Wingovcrs "ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT FROM THE DELTA AIRPORT" DICK MORRISON FLEDGLINGS'. . . Tuesday, March 7, a little girl called me on the phone to ask if the big plane was back. She and her brother and sister had wanted to go for a ride in it Sunday, Sun-day, but couldn't because it was in Los Angeles. The sedan was at the airport when she called so that evening Terry, Bonnie and Mary Ellen John son, children of Oz and LaVell Johnson took their first plane ride; the three of them in the back seat of the sedan and Oz and I' in front. La Veil stayed home. We flew back and forth across the lake, on the west shore of which they live, and low enough for the children to wave to LaVell. We flew over Delta, Hinckley and Deseret; out to Topaz for a view of the other Johnson farm from the air; over Oak City and up for an Johnson and Lafe Morley, having hav-ing planned to fly the sedan to-Cedar, to-Cedar, were prevented from doing so by the weather. KEEPER OF THE BEACONS . . . Anne Morrow Lindbergh has described de-scribed the lines of beacon lights along the airways as strings of jewels, necklac'ing the continent. In order for these "jewels" to flash regularly, and guide pilots at night they have to be serviced, and the man who looks after nine of the beacons along the LA-SL airway is Ray Steele. Ray gets around quite a lot, and some of the stories he tells of his adventures put quite a strain on our credulity; they even create doubts as to Ray's veracity. His story of th parachute jump at an Ogden air show, way back in 1922 is rather hard to take; still Ray is probably capable of doing it as well as telling it. It seems that Freddy Lund had agreed to make the jump, but wasn't available avail-able at the last minute, so Ray i acted as substitute for Lund. Tommy Tom-my Thompson piloted the Flying Jenny, and Ray walked out on the I wing and pulled the cord. The I 'chute opened, naturally, and pulled pul-led Ray off the wing. He says, he swung like a pendulum. On the way down he pulled the cords too hard, trying to guide the 'chute, and spilled ail the air out of it, but it filled again and he settled down to earth gently. Then there's his story of landing land-ing a fighter plane during the war. Ray accompanied an air force pil-l pil-l ot on an XC; his pilot proceeded to get drunk. In the air again, the pilot passed out ,and it was up to Ray to land the plane, and he landed it safely, although it was a fast plane and he hadn't landed land-ed one before. Anyone doubting either story may tell Ray. One of his more credible recent exploits was reported in last Sunday's Sun-day's Tribune. Emily Andrew, reporting re-porting from Eureka, gave Ray a nice write-up, along with a picture of him climbing the snowy slopes of Packards Peak, on all fours. I The beacon art this peak is at 8200 ft. elevation, the highest in Utah. The article says Ray's beacon bea-con light job takes both skill and muscle, and Ray has them. On rea ching the summit his duties turn from physical to technical, in keep ing the beacon equipment in good order. It seems, though, that with the skill and muscle which Emily Andrews An-drews attributes to him, Ray also has a vivid imagination, because the story of how he gets down off the mountain smacks a little too much of the old Steele propensity pro-pensity for making a good story better. He claims to have improvised impro-vised a sled from his snow shoes and shot down Packards Peak at 60 mph, sailing off a ledge and over trees ten feet high . Lacking eye witness verification, and knowing Ray as we do, we may wonder if he isn't taking us for a fast ride. What do you think? ' FIVE ONE HOW . . . Yes, Ray Steele does get around, and here We find hint again, at Milford Radio station, on the evening eve-ning of March 6, where, at about 200U or 8 p. m. he happened to hear Aeronca Five One How calling ' Enterprise Radio. Five One How is N-1251-II, Delta own Aeronca Sedan. - Chris and Nate Ward and Dorothy Doro-thy and Lewis Buffington were in flight from Las Vegas to Delta, returning from their trip to LA. Enterprise Radio didn't hear them, i but St. George did, and relayed j their message to Enterprise. (En- terprise Radio is remote-controlled j from Cedar City. Though Cedar is .40 miles from Enterprise , the I means of radio control is the same as at Delta, our local range sttat-ions sttat-ions being several miles from the airport.) Ray stayed in the Milford' station stat-ion and followed Five One How by radio as it established contact with St. George, Enterprise, Milford and Delta. Here at Delta that Monday, the dust and fog had cut visibility to two miles; toward evening the air cleared somewhat, but the party par-ty flew over Milford at 11,000 ft. to get over the dust. They flew the radio range in from Las Vegas making this leg of the flight ir three hours and ten minutes, and . set down at Delta at 2120, or 9:30 p. m. The impaired visibility did not create a dangerous situation in the event a forced landing had been necessary, but it played hob with scenic views. The party had an enjoyable trip They had left Delta March 2, am. landed at Santa Monica Airport, flying through Newhall Pass They made refueling stops at. Las Vegas. a good look 'at the mountains, then back to the airport after a pleasant pleas-ant flight of about 90 miles. UPS AND DOWNS . . . Since Emerson Gonder's first solo XC out home to Garrison neceess-itated neceess-itated only one stop, he made an , "official" XC to Cedar City and Milford las weekend. Took off at Delta at 0930 Saturday, flew to Cedar and stayed for the basket ball game, then returned via Mil- ' ford Sunday. A Beechcraft with an experienced pilot which had follow ed him from Cedar to Milford took off ahead of him at Milford, but turned back due to limited visibility. visibil-ity. Gonder took off for Delta, and knowing the terrain, had no trouble trou-ble flying over the broken clouds and landed at Delta Sunday afternoon. after-noon. Stuart Smith made his familiarisation familiar-isation flight Thursday, Feb. 9, starting his flying course. Dr. Wm. R. Young, under whom Melvin Lyman of Delta is, an intern in-tern in Sail Lake dropped in on March 6 in his Cessna. He was flying to his ranch out west near Gandy. AIR TOUR ... All fliers are invited to make the air tour to Marble Canyon, for two days of fun on April 8 and 9. There will be no formal program, but entertainment and sightseeing for all. Marble Canyon is near Lee's Ferry, on the Colorado River. Fliers are advised to follow the course of highway 89. The previous such air tour was marie to Air Site 6, 80 miles south of Boulder Canyon, March 11 and 12. WEATHER . . . The rugged weather last weekend week-end didn't stop Emerson Gonder from flying to Cedar City for the game, as he left Delta at 0930. However, another party consisting of Nate Ward, Spence Wright, Ev-