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inherit the family fortune and learn to fly in 1928. She organized an ad-hoc barnstorming show, crashed in the 1929 Women’s Air Derby, and broke Earhart’s speed record in 1930. She moved to Hollywood and worked as a stunt pilot before losing the majority of her family fortune through lavish spending, poor investments and the Great Depression.
In 1935, she bought 80 acres in the Mojave Desert near the Rogers dry lake bed. She built a runway and christened it “Rancho Oro Verde Fly-Inn Dude Ranch.” The patrons eventually trun- cated the name to “Happy Bottom Riding Club.” The property abutted March Army Air Base. By December of 1949, the airfield was renamed Edwards Air Force Base, and Pan- cho’s ranch had expanded to 360 acres. Happy Bottom Riding Club would become the haunt of aviators, the likes of Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover, Jimmy Doolittle and Buzz Aldrin. The club was famous for its foul-mouthed owner and its slew of highly personable
waitresses. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier with a broken rib after falling off a horse on the Dude Ranch. He got a free steak out of Pancho for it.
Visionaries, Leaders, and Some Villains
There are a handful of names that are recognized around the world. George Washington. Abraham Lincoln. Winston Churchill. Joseph Stalin. Avia- tion competes step-for-step in name recognition. The Wright Brothers. Charles Lindbergh. Chuck Yeager. Amelia Earhart. Neil Armstrong. From the era of muslin fabric and spruce wood to the Saturn V rocket with seven-and-a-half million pounds of thrust, aviation has transformed the world. The coming decade is shaping up for another transformation with privatized space travel and perhaps a trip to Mars. It all began with a $1,000 investment made by a couple of indus- trious bike builders.
Aviation is a very large industry that can simultaneously function like
a very small community. Pilots come from a wide variety of backgrounds. From movie stars and moguls to second-generation careerists and mili- tary cast-offs, aviation is one of the true melting pots of the modern world. The pilots that you meet day-to-day can be every bit as eclectic and inter- esting as those who made their mark on the history books.
By far, the most common back- ground in professional aviation is ex- military. While the path from fighter pilot to the airlines is well-tread, he- licopter pilots are increasingly mak- ing the transition from rotorcraft to fixed-wing. Pilot shortages were a bur- geoning problem for civil air operators before the pandemic, and the shortage is rapidly approaching a crisis in the aftermath. The Army has proved fer- tile ground for the next generation of passenger pilots.
I have trained dozens of former Army pilots. War zone f lying has its own set of rules, and the stories are always fascinating. I f lew with
10 • TWIN & TURBINE / October 2021
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