Recollections of Rockford . . . and an airplane from 1943

Cessna pilot Ken Gillis.

Ken Gillis is stretched out in a camp chair under the wing of his aluminum silver Cessna in the Vintage camping area. He’s been carving slices off a stick salami and watching the airplanes.

He flew from North Carolina to Michigan last Friday. Then from Detroit to Oshkosh on Monday. He’s been coming to the EAA fly-in for 36 years, since back in the Rockford years.

When asked if things have changed over all those years, he gives an unusual answer. "No. Really, things have not changed a whole lot. Except for getting more complicated, more expensive, that’s all.

"It’s always been kinda the same basic idea. You didn’t have the really big camping area. Fewer airplanes, fewer exhibitors.

"One thing that happened was that the daily walk-in, public attendance went down a lot. Because in Rockford they drew from Chicago. And here you don’t have any nearby city of anything like that size."

Ken’s been flying since 1962. The plane in which he came to Wittman is a 1957 C-182.

"Currently it’s stripped. We keep intending to paint it. But it needs a lot of sheet metal work. Things like that. Before it gets painted. For now it’s just its natural metal."

He bought it back in 1976.

He’s had other airplanes over the years.

"I had an early Taylorcraft that I liked very well. It was simple and inexpensive, uncomplicated to operate. And still had useful performance. It could haul two people at 100 miles per hour, or thereabouts.

"I keep our planes at two places. One is Pontiac, Michigan (PTK). Very large, on the order of 11-, 12-hundred airplanes. That’s a very user-friendly airport. It’s always been a popular airport for general aviation. It works very well for most people, including me.

"The other airport is an airport that used to be called Heyne ("high-nee") but is now Brighton Airport (45G)."

When asked if there was anything in particular he was looking forward to this year, another non-standard answer:

"Each year’s events are very similar to the preceding years. So you pretty much know what to expect when you come.

"Same-old, same-old. It’s the same old things, which is fine. This is what you come here for. If they tried something new and different every year they’d probably boot it every other year."

Ed and Barbara Moore

Ed Moore is sitting beneath the wing of an impressive and beautiful bright red Howard. Ed and his wife, Barbara, divide their time living in Mystic, Connecticut, and Spruce Creek, Florida.

They came to AirVenture this year by way of the annual Howard Club event in Hayward, Wisconsin. Ed is the president of the club, formally known as the Howard Aircraft Foundation.

Ed’s plane was originally manufactured in 1943. He’s the fourth owner.

"I totally restored it. It came out of the desert in Yreka in California, just south of Klamath Falls. We bought in ’86. With the idea when we bought it, it was a good solid airplane. And that we’d restore it. Which we started in ’91."

Then he did a lot of work on it over the next five years. When his wife said to him, "We are not gonna live long enough to finish this thing."

So they hired an experienced aircraft restorer to finish the job.

There have been as many as 17 Howards here at the fly-in. There are 50 airworthy examples of the type.

He flies the Howard a lot. He figures he’s done 700 hours since ’99.

He’s been an EAA member since about 1974. He came to the EAA fly-in off-and-on from ’74 to ’99. Then every year since.

"You know when you’re here that long. You get to be familiar with a lot of people. And they stop by and talk to you, tell you the airplane looks just as good as it did last year. They’re probably lying a little bit."

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