By Cathy Spaulding
Pilots flying into Davis Field Airport have a surer idea where to fly, thanks to a bold new compass rose on the tarmac.
Members of the Tulsa Chapter of the Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots spent Friday and Saturday morning laying out and painting a 12-point compass rose on the airport’s tarmac.
“Not only is it pretty to look at, it provides a landmark for pilots to maneuver themselves,” airport manager Garry Lynn said.
The compass reaches 80 feet from the north point to the south point, he said.
“Mechanics can align the compass inside the aircraft to true north,” Lynn said.
He said aircraft mechanics had asked that a compass rose be painted on the tarmac.
Ninety-Nines Tulsa Chapter President Gentra Sorem of Tulsa said some volunteers, including an engineer, went to Davis Field on Friday to orient the compass to true north.
“They laid it out with a chalk line,” said member Francis Luckhart.
About seven chapter members and a couple of husbands arrived at the airport in the comparative coolness of 6:30 a.m. Saturday to start painting.
They first made stencils and started painting the center and 12 points. A huge N was stenciled in at the north side. The compass also includes south, east and west points, but not northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest. This compass is laid out in 360 degrees, with north being 0 and 360 degrees, south being 180 degrees, east and west at 90 and 270 degrees.
Members then spray painted the white parts of the compass.
“Spray-painting it definitely cuts time,” Luckhart said.
Once finished with that around 9 a.m., members rolled out border tape and spray-painted the blue parts of the rose and the Ninety-Nines logo. The airport provided the paint and some of the equipment.
By 11:30 the heat on the concrete proved too hot to paint the club’s logo of interlocking nines, Lynn said, adding that members are to return later this week to finish that task.
Kay Anderson, who operates the fuel business at Davis Field, said the compass “looks wonderful.”
“It’s just a wonderful addition to our airport,” she said.
Founded in 1929 at Curtiss Field on New York’s Long Island, The Ninety-Nines is an international organization of female pilots. According to the Ninety Nines Web site, the name stems from the 99 charter members of the group; its first president was aviatrix Amelia Earhart. Its current headquarters is at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers Airport.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com
