Aviation Suites

02/12/2026

Talk them into camping at the Roseburg Airport and two of your couple can stay in high style at Aviation Suites!

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02/01/2026

Flying is flying…

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In 1982, a man named Larry Walters, a truck driver from Los Angeles, decided to turn a lifelong dream into reality — with a lawn chair, helium balloons, and pure nerve. He tied 45 weather balloons to his patio chair, packed a BB gun and a sandwich, and cut the tether, expecting to gently float about 30 feet above the ground.
What happened next stunned the world. Instead of drifting slightly upward, Walters shot skyward at an alarming speed, reaching nearly 16,000 feet. In the thin, freezing air, he struggled to breathe as he unknowingly drifted into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) airspace. One astonished commercial airline pilot radioed air traffic control with the now-famous line: “I have just passed a guy in a lawn chair with a gun.”
Miraculously, Walters survived. Using his BB gun, he carefully shot several balloons to descend safely back to Earth. His flight remains one of the most unbelievable true stories ever recorded — a mix of curiosity, courage, miscalculation, and sheer luck. Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction. 🎈🪑✈️

08/01/2025

Enjoyable interaction last week when four pilots, four planes and one support mom stopped at the Roseburg airport overnight. The pilots are all working to become commercial pilots and this was one leg of their training so they decided to convoy and enjoy a night in Douglas County
Aviation Suites hosted one pilot and I shuttled the rest to a local hotel and then on to True for dinner.
What an enjoyable group of future leaders.
Best of luck to them all.

05/22/2025

Lucky girl. Talk about tough!

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On Christmas Eve 1971, a Lockheed Electra airliner took off from Lima, Peru, carrying 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke and her mother home for the holidays. Minutes later, disaster struck: a bolt of lightning tore through the fuselage, igniting fuel tanks and sending the plane spiraling into the Amazon rainforest. Juliane, still strapped to her seat, was sucked out of the disintegrating aircraft at 10,000 feet. She plummeted two miles through storm clouds before crashing into the jungle canopy—and somehow, miraculously, survived.

The Fall That Defied Physics
Scientists later theorized Juliane lived because:

Dense foliage slowed her descent, acting like a natural net.

The seat likely spun like a maple seed, reducing impact force.

She landed at an angle, avoiding fatal trauma to her head or spine.

When she woke, Juliane had a broken collarbone, deep cuts, and a concussion—but was alive. Around her lay wreckage, bodies, and the shattered Christmas presents passengers had packed hours earlier.

11 Days in the Green Hell
With no supplies, Juliane relied on lessons from her biologist father to survive:

Followed streams (her father’s advice: "Water leads to people").

Drank rainwater from leaves to avoid parasites.

Ignored her festering wounds, fearing maggots would infest them.

On Day 11, she stumbled upon a logger’s canoe, then their camp. When rescuers saw her—emaciated, caked in mud, but alive—they crossed themselves, whispering "milagro" (miracle).

Why Her Story Still Stuns
The Only Survivor: Of 93 aboard, 91 died on impact; one passenger survived briefly but succumbed to injuries.

Haunting Legacy: Juliane’s mother’s body was found days later, still strapped to her seat.

Science of Survival: Her case reshaped aviation safety studies on high-altitude ejections.

P.S. Juliane became a biologist, dedicating her life to studying the rainforest that saved her.
Follow for more History Facts!

05/16/2025

If you’re flying into the Roseburg Airport or just really, really love airplanes, consider spending the night (or a week) in the Flight Deck or Hangar Suite right on the tarmac at Aviation Suites.
To book your stay call Aviation Suites, Marilyn Kittelman at 541-580-8988 or on line at FlyStayHere.com
Today’s activities.

Aviation Suites is a unique business setting with upscale overnight accomodtions located on the tarmac of the Roseburg, Oregon Airport (KRBG). Quality best describes the experience when you visit these spectacular suites.

02/10/2025

If you love all things aviation and podcasts, you might give this a try…

Podcast · Mark Pollard & Jeff Petrocelli · An aviation podcast where I talk about flying cool planes, and talk to cool pilots who fly cool planes. I will talk about aerobatics, warbirds, experimental aircraft and more! Sometimes I will just ramble by myself and sometimes we will have guests!

11/06/2024

Praise Jesus!!!

07/28/2024

Remember this heroes family in your prayers today. AJ sad that our beautiful state is burning.

U.S. Forest Service-Malheur National Forest
·
The wildland firefighting community is mourning the loss of one of their own. The Grant County Sheriff has confirmed that single engine air tanker pilot James Bailey Maxwell, 74, died while working in the vicinity of the Falls Fire on July 25, 2024. James was an experienced pilot who had spent 54 years of his life flying and who had logged approximately 24,000 hours of flight time. He is survived by and will be missed by family members in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
A single engine airtanker, or SEAT, is the smallest airtanker in the fire suppression fleet. These highly-maneuverable aircraft can deliver up to 800 gallons of fire retardant or water to wildland firefighters on the ground.
The Maxwell family and firefighters are grateful for the support being expressed throughout the community and online. Services have not been announced at this time and the family asks for privacy while they mourn.

01/04/2024

STOP!!! DO NOT FORWARD!!!

SCAM!!!

Mine is a screen shot, it’s safe.
If it’s a lost dog or elderly person on a market place or classified it’s likely a scam. BEFORE you compromise yourself and your gullible friends go to the actual post, click on the profile. If you can’t comment, it’s a SCAM!

11/28/2023

Jim Meads was a photographer living in Hatfield, Hertfordshire near the Hatfield aerodrome in 1962. A pilot friend notified him on September 13th of that year that he would be test flying an English Electric Lightning F1 XG332 if he would like to come take some photos. Happy to get shots of the only British built fighter capable of Mach 2 speeds, he set out toward the airfield hoping to get photos of his children with the F1 landing in the background. The photo he ended up getting would become famous.

As he and his family walked up, a grounds keeper for the airfield approached them in a tractor to tell them to leave the area. That’s when the plane went out of control at a very low altitude with the pilot ejecting at the last possible moment, setting up an incredible, one of kind shot (especially for the time). As it turns out, the pilot was not Mead’s friend, but another test pilot named George Aird. He landed on a tomato greenhouse nearby, crashing through the roof and breaking both legs on the way down. The story is well documented by Aird, Meads, and Mike Sutterby, the tractor bound groundskeeper who was only 23 at the time.