He did stretching exercises, then stood on his tip- toes to pass the physical examination. Stachler flew a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt on more than 100 combat missions over Europe during the Second World War. He named his plane Little Herbie.
Or Jack Hobday, who noticed smoke in the air as he approached the Hawaiian Islands. Piloting a B-17 on Dec. 7, 1941 Hobday quickly realized it wasn’t a volcano. Hobday was forced to crash land at Hickham Field adjacent to Pearl Harbor and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism.
Bill Speyer has flown light aircraft as a hobby for 42 years. In June 1999, the Washington Twp. resident flew a Glasair, homebuilt airplane to Alaska. Speyer soloed the 37-hour, 8,000-mile round trip flight.
“Canada and Alaska require that you carry on board the airplane certain survival equipment when flying over sparsely populated areas and most of the flight was over sparsely populated areas. My airplane is so small by the time I got all that survival equipment in the airplane, along with my luggage, there wasn’t enough room for anything else,” Speyer said.
Soon after that flight, Speyer a member of Seniors Inc., now known as Hithergreen Seniors Center, was asked if he’d be interested in co-founding a club with Bill Mann. In its 10 years the aviation club has grown from five to 105 members.
The Hithergreen Aviation Club meets at 10 a.m. the second Wednesday of every month in the auditorium at the Hithergreen Center, 5900 Hithergreen Drive in Washington Twp. Past speakers have included Mandy Wright Lane, the great-grandniece of the Wright brothers, Tuskeggee Airman Eddie McLaurin, and Maj. Gen. Ed Mechenbier, a highly decorated pilot who was shot down in the skies over Vietnam after being held as a prisoner of war.
The 10th anniversary and 119th meeting of the Hithergreen Aviation Club on Sept. 9 will feature Rick Abell who will discuss the development of the F-22.
For more information about the club, contact Speyer at (937) 672-9866 or billspeyer@yahoo.com.
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