Muleshoe has a flying club! I was invited to go flying in the airplane owned by the members of the club the other day and learned about the club.
Matt Davis, Craig Black, Jackson Myers, Cody Kirby, Michael Lawrence, and Colt Ellis decided they wanted to fly, so in June of 2022 they leased a plane from Chad Nickels, and for the next six months learned what it takes to get a flying machine in the air and down again safely. Matt said Jarle, their flight instructor, always says, “Takeoffs are optional; landings are mandatory!”
They learned from this career certified flight instructor, Norwegian Jarle Boe, who lived in Big Spring at the time, but now lives in Gail and owns a flight school in Post called the US Flight Academy. After they earned their pilot license, they still had to do many take-offs a month, which of course, means they also practiced landings that many times. An annual flight review is also required after becoming a certified pilot with a certain number of take-offs and landings per month. You do have to have three takeoffs and three landings per ninety days to be current to carry passengers after acquiring your license. A biennial flight review is also required after becoming a certified pilot and still requires a certain number of takeoffs and landings per month. An oral exam is given on what is called check ride day, which takes about two hours, and then the student flies for two hours. Matt said that this is a BIG test,considering that you have probably poured around 60-80 hours of instruction into getting to this point. Continuing to learn and keep the license is not hard since the flight instructor is nearby and can come to Muleshoe when needed. It takes forty hours minimum flying time to be a private pilot, and you have to be sixteen years old to do your first solo flight and eighteen to become a private pilot. Matt said about two out of every ten people who start the process will actually finish and earn their license.
Chad Nickels was instrumental in getting the club started with his willingness to lease them his airplane. The six of them decided to go in together to help with the cost of having a private plane, as well as the shared moral support of getting to do what lots of teenage boys would like to do. They bought their airplane, a 1965 four- passenger Piper Cherokee 180 that they named Juliet in Guthrie Oklahoma, had her checked out by a mechanic, and got her to Muleshoe to continue to work on their pilot licenses.
So, how do you get an airplane from Oklahoma to Texas when you haven’t had your license very long? Matt said, “Michael Lawrence and I hitched a ride from another private pilot, Mark Parrish, who lives in Earth, Texas. We got in and flew her home. It was nerve-wracking for an inexperienced pilot (Matt, who did have his license by then) to fly home in a plane I had never been inside of. Jackson Myers took a video of me [Matt] landing in Muleshoe for the first time, and in the background you can hear him say,”Boys, she’s beautiful. Matt, please don’t wreck it!”
The plane is housed in a hangar at the Muleshoe Municipal Airport which is off Highway 84 on the way to Lubbock. Other Muleshoe citizens have their own private planes housed there, and you might be surprised at the out of town people who also use that airport. Passengers from St Paul, Minnesota; Marlton, New Jersey; Denver, Colorado,;Farmington, Utah; and Birmingham, Alabama, came to mind as we talked. Some might come to look at a farm, to make a fuel stop, eat at Leal’s, pick up processed and packaged beef, get parts from Livingston Machinery, check out the feedyard cattle, any number of reasons. A courtesy car is available for people to drive into town when needed. So, while the airport is handy for locals with airplanes, it also serves the community economy well. Dale Oil is responsible for keeping the fuel tank at the airport full, another boost to the economy.
The Muleshoe airport has one runway that runs east and west. Wind here is typically out of the out of the southwest, so you have to get proficient with cross-wind landings. This requires cross-controls, applying opposite aileron and rudder at the perfect time, and at the perfect angle. Bigger airports usually have two runways going both ways, so cross winds don’t have to be dealt with.
Matt Davis offered to take me up in the plane on September 15, so I met him at the airport, and off we went. It was a cloudless, but hazy day, so some of my pictures look a bit washed out. But I was having so much fun just enjoying my bird’s eye view of Muleshoe, I worried less about the pictures and more about just seeing the world from a different perspective.
Here we go down the runway. I had to smile when Matt made the comment that the plane is steered by the wheels on the ground, and by the propeller in the air. Had not thought about that even though you know the wheels are the first to hit the ground when you land. You just take some things for granted and don’t think about it.
This is the view as we left the airport.
Naturally, I had to include a shot of our house and the pecan trees.
And here are other views I am sure you can recognize from the air.
I have more pictures, but you get the idea. I really enjoyed the ride, or should I say flight? I also liked learning about what it takes to become a pilot.
Thanks, Matt, for broadening my horizons.
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