Opinion

McCook Air

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

" ... stuck in the hinterland."

So states fellow columnist and friend Mike Hendricks. Oh woe is we when we lose our sporadic-of-service airline that has so poorly serviced this community since the first of the year. And the future is dim because our own Sen. Ben Nelson has chosen to "retire" from the Senate and will no longer be able to lard our area with pork, AKA other people's money. Mike and the rest of us desiring reliable transportation to Denver to board the more reliable larger airlines have to drive.

Mike's opined the "Worst part of the trip was the four-hour drive back to McCook."

Somehow this purveyor of the written word does not see it in the same dim light as my liberal leaning friend. Yes, I enjoy the drive to Denver and usually choose the southern, Highway 36, route depending on what part of Denver the destination. I like the open plains, the unrestricted view from horizon to horizon; big country indeed. I enjoy seeing agriculture in progress. I look for the huge wheat fields that run miles in length.

Mama cows with babies touch my heart. If I'm lucky I can see a herd of antelope our unique ungulate surviving unchanged straight from Pleistocene. Then, just short of Interstate 70 one drives through a huge ranch devoted to raising American bison.

In the spring, if I'm lucky, the cows are tending their baby calves. That same ranch headquarters has over a dozen combines poised for the coming harvest. Big!

The small towns along the way are a treasure with carefully manicured parks offering a pleasant place to take a break. Gasoline and snacks are available. I like to stop at the restaurants marked by pickups out front signaling men visiting over coffee. The residents of our great plains remind me of the resolute spirit of the pioneers who dared to break the sod and build homes and communities. To me they are best people in my world.

Then just this week I was privileged to captain a corporate aviation flight to Detroit, Michigan, five hours port to port. I didn't ride first class, yet I had by far the best seat in the house, the front left seat right behind an expansive windshield. My companion in the right seat flying copilot was a bright young man who hails from Atkinson, Nebraska.

He a rural-raised kid who early on contracted a bad case of aviation disease and like me elected to make it his life's work. We visited all the way and thoroughly enjoyed the constantly changing country floating past us two miles below. By the way neither of us had to get liquored up to fly!

We have read recently of the blight that is now saddled upon Detroit. So in the few free hours we had on our layover we set out to explore. Now the airport we chose to land was that of Pontiac a suburb of the City of Detroit. Pontiac and other suburbs appeared to be delightfully modern towns. There were large shopping malls and the typical range of restaurants and shops that we find in our Lincoln or Omaha. Streets and houses appeared well kept and as it rains much more the trees were large and plentiful, the lawns well-kept evidence of pride in place to live.

On to Detroit where the through-ways looked prosperous except in the inner city where the sidewalks showed many people just milling about on mid-Friday morning work day. It didn't appear that most had gainful jobs. Turning off the main thoroughfare we explored an older residential area. There we found large two-story homes, I'd guess built in the 1920s, much like currently found pridefully-kept in older parts of Lincoln. In Detroit, though, neglect was more than evident with maybe one or two houses and yards well-tended but next door, two or three in a row, obviously abandoned, broken windows, doors swinging open, roofs caving in, just sad to see.

Along the river we noted a huge building that once housed a yacht club with maybe a hundred slips to tie up a boat but all now abandoned. Broken windows and not a boat in sight. A mile or so on another large yacht club, well-cared for with high dollar boats anchored plus many high end automobiles parked in the lot. Yet across the street there was a large park, complete with children's play equipment but the grass was tall, untended with nary a soul in sight.

Yes it is a city of contrasts. Large well-kept General Motors Headquarters buildings and a few blocks away large office buildings windowless and obviously abandoned. A beautiful Cathedral and a few blocks along a huge stone church, glassless windows and again abandoned. So sad. Looks to me to be the result of liberal politics and corrupt government. We don't want to go there.

I agree with Mike that our local airline problem is indeed a sad state of affairs. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel as a group of individuals are investigating the possibility of creating McCook's own airline to serve this area.

The current dream is of small, six- to eight-seat, corporate-type jets to provide reliable service to the airline hub in Denver as well as going east to Omaha. A couple of round trips each way per day is the goal. They too have an eye on the subsidy from the Federal Essential Air Service program.

Several million in annual subsidy plus revenue from reasonable fares just might make the project doable. Stay tuned.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail

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