Where We Came From. Who We Are. Part II

Saranac Lake NY to Potomac Field, Friendly MD.

Funny, what can remind you of the past. Walk into some room and hear a tune and you're back in high school. Fly into an airport and you're back to the day you made an important hire...

GVA was going pretty well by now. Joyce and I had been running the charter service more or less on our own--only two part time pilots and one full timer who also wrenched things when necessary--and things were necessary a lot at times. We had a Beech Baron and a different Cessna Skylane from before. The "Skylame" had been replaced by a more trustworthy Skylane. I had even begun to wonder how a used (very used) King Air might fit our flying service.

We still lived in the 35ft travel trailer on our 15 acres of land near Renick, 12 miles from the airport. But we had started construction on a real home. Brick ranch, 3 bedrooms and a basement. We even had a computer (Commodore 64 and MSDOS operating system) and dial-up internet so we could connect to needed FAA and other aviation sites. And there were dang few of those. We had kept our old Chevy Suburban (towed the travel trailer over 100K miles) as a crew car and now had a large monthly payment on a used Mercedes. We were making it even if I still had to stay at the office at LWB a lot of nights just to keep up with things there. Joyce wanted to quit working at the office and so we began our search for a "Girl Friday". A Jill of all Trades so to speak.

Do you know how hard it is to find people who are genuinely interested in any job? We ran through the entire list. One woman said she knew how to type, turns out she was taking the forms and files home at night for her (high school) daughter to type. We still have our old IBM Selectric typewriter somewhere in the dead storage space we rent I think.

Then there was "Tattoo Sally". I don't remember if that was her actual name, but that's what we all called her. No, she wasn't a former circus tattoo'ed lady, but that's what she looked like. Now-a-days every second person is covered with "tats", back then not so much. Definitely not the image a respectable charter service wanted to portray.

Then we ran through the ones who drank, wanted to sleep (why do they call in sleep, no one actually sleeps) with the entire town of Lewisburg, the ones who simply showed up for work, found out the job actually was work, and a lot of it, and just never came back and...well, you get the idea.

And just when we were beginning to think we would never find a good, trustworthy employee we received a phone call. "Hi, I'm in Friendly MD and just saw your ad in "Flying Magazine". Is the job still open?" 'Yes, it is. Can you give me some of your qualifications?' "Do you mind if we discuss that face to face? I can be there in under two hours if you would like, what's the weather at LWB look like?' So, in a nut shell, I gave her a wx briefing and told her where the GVA FBO was located.

"Super, see you shortly. Please have a line marshal waiting. I'll be in the red Mooney 201." And she hung up the phone. At first I was a little surprised at the way the lady handled the phone conversation. Not a lot of asking and hesitancy and no uncertainty at all. Odd.

An hour and a half later a red Mooney 201 lands, I do the marshaling duties and out climbs a woman who introduces herself as Rosalind MacReady. We go inside the office and begin the interview. Which seems to turn out more of a her interviewing me session. One thing I did come away with was that she used to fly KC-135 tankers for the U.S. Government. Not the USAF, the U.S. Government. I didn't ask further. She didn't volunteer further.

And work? Damn woman seemed to do everything and be everywhere. The papers were up to date, the forms always ready. The flight plans always filed. Joyce was able to stay home and take care of things there. I was able to concentrate on my part of the job and even do some of the charter flights. Suddenly it seemed we were moving forward instead of just trying to keep our heads above water.

Oh, and one more thing. Rosalind didn't like to be called Rosalind, she preferred "Bunny". I'm sure you remember Bunny.

Where We Came From. Who We Are. Part I

Everything old is new again. Humm..words from a song that fit here. It was just a routine flight today, up to Saranac Lake NY, way up in the Adirondacks for a software developer and team. A routine ride from Franklin VA in one of our King Airs. But not too long ago it was anything but routine for me--and GVA...

In 1983 Joyce & I had gathered up what courage we could muster, held our collective breaths (and noses), signed for an absolutely huge bank loan and incorporated a small (very small) charter air carrier service called Greenbrier Virtual Aviation. Home base at the new Greenbrier Valley Airport--the old field near the Greenbrier Resort finally had been closed, replaced by a badly needed new facility. Think DC-3's weaving down between hills in fog & rain to land at the old field.

We couldn't mortgage the house as part of the loan collateral, we didn't have a house. We were living in a rather small (35') travel trailer parked on property we had bought in Renick, about 12 miles from the airport. We did manage to secure part of the loan using the land as collateral. I had some money from other sources (more on that later) and so we were off. We had a pretty good Beech Baron and a tired Cessna 182 Skylane that we usually referred to as "the Skylame. Most of our charters --and at first there were darn few charters--were hunters, fisherman and the occasional farmer wanting an aerial photograph of his acreage.

Joyce took care of the office paperwork, phone calls, scheduling, and heading off the FAA. Oh yes, and trying to find the money to pay the fuel bills and repair costs, there were a lot of those. I was the "highly trained and courteous" flight staff.

We had gotten a charter for some guy selling something called a lap top computer. He had been at a show/demo at the Greenbrier Resort and needed to be in Franklin VA for a demo for the Department of the Navy. So I fueled up the Baron and off we went to Franklin VA. And there my part in things should have ended.

I was cooling my heels at Franklin Muni and almost ready to head home empty--no pax, no cargo, no nuthin' when the guy called the FBO and asked if I was still around. The nice FBO lady said I was just getting ready to leave, handed me the phone and walked away politely. The guy needed to go to Saranac Lake NY (never been there in my life) and was I interested in the charter? His planned carrier had cancelled his flight, they found a job that paid more and left the salesman high & dry. Another small, one or two plane operation like GVA, I suppose.

Was I ready to go to NY? You bet I was!! I called Joyce, told her to cancel plans for supper and I'd be home tomorrow unless something more turned up. I bought charts, maps, and approach plates on my bent and bloody credit card, filed a flight plan for upstate NY, convinced the ground service crew to waive the landing fee and fueled up the Baron.

We were off!! At least my charter was, if not GVA itself. We were off as filed for a routine flight up to the Adirondacks, making a little money and hopefully I'd be able to find a charter of some nature back to WV or somewhere close. I spent the next two nights hanging out at Saranac Lake. They let me sleep in the back of the FBO a couple of days (things were different back then) before I found some freight going in my general direction. But GVA had been there when needed, and delivered the goods.

My salesman friend? He stayed with Gavilan for a time, always using GVA for his charter carrier. As he rose in the business he directed that GVA be his division's carrier of choice. He later moved to another computer manufacturer and took us along as his East Coast Carrier. His new employer was an up & coming outfit known as Apple. Humm...it doesn't seem all that long as I remember it, but was 1983, 32 years ago. Today GVA flew a routine charter. Up to Saranac Lake for a team from Apple in a reasonably recent King Air with full luxury cabin and the latest panel. Everything old is new again I guess.