In what has become a tradition, Lynden Air Cargo Captain Pat Madland flew into Birch Creek, AK and invited some of the local kids to sit in the cockpit of the Hercules. "Birch Creek is a destination we don't go to often. At those smaller places people often bring their kids out to see the big airplane. Airplanes are a part of their way of life, but it's an event when a large airplane comes into the village. They are usually quiet places and the Herc is big and noisy. For them it's a spectacle. It's pretty exciting for them so I usually put them in the seats for a picture."
Pat met someone recently from the village of Red Devil. "She was about 30," he says. "I told her of taking a picture with the whole school in the cockpit of the airplane years ago. She remembered and said she was one of those kids." Here's the photo from a Lynden news story in 2003.
Pat's friendly demeanor and experience comes from years of flying for Lynden and from having kids of his own. "I went to work for Lynden as a Herc captain when Jim (Jansen) bought the first two airplanes in 1997. I have a son who was born the following year and a daughter born in 2001. She's at university in Oregon, and my son is flying airplanes in bush Alaska."
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