When Hollister resident Robert Hall was only 8 years old, his
dad gave him a rubber-band powered paper and balsa wood airplane
kit.
Hollister – When Hollister resident Robert Hall was only 8 years old, his dad gave him a rubber-band powered paper and balsa wood airplane kit.
Dissatisfied with its first flight, he tinkered with it until it flew properly, and he’s been tinkering with airplanes ever since.
At about age 12, he “could finally reach the control pedals'” so he enrolled in flying lessons and started accumulating hours. And when the United States entered World War II, Robert enlisted for pilot training in the Army Air Corps.
Unfortunately, they already had enough pilots, so he switched to the Naval Aviation program. By the time he finished boot camp, that branch didn’t need pilots either, so he ended up on the USS West Virginia for the duration of the war.
After the war, he got a job with United Airlines in Seattle “mainly cleaning the oil out of old reciprocating engines,” aiming to get promoted into something closer to actual flying.
When this didn’t materialize, he re-enlisted in the Air Force. Through this stint, as well as time in the National Guard in Korea and the Army Reserve, flight school still always proved elusive.
So in 1960, Robert finally took matters into his own hands and started a small business of his own called Air-Fab, restoring antique airplanes while accumulating about 4,500 flight hours on his own.
In 1968 there was one opening in a Flight School class at the Presidio in San Francisco. Although he was told there wouldn’t be time to get his paperwork completed before the class started, Robert still couldn’t keep his head out of the clouds.
“I hand carried it from rubber stamp to rubber stamp,” he said and was soon enrolled in the class. He graduated in 1970.
During the Vietnam era, he carried out transport and training missions up and down the coast. At 42, a good 20 years older than the rest of his class, his apparent maturity kept him in demand to transport military generals.
“I liked flying the generals around,” he said. “The food was better.”
In 1983, Air-Fab moved from San Jose to the oldest (circa 1926) building at the Hollister Airport. Originally built as the maintenance facility for the Hollister airfield, the building now houses his numerous works in progress, such as a 1946 Taylorcraft brought in by the grandson of the original owner. As with many planes he’s restored, the fabric covering the frame was rotten and the cables and steel tubing were rusty.
It’s a challenging job that’s never short on surprises, Robert said. A bare frame occasionally reveals a tiny real skeleton such as the remains of a mouse that died while munching on the beeswax-covered rib cords and wooden struts in one plane Robert restored.
“We bury the mice with honors. The yellow jackets and spiders, usually not'” Hall said.
“One of my favorites is the Boeing/Stearman from the 30’s and 40’s … They were well-built and well-designed'” Hall says. Air-Fab has restored 10 or 15 of these planes over the years. The biplanes are a common sight in Hollister skies.
Another favorite project was the 1917 Curtis JN4 or “Jenny,” the type of plane Charles Lindbergh trained in. After its restoration, the plane went on the win Grand Champion at an air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
A quadruple bypass surgery has taken Robert out of the pilot seat for good, but certainly not the love of flying out his heart. He’s in the process of turning the business over to his son Charles. And while he still enjoys being a passenger in the skies, Robert plans to spend the near future behind the wheel of his pick-up as he tours the nation’s national parks and monuments.
Local Stories focuses on the people who love living and working in San Benito County. Subjects are chosen at random by the Free Lance staff and published every Wednesday.
