2005 Year in Review

Who was flying that plane?

The question of the week seemed to be “Who was flying the plane that went over the Memorial Day Ceremony at Grove Hill Cemetery on Monday?” “Wonder if that was planned, or just a coincidence?”

The answer to the first question is Kelly Meiste. The answer to the second question was yes it was planned between Kelly and his son Greg, who stood by on the ground to inform his dad at just the right time when to fly over the ceremony.

This flyby had been planned for last year’s ceremony but due to inclement weather the flight had to be cancelled. “I thought it would be a nice touch to help dedicate the new Veteran’s Memorial Park at the cemetery. Being an ex-military man myself, it is something I wanted to do. After 9-11 I decided to decorate my plane in a military scheme so I thought it would fit in well with the ceremony,” stated Kelly.

Kelly and Greg built the plane in their garage. Construction began in February of 1999. Two thousand eight hundred twenty six hours of actual work were put into the plane before its completion in July of 2002. According to Kelly, to his knowledge this is the first aircraft ever built in Morrison.

When Kelly was building the plane he was the vice president of the local Experiment Aircraft Association (EAA) Club based in Erie. His wife Deb was the club’s secretary-treasurer and Greg was the club’s Webmaster. Currently Kelly is the only member from his family in the National EAA Club.

Upon completion the plane was moved to the Whiteside County Airport in Rock Falls. Kelly could not resist the temptation of having his own airstrip. He relocated in a more rural area and built his own hanger and airstrip. “It is very nice to be able to walk out of your backdoor and jump into your plane for a nice evening flight,” stated Kelly. The runway is approximately 1,400 feet in length and is built on a hill so it makes it a bit of a challenge getting in and out.

The plane was purchased as a “kit”, but this so called “kit” was nothing more than a pile of aluminum sheets and a set of hand sketches that were entirely in metric. The aircraft is all metal (aluminum) and contains two seats. It has a 100 HP Subaru auto engine and only weighs about 700 pounds empty. The aircraft is classified as an experimental aircraft and requires a pilot’s license in order to legally fly it. The normal cruising mode of the plane is 100 miles per hour. Kelly can fly for about three hours and still have almost an hour of reserve fuel to land.

“Last year Greg and I ran a few practice runs. I wanted to time it to have my plane pass over just as the National Anthem came to an end, and as my son Greg was the Drum Major in Morrison Band prior to that he was in charge of the timing end of it. He would stand at the location were the crowd would gather keeping in contact with me using a hand held aviation radio, and I would be circling in my plane on the east side of town awaiting his commands. We would try to time it all out in our heads as to at what point in the National Anthem that I would start my run towards the cemetery. But that was last year and this year was a last minute spur of the moment thing and no practice runs were made. I contacted the Morrison police an hour before the event and asked them if it was still all right to do the run we had planned last year. Once I got their permission I twisted Greg's arm to get over to the cemetery and try to remember the timing as we had practiced a year ago.”

“I must apologize to Mr. Prombo for interrupting him as you may have noticed I was just a tad late with my arrival. As it happened as I was on the east end of town flying in circles waiting for my signal. Greg happened to come on the radio giving me the green light just as I was turning away from town and it took a few extra seconds to get the plane cranked around and headed in the right direction. Then after going thru all that I couldn't resist the second pass as I headed home, it was quite a view from up there looking down at the ceremony,” Kelly said.

by Dawn Zuidema, theCity1.com
June 6, 2005