- Date
- 2001-10
- Kind
- Publication
- Where
- Beaver Island
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- transportationaviationcommunity
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
M. Clark’s profile portrays Paul Welke as a central Island Airways operator and recounts his February 2001 flight that located the surviving Gault family after their charter aircraft crash. It says Welke Aviation began on Beaver Island in 1975 and merged with McPhillips Flying Service in 1983 to form Island Airways; the company then maintained nine aircraft, serviced other general-aviation planes, transported people and supplies year-round, and flew roughly 40–50 emergency evacuations annually.
Evidence limits
This is a profile based on the newspaper’s account, not an aviation-regulator record, company audit, or independent verification of fleet, staffing, hours, or evacuation totals.
Sources
- Profiles Welke’s sighting of the Gault crash survivors, the 1975 start of Welke Aviation, the 1983 merger into Island Airways, its nine-aircraft fleet and maintenance work, year-round ferry-air-service role, emergency evacuations, and Welke’s aviation qualifications. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2001-10_Beaver-Beacon
- The held issue scan confirms the Paul Welke profile.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2001-10_Beaver-Beacon
Added 5 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “October 2001 profile describes Paul Welke, Island Airways, and year-round Beaver Island air service”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-island-airways-paul-welke-profile-october-2001/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, October 2001, “Beaver Island Treasure – Paul Welke,” by M. Clark. (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “October 2001 profile describes Paul Welke, Island Airways, and year-round Beaver Island air service”RIS for “October 2001 profile describes Paul Welke, Island Airways, and year-round Beaver Island air service”