sedona legend helen frye

The Official TWA

Private Executive Planes

of Jack Frye

Longtime President and founder of Transcontinental and Western Air

Sedona Legend Landmark Series

Sedona's earliest aviation history
had a powerful connection with TWA!

Airport
Code
SEZ

The first of many times I flew into Sedona was 1985. The Sedona terminal building as seen above was nonexistent. We landed at the small flight building near the Sedona Airport Restaurant. Sedona was so friendly and accommodating, that the wife of the owner of Air Sedona gave me a much needed ride down to King's Ransom Hotel where I stayed for the next 10 days. I never forgot that act of kindness. Back then there were no taxis in Sedona or much of anything else for that matter. I never dreamed that 20 years later, I would be representing Jack and Helen Frye's Sedona from a much earlier time period- 1940 to 1979. In the Frye time-frame there was no Red Rock State Park, but there was the Frye Ranch or the TWA ranch, as many referred to it. Jack Frye? Well most Sedonans back then knew he was the founder and long time president of Transcontinental and Western Air. Jack and his wife Helen, the former Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., flew over Sedona in early 1941, looking for suitable ranch property! Finding nowhere to land they continued on to Prescott, where they rented a car and later purchased what eventually became the TWA get-a-way ranch at over 800 acres, near Red Rock Crossing. In the ensuing years, because of time constraints and bad roads, the Fryes always flew in and out of the Red Rock Country to visit their Sedona ranch. This likely makes them perhaps the very first homeowners in Sedona to enjoy such a luxury, made possible by Jack's involvement with TWA.

Landing locations around early Sedona were far from convenient. Pilots had to land at the following airfields: Clemenceau, (Cottonwood) Airport, (see this story by Frye private TWA pilot). Prescott Airport, Flagstaff Airport, (Koch Field), Winslow Airport, (full service TWA terminal). Shortly after Jack and Helen Frye bought their Sedona ranch (now Red Rock State Park) near Red Rock Crossing, Jack leased acreage and developed an airstrip to land his Lockheed Electra 12A executive plane. This location was known as the Frye Ranch private airstrip, officially (Verde Valley Airport), at the corner of Cornville Road and 89A. Runaways can still be seen from the air north of 89A. This property was the closest to Sedona that could easily be acquired and developed into an airfield for large planes. Please see information on this page. Jack landed his Lockheed Electra and (later) Lodestar often at this location. As well, Jack and Helen Frye flew into the Winslow Airport on TWA airliners, at which the Frye ranch hands from Sedona would pick them up and bring them to the ranch. The Fryes also used this airport to access their 15,000-acre Sunshine Ranch in the Meteor Crater region. When visiting their Spring Valley Ranch above Williams, Arizona, the Fryes flew in and out of the Valle Airport, near the Grand Canyon.

Red Rock News profile on Helen Vanderbilt Frye from 1974-

An airport was needed by Jack and Helen Frye as they always flew to and from Sedona from points all over the United States. Helen relates that the second time she and Jack came out to the ranch, (1941) "that two men from Cottonwood approached Jack. They suggested that there was a strip on their property suitable for an airport". The land turned out to be near the 89A and Cornville Road turnoff. The land was developed by Jack as an airport but was not successful due to the war. However, one time when Helen and Jack were flying over Sedona, Jack spotted what he said would be the ideal site. It was the top of Table Top Mountain. Jack and Helen subsequently walked over it together and determined it was large enough. Later Joe Moser carried the project through in 1953. This is the landing strip now called Sedona Airport!

On most weekends the Sedona Airport has a surprising number of executive jets parked around the terminal for a town the size of Sedona. Shown here is a 2000 Cessna 750 and a 2006 Cessna 680.

Photos captured in March of 2008, please click on any image for larger file.

1995 Cessna 525 and a 2001 Learjet 45

A beautiful Citation X

2007 Cessna 680

One of the most beautiful planes is this 2005 Pilatus PC 12/45 Pratt and Whitney Turbo-Prop, cruise speed of approximately 300 m.p.h.

Lined up and waiting for Sunday afternoon when passengers will board for flights home all over the United States. The airport will seem deserted by Monday morning.

1997 Cessna 525

1999 Ratheon B300, 1983 Cessna 550

Would you like to tour Sedona in a biplane not unlike the ones Jack Frye himself used to fly? Well here it is a reproduction 1993 Waco YMF N96T, owned by Red Rock Biplane Tours of Sedona. The sound you hear on this page is this biplane warming up for a flight over the Red Rock canyons!

Burdett Airport and School of Aviation
a Jack Frye- Burdett Fuller operation
The beginning of West Coast Aviation

Arizona Newspaper Interview with Jack Frye from 1948 (in part)

Many long-time Arizonians will remember this 44-year-old executive as the man who inaugurated the state's first commercial air service. As president of the early-day Standard Airlines, based in Los Angeles, he set up in 1927, a route linking that city with Phoenix and Tucson, and later extended operations to include El Paso and Dallas, Texas.
   Holder of the state's first transport pilot's license, Frye not only directed Standard's activities but also skippered the line's one airplane.
   "We made three round trips a week between here and the coast," he said, "and on Sundays got the airplane back into shape."
   In 1930, the small air line merged into the Western Air Express Corporation, with Frye assuming the post of vice-president. Later that year, the new firm joined with Transcontinental Air Transport to form the present Trans World Airline. Prior to taking over the top job with the latter company in 1934, he served for four years as vice-president in charge of operations.
   Frye's liking for Arizona, which took root during his early flying days, culminated seven years ago in the purchase of his Oak Creek canyon home and of his ranch in Spring Valley northwest of Flagstaff. But this descendent of Texas cattlemen didn't choose his permanent home site in a hit-or-miss fashion. He gave to the search the same shrewd insight which has characterized his business operations.

As he tells it:
"My wife and I decided we wanted to settle in the Southwest, preferably alongside some water. First we flew over all of New Mexico, hitting every stream. Then we started on Arizona. As soon as we got over the Oak Creek area, my wife pointed down and said, 'There's our spot.'"
   "I didn't think there was enough water in the canyon for our purposes, but to please her I set the ship down at Prescott, contacted a real estate man, and within 24 hours had purchased our present spot."
   This week Frye is winding up purchase of another sizeable ranch in the northern part of the state which will give him total holdings of more than 50,000 acres. He plans to start large scale cattle ranching operation, thus bringing to life a long standing dream.
   "Owning a paying cattle ranch is my idea of the way to live," he noted, explaining that one day during the depression, "when businessmen were jumping out of windows," he was caught in rough weather over the Texas panhandle and landed on a ranch owned by an uncle.
    "Those folks were doing all right while the rest of the nation was going crazy," he said. "So that night in 1931 I told myself 'This is for me.'"

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The private executive planes of Jack Frye

1931 Lockheed Vega 5B