REUNION OF FLIGHT

It's not every day that one gets the chance to see the iconic Miss Montana DC-3 plane fly across the skies, let alone someone jumping out of the plane. That's just what happened at the second annual Smokejumper Cow Pasture Camp-out last Friday at the Mountain Meadows Ranch in Trout Creek.

Miss Montana pilot Art Dykstra flew the 75-year-old plane through mostly blue sky with more than 100 onlookers waiting in anticipation as jumper Al Charters dropped from the plane at 1,200 feet. He soared through the air waving an American flag. His wife, Kim Maynard, a former smokejumper of 10 years and a key participant in the restoration of the plane, was there to lend a hand when Charters landed in the field.

The event was hosted by Bill and Helen Meadows, who own the historic ranch on Little Beaver Creek Road. Smokejumpers reunited with former colleagues and others in connection to or having interest in Miss Montana, as it had once been the historic Mann Gulch smokejumper airplane. "It was a God thing," said Helen Meadows of how the event came together.

Bill Meadows said that he spent 23 seasons as a smokejumper, starting his training in 1966 in Alaska before moving to Missoula.

One of the longtime jumpers sharing in the event was Chuck Fricks, who started his training in 1961 and smoke-jumped out of Grangeville, Idaho, as well as Missoula. "It was quite a thing to jump out of the Ford tri-motor," said Fricks.

Having traveled the farthest was Ivy Lanthier, who trekked all the way from Texas to be at the Trout Creek event. Lanthier was a smokejumper out of Missoula in the 80s. The youngest smokejumper there was Dan Helterline from Plains. Helterline said that he began his training in 1989 and ended his career in 2015, having spent 13 years in Grangeville and 13 in Missoula.

Filmgoers packed into the 25-ft. by 60-ft. by 32-ft.-high iconic barn that was built by Bill Meadow's grandfather Edward J. Thompson in 1908. The barn was built to hold 60 tons of loose hay. Meadows has been working to reshingle the roof with larch that he logged, milled and cut.

The film "Return to the Big Skies: Miss Montana to Normandy" was presented by Bryan Douglass, who was the project leader of the restoration of Miss Montana and author of "Every Reason to Fail: The Unlikely Story of Miss Montana and the D-Day Squadron."

The iconic plane, with its 58 years of history and highest jump-time, sat for 18 years in the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula before it was restored. Douglass said that hundreds of people helped in the epic project that was almost impossible to pull off. "It was something much bigger than us." He added that there is no other like it and that the mission of the Museum of Mountain Flying is to preserve and inspire.

In the barn, with popcorn in hand, kindred spirits watched the film that chronicled the restoration of Miss Montana to reach the mission of making the flight to Normandy on the 75th anniversary of D-Day and honoring those who served in WWII. Douglass said that Gov. Gianforte had recognized Miss Montana as the state's official plane.