Masten flies like the wind

“My dad’s been a pilot longer than I’ve been alive. Some of my earliest memories are flying,” said Nathan Masten, Airport Manager at Jim Kelly Field and owner of Flying M Aviation.

His best friend runs an airplane mechanic shop in Texas, and Masten says that during some of his core formative years, between the ages of 10-13, he also spent a great deal of time there with this childhood friend tinkering and putting things back together.

Masten was born in Nederland, Texas, and grew up moving around because his father was in the fuel business working for Conoco Gas & Oil. He also lived in Odessa, Texas, Dansville, Mo., Weatherford, Okla., Chandler, Okla., and then he moved to Loomis where he began eighth grade, and would stay through graduating from high school.

Much of Masten’s family is from Lexington, including his grandparents, who were both teachers. His grandfather, Joe Masten Sr. was also a principal and superintendent here in town during times past. His father Don Masten, and uncle, Joe Jr. Masten are native locals as well. His mom is originally from Milford, and his parents still live in Loomis. 

As airport manager, he is employed by the Lexington Airport Authority, an elected board of the city government. He refuels airplanes, maintains all the necessary paperwork for smooth and legal functioning of the airport, greets and dispatches clientele, maintains the rental facilities which includes a 12 T hanger, and manages the mowing, snow removal, and general clearing of the taxiways and ramp.

Because his job allows him a schedule of flexible hours, he is also able to develop his airplane mechanic business, Flying M Aviation, and service locally grounded planes in between completing his other responsibilities.

“As a side, fun thing, we do 4 wheeler dirt bike work,” said Masten, divulging one of his favorite hobbies.  “That’s what I do in my spare time,” he says, “Country boy stuff.”

He appears an avid advocate of the small-town lifestyle, and lovingly describes his experience of Loomis, a 400-person community, in contrast to the slightly larger feel of Lexington.

“We played with BB guns, bicycles, and slingshots. If you were five or six running around down the street and one of us fell and hurt their knee, the little lady in the house watching called your folks who came and got you. Everyone knows everyone.”

As he reflected on the current state and future of Lexington, he noted that the airport has never suffered any vandalism, however, as an in-town homeowner, he has himself experienced and laments the annoying nature of graffiti damage to his personal property.

“It’s more annoying than it is scary, but I know some people find it scary. Lex is not a violent place,” said Masten.  “I’m a country kinda guy, though,” he continues.

Masten has a scant 26 years of life under his belt, and has experienced a lot on the ground and from up high. Besides moving around, after graduating from high school in Loomis he went to Sidney for an associates in aircraft maintenance and management.

He later worked for Jerry May, the previous mechanic at Jim Kelly field, for about a month and then decided he wanted to advance his career with an internship at Duncan Aviation, a Lincoln based company which employs 1500 people in Lincoln and 3000 people worldwide. He went there in June of 2003 and stayed on as a mechanic until July 2007  when he moved here.

His favorite color is green.

He calls himself a meat-and-potatoes kind-of-guy.

His future goals include living outside town in the country, and growing his business to a place where he has more free time and is able to employ additional mechanics.

“I’m slightly biased being part of the airport, but I honestly feel that without an airport, a town won’t attract the larger companies,” said Masten, shedding light on how an airfield fits into the web of relationships, needs, and available services which make up a thriving community.

“Without the airport you’ll obviously have the small businesses, which is fine, but, it really is an unseen vein or oxygen line that most people don’t see or understand.”

He listed several large companies which use the airport including Tyson, John Deere, Fairbanks, and Orthman Manufacturing, whose executives regularly bring business to the Lexington Airport Authority site. Doctors and especially specialists which visit Lex weekly or monthly also make up a great deal of Jim Kelly Field’s traffic.

Other groups which use the airport, and thus bring in revenue are individuals and groups who stop to refuel between coastal destinations, and government officials who visit Lexington for any number of reasons.

Many stop in Lexington to refuel because they value the small size and relative ease and convenience of Jim Kelly field, which also offers relatively low fuel prices, compared to larger airfields which require more overhead costs to maintain their businesses.

Jet fuel at Jim Kelly Field currently costs $2.99 per gallon, he says, and Av Gas, costs $3.79 per gallon.

Scientific and social, Masten is more than willing to explain fuel combustion and engine mechanics to the layperson, and he also says that the flying community in this town is a lot like the formidable ‘old car club’ that meets downtown for coffee and conversation.

“People stop in here to say hi, see if anythings going on,” and, he says, they are not exclusive, and will include anyone who’s interested in flying.

“We’ll have anywhere from one to 10 people here drinking coffee and talking airplanes, and you can almost always guarantee that Virgil Coryell will be here,” Masten chuckles.

Coryell, a longtime Lexington resident is president of the airport authority, and has owned many different kinds of planes over the years.

If anyone wants to stop by, Jim Kelly Field around 10 o’clock each day is the place and time.

Anyone in the military or retired military or anyone with images related to flying is welcome to help decorate the walls of the airport, which is already adorned with a few vintage flying-genre photographs.

“If you have old pictures of airplanes and don’t mind giving or loaning us a copy,” he says, encouraging residents to help make and become visual pieces of history, “we’ll hang up your pictures.”

The airport has been here since the thirties, and has always been owned by the city.

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