About Dodo Airlines
A working theory of how we got here, presented chronologically.
Dodo Airlines began, as most aviation companies do, with a divorce and a slightly impulsive purchase at a regional aircraft auction. What followed was sixteen years of patient learning, mostly in the form of reading the owner's manual cover to cover three separate times.
We are based in Hammond, Indiana, because that is where the founder happened to be living when the airplane arrived and because moving it seemed unreasonable. The operation has since grown to include a second aircraft, a part-time mechanic named Joel, and a website with reasonably consistent formatting.
Our (extremely literal) name
Yes, we are aware that the dodo is famous for being unable to fly and also for being extinct. We have heard the joke. We've heard all the jokes. We named the company this on purpose, in 2009, after a long evening, and we have made peace with the decision. The official explanation, which we provide to children and journalists, is that the dodo was a creature confident enough to live without predators until the precise moment it wasn't, and there's a flying lesson in there somewhere if you squint.
The unofficial explanation is that "Dodo Airlines" was the only name available at the Indiana Secretary of State's office that didn't already belong to a defunct crop duster.
How we fly
Slowly. Deliberately. With both hands on the yoke and a thermos of coffee within reach. Our pilots have been trained in the conservative tradition that says the best landing is the one you walk away from, and the second best is the one you don't have to. We do not perform aerobatics. We do not buzz lakefront homes, no matter what the homeowner association alleges in their letter from August.
A brief history
In which a series of unrelated events accidentally become a business plan.
Founder Margaret "Maggie" Holcombe acquires a 1978 Cessna 185 at auction in Valparaiso, fully intending to use it as a hangar curiosity. It flies on the second weekend. She gets her seaplane rating within the year.
First paying passengers — a wedding party that needed to get from Hammond to Saugatuck in a hurry and were, by their own admission, "not asking many questions." Everyone arrived intact.
The goose incident. We do not discuss the goose incident. The goose is fine. The cowling needed paint.
Second aircraft acquired — a de Havilland Beaver in the kind of condition that the previous owner described as "a project." It flies now. Mostly.
An extremely quiet year about which we have no further comment.
Featured in a regional travel magazine as one of "Seven Quirky Day Trips in the Midwest." Bookings briefly tripled. The whiteboard ran out of room. A second whiteboard was acquired.
Still here. Still flying. Still answering the same three questions about the dodo.
The people in charge
Such as we are.
Maggie Holcombe
Commercial single-engine seaplane rated since 2010. Holds the unique distinction of having read every issue of Flying Magazine since 1994 without ever once writing in.
Joel Rasmussen
A&P certified. Available Tuesdays, Thursdays, and any day with an "r" in it provided the weather is good. Believes most problems can be solved with patience and the correct wrench.
Theo Caldwell
Joined in 2019 after a previous career in commercial regional aviation that he describes as "fine, mostly." Prefers tailwheel aircraft and people who do not ask to fly upside down.
Beatrix
Adopted us in 2015. Holds no licenses. Has never personally crashed an aircraft. Considered by management to be the most reliable member of staff.