Few endeavors offer the same sense of freedom and exhilaration as experienced at the controls of an airplane. Few types of transportaion can save the time and offer as much fun as flying.Here in the Chattanooga Region, people of all ages have met the test, earned their wings and fly for fun, their families and for business.
For most, the adventure of flying comes as the fulfillment of a lifelong fascination with soaring aloft in a craft heavier than air. They remember the roar of engines, the names of famous aviators, and building model planes of balsa wood as kids. They find satisfaction in planning and completing a flight, and saving travel time to destinations.
“I got the bug back in 1989,” remembered Mike Brown, a senior vice president with the brokerage firm of Morgan Keegan in Chattanooga. “My dad worked for Delta Airlines all his life, and I can remember going to Lovell Field and watching the flames come out of the engines of the DC-3s as they pulled away from the gate. I loved going up on the observation deck and watching the planes take off and land. So, I finally decided to get my license, and then got my instrument rating about a year later.”
Although he is now the owner of his ninth airplane, a single-engine Cirrus SR 22, Brown’s first experience in a small aircraft was not what he expected at all. “There are things people need to tell you,” he laughed. “It scared me to death, and I said I didn’t want anything to do with it. Then, I understood that all flying involves, is a piece of weight with the forces of gravity and wind applied to it. You will get blown around. Once I found that out, I was fine with it.”
The Cirrus, which he acquired in 2006, accommodates Mike, wife Debbie, and son Michael, who turns 10 in September, comfortably. Prior to that, he owned a 1960s vintage Hughes 269A helicopter, which had been painstakingly restored by a friend who located the aircraft in a military scrapyard. Along with the helicopter came the logbooks and a history of 14,000 hours of flight time used by the U.S. Army to train pilots.
“The helicopter was not a traveling machine,” Mike recalled. “It was the most fun I have ever had, but it only held enough fuel for two hours, only went 60 miles per hour, and it was just a two-seater. With the doors off it was like a Jeep that would fly at treetop level. It was a sightseeing vehicle, and the world was just gorgeous.”
The Cirrus has a range of about 900 miles, flying four and a half hours at approximately 200 miles per hour. When it is not in the air, the plane is at the Collegedale airport, where Mike learned to fly. He takes it up once a week to keep the engine lubricated, and over the course of a year he may spend as many as 125 hours in the air.
“If a man is hooked on aviation and his wife isn’t, that can be an issue, but Debbie loves the mobility,” Mike commented. “This past weekend we went to visit my father in Morristown, Tennessee, and the flight took 25 minutes. This is a new style aircraft that is sleek, safe, and fast. Cirrus was the first manufacturer to identify safety problems inherent with planes if the engine quits. Rarely does that happen, but if a pilot gets in over their head, Cirrus designed a parachute which uses a ballistic rocket to shoot out of the tail. Once the parachute is deployed at a certain altitude and minimum speed, it will bring you gently to earth like falling off a 10-foot ladder.”
Visiting family on a regular basis and running a successful business with interests across the Southeast prompted Kirby Webb, the owner of Webco, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of granite, solid surface countertops and related products, to take to the air five years ago. Business trips have taken him to Houston, Texas; New Jersey; Louisville, Kentucky and St. Louis, allowing what might otherwise be a trip of up to three days to be accomplished often in as little as one.
“I live six and a half hours from my original home in Southern Ohio,” commented Webb, “and I can fly it in two. That means spending more time with family while I am there. I took my time getting my license because I work full-time, and I wanted to make sure that I passed the tests. It took about a year to complete everything, and right now I own a Cessna 182Q single-engine, four-passenger plane. This is like flying a station wagon because you can see all around you, much better than in a big plane.
“I got the Cessna before I got my license because I wanted to take my test in the same plane I was planning on flying all the time,” he continued. “A wise man once told me that different airplanes fly differently. So, if you fly the same plane you know how it will handle and how it has been maintained.”
Recently, Kirby flew to the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race in Charlotte, North Carolina, covering the distance in just a couple of hours. He has flown as many as 180 hours in a given year, always allotting time to practice takeoffs and landings at the airport facility in Dallas Bay.
“I plan on flying until I’m 70 years old,” he concluded, “which is about another 10 years, as long as my health holds up. I have no ambition to fly a jet or anything faster than what I have because I know what to expect out of this plane.”
Dr. Steve Tipps, an oral surgeon with Associates in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, has been a licensed pilot for 22 years. Currently he owns a six-seat, twin-engine Beechcraft Baron 55 in partnership with Dr. Andy Rittenberry. While this particular plane is for sale, there are plans to make another purchase in the future.
Flying has become a bit less frequent as the cost of fuel has climbed steadily to between $4 and $5 per gallon, and Dr. Tipps is readily aware that his plane consumes 28 gallons per hour. Therefore, his flights involve a specific destination these days.
“You do have to fly a certain amount to maintain your instrument rating and that sort of thing,” he remarked. “So, it is not a situation in which you just go out on Saturday afternoon and just fly around. The majority of the flying that I have done has been related to vacations with my family and hunting and fishing trips. Last year, I flew to Boston for an annual oral surgery meeting, and my longest flight was to West Yellowstone, Montana.”
Although he had not been captivated by an urge to fly since childhood, Dr. Tipps did decide to find out more about it after leafing through a magazine in the apartment of a fellow student in dental school. After finishing his residency, he returned to Chattanooga, invested in a “discovery flight”, and was allowed to handle the controls under the supervision of the pilot.
“There are a lot of things I enjoy about flying,” remarked the doctor. “The initial allure was just being able to get up to 6,000 to 8,000 feet and be close enough to the terrain to recognize what you are flying over. It is an entirely different vantage point compared to being on the road. You can appreciate the relationship to the mountains and canyons and rivers and how the city has developed, whereas if you are at 30,000 feet it is difficult to decide what you may be looking at. When you hear the weatherman talk about thunderstorms in Monteagle or Sewanee or whatever, that may seem to be a long way off, but in an airplane it isn’t. Sometimes, you can be flying early in the morning or late in the evening and see a spectacular sunrise or sunset that you could not see unless you were in an airplane.”
Although his wife, Mary Leslie, is wary of flying at times, she has become appreciative of the convenience air travel affords. Daughters Beth, 19, and Katelyn, 24, have also benefited. “Mary Leslie is not particularly an aviation enthusiast,” Dr. Tipps laughed, “but she has flow with me quite a lot. It is more of a pragmatic situation. She would rather suffer through a two and a half hour flight to New Smyrna Beach than stay in a car to get there. My daughters have been flying all their lives. I don’t know that they are enthusiasts, but they are not particularly averse to flying. I’ve never had them decline to go anywhere. We have made a lot of family trips, and I think they have enjoyed being spoiled by not having to sit in Atlanta traffic on the way to Florida.”
Maintaining a healthy respect for safety and proper procedures is a given while piloting a plane, and Dr. Tipps offers a word of advice to anyone interested in learning to fly. “It is an expensive hobby, and it has to be taken extremely seriously. It can be unforgiving if pursued in a haphazard manner. Every time you advance the throttle and start down the runway, you have to be ready if something happens. It is challenging and rewarding to plan a flight and arrive safely at your destination, but you have got to take the hazards into consideration. It is not like pulling over if you get a flat tire, and running out of fuel is inexcusable. You don’t get to do it over.”
While some people would consider anyone who wants to fly a plane to be a thrill seeker, Andrew Godbold, a junior at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, pushes the envelope quite a bit further. Andrew soloed at the age of 16 and got his pilots license at 17, splitting time between the Collegedale Airport and the Moccasin Flying Club, based in Chattanooga. He received his commercial license in June of this year.
“The Moccasin Flying Club is one of the oldest in the country, and I joined it when I was 15,” said Andrew. “I learned to fly in a Cessna 172, and my first logged flight was a present for my 15th birthday in a T-6 Texan trainer.”
That T-6 flight was also Andrew’s introduction to aerobatics, and he simply calls it “love at first sight.” He recently competed in the Southeast Aerobatic Championships and is in discussions with a gentleman about “borrowing” a small, single-seat biplane with an open cockpit in order to gain aerobatic hours.
“Aerobatic time is tough to come by for anybody,” Andrew noted. “These airplanes are high performance, and getting time in one is cost prohibitive. People don’t often get into aerobatics because they are scared of being upside down, but it makes you a better pilot because you know how to fly the plane no matter which end is up. Most people get their pilots license for the sense of freedom, but aerobatics is real freedom.”
Andrew acknowledges that Rob Bond, a close friend and accomplished aerobatic pilot from Knoxville, has taught him a great deal and allowed him to fly a high performance Pitts S2-B Special two-seat biplane with a closed cockpit. “Rob is a highly ranked competitor who flies in the toughest class and has taught me an incredible amount,” he said. “When I came to Knoxville, I wanted to do aerobatics and found a guy named John Burt who had flown in the military for years and is a wealth of knowledge. After graduating from high school, I also bought two courses with him.”
Although his mother and father, Debbie and Bill, were reluctant to approve of their son’s passion at first, Andrew says they have come around after realizing that he is actually a safer pilot due to the aerobatic training. The three of them regularly fly to Auburn, Alabama, to visit his brother, Chris. Of course, he refrains from performing loops, spins, hammerheads, or snap rolls while his parents are aboard.
Whether flying for business or pleasure, local pilots find a sense of freedom and accomplishment in their pursuit. They enjoy the different perspectives between being on the ground and soaring in the air. They enjoy the convenience and time saved by flying. They enjoy the fun and benefits earned from hours devoted for their pilots license. They enjoy “Wingin It”.