The northstate's first aviators

Allen Herr lives in Yuba City and from that vantage point he has traced the history of flight as it first came to the Sacramento Valley. Though aeroplane flying started in the East in 1903, “it didn’t begin on the West Coast until 1910” with the first “powered, controlled, and sustained flight” in California’s Dominguez Hills. (Herr writes that “it took fifteen years following the Wrights’ first flight for the word aeroplane to morph into airplane” at the start of World War I).

That same year the first northstate flight “took place at Knight Park in Marysville. Frank H. Johnson made the flight in his factory-built Standard Model Curtiss (Pusher) biplane.”

And so it began. The story of those early years is carefully, lovingly and comprehensively presented in “Golden Wings Over The Feather River: Early Aviation In Northern California’s Yuba, Sutter, And Butte Counties 1910-1939” ($29.95 in paperback from Stansbury Publishing). Dozens of illustrations help document the accomplishments of our own aviation pioneers.

Also in 1910 “Thaddeus Kerns, a Chico teenager, was the first Butte County resident to build and successfully fly an aeroplane. ... A 25-horsepower Gray Eagle motor powered his first Curtiss and it got him off the ground but just barely. He had only a few miles per hour between his stall speed and his cruise speed at full throttle. On hot days or with poor gasoline, he couldn’t get off the ground at all.”

Herr traces the rich history of northstate aviation during the “Exhibition Years” (1909-1914) and on into the postwar era. Anecdotes abound, including the story of Lyman and Jeanette Doty, brother and sister from Biggs and avid fliers. In 1917 she “sent a telegram to President Woodrow Wilson offering her services as a volunteer pilot. The self-proclaimed eighteen-year-old (she was actually twenty-six) aviatrix said if the military would not take her she planned to join the Army Aviation Reserve Corps.” She told a reporter, “I believe I am as capable of performing scout, observation, piloting, or other military duty as any man flyer.”

Aviation buffs will be enthralled. And that’s the plane truth.

Trilogy comes to a suspenseful conclusion

Chico novelist Mike Paull, who retired from a Bay Area dental practice, is also a licensed commercial pilot. Aviation plays a central role in each of his three Brett Raven mysteries: “Flight of Betrayal” (2012), “Flight of Deception” (2013), and now, concluding the trilogy, “Flight of No Return” ($15.99 in paperback from Skyhawk Publishing; also available for Amazon Kindle or visit skyhawkpublishing.com).

Raven, also a pilot, is a dentist as well, but in this latest outing he’s mostly out of the office on a desperate mission to reclaim his kidnaped wife and prevent the death of their two babies being carried by a surrogate. The story takes place in 2001 and, unlike the previous novel, when Raven was pretty much in command in pulling a fast one on the bad guys, in the new novel he’s at their mercy.

While Raven is on the West Coast, a strange murder in New York City brings two cops into the investigation that ends up engulfing Raven and his wife, Annie. She had divorced Raven in 1995, married an associate of Raven’s, John Thomas (J.T.) Talbot, and then, in 2000, when JT was reported killed in a mysterious plane crash, re-married Raven. The newlyweds were going to become parents, through a surrogate pregnancy, until the bottom falls out.

It turns out Annie “was in a hotel suite in New York where a murder took place and now she’s disappeared,” as one of the cops summarizes; and then he adds, “One of the guys in that room is”—well, that remains for the reader to discover.

The price for Annie’s return is a large ransom, and no cops. What follows is some good, old-fashioned salty nail-biting suspense as Raven tries to locate his wife while keeping investigators at arms’ length. He has the help of some unlikely friends, but the bad guys have Annie. It’s a page-turning adventure, right up until the very end.

Canyon Oaks Country Club will be hosting a complimentary wine and cheese reception for Mike Paull at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept 18. The public is invited.

A new Brett Raven adventure from a Chico author

Mike Paull, pilot and retired dentist, created in Brett Raven a brainy, handsome dentist who is also a pilot. His first outing came in "Flight of Betrayal" and now, hard on its heels, we have "Flight of Deception" ($15.99 in paperback from Skyhawk Publishing; also available as an Amazon Kindle e-book), billed as "the second in the Brett Raven trilogy."

The first two books form a continuous story, and though new readers can start with book two (the shenanigans in book one are recounted within the first forty pages), it's best to start with "Flight of Betrayal" for the full effect. "Flight of Deception" is a story of sweet revenge, with Raven and former wife Annie going to great lengths to recover millions of dollars and put things right.

Paull will be signing copies of his books at a wine and cheese reception at Canyon Oaks Country Club in Chico on Thursday, September 19, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. The event is open to the public.

The story takes place in 2000, and Raven and his ex-wife Annie are seeing a lot of each other. Brett is in love and wants to marry Annie, but the relationship is "complicated." "Are the issues you're dealing with still related to when I talked you into the abortion?" Brett asks.

Annie: "Brett, I've already forgiven you for that. I just have to be sure I've forgiven myself. I keep thinking about the plans we made twenty years ago when we were in college ... but now that I'm in my forties and living with the realization I can never have children. ... I want to solve my own problems. Our relationship will never be right if I let you solve all the problems, make all the decisions, and I just come along for the ride."

And it's quite a ride, as Brett enlists the help of some key acquaintances to spin a web to catch a bad guy. Brett rarely makes a mistake, and part of the fun of the book is watching his elaborate plot unfold like clockwork (though Annie may have upset the best laid plans). No dental forensics this time, but plenty of fawning over a "twin engine Beechcraft Baron." Or, in Brett's words: "Pretty sweet."

Chico author's fast-paced mystery

"Dentists," writes retired dentist Mike Paull, "have been represented many times in books and movies, but always as either villains or buffoons." So he invented Brett Raven who, like Paull, is also a pilot. "I decided the protagonist in a mystery novel does not need to be a lawyer, ex-cop or medical examiner. As long as he is smart, resourceful, and courageous, he can emerge from any field or any profession." Brett, as he is called, is certainly all of those things. His expertise is key in unraveling the fate of his former friend, fellow pilot, and financial advisor John Thomas (J.T.) Talbot. Readers won't be able to put the book down until all is revealed.

"Flight of Betrayal" ($15.99 in paperback from Skyhawk Publishing; also available in Amazon Kindle format) begins with horrendous news. J.T., though an expert pilot, crashes on his way home from a Baja fishing trip. "J.T. had been Brett's friend," Paull writes, "until he married Annie, Brett's ex-wife. They were still able to remain partners in the twin engine Beechcraft Baron, which they flew out of San Carlos, an airport located thirty miles south of San Francisco." The FAA called, Annie tells Brett. "There was a horrendous fire and both J.T. and his passenger were burned beyond recognition." The subsequent investigation would close the case as "pilot error." But Brett will not let go.

Mike Paull will be signing copies of his book Thursday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. at the Chico Barnes and Noble bookstore.

Brett may want to take a bite out of crime, but as his own investigation proceeds he is confronted by some pretty shady (and dangerous) characters involved in the illegal trafficking of human organs from Mexico to the U.S. Then there's the story of Brett and Annie, the sundering of a marriage and the slow, tentative movement toward renewal. Brett is consumed with finding the truth but he also realizes how devastating it will be to Annie.

There are bad guys aplenty (with, shall we say, very limited vocabulary) standing in the way, and the reader takes delight as Brett (pilot and forensic dentist) gums up the works (so to speak). The tale is satisfyingly convoluted, the sex tender, the hero someone worth rooting for. It's great fun.

True tales of flight from a Chico pilot

Mike Paull's interest in flying was piqued in 1978 and he's never looked back. Though a dentist in San Carlos, California, he also managed to log "3500 hours of flying time" as a private pilot and flight instructor.

Who better to get into the hearts and minds of the pilots who frequented the little eatery near the San Carlos Airport? A dozen of their stories are brought to life in "Tales from the Sky Kitchen Cafe" ($14.95 in paperback from Skyhawk Publishing).

Paull, retired and living in Chico with his wife, Bev, will be talking about his work at Lyon Books in Chico, Wednesday, May 11, at 7:00 p.m.

Many of the stories are (need I say it about flying?) uplifting. Paull tells how two pilots, Jeanne and Fran, developed the "Fear of Flying Clinic." Then there's "Crazy Dave," a test pilot and racer. "Dave has competed in more races (216) than anyone in the history Reno Air Racing."

One of the Sky Kitchen denizens was a pilot named Herb. The conversation around the counter would frequently move to flying mistakes, and Herb would say that "there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots ... The difference between a big airplane and a little one, is that the little one will kill you just a little."

The emotional heart of the book, though, is the story of Phil and Hap. On March 10, 1945, "Phil's B29, Sentimental Journey, had just dropped the first bombs that would lead to the largest fire ever known to man. Over 100,000 people would burn to death in the next twenty-four hours. ... As his fellow B29 crews flew overhead just 5000 feet above him, an American B29 navigator huddled in his cell, terrified he would die that night in a Japanese prison camp. The navigator, Hap, survived that night, survived the war and fifty years later wandered into the Sky Kitchen for lunch. He sat at the center counter and coincidentally sat next to a guy named Phil, the Pathfinder of the March 10th raid over Tokyo."

The war left terrible scars, but both men would later return to Japan--a testimony to the courageous fellowship at the Sky Kitchen Cafe.