An Airplane in Every Barn
A once-thriving organization of rural pilots is struggling to survive.
- By Giles Lambertson
- Air & Space magazine, August 2007
An airplane-dependent Colorado ranch profiled in a 1952 Look magazine article.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division/Look Magazine Photograph Collection
“Did you see me land…both times?” said Eugene Shore, grinning sheepishly. The 70-year-old farmer had lightly bounced his Cessna 206 as it touched down on the Kansas grass airstrip of longtime friend Jack Jenkinson. Wearing jeans and a jacket and carrying a cooler, Shore climbed from the airplane and ambled to an open hangar where chairs and tables were set for 75.
Over the next hour or so, 20 more single-engine aircraft followed. Directed to the east-west runway by a bulging windsock, the aircraft swept in one after another and rolled to a stop on blue grama-buffalo grass. Each pilot carried a dish for the upcoming lunch.
Jenkinson’s farm is 12 miles from the town of Meade and just beyond the reach of gravel roads. From the air, the farmstead’s crosshatch of runways is clear, a target for pilots headed for this International Flying Farmers Kansas Chapter fly-in.
The fly-in is a Flying Farmers tradition that dates back decades, and one of the few activities that the organization is still able to sustain. Today, the Flying Farmers is a modest operation, but at its peak, the group offered not just member services and perks but lobbying on national issues affecting rural pilots.
Jenkinson and his wife Della are first-generation Flying Farmers, and the family also has a love of machinery in general, which seems to be characteristic of Flying Farmers. At the fly-in, just about every type of motorized vehicle could be found between the cedar and Austree windbreaks that protect the Jenkinson farmstead from plains winds.
Before his first guest arrived, Jenkinson towed his Cessna 172 and 170 from the hangar. Grandson Dusty Giessel zipped around on a Suzuki 50 motorbike near his grandparents’ Honda Goldwing motorcycle. At one point Jenkinson scooped up dirt with a Ford tractor and dumped it in a cart hooked to a Honda ATV. Then, with a cap clamped on his head of white hair and an orange insulated vest zipped against a morning breeze that had tumbleweeds rolling, he raced down the runway. Standing on the three-wheeler’s footrests, Jenkinson scanned the runway for badger holes to fill.
“Some people grow up,” he said good-naturedly about his menagerie of machines, “and some people just grow old.”
Growing old is the Flying Farmers’ urgent problem. The average age of a member in 1947 was 37; today it is approaching twice that. Twenty-six years ago, then-president DeLane Fry warned against complacency about recruiting younger members. “Continued membership is the lifeblood of any organization,” the Oregon dairyman wrote in 1981, “and certainly International Flying Farmers will eventually perish unless we each do our part.”





Comments (11)
An excellent article describing an organization that is struggling to survive just as the small farmer is struggling to survive. There does not seem to be a formula to preserve either or both.
Posted by Dale Kline on April 20,2008 | 10:23 AM
I have a piper cub flew it today . I don't go fast in the cub you have time enjoy the view of spring Trees comeing to life deer grazing at the edge of the timber. Good article know all of the people mentioned in the article plus a few more.
Bob & Florence Lutes
Posted by Robert Lutes on April 20,2008 | 11:35 PM
Nice to read about our good neighbors to the southwest--as the crow flies, about 10 miles.Like Flying Farmers, good neighbors are getting more and more scarce these days. We value the ones we have!
Posted by Ellen and Richard Verell on April 22,2008 | 11:42 AM
Jack is not a small farmer struggling to survive! He makes a good, honnest living and does perfectly fine! Only certain bastards could get a screwy numbskul noition like. Or, you're just trying to make your shitty self look good!
Posted by Anonymous on May 6,2008 | 02:48 PM
I really like the flying farmers! I learn alot more in one day on a tour with the flying farmers than I would learn in a week of school. And yes, my grandpa really enjoys cars! It's like one of his hired hands once said, "Your grandpa's a dying breed". He does a lot more labor than the average farmer. He also fixes alot of his own equipment, unless it was something extreamly serious. I grew up going on Flying Farmer trips with them when I was little. I really love them alot.
Posted by Dusty Giessel on May 6,2008 | 02:56 PM
Anyone out there remember former president and queen of Pennsylvania Flying Farmers - Gail Kimmel and Florence Kimmel? They were my grandparents and active leaders in the FF until the mid 1970s. Gail Kimmel was the kind of guy that could bring happiness and joy just by being in the room or on the airport. I really loved and miss them, Gail passed in 1975 at age 55 of heart attack, Florence in 1982 of Cancer. I'd love to connect with anyone remembering them to share stories, photos, etc. Gail Kimmel and Flying Farmers is what got me interested in aviation and it has lasted all my 46 years of life. jeff.laughrey@yahoo.com 423-432-5391 m
Posted by Jeff Laughrey on May 29,2008 | 01:18 AM
Some of us even found our husbands or wives through this organization. My family has made some of the best friends anyone could ask for through Flying Farmers.
Posted by A farmer's daughter on August 18,2008 | 12:32 AM
Wow! ... And the Munnings up in Canada? George & Margaret!
Posted by Lance Napier on April 4,2009 | 04:48 AM
I was a little kid when my uncle & aunt, Irve and Teresa Reaume got my parents to join the Michigan FF. Great memories of the trips to the MFF cabin in Mio, Michigan. Also, remember the fun at the fly-ins and the exitment when Aunt Teresa was crowned Flying Farmer Queen.
Posted by John Wickenheiser on February 10,2010 | 12:37 PM
Delane Fry is my grandpa. Nice to read this article. I'm 29. Currently training for my license. Soloing this week. I also am carrying on the dairy farm that has been passed down from my great grandpa. I would love to attend a fly in and see what the flying farmers is all about!
Posted by Brody fry on December 10,2012 | 12:48 AM
Hello All, my name is Ellen Stewart, I am the daughter in-law to Raymond Stewart who was a flying Farmer , way-back. He is 92 years old today , and still and doing great. I am still enjoying his stories of when they flew to Mexico for 30 days ,All the events he was able to enjoy, He has a photo of himself and many members with the President of Mexico at the time. He has tons of photos, and tapes. He is one of the spryest old men i know. I know he would love to talk to anyone who still remembers those times. Unfortunately a lot of the Farmers are gone now, But Raymond is fortunate enough to still be here and in really good health. He lives in Derby Kansas and would love to talk to old friends who flew with him. Please feel free to contact me with any information you might have , or just want to talk. I will relay the message. You can contact him at Ellymay221@yahoo.com Thanks Ellen 316-706-1551
Posted by Raymond Stewart on April 1,2013 | 12:16 PM