OUR STORY

FRANCINE THE PILOT

Page 26

From that day forth she spend more time at the airport than she did at home. She was in love with flying to the extent that I was even jealous of it. After I found how additive flying was I understood better. She was torn between what she considered her duties as a house keeper, and wanting to fly. Since the kids were grown and we were still in our troubled stage (the first half of our marriage) it was easier for her to give in to flying. And it was only a short time before I was her biggest fan and supporter.

She had her First Solo April 3, 1981 mere weeks after she started lessons. It was in a C-150. She was 44 years old and a whole new life was opening for her.

She continued to go to the airport every day learning how to fly multiple engine panes and getting that rating. Learning how to fly on instruments and getting that rating. Not only was she studying those complicated lessons and charts, she was making very high grades on every test. For someone who had dropped out of high school in the 10 th grade she was unbelievable.

Not long after she soloed she took me up for a flight. I was not surprised that she flew so well. Like her father when she was a kid, I thought she could do anything. She took almost all of the family for plane rides including her mother and father.

Almost from the first she was working at flying. She would go with Frank Dean flying power lines. One would fly along side the power line while the other would look for problems. They would report these and the power company would fix them. Power line flying was a lot like crop dusting, it was quite dangerous.

As soon as she got her commercial license she began flying charters. Soon she was the preferred pilot for many in the middle Georgia area. She never had any close calls as she was very safety mind when it came to flying. Once she was flying a group to Savannah when the landing gear would not go down. She calmly told the man in the right seat that the landing gear had to be pumped down and he could either do that or fly the plane while she did. He elected to pump.

She used to fly a group of preachers around a lot. One evening they were flying into a small field in south Georgia. As soon as the plane landed it was surrounded by all kind of law enforcement. They had a tip that a drug plane was coming in and were waiting. They ask her what she was carrying. She told them as far as she knew, just six preachers.

Other time she was to pick up some passengers on Cumberland Island. She had never landed there and ask Lowe’s where the landing strip was. They told her there