Today there's not much left of Pancho Barnes' airport — the barest outline of the runway can be seen on Google Earth.  But back when the Rancho Oro Verde was a going concern, it was a busy and eventful place.  The Barnes Airport hosted fly ins including an aerial treasure hunt, fleets of crop dusters hired to spray Pancho's and neighboring farms, and some interesting visitors including magician John Calvert who owned his own DC-3 (photo below).  (At one time Pancho's fourth husband Mack McKendry was Calvert's pilot.)

Prior to WWII, Pancho opened a Civilian Pilot Training Program flight school at her airport, where she taught ground school.  A romance blossomed between Pancho and a student pilot named "Nicky" Nichols, but it soon ended in divorce (her second).  The school closed up right after Pearl Harbor, since all civilian flights were grounded.  But the runway didn't stay inactive for long.  It was located enough of a distance away from the ranch buildings to be considered a separate property and Pancho was allowed to rent it out to military contractors for flight testing.  A company named Radioplane, founded by actor (and one sort of suspects good friend of Pancho's) Reginald Denny used the airport for testing of radio-controlled target drones.  It was all pretty secret stuff, but given the secluded nature of the ranch it was secluded enough for the military's purposes.

After the war things really began to bustle at the ranch, and all sorts of people flew up for a visit.  That included Howard Hughes, who came in a helicopter, and Walt Disney Co. animator Ward Kimball — who drew a nude woman cartoon in Pancho's guest book.  Inevitably, Hollywood sought out the ranch as a location.  A number of Western productions used the place as a base of operations and crew quarters while shooting in the Mojave.  As far as we know only one of them used the airport, the 1949 film noir drama Johnny Stoolpigeon.  Directed by William Castle, the film starred Howard Duff as a lawman, Dan Duryea as a drug-runner-turned-informant and Shelley Winters as love interest.  In this rarely-seen film's climactic sequence, a shoot out ensues at Pancho's airport (left) as the bad guys attempt to escape.  Before their plane can get off the runway, the lawmen manage to crash a car into the plane's landing gear, crippling it (photo at right) and take everyone into custody!  Interestingly, Pancho owned a Cessna T-50 similar to the one seen in the movie.  This unusual plane, which is more commonly known by the name "Bamboo Bomber", was also flown by Kirby Grant in the first season of the popular TV show "Sky King".  It really seems possible Pancho's plane was used for the big sequence although I suspect the actual crash was a  big r/c model.

For all the excitement at Pancho's airport, there were bound to be some negatives.  One of them was that visitors had a tendency to accidentally fly into the air space of the nearby Air Force base.  These incursions harmed Pancho's reputation as a good neighbor with the base, but it seems that there was very little she could do about it.

Sooner or later, Pancho's airport would have been forced to close down as the base expanded.  It did close sometime after the fire at the ranch, and was later abandoned.  The hangar survives — it was dismantled and is still in use at a private airport in Palmdale.

I received sad news today, that aviatrix Elinor Smith had passed on at the age of 98.  Although I never got the chance to meet Elinor, I visited with her son Patrick Sullivan in early February at the San Francisco Airport Museum.  The occasion was a special screening of The Legend of Pancho, and Patrick came as a representative for his mother who was too frail to come herself.  One of the many highlights of the evening (and there were many) was having Patrick make a few remarks after the screening about his mother, Pancho, and Amelia Earhart.  

For those of you who haven't heard of Elinor Smith well, you really should have and now you will!  Once known by the moniker "The Flying Flapper of Freeport", she was took her first airplane ride at the age of six, started taking lessons at the age of 10, and soloed by the time she was 15.  She soon became the youngest licensed pilot in the United States and started out to make a name for herself.  She did it with panache by flying under all four of the bridges on the East River of Manhattan.  According to Sullivan, who discussed the stunt at some length, she actually had to dodge several ships in the process!

Smith then set out to grab an endurance record in an open-cockpit biplane.  Flying out of New York in the middle of the winter, Smith was ill-equipped to deal with the intense cold.  After staying aloft for 13.5 hours, Elinor realized that she needed to make an emergency landing.  It was now twilight, and due to a foul-up the airport's runway lights were off.  Fortunately fellow pilot Jimmy Doolittle saw Smith's distress flare and recognized her predicament, and led her in.  It was a brush with disaster but fortunately Smith ended up on the front page and not in the obituaries.

Smith's record was later taken away by Bobbi Trout who flew 17 hours, but just a short time later Smith flew for over 26.   But interestingly, Smith's most famous achievement was one that she and Bobbi Trout worked on together -- setting an endurance record using mid-air refueling in 1929.  Anyone who has witnessed mid-air refueling today knows what a precision, computer-aided ballet it is.  Well now, picture how Smith and Trout did it back in "the day"!  They used basically a fire hose and a primitive funnel arrangement, and relied on gravity and human hands to grab the nozzle of the gas line and reel it in.  The flight of the "Sunbeam" biplane nearly ended in disaster on the first attempt, as Bobbi Trout lost control of the hose and ended up getting fuel dumped all over her, yikes!  Despite this setback and several others, Trout and Smith persevered and eventually achieved a record flight of 42.5 hours.  When they landed, the two became instant international superstars and why not?  They had guts and skill that most people couldn't even dream of!

After the endurance flight, Smith had a steady career as a broadcaster (covering aviation for NBC), a stunt pilot, and kept setting records including a women's altitude record.  But like Pancho, the Great Depression effectively put an end to Elinor Smith's competitive flying.  She did keep her hand in the aviation arena however, and later in her life was invited to fly the T-33 Shooting Star jet trainer and the twin radial engine C-119 Flying Boxcar.

You can find her autobiography on Amazon by following this link.

Incidentally, I've been asked several times today whether Pancho and Elinor Smith knew each other.   The answer is absolutely "yes".  According to Patrick Sullivan they were not great friends, but they certainly knew one another and shared a good friend in Bobbi Trout.

Which leads me to this.  At the conclusion of our presentation in San Francisco, I gave Patrick Sullivan a DVD of the film to share with Elinor.  Today after sending him a note about his loss, he replied with these words: Sorry to report that by the time it was shown, and you graciously gave me a copy for her, Elinor had beome so ill that she was unable to concentrate on reading or on films.  She told me that she wanted to see the film, but asked me to keep it until she felt better. . . . . . sadly, that didn't occur.  You should know that she was pleased to learn about the film and about the interest it is creating about Pancho Barnes. As for myself, I think the film is a terrific piece of work and I hope it is shown to as many audiences as possible. . . . . .particularly to young girls so they may know that their future is whatever they choose it to be. I hope it may be comforting to know that she knew about your work and was pleased to learn what you have accomplished.

Thank you for sharing that sentiment Patrick.  Our condolences; we and everyone else who loves aviation share your loss today.

Special thanks to Brian Palfrey for putting me in touch with Patrick Sullivan.  Brian is currently making a documentary about Lady Mary Heath, and interviewed Smith for that project.  It was her last video interview.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club will be broadcast by American Public Television (APT) this Spring.  Over 100 participating stations will show the documentary, constituting over 70% of all American households.  APT is a prime source of programming for the nation's public television stations for over four decades.

Prior to distribution on American Public Television, Orange County PBS affiliate KOCE-TV will premiere the documentary on April 15th at 8 p.m., with additional screenings on April 20th at 9 p.m. and April 25th at 11 p.m.  KOCE-TV, the nation's sixth-most-watched public television station, is proud to have supported the creation of this dynamic documentary, about one of the most important women in 20th Century aviation.

For the production team of producer Nick Spark and director Amanda Pope, national broadcast of the documentary fulfills a goal set when the project began over five years ago. 

A list of stations will be posted on this website in weeks to come.  Check your local listings in late April and May for exact time and date information.  Want to make sure your local public television station shows Pancho?  Call your station and tell them you want them to air it.

Every now and then something really noteworthy, and unexpected, happens as a result of the film.  It could be like the other day, when Amanda Pope and I went to present the film at Northrop Grumman's facility in El Segundo, California.  Much to our delight, we discovered that Northrop Grumman had invited a group of high school students from the Da Vinci School to attend the event.  Not only that, but NG honcho Scott Sommer had challenged the students to produce short films inspired by Pancho's life story.  The results were terrific, and we were able to turn our presentation into a learning experience not only about Pancho, but about the process of filmmaking.  What a satisfying turn of events!

A few months ago I had another experience worth sharing.  It all started with a photo of Pancho in the collection of the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate that shows Pancho sitting on the wing of a crop duster at her airport.  The plane is marked A/V Pest Control, or Antelope Valley Pest Control, and it caught my eye because it was a funny-looking shot of Pancho.  I mentally filed it away for the future, not realizing that one day it would make a big difference to someone I'd never even met.

So "a funny thing happened".   Late last year, I noticed that there were some 16mm films for sale on eBay that were marked "crop dusting TBM, Lancaster".  Not knowing anything about the films, but knowing that Pancho's airport sometimes hosted crop dusters, I decided to bid on them.  I was able to acquire them cheaply enough, and when they arrived at my house I took a look.  There was no sign of Pancho or her ranch anywhere in the films but there were crop dusters, including a war surplus TBM Avenger modified as an aerial sprayer.   Although similar to the plane in the photo of Pancho, the planes in the film were not marked A/V Pest Control but "Cisco".  On the off chance I did a search for this company on the internet and I turned up an interesting website put up by a fellow named Hunter Betts.  The website was a memorial to his beloved father James Lynden Betts, an accomplished pilot who flew dangerous, covert missions in Laos during the Vietnam War.  Prior to doing "low and slow" flying over the jungle, Betts was a crop duster pilot who owned a company known as Cisco.  Interesting.

So I got in touch with Hunter Betts, told him what I had, and asked him if he knew who Pancho Barnes was.  He wrote back immediately that Cisco was originally called "A/V Pest Control".  Not only did his father know Pancho, but he was a good friend who sprayed her alfalfa fields and drank at her bar on a frequent basis.  He took her up in a helicopter he'd built from a kit, which was a little scary not just because it was a kit, but because he was a self-taught rotary pilot.   "You have no idea how floored I am right now!" Hunter emailed.  "My dad passed away in 1996 and had a huge amount of 16MM film of his aviation career but lost it all in a storage fire while we were living in Laos. I would be so excited to see this other film you have!!!!"

Long story short, we got the films transferred and Hunter soon had a DVD in his hands.  For the first time in a decade, he would see his father in motion.  "Well Nick," he wrote to me in an email after getting them in the mail, " I have just been absolutely FLOORED!! What a great gift you have given me and my kids. I can't thank you enough Nick. The shots of him flying face on are a one in a lifetime prize. I feel like crying." 

He wasn't the only one!

Months ago we did a screening of the film at Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California.  I made a lot of new and wonderful friends at that event, including James Lowe, lead singer of the seminal 1960s rock band The Electric Prunes and a relative of Pancho's grandfather, Thaddeus Lowe.  Another person in attendance that night was Nikki Nikrent Robinson, whose great uncle was a fellow named Joe Nikrent.  Back in the 1910s, Joe and his brothers were a famous race car driving team known as, what else?, the Nikrent Brothers.  They raced against the likes of Barney Oldfield and Louis Chevrolet, among others, and were sponsored by Chas Howard of Seabiscuit (the horse) fame.  Joe even raced at Indy in 1913, but had his hopes dashed when a bearing gave out in his car after lap 67.  He also ran at Muroc  — the dry lake was used as a race and proving grounds for many decades —  and reached a speed of 108 mph in his Buick.

Given his penchant for speed and daring, it is no surprise that in the 1920s Joe Nikrent became the official timer for the National Aeronautic Association.  In this capacity he attended all sorts of aviation events and record attempts.  I've seen photos of him congratulating Pancho's friend and fellow female aviator Bobbi Trout after she set a new solo endurance record in 1929, and with pilot Waldo Waterman as he prepared to conduct a new high-altitude flight for Bach.  So it's no surprise that when Pancho set out to break Amelia Earhart's air speed record, that Joe Nikrent showed up as official timer.  Photos taken that day of Pancho, such as the one seen at left, frequently show Nikrent at her side giving what appears to be, shall we say some fatherly advice?  One has to imagine, given the informality of those poses, that they had a good rapport.  It seems to me based on the photos, that Joe Nikrent wasn't just there as a stern judge of whether or not Pancho had set a new speed record — he was clearly there as a friend and supporter.  The first attempt Pancho made on the record, she came up short.  But you know the rest of the story: she came back the next day, refreshed and recalibrated, and flew at 196 miles per hour to become fastest woman on earth.  It was front page news and the biggest achievement of her aviation career.

At some point after that Pancho gave Joe Nikrent a personalized glossy photo (seen at right) emblazoned, "To Joe Sincere best wishes from Pancho 1931".  This was one of two photos that Nikki brought to our Planes of Fame screening, and which everyone in our audience was allowed to hold and admire. It was wonderful to see such a terrific photo of Pancho and to know that when she signed it, she was flying high.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago, as Amanda and I arrived in Mission Viejo for the first screening of the film in Orange County.  Waiting for us at the auditorium was Nikki Robinson and her husband, and they brought a special gift: one of the two photos in a beautiful custom frame.  I was absolutely floored when Nikki announced the photo was for me, a gift in honor of Pancho and our film.  It's just about the nicest gift I've ever received, and completely unexpected.

The photo is on the wall of my living room now, where I see it every day.  I'm thrilled to be custodian  for it.  Every time I look at it, I get a little thrill knowing that it was handed from one speed demon to another, in celebration of a very special achievement.  There's a little more to it, of course.  One thing Amanda and I both learned about Pancho as we created the film, was that although life threw her a lot of curves, she never gave up.  Pancho constantly re-invented herself, endured, and then rose to the top again.  In many ways that thread in Pancho's life helped keep us going, as we faced all sorts of adversity while making the film and almost gave up two or three times.  The fact that Pancho never gave up, and that neither did we, is brought home to me whenever I look at that print.