Distinctly Montana Magazine

29 w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m four hours of routine flight. For this adventurous Montana boy, routine was anathema. Raynor had other ideas. His mother, Gladys, still lived at their house on Lyndale, and that day she was surprised to hear the persistent buzz of an aircraft flying around over Helena. It swooped around over the valley, performing aerial maneuvers. At one point the plane went into a dive straight down behind Mount Helena toward an apparent crash. The crafty pilot performed a "split-S" maneuver and the plane emerged, unscathed. A few minutes later when Gladys heard the dish-rattling roar of the warplane flying directly over her house—inverted, no less—she had no doubt who the pilot was. It had to be Raynor, saying, "Hi, Mom." He always insisted that what happened next was complete- ly spontaneous, and he could never explain why he did it. Having grown up practically in the shadow of the cathe- dral spires where he attended countless church services as a boy, he couldn't resist the urge to fly between them before high-tailing it to Great Falls. Like any good aviator, Raynor flew his plane like it was an extension of his body, and he knew intimately the aircraft's dimensions and its position in space. Would he fit? The two gold crosses that top the spires are 60 feet apart, and the P-51 Mustang has a wingspan of 37 feet. Surely he could see that he didn't have to turn his plane sideways to fit between the spires. He did it anyway. After he retired from his celebrated aviation career, Ray- nor settled on a horse ranch in the Bitterroot Valley, where he became good friends with Ed Greef, among others. Greef was a Montana state representative from 2011 to Dermatology & Skin Care Treatment Providing high-quality care to patients across Montana 2026 o f BEST M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F Compassionate and personalized dermatology treatment for all. Unmatched standard of care and patient experience VOTE FOR US apdhelena.com 406.820.3376 920 Front Street, Suite 103 Helena, Montana Best Dermatology Practice

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