New group formed to get people involved in local aviation at the Huntingburg Municipal Airport

So I found myself in a small plane with decor that reminded me of my parent’s old wooden paneled station wagon. This wasn’t where I was supposed to be right now; this was supposed to be a little breakfast and some talk about airplanes with a bunch of enthusiasts from the area.

But there came a moment when no one was stepping forward as a fourth for this quick trip in Dr. Jon Lowrey’s Mitsubishi MU-2. He had filed a flight plan for a trip down to Kentucky and back as a finale for the first “event” hosted by the HNB Terminal Corporation.

Coming to this was supposed to be something different to take my mind off the growing paper, biomass, public library referendum, and small town politics. But it really didn’t take my mind off of anything until we climbed through the clouds.

Don “Squeak” Schnarr, kit plane builder and pilot, sat facing me. We had been talking over the headsets but we got quiet when we broke through the clouds. “It’s just beautiful up here.” Squeak said -I don’t know why he said his name was Squeak, his voice was gravelly but warm.

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The plane shook and he explained what was going on and asked me if I was okay. “Sure, I’ve flown on a lot of planes in the Navy.” I told him. He seemed okay with that and looked back outside the small window.

Dr. Lowrey and Bernie Harner, another pilot, were up front; Lowrey explaining all the characteristics of the MU-2 to Bernie who grinned and asked questions back. This was important because Lowrey had just finished a presentation dispelling the myths about this plane in particular. Unfortunately all of the myths pointed towards us falling out of the sky or disintegrating at any moment.

As if on cue the plane suddenly dropped like a rock for a moment. Squeak grinned at me and said the plane had just stalled.

Lowrey came over the headset and told us they had slowed the plane down to 95 knots, “You guys just experienced something that most pilots would say you can’t do in this plane and not crash.”

I was thinking about how I should be with my wife at home doing my Saturday chores. I would have been, but Travis McQueen had grinned at me and nudged me to go. “How often do you get a chance to go up in one of these planes?”

It was starting to seem like a truly once in a lifetime event, but as I thought about impact sites they were like kids catching their first fish, all grins and squinty eyes.

The plan with the hastily organized group is to raise awareness of the Huntingburg Airport and aviation for people in the area. “I’ve talked to people and they say, ‘There’s an airport in Dubois County?’” Lowrey said.

The meeting had a lot of white hair or no hair attending. These were retired guys that had replaced golf with flying, but they want some new blood to become interested. Monthly events are being planned and to get the youth involved they are considering a model plane building day for kids to attend.

“My Uncle got me interested in flying a long time ago.” Lowrey said. “So what if we have some kid come out here and we give him a model plane and then when he turns 18 suddenly he thinks ‘I want to check out flying again’? We’ve accomplished something then.”

We didn’t drop from the sky and it was a lot of fun flying over the familiar landscapes as we came back to land. Small ponds and then the lively green rows of the farmer’s fields were beautiful. Life was happening below and all was calm above. Life is good, there is a lot to experience, and the HNB Terminal Corporation is inviting you into their world to revive something that may be forgotten.

Upcoming events will be published here. A meeting is scheduled for August and September with no firm dates at this time. Contact the Huntingburg Airport at 683-5454 for more information.