The historic photo above shows a group of planes that came in for a pancake breakfast put on by the Santa Ynez Flying Club at in the early 1950’s at the present site of the Santa Ynez Airport.

The three photos on the right show the club’s first plane, a Piper Cub, after it had a run in with high voltage power lines over the Santa Ynez River near Buellton. Photos courtesy of Mark Parsons.

   
   A few years after W.W.II, most likely about 1947, a group of local men with their heads in the clouds got together and formed a flying club in our Valley. They seemed to have magical lives and came through many a mishap in good shape. Their first field was on Skytt mesa. Flossie Jensen’s husband Arden was one of the original members and Flossie has happy memories of those days. "We didn’t have any electricity up there and I recall one night when a plane coming down from Cal Poly needed to land," said Flossie. "We all drove over and formed a runway with our cars with the headlights turned on, so they could land safely!
   "We also used to have "flying pancake breakfasts." People would fly in and we’d put on a big pancake breakfast for them. Sometimes we would have 30 to 40 planes. One time we hired a stunt flyer whose assistant would cling to the plane’s wing as he flew down the riverbed. Not realizing it was a stunt, the town’s people were in an absolute panic."
   Kris Klibo, another of the members, recalls that the club included Hal Hamm- the high school principal; Leonard Parson- the druggist; Martin Johnson-a mason and plasterer; Ray Paaske-the mortician and owner of an ambulance service; Jack Woods- a highway patrolman; Raymond Cornelius-a cattleman; Axel Nielsen-a grocer; Arden Jensen-a Judge; Tom Garland- had a gas station; and Dr. William Van Valin was a physician.
   "If we were going to have a flying club we figured we’d need a plane," says Kris, "so we all chipped in for a Piper Cub which we all shared. That is until Martin Johnson and Les Moorman flew low along the river looking for fish. Their wing caught on a branch and everyone went into the water. Luckily, the men weren’t seriously injured.