March 5, 2019 Pancho

The Liberty Gazette

March 5, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: What a fun name for a dude ranch—Happy Bottom Riding Club. You might have seen the popular guest ranch featured in the movie (and the book), The Right Stuff. The ranch owner, Pancho Barnes, was an accomplished equestrian and good buds with Chuck Yeager, the World War II flying Ace. He became famous, and chance smiled upon him. Yeager seemed to be in the right place at the right time to be given the opportunity in 1947 to be the first to break the sound barrier. Pancho served him a free steak dinner for his efforts, and as other pilots eventually broke the sound barrier, they also received a free steak dinner at the Happy Bottom Riding Club. It became a thing, beef-for-speed.

That was way out there on the left coast, near Muroc (now Edwards) Air Force base in the Mojave Desert. Test pilots and Hollywood celebrities used to hang out there at Pancho’s club, which also had a swimming pool and airstrip. Of course, an airstrip. Pancho was a pilot, too. That happened one day while driving her cousin Dean to his flying lessons—this was in 1928—and she decided she wanted to try it too. Ben Caitlin was the World War I veteran who taught both Pancho and Dean. After only six hours of formal instruction, our heroine took off for her first solo flight.

In fact, she was one of the first women to race airplanes because, what could an outdoorsy-type of gal with a hefty inheritance do with her time and talent? Well, she could compete—after all, she had the right stuff. That is, the skill.

That four-day-long, all-female air race I have competed in several times, the Air Race Classic, commemorates the women who went against the grain in 1929. When they were denied entry to the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio, they made their own race, starting in Santa Monica, California, with the finish line being—you guessed it, at the start of the National Air Races in Cleveland. Pancho was one of twenty women who loved flying so much that they vowed the Women’s Air Derby, as the race was originally called, would begin to change attitudes toward female flyers. It did. She won the race in 1930, smashing Amelia Earhart’s record with a speed of 196.19 miles an hour.

The following year, she became a Hollywood stunt pilot and formed the union, Associated Motion Picture Pilots. She promoted flying safety and standardized pay for aerial stunt work. She also flew in several films, including Howard Hughes’ Hells Angels.

By the way, her nickname came from her time in Mexico. She disguised herself as a man so as not to be caught by authorities during the revolution there. Her real name was Florence, but the name Pancho really fit her appearance and her personality better. Especially as the CEO of the Happy Bottom Riding Club.

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