Mojave Air & Space Port Directors seats open in November election

As I mentioned in a previous article, there will be three seats up for election on Nov. 5.

Incumbents, Diane Barney, Robert Morgan and Chuck Coleman are all running again, plus four other candidates, including: Jim Crocoll, Andrew Parker, Jeremy Woods and myself.

I detailed information about Diane Barney and Jim Crocoll in an earlier article and thought I would introduce you to some others who are running.

I like to let people connect a face with a name. Many readers know some of the candidates personally, but if you don't, I want to fill in some information about two more candidates, plus my qualifications.

Courtesy Bob Morgan.

Bob Morgan.

Bob earned his Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering Degree from Ohio State University and worked at Bell Helicopter Textron in Texas as a Project Engineer and Preliminary Design Engineer on unmanned tiltrotor aircraft before coming to Mojave in the late 1990s.

Morgan worked at Scaled Composites on building the Rotary Rocket Roton ATV (Atmospheric Test Vehicle) that was built under contract by Scaled Composites for use in hover test flights in 1999.

The Rotary Rocket Roton ATV is on permanent display at Mojave Air & Space Port.

Morgan worked on many well-known projects while at Scaled, including: VG Global Flyer, SpaceShipOne, Raptor D2, Virgin Galactic White Knight 2 and Spaceship Two and served as Flight Test Engineer on Proteus.

Morgan is rated to fly single- and multi-engine land, rotorcraft, seaplanes, with over 2,300 hours as pilot in command.

Courtesy Chuck Coleman.

Chuck Coleman.

Chuck Coleman is an engineer, airshow pilot, test pilot and a flight instructor with over 10,000 hours as pilot in command (PIC).

He has a total time of flying with more than 4,100 hours in the extra 300 series aircraft alone. He has performed in hundreds of airshows and given thousands of rides in aerobatic aircraft.

He was a test pilot for ICON Aircraft flight testing the ICON A5 Amphibian performing FAA certification profiles and first flight of twenty-five ICON A5's.

Coleman has an Aerospace/Mechanical Degree from the University of Michigan. He is also an FAA licensed Airframe and PowerPlant (A&P) Mechanic with inspection Authorization (IA).

He flew for the movie "Top Gun Maverick," which allowed him membership in the Screen Actor Guild (SAG).

He also provided aerial support and help to win the Peabody award for the documentary "Black Sky: The Race for Space" in 2004. It was about SpaceShipOne and how a small team at Scaled Composites, backed by Paul G. Allen, won the Ansari X-Prize.

Doug Burdick.

Cathy Hansen by helicopter.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, her family moved to California when her father, a Civil Service Instrumentation Technician and machinist, was transferred to Edwards AFB from Wright-Patterson AFB in 1951.

She lived on base in Wherry housing. She saw Convair B-36s and North American F-86s flying while living on base. Her first flight, at the age of 4, was in a 40-horse Taylorcraft aircraft from Vandalia Airport.

Aviation has always been an important part of her life, and she has been involved in aircraft restoration for over 50 years. She worked as a volunteer with the Mojave Air Races from 1969-1979. Reno Air Races in 1980s part of pit crew for F4U-7 Corsair.

Cathy served on Mojave Airport, East Kern Airport District Board, now known as Mojave Air & Space Port, as an elected Director for 17 years, from 1995-2012, and was the first woman to be elected to the EKAD Board in 1998.

Cathy loves the history of Mojave Airport and MCAS Mojave. She has served as coordinator of the veterans Day Ceremony at Mojave Airport since 1996; and facilitated the Marine Corps Air Station Mojave Plaque Dedication Ceremony honoring WWII and Korea War pilots and air crew's in1996.

She served as President of Bakersfield Council Navy League for 17 years, from 1995-2012 and served as Navy League National Director from 2000- 2009.

Her first position on the Mojave Chamber of Commerce was working on the Gold Rush Days Parade in the early 1990s. She has served as a Mojave Chamber of Commerce Board Member since 1994-2018 and served as President in 1995 and 2012. She pushed to raise funds to preserve chamber caboose while serving as president. She also initiated the Revitalize Mojave campaign while serving with the Mojave Chamber Board of Directors. Cathy is a founding member of the Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation in 2002, presently serving as President and is the Coordinator of Plane Crazy Saturday held at Mojave Air and Space Port on the third Saturday of each month, since 2009. Cathy celebrated her 15th anniversary in January.

Cathy is a licensed pilot – single-engine land; multi-engine land; and rotor wing ratings.