PURSUIT112607

Honk if you love flying

Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune

A pair of wild Canada geese named Apollo (closest to window) and Kennedy, fly alongside Mary Jo and Marvin (not pictured) Brown as she drives the couple's Lincoln Town Car down their 1/2-mile-long, grass airstrip at Browns Airport near Hancock, Minn. The geese have wintered with the couple for several years.

The lawnmower wasn't fast enough, so a Hancock, Minn., couple revved up the Lincoln Town Car to take their favorite geese for a spin. These geese love to fly -- beside a car.

By Vickie Kettlewell, Star Tribune

Last update: November 25, 2007 - 9:49 PM

The perfect speed for "goose games" is 34 miles per hour.

At Brown's Airport near Hancock, in west-central Minnesota, the log of landings and takeoffs might include these entries: one tail-dragger, two geese and one Lincoln Town Car.

Brown's Airport is a half-mile-long grass airstrip located on the farm of Marvin and Mary Jo Brown. The tail-dragger is a 1947 Cessna 140, an aluminum two-seater.

The two geese are Apollo and Kennedy. And Browns' Lincoln Town Car is used as a prompt to get Apollo and Kennedy to play what the Browns call "goose games."

The scene looks something like this: The black Town Car starts its taxi, looking a little out of place in the middle of a farm field. Marvin might choose to sit behind Mary Jo, who is at the wheel. Both have their windows down. Mary Jo and Marvin call to the birds and honk the car horn.

Apollo and Kennedy waddle alongside the car, give out a few honks to each other and look skeptical. But soon, they take flight. They fly right outside the car's windows, exactly at the car's speed. The birds even make eye contact with Marvin and Mary Jo.

As the car approaches the end of the airstrip, Mary Jo calls out, "Put down your landing gear, put it down, put it down," and the birds execute perfect landings - flaps down, landing gear down. As a pilot, Mary Jo marvels at their grace.

The birds could just keep going, but they don't. "If they wanted to leave, they could, but they love us," Mary Jo said. Added Marvin: "Well, they get all the food they can eat."

The couple, who have been married for 23 years (it was a second marriage for both), often gently jostle each other. Marvin is 78 and has farmed a good share of his life. Mary Jo is 11 years younger. He was a pilot when they met, and encouraged Mary Jo to try it. Now she flies vintage planes and has a hot-air balloon license. The couple love to fly, and seasonally they host fly-ins where pilots fly aircraft of all kinds to the Browns' field in Hancock, southeast of Morris, for a weekend of events. Kennedy and Apollo are a big hit at those gatherings.

Both geese were acquired as day-old goslings from a game farm, Kennedy 4½ years ago, Apollo two. Marvin discovered that Kennedy liked to follow the lawn mower. Soon they took out the golf cart and Kennedy flew alongside that. Then Apollo joined up too. The golf cart wasn't fast enough though, so they tried the car.

"They are so gorgeously beautiful," Mary Jo said. "The feathers across their back are perfectly aligned. They are just so much in control -- God's little miracle."

Vickie Kettlewell • 612-673-7565

Vickie Kettlewell • vkettlewell@startribune.com