Designer Times
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The Queen Air was traded in on a new tan and brown turboprop Beechcraft King Air Model 90 using the N234MM tail number from the Queen Air. I loved this aircraft....fast and quiet. But we found that the Gulfstream could get in and out of smaller airports just as easy as the King Air. So Disney did not keep the second N234MM Beechcraft for long. Thus the Gulfstream then got the N234MM tail number. Our pilots would make their initial air traffic call ups as "two three four metro metro". Then they would try "two three four Mickey Mouse" (improper FAA communication phraseology). Pretty soon all the FAA enroute controllers always called us Mickey Mouse. I think other corporate pilots were quite jealous of our special treatment.

On one Epcot Sales Junket in January 1966, Walt had a dozen of us aboard on a Sunday flight headed for Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Walt was so focused on Epcot at the time....he worked Sundays. We gathered around the big folding table in the main cabin as Walt unrolled the Epcot plans. He spent the afternoon explaining just where everything would be located. It turned out to be long bumpy flight but the plane was filled with enthusiasm about Walt's latest dream so we didn't mind at all.

We did not have our regular flight attendant on this trip. We passengers all took turns serving drinks and meals to each other and to the flight deck crew. A couple of days later I got the morning breakfast duty on a short flight out of New York City to Erie Pennsylvania, meaning I had to serve everyone while the cabin was tipped up in the climb attitude. As I headed back from the galley with Walt's tray, we hit a bump and I tripped. All the guys roared with laughter as I plummeted towards Walt. But I saved it just in time, much to Walt's relief. It would have horrible for Walt to greet his next customer with an egg splattered suit.

The Gulf stream was there for any business use that anyone needed. On May 2, 1974 I requisitioned the Mouse to take (10) guys up to the Department of Transportation Advanced Transit Test Track in Pueblo Colorado. I did this sort of as a testy joke. But they gave me the plane, crew, and box lunches (no flight attendant) anyway. I think the pilots enjoyed flying the Mouse so much that any excuse to go was OK. I had booked the airplane on the rare day when it was not in use.

Chick Malone had developed the Flight Department Operational Procedures with a very strict and conservative set of rules. This meant that we could not take off if any number of systems were not in perfect order. It also meant that if certain parts failed in flight, such as one electrical generator, they were to land at the closest landing strip immediately. One such event actually happened, not once, but twice....same part, same landing strip.

This was after dark in a deserted Texas plain. Only one light was visible in the distance. The highest ranking corporate officer aboard was sent on a long hike to find a pay phone near the distant light to call for help.

I think our most fun flights were when the (13) seat Mouse only had maybe four of us aboard but no flight attendant. The poor pilots had to sit up front alone and drive while we freely raided the booze cabinet before helping ourselves to the dinner trays. Naturally there were some pretty animated discussions going on since the old propeller driven Mouse only did 350 MPH while the rest of the world zipped by at a jet speed of 600....took all day to cross America.

On one such boozy flight, the Mouse gave a strange wiggle starting it's take off run out of Troy Michigan. As we neared our stop in Orange County to let Dick Nunis off before continuing on to Burbank, the pilots ordered us to sit in the back of the plane with pillows in the crash position. No, it wasn't retribution for our behavior, they deduced that they had a flat tire on the nose gear and would declare an emergency landing. The landing turned out OK, a guy came out and pumped up the tire and we were on our way. But I must say I was quite impressed at all the red lights racing down the runway beside us.

Chuck Malone eventually retired to his comfortable hanger at the Camarillo Airport where he cared lovingly for his very own twin engined Beechcraft. His hanger space was rigged up as a shrine to the early days of the Mouse with numerous photos of Walt and his flight guests. In 1988, I landed my German Taifun Motorglider at an air show in Porterville California to see Chuck standing at the flight line. We chatted about old times. The last time I saw him he was being flown home in the backseat of an antique WWII open cockpit trainer by a pilot friend. Chuck was all bundled up in an old leather flight helmet and goggles. End of an era.

End of an era too for the wonderful Mouse. The old gal soldiered on into the corporate jet age, eventually finding a retirement home at Walt Disney World. Her last flight ended at the Disney MGM Studio Tour where old Two Three Four Mickey Mouse now is a lonely backlot movie prop. I do enjoy seeing "our old Mouse" whenever I ride the Studio Tour. That airplane served Walt and so many Disney folks so well for so long. She could tell a lot of stories.

oOo

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