Conifer icon to fly away

With a heavy heart and misty eye, longtime Conifer resident Norm Meyer will watch his beloved red-and-white Cessna take off, possibly for the last time.

Meyer has sold his plane, which sits in its hangar near the Yellow House along U.S. 285 as an unofficial landmark of Conifer. It will soar to its new owners in Gunnison on Aug. 22.

Though the plane is leaving Conifer, it will still be in the Meyer family, and a pint-sized family member, 3-year-old Porter Norman Houck, is excited about the flying skills he will acquire in his great-grandpa’s plane.

Meyer calls Porter plane-crazy, and the youngster already has many miles under his toddler-sized belt.
“I like the wings, and I like to make turns (in the plane) and turn the flaps,” Porter said.

Roanne Houck, Porter’s mom and the plane’s new co-owner, said: “It’s sad to just sell (the plane) to a random pilot. It’s great to keep it in the family.”

Meyer felt it was time to quit flying but didn’t want to let the 1968 Cessna 180 Taildragger sit idle.

“It’s just time. I’m going to be 94 years old, and I’ve got to quit flying sometime,” Meyer said.

Houck is buying the plane along with her father, Meyer’s former son-in-law, Ron Rouse of Gunnison. Rouse, also a pilot, now needs to get current on Cessna Taildragger certification, a requirement because of the plane’s unusual wheel configuration. Houck doesn’t fly.

Home base
Meyer said he bought the Cessna in 1970. A plane’s odometry is gauged by hours, not miles, and the plane has been flown only about 1,300 hours. It has been struck by lightning a few times while in the air and received little or no damage.

The hangar is a converted garage with only a few inches of extra space on each side of the wings. A winch system pulls the plane out and rolls it back into its berth.

Meyer created an airstrip in the back hayfield of the Meyer Ranch, and on sectional aeronautical charts the strip is labeled the Meyer Ranch Airport-5co6. He said many fliers have availed themselves of the strip when in jeopardy. The airstrip will remain as is, just in case.

Long history of flying
Meyer said he couldn’t hazard a guess of how many miles he’s flown in his 67 years as a pilot, but probably the number is “many millions.” He said he was proud to be a trusted pilot who took responsibility for his passengers and cargo. He shouldered that responsibility while flying for the military and Continental Airlines.

“I never scratched a person or an airplane,” Meyer said. “I had no right to be tired or sleepy or hung over. Those people trusted me.”

Meyer calls the Cessna “my baby” and said it will be hard to look at the empty hangar. He wonders if he could find a junk airplane, a ghost-like apparition of his life-long passion.

“I hope they come back once in a while and take me for a ride,” Meyer said.


This story ran in the August 18 issue of the High Timber Times