Aviation

My passion for aviation began at a very young age.  My father was a private pilot back when we lived in Richmond and we moved from there when I was 7 years old.  He owned a two seater single engine plane there and kept it at Parnell field.  Parnell Field was an airport in Richmond, Virginia that opened in 1946. It was the first airport in Richmond after World War II. I remember playing with bugs in the sandy parking lot when I was there.  I don’t believe I flew with him there so I was probably waiting with my mom while he was flying.

We moved to New Jersey in 1965 and returned to Norfolk in 1973.  It was in Norfolk when I bought a Cessna 172 which we flew quite a bit.  He would let me take the controls from the right seat quite a bit.  I even learned how to take off and land during that time.

We sold our family business in 2008.  It was then when I had the time and the finances to begin flying.  I started taking lessons and eventually got my private pilot license and purchased a Cessna 172.  A couple of years later needing the additional payload capacity we purchased a Cessna 182.  The Cessna 182 is truly a 4 person airplane.

In 2011 we purchased a local flight school and owned it for 18 months.  

I did many flights to Cincinnati transporting children and their chaperone to the Shriners pediatric specialty hospital, which provides care for burns as well as cleft lip and palate and plastic and reconstructive surgery.

We had many adventures over the years but too many interests and hobbies can kind of get expensive and you really can’t enjoy everything.  So after much consideration on what we really wanted to do aviation didn’t make the cut.