Wayne is an accidental aviator. “I’ve always loved aviation,” the Glen Falls, New York native said, “but I don’t know why. No one else in my family flew.”
He wanted to get his pilot’s license when he was in graduate school but the cost of flight school didn’t fit into a student’s budget. A few years down the road, in 2006, Wayne received his pilot’s license, and a near lifelong dream had been fulfilled.
While in flight school Wayne caught wind of a program called Angel Flight. Angel Flight Soars was formed in 1983 out of DeKalb Peachtree Airport. It is a group of volunteer pilots who help people in need travel to places they may not otherwise be able to get to. The Angel Flight philosophy is “the cost of travel should never stand in the way of people receiving medical care.” Since the program began nearly 25,000 flights have taken place.
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Wayne has done his part to add to that total. Since joining the group in 2008 he has flown approximately 50 missions for Angel Flight. Wayne flies a Cirrus SR22 four-seat aircraft out of Gwinnett County Airport at Briscoe Field. Flying predominately around the southeast, Wayne recently picked up a passenger in Ashville, North Carolina and flew them to Philadelphia. Sometimes his passengers are frequent flyers, and he gets to know them a little bit. Sometimes, his heart gets tugged.
“There have been lots of cancer patients,” he said. “I remember taking a group of kids to and from a camp in Georgia for organ recipients. One was a little girl seven years old and that’s a tough start on life. Another time I flew a young boy back from a summer camp for burn victims. It was a horrible feeling.”
If Wayne needs an emotional pickup, the 49-year old can count on his wife, Helen, and their three children. Aside from the goodwill feeling of helping others, Angel Flight pilots receive no compensation. When Wayne flies he pays a rental fee for the airplane and he pays for the gas. He does get a tax credit if it’s an Angel Flight. Still, he calls it a win-win-win situation.
“I get to help someone, I get to fly, and I get a tax write off. How do you get better than that.”
If you would like more information about Angel Flight Soars, go to its website at http://www.angelflightsoars.org, or call 770-452-7958.
Earl Gray is a freelance writer. Send comments/suggestions to etg_3@hotmail.com.
