George Real Estate Group Radio Broadcast

Rising from the Flood: The Western North Carolina Air Museum Story

• George Real Estate Group

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From tragedy to triumph, the Western North Carolina Air Museum stands as a beacon of resilience in our hurricane-ravaged community. When floodwaters invaded this historic aviation treasure with two feet of water and surrounding hangars with eight feet, destroying over 40 private aircraft, museum leaders made an extraordinary decision. Rather than focusing solely on their own recovery, they transformed their damaged space into a critical hurricane relief hub, coordinating helicopter deliveries of generators, food, and emergency supplies to isolated mountain communities for more than two months.

Only after the immediate crisis subsided did the museum team begin their own recovery journey. What followed was a remarkable display of community spirit as volunteers—including complete strangers who had intended to visit as tourists—pitched in to help with extensive cleanup efforts. With support from organizations like the Community Foundation of Henderson County and donations from as far away as New York, the state's first air museum has gloriously risen from the flood.

Today, visitors can once again explore approximately 20 vintage aircraft, many approaching their centennial. Marvel at the 1948 Cessna 195 (the first all-aluminum Cessna), a 1927 WACO used in barnstorming, and a three-quarter replica British Spitfire that children can actually sit in. The museum offers this extraordinary aviation experience without admission fees (though donations help keep the lights on) Wednesday and Saturday from 10-5 and Sunday from noon-5. Private tours are available for school groups, scouts, and aviation enthusiasts by calling 828-691-2030. Whether you're an aviation buff or simply curious about these magnificent flying machines, the Western North Carolina Air Museum's remarkable collection—and even more remarkable comeback story—deserves your attention. Visit soon to support this hometown hero institution that exemplifies our mountain community's indomitable spirit.

Speaker 1:

The George Real Estate Group radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 10.05 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450 and streaming online at WHkpcom. Each Friday morning at 845,. The George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. It's 845 and time now for our George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Show. It's 845 and time now for our George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Series. And it's always fun to welcome in Noah George, who sponsors our show every Friday. Noah, how's your week?

Speaker 2:

been Fantastic. And can you believe it's the end of May? I mean time is flying.

Speaker 2:

I know it was just a week ago, we were in winter around here and and you know uh, we've talked about this before, I think the trees, the spring blossoms, the trees oh, they're beautiful isn't it incredible to see this time of the year things are so green, the grass is so green, the, the leaves, the blossoms, I mean with, and again the, the beautiful, I mean the rain makes this. I mean the rain right, we, we love it and yeah, and sometimes it can mess up our plans, but otherwise, I mean it's what causes everything to be so green so lush and uh and we uh went so long to a hard winter and the storm and saw all of the destruction.

Speaker 1:

But now the beauty of our mountains is shining through, and that's good news for a real estate agent, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

Well, the real estate market continues to be strong. I mean you got to be careful what news you listen to. But Henderson County specifically, we're averaging 125 single-family homes a month selling still low inventory, I mean total. We still have only 560 some active single family homes on the market. But the market is. It's steady. I mean the last two years it's been steady. The prices have come down a little bit. The average price has come down. The median price has actually gone up a little bit. But in Henderson County the average price is $538. The average price in Buncombe County is in the $ the 650s I mean.

Speaker 2:

But the you know it's just been. It's a cause of supply and demand. The demand has remained steady. Inventory levels have remained low. But you still have to price your home correctly. I mean when you price your home correctly, I mean it sells. We're still seeing multiple offers which you might be surprised to hear. But then on the other side of the coin, if you overprice it, it's not selling. I mean, you see, we see a lot of price reductions. So you know you do need to recommend consulting with a real estate professional, have the conversation, let the data tell the story. But when you price it right. I mean, homes are moving.

Speaker 1:

And, speaking of that, you, I think, have some listings to talk about.

Speaker 2:

Well, we have an open house, we have an open house this Sunday, 2 to 4, 919 Canuga Road. Beautiful, completely redone remodeled home, one-level living, only $3.95. And a beautiful one-level home Two bedrooms, two baths, totally redone, new kitchen, new bathrooms, new floors, new paint. I mean, it is turnkey Ready to go. Ready to go right there in the heart of Hendersonville, 919 Canuga Road, that's going to be open this Sunday 2 to 4.

Speaker 1:

Okay, great. Well, noah, thank you for bringing us another hometown hero, but this time we're saluting Bill. Bringing us another hometown hero, but we're this time is saluting bill, the whole gang at the western north carolina air museum, and bill kelder is here to represent the whole gang. Good morning, bill, thank you. Good morning, how are you? I'm doing wonderful, thank you. We appreciate you coming in here this morning to talk about the western north carolina air museum at the Hendersonville Airport. Now you guys have been through the valley and now we're back on the mountaintop right.

Speaker 3:

Yes, we are. We've got it back together. We went through some flooding out there. We had two feet of water go through the museum.

Speaker 3:

Wow and eight feet of water went through all the hangars out on their two airfields. There were over 40 private aircraft destroyed, oh my. But you know we're coming back. You know we've got some of the fellows who are replacing their aircraft and the museum's back up and running now. It took, you know, a couple of months to get it cleaned up.

Speaker 3:

But just after the Hurricane, jarrett Jarvis, our president, was able to reach out to the community. We brought in a lot of rescues for a lot of supplies generators, food. We pushed the airplanes back out of the way once the tide subsided, yeah, and it just became a rescue and relief area. Helicopters were coming in, taking out generators, out to remote areas, food, doing rescues, et cetera. And as that went on through December, we provided the community with a lot of food supplies they needed during that time. And then, starting in January, we started to clean the museum up. We had to clean and we lost a lot. We didn't lose any aircraft, fortunately, in the museum, but we lost a lot of our memorabilia and a lot of our library.

Speaker 3:

Our kitchen was destroyed and so we had to replace walls and just do a lot of cleaning up, getting the mud et cetera out of there, and it was through a lot of volunteer hours that our volunteers, as well as our neighbors, came in and helped us out. We had one day a father and son came in just because they thought the museum was open to come and view it, and they spent the whole day helping us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah they didn't know who they were, but they came in and spent the whole day. That's amazing.

Speaker 3:

Oh, it was great, it really was, and um. But now, like I say, we've been blessed to have had um grants from the from the community foundation of henderson cool and go fund me page helped us out. We had blue ridge cabinet connection to help us with getting cabinets and countertops back in there.

Speaker 3:

um, irc steam cleaning coming and cleaned all of our floors, all the mud and debris off of Connection, helped us with getting cabinets and countertops back in there. Irc Steam Cleaning came in and cleaned all of our floors, all the mud and debris off of our floors. So we were very fortunate. National Christian Foundation helped donate money, so we did get donations from even New York.

Speaker 3:

A group of people came in from New York and donated food supplies as well as some cash. It really was just a community effort and everybody just stepped up and helped us get us back together. And now we're up and running and we've had two big events here this last weekend we had over 200 people visit us over the weekend great yep and um.

Speaker 1:

So we're looking we're looking forward to getting things back up and running so we missed you while you were gone, over 200 people people back and couldn't wait Yep so it's coming along really well.

Speaker 3:

We're very pleased.

Speaker 2:

Incredible. And again, this is just one of the many stories where our organizations here in the community lost everything, but you guys pivoted and became a hub for serving the community which again so powerful, again in the midst of your own loss, stepping up being part of a central access point to our area through the helicopters and small planes.

Speaker 3:

That was first priority. Yes, take care of the folks first we can clean up later.

Speaker 1:

I didn't realize that While you were out helping landing helicopters and supplies, you were turning your back on that mess back there, correct? We can't deal with that right now, guys, we've got bigger fish to fry here. And then you, uh, did that for like two months over two months.

Speaker 2:

Yes, incredible I didn't realize this but the western north carolina air museum.

Speaker 3:

It was the state's first air museum correct it started 1989 with three aircraft we now have approximately 20 aircraft on display. Most of most of those are vintage aircraft. They're almost 100 years old and they survived. They survived. Fortunately they were high enough, they survived.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it was just minor cleaning and such, but we were blessed in that case.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you're so fortunate. Yeah, how long have you been involved with the Air Museum? About four years. Okay, what's your background and what's been your passion.

Speaker 3:

Well, I call myself a self-proclaimed hangar rat. I'm not an aviator okay, I mean I've always been interested in aircraft. My father was a bombardier during World War II on the B-17 Flying Fortresses.

Speaker 3:

Really, I've always had an interest in aviation and I'm retired now. I had taken my Boy Scout troop to the museum a couple of times and my grandson down there years back and I was right after covet. I was just wandering around trying to find something. This one just happened to stumble on the museum again, walked in and one of the docents there started talking to me and next thing, you know, I volunteered and I've been, I've been what's your, what's your and what's your role.

Speaker 3:

Now you're the well, I am presently now the treasurer. Okay, okay, unfortunately don buck, who was our who's a member of the museum, very influential member for many, many years he was our treasure. He passed away suddenly so I I stepped in and, along with another lady, sandy den, who's the wife of our curator, who's an accountant, we were able to get in there and start getting.

Speaker 2:

we're working on getting all the bookkeeping taken care of. Good, wow, and so the goal of the museum again to the history. Tell us more about again the vision of the museum.

Speaker 3:

Well, the vision of the museum is really just preserving and promoting our Carolina flying heritage we love to have. Well, we opened up. We opened to the public wednesdays and saturdays from 10 to 5 and sundays noon to 5. But we really reach out to school groups, scout groups, um, oh, just, adult groups, um, for private tours too. They can contact us for private tours. Contact me at 828-691-2030. Set of private tours, um, and we just we try to educate the public on aviation. It's still one of the biggest growing industries in the united states today, let alone here. We've got ge aviation, we've got Pratt Whitney, we have Boeing down in South Carolina, so there's great opportunities for people to get into the aviation industry. Wow.

Speaker 1:

How's the airstrip itself? How did it survive the flooding?

Speaker 3:

Well, the airstrip survived. Again, we were under about eight feet of water. We have a grass field, which is Johnson Field, which is the airfields airfield that we own, the museum right beside the right beside the hendersonville airport, which is the paved, means that there's a privately owned airport. That is the oldest privately owned airfield in western north in north carolina. It was started in 1932 by a gentleman named oscar meyer not the hot dog dog face.

Speaker 3:

Oscar Meyer, but a local individual, but it's presently owned by another individual. Now they again sustained damage and hopefully they'll be able to recuperate from it. Right, and they're working on it, but your airfield is a grass field. Our grass field is okay. We've got a little bit of work to do on it, but it's come along and our aircraft are coming in and out of the air Okay.

Speaker 1:

Any air shows planned. I remember going back 10 or 12 years now, I guess a big air show we used to have air shows, from my understanding, pretty regularly.

Speaker 3:

Unfortunately, COVID kind of hurt that because, we lost a lot of it. A lot of our pilots retired that. We're doing that apparently, and um it just, and we've lost a lot of volunteer help. It takes a lot of volunteers. We still are very, very active during, um, the apple festival, right, and um, hopefully we're going to get that back doing the air show again at some point.

Speaker 2:

You guys have one of the most popular for the kids, right when you guys were at the Apple Festival, is that you guys, yeah, they had the orthocopter, orthocopter.

Speaker 3:

That was unfortunately underwater and they're trying to repair it. It may just wind up being a static display in the museum.

Speaker 2:

But is the Air Museum a non-profit? We're a non-profit organization.

Speaker 3:

There's no charge for admission. We do rely on donations. It helps keep the lights on Wow.

Speaker 1:

Certainly, certainly. We've just got a couple of minutes left, Bill, tell us what's the aircraft that you have on display, what's the biggest buzz, one that people want to look at and see, touch and feel.

Speaker 3:

Well, we've got several in there. We do have a 1948 Cessna 195, which is the first all-aluminum Cessna ever built and that was considered the Learjet of its day. We do have a 1948 Fairchild, which is a gorgeous airplane. We have a small three-quarter replica of a British Spitfire. The kids can get in and sit in and get their photograph and handle the controls, et cetera. We have a two-thirds replica of the Wright Flyer. We have a 1930 fleet. We've got a 1940, 1927 WACO. We've got some interesting aircraft. The WACO was used in barnstorming.

Speaker 1:

And people can get real close. Oh, you can get up close and personal.

Speaker 3:

We don't allow everybody to get in the aircraft. They can look inside. They're not ported off or they can't get to them. Incredible Again, just incredible side. You know they don't. It's not, they're not porting off or they can't get to them.

Speaker 1:

Incredible or again, just incredible and you're open again on saturdays and sundays.

Speaker 3:

Now right wednesday sat wednesday, saturday, 10 to 5. Sundays noon to 5, okay, and again we're, we'd love to book private tours and such on off days is that there an admission charge? No admission charge, we just rely on donations.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic. Well, we're so happy that you guys have gotten past the bad stuff and got reopened, and that's what we wanted to do is make sure everybody knows that the Western North Carolina Air Museum is back up and running.

Speaker 3:

We're up and running. We thank all our volunteers for all the many, many hours that they put in getting us back up and running. We're up and running. We thank all our volunteers for all the many, many hours that they put in getting us back up and running.

Speaker 2:

And there's opportunity if you want to volunteer. Oh yeah, Please come and volunteer.

Speaker 3:

If you want to join, it's a $30 a year individual membership or $40 a year family membership. We have Thursday, the fourth Thursday of the month. We have a big cookout for everybody all our members month. We have a big cookout for everybody, all our members. We usually have a speaker there to give a presentation of some nature fantastic and we have a monthly newsletter we send out that's amazing bill.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much. We've got a certificate that we'd love for you to hang on the wall there at the air museum oh, that's wonderful well, it's wonderful that you guys have put everything back together and we are so grateful to you, and so grateful to you, noah, for bringing us the good news of the Hometown Heroes series every Friday.

Speaker 1:

We love sponsoring the Hometown Heroes series and again, amazing men and women serving this community in different ways and again, grateful to be here you to join us every Friday morning at 8 45 as we salute some of our George Real Estate Group hometown heroes and if you have someone you would like to nominate, get in touch with either Noah or myself here at WHKP. Otherwise, have a wonderful weekend and visit the Western North Carolina Air Museum.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 1:

The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, north Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygregcom. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-393-0134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, flat Rock, north Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 10 0 5 AM on WHKP 107.7 FM and 14 50 AM, or stream online at whkpcom or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George real estate group brings you the WHKP hometown hero series every Friday morning at eight 45.