Greg and Nancy Lucas love to fly. And they both have a bit of a competitive streak.
So, when the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission launched its new Fly Oklahoma app and Passport Program earlier this summer, the Elmore City couple went right to work flying into as many of the 110 Oklahoma airports registered to the program as they could, collecting digital stamps to fill their Fly Oklahoma Passports along the way.
In just under two months the couple flew into 109 airports across the state, becoming the first Fly Oklahoma Passport participants to reach the gold level of the program.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Nancy, who began learning to fly last year and has about seven hours of flight time under her belt.
Her husband, Greg, is an experienced pilot, who has logged more than 1,800 hours in the cockpit since earning his pilot’s license in 1996.
“It is. It’s been a good deal. I’ve flown a lot, and I’ve landed in every state, but a lot of these airports I hadn’t been to before,” he said.
And that’s the point of the Fly Oklahoma Passport Program and app, to encourage aviators to experience the beauty of Oklahoma while visiting its airports and the communities around them. The Passport Program rewards participants at three different levels. Those who fly into 35 Oklahoma airports achieve bronze level, receiving a Fly Oklahoma hat. Silver is marked at 70 airports with a Fly Oklahoma insulated water bottle and challenge coin, while those attaining the gold level at 105 airports earn a flight jacket and custom patch.
Participants use the app to check-in at each airport and to track their progress. There is also a leaderboard that displays the progress of the top 15 pilots, including how many airports they have visited.
“When we first did it that first day there were only four or five on the leaderboard. We weren’t even on the board at all.” Nancy said. “We didn’t even show up. So of course, we had to fly until we made it on the board.”
In addition to the Passport Program, the app includes a directory of airports and provides pilots and passengers easy access to information on things like fuel availability, runway data, and whether amenities such as restrooms or ground transportation are available. It also lists local events, attractions, food and lodging.
“It’s a pretty smart app,” Nancy said.
As they tackled the list of airports, Greg and Nancy broke the map up into quadrants and worked each section until they completed it.
“I had them all listed out, so Greg could punch them in and we could go. We didn’t want to waste any time trying to figure out, ‘Where are we? What are we doing?’” Nancy said.
Over the seven weeks it took them to fly into 109 Oklahoma airports, they logged more than 32 hours in Greg’s 1979 Cessna 180 Skywagon II. More than once, the couple flew into as many as 22 airports in a day. Their longest trip was flying to check-in at airports in the Oklahoma panhandle, a jaunt that took just over seven hours.
As they have traveled, they have made note of places they would like to return to and spend more time, including Grand Lake and the Eufaula area.
One of the sites that made a big impression was the Clinton-Sherman airport at Burns Flat. Originally built as a naval air base during World War II, the site later served as a Strategic Air Command Base during the Cold War. It is home to a 13,502-foot runway that was at one time considered an alternate landing site for the space shuttle program.
“We touched down on the end of it, and then flew a foot off of it the whole way down,” Greg said. “It’s crazy how long it is. People don’t understand. We flew by it a couple of weeks ago when we were finishing up, and you could see it for miles and miles away.”
“That was very cool. I will want to go back to that one when we’re not trying to knock ‘em out,” Nancy added.
The Lucas’ will be at the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission meeting on Dec. 7, where they will be presented with their flight jackets and challenge coins for acheiving the Fly Oklahoma Passport gold level.
