The Godfather: Calvin Benjamin AufderHeide

The Man, The Legend

This handsome fella is quite possibly my favorite human on earth! This is my papa Cal that started AufderHeide Flying Service over 60 years ago. He is funny, hard working outgoing, generous, and always knows how to fix something when it's broke. And truth be told, I am probably his favorite person on earth too... For sure his favorite grandchild! Ssshhh don't tell Matthew or Alexis! :)

Papa first came to DeWitt in April of 1948. He was a recent graduate of Spartan College of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma and had taken a job as an instructor for Smith and Jones out west of town. He actually had another instructor position waiting on him at Iowa State University; however, the last day of school he saw the job listing for Smith and Jones in DeWitt, Arkansas on a school bulletin board and figured Arkansas was much warmer than Iowa. Cal grew up with cold Missouri winters and he decided he had had enough.

So off he went to the booming metropolis of DeWitt, Arkansas. The first year at Smith and Jones he was strictly an instructor. Then in 1949 he began crop dusting for the company and stayed on through the the beginning of 1950. His plane was an N-3N. As he explained to me, a N-3N was a bi-winged plane kinda like an Ag-Cat but just a little smaller.

In the hot, mosquito-filled summer of 1950 papa went out on his own and started AufderHeide Flying Service. The first plane he bough was an old Stearman. The Stearman was basically the same thing as an N-3N, the only difference was the Stearman was used as an Army trainer whereas the N-3N was used in Naval training. In 1953, Cal's brother-in-law joined him and the operation became A & M Flying Service. The two crop dusters also established an irrigation company in 70's, but as you can imagine two companies can be quite a bit of work and in the mid 70's Cal and John split up. John took over the irrigation business and Cal resumed sole control of the flying services, re-establishing the name AufderHeide Flying Service.

Papa has a lot of great stories about those first years: One involved a pilot from Pine Bluff named "Booger Red". Booger Red had a J-3 Cub. One day Booger Red was drunk and gambling at the Smith and Jones airstrip, Red ended up loosing the bet and lost his airplane to Jones... Since poppa was the new kid he had to fly Booger Red (half passed out and smoking a cig when he could stay awake) back to Pine Bluff. Pop was terrified that any second the ash would catch the fabric on fire and they would all go up in flames. Booger Red; what an awesome name. Another time Cal and John spent an entire winter in a small hut with only a pot belly stove, working to completely restore an old Stearman. Stearmans were mainly constructed of fabric and held together with a special kind of glue, so this was a very long, tedious process that sometimes ended with them being around fabric glue for a little too long. :) Any who Spring came and they finally completed the magnificent structure... Second load papa takes out he crashed and totally destroyed the plane. He walked away without a scratch and with the determination to start again. :)

In the late 70's, about two years after graduating from Arkansas State University, my Daddy Mark, obtained his commercial license and also joined papa in the flying fleet. The father/son duo worked beside each other along with several great pilots, for many years. Around the 90's Cal turned from pilot to office manager/main mechanic where he remained until just a few years ago. He taught Matthew how to fly and taught me how to run the books; more importantly though, he has taught us the importance of customer service and the value of hard work.

Cal is now in full retirement mode. He takes his camper to Hot Springs every year to watch the horse races (although "they just aren't running right this year") and goes to Branson about once every three months. He's become a pro at "freezing corn", "shuckin' peas", and cooking ribs. He can't stay away from this place for too long though... He came out to today to get a wrench to change his lawn mower tire; however, as you can see he made himself right at home on the couch!