The
Lionel and Sara Smith Story:
I was born December 6th 1942 in Pittsfield, IL. Pittsfield is
the county seat of Pike County, Pike County was founded Jan. 31 1821, and
resized in 1825. My parents were Jesse Earl .Smith and Ruby Jean Campbell/Smith.
Mom and dad were living with dads parents on the farm at Green pond, IL
They were John William Smith and Alma Lucy Donohoo.
I spent a lot of my younger years with my grandparents.
I remember living in an upstairs apartment in Kampsville, IL for a little
while. Our apartment was next door
to a church. The preacher used to let me help him ring the bell, the bell
rope was fun to ride as it would pick me right
off the floor.
The
first home I can remember was in Milton, IL near the Christian Church. I Started 1st grade at Milton elementary school.
Mom and dad lived in a small house in the North part of Pearl for a little while
where I had pet rabbits and used to play in the creek and the nearby spring.
Grandpa Smith bought or helped mom and dad to buy a home in Pearl, IL
around 1950 this home was a two story house that was built too low and dad had
to raise it to get it above the flood plane. (Pearl Station, ILwas established
in 1881 the Pearl that was home to me had a railroad)(There is an Old Pearl)
When dad raised the house he put a full basement under it.
Pearl
was a quaint and for the time and for it's size Pearl was a very
busy/industrious town. At one time
Pearl had a population of around 1600 and business as follows several commercial
orchards, a button factory where they made buttons from muscle shells, a cider
mill, several farmers that grew crops and some that grew livestock and some that
were into crops and livestock, there were resturants, grocery stores, hardware,
drug store, post office, dry goods store, movie theatre, barber shop, butcher
shop, City Hall, jail and more. Many
of these business were still there when I lived there.
Today the population is around 170 and as far as I know there is a jiffy
stop where you can buy some groceries, gas and of course alcoholic beverages,
(many of the residents are on dope and or alcohol) there is what is left of a
Red and White grocery store. I
can barely remember a flood in 1946 that flooded all of downtown Pearl.
Our home was up string town hollow and above flood plane.
Mom walked me down to where we could see Front Street and I can rember
johnboats on Front Street. This
flood was caused by a large amount of sand coming in to sand branch during a
heavy rain, which caused the creek to flood the town.
Dad
had a lime truck I think it was a 1946 Ford it was a red truck for sure. I had a pet rabbit at the time and for some reason I thought
my rabbit needed a carrot so I decided to take the lime truck to town, I had
seen dad push the starter button but hadn't noticed him turning on the ignition,
needless to say I didn't get very far until mom saved the day The day was
ok but I didn't sit down for a while. I
hadn't finished drivers ed at four. Later
dad got a bulldozer it was a TD-18 International with a cable operated dozer
blade on it. Along the way dad went
into a partnership with two other men and they got more machines including a
dragline, gravel plant and another dozer and several dump trucks. I got to start learning to drive or operate different kinds
of vehicles and machines as young as four years old, grandpa Smith let me think
I was driving his 1936 Farmall, dad introduced the dozer to me at six I think,
and the dragline at seven.
I was ten years old and for Christmas dad gave me a U control line model
airplane for Christmas, he says yet that is what messed me up to make me like
airplanes. Dad’s brother, Glenn
lived in Rockford, IL. Uncle Glenn worked in automation and special machine at a
factory in Rockford, he knew people that worked for Testors model airplane
company in Rockford. Uncle Glenn
brought me model engines and a few kits, which also helped to get me hooked on
airplanes. Some of the kits had
pieces missing so I learned different ways to make the parts out of various
kinds of materials, as I had no source for balsam wood.
I designed several airplanes out of screen bead and other light woods
that was available and found that I could cover them with meat wrapping paper
that would handle the glow plug engine fuel for a while without any dope/paint.
One of the big events in my life (at least I thought so) was when grandpa
offered to buy me a Cushman Eagle motor scooter, wow!
IL had just passed a state law that 12 year olds could drive motor
vehicles on the highways as long as the vehicle was five horsepower or less, the
Cushman had five horsepower. I rode
the Cushman for four years, during which I learned a lot about small engine
mechanics, skinned knees and other very important things.
I went through the rest of grade school in Pearl school which was both
grade school and high school until I finished my eight grade then they took the
high school to Milton, Il where the Pearl kids were all bussed to Milton to
finish high school. I went four
years to East Pike High (Milton IL high school).
When I turned sixteen dad, Uncle Ned, and grandpa went together and
bought me a 250 cc Allstate motorcycle another wow!J
I believe the price on the Allstate was aroung five hundred dollars which was a
lot of money for my family. Auto fuel had already taken a big jump it was around
17.9 by now. I had my drivers
license now and at this time they hadn't thought a bout having a special license
for motorcycles. I rode the
Allstate to school quite a lot. It
was eight miles one way from Pearl to Milton. I was in the class of 1960.
During my high school years I worked with grandpa Smith on the farm and
as a veterinarians assistant (grandpa was a vet).
I also spent quite a lot of time operating draglines and bulldozers etc
working with my dad.
Enter: Sara Ellen McCallister
I met Sara McCallister in 1959 November at a Gospel train meeting
at the Greenpond Christian Church. My
cousin Janet Heavener introduced us.
For those of you who aren't aquainted with Gospel train it was a group of
churches in West Central Il this group was in Pike County. Sara and I were both born in Pike at the Ilini community
hospital in Pittsfield, Il. The
Gospel train meetings were held once a month at a different church.
I think it was once a month that they also rented the skating rink in
Pittsfield, Il and we had a Christian skate night. This was a very good time for
many of us as it gave us a chance to get out and do things that some of us
rarely got to do and it was well monitored.
I tell people that it was at one of these skating partys that Sara fell
for me, Sara says I tripped her J.
Later in 1959 I bought my first car it was a 1956 Ford Fairlane. We rode
around quite a bit in the Ford but because of our limited budget we did most of
our riding on the Allstate Motorcycle, Sara did not drive at this time.
One time I took Sara in the Ford to the Christian Service camp at Lake
Springfield, IL. On my way home I ran into a rain storm, the combination of
moderate rain the rather worn higway which held water in both tracks being tired
and driving too fast for conditions, I lost control and rolled the Ford.
I actually thought I was getting it under control when I noticed that an
oncoming set of headlights were pretty close so the next time my car headed for
the ditch on my side I leand over and grabbed a hand full of under seat parts
and hung on as the car went over the top was pusned down almost to the seat
backs but I was unhurt. I had to
climb out a rear door. I was almost
hit by a semi that momentarily lost control when he saw my car.
I had the Ford repaired but it just didn't look or drive quite right.
One day a few weeks later when Sara and I were out riding around in
Jacksonville, IL. In the Ford. We
stopped at the Chrysler dealer to look at his used cars,
he had a black and gold 1957 Chrysler Windsor two door hard top that
seemed to be saying take me home. We
traded the Ford for the Chrysler. We
really enjoyed the Chrysler, it was a good looking car with a cool pack ad-on
air conditioning and the Chrysler had really good performance, kids like these
things yaw know.
Jan 17th 1962 Sara and I got married. Sara and I were married after a Wednesday night service at
the Detroit, IL Christian Church. Joe
Maynard was the minister who performed the service. My sister Carolyn (now deceased) and our best friend Raymond
Moffitt (speedy to his friends). We
were blessed to have several of our family members there.
After the wedding I had $100 that my dad had given me and I gave $20 to
Joe Maynard for performing the service for us.
Sara and I didn't really have any plans on what next so we got in the
Chrysler and headed for Missouri in the snow.
We spent our first night at a small motel at Montgomery City, MO.
That night we decided it would be fun to go to New Orleans, LA. On eighty
dollars? After some calculations we
figured we could do it. We were
very poor but we obviously didn't know it.
We started out the next morning by getting some donuts and road maps then
we headed for New Orleans. We drove
pretty much non-stop to New Orleans and got us a room there. In order to stretch what little money we had we bought a
small hot plate and some food to fix at the motel.
The next day we went to see the French quarter and other parts of the
city. One thing we noticed was that
they were digging up palm trees and water lines all over the city, apparently
they had experienced a heavy freeze for the first time in many years.
The people looked at our Illinois car with snow tires on it like we may
have brought the freeze with us J.
The trip home was pretty straight through with few stops. We did get to drive on a brand new four lane divided highway
for the first time that I can remember. With
little traffic, few police cars and as far as I can remember no speed limits we
made it from New Orleans to Memphis, TN in a little over five hours.
We spent our last night on the road back in Alton, IL.
When we arrived home we still had twenty dollars to start housekeeping
with. PTL for a short but good
honeymoon.
We moved in with Sara's folks for a few weeks then we got an apartment in
Pittsfield. My Uncle Les Donohoo owned the house and lived downstairs, we had
the upstairs apartment. I worked
for my dad. Sara had not yet
graduated high school so she was walking several blocks to and from school each
school day, Sara graduated with the class of 1962.
1963 Started taking flying lessons One day when Sara and I were
riding around we went to Alton, IL airport.
When we drove into the parking area I notice that they were advertising an introductory flight lesson for $5.00 and the
bug bit me right then to learn to fly. I
asked Sara if we could afford this and if she would go if that were an option.
I don't know if I would have gone without her as we did most everything
together. The instructor told us that we could take the intro lesson in
a four place airplane so Sara could go to.
Wow what an experience, I was hooked.
On the way home we had to stop for some gas for the car in Grafton, Il.
While at the station I asked the attendant if he knew anyone in the area
that did flight training and he told me that there was a man, who managed the
orchard on top of the hill that did flight training.
This sounded like a good idea, I thought that being out in the country
the rates would be cheaper and it would save several miles each trip because it
was closer than Alton. Little did I
know how many advantages I would receive because of coming here.
My instructor here was John Surgeon, John was a fighter pilot instructor
during world war II and as far as I know one of the best our country had.
John did his full four years in the army air corp. in Florida.
The airplane John had was a 1952 Cessna 170.
The 170 is a four place tail wheel airplane with manual flaps all of
which makes it a pretty good bush plane. I
didn't have a clue that tail wheel airplanes were difficult nor that a quarter
mile long strip with trees close on both side and a fence and power lines on
both ends made this a short obstructed strip.
The power lines were set back from the fence by enough that we were
always able to climb over them. John
did however tell me that when I was flying solo that if I wasn't sure I was
going over them to make sure I turned inside of them or went under them, in
other words don't fly into them.
With Sara and I both working and saving all we could and by supplementing
our grocery bill with wild game and fish I managed to fly 13 hours in 12 months.
This flight time included about 4 hours that John gave me where he let me
fly the plane on a cross county to Chanpaigne, Il where he went to college.
This was John's way of giving me the four hours of instruction that he
knew we couldn't afford.
Now it's time for that all important first solo flight. The first solo is a very special time to every student pilot,
one that is anxiously awaited then when your instructor tells you this is the
day you start wondering about all things that could go wrong.
As it turned out the seat latch let go just as the airplane lifted off.
This could have had a very bad out come but thanks to God and the good
instruction John had given me I made the right moves and regained control of the
plane and continued to make three take offs and landings.
I couldn't afford to fly much right now, Sara was pregnant with Skyler.
I was working a little more and hanging out at airports when I could.
I heard about a 1953 Tri-Pacer for sale.
The airplane was to sell with a hangar at Jerseyville, Il.
Chuck Bunting, had the Tri-Pacer moved to Cape Girardeau, MO to have them
sell it. Dad drove me to Cape to
look at the plane and maybe buy it. Once
again my banker was willing to help with the financing.
When I told the guy at Cape I wanted to by the Tri-Pacer he asked me if I
was a licensed pilot, my answer was I am a student pilot. The instructor then asked me if I had soloed in a Tri-Pacer,
my answer was no I had never been in one before.
The instructor told me that I had to be soloed in each make and model as
long as I was a student pilot. I
thought, I am stuck now, I won't be able to take the plane home today.
The Instructor told me that he would go with me and if I could fly him
around the airport and land with out him helping me he would sign my license and
my log book so that I could legally
fly the airplane. This all went well and my paper work was signed off
then he asked if I had been signed off for cross country and once again the
answer was no. He asked if I had a
chart to get me home and I told him that I had a road map.
He smiled and said he would get me a sectional chart and help me figure
my trip but that he wouldn't have time to go with me on the cross country.
The cross
country went well and I had the plane in the hangar when dad got there,
apparently I flew faster than he drove J.
Dad had a nearly new
1963 Dodge custom 880, this was probably the nicest car that my family ever had.
1963-1964Lived with
Grandparents on farm As the
months went by my grand-pa John Smith had a heart attack and was no longer able
to take care of his farm so Sara and I moved in to live with grandma and
grandpa.
It soon became obvious that we needed a pick up truck to haul the things
we needed on the farm so we traded the Chrysler (a difficult thing to do) for an
almost new demonstrator) 1963 Dodge
pick up. In addition to
enabling us to do many chores on the farm and hauling feed and such Sara and I
also Cut firewood, pulpwood to
supplement our very limited income.
While we were on the farm we took care of the animals put in the crops
and saw to the harvest, we had to hire a man with a corn sheller to take the
corn out of the fields. In the
winter we had to hay the cows, Sara and I did most everything together.
Sara had learned to drive the pick up manual shift and all.
We took turns opening the gate to drive in and hay the cows. The
Hereford bull ,Cliff was his name, would always meet us at the gate and whoever
opened the gate would ride Cliff to the hay area.
Needless to say this was not the type of bull riding you see at the
rodeo.
Grandpa died in 1964 With
grandpa's passing things changed quite a lot, grandma decided to sell the farm
so this opened a new chapter for Sara and I.
1964 Bought 8 X 26 mobile home and moved to Pearl. I found an old 8 X 26 mobile home down at Bay Town, IL
managed to get my banker to finance it for us.
I found some angle steel and fabricated sort of a trailer hitch and
managed to pull the trailer to Pearl and set it up on a lot.
The trailer hitch got our trailer moved to our rented lot and broke a
short time later on a much lesser and thank God less important load. Our lot
rent was $5.00 a month and at times we didn't even have that.
In spite of the challenges of not much of anything in material goods
these were with out a doubt some of the best days Sara and I ever had.
Sara was pregnant with our first son Skyler at
this time. Sara has managed
to get by on very little money and has had very few things of her very own and
as a result she has learned to make do with little and not to complain about
anything. Sara had a dollar, that
she went shopping with at our local dry goods store where she purchased five
yards of material with which she would hand sew a maternity outfit. As it turned out the outfit was adequate but didn’t have
enough material to add the panels and pleats it needed. Today most cannot imagine a maternity outfit for a dollar.
I was working with my dad at this time, the work was sporadic. Sara had a more or less full time job waiting tables at a small restaurant that belonged to my Cousin Keith Donohoo and his wife Margareet. Sara was making $12.50 a week. With Sara and I both working we were able to add a second vehicle, a 1956 Plymouth station wagon for $25.00, it had a bad engine. I went to a salvage yard in Alton, Il and bought a Chrysler 354 engine for it for $200. This engine was rated at 285 horsepower even though it had only a two barrel carburetor on it I have no idea how much torque this old engine had but it was a lot. This turned out to be one of the most fun vehicles we ever owned.
1964 August 3rd Our first son, Skyler was born
two or three days after I got the plane. Bringing
Skyler into the world was a very difficult time for us, especially Sara, as she
was in labor for several days, I had no idea at that time that this was not a
normal thing. Sara was in the
hospital for six days. Sara was
nineteen at this time. Sara
and Skyler got to ride in the Tri-Pacer when When Skyler was two weeks old.
During these months that we lived in our mobile
home, we took walks (Skyler didn’t walk but he went with us) and talked about
things that we hoped to accomplish in life, things like getting an income of
$40.00 a week or more so that we didn’t have to budget things so close.
I got most of the meat that we ate by hunting and fishing and what Sara
could afford to buy at the Red and White grocery store in town.
Thank God for my mother, Ruby who also brought food and other nice things
that we needed. These were some of
the best times in our lives. We
were financially poor as dirt but so happy {:>) PTL.
Just before Christmas our preacher and I went to look for a Christmas
tree and taking the two .22 guns that I had and the few rounds of ammo. We went
to the Lewis farm a few miles Sout of Pearl to look for a tree and hopefully
find some food to bring home. I let
our preacher use the rifle and I took the pistol.
I saw several quail running on the ground ahead of us and instructed the
preacher to shoot into the midst of them and I would do the same. The preacher didn’t shoot at all and I only got one quail.
Sara was going to cut up the quail but she had never did this before so
she asked me how to cut it up and I felt like this was a good time to have some
fun with her and I told her to cut it up like a chicken “LIKE A CHICKEN” was
her reply the she proceeded to cut it in half.
I flew several hours in the little Piper both solo and with John in
getting ready for my private pilot check ride.
When I was more or less ready for my check ride in the Piper I realized
that my airplane was going to be out of annual at the time my check ride was
scheduled so rather than missing my practical test I asked the examiner if he
another plane I could rent and he said he had a Cessna 150 I could use.
This turned out to be a bad idea, being another plane like I had never
been in before I didn't pass the test, oops.
I might add this was the last flight test I ever failed.
During the non frozen part of the year I worked with dad doing bulldozer
and dragline work, during the winter I worked for Jerry Guthrie, owner of
Guthries Garage in Pleasant Hill, IL. Jerry
was interested in flying and was able to by most of the fuel for my time
building hours to get me from private pilot to commercial pilot.
Jerry had a cousin Phil, they had a relative at Limon Colorado.
One day Jerry asked me if I would fly them to Limon if he paid all the
expenses. The answer was yes, we
started making plans. It was fall and I didn't have a clue what to expect in regard
to the weather or flying conditions at the higher altitudes.
We took off before daylight and headed for Atchison, KS, this part of the
flight went well until we got to Atchison.
It was just getting daylight and the wind was getting quite strong
already. I had several flight
lessons in high wind but wasn't so sure of my ability to handle this.
The wind was gusting to forty knots and angling across the runway.
Thanks again to John Surgeon for teaching me how to deal with such as
this, we landed ok and taxied to the fueling area to fill er up.
The Tri-Pacer had a total fuel capacity of thirty-six gallons.
I thought that it would be good to use economy power settings to increase
our range. I didn't know that when bucking a headwind you are better off to run
higher power and give the headwind less time to work on you.
Our next stop was to be Goodland, KS.
With the headwind quite high and using economy power it took us five
hours and twenty two minutes to get to Goodland, wow it had to be the roughest
ride I had ever had. Jerry's
cousin Phil was having a bad time with air sickness and worry, as a result he
was asking a lot of questions. I
was having my own bad times and wasn't responding to Phil very well.
Phil questions went along the line of is it possible to do this or that
with an airplane and on one of these I told him that I didn't think we could do
that but hang on and we would give it a try.
The questions to me ended and later Jerry told me that Phil had mentioned
taking the bus home.
We landed in Limon after a very long day.
Jerry and Phil liked their alcholic beverages so they went to work to see
about getting a ride to a bar where they could wait for the family member to
come get us. While we were there
the other guys ordered their drinks with wiskey and soda then the bartender came
to me and asked what I wanted and I told him I wanted coke on the rocks the
bartender started to push the button on the soda dispenser and stopped and said
what and I told him again I wanted coke on the rocks and he said and what else.
I finally got my coke.
1962-63-64Worked for dad for awhile.
As I mentioned earlier I had worked for dad doing construction work
including operating different types of equipment.
I built ponds, cleared land, built roads, dug basements, set steel,
screened gravel, hauled gravel, drove piling, and many other types of
construction jobs. When the
hard freeze came in the fall I worked in an independent garage in Pleasant Hill,
IL Guthries garage owned by Jerry Guthrie.
1965 Worked for road crew in IA. Cameron Joyce and Co. Things weren't working out as well as I had hoped working for
dad. During the winter months a
friend of Jerry's came by. This
friend was a superintendent for Cameron Joyce and Co. from Keokuk, IA.
He told us that he could use another hand to do everthing from repair to
some operating. I took the offer
and during late winter in 1965 Sara and I moved our 8 X 26 trailer to Keokuk and
went to work for the road crew.
We brought our Tri-Pacer up to Keokuk so that I could keep current flying
and practicing to be a flight instructor. My
first unofficial student was Sara who was doing a fine job of flying the
airplane, even at night, until I told her that she was flying it by herself and
she hasn't flown one since except to hold it on course on cross country.
It seemed that after working in the shop getting the equipment serviced, painted and otherwise ready to go to work we were on the road moving about every two weeks and they kept finding things for me to do with my truck. On one of our weekend trips home we stopped at the Chrysled dealer in Quincy, Il and traded the pick up for a 1962 Chysler 300 convertible, another very fun to drive and ride car. That stopped the using my truck for company work and made it more fun to go driving. The Chrysler was a lot better for pulling the trailer as well. As the summer went on and we kept moving we were at Marengo, IA and Skyler found some of our Christmas things and decided to eat one of the thin glass ornaments, oops. We rushed him to the local hospital to ER and the Dr. laughed and said this is a kid not a dog. Don't worry about him. Well God took care of that problem and Skyler didn't seem to have any problems from it PTL We did get to go to a weekend airshow at Cedar Rapis, IA and see some aerobatics done by several different planes and pilots and other interesting things performed. Well it's time to move again this time to Tripoli, IA which is pretty far North, we brought our plane up here and kept it at a flying farmers strip. We went to flying farmer flyin meals on weekends when we could, The IA flying farmers would normally had a fly-in breakfast at one farm a lunch at another and sometimes even an evening meal, needless to say this was a lot of fun for some of us.
We, Sara, Skyler and I flew the
little airplane home on weekends now and then, it was a long way from Tripoli,
IA by car. On one of these weekend
trips my friend Jerry Guthrie told me that a friend of his was home from the
service. Jerry's friend was a
parachute instructor in the service. Jerry
asked me if I would take him up for a jump Sunday morning at Pleasant Hill, IL
and I agreed that I would skip church and fly him.
(Wrong decision) The flight and the jump went well.
We, Sara, Skyler and I, had to get some things from Pearl so I called dad
to bring it to us at a hay field near Old Pearl.
As we headed for IA we saw some bad looking clouds ahead and decided to
go back to Pleasant Hill and wait it out at Paul Carpenter's private strip where
I used to park my plane, so we did. Sara
went in to use the phone to call our friends Skyler was standing in the right
front seat of the plane while I was trying to get it tied down for the storm.
The tie down was on the East side of the hangar and when Paul mowed the
area his mower had broken two of my tie down chains (not good right now).
The storm arrived as did our friends from town, Sara ran to get Skyler
out of the plane and ran back to the car just as the storm uprooted the hangar.
I was hanging on the wing strut on the wing next to the hangar as it's
chain was broken. I don't really
know why, but I looked over my shoulder just as the hangar left it's foundation
and was coming right at me. All
I knew to do now was to run, the rain had started and the grass was wet, the
wind was strong and I started to fall knowing there was no way I could get up
and try again I directed my fall to go under the airplane.
The hangar came down on the airplane pushing it down to my back and then
blew away letting the plane up enough I could get out, WOW and PTL.
When I finally got to my feet and started running the wind hit so hard
from my right side that it ripped the buttons right off my shirt and pulled the
hooks out of my pants and literally took me off my feet, I made it to the car
where my friends, Sara and Skyler were waiting another PTL.
After things settled down I went back to see a very tattered little
airplane still sitting near where it was when the hangar hit it.
We found parts of the hangar as far as two miles away.
There was a board driven through the windshield
of the plane through the seat and out the side glass right where Skyler had been
standing less than thirty seconds before. This was certainly a memorable event
and I might add a lesson that I haven't forgotten, when something fun seems more
important than worshiping God and one or the other has to go make sure it
isn't God.
Jerry had another car so we drove back to our mobile home in IA and worked another week, we brought the Chrysler and Jerry's Chevy back home. We went back to finish up our work at Tripoli, IA.
Fall is here and it looks like the road crew is going to finish the the present job and go home for the winter.
Fall of 1965 Moved to Rockford Il worked in machine shop. Dad's
brother, my uncle Glenn Smith worked in a machine shop in Rockford and told me
that if we wanted to move to Rockford that he would get me a job where he
worked, Hill Rockford Co.
The
trip to Rockford was another ordeal for Sara, Skyler and I as the tires on our
trailer were getting very old and worn and to make it even more challenging the
trailer was a single axle unit that was covered in steel making it very heavy
for its size. The fall rains had
begun so we had to be very careful where we pulled off the road.
Being a single axle trailer it was prone to zig zagging and whipping the
towing vehicle anywhere it wanted it, I had learned how to correct for most of
this problem and the Chrysler helped a lot to tame the trailer but still I had
to be very careful and not corner very fast.
To start with we had some hitch and trailer light problems making
afternoon before we could actually pull out of Tripoli.
When I finally got to a fairly straight and reasonably smooth I started
letting the 413 take us toward Rockford. It
wasn't probably more than 50 miles until we blew the first trailer tire and had
to pull off on a soft shoulder, OOPS. We
had no spare so I had to leave the trailer with one wheel stuck on the shoulder
and the other on the edge of the road while we went to the nearest town to get
another used tire mounted. Back at
the trailer I mounted the wheel and let the jack down the wheel went down in the
soft ground to where the axle was barely clearing the ground.
I had a pretty good hitch on the car, it was the type that would fold
under the car when it was not in use but otherwise pretty heavy but not heavy
enough for what I had to do next. I
managed to angle the car so that when I hooked to the trailer the rear wheels of
the car were on the highway. I
pulled on the trailer pretty hard and it didn't move. I went back to see what I could do to lighten the load, I
jacked the trailer wheel up and put some rocks under it and went back to the car
thinking we are probably going to need to call a wrecker but knowing that we
didn't really have enough money for the expected expenses, gas etc.
I made up my mind that the trailer had to come out with out the wrecker.
I pushed the 1 button on the transmission selector and started opening
the throttle on the 413 with 470 foot pounds of torque and a 2 and a half to one
torque converter something had to give.
The trailer was soon on the highway and we had a very bent trailer hitch
that was still intact and we were on our way again.
After two days a number of flat tires and a number of difficulties we
arrived in Rockford Skyler was the only one of us that seemed to have made it
without any obvious problems. Sara
and I were fine but very worn out. Uncle
Glenn's in laws lived on the opposite corner of the same block and they had an
upstairs apartment that we rented. Our address was 435 15th ave.
On Monday the next week I rode in to work with uncle Glenn.
After a brief interview and some paper work I was hired PTL.
I tell people that I started to work as a surface engineer the usual
response is a what?
Then I tell them that I was pushing a broom and the
usual response is OH.
Uncle
Glenn was working in special machine and had a good relationship with the bosses
up to and including the owner. It
wasn't long until I was called to run a drill press then back on the broom for a
couple of days then on to a multi station drill press, then to a mill and so on
until one day the superintendent, a Mr, Bill Hellman, came to me and asked me to
come to his office. I thought uhoh!
Mr. Hellman asked me if I would be willing to go to work full time in
experimental and model shop. This
sure beats the getting fired that I thought was coming.
Mr.
Sid Worrell was in charge of the experimental department and model shop (where
they make all the parts, assemble them, test run and trouble shoot the new first
of it's kind machines and or tools) this
was a pleasant and challenging change.
This department also managed the assembly and development of the
company's standard products, which included riveting machines, serto mats (a
device to insert parts into other parts on automated assembly machines), tool
grinding fixtures, and others. Mr.
Hellman told me that he had been tinking about putting one of our toolmakers in
this position but Mr. Worrell told him that he would only train young Smitty,
uncle Glenn was old Smitty. I got
to work on things for the automotive insustry, aircraft, office equipment and a
lot more. I worked on tooling for the first seat back locks ever used
in cars, this was for the Ternstedt corporation in OH, Ternstedt is an
experimental division of General Motors. I
built machines for Pratt and Whitney aircraft engine company, National Cash
Register, Allen Bradley, General Electric and
many other different companies.
While
we were in Rockford I had as many as three jobs at one time, believing that the
best thing I could do for my family was to make money to care for them (another
wrong answer, the family needs each other, money seems to be a necessary evil
but it is not the most important element)
1966
September 1st Our second son Robert was born while we were in Rockford We had health insuranc this
time and we paid over six hundred for Rob's arrival, nearly three times what it
cost for Skyler with no insurance.
1966 Moved to Pearl Il to work for dad, again: I would probably have done well to have stayed in the machine
shop but the walls were too confining. Sara
and I moved back to Pearl, IL where my folks owned two homes and one of them was
empty at the time (The Foreman house as we knew it) this was the first real home
we had lived in.
We had little furniture, appliances, or money, mom and dad took us to an
auction in Jacksonville, Il where we were the high bidders on a TV ($18.00) a
sewing machine ($15.00) and a few other smaller items. This was a very happy time for Sara and I.
We had a garden I got to go hunting and fishing now and then.
Once again we were trying to save some money which is very difficult when
you have so little. We didn't
really know or care that we were poor we knew God and had each other and little
Skyler. We never knew hunger,
even though Sara had little to choose from to feed us most of the time.
Sara bless her heart she would sacrifice things she wanted so that I
could have things I wanted. We did
however try to focus on things that we could use or do together. We bought a new Benelli motorcycle in 1965, the price was
$595.00 which was a lot of money for us. We
rode a lot of miles on this bike, we went to see places where had never been, to
visit friends (something we don't do anymore), visit family go on picnics and a
whole lot more.
I
was still working on getting my Commercial and flight instructor certificates.
As I could I went back to Grafton to fly with John
Surgeon to get ready for my commercial and flight instructor certificates.
1967 Got cfi then went to work for Hill bros. Aviation in Pekin, IL. I
called several airports looking for a job as a flight instructor/commercial
pilot to find that Hill Brothers Aviation in Pekin. IL was a new and growing
aviation business. Hill Brothers
offered new and used aircraft sales and service, air taxi, flight instruction,
aircraft rental, ground school and other aviation services.
After a pretty short interview a look at my brand new commercial and
flight instructor certificate Dennis Hill the chief pilot decided we should go
for a check flight to see if I could really fly an airplane and teach from the
right seat. Dennis was an unusually
sharp pilot and I was a very green one so this in itself was very
intimidatidating to me. We did
several maneuvers that I was already well aquainted with then it was time for me
to learn a new one or two. The
flight check went well and Dennis asked when I could get moved and be ready to
go to work full time. I told him we
could be moved and ready to go to work in a week or two.
Sara
and I had no truck to move with or a place to live in this area so we went to
work to find another mobile home. We
located a nice 10 X 45 mobile home at a dealer in Pekin this dealer told us that
there was a mobile home subdivision near Manito that might have a lot we could
buy. He was right and in a few days
our mobile home was set up on our lotand it was furnished. The Chrysler was able to haul the rest of our belongings to
finish the move.
I
got to fly a lot of different types of airplanes at Hill Brothers Aviation most
of which Dennis said here are the keys there is the airplane go fly, sometimes
it was a cold turkey go in that airplane with this student and teach them to fly
that airplane. This I know now is
not a very good way to do things but apparently Dennis wasn't concerned about me
being able to do it anyway I didn 't break any airplanes or get anyone hurt.
PTL.
I
flew several hours of air taxi flights with both people and cargo.
I didn't yet have my instrument rating, which wasn't required at that
time as long as the flight was conducted under VFR (visual flight rules).
I did soon go to work to get instrument rating.
I used the instrument rating a lot especially on cargo runs.
In
addition to the above mentioned flight operations Ernie Walker who was a sales
man for River Oaks Dodge bought a new 1969 Citabria and it became my job to
teach basic aerobatics in this airplane. I
also served as a CAP (Civil Air Patrol) pilot on occasions. Overall I gained
several hours in many different types of aircraft and operations including some
un-official multi-engine time. I
also helped to get an FAA approved flight school going for Hill Brothers and did
some of the work to get them VA approved. I
was not qualified to be chief pilot for either and the man who came along who
was and I didn't get along well at all.
In
addition to the above personality conflict and another flight instructor on
board there wasn't enough work at the airport to support us so I started looking
for another at least part time job to supplement our income.
1969 Worked for Timke machine shop I heard there was a small machine shop in Green
Valley that might be hiring so I went there looking for work.
The experience that I had in the machine shop in Rockford was helpful in
obtaining a job at Timke Manufacturing in Green Valley, IL.
1969-70 FBO at Havana IL airport With my interest in aviation I was always looking for ways to better
myself and to improve our income so when I heard that the Havana, Il airport
didn't have an operator I went to Havana city hall to talk to the administrator
about the possibility of becoming their FBO (fixed base operator) they were
interested and took little time in giving me a contract to become their FBO.
I think I gave them a dollar for the lease contract.
Charles Ayres (now departed), Don Barth, both of Pekin and I went
partners on a 1964 Cessna 172 with the agreement that I could use in my business
at the airport. I would like to say
at this time no one ever had any better partners.
1970 Worked for Mt. Hawley Peoria aviation The airport operation at Havana wasn't paying
it's way so once again I am looking for another job. I heard that the Mt. Hawley Peoria airport needed another
flight instructor so I hired on with them, once again at a very megar wage.
1970 Dec 14th Kayla was born.
Thank
God for my children, Kayla was the
third and last of our children. According
to Drs. Kayla was going to be a boy. Sara
and I had hoped for a girl and God blessed us with a sweet little blonde girl
PTL.
1971 moved to Osage Beach, MO During the Spring of 1971 we, using our 1963 six
cylinder dodge ½ ton truck with a cargo box on it and our 1964 Dodge Polara
moved to Osage Beach, Mo at Lake of the Ozarks. I went to be airport manager at the Linn Creek Grand Glaize
airport for Jack Lee whom I met at the Mt. Hawley airport in Peoria, IL
Winter of 1970-71 Drove concrete truck for Mountjoy redi-mix.
Jack Lee offered me some really good sounding things
like good wages, free rent, low hours a week, a full time helper to do the hard
dirty work and free rent for a place to live.
I received none of the above. With
a wonderful wife and three lovely very small children at the house I needed more
income and a steady one. Looking
for work once again. I
continued doing free lance pilot and flight instructor for hire services and
hauling concrete for Mountjoy Redi-mix. I
also thank God for Ted and Janet Mountjoy. The Mountjoy’s are now ministering
at Forum Boulevard Christian Church in Columbia, Mo
http://www.forumblvd.org/templates/System/default.asp?id=32404
1972-1973 Went to work for Art Lohrey from KC, Lake Air Flying Service.
Art Lohrey came by the airport one day when I was
there and after talking for a while he asked if he could hire me to fly him
around on some business trips. I
told him I didn't have a plane and he said he would rent or lease one.
So here we go again at what looks like a really good deal.
Art soon purchased a 1971 Cessna 182 that we flew on a few trips then we went and looked at a 1964 Piper Aztec which he traded the Cessna for. The first trip the fuel pump failed on the left engine on climb out and the right propeller feathered on its own while landing in Wichita Ks. Art decided it was time to go by Yingling aircraft and see about getting a new airplane. As it went we went home as a brand new Cessna dealer with five new airplanes to be delivered to Lake of the Ozarks.
Lake
Air Flying Service came into being. Lake
Air soon go into the air taxi business, banner towing, flight training, and
aircraft sales. I was offered good
wages again, at least by my standards good wages.
I started getting bounced pay roll checks early on and getting some of
them made good in a few days but as time went on I was bringing in plenty money
to make the payments, pay the bills and the help but the money didn't show up at
those places. Art would always say
he considered me his son and promised to make it all good and me being the
sucker that I am I fell for it and went on until I had a collection of bad
checks. I turned them over to the
prosecutor hoping to get my money so I could get some of the things we needed
for our family. While working
for Lake Air, Ted Mountjoy who owned Mountjoy concrete sold his concrete plants
and went to Bible school in Lubbock
Texas to become a preacher.
Sara singing at Carl Johnston's Lake Ozark
Country Opry. While I was flying for Lake Air, Sara was offered an opportunity to
audition to sing for a country western show at Lake Ozark, Mo
Sara has a very good singing voice and was immediately given the job at
$10.00 per show, wow. Sara was the lead female vocalist on the show and was
frequently asked to do something special, the one most asked for was Mule
Skinner Blues. It wasn't long until
she was asked to travel with a group singing for the Holiday Inn Motel chain.
Sara refused to take this offer for her kids and my sake PTL.
The country group didn't work out and after a few months closed.
1974 went to work for Howard construction as weldor, Sara working.
With Me back to only rarely getting a free lance
flying job and Sara only getting a few dollars a week I didn't know what else to
do but to start looking for a job again.
Going back to work for
Mountjoy was no longer an option as he had sold out and went Bible school and I
din't see any option to stay in aviation at this time so what now?
Along the way I met Carl Hanks. Carl
was a construction operator for one company and his brother Bill worked for
Howard Construction Company. Carl
introduced me to his brother Bill and Bill told me that Howards was hiring
repair people and set it up for me to go talk to his road boss, Deon Sappington.
Deon hired me on the spot to become a weldor for them.
This was the first time I ever hired on as a professional weldor anywhere
although I had done a lot of repair welding when working for my dad and some
fabrication and other types of welding in the machine shops.
Sara
was now cooking at the Lake Chateau resurant in Osage Beach, Mo.
Thank God for Sara.
1975 bought Cessna 150 started doing flight training and banner towing on
my off work times. Still
working for Howards Construction, Howard
was having some financial problems and had to cut out nearly all of the
overtime. I was at that time and up
until the time I quit working for them the only repair man that was getting
overtime. The bosses had
learned that if I said it needed repaired that it needed repaired and if I could
stay late or work on the weekend to get a machine back in the dirt to turn in my
time Monday morning. This
was the first time in my life I actually received a decent wage.
I
had been getting quite a lot of flight instruction on my days off and the little
1973 Cessna 150 had been making pretty good money.
By being at the airport quite a bit I was getting a chance to fly for
others now and then including flying the company airplane for Osage Outdoor
Advertising company. Osage Outdoor
was owned by Glenn Whitman, Glenn had a company pilot but when the weather had
the ducks walking he had me take pilot in command position and put the company
pilot in the co-pilot seat. Glenn
tried several times to hire me full time. Having
seen the way Whitman treated his full time people I wasn't interested in any
part of that. By being part time
and on call in he knew that he had to pay me well and be nice or I simply
wouldn't come in.
1977 last year for Howard construction.
I had another good year working for Howards and managed to get ahead
of my bills and have a few dollars in my pocket and the flying bug was biting
pretty hard again. Sara
is still working: and taking care of us all Thank God for Sara
1978 bought Cessna 172 for flight training and banner towing as well as
personal use. I had been doing some banner towing with my
Cessna 150, with only 100 horse power the signs had to be pretty short.
It appeared to me that at the lake banner towing would be an effective
advertising media and nobody else was doing it.
I took an inventory on where we stood financially did a brief survey on
the need for banner towing in the area and came to the conlusion that I needed a
larger more powerful airplane. I
found a 1973 Cessna 172 at Peoria, IL and bought it.
When I got it home I had my local mechanic Fred Radle to install a tow
hitch on the 172 as he already had on the 150.
With two airplanes on the already very small ramp at the Grand Glaize
airport I was looking for an airport that needed an operator.
As it worked out the city hall at Camdenton, Mo had made some mistakes
with the way they had handled the airport business with FAA and had been
notified that they would hire an operator ASAP or they (FAA) would hire one for
them and send them the bill. I
talked to the city administrator about this and made an appointment to fly him
to Kansas City to talk to the airport people to see if the would be happy with
me going in there to get the airport open and provide some of the usual airport
services..
1978 I became FBO (Fixed Base Operator) at
Camdenton airport Got Air taxi certificateFAR 135,
March
of 1978 Sara and I moved our airplanes to the Camdenton airport and started
setting up our business. We got gas
in the tanks stocked the store room with aircraft engine oil got the office set
up with heat, lights, phone and the usual stuff that you would have in a small
city owned airport. Smith's flying
service was now providing line service to the flying public in addition to
flight training, aircraft rental, photo flights and other services.
It wasn't long until people started calling in to see if we did charters
and I had to tell them no. I went
to Kansas City, Kansas to the GADO (general aviation district office) and made
application for ATCO (air taxi commercial operator) and that same day did the
check ride and went home as an airtaxi operator.
Sara is still working; she is now cooking at the Dogwood Hills golf
course restaurant. Sara's working
conditions are better here and her wages are a little better.
I was very busy with various phases of flight operations.
The baner towing business had really caught on and for the first time we
actually had enough cash flow that we could do a little something for the fun of
it.
Bought Piper Pawnee and got my ag operator certificate FAR 137
One of my rental customers was and Iowa farmer and he
told me about a friend of his at Ottumwa, IA that was a ground applicator of ag
chemicals and thought it might be good if I had an ag plane.
This is early summer of 1978, not normally a good time to buy an ag plane
as the most of the ag flying season is over.
I found what looked like a good deal on a Piper Pawnee and bought it.
It sat by my office for about two weeks and I thought I should't have
bought that airplane this time of year, then.
My friend from Ia came in one day and told me that his friend in Ia was
way behind on his ground application and wondered if I could bring my airplane
up and help him get caught up. I
flew on 12,000 acres of chemicals in as many days which paid off my Pawnee
another WOW and PTL.
During the summer of 1978 while I was up flying a student in my 150 Roland Tetley manager of the Lee C. Fine airport called. My son Skyler took the call and called me to let me know that Roland said he needed me there as soon as possible. Skyler called me on the radio and said I don't know what he needs but he sounded different. I told Skyler to get the 172 untied fueled and ready to go. My student wasn't soloed yet but could taxi the plane so when we got to the ramp I got out and got in the 172 and went to Lee Fine airport as fast as I could get there. Roland had a heart attack and needed an air ambulance flight VA hospital in Columbia. Roland got four by-passes and was back home in a few days. Roland was living in an Airstream travel trailer. Now that Roland was not able to work he needed a place to park his trailer where he wouldn't have to pay rent. I had a trailer hook up at my place so he move his trailer next to our 12x60.
I was staying busy with flight operations and banner towing right up
until the schools started up again.
1978 Got call to put together missionary pilot
organization. I got a call to put together a missionary pilot
training organization spent some time in making plans, designing a classroom,
building a new hangar adding a bush plane such as a Cessna 185.
I was enjoying the fall hunting season as well as being busy getting
ready for winter, cutting wood etc. I
had shelved the missionary pilot program for the time being, (wrong thing to
do).
1979 The year got off to a good start.
I was
already scheduled to approximately $200,000 in ag plane work and banner towing
by late winter. In March I got a
call from a man, Terry Beuatte at Macon, MO asking if I could put my spreader on
my Pawnee and come help him get caught up on top dressing wheat fields with
ammonium nitrate and other chemicals. Terry
thought it was almost a sin to fly an ag plane from an airport so we did most of
our work flying off roads river levees and hay fields.
This turned out to more very good training and experience for me.
I also did severl thousand acres in West central Il.
Sara still working at Dogwood Hills and raising three kids.
April 29th 1979 Ag plane crash
Some people started a Lionel Smith fund,
Sara
working. I got too busy for God, (a very
serious wrong answer)
April
28th I had applied some 2-4-D amine to some wheat fields near Sedalia
and was scheduled to apply some Alpha-Tox to some Alfalfa on the thirtieth.
I took my family to Church Sunday morning and then to lunch.
Now I am at the airport, the model airplane people are there helping
doing spring cleaning and getting things all ship shape, they were a great bunch
of people. I was serviceing the
Pawnee for the spray job the next day, I had to repair a small tear in the
fabric in the side of the fuselage. The
Pawnee had a wind mill type spray pump that had to be in the air in order to
work. Steve Butler was my airport
helper and my assistant when working the ag plane.
We loaded the hopper with ammoniated detergent and fifteen gallons of
water to flush out the herbicide residue so it would be safe to apply the
insecticide that I was scheduled to apply the next day.
Steve filled the fuel tank on the Pawnee, I double checked everything got
in the plane, performed the full pre take off check and took off I was going to
spray up and down along the runway to kill any dandelions that I could with the
2-4-D residue. I made two runs
along the runway and was making a working turn to make the third run when the
engine quit, it didn't give any warning at all it just stopped developing power.
This is a deafining silence. I
was at the apex of a working turn when the engine stopped the airplane was to
low to regain good control speed and still make the runway with out power. I got the plane over a small clearing away from any people
and got the nose up to a normal landing attitude but the sink rate was very
high. The impact tore the engine
right off the mounts drove the landing gear up through the wings, collapsed the
framework under my seat and took the seat flight deck and all to the belly of
the airplane. FAA records show
there were two propeller strikes and the airplane skidded 176 feet.
My structure sustained considerable damage as well. Sara called the ambulance, which came right away. The ambulance crew didn't notice that the fuel tank was back at the point of impact thus eliminating any serious fire hazard or explosion. They dragged me right through the side of the plane possibly causing a lot more spinal cord damage than I already had. On the way to the hospital at Osage Beach, while going up the Linn Creek hill the rear door on the ambulance came open and my stretcher almost rolled out the back, what a ride. After the Drs. Checked me over they told Sara there was nothing they could do for me. There was a lady nearby that overheard what the Dr. told Sara, this lady suggested that Sara should have the ambulance take me to UMC (university medical center in Columbia, MO) UMC is a training hospital and they will do something even if they think the patient isn't going to make it.
When the ambulance arrived at UMC it was 9:30 at
night and Dr. Robert Gaines and his surgical team were there. (I have been told
how lucky I was to have the best back Dr. and his team, I don't believe in luck
but rather miracles PTL) Dr. Gaines
told Sara that my vitals were good and that I would probably live if my brain
hemmorage didn't kill me but I would probably never walk again
because my back was crushed. I
had a compression fracture of six vertebrae, a massive brain hemmorage, my left
arm was paralyzed for some time, my left eye was turned into my nose, otherwise
I think I was in pretty good shape. I
don't just believe in miracles I rely on them.
After
56 days at U.M.C I finally talked the Drs. into letting me go home, they
insisted I should stay for several more weeks but did agree to release me to
nurse Sara's loving care. Thank
God for Sara!
Note:
Sara was with me all but three days that I was in the hospital in
Columbia, Mo and home every night to take care of our kids, this meant four or
five hours a day on the road. Thank
God for Sara!
Still at Lake of the Ozarks. Even
though I could do little for myself it was sure good to be home.
I couldn't get into and out of bed by myself, I was still wearing a very
confining back brace and having a lot of trouble coping with having to use
catheters to void my bladder and having frequent bowel accidents, my eyes were
crossed, I had considerable hearing loss, some paralysis in my left arm, loss of
sexual function, many aches pains and other problems.
In addition to the physical problems we have three kids in school, car
payments, an airplane payment and some Dr. bills that aren’t covered by
insurance. Even through all this
Sara is still working out when she can, thank God for Sara. I
had to wear the back brace day and night for five months after I got home.
By the end of the five months I was able to get in and out of bed by
myself but still couldn't hold anything very well in my left hand.
Dr. Gaines applied for my disability, I think it started five months
after my accident, this was another blessing for sure.
This was enough to let us start gaining on the bills again.
The money that we had managed to save up before the accident was all gone
the Lionel Smith fund was all gone and with all that Sara was able to work out
just barely got us by. God did meet
our needs as He has promised. I
thank God for Sara on a regular basis. Sara
was working at Dogwood Hills Golf course restaurant and working double shifts
quite often.
Roland Tetley had bought a
piece of land at Trask, Mo. Which is near Mtn. View, MO.
Roland told me that his realtor had some acreage not too far from his
place and thought it would be good if we could move together as we were both
grounded now.
1980 August 10th
moved to Mtn. View, Mo. Traded
an airplane for cows. We had a 1973 Dodge pick up a 14 ft. flat bed
trailer, a 1977 Chevette, Skyler had a 1966 Dodge coronet, Roland Tetley had a
1968 ¾ ton Dodge truck, his wife was driving their Dodge car and we headed out
from our home at rural Linn Creek, MO to go to our Mountain View home, and
Roland to his home at Trask, Mo. We
had CB radios and I rember my son Skyler commenting as we pulled out at midnight
that we got us a convoy. The reason
we were leaving so late was because we had to load everything we could and I
wasn't able to help much at all. We
had planned to leave early the next morning but there were thunder storms coming
and we had a lot of stuff that we didn't want wet.
We
safely made the trip, we arrived at out new home just as it was getting
daylight. We did get into a little
rain but didn't get much damage from it.
Roland
and Vinneta went on to their home in Trask.
This
was opening a new chapter in our lives for sure as we are now on acreage where
we could raise animals, a garden and do a lot of other things that we couldn't
do before. The big problem was me,
as there wasn't much I could do at this time, I was considered totally and
permanently disabled. Thank God for
Sara and the kids.
1980-1989 Time to heal,
raise kids, work on cars, target shoot sell airplanes
and get my life back on track. We
had a law suit in progress against the manufacturers of the airplane and the
company that made the fuel valve that caused the plane crash that neary killed
me.
My life was so messed up at this time I was mad at
the world and for all practical purposes thought my life and career was over.
Sara
went looking for employment as soon as we got more or less moved in. It was August and a record hot one. We had no airconditioning and as far as that goes we couldn't
have paid the electric bill if we had.
One
day in August Roland and I both had to go to Columbia, Mo for Dr. checkups and
we decided to go up together to save some of the car expense.
I offered to drive us up in our Chevette. The Chevette had no air, to make it more difficult for the
two of us the temperature hit a record high for this date at 113 degrees.
Needless to say it was a long and miserable trip.
I thought I was going to go into thermal shock after spending severl
hours in the cool clinic and then going out into the hundred plus temps outside.
The good news for the day was that both of us got a good report from our
Drs.
Sara
soon found work as a cook in the Willow Springs, Mo nursing home, Willow Health
care. Sara worked at the nursing
home for several years under some very difficult conditions.
Sara's wages once again made the difference between have and have not.
We had three kids in school. We
were still making payments on the Chevette an airplane and
house payments and other related expenses.
Skyler had his driver license and was looking for part time work.
Skyler got a job working for Ron White who had a Ford dealership at the
time. This gave Skyler a chance to
make some spending money to let him have some of the things he wanted that we
could not give him at this time. We
managed to buy some rabbits and cages to give our son Robert a chance to make
some money. This didn't work out at all as we were not able to raise any
rabbits, we found out later that the reason the rabbits were for sale was
because they were too old to be productive.
Skyler got some Muscove ducks they were a good investment as they did
raise little ones that gave us meat and eggs.
I don't remember if Skyler got to sell any of them but it sure helped
with the grocery bill. After a
while the neighbors dogs and other predators found the ducks and started killing
them off.
The previous owner of our property had a built up
garden spot so we planted it with some plants that we thought might make us some
food, with the temperature so high and the lack of rain we didn't get much for
our effort. This was another bad
lick on our already difficult times as we had a hard time even getting the
garden seed we planted.
During 1982
during the Reagan administration my disability was cut off without warning.
Thanks to God, our friends and family that we didn't lose our home and
all else.
think it was in 1983that we
got a chance to sell our 1978 Cessna 172. Noel
Orchard from Eminence, MO bought the 172. This
freed us up a little on finances, the note on the airplane still had a pretty
large balance on it. Noel was an
elder at the West Eminence Christian Church.
The law suit against Piper aircraft and Parker Hannifin was in progress.
What we were assured of in the beginning didn't happen that way.
We were assured that we would get at least five million out of a case
that was this obviously the fault of the equipment.
As the case went on the lawyers on both side started putting pressure on
Sara to get me to back of and settle short of it going to the jury. I saw the burden this was putting on Sara and decided to take
whatever we could get and let it go. We
did get enough to pay off all our debts and $76,000 besides.
This money was a while coming so we still had problems.
Our house payments were still due each month and our borrwed money was
run out. I went in to West Plains
Saving and loan, who held our note on our home, to ask if they would give me an
extension pending the law suit was over and that I had money coming soon.
The loan officer smiled and said no way and that when our payment was 31
days late they would break my present 12 percent fixed rate contract and raise
it to the then 18 percent rate with option to go up again any time.
He told me that they would then give me another thirty days to get caught
up or they would carry our belonging out in the street.
This man showed no sympathy at all.
Once again family came to our rescue, this time Aunt Erma gave us enough
money to make a couple of months payments which help it until we got our
settlement check and paid the note off and all other outstanding bills. I had enough left over to buy three $10,000 CD's at 16
percent interest.
1989 got medical back and bought
airplane and renewed my flight instructor certificate.
Noel came by one day
and told me during 1989, that he was going to Thayer to get his flight
physical renewed and suggested that I should go with him to see if I could pass
a flight physical as well. Noel
told me that Dr. Phillips would be willing to work with me to see if I could get
through the medical paper work that would be necessary because of all the
injuries that I had sustained in the plane crash in 1979.
In 1989, because of Noel's
encouragement, I got a feeling that I should go for a flight physical, of course
I questioned that idea, with all the injuries that I had the chances of passing
one was remote at best. After the
physical exam the Dr. Phillips told me that if I hadn't told him of the injuries
that I had and the fact that FAA had denied me a medical, that he would have
given me a class II which is for commercial operations.
I only asked for a class III that is what I got after a number of other
tests.
After getting the medical, I wanted to
get my pilot certificate renewed so I started checking around to see where I
could hire a flight instructor and rent an airplane for a refresher and a flight
review to reinstate my pilot certification.
I located a flight instructor (George Meyers) in Willow Springs, Mo.
which is just six miles West of where I lived. So far so good now we need
an airplane. No one in the area had a rental airplane however George new of an
airplane, a (Piper Colt) at Houston Mo. which was only about and hour drive.
Now this is getting to the point where I am starting to wonder if I am up
to taking a check ride without a lot of training.
I am also a little uneasy about how I might react to the flight
environment after all that had happened and the time that had elapsed since I
was last a current pilot. The
flight check was short and I felt right at home, which was a confirmation to me
that I had done the right thing so far. I
am still not sure what the Lord has in mind for me, or if this is just something
I want to do.
After getting my pilot status current,
I got the urge to use it. With no
rental airplanes near by I started thinking about buying one (a rather bizarre
idea considering that I hadn't been able to work for a number of years and the
income from Sara's work barely covered the expenses, we also had three children
at home). Sara bless her heart
wanted me to get to fly again (Sara has done a lot of those special, above and
beyond things through the years. I
thank the Lord for Sara quite often, she is very special to me. Sara sat down
with me to see what she could get by without and what we could sell to figure a
way to buy an airplane. We came up
with the figure of ten thousand dollars that would be the maximum that we could
even consider and only then with a very friendly banker.
We drove into Willow Springs to talk to Pat Stuart, who is a used car
dealer who also is a pilot. I
thought he might know of an airplane for sale in the area. Pat had a 1958 tri-pacer that he said he would sell for ten
thousand five hundred. Close but
still five hundred more than the limit that we set.
I asked him if we could get a mechanic to do a pre-buy inspection on it,
Pat agreed to take it to Houston, Missouri to Paul Morrison for the inspection.
Paul found two cylinders that were low on compression and Pat said he
would reduce the price by a thousand dollars, now the price is within the limits
we set on the price. After the repairs were done the price was still under ten
thousand.
Sara
and I made several local flights and I had a good feeling about getting to fly
again. Now we decided it was time
to go see our son Skyler who was in the Navy, Skyler was stationed at NAS
Dallas, and was living at Arlington, Texas.
The tri-pacer didn't have radios that were dependable so we were
navigating the old fashioned way using pilotage and dead reckoning, (chart,
compass, and clock) and of course the communication radios didn't work very well
either. Going down it was a great
trip. We spent about a week with
the family in Texas that wouldn't have been possible without the (paper piper,
as Paul Morrison called them). On
checking the weather I found that we would have to leave the next morning in
order to get Sara home in time to get her back to work.
A front was coming to Missouri that was expected to become stationary
causing low weather for several days, and without instrument capabilities that
was not good. We took off in the
sunshine and headed for the show me state.
We experienced a very unwelcome situation right after take off, we had a
strong head wind 20 -30 knots, as a result it is taking a lot longer to get home
than I first estimated and required an extra fuel stop, again adding to the
travel time. The weather and the
sun were going down together. Harrison
Arkansas was within our fuel range and by the time we got there the weather had
gone from clear and unlimited to 2000 overcast and 4 miles visibility by
sundown. As the temperature cools
down at night the weather usually deteriorates right along with it.
I had pretty well made up my mind to over night at Harrison but Harrison
still had a flight service station (a place where a pilot can walk in and check
the weather). I went in and talked to the weather briefer about the remainder of
the flight to Cabool, he said that the weather would probably get better going
that way. The weather gradually got worse and with no radio to get a
weather updates and very seriously doubting the weather behind us to be any
better than what we were in at this time. The time remaining to Cabool being
less than that back to Harrison I chose to continue to Cabool.
I had checked the altimeter at Harrison and found it to be near perfect
for accuracy, which gave me a little more confidence that we knew our distance
above the terrain. The loran had
proven itself to be very accurate on this trip even though we had terrain
clearance we went pretty close to two towers that were above us and didn't see
either one of them. The loran and
God's grace and mercy guided us directly to the approach end of the runway at
Cabool. By the end of that flight
Sara and I decided that it was no more long cross-country flights until the
airplane was equipped and it and I were certified for instrument flight. After more hard work selling more things and shopping
around the country I managed to get enough new equipment to make the little
airplane comfortable for flight in instrument conditions. I got the equipment installed and the airplane certified the
next step was for me to go for a competency check ride to get recertified as an
instrument pilot.In a few days I decided that perhaps I should try to renew my
flight instructor certificates, I didn't really think I could without a lot of
problems re-testing etc. I called
FAA and they told me that all I had to do was pass a CFI renewal check flight,
sounds easy enough. Praise God He
guided me through all the maneuvers on the check ride and I was a flight
instructor again. It still wasn't
clear to me where all this was going, but I felt like there was more to it than
just me wanting to do all this. I
did think that I would like to teach my kids to fly but didn't have any idea
that I would ever again do anything as a pro-pilot.
Shortly after I got recertified as a
flight instructor brother Noel Orchard (now mayor of Eminence, Mo.) once again
entered the picture by telling the Mayor of Mountain View, Mo. that I had my CFI
renewed and that I might consider opening a flight school in Mountain View.
She, Joan Smith, came to me and asked if I would be willing to give her
city a flight school and before I could say no, I said yes.
The city and Charlie Webster (the airport manager) was very cooperative
and helpful through it all and the flight school gave me experience and
opportunities to get current in flying again.
Sara and I went to the airport in Mountain View in March of 1990 and put
the tri-pacer on the line as a trainer and rental airplane.
Some of our customers weren't happy about the fact that the little plane
was covered in fabric, so I started looking for a metal airplane.
Sara and I were in Illinois on a trip to visit family and on the way back
home we went through Jerseyville, IL. where Skyler our first son was born and
also where we had purchased our first airplane (a tri-pacer) and hangar.
I made my first solo flight at the Jerseyville, Illinois airport in 1963.
On the way past the airport we pulled in to see if there were any
airplanes for sale
While we were at the airport in Jerseyville we found a Cessna 150 for
sale. The price was right so we
bought 7901F,a 1966 Cessna 150, a two-place airplane.
Bert Rodgers was a flight instructor for Smith's Flying service. Bert
gave approximately a 1000 hours of flight instruction in 12 months.
In 1990 we bought a Cessna 310 that was in pretty bad condition.
It took us 10 or 11 months to make it airworthy.
In 1991 we bought another Cessna 150 7953G to train with.
We were getting pretty busy by now and meeting quite a number of
Christians who were interested in flying.
1992 another C-150 became
available on a lease basis so we added it to the fleet as needed. With Bert Rogers, to help out and three 150s available and
several rental customers a 310 and a tri-pacer we were staying pretty busy.
During this time period Noel Orchard offered the Cessna 172 back to me if
I wanted to buy it so we added it to our fleet.
1993 got my wake up call to start missionary pilot training school.
1993, In the middle of a busy day on the flight line during the
summer of 1993 I got a little slack and went in my office, closed the door and
sat down at my desk to enjoy the peace and quiet.
I hadn't been there very long when I heard this voice (Remember 1978?)
yep I sure did. I took that as a
note that I was being given another chance to do what God called me to do back
in 1978.
I knew that in order to train pilots for third world country operations I
would need some special training and I didn't know where to start, so I asked
God for direction then He gave me the a nudge to call Moody Bible College in
Chicago Il. and ask them if they
had a flight program. Their answer
was yes the do have a flight program but not at their Chicago campus.
They were helpful in that they gave me the number and a name to call at
their Elizabethton Tennessee campus. I
called Tenn. and told their chief instructor what I was looking for and after
answering several questions for him, he told me that the only way they could
help me would be to send me a list of pilot placement organizations that used
bush pilots in the mission field. I
received the envelope in a few days that had a lot of good information in it.
I started looking for a place in the Midwest, so I wouldn't have to
travel so far, but there weren't any missionary training facilities in the
Midwest. I continued to search the
list. I noticed an organization
named Tribal Air and Communications and wondered if that could be part of New
Tribes Mission. A friend of mine,
Carl Hanks that lived at the Lake of the Ozarks told me about New Tribes Mission
and their flight program. I dialed
the phone and before the phone even rang a second voice told me that these
people won't help you because you are not part of their organization so I hung
up the phone. Before I could even
take my hand off the phone the first voice came back saying you quit on me in
1978 and I am giving you another chance. I
picked up the phone and pushed the redial button I am still hearing the other
voice telling me I am wasting my time calling these people.