With an Airline Transport Pilot rating, Bill retires with over 16,000 hours in a wide variety of aircraft. I count it an honor and a privilege to have shared the flight deck with him for a very small percentage of those hours.

Whether in the cockpit of a Cessna 182 or the Department’s Piper Navajo or Cheyenne, I spent many hours flying above the expansive Nebraska landscape, talking about aviation, talking about life and soaking up bits of wisdom from this skilled aviator.

As the Director of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics between the years of 1992 and 1998 I had the opportunity to work with Bill not only in the air but on the ground, in good times and the challenging times as well. It is through the day to day grind that you truly get to know a person.

A definition of venerable is, “commanding respect by virtue of age, dignity, character, or position” – all fine characteristics and each can be attributed to Bill. But, the one that stands out to me above all the others, is character.

Bill not only invested time in developing and honing his piloting and administration skills, made evident by a successful and safe career in the industry, but he made a great investment in people and relationships as well. It is that investment that has created a legacy that will serve both the NDA and the State of Nebraska well, for years to come.

The project featured a new general aviation terminal building, construction of 96 hangars, including 12 with radiant floor heating; a self-service fuel island; and runway and taxiway rehabilitation.

Dedicated by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is the city’s first airport and still one of its busiest. Originally home to commercial aviation, the airport now attracts a large number of corporate, charter and recreational flyers.

The good memories are of the days I would ride along with a friend who flew freight in a Piper Aerostar. The route consisted of a late night departure from Omaha’s Eppley Airfield to Lambert Field in St. Louis. We would drop our cargo, pick up new, and then head to Kansas City, arriving at the Downtown airport around 4:00 A.M. We would then get a couple of hours of shut-eye in the pilot’s lounge before heading to Lincoln, Nebraska and then back to Omaha.

The not-so-fond memory came from one of my first long cross-country flights in the early days of my flight training. Kansas City Downtown airport was my last stop before returning to Omaha. I learned about TCA’s during that flight – the hard way.

Going in, was uneventful.  I received the proper clearance before entering the controlled airspace and all was well in the world. Leaving was a different story. I knew that I had to get my clearance to enter controlled airspace shortly after take-off, if I was going to continue my northerly track back to Omaha,  but didn’t do a very thorough job of planning on how to stay clear of the inverted wedding cake’s airspace, should I not get a clearance right away, and of course, as fate would have it, I didn’t.

Things got away from me rather quickly and once I finally did established two-way communication between myself and the controller and entered the appropriate squawk code, he quickly realized my location and altitude put me exactly where I shouldn’t be and preceded to give me a well-deserved chewing out. I learned an important lesson that day. Once back home, I went over the situation with my instructor to make sure I understood what I did wrong and how to correctly handle the situation next time.

Downtown Airport is just across the Missouri River from Kansas City’s business center. In the shadows of the downtown skyline, up to 700 aircraft per day take off or land at the airport – everything from single-engine propeller craft to sleek corporate jets. Fixed-base operators service nearly 300 based aircraft, as well as itinerant and charter aircraft, offering fuel, full maintenance, aircraft rentals, sales and flight training.

Downtown airport was the early home to Howard Hughes’s TWA Airline, and served as the city’s primary airport until Kansas City International Airport opened in 1972.” I’m sure the new digs will be a welcome change by everyone, but I’ll always have pleasant memories of getting a few winks in a well-worn recliner in an old building, which for a young man in his early twenties was life at its best.

My mom recently presented me with a stack of old post cards she had been saving, including the one shown with this article. The shiny C-172 pictured with a first generation Corvette certainly caught my eye today as I’m sure it must have for anyone who saw it back in the day.

Late 1950's Cessna Postcard

This particular post card was addressed to my dad, Sam Stevens, and came from Clinch Flying Service, a Cessna dealer, located at the Municipal Airport in North Platte, Nebraska. It was postmarked April 10, 1957 and was a reminder that ground school class would be held on the following Saturday at 10:00 A.M.  The back of the post card reads,  [Take a "drive" in the sky in this amazing new airplane, the Cessna 172 with patented "Land-O-Matic" landing gear. It makes "flying like driving!" See and fly one at your nearest Cessna Dealer today.]

My dad got to fly the 172 on lots of cross countries back then. He got his Private license in Tulsa Oklahoma in the mid fifties on the G.I. Bill and then his Commercial with Clinch in North Platte. “I loved that plane,” he said. ”I had to drive the 44 miles to the airport for each lesson since I lived in Cozad at the time.”

Clinch Flying Service was started in 1938 by John Clinch a native of Norfolk, Nebraska when the airfield was a fenced pasture. Clinch, considered the “father of North Platte aviation,” started the Clinch Flying Service. For thirteen years he also managed the North Platte airport, which has become a modern municipal airport. Clinch assisted in the development of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics and helped organize the Nebraska Aviation Trades Association.

My father recalled that a rather experienced kid they had working for them some, conducted the ground school which took place about once a month.  He said that after a few minutes of talk, they played poker the rest of the night. “I’m sure the Clinch Flying Service was unaware of this happening,” he said. “I always lost what money I had.”

In classic chicken and egg thinking, I don’t know if I look up because I love airplanes or if it’s because I love the sky and planes just happen to be there. In the few days following 9-11, it was eerie not seeing any airplanes in the sky but I nevertheless still looked up. There is something about the infinity of the sky – it gives me hope.

Now, there is something to be said about terra firma, it’s nice to have my feet firmly planted on solid ground and indeed the ground is teaming with life and opportunity, but the call of the sky and the great expanse beyond it is tough to ignore.

For generations the sky has offered us adventure, mystery and challenge. It has called to us as individuals and as a people, capturing our imagination and embedding in us a hope that if the sky can’t ground us, nothing can.

Shakespeare wrote, “My soul is in the sky.” We often times see that quote misused today as an indication of our passion for aviation. The line comes from  ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Act V. Scene I in which, in a Romeo and Juliet like scene, Pyramus thinks a lion has killed his love and unable to bare life without her stabs himself;

“Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
Now am I dead,
Now am I fled;
My soul is in the sky:”

There was a time when the sky held a special fascination for most. I’m not sure if that is a valid statement today. Leonardo da Vinci penned the following; “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

Now there was a man who knew my heart!

I recently flew from Phoenix to Los Angeles World Airports, (LAX) for the FAA Western Pacific Region’s 6th Annual Airports conference. I was reminded why they call LAX “World Airports” having seen so many different carriers represented during my stay.  My hotel room looked out at the arriving aircraft and it was captivating counting up all of the different companies flying in to the international airport, foreign and domestic, freight and passenger.

Back to security, I guess it’s sad, thinking that it has become routine to strip down before the security gods. At least I’ve learned what to do and what not to do to get through without the embarrassment of a wand or hand search. I’m not sure what she did to warrant the special attention, but I watched as a rather

distinguished middle aged woman in plain view of the rest of us, was patted down by a matronly TSA employee, well patted down is not the correct term, it was more like pressing your hands in and around all of the hills and valleys of the human body.

She put on a good face but if you looked into her eyes,  I think there was a degree of embarrassment and a definite un-comfortableness about the whole thing. What was even more interesting perhaps was the looks or non-looks by the rest of us slugs slinking off as quickly as possible so as not to attract the attention of someone else with a wand. You know, now that I think of it, once through security there is this feeling somewhat akin to thinking we just got away with smoking in the bathroom.

I haven’t experienced the full body scanner yet nor do I know if you have to take your shoes, belts and whatever else off before you walk through. If not, that might not be so bad, however I’m sure I’ll suck in my gut as I walk through, like that’s going to help anything other than my ego. I’m sure I won’t make make eye contact with those monitoring the screens, but I better not hear a chuckle.

Talking about LAX, I didn’t get the chance to see it but I noticed that according to an article by USA TODAY, Los Angeles revealed its newly reconstructed Tom Bradley International Terminal last week, a development that cost $737 million and took more than three years to finish. You know, I don’t think it actually cost $737 million, I think they thought it would just be cool to use the same number as the Boeing aircraft.

Evidently, the new terminal features wider and brighter lit corridors in check-in lobbies, baggage carousels that handle bags faster, renovated restrooms and two aircraft gates that can accommodate new generation aircraft, like the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The story also noted that the renovated terminal features a new checked bag facility that reduces lobby congestion by eliminating the need for passengers to haul their luggage to a screening machine in the lobby.

Four premium-class lounges that consolidate 16 smaller, individual lounges were also installed. According to the article the airlines at Bradley Terminal chipped in about $20 million to build this new feature. Obviously Southwest was not one of them, because my bags were flying free, my soda was still free, my mini bags of peanuts were free…..I was so giddy I felt like Tiny Tim and asked, may I have more, please!

Yes, there was something comforting about getting on my flight, putting one bag in the overhead bin, one under the seat in front of me, and securely fastening my seatbelt. I watched the ground fade away below as we entered the marine layer. I closed my eyes, clicked my heals and said “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”

Pam Keidel-Adams with Wilbur Smith Associates, flies almost exclusively with Delta and has been very happy with their program. “I am at the highest elite level, so they are good about giving people in this level great frequent flyer rewards,” said Keidel-Adams. ”Instead of making it tougher to get a seat, they have just raised the miles required to get a different seat.”  Ms. Keidel-Adams said they now have high/medium/low reward levels  so you can usually get a seat, it’s just a question of how many points it will cost you.

In contrast to Ms. Keidel-Adams, the airlines have created special programs for my status. I get letters each month strongly encouraging me to trade my mass amount of accumulated miles for People Magazine and Sports Illustrated!

Tom Middendorf, Transportation Planning Manager for DOWL Engineers in Anchorage, Alaska mostly flies Alaska Airlines. “I normally can get a Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan ticket but if I don’t plan ahead far enough I may have to use extra miles, ” said Middendorf. “Occasionally, the lower mile flights have a long layover or are in the middle of the night,” said Middendorf. “Overall I have been happy with the Alaska Airlines program and, it’s been helpful in getting our kids home from college or jobs in the “Lower 48 states,” he concluded.

Maggie Covalt with Applied Pavement Technology has had good luck on American Airlines getting domestic free seats and hasn’t seen a big change in availability, although she did admit that it takes more miles than it did a few years ago. ”I save up US Airways miles for international trips because they have some great partner airlines like Lufthansa,” said Covalt.  Ms. Covalt and her husband will be using US Airways miles soon to go to Ireland. “For 140,000 miles total we were able to get first class tickets on Lufthansa, which is a great deal,” said Covalt. “However, I had to reserve them about 8 months in advance and even then didn’t get our first choice of dates,” said Covalt. She said that they (reward seats) are certainly not something that is easy to use on the spur of the moment.

Lance R. Fera, of ITT Information Systems in Herndon, Virginia, doesn’t fly as much as he use to.  ”Back 10-15 years ago I was in all of the programs and my favorites were American Airlines and Southwest,” he said. “Both were simple to understand and administer.”  Fera said at American when you want to redeem points their website is fantastic, easy to use and understand.  “As an Executive Platinum (top level) they treated me very well,” said Fera.

Mr. Fera said that across all programs he exceeded one million miles over 15 years of flying. “I don’t know if it’s tougher to get a free seat (today). “I would think so because there are less aircraft in the system and every time I fly now there are no empty seats,” said Fera.
Thinking back, the only time I’ve ever enjoyed special status was when I was commuting from Nebraska to Hawaii. I would fly back and forth every two weeks mostly on either United or Northwest. After obtaining my Hawaii drivers license I not only became eligible for discounts on milk while living on the island but received regular upgrades to first class on Northwest just for being a citizen of the 50th state.

Come to think of it, there was another time I enjoyed special treatment. During my years as a body guard for three Nebraska governors, on flights out of Nebraska we would typically get bumped to first class. To this day I’m not sure if it was because of the status of the governor or because I was packing and they wanted to keep a closer eye on me.
Of course, all of that was pre 9-11. I don’t know if state troopers assigned to governor details can still travel armed or not! I’ll have to check into that.

Ed Beauvais, former Chairman and CEO of America West Airlines, told the SAJ that the frequent flyer programs have proven to be the most powerful customer loyalty programs in business today. However, he said  it is a double edge situation for the airline provider. “Terrific repeat business from the most important element in the market, namely the frequent traveler,” said Beauvais.

According to Beauvais, most are part of corporate policies that represent often a large employer. “These travelers are very cognizant of the effectiveness of the program that they are on, said, Beauvais. ”If they become aware of a better program from a different airline, their loyalty can switch and the revenue impact can be very significant for the winning and the losing airline.”

I may end up switching airlines myself!  I’m feeling awfully loyal to American right now for the opportunity to get some great subscriptions! Without the opportunity to turn in my miles for magazines and newspapers, I probably would have missed the story in the Wall Street Journal which inspired this blog!

Jim and I served together on the Aviation Safety Advisory Group of Arizona for a number of years, but other than sitting across a table from Jim once a month and seeing him at a couple of other functions,  I never took the time to say, “hey, let’s go grab some lunch or can we meet for breakfast some time?” Had I done that I think my life would have been much richer.

The thing about people in aviation, especially pilots, is that there is a shared bond, a shared respect in many cases that ties us together. When I was younger I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now. Now that I’ve aged a bit, well a lot, I tend to focus on relationships a bit more. Being at the memorial service reminded me that sometimes we get so caught up in our project du jour that we spend all of our time focused on the project and not so much on the people we work and serve with.

I don’t want to go through life like that. So caught up in the grind that we miss the aroma of life. Kind of like my first time in a sailplane, so caught up in the mechanics that I missed the pure joy of flight. Sometimes the important things in life sneak up on us and sometimes we have to discipline ourselves to find  them. The more mature I get the less I want to be sneaked up on!

You know it’s funny how certain things stick in our mind. I’ll remember Jim for a lot of things, but there’s one image that stands out. It wasn’t a memory of mine but one that was shared by one of his friends at the memorial service. The image is one of Jim and several of his good friends seated around a campfire. The night is cool and the stars are as thick as sand on a beach. The conversation drifts between airplanes and special projects. They share tall tales and brag about the things of men. There is laughter and there is music and then Jim’s thoughts begin to drift to the love of his life, his wife and companion for so many years. Right on cue, his friend with the guitar begins to play and sing the words to their song, “Only You.”

That tells me much about the kind of man Jim was. Whether in the cockpit or around the camp fire, I know  Jim could have taught me a lot about flying. I have no doubt he could have also taught me more about life! The right amount of rudder and a light touch on the stick.

(Photo of Hoover, left and Publisher, Kim Stevens taken in Nebraska in the 1990’s.)

There is an excellent article on Mr. Hoover in the April/May issue of Air & Space Magazine. Check it out… http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Simply-the-Best.html

I was a state trooper assigned to the Executive Protection Division of the Nebraska State Patrol and would from time to time occupy the right seat on those trips. I remember driving Governor Nelson from Lincoln to Omaha one evening and commenting on what a neat job the Aeronautics Director would be. To my surprise he said, “you ought to throw your hat in the ring!” Lo and behold, recognizing my love for aviation he appointed me as the Director of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics two years into his first term.

It wasn’t too long after that I was able to arrange for the two of us to fly in the World War II bomber from Sioux City, IA to Lincoln Nebraska. (Photos – Kim Stevens, left and then Governor Ben Nelson in front of Aluminum Overcast on the ramp at the Sioux City airport. Stevens getting some left seat time in the B-17)

A lot of folks thought I was crazy for turning my back on the nine years I had in the Nebraska State Patrol, along with a good retirement, for a job that might have ended in two. It was the right decision then and I have never looked back. I was an agency head for six years and I have the Senator to thank for where I am today – still in the aviation world and the publisher of an online aviation journal.

I don’t know what the future will hold for Senator Nelson, but his confidence in me opened many doors and allowed me to develop skills and relationships in an industry I have a great deal of passion for.

Aluminum Overcast will visit 19 cities in six western states from April 2nd through June 15th. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the B-17′s first flight on July 28, 1935.