The airport owner from
Pennsylvania... a family reunion... and, the gift that keeps on giving
Story and photo by Jack Hodgson
Bruce Lisle is from
Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. He and his son Kenny are camping in Camp
Scholler.
They made the 16-hour
drive to Oshkosh with a borrowed camping trailer and are now sitting in
the shade of its awning having a bite to eat.
This is Bruce and Kenny’s
second year to the fly-in.
"I’ve been flying
since 1978," says Bruce, "but I never came here. My
15-year-old got me to get up here last year, and I’m sorry I missed it
all those years."
Bruce owns a 1980 Piper
Seneca that he flies about 200 hours a year. Not satisfied with just
owning a plane, Bruce also owns an airport: Mifflintown Airport.
"We just moved from
New Hampshire to Mifflintown a couple of years ago. We were looking to
build a house, and there was an old airport that was kinda falling down.
The previous owner lost interest. We bought it. We’re in the process
of building hangars and rehabilitating the taxiway."
There are about a dozen
planes based there right now.
"My Seneca is an ’80,
and it’s the newest airplane on the field. A lot of fabric, lot of
taildraggers."
It’s on the chart, and
they just got an instrument approach.
The Tetzlaff brothers
are a handful.
When I wandered past
their campsite in Camp Scholler, brothers Tom and Terry were stretched
out in their camp chairs recalling how they had been tormenting the
newspaper kids that morning.
Well, not actually
tormenting. The past couple of mornings they had lent their bicycles to
the kids to help carry around the day’s papers, but then Tom was also
quizzing them on quadratic equations.
As we talked, Tom and
Terry were steadily insulting each other, their absent brothers, and
themselves. But the affection they had was very clear, just dressed up
in this stream of wisecracks.
Tom and Terry are not
pilots. Their brothers, Jim and Neil, who were not around when I stopped
by, are the pilots. The pilot Tetzlaffs have been coming to AirVenture
for many years. And a few years ago they convinced Tom and Terry to come
here too, volunteer as tram drivers, and make the week a family reunion.
Tom is a retired math
teacher who, when you can get him to be serious for a moment, has a
great affection for the high school-aged kids he used to teach. Terry is
retired from a career with the post office, and is a Vietnam veteran.
The Tetzlaff brothers
grew up in Big Rapids, Michigan, but are scattered all over the country
now. This annual visit to AirVenture has become one of the few times all
four can get together each year.
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Dave and Debbie
Odekirk from Watertown, Wisconsin. Photo by Jack Hodgson |
Dave and Debi Odekirk’s
campsite is near the edge of Paul’s Park in Camp Scholler. They
are from Watertown, Wisconsin. Dave drove up last Tuesday with the
camper, to get a good location. Then he returned on Saturday to stay.
Debi will be here for
only a few days, but Dave is here for the duration.
He’s been coming to the
fly-in since 1995. The first few years here he was able to make camp in
the woods, but you have to get here really early nowadays to get those
choice spots.
Dave owns a Cessna 150,
"that I just use for around the patch kind of thing. You can’t go
real far in a 150." His home airport is Dodge County, and he’s a
member of EAA Chapter 897 in Juneau, Wisconsin.
Debi doesn’t do a lot
of flying. "We have this agreement," she says. "He flies,
and I get sick."
Dave tells us how Debi is
interested in the RV-10. But we suspect that this may be wishful
thinking on his part.
"This is all my
fault," she explains. "Years and years ago, I wanted to get
him something unique for Christmas, so I went down to my little airport
and got one of those demo flight certificates. So now, a pilot
certificate and an airplane later..."
"It just keeps on
escalating," he laughs.
After getting that gift,
Dave jumped in with both feet. He learned how to fly after that
Christmas, and came to Oshkosh that next summer. He hasn’t missed a
year since, and now he’s thinking of building an RV-10.
"He gets ties for
Christmas now. All that’s gonna do is cost me a new suit."
You can e-mail Jack at atf2006@aroundthefield.net.
