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The Anniston Star, Ala., George Smith column: Tommy Walker ? 'It was a dream I wanted to live ...' [The Anniston Star, Ala.]
(Anniston Star (AL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 24--MCMINN AIRPORT -- It's quiet here.
Tommy Walker, gazing across a grassy pasture to the thread of a runway, is back in time.
"This is the way airfields were back in the 1940s, back in the barn-storming days."
An orange wind sock, anchored to the runway apron, silently seeks the direction of a slight breeze. To the east of the wind sock, beef cattle -- some red, some black -- nibble at the grass along the lonely runway.
I've been here before, several times, a long time ago when I was a sports writer for this newspaper. The late Dr. Russ Carnes, a former World War II carrier pilot and avid fan of college football and stock car racing, flew me all across the Southeast to cover those sports.
But it's a solid bet Tommy Walker, who some may remember as a teacher of economics and history at Weaver and Saks, knows this place much better than I ever did.
Most weekdays you can find him here, a small radio on a bench tuned to the classic country music on AM 810, a scattering of wrenches on a bench, a rag or two for wiping grease nearby. What Tommy Walker is doing here is building his second airplane in one of the hangars that run in a tin-shedded row from east to west.
He looks at a skinny frame perched on a tricycle gear with three small tires at rest. A tiny engine, one that would fit in a gardener's wheelbarrow, sits in front of a bones-bare cockpit.
Walker's love affair with the blue yonder is a long one ...
"I was 13 and we were living in Weaver. Just looking up at planes flying over, you wished you were up there. I could imagine myself in the seat doing the flying, just like the old barnstormers.
"It was a dream and I didn't know if it was possible, but I knew it was a dream I wanted to live."
The dream met the beginning of reality when ...
"A buddy, Max Schawartz, said that if we'd go down to the Anniston airport and clean planes, we'd get a free flying lesson. I think we probably hitchhiked down there. We scrapped grease and crud off the bottom of the planes in exchange for a ride.
"It was in an old Piper Cub. We were up front and a Mr. Lane was sitting in the back. The stick was between me and Max. When we got up, he (Lane) let us just briefly hold the stick. I'm sure he had hold of his own stick in the back."
The "hook was set," so to speak, and the tiny plane embyro sitting in front of the hangar is merely another chapter that spans a second career (after teaching) in computer software sales.
To cut to the meat, the Mobile-based company he worked for had a plane, Walker became a licensed pilot, and can rattle off dozens of small airfields he touched over the years ...
Starkville, Demopolis, Haleyville, Lineville, Gatlingburg, Callaway Gardens, to name a few.
After a second retirement, looking for something to do, he and friend Randy Fortune, decided to build their own plane.
And there is some serious money sitting in the emerging plane. The (plane) kit is $14,000, the tiny motor even more ... $20,000.
"It's called a STOL CH70. The kit is from Zenith Aircraft Company in Mexico, Mo., seats two. The engine is a 100 hp Rotax, made in Austria. The kit's been cut, but you do a lot of shaping ... has 7,000 rivets and you have to drill every hole at least once, sometimes three times."
Did he say $20,000 for THAT tiny thing?
To state the obvious ...
"You want a reliable engine when you get up in the sky. If something goes wrong, you can't pull over and fix it."
Fortune took the initial flight in the first STOL.
"Yeah, Randy took the first flight, Aug. 31, 2007. We had taken it to Sylacauga to assemble and he flew it back up here. I'm the senior partner so I assigned it to him ... that's a joke. He's younger and has better reflexes."
There has been just one bit of "scary" in his flying career and the first STOL provided the scare.
"The first time I took off in it, I pulled the stick a little too hard and the next thing I knew I was going straight up in the sky. I circled and got back, but it scared me to death. I wasn't expecting it, which was dumb. Getting in something like that and not knowing what to expect really is dumb."
In at least a startling admission, Walker mentioned he probably enjoys building the planes more than the actual flying.
"I just enjoy taking a pile of aluminum and turning it into something. I've been working on this one for a year and I'm committed to August (finishing), I've already got the wings and the tail feathers built ... I've got to get the engine wired up. It's a lot of work."
The August deadline is for a reason. The first plane was sold to a man in Tennessee and that man's neighbor has already put down a hefty deposit on this one.
There will be at least one more.
"Actually, I've already bought the engine for a third one, found a bargain out at Ohatchee. It's sitting in my buddy's garage, but that's probably going to be it."
'Course that's what Tommy Walker said along about the time he watched Randy leave Sylacauga for McMinn ... in the first one.
George Smith's columns appear Wednesdays and Sundays.
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