October 2025 Update

Fellow HOOKERS:​

Much has happened this year. We are closing in on the end of one extraordinary year and the beginning of an even more significant one. 

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Our Hooker family continues to see our little band shrink in numbers. It is a time to celebrate their time among us.

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Recently, I was driving from Shelton to Moses Lake to attend a conference. That 283-mile journey held a surprise. As I started the trip, it turned into a time machine journey back in time. As I passed certain locations along the route, past Hooker flying adventures that occurred there replayed in my memory bank. It began with Sanderson Field, 1 mile from home. How many times had we shot approaches into KSHN?. Next was Gray AAF, Fort Lewis. Wild stories instantly came to mind, too many to cover here. Plug in your own: Summer camps, Missions to support combat night parachute drops, fun times on the rifle and pistol ranges. The list is endless.

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Next came climbing I-90 to Snoqualmie Summit. Best memory? The only time I hit turbulence so bad I ran the controls to the stops to keep us upright. It only lasted a few heart-stopping seconds. Then there was low-leveling up the highway and surprising a couple of college students doing some nude sunbathing by Denny Creek. Their papers went flying as we came back around to "make sure" they were OK. I can only guess the excuse they gave to their professors as to how they lost their homework. Near the summit came back the sad memories of the many civilian and military aircraft accidents when pilots tried to make it over the pass in bad weather.

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Into Eastern Washington, I came to one of my most harrowing flights. Flying with Rick Dominy and Bill Finney. Thanksgiving night, just west of Cle Ellum, we were on the last leg of a ferry flight from Philly. Bad weather had forced us to try a run up the pass following the tail lights of traffic on the snowy highway 100 feet below us. We ran out of sky, altitude, and ideas passing over a cloverleaf at Jackass Flats. How appropriate. We ended up landing in the cloverleaf. Poor Bill's nerves were frazzled. He was in the heater closet praying. Spent Thanksgiving calming our nerves in a motel room in Cle Ellum.

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On to Vantage on the Columbia and memories of YFC summer camps. Worth at least a book on the adventures there over 24 years of fun-in-the-dust. How many crazy things did we do? There was great flying, learning to fly NOE, and, oh, the sagebrush romances. Avoiding YFC for fuel meant a quick hop over to Yakima Muni airport to Charlie's for gas and one or two of his wife's rice-crispy marshmallow squares in his office.

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The last memory was bittersweet. The usual suspects: Doug Houser and me on a flight to Spokane. We just came out of the Cascades and dropped down low level, headed for Ephrata to gas up. After passing the Mighty Columbia, we dropped down to "low Level" (30 feet). That took us down to bug-land. Soon, we had a windscreen full of dead bugs. What to do... Ah, dead ahead was one of those circular crop fields with its sprinkler arm marching around its field. It was lined up with the direction we were flying, IDEA! Chinooks don't have windshield washer systems. We dropped down a little lower and snuggled up closer to the sprinkler heads on this long arm and gave the helicopter a birdbath. It took two crop circle sprinkler dashes to do the job. Our antics had only just begun. We encountered another flight of fellow insects, honey bees. We had the windows open in the cockpit and soon had a bunch of our bee-buddies buzzing around us. We were on the ground in Ephrata, swatting bees as we shut down. I've never seen Doug so animated. He hates bees. I got out first and stood in the cabin watching Doug do battle with the bees. I was rolling on the cabin floor in laughter.

The rest of the flight to Spokane was sort of routine. We did chase a coyote for a bit. I miss my friend, Doug.

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I was not anticipating a walk down memory lane. It did remind me of how old I am and the wealth of experiences I've enjoyed over the decades. We all have them.  Our annual reunion is coming up fast. I look forward to seeing you all.  Life is good. Let's finish strong.

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                                Photo: Mike Jones and Doug Houser with our Airshow Bus sling load