YDN Staff Reporter
A man clad in a brown tweed jacket, a blue and yellow scarf, and a leather newsboys' cap introduced himself.
"I'm Turan Onat, Yale Aviation's faculty advisor. And this is Charlie Skelton, one of our instructors," he said.
Onat, a former Calhoun College master, now masters the sky as a pilot and member of Yale Aviation, a 70 person flight club devoted to teaching the art of piloting at Tweed-New Haven Airport.
Skelton is a retired Marine colonel and fighter pilot who now works as a instructor at YA.
As he walked by rows of small planes that resembled Tonka toys yesterday, Onat led a tour of YA's fleet of five meticulously maintained Piper propeller planes, spouting off facts about each one. "This one, 044, has an 180 horsepower engine and can carry four passengers without asking about their weight," he said pointing to a blue and white stripped Cherokee Arrow plane.
Yale Aviation, in its various incarnations, has been around since the days of World War I when F. Trubee Davison '18 formed the Yale Aero Club.
Shortly thereafter, the United States entered the war and patriotic club members flocked to train for the armed services as combat pilots. The fighting group, called the "First Yale Unit," served as the forerunner to today's airborne Navy. The Aero Club later became Yale Aviation, which has been training pilots for 30 years.
Professor Turan, a member of the club for 15 of his 30 years at Yale, has logged over 800 hours in the cockpit.
"I haven't spent the family fortune, but I don't drive a Lexus either!" Onat joked as he drove home in his old Ford Taurus.
Joining the club entails a $100 initiation fee and dues of about $20 per month, Onat said. Flight lessons cost anywhere from $45 to $60 per hour depending on which training plane is used. Aspiring pilots spend a minimum of 40 hours training for their license.
"You probably need $4,000 to $5,000 stashed away to get your license," Onat said.
To received a pilot's license, a student must a written exam and three flight tests, the final one with a Federal Aviation Administration representative, Onat said.
"As a professor, I like giving tests but I don't like taking them," Onat added jubilantly, as a characteristic smile spread across his face.
Approximately 15 students belong to YA and regularly take lessons. Members often use the planes to take holiday jaunts to Boston, Washington, D.C. and other destinations. One of the benefits of the club offers is that members do not pay for total elapsed time, but rather pay only for the time while the propellor is turning.
Student-member Brett Gibson '97 peered at the engine of the last plane on the tour, plane 282, preparing it for his flight lesson yesterday.
"I started flying this summer, and I am about half way to getting my license," said Gibson, who spends between two and three hours a week in the air. Gibson has been interested in aviation since a family friend took him up in a small plane. He decided to join the club after seeing an advertisement in the Yale Station post office.
After Gibson finished checking the plane over, he and Skelton boarded to practice emergency skills. "I've always wondered why the planes don't have parachutes," Gibson joked.
Skelton's friendly teaching style helps set Yale students as well as others at ease. He has been around planes since his childhood in West Haven when he spent time as a "lineboy" parking and servicing airplanes at Tweed-New Haven Airport.
After plane 282 took off from Tweed's long runway number two,
Onat demystified each instrument in the cockpit of one of YA's leased planes.
YA used to own the plane, but sold it because they did not have the money to maintain it. However, the current owner now leases the refurbished plane to the company. YA is not a rich club and cannot afford to pay $100,000 to $150,000 for a new plane. YA lives "hand to mouth" relying on alumni donations, Onat said.
For the time being, Onat and Skelton are not worried about YA's financial future. Too many people have fallen in love with the view from 3,000 feet up, they said.
"Everything looks different from up here," Skelton said as co-piloted the plane over the serene Long Island Sound, "I guess that's the fun of flying."