Salina, Kan., Airport Manager Expands Refueling Service

Prevailing west winds brought Eldon Engel to Salina 32 years ago, where he began refueling corporate jets out of trailer house.

The Army veteran opened Flower Aviation in 1969 at the Pueblo, Colo., airport and was having success with private jets flying east to west.

"When the same plane was going west to east, he would over-fly Pueblo because of the tailwinds," Engel, 66, said.

"It became apparent I had to look for another location farther east," he said.

Salina was a perfect spot, with a long runway that was left when the former Schilling Air Force Base closed roughly a decade earlier.

In 1974, Engel and then airport manager Mike Scanlan obtained a waiver from the Salina City Commission to first operate out of a trailer house.

Within days, the entrepreneur began working on a permanent building, which Flower Aviation moved into in the spring of 1976.

Monday, Engel celebrated the grand opening of Flower Aviation's new, $850,000 building, which was completed this past spring.

"It was a race as to whether that old building was going to fall down before this one was completed," Engel, 66, quipped as he recounted company history at the reception.

"Today you'll be looking at one of the finest terminal facilities for business aircraft in the nation," Salina Airport Authority Executive Director Tim Rogers told the audience. About 30 people attended the ceremony.

Quick and quicker Engel built his business on customer service. The average time to refuel an aircraft is six minutes at the company's three locations -- Salina, Garden City and Pueblo.

"Most of our customers are flying coast to coast," Engel said. "Those jets don't make any money sitting on the ground."

Engel is the undisputed "king of the quick turn," said Murray Smith, editor and publisher of Professional Pilot Magazine, Alexandria, Va.

"He probably has the fastest turn in the world, certainly in the U.S," Smith said.

Profit potential prompted Engel, who in 1965 was working as an engineer for the city of Colorado Springs, Colo., to enter the fixed based operator business. He joined his sister Ann and then brother-in-law, Bob Markowski at their fixed based operator business in Grand Island, Neb., With four children, Engel said, "probably money was the biggest motivator."

Three years later, Engel broke out on his own and opened Engel Flying Service, in Alamosa. It was there that he coined a new name, thanks to renowned defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, who stopped in Alamosa to refuel his aircraft.

"He called back to the flight service station and said he couldn't remember the name of the company that had just given him the good service," Engel said.

Engel took the "Flower" name from the "flower children" of the late 1960s. Engel kept the name when he relocated to Pueblo in 1969, and at Salina in the mid-70s.

"The girls wore hot pants at all the locations and they gave out flowers many times," Rogers said.

Speed was the game, Engel said. Early on, he offered free steaks to pilots if their aircraft wasn't back in the air in 10 minutes.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.