Aviation Blog
Aviation Business & Organizations
Land-O-Matic Makes “Flying Like Driving”
Nov 9th
In the late 50′s Cessna and their nationwide network of dealers did a great job marketing the company’s new C-172 by mailing out postcards to prospective students and owners.
My mom recently presented me with a stack of old post cards she had been saving, including the one shown with this article. The shiny C-172 pictured with a first generation Corvette certainly caught my eye today as I’m sure it must have for anyone who saw it back in the day.
Late 1950's Cessna Postcard
This particular post card was addressed to my dad, Sam Stevens, and came from Clinch Flying Service, a Cessna dealer, located at the Municipal Airport in North Platte, Nebraska. It was postmarked April 10, 1957 and was a reminder that ground school class would be held on the following Saturday at 10:00 A.M. The back of the post card reads, [Take a "drive" in the sky in this amazing new airplane, the Cessna 172 with patented "Land-O-Matic" landing gear. It makes "flying like driving!" See and fly one at your nearest Cessna Dealer today.]
My dad got to fly the 172 on lots of cross countries back then. He got his Private license in Tulsa Oklahoma in the mid fifties More >
Frequent-Flyer Programs – Status or Free Magazines!
May 16th
I read with interest a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Road to Redemption”, which pointed out which airlines are the most generous with frequent-flyer award seats and which are the least. The article placed Southwest and Alaska among the best and Delta and US Airways as among the worst. My problem over the years was the inability to remain loyal to anyone airline. That was especially true quite a few years ago when I was flying out of Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. I bounced around between TWA, United and Northwest most of the time with an occasional flight on American depending on where I was traveling.
Pam Keidel-Adams with Wilbur Smith Associates, flies almost exclusively with Delta and has been very happy with their program. “I am at the highest elite level, so they are good about giving people in this level great frequent flyer rewards,” said Keidel-Adams. ”Instead of making it tougher to get a seat, they have just raised the miles required to get a different seat.” Ms. Keidel-Adams said they now have high/medium/low reward levels so you can usually get a seat, it’s just a question of how many points it will cost you.
In contrast to Ms. More >
Blood Sweat & Lears
Nov 19th
I didn’t set out to collect ball caps! I typically don’t even wear them. But over the years I’ve picked up a few here and there. The other day as I was sorting through some of my aviation stuff I found a large tub full of hats. I realized I had enough hats to open a haberdashery. Almost ninety of them! As I was scratching my head -sans cap, trying to come to grips with how this happened, I realized it wasn’t so much the number of hats that surprised me but the impact of all of the stories they represented. Each hat was special and with each came a flood of memories, some with a smile, some with an outright laugh!
One of my first and all-time favorites is Blood Sweat & Lears, a cap I picked up from Duncan Aviation in Lincoln, Nebraska, soon after my career in state aviation began. Another favorite is the Bad Boys Club, provided by Diane Hofer, who at the time was the State Airport Engineer for the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics. This cap is special in that it is only one of a handful that went to a select few that somehow found More >
