PRESS & REVIEWS:

Book Review
Sunshine Skies: Historic Commuter Airlines of Florida and Georgia
La Floridiana
January 1-8, 2006
By William Moriaty

In the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story", little Ralphie Parker received after his family's gift giving "bacchanalia" what he truly considered to be his prize desire - - a Red Ryder B-B Gun.

After spending two separate occasions two weeks ago, one on Christmas Eve, the other on Christmas Day in my own gift-giving "bacchanalia", my most prized gift this year (outside of course of my health, wife, family and friends) showed up on my door step in an unassuming large envelope bearing the words "Cafe Press".

My book, "William Moriaty's Florida" is currently printed by Cafe Press, so I was thinking that it would be silly of them to send me a complimentary copy of my own work. As I tore away at the envelope's seal with great abandon, my mind (what's left of it, that is) wandered back several months ago to a series of e-mails that transpired between me and a La Floridiana reader named David P. Henderson of Conyers, Georgia.

Mr. Henderson had seen my five-part articles on Florida's Golden Age of commuter airlines back in issues #214, 215, 216, 217, and 218. He shared with me that he had been researching Florida commuter Shawnee Airlines of Orlando. As a result of our shared interest in this field, we communicated electronically on an "unscheduled" basis.

In a communication written as recently as December 14, 2005, David hinted that he would have his own book out on the commuter airlines of Florida and Georgia "soon".

Once freed from the bondage of its envelope, I beheld one of the loveliest sights that these two eyes had seen in years. On glossy stock paper was a Bob Garrard photo of the silhouette of a Naples/PBA Douglas DC-3 on finals to Miami International Airport in March 1983 against a blazing orange sunset with a row of silhouetted approach light towers beneath it.

Immediately I set aside all other chores and distractions and consumed the contents of this book as if it were Manna from Heaven.

Henderson's heartfelt book is undeniably one of the finest books covering Florida's aviation history.

Incredibly detailed accounts of the operations of commercial aviation's most unique aircraft, most colorful paint schemes and most interesting entrepreneurs make this book one of the most fascinating reads for the person who was ever connected on a professional level, or interested on an enthusiasts level of the 1960's to 1980's commercial airline scenes of Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Key West, Brunswick and other locales in America's two most southeastern states.

Henderson outlines these colorful carriers starting as far back as the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line of 1914 which was founded by pilot Tony Jannus, and considered to be the first regularly scheduled airline in world history. This is then followed up with the chronological history of carriers ranging from the 1919 creation of Chalk's, to the heart-wrenching and unceremonious demise of DC-3 operator Naples/PBA on September 7, 1988. The emergence and fall of commuter heavy-weights Air Florida and Naples/PBA is painstakingly chronicled, of which Naples/PBA earned three separate chapters of its folklore in this unique book.

As I stated in the book's Preface, "This book is your ticket to meeting the people and equipment that defined the last of commuter aviation's true entrepreneurs before industry shakeouts, mega mergers, spiraling fuel costs and time and age replaced them with generic and mediocre carriers sporting the colors and personas of America's major carriers. " Henderson also brought out in this book a factor that also contributed to the doom of these indigenous airlines that I had totally overlooked in my assessment - - the completion of Florida's and Georgia's Interstate highway systems.

Henderson's book is truly a masterpiece, told with heart and wit and backed up with tireless research complete with fleet information and passenger statistics as well as incredibly rare photos of these commuters at the ramps and in the air of Florida's and Georgia's airports. Amongst my many favorite photos are the one of Henderson himself, posed at the age of twelve in 1979 at Atlanta Hartsfield (now Hartsfield-Jackson) International Airport; his father boarding an Air Sunshine Convair 440 in Marathon in 1978; and a gorgeous photo he took of a sunset over the Seven Mile Bridge of the Florida Keys taken from a Naples/PBA DC-3 in 1981(that alone is to me worth the purchase of the book!); not to be overlooked are photos of a Red Carpet DC-3, and an Atlantic-Gulf Vickers Viscount, both of which were fixtures at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport when I lived about a mile away from that facility from the mid-seventies to mid-eighties. In addition, the book is filled with rare and incredible airline timetable covers and promotional pieces and photos.

This book should not be limited to just the collector and interests of the regional aviation niche. It is possibly the only journal of its kind to showcase to the world a rich yet fleetingly forgotten history endemic to an era and location that produced some of the most magnificent, rare and unique sights in the realm of commercial aviation. A history that we will never known again.

They are undeniably gone, but David P. Henderson's book "Sunshine Skies: Historic Commuter Airlines of Florida and Georgia" eloquently breathes life back into those tropically painted Marco Island Airways Martin 404's; those soothing sounds of the Naples/PBA DC-3's; those wild colors and exaggerated nose-down approaches of the Shawnee and Air South Martin 404; and the stories of America's last independent civil aviation entrepreneurs.

"Sunshine Skies: Historic Commuter Airlines of Florida and Georgia" is available by linking to Cafe Press.com. (The new second edition is available HERE.)

Aviation Buff Offers Nostalgic Look At Historic Airlines
Rockdale Citizen
(Article about the 1st edition of book)
January 22, 2006
By Karen J. Rohr

As a kid growing up in the 1970s and 80s, David Henderson spent an unusual amount of time in airports. Because his father worked as a pilot for
Delta, Henderson and his younger sister flew on passes and took several trips a year to Florida to visit with grandparents. Often flying during peak season as stand-bys, the pair sometimes waited up to 10 hours in the
airports for a seat on a plane. To pass the time, Henderson not only watched landings and take-offs but also cruised around and picked up commuter airline pamphlets. "I collected maps and schedules like some kids collected baseball cards. I just thought they were cool," said the 38-year-old Conyers resident.

Decades later, with a little prodding from fellow flight enthusiasts, Henderson has transformed all of that nostalgic flight information into a book, "Sunshine Skies: Historic Commuter Airlines of Florida and Georgia."

The self-published book features profiles of more than 60 small independent carriers that flourished from the 1960s to the 80s, the golden age of commuter airlines before deregulation of the industry in 1978 allowed larger airlines to muscle out the smaller ones.

During that commuter airline heydey, major airlines, like Eastern and Delta, transported travelers between large cities while commuter airlines provided service to smaller, more difficult to reach locations. In those days, a passenger could fly from Atlanta to St. Simon&rsquos for $37 or from Key West to Marathon Key for $5.40.

In Georgia, a few of the better known commuter airlines included Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Air South, while in Florida, Provincetown Boston Airline, also known as Naples Airlines (which began in Boston but experienced tremendous growth when it expanded to the Sunshine State), and Shawnee Airlines maintained a strong reputation.

Many of the commuter airlines used aircraft recycled from decades past, such as the popular piston engine DC-3, which existed in surplus because of heavy manufacturing during World War II, and the turboprop Twin Otter. The commuter planes typically carried from 10 to 40 passengers.

"There were a lot of them, and you could buy them for next to nothing," Henderson said. "The thing about having these 50-year-old planes is that most flights lasted only a half an hour, and it didn't matter if you were flying a jet or one of these planes, it would still take half an hour."

With both of his parents working in the flight industry (his mother was a flight attendant) and having spent his childhood living in College Park and East Point, under the flight path of the Atlanta airport, Henderson couldn't avoid an interest in aviation.

"By the time I was 3 years old, I could differentiate a 747 from a 727 from inside the house merely by the sound of the engines as they passed overhead," writes Henderson in "Sunshine Skies".

His interest in all things aviation-related grew and so did his collection of old airline timetables, route maps, fleet lists, photos, postcards and histories. He also amassed official airline guides, aviation books, airplane models and other memorabilia.

By the time he was 13, he had saved enough money to buy a $32 ticket for a flight on a DC-3, his first commuter plane ride, that took him from Miami to Marathon Key, then a small fishing village. He flew down to the key by himself, did a little sightseeing and flew back that afternoon. He marveled at the blue waters and white beaches.

"It was a real adventure because I'd never really flown in an old propeller plane, and it was fun. Because the older planes aren't pressurized you have to stay at a fairly low altitude, so it was almost like a sightseeing trip", Henderson said.

As he grew older, being an artist and musician overtook his obsession with flight. He attended the Art Institute of Atlanta for a few years and supported himself by playing bass in Atlanta bands such as Orange Hat and Wild West Picture Show.

But, when it came time for his parents to move and sell his aviation collectibles at a garage sale about eight years ago, Henderson rescued the items. Meanwhile, though he had lost interest in the old airline memorabilia, he found Microsoft's Flight Simulator 98 fascinating. Using the software, he designed his own planes, many of which resembled the DC-3s and 404s he so loved as a child. He uploaded his computer models, set in the old Atlanta Airport (he had also created from memory), onto a Web site.

After a few years passed and he lost interest in the Flight Simulator, he still continued to receive correspondence from other flight enthusiasts about his planes and the airport, which remained posted on the Web and proved to be popular with retired Delta pilots. One compelled him to write a book about the subject.

Having earned his private and commercial pilots licenses by 2003, Henderson finally delved back in those old flight "time capsules", as he calls his thousands of pamphlets, and began the year-long project of researching and assembling the book. He laid out the book and sent it to a Web-based company that prints books on demand.  

"Sunshine Skies", which includes not only a plethora of details about the now mostly-defunct commuter airlines but also hundreds of black and white photos of airplanes and graphics of the airline pamphlets, sells for $21 and is now available at https://www.createspace.com/3355198

Henderson's enthusiasm for the old airlines and airplanes makes "Sunshine Skies" take on more of a conversational tone and less of a technical one, a result not totally unexpected when reading the book's introduction.

Writes Henderson, "I approached this project not as a scholar or a historian, but rather as someone who loves aviation and old prop airliners. In short, I did it for fun."

EVENTS
AIRLINERS INTERNATIONAL TRADE SHOW - July 23-25, 2009
Orlando Weekly

Critic's Pick
Discussions, collectibles and exhibits all centered around the history of airlines.

Not since 1991 has the Superbowl of airline enthusiasts touched down in Orlando, and how much has changed in 19 years. Take a read through the “Pilots Briefings” (seminar schedule) for the long weekend affair to get a taste of the proceedings that are part historical, part whimsical and part tragic. The latter arrives in a presentation by the Eastern Flight 401 Survivors Group (2 p.m.-4 p.m. Friday), a flight that went down in the Everglades in 1972, killing 101 passengers. For a special on Florida history, author David Henderson talks about his update of Sunshine Skies, a reported recollection of the state’s commuter airlines (9:30 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturday). His book is rich in photographs, as is the slide show and auction (7:30 p.m. Friday). All that comes as part of the convention package, but it’s the trade show, open to the public for 10 bucks (parking’s free), that packs them in, pushing an astonishing number of collectibles – from postcards to airline cutlery to barf bags. (1 p.m.-6 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at Wyndham Orlando Resort, 8001 International Drive; $10; (Staff)

EVENTS
AIRLINERS INTERNATIONAL TRADE SHOW - July 23-25, 2009
LA FLORIDIANA by William Moriaty

Excerpt: 
David Henderson Master Showman!
After leaving the 401 Tribute, it was on to David's power point presentation on the commuter airlines of Florida and Georgia circa 1960's to 1980's. It was one of the most fascinating, informative and entertaining such presentations I have ever seen. David is both an articulate and entertaining showman and, as I stated earlier, has a wealth of knowledge on the subject beyond the kin of any one else I am aware of.

For the full article CLICK HERE