Posts by Lisa Ellington

Ben William Ryan passed away peacefully July 26 at the Montana Veteran’s Home in Columbia Falls with his loving wife Agnes, “Butchie” and friends at his side. Ben began life March 21, 1923 in Belleflower, CA, the son of Ben and Mary Ryan. Ben had an older sister, T. Antoinette.  His family moved to Three…

Despite unseasonably cold and stormy weather, several hearty pilots and their passengers attended the RAF Fly-In Saturday, June 10 at Madras, Oregon (S33) to inaugurate the new grass runway.  An early morning snow shower, followed by scattered thunderstorms throughout the weekend conspired to keep less adventuresome aviators away, but pilots came from as far away…

The RAF is pleased to report that once North Fox Island airstrip was re-opened, RAF Michigan Liaison Brad Frederick got to work on another beautiful recreational destination, this time along the Two-Hearted River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Work has begun on reclaiming the airstrip, but it is not yet open to the public. Brad staked out…

RAF Alaska Liaison Al Clayton organized a June 3 work party to trim and remove trees along 1,000-ft Jake’s Bar, which lies within Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The group gathered Friday at Clayton’s rustic cabin at Fireweed airstrip, near the old mining town of McCarthy. The pilots enjoyed an incredibly scenic flight, while Al’s wife Beth…

Another success in keeping with the RAF mission happened as the new Phoenix FAA sectional shows no X through the Grapevine Airstrip symbol. It’s taken nearly five years of collaboration between the RAF, Arizona Pilots’ Association (APA) and the US Forest Service – including the signing of the national MOU between the RAF and the USFS – to remove…

Gila National Forest update New Mexico pilots have responded to RAF Calls To Action regarding Forest Service plan revisions and have written comments. We appreciate their time and effort! Joyce and I collaborated on comments to Gila NF on behalf of NMPA, while Rol Murrow commented on behalf of the RAF. Several people have taken…

We are excited to announce a cooperative agreement between the RAF, EAA Chapter 42 and the National Park Service in Alaska. It’s an opportunity for a fly-in community service project to make Jake’s Bar (AKO) a safer place to operate. The strip is an unimproved 1,000-ft gravel bar along the Chitina River in Wrangell-St. Elias National…

In spite of 30mph crosswinds all day, 19 volunteers accomplished everything we hoped to! We worked a Bobcat to death, and were lucky Matthew Turnage was able to get a second unit out to us getting the 26 holes bored out.  As best I can see we got the following done: • Assembled, stained and placed two…

RAF Chairman John McKenna, Vice President Jack Tyler, New York State Liaison Russ Holland, Idaho State Liaison Mike Hart, longtime RAF volunteer Dr. Paul Collins and Idaho RAF member Larry Taylor attended a full day conference on federal public lands management practices March 28 at Boise State University. The sold-out session was open to “the…

Our RAF mission is to preserve airstrips, and in New Hampshire we found an unusual one – the only FAA-approved ice runway in the lower 48.  When winter comes to New England, the seaplane base at Alton Bay, (B18) on Lake Winnepausakee starts to freeze. Local volunteers watch it closely for an ice thickness of 12 inches –…