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One of my first sight seeing trips took me to Fox Field. The road going in was torn up. The landscaping on both sides of the road going in was non-existant. It looked liked no one gave a shit what the place looked like. Lots of trash blown in by the wind. The terminal building was old and delapidated. The resturant in the terminal was just as antiquated. In the terminal parking lot was a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix; obviously used as an airport car by someone. The main FBO, Barnes Aviation, had a history that went back to Pancho Barnes.

I walked out onto the ramp. There was a 1977 Grumman Cheetah parked there. The propeller was off. I enquired about it. The owner hadn't paid for tie-down at Barnes for the month so Shuling Barnes, the witch that owns Barnes, ordered the propeller be removed until the owner paid up. To make a long story short, I bought the Cheetah as my first plane.

I got a county tie-down for the Cheetah and, when I went to move the plane to its new home, found the tires flat. Since it was parked at Barnes, I went there and asked for a portable air bottle to fill the tires. In broken Chinese-English, Shuling told me it would cost me $15.00 to use the air bottle. Her reasoning was that she had to pay for the electricity, the mechanic to fill the tank, and rental on the tank. My other experiences with Shuling were similar. She charged me $10.00 for a few nuts and washers saying that she had to order them, sort them, put them on the shelf, and have the mechanic get them for me. She also charged me $10.00 for a quart of oil. Needless to say, since 1984, I haven't even gone into Barnes.

Occasionally, in the local paper (the AV Press, it didn't come out on Mondays at the time), there would be articles about all the growth that was going to take place at Fox. There was to be an aviation museum, light manufacturing, a company was going to convert Beech Barons to turbines, and on and on and on. From 1984 through 1986, or thereabouts, there was commuter service into Fox.

I kept my plane parked at the tie-down until 1991. I did my own maintenance. Working on the ramp at Fox was pure hell. The wind blows every day. Initially, I kept thinking the wind was going to be seasonal and would stop eventually. Nope. In the summer, the high temperature was 105 to 115. In the winter, the lows were in the teens. I scraped a lot of ice from the windows on my car. I finally got a hangar in 1991 and moved through several hangars until I ended up in Hangar 503. The wind still blew, however, instead of standing in the wind, I listened to the wind rattle the hangars doors. It was still hot in the summer and freezing in the winter, but at least I was in-doors.

I am writing this in January 2005, twenty-two years later. The road is still torn up, the terminal is still delapidated, the landscaping still is non-existant, the resturant has a new owner but..., even the '63 Grand Prix is still in the parking lot. Still lots of trash blown by the wind. Pretty much everything is still the same as when I first visited. There is still very little growth happening. The commuter planes never returned. Light manufacturing and other aviation efforts went someone else. On any given day, Fox airport is a ghost town. Rarely is there ever anyone in the pattern learning to fly (Barnes is the only FBO that provides flight training.) The museum has a few relics but don't go expecting much. The ramp is littered with planes rotting in the sun. Even the planes IN hangars, with the exception of a few, well, I have seen very little activity. Even on weekends there is very little flying activity at Fox. In fact, on an overcast day in Auburn, there are more planes coming and going and flying activety than on a clear day in Lancaster.

If you do venture to Fox, for any perveted reason, go to the West end of the ramp where the BIG hangar is. You can't miss it. My old hangar is 503; it's opposite the BIG hangar. Bobby has it now (he has a very fast '74 Grumman Traveler). Larry is in 505 (he also has a Traveler. The nicest Tiger belongs to Travis (he's a few rows South.) Look up Chuck Medicus (has a nice Comanche) and Ken Kelly (they're in the really big hangar), tell them Gary said "Hi." Likewise, find Gordon Nauta. He's building a scale B-17 that will have 4 Mazda rotory engines (he has also built many other home builts). 310-Bill is there, tucked into the Southwest corner of the hangers. He does great metal work. He is also building a 310 Cessna from scratch. Now, that is a sight to behold. Mike Grimes, Wayne Johnson, Wayne Babcock, Bill Kelly (airline Bill, he has the last 2-seat Grumman built), Tom Goodwin, and a whole host of others. Stop into High Desert Avionics and say "Hi" to Jeff. He does pretty good avionics work if you can catch him between running errands with his kids and when he's not on the phone. Lots of good people there at Fox.

Sometimes I think about the time I spent in Lancaster. The best part is, thoughts of Lancaster come fewer and farther apart. It's true, I do have a lot of good memories from Lancaster; a lot of really bad ones too. Try as I might, I can't think of any reason to be there. Now, after 22+ years in Lancaster, my new adventure is taking me to Auburn. Auburn is one beautiful place to live. The people are friendly, there are rivers and mountains, it's GREEN, there is culture here; Auburn is where people go to vacation. It's the difference between heaven and hell. If you get to Auburn, stop in and say, "Hi." I'm behind the grassy knoll, just southeast of the fuel pumps.
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