Flying Thoughts - "An Aviator's Flight Through Life"

I have been on this planet seventy-seven years. Sixty-one of them being embraced with the sheer joy of piloting a vast number of airplane makes and models for over 10,000 flying hours, all the while hop scotching through the eminent challenge of nature’s elements surrounding man and flying machine. Not going unnoticed in any way is the continued companionship of my best friend and lover of fifty-five years - Donna Wilson Ward. This beautiful and classy individual issued to me the highest license that one can ever receive. That is, the license to live my life to the fullest. Few men can make a claim such as this. It has provided me with more joyous moments and life fulfillment than any one aviator deserves.

If you are an airman, I am certain that you have experienced meeting an old pilot who may not have held the controls of an aircraft for many years. Didn’t you sense an immediate acceptance of that person as a friend, without further exploration? A bond was instantaneously established, as the conversation turned to flying matters. Does this bond come from the love of hearing the roar of an engine on takeoff, the feel of the wind over ones face in an open cockpit flying machine, the sensation of speed, or the weather? The common bond …is it any of these things I have mentioned? Perhaps so – but more probably is derived from an intimate secret shared by all airmen, yet discussed by few. We have witnessed writers and orators attempt to explain the experience of flight to the earthling. Our elation is something we wish to verbally share, but alas, always fail to do so. We speak of it in generalities and specifics and still fail to lead the earthling along to become as jubilant as we. How can this be? I submit to you, this is Religion we share. A working knowledge of God and His kingdom, viewed only by airman, shared only by airmen, and understood only by airmen. Who can disbelieve when viewing while aloft, the Grand Canyon, the sand dunes of Lake Michigan’s shoreline, the rapid buildup of ice on an airfoil, the violence of storm centers, the patience of air traffic control centers, or approach lights looming into view on a 200 foot and ½ mile visibility instrument approach? To guide one’s aircraft on high brings us closer to God in many ways, and we aviators cherish this relationship.

Within this writing, I believe my younger aviator brothers and sisters will end the read feeling that they have shared enough of my “Flying Thoughts” to gather a sense of what aviation was like for me starting in the early 1940’s and working forward. Many older aviators will most certainly nod their heads and share their own “flying thoughts” in their hard earned solitude.

There is far more to an aviator’s life than winging through the air at speeds not normally experienced by earthlings. I hope to reveal some of these events in such a manner that they might be shared with you. I will thread the needle of life and permit you to see how my patchwork quilt of events brought me to where I am today. Hopefully you will find some of the philosophies that I developed useful.

You will note occasional references to a “higher power”. To me, that means God. Others may use a different term, but that’s OK. If this reference offends you, skip over those sections. It won’t offend me in any way. Lest my readers feel the forthcoming contents of this writing will be dripping with religious overtones – have no fear. I have no intention of imposing my spiritual beliefs on anyone. However, I would find it very difficult, if not impossible to describe the corners of my life that acknowledge and embrace a higher power.