Love and aviation

My earliest recollection of aviation is taking the controls of a Cessna 182 and circling the Statue of Liberty with my dad. I said to him, “Hey! They painted it green!” My 7-year-old mind thought all statues were gray. Dad casually said, “It’s corrosion, son.” Pretty big word for a 7-year-old. But being in aviation all these years, I now am very familiar with corrosion!

In the summer of 1973, I had a job washing airplanes for $25 a week, plus flight time. Thus, I started logging time when I was 12. I kept working at the airport doing various jobs and soloed on my sixteenth birthday. (My dad soloed me and I soloed my son on his sixteenth birthday.) I got my private at 17, commercial at 18, CFI at 19, A&P at 24, and airline transport pilot at 25. I was pretty gung-ho. In addition to washing airplanes I had a newspaper route, worked as a roofer, mowed lawns, dug graves, and played college football, and every spare dollar I made went to flying. I became a life member of the Commemorative Air Force at 20 (the youngest life member at the time) and got to fly various World War II aircraft for them. I then flew DC-3s for Atorie Aire in El Paso, Texas, after college and got my A&P while flying DC-3s, Twin Beeches, and C-46s. In 1985, I joined Skywest Airlines, where I became a line check airman in 1989.

I now live at Van Aire Skyport (CO12) and own a 1942 Stinson L-5. I also have north of 12,000 (I have pics) model airplanes hanging in the hangar and house. About half of them are built and half unbuilt (if I live long enough). I work with charities and with kids to build models. I am currently chief pilot of Vintage Aero Flying Museum (vafm.org) at Platte Valley Airpark (18V), where we fly World War I airplanes, such as the Fokker D.VII and the Sopwith Camel. I have given rides to many kids in the museum’s Piper Cubs and in other airplanes.

My wife, Dionne, has had a similar love of aviation. She grew up under the final approach path of 24R at LAX. She watched the airliners and knew she wanted to do that, but being an inner-city kid of modest means and not knowing anyone in the aviation community she didn’t know where to start. She was raised by a single mom, who said, “Why don’t you join the Air Force? They have airplanes, don’t they?” She went to the U.S. Air Force recruiter and he told her she could sign up now and fly later. She was then stationed at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, but in life support.

She then learned from some of the instructor pilots there that she could learn to fly the civilian route. So, she went to nearby Enid Woodring Regional Airport (WDG) where she soloed. Fast forward, she got her private in Alton, Illinois, while she worked as a flight attendant for TWA in St. Louis. She then moved to Denver and worked as a flight attendant and on the ramp for various airlines while getting her instrument and commercial. After her commercial ride the designated pilot examiner asked her if she was going out to celebrate to which she replied, “no, I have three jobs; I have to go to work.”

We met about this time, and I told her to build time, go drop skydivers. So, she went to Fremont County Airport (1V6) on weekends to build time. From there she went on to Mesa, then on to ExpressJet, and finally to Skywest Airlines. We have flown together many times. Along the way, I gave her a tailwheel endorsement in a Citabria. A couple of years later, she bought her first airplane, a Cessna 140. She kept the 140 for a couple years and then moved up to a Cessna 170, which she flies regularly.

Last month I checked her out in my Stinson L-5. At this point, she’s one of the few, if not the only, Black female tailwheel pilots, and definitely one of the only Black female warbird pilots! And I’m proud to say she earned it.

Donley Watkins III writes from Brighton, Colorado.