Congrats to Dion McIntosh

Congratulations to DION McINTOSH, who was on the new ABC Television show "Rediscovered" last night. Dion won $50,000 and will be heading to Las Vegas to open for Donny and Marie Osmand.

Last year RJ and the Inventive Productions crew of Charles McHatton and Tyler Griffin drove down to Dana Point, California to shoot the unbelievable wedding of Amy and Dion.

It was a fantastic, incredible experience meeting Dion and Amy's families and friends. I am very proud of how the wedding video turned out, too.

Last night Dion McIntosh appeared on the ABC show in a singing competition between people who were close to being childhood stars, and never quite made it. Dion is an amazing singer, father, friend, and man. Everyone was inspired.

So, congratulations again to DION McINTOSH. He really is a good guy.

You can learn more about his wife Amy and her singing career at http://e2ma.net/go/1603532167/1454410/53288051/goto:http://www.myspace.com/frankiejordan

You can see some short video clips from their wedding video by CLICKING HERE

We wish Dion and Amy great luck. Congratulations on your new baby, too.

Happy Holidays to you and your family.

RJ

Meeting Clay Lacy

Clay Lacy

My day started great when the hotel lady said "You have a great smile!"

Clay Lacy.

I arrived at Clay Lacy Aviation about fifteen minutes early.

I had woken up at 8am, thought it was enough time to prepare for a 10am meeting. I started reading an article on my laptop about Clay Lacy's life and the next thing I knew it was 9am and I hadn't even taken a shower yet. I rushed and it all worked out.Lacy Aviation is located right at the Van Nuys Airport. I parked in visitor parking and then walked to the front door.

It was a beautiful sunny California day. Just yesterday I was in the storms of frigid cold Seattle, but here today I was in Sunny Southern California, 75 degrees, tee shirts and shorts everywhere.

I was met by a cute receptionisth who called up to Melanie, Mr. Lacy's executive assistant. Melanie came down and unlocked a large conference room for me. I began to set up my equipment. The walls of the conference room were covered by numerous original paintings of the many airplanes and aircraft from Clay Lacy's life. There was a large painting about a very strange looking plane called a "guppy."

I asked the receptionist for a blank piece of white paper that I could use to set my "white balance" on my High Definition camera. I used it for the white balance and also to write down the main subjects that I wanted to discuss. I set up the lights and camera and angled it all so a nice model of a jet would be right behind the subject's right shoulder.

Clay Lacy came in wearing a brown suit with a tie. Clay is a big man with lots of wrinkles from a a good life. We shook hands and he asked, "So, what's this all about?" I told him I was a professional video biographer who has been hired to shoot videos for the Legends of Aviation event to be held in Beverly Hills in January.

I told him that if Airport Journals likes the videos we might go back and do video interviews with all the previous 7 years recipients, including himself, who was a true Legend of Aviation.

I talked to Clay about my pro-bono work with the Veterans History Project and my goal to interview 100 World War II veterans. We sat down an the interview began. I asked Clay to talk about the legendary aviator Johnny Myers. Clay talked for a good length of time about Johnny Myers, and then he talked about other legends including Bob Hoover, Linden Blue, and Sidney Pollock the film director. We talked about Milt Kuolt for a while and then we talked about the difference between a pilot and an aviator.

Clay told some great stories about his friendship with aviators and entrepreneurs. As we wrapped up the inteview, Clay asked if I wanted a tour of his aircraft. I asked if I could take my camera. He said "Sure."

Clay loaded us into his white Lexus SUV and we drove around the air hangars for about an hour. I was able to record a lot of great footage and Clay telling great stories about each plane. He showed me several different kinds of planes including a Citation, a P-51, and lots more. Along the way we talked about his dad and his mentors and his life. We talked about his 52000 hours logged as a pilot, and some of the changes he has seen in his life.

We returned to his office and he showed me his incredible wall of photos from the movies (including TOP GUN) he has shot and the planes he has flown. There were pictures of Clay with lots of movie stars including Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra.

Clay said I should shoot an interview with a guy named "B-27 Ben" who flew 35 missions over Tokyo during World War II. Clay said he would call me with Ben's phone number. We shook hands and I grabbed my equipment.

As I was leaving I saw Clay was busy with one of his employees, so I gave him a salute goodbye.

I really enjoyed my short visit with Clay Lacy. A real nice guy.

Emily Howell Warner

Emily Howell Warner

RJMcHatton with Legend of Aviation

Emily Howell Hanrahan Warner

I flew on Frontier Airlines that day to Denver to go interview an American hero, Emily Howell Warner.

I only got two hours to sleep when my Blackberry alarm went off. I was on my way within a half hour. It was spitting snow all over Seattle but no one but me on the roadways.

The flight to Denver went well. I got a chance to write some notes and to listen to some great podcasts on my ipod.

I rented a car from Budget. The girl at the counter called everyone "Sweetie" because she was the only girl working there. I told her that she had the "power." She smiled. I got my keys and GPS machine and I was on my way to see Emily.

I was in Denver to interview Emily for the Airport Journals video project called the "Legends of Aviation." Emily Howell Warner is being recognized for her groundbreaking aviation career and also for being the first woman pilot to work for a US Airline.

I had put Emily's name into Google a few weeks ago and I was tanken by her awesome smile. In all of her photos, Emily had this giant smile. Like she was always happy and having a good time.

After a quick Starbucks stop where I could double check my equipment, I headed to Emily's house. I had called Emily about a week ago and found her to be very nice and cordial.It was unbelievably sunny in Denver that day. Blue skies all the way to the Rockies.

It had been 40 years since I had lived in Denver and it looked different but felt the same.I lived in Denver from 1965 to 1971. I remember playing football as a kid and always it would snow at night but be sunny during the day. Not sometimes, but all the time it was that way. Stormy at night, sunny during the day.

The GPS machine gave me great directions. The woman's voice saying "Left in point two miles, right in point two miles." I heard that some of the GPS machines had voices with different accents, like Australian. Not this GPS machine, though. It only had one voice. I wish it had a southern accent or a New York accent, or especially a Philly accent. My dad was from Philadelphia and I liked the unique accent from there, especially my late Grandmother's voice.

I drove through many different kinds of neighborhoods. Hispanic, African American, Asian, and then the houses turned all at once from older neighborhoods, to new townhouses and condos. I would learn later from Emily that this area used to be Lowry Air Force Base but it had been re-developed to housing and retail.

Emily met me at her door with her big smile and her puppy. Emily was dressed very nicely. She is a tall, slender woman with short, well-groomed hair. She showed me her small office area where there was a wall full of placques and trophies and photos. She said there was also a larger display at the Wings Museum located about three blocks away.

I went out to my rented SUV and got my lights, camera, and cases. I set up very quickly. I could tell Emily was a very organized, prepared person. She had all of her photos and materials ready for me. After a few moments of making some adjustments to the white balance, I positioned the camera so a model 737 would be seen above her right shoulder in the camera frame. I told her I was ready.

We had a really great interview. At first I asked her about her family history. I learned that she was a twin and that her family came to America from Ireland. Emily was very proud of her Irish roots. She remarked several times that her maiden name was Hanrahan and of her Irish determination.

We talked about her parents and then her childhood. Emily loved her childhood. She talked about her close relationship with her father. We talked about Emily's first learning about flying from a book she read. She talked about her favorite teacher who was a num at St. Catherine's. Emily talked about how she got her first job at May Company, which allowed her to earn her own money.

She talked about how a girlfriend wanted to be a stewardess. Emily thought for a while about being a stewardess, but one day her friend suggested to her the idea of Emily learning how to fly. Emily talked about how she went down by herself on a two hour bus ride to learn about what it would take to learn how to fly.

She found out that it cost $12.50 per hour to learn how to fly, which was a lot of money in those days. She only earned $36 a week at the May Company. Emily talked about how her mother thought she was being foolish, spending do much money on flying. Her mother had survived the Great Depression and every penny counted.But that did not stop Emily.

She kept taking those lessons and one day she did her solo. Emily lit up with emotion when she talked about her first solo. Like it happened this morning. Emily remembered every moment. She talked about how she told her mother that she had just solo'd and that for the first time her mother said it wasn't foolish.

Emily talked about how she became the first woman flight instructor in her area and then how she decided to become the first woman pilot for an American airline. She told me exactly how she did it and how she never gave up.Even though everyone told her it was hopeless, she kept on. Eventually becoming the first Captain. Emily has flown over 21000 hours in an aircraft. She is so inspiring to us all.

After the interview, Emily had me follow her over to the Wings Museum. She showed me her placques and photos. She told me how the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC had called her one day asking if they could have her uniform or flight suit for the Smithsonian Museum. I could tell that Emily was very proud and honored to have helped inspire so many others.Emily told me there are now 6000 women pilots out of 50,000. Still a long way to go.

As we left the Museum, Emily gave me a copy of her book and she signed it "To RJ. Happy Landings, Emily."

We then went back to her home and I got some photos of her with her husband Julius and then Julius took one of Emily and me!

I really enjoyed my short visit and two hour interview with Emily Howell Hanrahan Warner. As with most heroic people I have met over the years, Emily was humble, caring, and focused on helping others. Emily still flies occasionally and she spends a lot of her time mentoring young people about the benefits of learning how to fly.

She told me she had over 21,000 air hours as a pilot. I asked her what her goals were for the next five years. She said that she wants to inspire more young women to become pilots and then she smiled and said "I would like to go up in one of those rockets, once the price comes down."

You could see her love for flying in her eyes and that big bright smile. I looked over at a photo of Emily that was taken 30 years ago when she was "Captain Emily." She had that same smile in the picture and in real life. Emily said once they asked her what her title should be--should it be "Aviatrix" or "captain" or ? Emily said that "Captain" sounded pretty good.