City Government
Frequent Flyer Grounded In Boise, Banned From Future Flights
February 9, 2011 
A frequent flyer with more than 40,000 hours in the air over the past 31 years arrived in Boise Wednesday, never to fly again.
Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson was among the officers on hand to take the elderly flyer into custody at Gowen Field. Pilots were instructed to use a secure runway just south of the main airport to avoid other passengers and not interfere with normal airport operations.
Not only were there coppers and a contingent of firefighters with a crash truck on hand to handle the arrival, Mayor Dave Bieter also made an appearance.
The “frequent flyer” will be permanently located at the 5,000 ft runway used mostly for Air Guard training. Team Dave may not have gotten a train, but thanks to a donation from Fed-Ex the city now has an airplane. It’s a 31 year old third-hand Boeing 727 to use for police and fire training exercises.
The engines and all fluids will be removed from the craft. It will serve as a training tool for removing passengers from confined areas, evacuations, and staging of emergency vehicles at crash scenes.
Guardian Editor Dave Frazier was honored to be the first Boisean to sit in the pilot seat of the city’s newest toy. Two Bird Colonels from the Idaho National Guard marked the occasion with salutes as Frazier “deplaned.”
One observer remarked, “Surely you can’t think this is funny.”
Frazier responded, “Of course it’s funny. And don’t call me Shirley.”
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Feb 9, 2011, 5:37 pm
Weeeeellll lookityou. All chummy and shit. 😉 Could it be the dawning of the age of Aquarius?
Feb 9, 2011, 5:48 pm
Dave, you’ve never looked more in-command! I’m no expert, but IMO the 727 may be the most beautiful passenger airplane ever built. (Excluding the Concorde, of course.)
“Don’t call me Shirley”… ?
“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit tranquilizers!”
– Lloyd Bridges
Feb 9, 2011, 9:40 pm
Well done, Shirley.
🙂
Feb 9, 2011, 10:17 pm
That’s not very old and not many hours. With a 1979 build date, she was one of the last ever built. FedEx did some very sweet work to mod the aircraft… still one of the fastest and best engineered birds they ever built… the 72’s wing is just plain cool 😉
Feb 9, 2011, 11:55 pm
perfect movie quote for the occasion!
Feb 10, 2011, 7:30 am
So how did the esteemed Guardian manage to find his way into the pilots seat?
Feb 11, 2011, 8:28 pm
Me think you need to lose a little weight Mr G! Have you thought about training for Robie this year?
EDITOR NOTE–Thank you for your thoughtful observations and concern.
Feb 14, 2011, 7:32 pm
Your welcome… We want you around a few more years Mr. G
Feb 15, 2011, 11:03 am
Had a nice visit with S. Bonde the other day. We talked about you. He is a good guy and so are you.