Impatience took over veteran Jack Light, 93, Thursday morning as he waited his turn to sit in the open cockpit of a WWII-era biplane. For the first time in more than 20 years, he was flying again.
Eight veterans, including Light, who now live at three local Dial Senior Living facilities, got the chance to fly in an open-cockpit, two-seater biplane through Dream Flights, a national nonprofit that honors veterans by flying them in a restored 1940s military training aircraft. The veterans flew Sept. 25 at the Johnson County Executive Airport in Olathe.
“Well, yeah, I want to go out there and fly,” Light said before he took off.
Light, a retired United States Air Force Pilot, served during the Cold War, including during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He started as a mechanic for Air Force One, the aircraft that carries the U.S. President. Light was then promoted to lieutenant and eventually a pilot officer before he retired, according to Dial Senior Living.
During his 20-year career in the USAF, Light said his favorite plane to fly was the C-141 Starlifter.
“It was a four-engine jet,” he said. “I loved that because it had a jerk to it when you put the throttles forward out there and released the brakes … I loved it, better than the propeller ones.”
After serving from 1950 to 1970, Light bought a plane of his own, often flying with his wife and three children.
The plane flown by Dream Flights, a Boeing Stearman biplane, was designed in the 1930s by Kansas native Lloyd Stearman. Now, Stearman’s grandson Patrick Carr of Kansas City, Kansas, gets to watch veterans fly in that plane.
“I’m really impressed with what Dream Flights is doing,” Carr said. Though he only met the Dream Flights team a few weeks ago, Carr added that he appreciates the care and work that goes into making these flights happen.
The only woman to fly Thursday was USAF Veteran Rene Jennings, 91. Jennings served as an air traffic control tower operator from 1952 to 1956 in Great Falls, Montana; Denver, Colorado; and Roswell, New Mexico. Of the 30 people training alongside Jennings to become a control tower operator, she was one of only four women in the program at that time.
Though she’d flown in a two-seater aircraft before, it was a closed-cockpit — and also more than six decades ago.
“I had a great time,” Jennings said of her flight last week. “I’m very happy I did it because I thoroughly enjoyed myself.”
For USAF Veteran Otis Sanders, 91, who served during peacetime between 1955 and 1959, flying was a passion he started later in life. At 61 years old, he earned his pilot license.
“I was overwhelmed,” Sanders said of the moment he found out he was going to fly again. “I always wanted to fly in an open-cockpit aircraft. This (the Johnson County Executive Airport) is where I trained. I was kind of old when I did it.”
After he watched crop dusters fly during a trip to Texas with his wife, she encouraged him to get his pilot license. Sanders joked that he asked for a senior discount when he started training. His instructors said no.
“I went ahead and got my license and enjoyed all the flying I could,” he said.
During his piloting days, Sanders was only able to take one of his three daughters, his eldest, up for a flight. Not long after receiving his license, health issues prevented him from piloting solo again.
Last week, Sanders’ eldest daughter Lisa Sanders Ravenscroft watched from the audience as he took flight.
“When he first got his own private pilot’s license, I was the only one in the family that ever got to fly with him,” Sanders Ravenscroft said. “He would take me up and we went over Lawrence, where I went to school a million years ago. It’s his passion, flying. He’s thrilled to be here.”
“I think he thought in his heart,” she added, “he would never have this experience again, to be in a small plane.”
Other news from the clouds: Abruptly deactivated, Chinook helicopters take one last flight over Johnson County
