One day, Dale was doing a pre-flight inspection on the 310B airplane on the gravel runway at Gold Beach, a stranger walked up to Dale and asked him, is this your plane.. Dale said yes. The stranger asked “Do you have a twin rating to fly this plane” Dales said “No.” Stranger: “Well, I’m from the FAA.
Why don’t we go up and take care of that right now.” He and Dale went up, went through the twin engine check ride, then certified Dale on the spot.
In addition to getting Dale from Portland to statewide construction projects, the 310B came in handy for such things as flying Beckie from Gold Beach to her Portland orthodontist appointment.
Gold Beach Jetties, 1959
The Gold Beach jetties were constructed of rocks as large as 35 tons that were mined from a quarry above the City of Gold Beach. The solid quarry rock was drilled and blasted, then loaded by shovels into off highway trucks. A haul road was constructed down to highway 101 where Curry County’s first stop light was installed to speed the trucks crossing the highway. From there, the haul road continued along the beach below town and out to the jetties.
The ultimate determinant of productivity in the construction of a jetty comes down to how fast the crane can place the jetty rocks at the advancing end of the jetty. This work requires the crane operator to accurately place the rocks unseen under the water, feeling through the hoist cables how the rock is settling into place. Since only about 15 crane operators in the world were highly skilled at this work, they could demand to be paid double the typical public works hourly wage rate.
Dallas’ family lived in Gold Beach making friends far and wide. Bonnie and Beckie attended 6th and 2nd grades there. Dallas would usually figure out who were the “movers & shakers” when managing projects in small Northwest towns. Rich Buffington, the town mayor and Pontiac dealership owner, was that person in Gold Beach. As a pilot, Rich appreciated the haul road to the jetty which could be also be used as the town’s air strip. Rich’s daughter Debroah Ann “DA” later graduated from nursing school with Bonnie. Over the years, if Dallas didn’t have enough crew to do some tasks, he would “rope his daughters into so many things”, for example, flagging or shagging parts, etc., whether they were under aged, had driver’s licences or not.
Dale sent Mike here to chase parts and grade the haul road during the summer to keep him away from his Lake Oswego girlfriend who was
then a 6 hour drive away. Mike made a lot of weekend trips back to Lake Oswego that summer.
Dallas also built a softball field for the Gold Beach elementary school, putting him in good favor with everybody. This came in handy when the company had to install the stop light.
