He passed down his passion for flying to younger members of the family, and both he and his teenage son began flight training at the same time. His next youngest son has recently started training for his private certificate, and there are three other sons who could also follow the same path. 

In only a few short years since returning to the skies, Manda has purchased an aircraft of his own and an asphalt airstrip in Missouri. But having an airstrip wasn’t the reason he purchased the property.

• READ MORE: Oregon Airpark Development Aims to Create Access to ‘Outdoor Playground of the West’

“My wife and I own a landscape company up here in Kansas City [Missouri] and as part of that company, we grow sod,” Manda said. “Three years ago or so, we bought 130 acres from a guy…and developed a sod farm. We were looking to expand our operation further and…[the guy] was looking to sell more of his property. We ended up buying the house and the airstrip along with 75 more acres.” 

The airport has been around since 1979 and sports a new name following the transition, Blue Cedar Landing Airport (43MO). Manda said that maintaining the airport requires minimal additional attention to his company’s existing operations on the property. He envisions his privately owned airfield will be a vibrant GA-focused outpost and has plans for future fly-ins.

That’s why Manda is excited for other pilots to come and enjoy the airstrip as much as he and his family. 

“We mow our sod once a week, and when we do, we just mow a little bit more and mow up to the runway,” he said. “So, because I have those fields around me that I will never develop or plant trees on, it will always be a wide-open area. That gave me the thought to have a fly-in where people can just park their airplanes in the grass. We could do flour-bombing competitions, food trucks right next to the airplanes, and other things you may not be able to do at a municipal airport. We will do different things to bring people together and support aviation.”

Manda decided that a large farmhouse that came with the second land purchase would make for a good short-term rental, bringing another option for pilots looking for a place to stay the night alongside their aircraft. 

“We looked at doing something different that not a lot of places can do, so we decided to make this house a Vrbo for really anybody, but I’m definitely going to cater it to the fly-in community,” he said. “It’s a great place for three or four couples to meet up and have something to do. They can fly in and keep their airplane here and rent the house that’s literally 100 yards from the 2,430-foot-long-by-30-foot wide asphalt runway. And we will have a car that they can get on Turo to get around the area.

• READ MORE: Idaho Luxury Fly-In Development Poised for Takeoff

“The house is about a 15-minute drive to downtown Lee’s Summit, where there is tons of stuff to do. There are shops, restaurants, and dining, like a little brewery and a wine bar. It’s situated about 10 minutes away from downtown Pleasant Hill, where there are eclectic shops, restaurants, and Rock Island Trail, which connects to the Katy Trail, which at 240 miles long is the longest developed rail-trail in the country. We have teamed up with a bike shop so people can rent bikes, since it’s hard to fly with a bike.”

The 7,300-square-foot home sleeps up to 20 and rents for an average of $800 per night. Manda is adding a separate one-bedroom option to the property that will be priced more economically, $200 per night on average. He believes that the addition of this smaller rental and an available on-site rental car will entice more aviators to consider flying in.  

“On the property we also have a little pilots lounge that we are currently finishing and will be named ‘The Stables Event Space at Blue Cedar Landing,’” he said. “It will be an event space for rentals up to 150 people. When the space isn’t rented, it will be open for pilots that fly in during the day and want to have a coffee or just get together.”

Blue Cedar Landing is located 11 nm south of Lee’s Summit Municipal Airport (KLXT).

The post New Turf for Blue Cedar Landing appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The busy part 141 flight school lost 11 of its 13 aircraft the morning of April 20 when strong winds, known as a gustnado, blew through the area. The aircraft, normally kept in a hangar, were parked on the ramp because the hangar was being prepared to host a fashion show fundraiser for cancer survivors.

Following the incident, social media posts circulating throughout the Kansas City aviation community alleged that the aircraft moved out onto the ramp before the storm hit the area were chocked but had not been tied down in spite of the forecast weather conditions.

The ramp is controlled by Signature Flight Support. A company spokesperson from Signature confirmed in a statement to FLYING that there was an incident at Signature’s KMKC airport location that “involved several aircraft that were damaged because of very severe and unusual weather conditions.”

“The safety and security of our customers and employees is our top priority and we followed standard operating procedures to protect the aircraft staged on the ramp. We are working closely with local authorities and the impacted customer to address the immediate situation. The incident remains under investigation.”

Flight training company's air fleet wiped out by 'gustnado' at downtown Kansas City airport https://t.co/ZsAAQJJhRh

— KMBC (@kmbc) April 21, 2023

The statement continued, saying that the aircraft were removed from the hangar to prepare “for a long-standing, annual fundraising event for a local nonprofit organization. The customer was informed in advance that this would take place. It is not true that the aircraft were not chocked. We followed standard operating procedures to protect the aircraft—in this case, aircraft were triple-chocked.” 

The spokesperson did not confirm if the aircraft were tied down.

Although the forecast warned of severe weather, the aircraft were not tied down. Gustnados, according to the National Weather Service, are not considered tornadoes. The peak winds from Thursday’s storm were estimated to have reached 65 mph. Photos of the aftermath flooded social media. They show aircraft, most of them Pipers, flipped over and some up against a fence. At least one was over the fence. The aircraft have crushed tails and bent wings.

According to the flight school’s webpage, they offer flight training from private pilot through Airline Transport Pilot. Officials from the flight school did not respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

The post ‘Gustnado’ Takes Out Kansas City Flight School Fleet appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Signature Flight Support is one of the largest FBO chains in the world, with over 200 locations. Lease holdings at various airports include buildings that house office space, hangars, and undeveloped properties.

According to John Roper, president of the board for the AHM, Signature does not have the authority to force the museum to pay rent, noting that a 2005 lease with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, the airport sponsors states the AHM “pays $0.00 in annual building and ground rent as long as the parcel is a non-profit Airline History Museum as authorized by the Federal Registry.”.

The AHM has been at the airport since 1986 and in its present location since 2000.

Signature Flight Support came to the airport in 2006, when the previous leasee, Executive Beechcraft, sold out to Signature Aviation.

According to the AHM website, “The sublease of Hanger 9 to AHM, is spelled out in the Master Lease Agreement, dated 2005. In 2009 the City Council made a 2^nd Amendment to this Master Lease, allowing AHM use Hanger 9 rent-free through 2035 (City Ordinance 090370). Both Signature and the City agreed to this, and Signature received financial benefits from the City for allowing the Museum to remain in Hangar 9.”

“It is memorialized that the city could not charge Signature rent as long as Signature does not charge the museum rent and we remain a nonprofit. This was done by city ordinance in 2009, yet Signature wrongfully charged us rent,” said Roper.

According to the AHM website, Signature illegally collected $61,500 from the museum.

Signature challenged the lease agreement, citing a sublease written in 2000 that allegedly allowed it to collect rent for the space. Last year Signature went to court, and a district court judge ruled in its favor.

“After thorough legal proceedings, the Court granted judgment to Signature Flight Support for back rent and possession of the space, which the Airline History Museum previously leased at the MKC Airport in downtown Kansas City,” Signature noted in a statement sent to FLYING. “Despite AHM’s claims that its sublease had not terminated and that it did not have to pay rent, the Court found in Signature’s favor and granted judgment against AHM along with immediate possession of the premises to Signature. We believe that this ruling was just and fair. AHM has not vacated the premises as the court ordered. Nevertheless, Signature is continuing to preserve the museum’s artifacts pending an Appellate Court’s ruling.”

Roper counters that the AHM immediately filed an appeal to the judge’s decision and posted a $250,000 bond while the decision was appealed; with the idea that the museum could stay open in the meantime. However, “Signature put padlocks on the doors in July of 2022. They have come out and said, ‘We don’t want the museum.’ They won’t negotiate a new lease, they won’t sit down and talk about the rate or how much space or even tell us what the property lines are.”

The issue of property lines is key, says Roper, as it is his understanding that the AHM has 300,528 square feet, yet Signature only allowed the AHM to use 100,000 square feet. In addition, the property that Signature wants to charge the AHM rent for is not museum property. Rather, it is Signature’s fuel farm which the museum does not utilize. Roper supplied FLYING with images of the property in question. It notes that the fuel farm was not in place until 2011, well after the AHM had its lease agreement with the city.

Roper adds that even before the AHM facility was locked up, they had difficulty getting repairs done to the building after it was damaged during a storm in 2021.

“The storm blew panels off the building. The airport said it was Signature’s responsibility to repair it, and Signature wouldn’t let us repair it. The holes stayed until January of 2023 allowing rain, snow, and birds to get into the museum. They finally patched the holes, but the building continues to degrade.”

Roper says museum officials are skeptical of Signature’s assertion it is continuing to preserve the museum’s artifacts, which include several one-of-a-kind and historic airplanes.

The AHM has instigated a social media campaign that includes information on its website to explain its position. It asserts that the City of Kansas City has not been responsive to their requests for discussions. It  has a petition on its website to support the museum.

FLYING made several attempts to reach city and airport officials, including Quentin Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City; and Patrick Klein, director of aviation for the Kansas City Aviation Department by telephone and email, but our inquiries were not answered by press time.

TWA Museum Still Open

In the meantime, the TWA Museum, located in Hangar 1 at KMKC remains open. According to TWA Museum President Pam Blaschum, the TWA Museum was established at the airport in 1985 and has been in a few locations before moving to its present site. The not-for-profit TWA Museum occupies approximately 10,000 square feet in the main airport terminal and pays $4,240 monthly rent to Signature Flight Support.

“Hangar 1 was the first TWA corporate headquarters and one of the first overhaul bases. The airport is rich with history; it was dedicated in 1929 by Charles Lindbergh,” Blaschum explained, stressing that the TWA Museum “is very much still open.” When FLYING reached them they were preparing for their annual 1940s USO-style hangar dance slated for April 22. The event, complete with live music and period costumes, is a fundraiser for the museum.

Among the artifacts in the collection are a Lockheed Electra 12A Junior, the original cabin trainer used by the airline, a Link Trainer, and multiple models and photographs.

The post Rent Dispute Sends Airline History Museum Back to Court appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

He told me this friend was a veteran who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam. Throughout his 30 years of service, this friend, Vince explained, flew more than 400 missions and served as a commander on two separate occasions. In his post-retirement, he was being honored for this life in public service along with a host of rightfully earned accolades, including a Congressional Gold Medal, induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and, in 2020, at the ripe old age of 100, a promotion to brigadier general. 

To make a long week boring, days before that, he flipped the coin at Super Bowl LIV in Miami. He was the oldest living Tuskegee Airman—one of nine men still living who overcame racial barriers with excellence to pave a pathway for Black pilots. 

The man was Brigadier General Charles Edward McGee. 

“This was some friend,” I told Vince. “What’s this trip you’re putting together?”

Vince explained that when McGee lived in Kansas City, Missouri, he was the manager of the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (KMKC) from 1980 to 1982. After that, he served on the Kansas City Aviation Department’s Aviation Advisory Council. 

• PHOTO GALLERY: Brigadier General Charles McGee

Last summer, the city wanted to recognize the brigadier general’s life of public service and contribution to its region, so city officials decided to rename the general aviation terminal at KMKC after him—the Charles E. McGee General Aviation Terminal. The city planned a ceremony that featured everyone from former mayor Charles Wheeler—the airport’s namesake—to the current mayor, Quinton Lucas, along with a host of esteemed officials. 

The scene was set, except they needed a way to get Brig. Gen. McGee to Kansas City. He had since moved to Maryland after his wife Frances died in 1994. Plus, at a 101, as the world entered into the second year of the pandemic, it would be impractical to expect that he would get on board an airliner to get there. 

While there had been other commemorative events in his honor that the brigadier general had to turn down, this one was special. It was Kansas City, his home with Frances. It would mean so much to him to attend if there were a way. 

This is where Mickens came in. He and McGee formed a friendship over the years, and Mickens decided to leverage his aviation network to make it happen. He reached out to Textron Aviation (NYSE: TXT), which provided a Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen2 to transport the brigadier general, his daughter Yvonne, Mickens, and myself to be a part of this special moment.

When we finally did the trip in June 2021, the experience was a success. But Textron Aviation wanted to do even more. Flying us first to the headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, president and CEO Ron Draper and other executives hosted us and provided a personal tour of the headquarters and manufacturing facilities.

The following day, Textron Aviation’s flight crew ferried us over to Kansas City, Missouri (KMKC), where FAA Administrator Steve Dickson announced the naming of three KMCI RNAV approach waypoints in honor of McGee.

It was the trip of a lifetime. But I began to notice a trend. Mickens was putting together other trips that year for the brigadier general.

He told FLYING that the Textron Aviation trip “set the tone for what we were going to do from that point on.”

By the end of the year, there would be four more trips that allowed McGee to “receive his flowers.”

• July 27, 2021: Honored at the EAA Aviation Museum Skyscape Theater during EAA AirVenture. Flown in a Falcon 900EX to Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, courtesy of Dassault Falcon Jet (OTCMKTS: DASTY)

• October 19, 2021: Awarded the Reagan Distinguished American lifetime achievement award. Flown outbound in a Falcon 8X to Van Nuys Airport, returning on a Cessna Citation M2 courtesy of Dassault Falcon Jet and AOPA.

• November 11, 2021, Veterans Day: Honored at the dedication of the McGee Hinz Theater at the Commemorative Air Force Henry B. Tippie National Aviation Education Center in Dallas. Flown roundtrip in a Cessna Citation Excel business jet from Washington Dulles to Dallas Executive Airport courtesy of Textron Aviation.

• December 6, 2021: Honored for his 102^nd birthday at the 99^th Flying Training Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph. Flown on a U.S. Air Force C-37 VIP Air Transport from Joint Base Andrews courtesy of the United States Air Force.

I caught up with Vince that same December and we realized there were enduring themes that formed story arcs, and that by the final trip that the brigadier general took, it was as if things had come full circle for McGee. 

In many ways, life is like a circle. Like a circle, life can sometimes seem shapeless, without edges, with an infinite number of scattered instances and points of us just rounding out our days. However, because all these mundane points may not make sense, humans are wired to look for meaning and patterns to make sense of everything. Many points of our lives, either through themes or time, connect to form arcs. They give us tidier narratives because of definite starts and ends, and if you put enough of the arcs together, we get a circle, the circle of life. Here, I discuss the arc of friendship, and a life of public service, in which business aviation serves both ends. 

Arc 1: A Friendship Built on Honor … and Business Jets

Mickens first had the opportunity to meet McGee in 2012. Mickens was working for the NBAA, and that year, the organization would be honoring three Tuskegee Airmen, including McGee, who was at the time a colonel, with its Meritorious Service to Aviation Award at the convention in Orlando, Florida. When Ed Bolen tapped Mickens to be a chaperone for McGee, he said he was caught off guard. 

Mickens admitted that though he’d heard of the Tuskegee Airmen, his history was rusty. But he did his homework and learned he was in the presence of an icon. 

Flying with McGee on a Learjet 60, he made the most of the moment in 2012, and it was the sparking of what would become a unique friendship.

“That was really kind of an eye-opening situation for me,” Mickens shared, calling McGee “very humble” because “if I didn’t do or ask, do the research, or ask him questions, he wasn’t going to volunteer.” “To this day,” Mickens said, “he’s never been that type of guy.”

• READ MORE: Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee Dies at 102

They kept in touch for years, but it was when McGee visited the NBAA headquarters years later that it clicked for Mickens: “This guy’s amazing,” he said to himself. “I thought, it would be really great if I could do some things for this guy, that maybe no one else has done that would kind of bring attention to who he is and what he’s done.” 

As McGee approached his 99^th birthday, Mickens resolved to get the general in the air—this time, back in the flight deck. On December 8, 2018, McGee co-piloted a HondaJet with former U.S. Air Force pilot Glenn Gonzales from Dulles International Airport (KIAD) to Hampton Roads Exec Airport (KPVG).

It seemed McGee’s health blossomed after that, and Mickens, now a victim of his own success, realized that as McGee was approaching his centennial year, he’d really have to go big.

It was an eventful year. That July 2019, he’d have McGee flown roundtrip to EAA AirVenture 2019 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in a Cessna Citation CJ4 courtesy of Textron Aviation. Then, on December 6, the eve of his turning 100, McGee flew pilot-in-command in a Cirrus Vision Jet, co-piloting with Cirrus demo pilot Boni Caldeira flying to Dover Air Force Base (KDOV) in Delaware from Frederick Municipal Airport (KFDK).

The very next day, turning 100, Mickens arranged for McGee to fly with AOPA’s president and CEO Mark Baker in a Cessna Citation M2 to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (KLBE) from Frederick.

“It was really nice to do those things,” Mickens reflected. “And then the pandemic hit.”

As his birthday approached, Mickens wanted to outdo himself, but pandemic restrictions called for something more subdued. 

“The only thing I ended up doing was arranging a flyover of a P-51 Mustang over his home in Bethesda. He even had a handheld radio to talk to the pilot who flew over at a low altitude.”

Mickens explained that in early 2021, as he spent time with McGee, his family explained that they’d received so many requests for the brigadier general to attend events in his honor, but the circumstances of the pandemic deterred any travel.  

That’s when Mickens said, “’I’ll make a pledge to you right now’…and this was in the spring of 2021. ‘For the rest of the year, I’ll make sure that anything that you really want to attend, I’ll see about getting you on a private business jet.’”

This led to the first trip to Kansas City. 

But there’s another arc to this story, and the rest of the trips help us connect the dots.

Arc 2: From Segregation Training and Living to the Highest Honors

When McGee was 22, the U.S. entered World War II. He would have to report to Tuskegee, Alabama, to train with a group of Army Air Corps cadets, the first Black fighter pilots in the country, learning to fly in a PT-17 Stearman in 1942. He earned his Tuskegee Airman pilot wings on June 30, 1943, and began his prolific military flying career. But life for the “Red Tails” was far from rosy. Most of the country was still segregated. Even with his impeccable record, and status as a captain, McGee still faced discrimination at home. Shockingly, when he was assigned to bases in Kansas and California, McGee wasn’t allowed to bring his family along because he wasn’t able to buy or rent a home.

So how does this turn around? Mickens shares that during the return trip in October 2021, they had to make a fuel stop in Wichita. Coincidentally, some U.S. Air Force students were training at the same airport and had the chance to meet McGee. 

“They were meeting somebody that trained 80 years prior to the training that they were currently doing.” 

More importantly, their training aircraft were representative of the iconic red tail, in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen, including the newly announced Red Tail: T-7A Red Hawk. 

For McGee, he says, “Now 80 years later, he gets to see that the aircraft that they are going to be having pilot trainees in for the next 50 years, is going to be an aircraft dedicated to a representative of the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen some 80 years prior.”

After that, there’s one more trip that Mickens says would’ve brought it all “full circle.” 

“I thought what better way than to bring this full circle than fly him out to the Air Education and Training Command headquarters at Joint Base San Antonio Randolph in Texas and let him experience that whole dynamic, which is the only active flying training squadron, the 99th, dating back to the Tuskegee days.”

It was even more appropriate that the charter of choice would be the Air Force’s VIP air transportation in their Gulfstream G550 (NYSE: GD) or C-37. 

For icing on the cake, on his 102^nd birthday, McGee received a call from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Today, we lost an American hero, Brigadier General Charles McGee. A member of the Tuskegee Airmen, he completed over 400 missions during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. I had the honor of calling him last month on his 102nd birthday to thank him for his service to our nation. pic.twitter.com/p8MfrR1hQ3

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 17, 2022

The Circle of Life: December 7, 1919-January 16, 2022

Life is like a circle, one with an infinite number of points, but also whole, with a beginning and ending. On Sunday, January 16, Brig. Gen. Charles McGee completed his circle of life. 

Business Aviation at its Best

“It wouldn’t have been possible without business aviation,” I shared with Vince, reflecting that the OEMs and other providers who supported his plan, allowed McGee to be honored for his life of public service. 

Sometimes business aviation gets a bad rap, but then there are moments like this that tell the full story.

The post When a Legend Needs a Lift, a Community Comes Together appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Johnson County Executive Airport (KOJC) in Olathe, Kansas, suffered major damage after a severe weather event tore through the area on Monday night. An entire row of T-hangars was completely demolished and the airplanes that were parked inside were piled randomly near the site where the hangar used to protect them. Around a dozen other hangars at the airport suffered major and minor damage.

While the destruction appeared to have been caused by a tornado, a statement from the Johnson County government office stated that the National Weather Service concluded in its preliminary assessment that the damage was caused by straight-line winds. Local airport tenant Dianne White said the airport had measured winds of more than 85 mph.

There was, however, a tornado watch in the area. “There were no tornado warnings for Johnson County and no reports of tornadoes from spotters in the field, so the outdoor warning sirens were not sounded in the county, which is our normal procedure,” said county emergency management coordinator Dan Robeson.

There have been no official reports of the number of airplanes damaged as a result of the weather event. White, who has two airplanes parked in the affected hangars, said that airport officials stated in a briefing that they estimated approximately 70 airplanes were destroyed or damaged. In addition, about 46 homes were damaged near the airport, according to the statement by Johnson County.

White said there is still concern about the structural integrity of the standing structures and a potential hazmat situation is still in effect near the severely damaged hangars. Explosive ordinance disposal technicians came in on Wednesday to disarm several Cirrus parachutes on airplanes affected by the storm. The parachute rockets are seen as a hazard to emergency responders and others around the affected airplanes. “Cleanup will take weeks and it will be months before rebuilding can begin,” White said.

Following the weather event, government officials shut the airport down overnight. The airport opened to limited operations on Tuesday and only very limited access has been allowed to airport tenants to assess the damage to their property. The airport is now in full operation albeit still with limited access to the severely damaged areas.

The post Extreme Weather Event Causes Destruction at Kansas City Airport appeared first on FLYING Magazine.