Illowa Sports Fliers celebrate Quad-City-made aircraft
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By Kay Luna | Tuesday, September 02, 2008 |
Larry Fisher/quad-city times An Illowa Sports Flier takes off from the Erie (Ill.) Airpark. Buy this Photo
VIDEO: Sports Flier
Illowa Sports Fliers club celebrates Quad-City-made aircraft.…
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ERIE, Ill. — Sitting around several picnic tables, the men chat as they squint into the bright sky.
“Here comes another one,” someone murmurs.
Off in the distance, a small airplane comes into view. It flies closer and closer, and the sound of its rumbling engine gets louder and louder.
“Oh, this guy flies all over,” Kevin Lee of LeClaire, Iowa, says as he watches the two-seater plane with a wide-open cockpit circle slowly and prepare to land.
The small aircraft glides low until its wheels hit the ground with a light thump, rolling onto the grassy Erie Airpark — which is located literally in Jim and Sue Robinson’s rural backyard.
This is where the Illowa Sports Fliers club is meeting, with several of its 80 members flying in from all over the region. And many of them have at least one thing common: They fly Quad-City Challenger lightweight sport airplanes, which are manufactured in Moline.
Most of the aircraft flown by the club members weigh less than 500 pounds, with only one or two seats inside their open cockpits, said Jeannine Eden of Calamus, Iowa, who flies a teal-and-pink Challenger plane with a matching interior.
Why fly Challenger planes? “Why not?” they answer.
“I love it,” Eden said, noting that she is one of the club’s few female pilot-members. “It’s cool on a hot day. It’s lovely getting up there.”
The club is always looking for new members to join their activities such as fly-ins and “dawn patrols.” Those events include waking up early and flying out to visit other airports, where they eat breakfast and visit before flying home.
They have been doing this as a club since 1990, long before the Robinsons bought the airstrip. However, they were founding members of the club and already very interested in flying.
The couple never expected to buy the property, which has been in existence since 1973. However, tragedy struck in 1998, when then-owner Jerry Earl was shot in the head and killed by his wife, Patricia, while he was in bed at the house now occupied by the Robinsons. Patricia Earl was convicted of first-degree murder in 1999 and sent to prison. The Robinsons bought the place soon after.
At that time, all it featured was a single airstrip, the house and one airplane hangar. The couple turned it into a private, public-use airstrip and added many more hangars, Jim Robinson said.
About the same time, he became a Quad-City Challenger airplane kit dealer and started the club.
That all happened after he worked for Deere & Co. for 20 years and started his own graphic arts business. In addition to doing graphic art on airplanes and signs, Robinson also has helped to build 20 airplanes in the past 10 years, he said.
The Illowa club has about 80 members from all over the Midwest, including Wisconsin, Missouri and other states within a 300-mile radius of Erie, club member Dennis Dyer of East Moline said.
The group meets once a month at the airstrip, with about 35 to 55 people usually in attendance, Jim Robinson added. They eat dinner afterward.
Many members choose to fly Challengers because those aircraft are less expensive to purchase and fly than other varieties, and the planes “never have had structural failures,” Dyer said.
“I like it because you can fly slow and low; you can go down to 45 mph and go down to the Rock River and wave to all the campers,” he said. “With an ultralight aircraft, you can just enjoy the flying.”
Lee, the club’s vice president, said he also flies a red vintage Ercoupe, adding that he enjoys the “fellowship” of other pilots in the club.
“And just being up there, seeing God’s green earth,” he said. “There are just fantastic sights you see.”
Soon, another plane stops and its 70-year-old pilot, Bob Donley of Abingdon, Ill., lumbers out, wearing a “Top Gun” cap tilted slightly on his head. Donley is a retired feed salesman who has been flying his Challenger for two years.
In that short time, he already has flown over eight states on a major trip with his brother, and he takes other, shorter trips whenever possible.
Donley says he always wanted to fly but couldn’t afford the lessons. Then he bought a Challenger.
“The secret is to buy an airplane,” he adds with a laugh. “If you don’t learn to fly it, you look like a fool.”
Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
ON THE WEB
Members of the Illowa Sports Fliers meet on the first Saturday of each month at the Erie (Ill.) Airpark.
For more information about the group, go online to illowasportflyers.com. The airstrip also has a Web site at erieairpark.com.
To read more about the Moline-based Quad-City Challenger aircraft company, go online to quadcitychallenger.com.
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