A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Thaden Field: Aviation Dreams and Offerings

• Visit Bentonville • Season 7 • Episode 29

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Join us as Kelly Deeds, General Manager for Summit Aviation and Thaden Field, shares his journey from building model aircrafts as a child to piloting across the globe. Kelly outlines the steps involved in obtaining a pilot's license, adventures with the scenic plane rides, and wealth of opportunities through Thaden Field-- even information about FlyOz, the social club. Whether you're an aspiring pilot or an aviation enthusiast, this conversation offers insights about aviation activities and the vibrant aviation community.

Learn more at THADEN FIELD, Bentonville AR.

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Beth Bobbitt:

Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Road Studio, and today we're here with Kelly Deeds, General Manager for Summit Aviation and Thaden Field. Welcome to the podcast.

Kelly Deeds:

Thank you.

Beth Bobbitt:

So, before we jump in and learn a little bit more about your role and offerings, tell us about you. How did you get into aviation? When did you relocate to Northwest Arkansas? What's your story?

Kelly Deeds:

Well, my story goes back many years when I was a young kid I got into making model aircraft. Goes back many years when I was a young kid, I got into making model aircraft and my bedroom had them all hanging from the ceiling Wow. So I was an aviation enthusiast as a young child. And then I got older, got distracted by life, and then I got married and my wife says you're going to go do this, quit talking about it, go do it.

Kelly Deeds:

So I went off, got my pilot's license. I've been flying for right at 30 years now, and then switched careers about 17 years ago. Oh, wow, and so is that when you came to Northwest Arkansas, no, I started off in the aviation industry in Kansas City and then it took me to Seattle, back to Kansas City up to Council Bus Omaha area. Then I went over to Pittsburgh, and I came to Bentonville from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Beth Bobbitt:

Wow, so how long have you been in your role?

Kelly Deeds:

Fourth of February of this year.

Beth Bobbitt:

Oh wow. Well, congratulations, we're lucky to have you here. So before we jump in, let's talk about the namesake for listeners who may not be familiar with, Louise Thaden. Who was she? Why is she so important? Why is Thaden Field? She was one of the original women aviators.

Kelly Deeds:

So if Amelia Earhart hadn't got lost in the Pacific, Louise Thaden would probably be more household common name when it came to women in aviation so she's from Bentonville came back to Bentonville and ended up here and they renamed the airport after her in, I believe, 1953.

Beth Bobbitt:

I love it, thank you. And so Thaden Field Summit Aviations give us an overview of the general offerings. What's private, what's public?

Kelly Deeds:

So Thaydenfield is what's called a general aviation airport, so in other words it's open to all general aviation, so anything that flies can land there as long as it fits the qualifications. So we're only a 5,000-foot-long airport, so it kind of limits the size of the traffic that comes in there. But as far as everything else, we offer helicopters and small aircraft and midsize aircraft, jet aircraft. There's also game composites, which is building aircraft on the field. So if it's in aviation, we're probably doing it at Thayden Field.

Beth Bobbitt:

Wow. And not to mention, there is a menu at Cafe Louise.

Kelly Deeds:

We can't forget Luis.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yes, I love going there for brunch and just watching the planes land. It's a favorite in northwest Arkansas, for sure, and so you mentioned that a lot of people have questions about learning to fly. And what does that process look like? How much does it cost? Talk us through what that looks like.

Kelly Deeds:

So aviation is a rapidly expanding industry. There's been a pilot shortage going on for about five years now, so flight training is at a premium across the whole nation and actually worldwide as well. So if you wanted to learn to fly, we offer everything all the way up to get you qualified to fly for the airlines, which starts with your private pilot license. Then you go to your instrument, your commercial. We do not offer multi-engine, but there is access to it in the area so we can take you all the way through those steps. So the first step is your private pilot's license that gives you access to the small aircraft that you can be able to fly your friends around and your family around, as long as you're flying in a nice, beautiful day like today, yeah, so, uh, that cost on it right now. We did the numbers just a couple of days ago with what the FAA requires and your time constraints that you put into it. It'll be anywhere from $8,000 to up to 20,000.

Kelly Deeds:

So, it depends on your efforts and the time you spend at it. The more you spend at it, the faster you get it done. The least expensive it is.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, right, and it's an investment but could pay off, you know, for that lifetime commitment to flying. And tell us about your experiences. What do you fly? Have you had any really cool experiences in the air?

Kelly Deeds:

I've had many. I've been, like I said, I've been flying for 30 years. I've owned my own aircraft for almost that same length of time. I've been fortunate to fly all over the United States. I've also flown in Australia. I've also flown in China. I was based in Seattle for a few years so I got to fly up into Alaska and back again. So I've been fortunate to fly a lot of different places. Most of my personal flying is as family or oriented like that. This weekend we're flying up to Minnesota to see my wife's folks, which takes a six-hour drive down to about a two-and-a-half-hour flight.

Beth Bobbitt:

That's nice.

Kelly Deeds:

Yeah, so cool experiences I've had many, you know, being around Bentonville. If you don't know, the Thaden Field has a few antique classic aircraft there. So always being around history is always really cool to me. I've had a few close encounters with UAVs out there, some that's caused some serious problems, diversion type stuff. But I've also been able to count wild horses in Washington State. So we went out and had to do a wild horse count on one of the reservations there. That was a lot of fun trying to count air horses as they were moving.

Beth Bobbitt:

Wow, so the wild Mustangs Right, yeah, and you can also take a scenic flight right here in Northwest Arkansas. I've done that and we flew over Beaver Lake and it was just majestic, and so I don't know if people know about that offering.

Kelly Deeds:

Yeah, but it's one of our offerings that we have there, so we have scenic flights that can last anywhere from a half an hour to two hours however long you'd like to be, and you can do. There's nothing better than Beaver Lake in the evening. Yeah, you get a really good sunset over there and it's coming off the out of the west and you get a really cool view of that. Or you can go a little bit further north, up to Branson, and see the lights of Branson as they come on as the sun sets.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah.

Kelly Deeds:

That's really cool.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yes, I recommend it highly. So in your mind, why is providing these experiences and education opportunities important for Northwest Arkansas?

Kelly Deeds:

So aviation makes the world smaller. So you can get someplace in the world in the same day you go back. It's not that many years ago that if you had to take a boat or a train, it would take you two or three days to get across the United States. Now you can be across in just a few hours. So aviation makes the world smaller. It makes it more compact and allows you to do more things on a shorter time frame. Just like cell phones Cell phones everybody thought it would enhance your daily lives. Aviation did that back in the 30s and 40s and 50s. So true?

Beth Bobbitt:

Yes, connects us all. What about programs and partnerships? Anything new or exciting coming up you want to talk about?

Kelly Deeds:

Well, we have many partnerships with Summit Aviation at Thaden Field and some of them are. We do have some partnerships with some of the airlines that feed we can feed excuse me pilots up through our flight school that end up as a flight instructor and we can go out and work with them and feed those off to Envoy Airlines and SkyWest, and we've had some connections there. So other things about that. We do have in-house positions that are available. So if you work your way up, gain the hours to qualify you.

Kelly Deeds:

We do have a charter department that we hire pilots for on a regular basis. So and that's the flying side of it If you don't want to fly and you still want to be involved in aviation and see all that's going on, there's other positions where you can work outside on the line with the aircraft or front desk. Obviously, if you work at Louise you can be around it all the time. And then we also have our charter department and we have a social club on site called Fly Oz, and the social club allows you to come out and partake of the environment. So FlyOz does have a flying club. With seven aircraft it allows you to either go cross-country or, if you really want to get down in the dirt, we have Piper Super Cubs that you can take out and get into the backcountry grass trips that northwest Arkansas and actually the whole state offers up.

Beth Bobbitt:

Wow, so much, so much opportunity for those who want to fly or just learn about aviation, and thank you for all that you do, and we usually end with a wrap-up question. We ask all our guests and so this is kind of fun what would a dream day in Bentonville look like for you? So what would you do or see, or eat?

Kelly Deeds:

I have friends that come visit and they kid me all the time that I don't go to work. I go to have fun. So being around aircraft every day is fun, so a dream day. I've already been halfway through one today. We've had an L-39 jet come through this morning to stop for fuel, which was very cool to talk to those pilots as where they're going and what they're doing. So it's just visiting all the folks that come through the airport and seeing what's going on and seeing what we add to the local community. So whether they're coming into town to do business with one of the local companies, whether they're coming to see friends, and now, as Bentonville this incredible town, whether you're biking or getting into the lakes or just hanging out and enjoying the environment, it's been really cool because our vacation traffic has picked up Right and we're seeing the folks come in to visit and see what's in Bentonville and see what's here.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, and you know when you're flying you get that sort of overview of what it looks like in Bentonville the orientation. You can see all the rivers and the lakes and the hills and the amenities Crystal Bridges, the museum, the museum from the air is very unique looking. Gorgeous.

Kelly Deeds:

All the different trails that you see. Like I said, we have the backcountry stuff that's out there as well too, but Northwest Arkansas is a very cool area. I've been many different places, but this is where we've decided to set down our roots and stay here for long term.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, well, we're glad you did so. How do folks learn more about your offerings? Newsletter, social.

Kelly Deeds:

Yeah, well, we have our own website. We have an internal newsletter that if they reach out to the FlyOz Club online they will sign them up, and that newsletter provides you all the information that's going on. We also do local events. We did a Father's Day event earlier this year. That was a huge success. Or just like the antique aircraft that are coming through, if we know in advance they're coming, we'll post something up so people know that's going on. If there's anything on the professional side, in other words, an aviation growth side, we'll post that up through either on our website or through the FlyOz newsletter.

Kelly Deeds:

Excellent so let them know what opportunities are out there and what's going on.

Beth Bobbitt:

Great Well, thanks, Kelly. So much for coming on. This was a pleasure, and I hope you all get to check out Thaden Field and Summit Aviation soon. And don't forget, Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Give us a follow on social media, sign up for the newsletter and check out our website at VisitBentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.