Fallbrook Air Service turns 50

Fallbrook Air Service began operation at Fallbrook Community Air Park, April 1, 1968. It is still owned by the Aberle family 50 years later.

"We actually have three generations of family business in Fallbrook," FAS Assistant Vice President Jerry Aberle said.

Jerry's father, Tom Aberle, has been the president of Fallbrook Air Service since Tom Aberle's mother, Yvonne, died in 2010. Harry and Yvonne Aberle founded Fallbrook Air Service, and Yvonne took over leadership when Harry died in 1982.

Although only three generations of the Aberle family have been involved with Fallbrook Air Service, Jerry Aberle is a fourth-generation pilot.

"It actually almost goes back to Orville and Wilbur," he said.

Harold Aberle, Harry's father, didn't have a pilot's license when he began flying in 1926 because such certification did not exist at the time. Harold Aberle worked for Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company in Nebraska.

"On his first solo flight, the radiator hose broke, and he had to land in a field," Jerry Aberle said.

A corporation with a board of directors was formed in 1960 to develop an airport in Fallbrook. The construction of Fallbrook Community Air Park took place in 1964, and the completion of the runway allowed Stu Marshall to make the first landing, Oct. 28, 1964, after Marshall drove to Oceanside Municipal Airport where his plane had been hangered. In September 1967, Bob Ingold leased a portion of the airport land and built 10 metal T-hangars, which were leased to local pilots.

At the time Harry and Yvonne Aberle lived in Torrance and owned Alondra Flight Services in Compton. The Fallbrook airport's board requested that they take over operations of Fallbrook Community Air Park.

"They knew that an airport without a business wasn't going to generate any business," Jerry Aberle said.

A sublease with Harry and Yvonne Aberle was negotiated in March 1968 for a flying office with pilot instruction, plane rental, aviation fuel and other aircraft services. The Aberle family also took over the hangar facilities.

"Part of the deal to get Fallbrook Air Service to lease was that Ingold would sell the building to my father for its cost," Tom Aberle said.

That and a 10-foot by 15-foot portable building which was used for pilot sign-ins were the only structures at the airport when Fallbrook Air Service took over.

"We still have that sign-in book," Tom Aberle said.

Tom Aberle was already a licensed pilot, and while his parents operated the airport, he owned Aberle Custom Aircraft which builds, maintains and races airplanes. He retained Aberle Custom Aircraft after his mother died, and he also took over Fallbrook Air Service.

"We were born and raised into the business," Jerry Aberle said.

The county of San Diego owns the 290-acre airport and approved a lease with Fallbrook Community Air Park in 1968. The county took over operations of the airport in 1997. The airport's founders used "Air Park" as separate words to promote the community aspect in addition to the aviation; the county spells "Airpark" as one word. Although the Aberle family no longer runs the airport, the county still has a lease with Fallbrook Air Service, and the most recent 20-year lease approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in January 2017 extended the lease to Jan. 31, 2037.

A separate 501(c)(3) entity, the Fallbrook Aero Club, works with high school students primarily in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

"We're basically doing the Young Eagles but in a local community effort," Jerry Aberle said.

The Young Eagles program was developed in 1992 by the Experimental Aircraft Association – the Federal Aviation Administration classifies self-built or modified aircraft as experimental – to increase aviation interest among youth. Free introductory flights are provided to children ages 8 to 17. Although no EAA chapter is based at Fallbrook Community Airpark, Friends of the Fallbrook Community Air Park and the EAA chapter based at French Valley Airport have collaborated to have a Young Eagles Rally in Fallbrook twice each year since 2001.

The Fallbrook Aero Club will provide actual flights to complement the ground school knowledge the students have obtained.

"We're demonstrating the practical approach to that," Jerry Aberle said. "We'll be offering free flights, based on donations, to the kids in order to put practicality behind theory."

Fallbrook Air Service currently provides hangar service, aircraft maintenance and one rental aircraft for flight training.

"Love for aviation is the only thing that's kept us in it," Tom Aberle said.

Courtesy photos in a folder in Images - FOREST - these photos were scanned 2 or 4 to a pdf - see what you can use...