Pilots visit airport on quest for record

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

In a moment of winter boredom, Kent State University journalism professor Joe Murray, an amateur pilot, came up with an idea: why not fly to all the airports used by Orville and Wilbur Wright more than 100 years ago?

The problem, Murray found, was that some of those old airports no longer existed. That led to Plan B, which was to fly his vintage two-seater Piper Cub on a record-setting quest to airports in all of Ohio’s 88 counties within 26 hours of flying time. The trip is being made to honor the 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub.

Murray took some time off from his teaching position and also convinced a buddy, retired physician and fellow Piper Cub owner Ron Siwik, to tag along. The men started their journey on Mother’s Day and Murray said it was a sign that, with storms all around, the route he and Siwik had chosen was clear all the way.

“I keep telling everyone it was my mom up there looking out for us,” Murray told reporters and others gathered Monday at the Van Wert County Regional Airport to greet their yellow airplanes after they landed on a grass runway at the airport.

While the men are working to set a world record for flying around the state in their Piper Cubs, they aren’t in a huge hurry to do so, with Murray noting that a secondary reason for the trip is just to meet and talk to people around the state.

“People have been wonderful … it’s just so much fun,” Murray noted.

In addition to visiting with people along the way, eating some tasty strawberry pie at a Defiance County restaurant also wasn’t a bad idea, but that stop alone put the travelers two hours behind on their itinerary. That delay, coupled with early-morning fog that grounded them for awhile, wreaked havoc with the fliers’ schedule on Monday.

That doesn’t bother Siwik, though. Murray’s partner on the trip is no stranger to long flights, as Siwik noted he flew around the world not too long ago. That trip was strictly by the flight plan, though, the retired physician said, largely because he had to obtain permits in each country he planned to fly over and the permits were only good for 48 hours.

He likened that trip to a game of croquet, where he had to jump through each hoop in the proper timeframe.

Siwik’s wanderlust could also be Murray’s biggest challenge. “My biggest fear with him is that he’s going to wander off and try to circumnavigate something,” the Kent State professor said with a smile.

Both men have lots of flying experience, with Siwik’s piloting going back to 1967, while Murray has flown for more than three decades.

Murray has some secondary goals on his trip and one of those was to obtain a signature from someone in each county. Van Wert County Commissioner Clair Dudgeon, a member of the local airport authority, obliged after greeting the two fliers.

The Kent State professor, who also plans to write a book about the trip, is also trying to raise $500 in each county to use as scholarship seed money for Kent State students.

Meanwhile, Murray and Siwik’s plan to finish their quest by Sunday could be in jeopardy, especially with Monday’s turgid pace. It didn’t seem to bother either of them, though. Murray was more interested in talking about how flat the local topography was.

That also may be because it’s Murray’s brother, Mike, who is ground coordinator for the trip. Siwik joked that Mike Murray is getting more and more frustrated as the fliers get further and further behind the original schedule.

But with great weather for flying, Murray and Siwik were on Cloud 9 when they stopped in Van Wert County. Now if Siwik’s brother can only figure out where that is on their flight plan