For the love of flying

A unifying love of flying brought people together for the Iowa Aviation Museum Hall of Fame Induction Saturday, Aug. 27.

The museum held its fly-in/drive-in pancake meal prior, with the Fontanelle Lions Club preparing and serving the pancakes.

Nicholas Turner and Connie Rex Younger were this year’s inductees to the Hall of Fame.

Nominees are vetted each winter by a three-person, third-party group and are chosen based on their love for aviation and their impact on Iowa aviation history.

“As of today, we have 81 members in our hall of fame. Today we’re going to add a couple more,” said museum president Greg Schildberg. “The love of this place is something all of us cherish.”

Turner, whose father Larry was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021, joined the United States Marine Corps in 2001. He eventually became a part of the “Ugly Angels,” the same squadron that his father was assigned to in 1965. He was a helicopter pilot in three different deployments before he was selected to join the Marine One squadron, which carries the President and Vice-President, and was one of 12 White House liaison officers. Turner deployed for a fourth and fifth time in 2013 and 2017, respectively. In 2018, he became the second Marine division air officer and oversaw training and deployment requirements for several Marine infantry regiments or infantry battalions. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 2018, then retired in 2021 with over 2,500 hours of mishap free flight time in over 20 years of military service.

During his acceptance speech, Turner recalled his best day in an aircraft, worst day in an aircraft, his earliest memory of flying and what he loves about flying.

Turner’s best day in an aircraft was when he was flying with his dad. He said he was able to do that more than once. After his own military service, Turner’s dad owned a heavy-lifting and spraying helicopter business out of their farm at Elliott in Montgomery County.

His worst day was one when he experienced incapacitated vertigo while flying in Iraq in 2007. He said, “I was completely helpless, because what I thought was straight and level was not straight and level. Once I figured out that I was not straight and level, I was messed up. If you remember being completely dizzy and not being able to do anything about that, try doing that in a helicopter.”

His earliest memory of flying was when his dad did a flyover at a Red Oak playoff baseball game. Nick wasn’t able to be on board for that flight, but their family has a picture of him standing near the dugout with his father hovering in the helicopter over the diamond during pregame. Another is when the Turners were flying home from Denver when he was a kid. He would sit in the back of the airplane playing with his Matchbox cars while his dad would push the yolk forward so they would get negative Gs and his cars would float.

“I love flying because it is something I could share with my father. It was a language only the two of us could speak. We understood each other sometimes without even talking,” Turner said.

Younger’s daughter Susan Gauvin of Oakland, California, who is also a pilot, accepted the award for her father, who passed away in 2016.

Younger was a lover of aviation and music, among other things. He taught glider flying and pilot training at a couple of different universities, including Iowa State. He logged thousands of hours, his obituary says, transporting sports teams and coaches, professors and state officials, in his position. He was heavily involved at the Boone Municipal Airport. He flew sightseeing tours in Alaska, and in all, logged more than 20,000 accident-free pilot hours.

“I’m incredibly honored to be here because Connie was not only my flight instructor, he was my dad,” Gauvin said. “My dad was very humble, but since he’s not here to be embarrassed or give me a hard time, I’m going to do some bragging on his behalf.”

Younger shared that his father once won an award for having flown the farthest in a glider competition in Ohio, and that likely led him to teach glider-flying lessons. Gauvin said her dad taught countless prospective pilots and road with countless for check rides.

“I want to thank his wife, Lisa, for nominating him, and to the selection committee for recognizing his achievements,” Gauvin said. “They couldn’t have chosen anyone more devoted to flying. He absolutely loved flying and all things aviation.”