Pilots

The Samoa Airport Bed and Breakfast is, well, different. But thanks to Donald and Shauna Burrow's offbeat vision, it works.

The Burrows own and operate the B&B at tiny Eureka (California) Municipal Airport (the official moniker; locals call it Samoa, the name of the village where it is located). Theirs is no pastel-painted, preciously decorated Victorian mansion with four-posters, croissants, and high tea. No, the rooms in the Burrows' inn are decorated with framed pictures of airplanes — some cut from the pages of aviation magazines — and guests are served an egg, cheese, sausage, and gravy casserole called the Fighter Pilot's Breakfast. The B&B is housed in a long, low, freshly painted but plain wooden building that looks for all the world like a military barracks. It looks like one because it used to be one.

Eureka Municipal served as a Navy auxiliary blimp base in World War II, one of two such bases on the West Coast. Bulbuous, 250-foot-long K-class blimps powered by twin Pratt & Whitney radials patrolled the Pacific coastline, while crews in the two-story gondolas looked for enemy ships and submarines. Samoa supported two such blimps, evidenced by the still visible two large circles of asphalt where the ships docked. The blimp hangar was knocked down years ago.

The Navy moved out after the war and handed the airport over to Eureka. The city erected a bank of T-hangars, a new aircraft dealership set up shop, and the airport prospered for a time. In the late 1950s, business declined, and the facilities fell into disuse for most of the next 30 years.

About 10 years ago, the Burrows entered the picture. They moved from Wyoming into a house near the airport and decided to learn to fly. Donald, a former helicopter mechanic, bought a Cherokee 140 and began fixing it up. They liked exploring northern California in the airplane and the camaraderie among the other fliers at the field. The Burrows began to think about launching a commercial venture at the airport, if for no other reason than to protect their hangar space. The airport was suffering from benign neglect, and the Burrows were worried about its future.

The odds were against them. Eureka Muni is wedged on the southern tip of a peninsula bordering Humboldt Bay to the east and the Pacific to the west (from inside the B&B, you can hear the pounding of the surf) in an area famous for its thick, persistent fog. The 2,700-foot runway is nicely paved and marked and has clear approaches, but there is no instrument approach or fuel available.

Despite its shortcomings, the airport now supports an active sport-flying population. All the T-hangars are full of Cessna trikes and taildraggers, kitplanes, and ultralights owned and flown by people like the Burrows who appreciate the local brand of friendliness, freedom, and frugality. The fliers share the airport environs with a small separate paved strip, that on weekends hosts remote-control model airplane meets and drag races, though not at the same time. The biggest event of the year at the airport is a fresh fish fry put on by the area Ninety-Nines to raise money for aviation scholarships. Some 200 airplanes are attracted to the feeding frenzy.

The Burrows hit upon the idea of opening a B&B mostly through a process of elimination. "We wanted to do something at the airport," Shauna explains, "but no one could make it here as an FBO without being able to sell fuel." They were unlikely to gain local approval to pump fuel because of the competition it would pose for nearby Murray Field. So what to do that wouldn't pose a competitive threat? "We figured no one else would try a bed and breakfast," she says.

Certainly not the way the Burrows are going about it. It took a lot of imagination for them to look at an old blimp barracks overgrown with scrub and ignored for more than three decades and envision a tidy, gleaming white clapboard B&B. Fortunately, the building is constructed of redwood and is as solid and sturdy as the day it was built. Before and after photos in the entranceway testify to the transformation that has taken place.

Other photos document the military history of the place. One of the men who served there during the war, Sy Beattie, still lives nearby and has helped the Burrows identify and explain the floor plan and function of the building. Two guest rooms occupy what once were officers' quarters. A third small room used to be the radio room, and a fourth was the officer of the day room. Each rents for $60 a night, including that high-G casserole. The day room has been turned into the B&B's living and dining rooms. The former enlisted men's quarters is now called Hospitality Hall and is rented out for parties.

Shauna's aunt, Gloria Winger, is the B&B's live-in manager. (Call her at 707/445-0765). Flying runs in the family. Gloria's uncle was a barnstormer, her son is a crop duster, and her husband was a military aerial photographer in the war.

The Burrows have normal jobs — she in a doctor's office and he at the local power plant — but now more than ever, their hearts and minds belong to the airport. "We had to figure out what to do with what we had to work with," Shauna says. "It's going to make it."