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Neal (left) and Chuck O'Connor at Spruce Creek (7FL6) with CherokeeJet N9586J.
I've had an interest in anything that flies for as long as I can remember. I built and launched model rockets in grade school, tinkered with plastic models (poorly) for years and tried control-line models.
My Dad and I had a great time with radio control models in my college years. My first GA ride was in a rented C-172 looking for a downed Goldberg Eaglet. It quit making thrust well beyond it's glide-home distance because I was having fun and paying no attention to the time aloft vs. fuel remaining.
Following Officer Training School at Lackland AFB, TX, I moved to Vandenberg AFB, CA for Undergraduate Missile Training with the 4315th MTS. Vandenberg had an AeroClub (and enough runway to get lost on), and I started GA training with Dave Horn (he was a Reserve Tech Sergeant at the time, now he's driving F-16s). Dave took my shirt-tail in more cross-wind than the C-152 that I was flying is rated for.
My assignment to the 320th Missile Squadron as a Missile Combat Crew Commander planted me at FE Warren AFB in Cheyenne, WY. Warren is the only USAF base without a runway (I think), and I thought the cost of flight training with the local FBO was high, so didn't continue. Hunting and fishing the Snowy Range distracted me from flying, and the local amateur radio club and a house in dire need of remodeling fed my craving for something to do between alerts (and ensured that my checking account was consistently empty). Dillon was born April 29, 1996.
Assigned to the Space Control Center at Cheyenne Mountain in 1997, we moved to Colorado Springs. A new house with no landscaping and an unfinished basement again consumed my time and pennies. Dillon was diagnosed with a particularly nasty form of leukemia on December 13, 1998. We owe his life to Captain Chris Paige (ER Nurse) and Major Amy Marlowe (Pediatrician). A multitude of other doctors tended to Dillon's treatment and cure, but these two actually listened to the boy's parents, did proper exams and referred us to doctors who could help. Dr. Brian Dudgeon admitted him to Children's Hospital in Denver, and Dr. Ed Arenson spent the next week refining his diagnosis. Calli and Holli were born December 16, 1998 in Colorado Springs. We used the stem cells harvested from their umbilical cords for Bone Marrow Transplant on September 23, 1999. Treating Dillon's leukemia consumed every minute of the first two years and made a general mess of the next five. I'll post a more detailed narrative on Dillon's ordeal as time permits.
We
were assigned to the 1st Space Launch Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 2000, and learned to launch Delta
II and Delta III rockets. The Delta II Heavy (7925) configuration is used to launch GPS satellites to the delight of
pilots everywhere.
I volunteered to work the 2001 Patrick AFB air show soon after arriving. Knowing absolutely nothing about airshows, and even less about how to make one happen, I was of course assigned to research, select, hire and coordinate ALL the performers and their needs for the show. I met Gene McNeely at ICAS 2000. Alli says he's a bad influence.
Gene taught me how to run run a show from the performers' perspective and introduced
me to everyone I needed to know to get things done right. When the airshow was over and all the paperwork was cleaned
up, he welcomed me into his hangar and began to teach me about airplanes. I re-joined the AeroClub and took my
training from Nick Gillespie. My Private Pilot checkride was scheduled for 12 Sept, 2001 - I had to wait a month.
(McNeely was stuck at Reno for a week.)
Darrel Gordon made me work for the signature, be we had fun and I
learned from him too.
The Cherokee pictured above was a major rebuild project after 13 years as a taxiway ornament. It lit the fire to build an RV and served as the workhorse for my Instrument rating. Adam Berman was patient and persistent, and I still hate holding patterns.
In October, 2002, 45 Operational Support Squadron Commander Lt Col Kurt Hall asked me to do the 2003 airshow as the coordinator for all visiting aircraft, performers and statics. It became the Space Coast's biggest single-day event ever, with the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team showing the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels how it's done.
We moved to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL in 2003 (Air University Protocol), and I was deployed to the Joint Visitor's Bureau for the Office of Military Cooperation - Afghanistan. (Protocol in a war zone? Office of Adventure Tourism is more like it; you people are nuts.) I ordered RV-7 Empennage kit Number 71771 before my gear was put away. I returned home just in time to work Maxwell's 2004 airshow as a protocol officer ("What do you mean I can't go play with the airplanes!? It's an airshow. I'm a pilot. I have friends all over the ramp that I haven't seen in a year and you want me to serve Cokes and peanuts to DVs I don't know?)
I escaped from Air University Protocol in March, 2005. At the moment, I'm assigned to AU's Plans and Programs directorate (AU/XP) as the Chief of Civil Air Patrol Programs.
We moved from Montgomery to Navarre, FL in July, 2006. My assignment with the 605th Test and Evaluation Squadron promises to be a great opportunity.
I absolutely hate paying someone else to do anything I know I can learn to do
myself, especially if I can wind up with more toys tools in the process.
I'm active in the EAA, though still looking for a local chapter folowwing our recent move to Florida.
Allison and I serve Cub Scout Pack105 as leaders for Dillon's Webelos Den.