Looking back on over 50 years of aviation experiences, I feel rather fortunate. “Fortunate” being relative in many regards; with approximately 20,000 hours of flying experiences, I have slipped the surly bonds of many a grass field and hardened runways to fly aloft and enjoy the pleasures of flying in America!

Beginning in Broken Bow, Nebraska, I have subsequently returne the area where I first soloed an airplane at Hamilton Field, Derby, Kansas, in 1955. Now, living in the Air Capitol of the World for the 3rd time, I find it interesting to have witnessed the events that we do when we are fortunate enough to be sustained this long while pursuing careers in aviation, the military and law enforcement. I attribute all of that to the influence and great training in persistence and fortitude from my mentors and family!

My uncle, Keith Glaze, Colonel, USAF, retired, first introduced me to aviation in an L16 and Howard DGA15P . Those early 'orientation' flights got me hooked and I have truly enjoyed all that there is about flying since those early flights in the 1940's and 1950's. I continue to enjoy the thrills and joy of flying whenever I can with our Meyers OTW and Cessna 182A on trips throughout this great country of ours. I have crossed this great land of ours many times in one of our airplanes, to include two trips to Alaska and one to the Bahamas .

I first soloed in 1955, long before I was aware that one should have some flight instruction and a medical exam prior to said flight! How times have changed! I once owned a PT19 that I purchased for $200 and sold the following year for $300; WHAT A PROFIT! Wish I still owned it today. However, we do own a 1943 Meyers OTW and a 1957 Cessna 182A, only two of the airplanes I've owned over the years including a Cessna 172 , Piper Warrior , and Piper Seneca.

Leaving Wichita in 1956 as a high school student, I returned in 2000 as a professional flight instructor for Flight Safety. I now instruct in Citation VII and CE560XL jets that Clyde Cessna would surely be proud of today! In between, I have flown anything I could get my hands on including some bootleg time in AF equipment that included the T38, F4 , F16, C124 , C130 with the appropriate AF pilot IP's of course. My FAA position allowed me some advantages of exotic flight evaluations while administering FAA certification – I did, however, enjoy having some of my AF Reserve colleagues share their fighter experiences in F-4's and F-16s. I once flew formation with a Navy FA-18 (in 1984) over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in my 1972 Seneca . The Navy jet jockey was bored and wanted to exchange some professional information.

Officially, I have flown as a crewmember aboard C119, C124, C130, VC118, C5A, C141 and the AC130 gunship. In my law enforcement career I flew Hughes 300 & 500 helicopters catching bad guys in Sacramento County California. My FAA inspector duties found me administering flight checks in Bell Jetranger Enstrom, Hughes, Augusta, and Sikorsky helicopters. While at FAA Headquarters, I flew the Citation 500 jets and the Bell-Boeing Tilt rotor for evaluation as a civil airline aircraft.

I have airlifted the X15, Mercury space capsules, an Army Patrol boat, and a load of F5 fighters to Iran, explosives to the Pacific missile test range and flown drug interdiction missions in several states.

One might say I have been fortunate enough to have had a lifetime of aviation experiences and I wouldn't trade one aspect of it for a pile of gold and jewels.