Chapter 39: New Developments

After returning from our working vacation I started to think long and hard about whether I could be away from home for extended times to visit the schools on a somewhat regular basis. I came to one conclusion right away. Two weeks was too long to be gone on a regular basis, and would only get worse since I had decided to open more schools across the country. I had several inquiries from people who wanted me to build in their area. Prior to this time I had to decline their ideas since I felt I would be spreading my time too thin.

My main objection was based on transportation to and from the schools. I tossed several alternatives around in my mind and every time I came up with the same conclusion. Surface transportation was not a viable option and travel by air looked more and more logical. The biggest drawback to that were the limitations of commercial airlines. In frustration I asked myself "What should I do?" I discussed my predicament with Grace to see if she had any good ideas.

We were sitting out on the patio when I broached the subject with her. "Grace, traveling on the road, while fun, is not going to work for us."

"Why's that?"

"In order to visit the schools takes several days each and if we build more schools it will only get worse."

"What about flying there?"

"I've thought about that but commercial airlines are too much of a hassle."

"Is this your way of hinting around that you want to buy an airplane?"

"Yeah, the thought has crossed my mind a few times."

"Okay, so what's stopping you?"

"Well, money isn't a problem and the military saw to it that I qualified for my commercial and instrument license."

"So I still ask, what's stopping you?"

"I wanted to run the idea past you and see how you felt."

"You're not going to take the top off any mountains are you?"

"I don't plan on it."

"Would you take Kim and me flying with you sometimes?"

"Of course. Any time you guys want to."

"So in other words, there are no reasons to not do it."

"I guess you're right."

"Don't you know by now that I'm always right?"

"Yes, and I know better than to doubt you. But I still want to get in the last word."

"Your usual last word?"

I nodded, "yes dear."

So I was off and running on a new challenge. If you've been following my story you know that I never back away from a challenge. First things first; I've got to figure out how much airplane I need. If it was to be only the two of us a little Cessna 150 single engine puddle jumper would do. That is not realistic since we may want to take some of our kids along, especially if we go to where there is an attraction close by. Also the top speed of a 150 is not all that impressive.

So I guessed a bigger plane would be prudent. But how big do we need? A Boeing 747 would be plenty big enough but that may be serious overkill. I got online and looked at several models and finally ended up choosing a Gulfstream G650 jet.

Introduced in 2008, the G650 will carry eight passengers and a crew of four on nonstop legs of 7,000 nautical miles (12,964 km). That means it will link Dubai with New York and London with Buenos Aires. With its powerful Rolls-Royce BR725 engines, the G650 will cover shorter distances at a speed of Mach 0.925. No traditional business jet will take you closer to the speed of sound.

With plenty of room and great speed it seemed like the thing to do. I briefly considered a Learjet but rejected that notion. I think it had something to do with my parents crashing one in Mexico.

Next I had to find a fixed base operation where I could keep the plane. Large metropolitan airports would have plenty of room but they are a big hassle to get into and out of. A regional airport seemed a better choice. Grace mentioned to me that there is an airport just five miles down the road from Camelot. I checked it out and found that their mile-and-a-quarter runway would be sufficient but they had no hangers big enough to hold the plane. I met with the airport owner and discussed building a new hanger for me. He told me that he could not afford to do it since he was losing money and even considering closing the airport.

Not one to let a little thing like money get in my way, I bought the airport and hired the old owner, his wife, their flight instructor and their A&E mechanic to run the operation. I got construction started on the new hanger while I headed for Savannah, Georgia to get checked out in the plane and fly it back home. Since I had flown C130's in the Marines, transition to a jet was straight foreword. The flight instructor at the airport I bought was a retired airline pilot so I took him with me to get checked out in the G650. Also I took the mechanic along so he could get checked out on the routine maintenance of the jet.

When I was a kid I was fascinated, like many kids, with airplanes. I used to ride my bike to a small airport where I would dream about someday being able to fly a Piper J3 Cub. I even got a couple of rides in one convincing me that it was my destiny to some day own one of those rattle traps. Little did I know...

It took a little over a week to get us all checked out in my new toy. I had Grace, Kim, Allison and Amelia fly down to meet us so they could be on the inaugural flight of what I dubbed "Sherwood Airlines." I even went so far as to have the name painted on the plane. On the nose of the plane was a surprise I had painted. It said Grace & Kim in fancy script letters. My ladies arrived and were bowled away, not only by the size of the plane, but the fact that both their names were painted on it.

The flight back to our airport went smoothly and we even made a low pass over Camelot scaring the dickens out of our horses. People came pouring out of the house and school to see what all the racket was as the big aluminum gas hawk went swooping overhead. I had called ahead so as we touched down and taxied to the tarmac, Manuel was there with our SUV to take us home.

With a bit of advertising and promotion our airport turned around and was showing a profit. We had to build a couple more hangars for corporate jets. The flight school was a resounding success and we even went so far as to let some of the girls from the school take flight training. Grace and Kim were not prone to being left out so they both signed up for lessons also. Our flight instructor was being kept busy to the point that we hired another retired airline pilot to help out. That meant that we had two qualified pilots to fly the Gulfstream so I could relax as a passenger. That worked out well so Grace, Kim and I could eventually join the "mile-high" club.

With the flexibility of transportation we were then able to consider more similar schools. I had hardly put a dent in my available funds so I wanted to put some more money to good use. While in Savannah I happened to talk with the local DSS people and saw a need for one of our schools there. I did some long-distance real estate shopping and found an ideal site to build a new school. There was a then defunct cotton farm up for sale and with the economy being not that good; I got the land for a song. I flew down there to interview some architects and contractors about building the school. I took the plans for the Sarasota school with me for them to use as a guide and we had some very productive meetings. Since I was not strapped with a board of directors I could make the decision right there on the spot. The ball was definitely rolling.