AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 56

Julie Belanger's parents, Irv and Jan Perch
(his father had shortened and Americanized
the name Perlitch), must have been a hoot.
The couple used his success to ensure that
people had a good time. The most visible
result of their largesse was The Flying Lady
Restaurant, once one of the largest restaurants in the world. Irv Perch was an avid collector of many things, but especially aircraft.
When he opened the 2,000-guest, three-level
restaurant on 200 acres in the hills overlooking Morgan Hill, California, he named it in
honor of his wife-the flying lady who piloted
a 1969 Cessna 182 Skylane.
He purchased a 1929 New Standard as
the restaurant's hallmark and painted it as
The Flying Lady (Julie and her husband, Pat,
would marry in the airplane in 1993). Perch
also owned the 1929 Ford Trimotor featured
in the 1984 movie Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom. Harrison Ford and Stephen
Spielberg dined at the restaurant. Perch had a
local wood carver create carvings of Hollywood celebrities throughout the restaurant.
Of her father's collections, Belanger said "he
was fun to go shopping with," having once
purchased 100 clown paintings from an artist
to display in the restaurant.
Her mother did not cook ("perhaps that's
why my dad opened a restaurant") but the
gift shop was her mother's pride and joy-
after the Skylane, of course. Who wouldn't
want to buy a stuffed bear on roller skates?
There were seven full-size antique aircraft
hanging from the ceiling of the massive
restaurant, as well as 100 scale model aircraft
"flying" around the restaurant-on an ingenious use of a dry cleaner's clothing track. A
grass airstrip was also the eleventh hole of the
property's 18-hole golf course. An accident on
the restaurant site and subsequent lawsuits
grounded the popular restaurant in 1994. Irv
Perch died in 2008 and his wife in 2010.
-JSW

not hiring right now." But it was easy to convince her.
"She's a better photographer than I am and she's a better
pilot than I ever was," Belanger says of her daughter.
Today, it is Britton who flies the aircraft out on photo
missions, turning over the flying duties to her father when
they get to a site. She climbs into the back of the aircraft
where they have installed a photo window (up front the strut
would be in the way) and takes photos. With the advent of
drones, some of the real estate business has disappeared, but
now they do aerial mapping. Britton's specialty is nighttime
and low-light photography.
"It's such a unique job. I don't know what I'll be doing
from day to day. It keeps me on my toes. It's never boring,"
she said.
KEEPING HER FLYING

"My mother was a very stylish woman and she loved and
babied that airplane from the moment it came to her," says
Belanger. "Now it is in our hands and it is our responsibility to keep her flying."
56 | AOPA PILOT May 2020

In addition to avionics and performance upgrades the airplane has had a cosmetic enhancement in the form of a new
blue-and-white paint scheme. However, there is one thing
that has changed that Jan Perch might not appreciate: the
wheelpants. Where there was once stylish, color-coordinated
factory-installed wheelpants, the airplane now sports plain
speed wheelpants.
"It's like she used to wear beautiful designer stilettos and
now she has to wear ugly white nurses' shoes," says Britton.
Britton appreciates the 182's legacy. "It is so cool to have
this airplane that my grandmother flew. It's old but it looks
good and it flies good as well."
"It's our family legacy," said Belanger.
Jan Perch died in 2010.
"We can feel her in the airplane each time we fly. She
would say that no matter how bad a day she would be having
or if there was a heavy burden to carry on her shoulders, when
she took off, for just a moment, she was weightless." AOPA
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020

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