Old Lea County, N.M.

Tag: aviation

  • The Loose Balloon

    On May 6, 1978, an advertising balloon became detached from the ground at a motor vehicle dealership in Hobbs. A doctor and an employee of the dealership noticed that it was coming untethered and got in touch with Lea County pilot Zip Franklin who first flew after the loose balloon and finally brought it down after shooting it with a .22 and finally with a shotgun. It came down outside Levelland, Texas and when it did, the dealership employee who had been trailing it in his pickup became trapped in the fabric of the collapsed balloon. Franklin and the doctor administered aid until medical assistance arrived. The dealership employee had to be hospitalized but all three survived.

    Franklin said that the balloon reached heights of 15,000 feet above sea level and estimated that at its peak, the balloon was as large as a house.

    (Thanks to R.O.F. for telling us this story.)

  • Jimmy Franklin

    In the late 1980s we had moved to a neighborhood with cable television. We just signed up for up for it and were channel surfing to see what was available. One of the sports channels was showing stunt flying and the screen captured an upside down plane snagging a ribbon suspended between two soda bottles sitting on the runway. The announcer then named the pilot: Jimmy Franklin.

    Jim Marshall “Jimmy” Franklin was born May 16, 1948 to Oliver Gene “Zip” Franklin and Valerie Jones Franklin. Jimmy grew up on a ranch in the northern part of Lea County. Zip was a crop duster, rancher and sport flyer. Jimmy’s first experience with flying, according to an article, was riding on Zip’s lap while still in diapers as Zip flew between two of their properties. Another family legend has Jimmy sneaking out to have his first solo flight at age twelve. He learned aerobatics while still in high school and bought his first airplane, a 1940 Waco UPF-7, when he was nineteen years old. He used it to begin flying in air shows that same year, 1967.

    For the next thirty-eight years, Jimmy flew in air shows and made numerous other film and television appearances, credited and uncredited. His Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) page lists him in “Three Amigos!” and “The Rocketeer” but according to his family, Jimmy’s other credits include “Forever Young,” “Terminal Velocity,” and “Choke Canyon” in addition to numerous television appearances where he was stunt flying.

    Image credit: airshow.fandom.com

    Jimmy was well known in flying circles, having premiered air show acts, flying with wing walkers, stunt flying, dogfight scenarios, making pickups from riders on motorcycles, portraying characters of his own invention and making one of a kind aircraft modifications, such as adding jet power to one of his Waco airplanes. He was honored with many awards including being named to the ICAS (International Council of Air Shows) Foundation Hall of Fame.

    Jimmy and his long time friend and fellow performer Bobby Younkin were both killed in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada on July 10, 2005. He and Bobby had created an act they called Masters of Disaster. This act had quickly become a popular draw at air shows. It was in this configuration that they were flying when their two airplanes collided and both were killed. Jimmy was fifty-seven years old. His memorial service was held several months later in Ruidoso, New Mexico and he is buried in Lincoln County at Ruidoso’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.

  • Zip Franklin

    Oliver Gene “Zip” Franklin was an old time pilot. He was known around Lea County for having done just about anything one could do with an aircraft. He was born August 8, 1919 in Artesia and died September 11, 1991 doing what he loved, flying. An airport in Lea County was named for Zip Franklin,

    airnav.com

    Plane Crashes in Ruidoso, Killing 2

    Two men were killed and a third critically injured in the crash of a twin engine Aerostar shortly after take off from the Sierra Blanca Regional Airport in Ruidoso.

    The dead men were identified as Gary McMillan of Lubbock, Texas, and Zip Franklin, 72, of Lovington, said Lanny Maddox, criminal investigation division commander for the Ruidoso Police Department.

    The injured man was identified as Beldon Walden, 46, of Hobbs.

    Maddox said the pilot was en route to Reno, Nev., on Wednesday where the custom aerobatic plane was to be delivered to an air show.

    The plane crashed shortly before noon in a wooded area northwest of the airport.

    Witnesses say the plane burned.

    Maddox said McMillan and Franklin appeared to have been killed upon impact, and Walden was thrown from the airplane when it hit.

    The injured man was listed in critical but stable condition this morning at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center South in Roswell after being transferred from Lincoln County Medical Center, said Rick Levitt, nursing supervisor at Eastern.

    Federal Aviation Administration investigators were on their way to the crash site.

    [Clovis News Journal, 12 Sep 1991. Clovis, New Mexico.]