AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2013 - 65

A COLLEGE FLYING CLUB OWNED BY THE STUDENTS

THE FLYERS’ OFFICE is in refurbished space

at the end of a row of T-hangars (top). The Skycatcher’s pitot tube has gashed a few heads, so a bright cover is kept on it when the airplane is parked (center). Club President Harry Crespy, Vice President Andy Fowler, and Instructor Kathryn Robine (above).

The University of Michigan Flyers, as the club was originally called, got its start in the 1910s, although the precise date has been lost to history, as have details such as the identity of the members and the airplanes they flew. It is known that club members competed in the first-ever college flying competition organized by the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) in 1929. The Depression and World War II took their toll on the club and somewhere in the 1940s it faded away. As the country went through its turmoil in the late 1960s and colleges, particularly the University of Michigan, were centers of vocal—and occasionally violent—discontent with the social status quo, some Michigan undergraduate and graduate students got together to do something about their personal discontent with the absence of a university flying club. But Dave Fradin, Ron Levy, Richard Hoesli, David Gell, Patricia Cleary, Loren Henke, John Dobson, and Philip Stern soon found out that the school would not sponsor or support a flying club. The reason given (whether true or not) was that, despite having one of the first aeronautical engineering departments in the world, the University of Michigan (U-M) had entered into an agreement with its historic football rival, The Ohio State University (OSU), regarding aviation and space. As Ohio, dating from the Wright brothers, had been the cradle of powered flight in the United States, OSU would concentrate its efforts on aviation and generally stay out of the space side of aerospace. The U-M would emphasize the space portion of the equation despite its aero-engineering school having produced the likes of Kelly Johnson, creator of Lockheed’s famed Skunk Works. The schools would thus not duplicate efforts or compete for scarce resources, and the U-M would not do anything to support a flying club. OSU is rightfully famous for its aviation activities while U-M built a pipeline into the space program, providing some eight astronauts—notably the all-Michigan crews of Gemini 4 and Apollo 15. Undeterred by the university’s stance, the original group of students formed a corporation, the University of Michigan Flyers, Inc., and started a flying club with Ms. Cleary as its first instructor. Over the years the college-student-owned and operated flying club acquired a fleet of airplanes that numbered as high as 14, including, at various times, an Apache, a ski-equipped Luscombe, a Decathlon in which both inside and outside aerobatic instruction was given, traveling machines such as a Beech Debonair and Cherokee Arrow, as well as twoand four-place Cessnas. For some time membership was limited to U-M students, alumni, faculty, and staff. As everything in aviation slowed down in the early portion of this century, that requirement was dropped, although the majority of members do have some connection to the university. Historically, it was a point of pride at NIFA flying competitions that the Michigan Flyers was the only team that didn’t have a “faculty advisor” (although the team would sometimes come up with some name when the NIFA couldn’t understand the concept that the team was its own adult supervision). In reality, when faculty members joined the club, they found that their flight instructors were students at U-M The challenge of undergraduates and grad students not only dealing with rigorous studies at one of the top schools in the nation while owning and running a flying club may have been a positive influence in their future success. At least two grad students obtained their ATP rating through the club while working on their degrees; former members are now involved in the space program, several are airline or corporate pilots, some went into military aviation (where one became a U.S. Navy Blue Angel), a few became aviation lawyers—and several have gone into management and ownership of aviation-related businesses, including the largest U.S. provider of aviation fuel. Not a bad result from the efforts of some ‘60s-era “college kids.” —RD
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2013

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