From the Oregon Aviation  

Historical Society.

This year we are inducting James Carle "Jimmy" Rinehart into the Oregon Aviation Hall of Fame.  He was born in Portland in 1909 and in 1926 he built his own plane and learned to fly.  In 1928 he was an endurance flight record holder, OX-5 class, made in an American Eagle at Seaside, Oregon.  He was the youngest licensed transport pilot in the country, having received that license at the age of 18.   He started his own company, Columbia Gorge Air Service, Inc., with sea planes and land planes, with hangars at Hayden Island and Janzen Beach park, all of which he built himself.  He gave sight seeing tours and flying lessons at these locations, and established the first passenger route from Portland to the ocean beaches in 1927.  In that same year he entered the national air races, flying from San Francisco to Spokane.

After graduating from Oregon State, he became a flight instructor for Tex Rankjn's Flying School in Portland.  In 1934 he moved to Alaska to fly as a bush pilot with Alaska Air Transport Inc.   In World War II, James worked as a flight instructor for the Army Air Corps and taught at Ryan Airfield in Hemet, CA.

After the war he opened as aircraft repair shop in San Jacinto, and in 1948 he and his wife returned to Alaska where he accepted a position as the resident pilot for Alaska Coastal Airlines (that became Alaska Airlines).   Both Rinehart and his wife Elsie, served as aviators in Alaska and  ran a charter air service.  Outside his regular business flights, James performed numerous rescues, mercy flights, and dangerous landings to serve his community.  He was killed in 1954 when his Grumman G-44 Widgeon crashed in bad weather near Pelican, Alaska. 

During the OR Aviation Ceremonies, He was  represented by Cindy BOEING and several other family members.   

 Submitted by Roy Pettit