Return to Tulsa

Last weekend the Flagship Detroit made a make-up visit to The Tulsa Air and Space Museum that was postponed from earlier in the year.  The Museum had auctioned off a ride on the airplane at their annual fund raiser and we were there to make that flight good. It was a great visit. For one thing the temperature had dropped all the way down into the 90's.
Our sparse crew of Gene Christian, Tom Taff and Zane Lemon arrived on Thursday to be in place for a media flight on Friday morning.  TASM Executive Director Glen Wright and board member Lee Hubby were on board, as well as "Punkin" Warde, the widow of George Warde, a former American Airlines President and Tulsa civic leader. That is her in the jump seat pictured with Glen. KTUL, the local television station did a great job with continuous coverage of the Flagship's visit which resulted in steady traffic coming out to tour the plane over the three day visit.

Lee and Glen were instrumental in helping out with whatever needed to be done, including fielding questions from visitors and bringing in lunch, since our crew of three could not leave.
On Friday evening, Pete Kourtis hosted a group of his family and friends on a flight to nearby Ponca City for dinner at Enrique's Mexican Restaurant, housed in the 50's era former airline terminal. Pete and other pilots on board took their turns for a few minutes of stick time on the flight.  After an excellent dinner, the group posed for a photo before taking off at sunset for the return journey. After landing in Tulsa, folks did not seem to want to leave and stayed around with the Detroit for quite awhile.


Zane had to leave on Saturday and was replaced by Jeff Selby. On Saturday and Sunday evenings there were membership flights and also on Sunday evening, the flight that was auctioned by the museum earlier in the  year. All in all, a very successful visit to Tulsa and its Air and Space Museum.
The next mission is the Rocky Mountain Air Show in Broomfield, CO, just north of Denver, on August 24-26.  Hope all you folks who saw us in Broomfield last year will come see us again.