“Flying Finns” is the story of the first 50 years of Columbia Helicopters.

Company founder, Wes Lematta, chose the title for two reasons: he wanted to salute his brothers for their contributions to Columbia Helicopters, and he wanted to honor their Finnish heritage. At home, the brothers spoke their native language before they spoke English—a not uncommon occurrence in first and second
generation American families.

The brothers—Ed, Wes, Bill and Jim are the sons of Ed and Hilda Paso Lematta. Their father farmed near Ellendale, North Dakota for many years before ill winds born of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl forced the family to move west to Brush Prairie, near Vancouver, Washington in 1934.

The Lematta and Paso families emigrated from Finland to Minnesota—a popular destination for Finnish families—in the 1880s. Grandfather Herman Lematta and his brother Peter later immigrated to North Dakota. Grandsons Ed, Wes, and Bill were born on the family farm near Ellendale. Jim, the youngest, was born at Brush Prairie.

 

The Lematta brothers (clockwise from left) Wes, Ed, Bill and Jim

Wes, 8; Ed, 12; Bill, 6, and their sisters, Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9 rode with their uncles from North Dakota to Brush Prairie in the back of the family pickup. Wes remembers that their father fashioned a wooden canopy from lumber that was later used to construct a sauna—a Finnish staple—at Brush Prairie. Jim recalls that he accidentally burned the sauna to the ground when he was a boy.

Wes taught his brothers to fly helicopters—probably in hopes they would join him at Columbia. And for a time, they all did. Jim remembers that in 1965 all four were flying from the company’s Swan Island facility.

Ed, the oldest brother, loaned Wes the money to start Columbia Helicopters, but he later moved to Seattle’s Boeing Field where he formed Olympic Helicopters, a Columbia subsidiary until Ed bought out his brothers. He died in 2000.

Bill drove truck with Wes during the lean years when Columbia was in its infancy. When the company acquired the Hughes helicopter franchise, Bill took over sales, a job that included a good deal of flying. In later years, he worked for Hughes, again in sales. He was returning from a 1973 business trip to Coos Bay when he was stung by a bee and died on Interstate 5 near Coburg, Oregon.

Wes taught Jim to fly in 1959. Because he was not yet 21 years old, he had to get his puzzled father’s written permission to take flight lessons. Jim joined the company in 1963, after he got out of the Army. He holds the distinction of having flown at Light’s Creek in northern California and Lobster Creek in southern Oregon, Columbia’s first two helicopter logging jobs, both in 1971. Jim stepped out of his flying role in 1972 to start the company’s safety department, a post he held until he retired in 1996. He still sits on Columbia’s board of directors.

Marvin Edward, Glenn Wesley, George Willard and James Raymond Lematta were all pretty good helicopter pilots in their heyday, but “Flying Finns” is much more than a story about four Finnish brothers who flew helicopters into history. There are other fine ethnic names in this bloodline too: Simmons, Lazzaretti, Petersen, Dyche, Van Kempen, Stroup, Weir, Artache, Merlich, Coates, Van Walleghem, Koehnke, Charlier, Vecchetti, Pittelkau, Steckmest, Fahey, Koschnick, Pyle, Horrax, Nicklaus, Patterson, Warren, Grage, Feaver, Artache, Schwartz, McCoy, Hagen, Cook, Immel, Sumerlin, Lance, Davey, Bailey, Briggs and on and on. So in the full sweep of life, this is a story about how Finns, Italians, Germans, Poles, Czechs, French, Hispanics, Swedes, Norwegians, Irishmen, Englishmen and many others became one in the crucible that is our country’s fabled melting pot—joined together to form something larger than themselves; and then, like eagles, soared on American wings to undreamed-of heights.

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"Flying Finns" Intro

 

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