Tehachapi News

Airport is testimony to Zweigle's dedication

Dave Zweigle’s stamp on the Tehachapi Municipal Airport is summed up on the visitors’ notes left on the whiteboard in the pilots’ lounge.

“This is a cool setup!” (visitors from Mariposa)
“Thanks for the yummy ice cream and soda. Very nice place.” (Redlands)
“Super nice place to stop – thanks!” (Santa Rosa)
“Took a shower. Great lounge.” (El Segundo)
“Really a great place to rest our wings. Thanks!”
“Best lounge ever!”
“The hot packets are yummy!”
“Awesome airport!”
“(Heart) your lounge. This place is amazing.”
“Today is my birthday and this is really nice.”
 “Thunderstorms suck, this lounge is great.” (Santa Paula)

Zweigle, 42, died when his Czech L-29 military jet crashed during flyovers on July 4.

Since the Tehachapi City Council hired him as airport manager four years ago, Zweigle embraced the job with enthusiasm and joy.

The airport was his milieu.

“It was a place that he loved to be,” said Airport Assistant Kathie Mikulovsky, who came on board at the airport six months after Zweigle took over.

A pilot himself, he knew what flyers needed when they stopped at the airport.

He put together a lounge that provided all the amenities: a refrigerator filled with sodas and water, a freezer chest with snacks, a microwave, a computer, big soft lounge chairs that came from the defunct Tehachapi Fire Department, a television, menus from local restaurants, bicycles for riding into town and aviation magazines.

Fly-in visitors pay for the snacks and drinks on the honor system, with payment dropped into money trays in the freezer and the refrigerator.

Everyone is honest and the system pays for itself, Mikulovsky said.

It’s not surprising, considering the source of the concept.

“I’ve worked for a lot of people in my life and have never worked for someone who was so kind and considerate and he was never, ever cross – ever,” Mikulovsky said. “It was a breath of fresh air working with someone so kind.”

During his tenure as airport manager, Zweigle completed major safety improvements and site upgrades.

He slurry sealed and re-striped the runway, obtained grants for the lighting and electricity on the field, installed drainage at the Airport Park, started offering jet fuel in addition to the general aviation fuel, brought the facility up to Homeland Security protection standards and installed the All Weather Observation System (call 661-823-0473 to find out the weather at the airport).

“He did a lot of that with his own two hands,” Mikulovsky said.

Tehachapi City Manager Greg Garrett called the airport that was developed under Zweigle’s management “a general aviation jewel in the mountains.” Last summer, Garrett promoted Zweigle to assistant city manager, in addition to maintaining his management of the airport.    

“His affable nature and constant smile were evidence of his strong character and personal beliefs,” Garrett said in a press release issued July 4, after the accident.

“Much like other great individuals, Dave touched the lives of everyone he came in contact with and was more than a great asset to the Tehachapi community: He was a shining example of integrity and charity,” Garrett said.

Growing up mechanical

Zweigle learned to be handy in his father’s heavy equipment and trucking mechanic shop in Reedley, Calif., a city of 20,000 located in the Central Valley near Fresno.

He was the youngest of three brothers. Doug, now 45, is the eldest. He lives in Sanger, 10 miles from Reedley.

Dennis, the middle son, now 43, still lives in Reedley.

They grew up in the country, where Dave played football and took industrial arts classes in high school.

“Dave has always been mechanical,” Dennis said. “Our dad was self-employed and had his own business, a mechanic shop. We grew up around mechanical things, turning wrenches and building things.”

The boys built go-carts and remote control cars and airplanes and as teenagers, turned their talents to customizing automobiles and trucks.

“We got a lot of experience in that shop,” Dennis said.

Dave also played the drums in junior high and high school, his brother said.

He had a drum set at home and played in the school band and at jam sessions.

Dave graduated from Reedley High School in 1985 and began general education studies at Reedley Community College.

While Dave was still in high school, Dennis said, he saw the movie “Top Gun” with Tom Cruise -- and life was never the same.

“That was fire under him. What he wanted to do was to be a pilot in the Navy.”

By the time he had graduated from high school, Dennis said, his brother was licensed and had been flying for two or three years.

Dave transferred from Reedley Community College to California State University at Fresno, studied industrial technology toward his bachelor’s degree, and became immersed in aviation.

“He was looking at buying his own plane to get flight time to enter the Navy. He had everything it took to enter the Navy,” Dennis said.

But an injury changed all that.

An airplane he was interested in buying had a dead battery. With the owner sitting inside, he attempted a manual prop start.

“There was a misunderstanding,” Dennis said. “The engine fired when it shouldn’t have.”

The propeller threw him away as it started up, severing part of his foot as it whipped around.

“It was like a knife blade,” Dennis said.

Doctors in the Bay Area were able to reattach parts of his foot.

Zweigle Aviation

“He was immediately disqualified from his dream as a Naval aviator,” Dennis said.

“But his love for aviation continued. He went back to Reedley College and studied airframe aeronautics.

He became certified in airframe and power plant and was able to work on aircraft.

Dave started Zweigle Aviation, a maintenance and repair shop at the Reedley Municipal Airport.

Around the year 2000, Dennis said, Dave took steps to become a commercial airline pilot for Mesa Airlines of Arizona.

He trained, got certified and checked out on Canadiar regional 50-passenger jets.

“They were fast, fun jets,” Dennis said. “He loved flying those things. He was so excited about that. He was just eating it up.”

Armed with his commercial airline pilot’s license, Dave secured his first position with Mesa Airlines in North Carolina and moved his family there.

His first day on the job was Sept. 11, 2001.

All aircraft in the country were ordered to land.

Dave was grounded in Atlanta, halfway to the flight’s destination.

“That week he was furloughed along with 200 other pilots out of Mesa,” Dennis said.

Dave bundled up his family again to return to California.

“They stopped here,” Dennis said. “They made the decision to make their home here. They loved it here.”

They bought a house in Bear Valley Springs.

Dave’s wife Julie started teaching right away at Cummings Valley Elementary School. Their children, son Wesley and daughter Hunter, settled in.

Dave bought and sold small airplanes, fixing them up and re-selling them, Dennis said, spending a lot of time at the Tehachapi Municipal Airport.

The Tehachapi City Council hired him to manage the airport on July 1, 2005.

“Dave loves other people. He loves God. He loves flying,” Dennis said. “He would take care of everybody around him.

“Dave was a creative, driven individual -- driven by his yearnings.”



Posted July 9, 2009; print edition Vol. 110, No. 14, July 15, 2009