Ballantyne-Halsted Visit Southern Most Chapter: EAA 1241 Marathon, FL

On our way to board the cruise ship in Miami, Barry and Tracy Halsted and Ray and Lisa Ballantyne ventured south down to Key West. On the way down Highway 1, we drove past the Marathon, FL Airport. A good aviator always has to check out any airport they can, especially if you have Barry with you! Then right off the road, we saw a billboard saying “Free EAA Museum”. Well, that sealed the deal! We spun the car around and proceeded direct maintaining AGL.

We were warmly greeted when we entered the wide narrow office-type building by Ed Waldorf, President of EAA 1241. The entire room was filled with aviation memorabilia, from flying in the Keys to heroes of WWII and beyond. It truly was an aviation and EAA museum. Ed, who made it no secret that he is 95 and shows up all day every day, showed us around with a sparkle in his eyes as we wandered from the office room to the hangar that had an upper mezzanine. In the hangar was a Spad type ultralight and a beautiful Legend Cub. Learning to fly, Ed soloed a brand new Piper PA-11, and he still flies this Legend Cub. Outside on the ramp was a C-45 (Twin Beech 18) in Coast Guard Orange and someone behind asked “you wanna C-45?” We couldn’t afford it even if it were given to us.

They said their hangar facility was provided by the FBO on the field…(add more here) On the wall we saw a metal plate with name tags. They employ the ‘Everyone leave your name tag on the wall’ method of getting people to remember their name tags. It was an impressive board of names. The chapter has around 175 members. A primary focus of this EAA chapter is flight instruction. There is lots of aviation going on in Marathon. The Chapter is involved with providing simulator training and ground school on the mezzanine level for young aspiring aviators. CFI’s come from all over to build time with flight instruction. We bought some of their logo merchandise that featured “Southernmost EAA Chapter” with a nice picture of a Goose taking off on the back. We then realized that we had the distinction of being the Northwest-most EAA Chapter! (In the Lower 48) We felt that a remarkable event had occurred that no one expected when we drove up. The two chapters were drawn together through the bonds of aviation stretching completely diagonally across the entire nation. Living about 3000 miles apart, we shared the successes and challenges of our chapters and programs and learned what the other was doing.

It is such a great experience to be a part of such a fantastic organization where you can literally go from one end of the country to the other and find like minded friends. After seeing their cool logo, maybe we could make one up a Northwest-most EAA Chapter logo!