With a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, pilots John Holmes and Grayson Pogue establish Shepparton in October 1997 to provide corporate and small group passenger flights to Sydney and Canberra on a scheduled and charter basis.
Daily roundtrip service is maintained in 1998 and the little company takes particular pride in its level of personal service to its customers. Unhappily, the company is forced to halt scheduled services in 1999.
SHIKOKU AIRWAYS COMPANY, LTD.: 1-1-5 Bancho, Takamatsu-shi, Kagawa-ken, 760, Japan; Phone 81 878-51-7500; Fax 81 878-517547; Year Founded 1956. Shikoku is established at Takamatsu in 1956 to operate passenger and light cargo charters, and later, to provide mede-vac and other rotary-wing work. By 2000, the company employs 15 fulltime pilots and operates 4 Eurocopter AS-350B Ecureuils, 1 AS-360C Dauphin, 1 Hughes HU-369, and 2 Eurocopter SA-315B Lamas. It also flies 3 Cessna 172 Skyhawks.
SHILLELAGH AIR TRAVEL CLUB (SHILLELAGHS, THE TRAVEL CLUB): 8027 Leesburg Pike, Suite 413, Vienna, Virginia, 22180, United States; Phone (703) 556-8646; Fax (703) 556-8648; Http://www. fairfaxcountyva. com/travel/club. htm; Year Founded 1964. In early 1964, three lawyer/private pilots, Roy Swayze, Frank Cowles, and Gordon Kincheloe join with American Airlines Captain Tom Latta to form an aircraft dealership at Washington, D. C. (lAD) known as Dulles International Aircraft Corporation. The operation begins with a single Beech 18, which is often employed for charters and small group excursions.
In the spring, word is received that National Airlines (1) is selling four Douglas DC-7Bs as they are withdrawn from scheduled service. Swayze and Kincheloe fly to Miami, where they join partner Cowles in making a down payment on the $110,000 as-is purchase price of the four piston-engine planes. The first aircraft is delivered to Dulles without difficulty and by midsummer is sold, generating sufficient funds to cover the cost of the plane plus the second for which DIAC had contracted.
In September, National calls the DIAC office and informs them that the second DC-7B is now off-service and strongly suggests that it be retrieved before a hurricane, reportedly closing in on Miami airport, arrives. With partners Swayze and Cowles along, Capt. Latta retrieves the aircraft, which must undergo some repair and for which no buyer is available.
After several efforts to sell the aircraft fail, the four reason that, if four people could own a Beechcraft and operate it on charters, a thousand people could join together and own a larger aircraft, say a DC-7B, for the same purpose. A club could be established that would permit its members unique travel experiences to distant locations in their commonly owned aircraft.
Patterned after the general administration and dues structure of a suburban country club, the new organization, which takes its name from the Irish word for “walking stick,” is established on October 1 as the Emerald Shillelagh Chowder and Marching Society. The second DC-7B becomes the ESCAMS aircraft, making the group the first U. S. travel club to own its own aircraft. With a name, some members, and an airplane, the club now chooses officers, writes a constitution and bylaws, and completes the paperwork necessary for incorporation in the State of Virginia. It also makes certain that its aircraft and organization are prepared to pass FAA review and to operate under its Part 91 General Aviation rules.
At this point, a membership drive is conducted, promising trips at fares significantly lower than those charged by any of the other U. S. airlines, scheduled or charter. Annual membership dues will be $100 per person and the first destination will be Montego Bay, Jamaica. The share cost for any member making the trip is to be $57. Meanwhile, Alice Foy, the soprano soloist at the Bunratty Castle in Ireland, is recruited to come to America and work as the ESCAMS hostess.
With the majority of the plane’s 88 seats sold to new members or otherwise occupied by club friends, Capt. Latta, who has also hired a copilot, flight engineer, and two flight attendants (then called “stewardesses”), departs for Jamaica on a Saturday late in the month. The inaugural flight, which passes near Cuba, is intercepted but not troubled by Cuban Air Force MIG 21 fighters. The new travel experience is completed with a return flight to Washington, D. C. (IAD) the next day.
The second flight is made to Las Vegas, followed by Andros Island in the Bahamas, and Mexico City. On the return home from Mexico, one of the DC-7B’s four engines loses power, causing Capt. Latta to put down at Houston rather than risking flying back to Washington, D. C. through a series of storms. Unhappily, no one aboard has any money. Fortunately, club President Kincheloe has his American Express credit card. Arrangements are made with Braniff International Airways to fly everyone aboard to Dallas and then on to Dulles.
DIAC is, meanwhile, able to dispose of the last two ex-National Airlines (1) DC-7Bs, both to travel clubs begun after ESCAMS. In the next two years, the company employs its own part-time mechanics, led as crew chief by former United Air Lines mechanic Donald Hoskins, and brings on former naval aviator Comdr. Robert M. Hurt.
In July 1968, the original DC-7B is joined by another DC-7B from Delta Air Lines. The first aircraft is withdrawn in September. In March 1969, the group falls under the new FAA Part 123 regulations specifically designed to cover air travel clubs. Flights continue without headline or incident until May 1971, when the DC-7C is sold and the club is, temporarily, without an aircraft.
A Lockheed L-188C Electra is purchased from Northwest Airlines in March 1972 and will provide lift for the club members for the remainder of the decade to points all over North and South America, the Caribbean, Canada, and a few other points as well. In February 1981, the FAA revises its rules for travel clubs, allowing them to fall under the same part of its rule book (Part 125) as corporate organizations. The principal advantage here is that club pilots are able to fly beyond the age 60 retirement required of commercial pilots.
ESCAMS enters the jet age in May 1983 when it acquires a former American Trans Air Boeing 720. The aircraft will be operated until January 1985. By now, deregulation of the American domestic airline industry has significantly lowered airfares and ended the principal reason why air travel clubs were invented. Additionally, fuel and maintenance costs have also significantly risen. With membership numbers declining and prices rising, this pioneer group cannot afford to maintain its own aircraft any longer. As a result, Capt. Hurt, who is now director of operations, makes the last ESCAMS flight with an owned aircraft from Washington, D. C. (IAD) to Miami on February 23, 1986. At Miami, the Electra is sold to a local cargo operation.
Without its own capacity, ESCAMS is now reformed into a specialized inclusive tour travel agency for its members, Shillelaghs, The Travel Club. Under its executive director of operations Carolyn Dodek, exotic excursions continue to be booked for members to a variety of locations using commercial travel on planes, trains, ships, and motor coaches. These range from moderately priced trips to high-end luxury adventures.
By 2000, Shillelaghs has 1,900 members and runs an average of 71 trips a year for them. Particularly successful are its trips to northern Canada for the observation of beluga whales in Hudson Bay and polar bears at Churchill. The Galapagos Islands are another popular destination. Additionally, trips for senior citizens are a specialty and trips to Ireland, home of the shillelagh, are offered three or four times a year.
SHIN CHUO KOKU, K. K.: Ohshima Airport, Ohshima, Tokyo, Japan; Phone 81 4992-2-1651; Year Founded 1979. This little carrier is set up on Oshima Island in 1979 to provide passenger charters to the mainland. By 2000, founder Shigemitsu Takei oversees the flights of 6 Cessna 172 Skyhawks.
World History
