of the ’60s, Midwest Airways flew its original northern Michigan route from Cincinnati to Traverse City and Harbor Springs as well as the weekday Cleveland and Detroit schedule. So on Friday evenings from June through August at least one Lockheed 10 […]

On this January morning in Ohio, I pulled on the “heat” knob in the J-3, which is as effective as pulling “cabin air” in a Piper Warrior in July. … You can hope but you know nothing’s going to happen. We were holding short of the grass runway and my Sport Pilot applicant in the […]

I am not having a good time: It’s a springlike, bluebird day, more like April than February, and 72B is sitting in Piqua, Ohio, for its annual spa treatment; my tooth ached all weekend (why do toothaches always start on Friday nights?) and was cured expertly but painfully with a root canal on Monday; and […]

Whenever I think about Midwest Airways I’m reminded of Bob Newhart’s skit “The Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Co.” But I think too of the title of a Pete Seeger and The Weavers album, “Wasn’t That a Time!” From the late ’50s into the ’60s, Ebby Lunken operated a seasonal, weekend air service […]

Paul Redlich dead-sticked a newly restored P-40 into Ohio’s Clermont County Airport (I69) from 6,500 feet this winter. The Allison engine suddenly blew on a test flight of the rare and iconic World War II fighter about six miles east of I69, and Paul found himself flying a glider with the sink rate of a […]

(March 2012) Weighing five pounds fewer than I had three days before we began training in the steamy heat of south Florida, I finally breathed a huge sigh of relief. Bill Conrad had just told me I’d passed the type rating and multi-ATP check ride in the Lockheed 18 Lodestar. As we took the runway […]

__Not too long ago, Skip called to see if I wanted to pull the 180 out and join a gaggle of RV-8s flying to Columbus, Indiana, for Sunday breakfast, but I had a test to give that morning. He said he had texted me earlier, but I don’t “do” texting, at least not yet. With […]