For the first time in the history of Edwards Air Force base, nearly 100 civilian general aviation aircraft, and 15 civilian-owned retired warbirds flew in, and landed on the Rosamond Dry Lakebed Oct. 1 to attend Flight Test Nation 2010 Lakebed Fly-In.
“The primary purpose of this fly-in is to educate the civilian flying public on R-2508 airspace and restricted area flight operations along with safe methods of navigating the airspace to avoid a mid-air collision,” said Bill Koukourikos, Fly-In director and Air Force Flight Test Center flight safety officer. “We also wanted to display the Air Force Flight Test Center mission to foster closer ties with the civilian aviation community and tell the story of women aviators’ past and present contributions here at Edwards.”
Maj. Gen. David J. Eichhorn, Air Force Flight Test Center commander, added: “This is a uniquely Edwards event. Only Edwards has lakebed runways. This all started with Flight Test Nation 2009. As we looked ahead, we wanted to make our next event as worthwhile as possible, hitting on all fronts. A lakebed fly-in focusing on airspace safety, coupled with a ‘Women and Aviation’ theme allowed us to do that.”
With more than 800 fly-in attendees, organizers called the event a success. “About 325 attendees were fly-in guests and most airplanes had three or more people on board. There were a total of about 800 people at today’s event,” Koukourikos said. “As the lakebed is in restricted air space, it opened at 6:45 a.m. for general aviation arrivals. All aircraft were on the ground by 9:30 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers did a great job from their temporary control tower (called Muroc Tower) on the back of a flatbed truck in getting everyone down safely.”
“One of the requirements for attendees to participate was that they have logged at least 200 flight hours,” said Col. Glenn L. Graham, Air Force Flight Test Center Chief of Safety. “After that amount of flight time, most pilots are fairly experienced with their particular planes. Furthermore, they’ve had a chance to see different weather conditions and flying situations. What we didn’t want to see were brand new pilots flying in a crowded, potentially demanding environment who could put themselves and others flying near them in a dangerous situation.”
Southern California weather is generally fair this time of year. However, this is the Antelope Valley in the Mojave Desert and Oct. 1’s weather was atypical. Arrival weather provided high overcast skies and calm winds, but departing weather was impending thunder storms and lightning.
“While the vast majority of fly-ins were from California, Arizona and Nevada, we also had participants from other parts of the country,” Graham said.
James Simmons flew his Mooney M20 across the country from Connecticut just to attend the fly-in. Simmons traveled the farthest to be on hand. Two attendees flew in from Texas and one from Michigan while a family of five drove nearly 1,200 miles from Seattle just to attend Flight Test Nation’s 2010 Lakebed Fly-in.
“When I first learned about this fly-in, that there were only 100 spots available, I made sure I got online and submitted my request,” said Tony Frayklund, of Downey, Calif., who flew his Piper Cherokee 180 up from Fullerton, Calif. “Then I learned I was one of the 100 spots selected in the lottery. It was not until just about two days prior that I learned nearly 2,500 had replied to the fly-in invitation. There was no way I was going to miss out on this possibly once-in-a-lifetime experience of not only landing on a dry lakebed but also legally landing on a military installation.”
The 15 warbirds included trainers; transports; bombers; pursuits; and utility, observation and special duty aircraft. Trainer aircraft on-hand were a Vultee BT-13; Ryan PT-22 Recruit; a Fairchild PT-19 Cornell; a Chinese-made Nan Chang CJ-6; a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor; a Scottish Aviation (BAe) Bulldog T1; a North American T-28 Trojan; and a Marchetti F-260. A Douglas DC-3, with 10 passengers embarked and a Lockheed L-18 Lodestar transporter, with seven passengers aboard were the two transports on-hand. A North American B-25 Mitchell, with eight passengers embarked, was the lone bomber present and a P-51 Mustang was the lone fighter aircraft at the fly-in. A Stinson L-5 Sentinel, an Aeronca L-16 Grasshopper and a Grumman HU-16 Albatross, with eight passengers embarked represented the utility, observation and special duty category.
The attendees were welcomed by General Eichhorn and shown a movie about the X-15 program, and how the Rosamond Lakebed was used as an emergency landing area by one of the X-15 flights. Koukourikos and James Sudduth, from the FAA, presented a comprehensive discussion of the airspace surrounding Edwards and the military operations that occur in the airspace. Koukourikos also discussed techniques a general aviation pilot can use to avoid a mid-air collision with fast jets.
Col. Dawn Dunlop, 412th Test Wing commander, presented a briefing on the role of women in the history of Edwards, and Maj. Jennifer Jeffords, 419th Flight Test Squadron B-2 test pilot, discussed several amazing stories about her life as a woman in aviation and a test pilot at Edwards. Interrupting the show was Pancho Barnes herself (actually, thespian Ms. Leslie Dinius) who showed up in a bright yellow Bucker Jungmann 103 bi-plane.
Civilian general aviation aircraft ranged from several decades-old single-engine Pipers, Cessnas, Beechcrafts and Stinsons to relatively new models of the same and new brand labels such as Cirrus and Pilatus. With the wide variety of aircraft, and the impending thunderstorms on the way, it was determined that an early departure was in the best interest of all attendees.
The last fly-in aircraft departed at about 2:30 p.m.
For more information: FlightTestNation.com
What a thrill this was! Landing on a dry lakebed in restricted airspace…what more can I say. Because I was scheduled to land at 6:46am, we flew to General Fox the day before and spent the night in Lancaster. We headed for the lakebed at the crack of dawn. What a beautiful sunrise! Our plane was scheduled to be number 2 to land, but I took a right when I was supposed to take a left. I landed as number 7 instead. A special thanks to Bill Koukourikos for putting the event together. He did one heck of a job. And to get a picture with Major General Eichhorn was a big high point for me.
Actually, this is not the first time General Aviation aircraft have landed at Edwards. Of course I can not speak for others who may have had this privillage, but looking at my log book as I write this, on March 29th 1985 I had the opportunity, along with my Helicopter Instructor, to land a Cessna 210 Turbo Centurian there. He was also a fixed wing instructor and one of his students who owned the Cessna was a private contractor working at Edwards. He needed some plans he left in San Diego, so on our way back from dropping his kids off a Mammoth, we received permission to land at Edwards and drop off the plans. Quite exciting for a young helicopter student gaining some fixed-wing experience.
Hi could you please tell me if there is a contact for Ms Dinius? My friend is an actress (thespian) and also interested in learning to pilot a plane. She would like to know of the link between the two and how a performance can be created by bringing the two together.
Thank you so much
Des Lumsdon
I was selected as a drive in attendee, I live about 15 miles away. I was not able to attend because I had to be out of town on business, so I gave up my spot so some one else could attend.
I doubt that this will be an annual event, but maybe every other year, with the Edwards Open House one year and fly in the next.
I was able to participate last November when we had five hot air balloons fly from the lake bed.
I am glad to see this type of flyin. We used to flyin to Edwards AFB every year back in the 70’s and 80’s for their open house, the aircraft were envited by the Base to come in and have their planes on display. We have a Luscombe Sedan 11A and it was the only one of its type at the airshow. We would come in Saturday afternoon and they would fill us up with gas and put us up for the night, which included a dinner with a great speaker, those were the good old days.
THANK YOU, again, for allowing us to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime event! We were very impressed by ALL the Controllers who helped us fly onto “the lake”. We especially appreciate the advance information we received prior to starting our adventure. Due to a curfew at our home airport (KTRK) we were unable to just fly down Friday morning, but we were able to stay over in Bakersfield (KBFL) and head on over to make our “time slot” for landing Friday morning (10/01/10). Boy, we haven’t seen so many Port-a-Potties since the Reno Air Races!!!! We were pleasantly surprised to find landing and taxiing on the “lake” was as easy as advertised. Everyone was very pleasant to talk with and we really hated to leave. We had expected more of a Fly-By by various “experimental” Air Force aircraft during the designated time, but that wasn’t why we were there in the first place. FOOD was great (Breakfast and Lunch) but we were close to Gross because of all the “memorbilia” we purchased (just kidding!). Leaving was as easy as arriving with all Controllers giving us all the attention we needed to “get the hell out of Dodge” and their airspace. We flew on up to Harris Ranch (3O8) and picked up some meat before heading home, dodging “Thunder-Bumpers” and landed easily at KTRK. Once again, we’d like to THANK everyone for allowing us to participate in the event and hope that many others are able to do it in the future (but WE were one of the first 100 to be allowed to…)! 🙂 N3147P
I looked forward to this event after I and several of my friends applied. None of us got a slot, but sadly, the parking pass that was promised if you did not get a slot, did not arrive either. This mismanagement of what could have been the high point of many more pilots, let us all down. Any event promising attendance, and falling short, ruins these all for the future. Since the notice and application indicated a parking pass to drive in if you were not selected to fly, we used vacation days to attend. If only the promised pass could have been had. We were ready to drive, but the notice clearly said do not attempt to arrive without a parking pass. Please fix your procedures and try again.
Barry
I feel very privileged to have been part of this fly-in. I was lucky enough to fly the Vultee BT-13 on to the lake bed. Many thanks to the men nd women that made this event possible! It was so cool to land, taxi and take off from the dry lake… something I will never forget.
Thanks again to all that put this together!
Daniel Wotring
Is it possible this could become an annual event?
The Stinson pictured actually belonged to Pancho Barnes.
This is really neat! I managed to get a landing at Wright-Pat into my logbook about 30 years ago at a similar open house. I’m a 65-year-old private (IFR) pilot and an officer in a civilian flying club. Our club had three aircraft at the Wright-Pat open house many years ago. I’m a semi-retired electronics engineer who has worked on avionics.
Gentlemen,
This was not the first time GA aircraft have landed at Edwards AFB. My Friend Dean Engelhardt and I flew in for an Edwards airshow in the late 1980’s. We brought with us a flying carpet registered as a civil aircraft for display at the airshow. We landed on the main runway Friday evening and departed Edwards Sunday evening, after the show.
Steve Esh
Las Vegas, NV
My wife and I were privileged to be part of the first ever, historic fly-in to Rosamond Dry Lake-bed. I have been flying for more than 29-years and this was certainly a thrill of a lifetime. Our sincerest thanks go out to all those whose hard work made this historic event possible.
Is there any way I can get the information on the history of women at Edwards? I am particularly interested in flight surgeons or nurses , physiologists or other medical personnel.
Who could I contact? I have been compiling a history of women in the field of aerospace medicine.
Thank you
Hello Mary. I have forwarded your note to Frederick A. Johnsen, Museum Director/Curator, Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, 95 ABW/MU, Edwards AFB, CA 93524. 661-277-8050. Fred should be able to point you in the correct direction, if he can’t help.
Dear General Eichorn: Sad to say, our 64 Mooney M-20C/N-7106U was not selected for the 100 plane contingent flight into your desert runway. It would have been momentous, as we had planned to fly in from Sarasota, Florida. Family wise, it would have been tough to schedule, but we had high hopes. I hope you can consider making your raffle for the flight to this famous site, an annual event.
If so, please let us know.
Thanks for an exciting story and event.
Frank Szachta
Major USAF (ret)
SAC/B-47 pilot and current GA CFII
Dear General Eichorn:
Sadly, our Mooney candidate plane was not sellected to attend and land at your famous desert/sand/mud runway. MY MAJOR PARTNER AND i HAD PLANNED TO FLY IN FROM sARASOTA, fLORIDA, IF SELECTED, BUT IT WAS NOT MEANT TO BE.