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Parents pass many things to their children: facial features,
attitudes, culture and interests. With a solid foundation, a passion
that takes root in one generation will last, generation after
generation.
However, all it takes is one moment for that
passion to take root. For Elaine McCalley, that moment occurred
almost exactly 90 years ago.
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Elaine McCalley in front of an aircraft April 10, 2017, at
Mountain Home municipal airport. She was inducted into the Idaho
Aviation Hall of Fame. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Senior Airman Jeremy
L. Mosier)
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“I was about 8 years old when [Charles] Lindbergh flew
across the ocean from New York to Paris solo,” Elaine said.
“I thought he was such a brave man.”
Lindbergh served
as a pilot in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Mail Service. At
the age of 25, he heard the announcement of a $25,000 prize
for the first person who flew nonstop from New York to
Paris. On May 21, 1927, at 7:52 a.m., Lindbergh took off in
his custom plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, from a muddy
airstrip in Long Island, New York, barely clearing the
telephone wires at the end of the runway because of the 450
gallons of fuel in his tank. 33 hours, 30 minutes and 29.8
seconds later, he landed in Paris. Lindbergh had not slept
in 55 hours.
This
flight sparked something in young Elaine, and at that
moment, she knew she wanted to learn more. She began by
reading about the pilots in World War I.
“I was
interested in reading books about the fighter pilots that
were flying in their [German aircraft] against the Germans,
and so I use to read a lot of those stories,” she carried on
with a smile. “They were paperback of course.”
In
1934, she finally had a chance to do what she had always
dreamed about, ride in her first aircraft. After talking her
parents into it, they took her to the airport in Gooding,
Idaho, where a fleet of Barnstormer aircraft were taking
people for rides. Although she did not ride in one of the
Barnstormers that day, she was able to ride in a Pitcairn
Autogyro.
“I was hooked — the freedom, the
exhilaration, being up there in the air and seeing the
country from a different perspective was just unimaginable,”
Elaine said. “So, from then on, I wanted to learn to fly.”
Although her parents were a bit apprehensive to the idea
of her getting her pilot’s license, they never held her from
it. She said that they would back her 100 percent in
whatever she was interested in and let her find out for
herself if it wasn’t for her.
A few years later, in
1938, she took a trip to the Boise Airport with her first
check in hand she asked how much for flying lessons. They
told her $7.50, without hesitation she said, “When do I
start?”
She began her pilot training at the downtown
airport, then located where Boise State University is now
between Broadway and Capital Boulevard, until crews started
constructing Gowen Field in 1939.
Flying at the
airport downtown had its own set of dangers: no runway
lights, no control tower and no radios.
“You use your
eyesight and keep your head on your shoulders so you don’t
run into trouble. It was really fun,” Elaine explained.
At that time, they used beacons that would flash at
night and concrete arrows spaced every few miles to let them
know they were heading in the right direction for their
destination.
“I was flying in the horse and buggy
days,” she said with a laugh as she shuffled through her
photos.
In 1939 she received her private pilot’s
license, and who better to be her first passenger than her
mother. Mike Berriochoa, Elaine’s son, recalled the story of
his mother taking his grandmother up for her first passenger
flight.
“While she trusted my mother as a pilot, my
grandmother was not comfortable with the thought of flying,”
he said. “She overcame her discomfort, however, but only
allowed mom to make one trip around the pattern.”
“I
could see she was tense, she looked around and she said,
‘can't we just go back and land,’” Elaine said with a
chuckle.
A few short years later, Elaine went on to
become the first female commercial pilot in Idaho, and was
later recognized and admitted into the Boise Aviation Hall
of Fame in 1999 for that distinction.
She also served
as a secretary for the Idaho Pilots Association. While
there, she led a group of volunteers to put on Idaho’s first
air show in June of 1940 at the Boise airport.
Although she did not fly in the airshow, she worked heavily
behind the scenes in the planning process, from scheduling
to aircraft participation.
She explained that they
planned for the big entertainment to be a parachute jump by
Eddie Dunn.
“He was a distributor for an auto company
in Boise and they talked him into it,” she said. “He had
never been up and done anything like that before.”
To
prepare him for the jump they got him used to heights.
First step, climb to the top of a step ladder.
Second step, climb to the top of Table Rock in Boise.
Third step, jump from an aircraft.
Just like a
seasoned professional, he jumped, came soaring in and landed
right in front of the crowd – just as they had planned.
“We always laughed at that,” she recalled with a grin.
“He never jumped and parachuted before, and I think we still
charged him 25 cents to come into the airshow.”
The
aircraft hosted at the show were all civilian — Piper Cubs,
Taylorcrafts, Stearmons and open-cockpit biplanes — they
performed some stunt flying, but mostly consisted of
contests: bomb dropping contests and spot landing.
Changes in airshows from then to now have been drastic,
especially with military demonstration teams like the U.S.
Air Force Thunderbirds.
“I think probably crowd
control has improved and they are getting more aviation
pilots or acrobatic pilots,” she said. “They are all just
great!”
Just a few years after the airshow, she would
start a new chapter of her life. She would marry a fellow
flight instructor in 1943.
After getting married she
continued flying and became active in the Northwest Women’s
Pilots Association.
“We had chapters in Seattle and
Spokane,” Elaine said. “We just encouraged women to fly.”
Living in Idaho, it only made sense to expand more
locally, so she started a chapter in Pocatello. She also
became president of the Associated Women Pilots, Boise
Hangar, later known as the 99s.
“She, along with
other women pilots, would often fly out of Boise to other
communities in the Northwest to help establish women pilot
associations,” Mike said. “That says a lot about her passion
for flight.”
One could say it was inevitable that her
passion would pass on to her son.
“My mother’s
passion for flying influenced me significantly, because she
talked a lot about flying when I was young,” Mike said. “She
talked about how it felt when the wings grabbed the air and
lifted her off the ground, and how open cockpit flying was
the epitome of freedom.”
Mike recalled riding in the
backseat with his sister while his parents were flying.
Although his father was in the pilot’s seat, he would notice
his mom doing the majority of the flying. Experiencing his
parents' passion for flying and then following in their
footsteps lead him to do the same with his children.
“Carrying on the legacy makes me proud and even prouder
knowing I have passed that legacy on to my youngest son,
Dan, who has served as a pilot in the United States Army,”
he said. “If aviation is in our blood then we bleed av-gas.”
Mike continues today to carry on the legacy, but in a
different way.
“He has been narrating airshows for
the last 35 years now,” Elaine said. “All over the northwest
— here at Gowen Field, Tacoma, California, Canada and two at
Mountain Home Air Force Base.”
Mike will come back to
Idaho for another narrating opportunity — when Gowen Field
hosts its show “Gowen Thunder,” in October. Elaine said
she's looking forward to hearing her son announce the
airshow, and possibly seeing an acrobatic pilot friend of
hers.
Despite her hall of fame induction, Elaine
stays modest and divulged the key to her success.
“What we did is really nothing compared to what the women
are doing now,” she said. “Follow your dream. Yep, follow
your dream.”
By U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jeremy Mosier
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2018
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