Guest Book

Everybody has a right to his or her opinion, and that includes you! We welcome you to leave your comments in our public guest book, so that you may share them with other visitors. Yes, we’d like to hear from you!

Feel free to share your photos with us also and we will put them with your comment. And if you have Sky King photos to share, we will gladly add them to our Photo Gallery!

1/25/18 Here is that photo I mentioned to you of the actual Songbird's rudder and it's owner: All I know is the owner's name is Ward and he wants to remain anonymous.  You can see the license plate on his car says "CALIFORNIA" so here's around here somewhere!   No doubt a lot of people have tried to get that rudder away from him, the ultimate "Sky King" collectible i'd think. What I would like to do is to somehow contact him so as to get a look at the thing in person along with my "Pantone" color chip book and take a few pictures of the book's chips next to the actual colors.  That way I can mix really close color-matches to the absolutely original brown and gold shades of paint allowing really accurate models of the Songbird from that point forward. Above is my highly modified and as yet unpainted blue plastic, 1963 Aurora 310-B.  It's seen infront of my computer screen and held above a wrecked fuselage of an identical to the Songbird, Cessna 310-B. This wrecked one was up in Oregon.  I called them but found out the thing had been carted away for scrap the previous year.  Just a wee bit too late.  You can see the colors are really close to the ruder in the top photo.  Cessna refuses to help with this research and no other originally painted 310B's in this "Coronado Gold" paint scheme are known to exist. This is one of "those things" a very deidcated model maker such as myself gets "stuck" on and won't stop until those colros are truly nailed down.  Then exact models in many different scales from small to large can be produced, with licensing of course!  Maybe Hallmark would produce one as a Christmas Tree ornament, they did produce an ordinary Cessna 310 in 2009 so it shouldn't be much of a stretch to do a licensed "SKY KING" version once those colors are truly nailed down. May 30, 2016 All I can do is mirror the sentiments of everyone else that has written.  I watched Sky King as a child and eventually became an airline pilot myself.  I am retired now and have fond memories of that show.  I do wonder many times why Sky King is not playing on TV Land, Nickelodeon, or any of the other channels that show old TV shows.  I would love to see that.  I remember the Saturday afternoon lineup of shows and Sky King was my favorite.   I didn’t know until years later that the cockpit of those airplanes weren’t as roomy as on TV.  Chuck Dunn

April 25, 2016
Sky King's Bamboo Bomber and Cessna 310 were the highlights of my Saturday mornings. He was someone to look up to, projecting good morals and using the latest tech. 

Watching him and Penny fly out of the desert ranch sparked my passion for desert runways and ranches, Cessnas and Penny. I became a pilot, studied amateur radio, and adventured around desert runways.

I also met a girl like Penny and married her; now we have 3 sons who watch Sky King and explore the desert with me.

I still fly and look for remote desert runways where I can remember those special Saturday mornings of my youth.

Robert Gregory

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April 18, 2016

I knew Nancy Hoon Logozzo, Kirby Grant's real niece. She was a wonderful Montana girl . She passed away in 2011, a year after Gloria Winters. I just wondered if anyone knows if the real "Penny" and the actress ever met. Nancy was born in 1949 so she was a baby when Sky King was being filmed, but I wondered if they ever met later on. I would love to have a photo of the two of them together if one exists.

Sage S. 

                                                   

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Dec. 19, 2015

Back in the 1950's my Saturday mornings were spent watching, Rin Tin Tin, Fury and Sky King; then it was lunch time. That was such a great time to grow up watching these great TV shows.  I am excited to receive my DVD set so I can relive a part of my youth!  Thanks,

A fan from Illinois,
Rita M.

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Aug. 17, 2015
Like a lot of pilots, the radio show was a formative influence on me.

In the stuff I read on the internet regarding the show aircraft, I could find no reference to a second aircraft called the Arrow.

Memory is fuzzy but I thought there was a “jet” aircraft that was also involved in some of the radio episodes?

Can anyone verify/

KK

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August 9, 2015

I have been a Fan Of Sky King since I was a kid. ( I am 62 yrs young now).. It was a Thrill for me to find out  my Wife and I had bought a House in Apple Valley, Ca , that is about a mile (As the Songbird flies LOL)  from The Original Flying Crown Ranch on Rancherias Rd.  Just Below another Famous Landmark of Apple Valley, The Hilltop House ..Where the Founder of Apple Valley Newt Bass) used to live 

..The Songbird used to fly out of the old Apple Valley Airport right across the road from The Ranch ( I can stand on my pool deck and imagine the  Songbird flying over head as i look up from my lounge {  and the Songbird was parked there in front of the house  for shooting.the stock footage  The only thing recognizable from the old Ranch is the Chimney as the Facade has been changed totally .. here is the old picture with the Songbird. and the new Facade without it. The Ranch was up for Sale but is now off the Market    Enjoy  A J 

       

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April 6, 2015

Kirby Grant's Auto Accident Oct 30, 1985, 8AM

I was mentioned in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper article about the Kirby Grant accident. I was at the time a professor at the University of Central Florida in the Electrical Engineering Department. I was by myself in my car going East on State Road 50 on my way to a meeting with NASA with respect to laser ablation studies of thermal tiles used on the Shuttle.

It was about 8 or 9 AM and I had just passed the St. Johns River bridge and was about 4 miles west of Titusville in Brevard County, Florida. I was noting that the river was in flood stage and beside the road’s shoulders the flood plain was totally covered with water. There were no guard rails.

An older large sedan in front of me was quite close to two cars in front of it. The lead car was traveling very slow on a straight stretch of road. No cars were coming from the opposite direction so the driver of the third car decided to pass the two cars in front of him in one pass. While the passing car was on the left of the second car in its blind spot, the second car decided to pass the first car. In an avoidance maneuver, the third car pulled over to the left shoulder while applying its brakes. The second car pulled back in line. The third car then pulled back onto the road at an awkward right facing angle. The driver then tried to straighten the car but instead it slid over to the right shoulder and hit the water. It entered the water sideways and the left side of the car rose into the air and dropped back down again. There was a considerable splash. At that instant, it did not seem to be a severe accident.

I decided to stop behind the accident to check and see if the driver was ok. I ran up to the vehicle and opened the driver side door. Nobody was inside. I opened the back door. Nobody. I noted that the right side front window was open. At that instant, another person ran up and I said instinctively “see if anybody is on the other side of the car in the water.” After looking around a bit we both saw a person mostly submerged a little distance from the car. We jumped in the water suit, shoes and tie and pulled the person from the water. He was a huge and heavy person.

I immediately observed that he was unconscious and not breathing, just gurgling. He had a huge gash on his head and was bleeding profusely. My Boy Scout training kicked in and we began artificial respiration/CPR. But, before this, we tried to drain his lungs by position. He was really heavy, but we were able to get much water out. We did mouth to mouth respiration as well as CPR.

In a short while (it seemed) we were joined by a nurse and others who took over the tasks as we were exhausted.

I remember an ambulance showing up quite quickly and a helicopter landing on the road.

I do not know if they got his heart operating or his breathing going as we were escorted away by the state police to answer questions. We were wet and I guess in a little shock.

I went to the NASA meeting and in the afternoon watched the launch. I had no idea who the person in the car was. As I was driving back to Orlando, I learned on the radio that this person was Kirby Grant. I understood that he was on his way to have breakfast with the astronauts.

Subject: "Songbird" & Penny

Hi Ron, thanks!  And thanks for writing me back.  :-)  I found a photo of a scale model somebody posted online and it has a white stripe there so I went ahead adjusted the photo to include the stripe, I think it even looks better that way, updated file attached.  I read on wiki that the original colors were Sierra Gold and Coronado Yellow, what a great color scheme.  And yes I'd be honored if you shared the photo, use as you like, thanks!  I'm just trying to build a portfolio of work so I can eventually do this kind of thing at home and make a little money so I'm finding things to color and use as examples, Gloria and the Cessna were perfect for what I need.  If you happen to have another nice b&w photo scanned from the series I'll be happy to do that one too, gratis of course.  -Louise
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Friday, January 30, 2015 

Subject: Quick question about "Songbird"

By the way, I wondered if there was a white stripe between the dark gold and yellow color on the plane.  It almost looks like there is, but it's hard to tell from the original b&w photo.  If so I can adjust that on the colorization and of course anything else you see, I'd like for it to be right.  -Louise
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Friday, January 14, 2015 
Subject:  Quick question about "Songbird"

Hi,
I remember the TV series very well. I too became a pilot because of the show. I'm in the process of building a scale T-50 model of the original Songbird.
Do you have a definitive color scheme for the paint used on Sky's Cessna T-50?
Does a color photo exist?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks, Jeff   /   jtull01@sbcglobal.net

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Jan 6/2015

Just a line to say; Thanks, I have really enjoyed Sky King and the Life of Riley.  Especially, Sky King!!!

Allen

I was only 10 years old when Sky King debuted but I enjoyed every episode on our little 10 inch TV.  Like many pilots my desire to be a pilot was reinforced by the series.

I retired as a Captain with TWA in 2001 and fly radio controlled models now and I have a Cessna 310 in my stable and every time I fly it I think of Sky King and Penny.

What wonderful memories and I plan to purchase the DVD set and see the show whenever I want.

Capt. Jim Moody (TWA retired)
St. Louis, Mo.
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