Speck and Vel Morgan and Baby Blue:  May they always have tailwinds.

 

 

Each year EAA Chapter 896 has awarded an aviation scholarship called “The Speck Morgan Memorial Scholarship.”  After the death of Vel Morgan earlier this year, the members renamed it “The Speck and Vel Morgan Memorial Scholarship” in memory of two remarkable aviators.

 

Some of you knew Speck and Vel well; some of you may not have known them at all—but it would be a surprise if there was anyone that frequents a Texas Gulf Coast area airport that hasn’t heard a story about them.   Here is a short—and certainly not complete—biography of two people for whom aviation was a great love.

 

Loy “Speck” Morgan earned his private pilot license in 1967.  For years he worked for Mustang Tractor in El Campo, but when he had a spare minute he washed, waxed, and ferried airplanes for friends who, in return, provided wings for him to fly.  He earned his multiengine rating in 1971, his instrument rating in 1979, and his commercial in 1980.  After retiring in 1981, he received his single-engine, multi-engine, and Instrument Instructor’s ratings.  According to Vel, he logged 6104 hours PIC, and 3019 hours instructing.  He had 245 students, and gave 73 check rides.

 

On each anniversary of his own check ride, Speck had a tradition:  he would visit everyone who had an operating airplane on the airport and spend the entire day flying everything that would fly.

 

Stories are told of how Speck was such a relaxed instructor that you might look over and see him sound asleep in the right seat.  In fact, lots of stories are told about Speck.  Just hang around the airport and ask.  You will hear a “Speck” story.

Speck died on April 7, 1995, but he is far from forgotten.

 

Velda “Vel” Morgan wanted to take flying lessons when she was a youngster, but her dad wouldn’t hear of it.  She finally got into the air—by sneaking out and washing airplanes—and flew her first solo flight in 1943.  Years of family responsibilities and rearing children caused a little delay, but with encouragement from her friend Speck Morgan, she got her license in 1966, and bought her Cessna 150F, “Baby Blue.”   In 1974 Vel and Speck married.

 

There are tales told on Vel, too. Once she was practicing short-field landings in a tail-dragger.  On her third or fourth try to get the plane stopped short, she dropped it in and stopped really short.  Surprisingly short, in fact.  She didn’t understand how, until she noticed the cows wandering up through the broken barbed wire fence at the end of the field.  Then there was the time she landed at a convenient airport, and rolled out to a stop accompanied by military personnel with rifles.  That was before Bergstrom became Austin’s municipal airport.

 

Vel was a member of just about every aviation organization.  She was an avid Ninety-Nines member, and flew at every opportunity.  She was a member of EAA Chapter 896, and always there to help with Chapter functions.

Vel died on March 29, 2002.  We miss her.