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Maybe more than anything, Jim Woodcock wanted to
be soaring through the sky again, flying an airplane as he used to do in his
younger days.
His chances weren't good, though. He has lung cancer and
is in the Time Is Precious Hospice program, trying to make the best of his last
days. Jim, 68, gets around on a scooter and is on oxygen and various
medications."They don't cure you," he said about hospice. "They keep you
comfortable in the time you have left. They answer questions and take care of
you. It's a great thing."They took care of getting him back in the air
Thursday. Luckily, he had mentioned the one thing he wanted to do most to a
nurse, and she took it up with Time Is Precious chaplain Charles
West.
"Jim said he would like to fly one more time," West said. "I said
I would see what I could do. You always want to be able to do things for people
if it is possible." A few phone calls, a little planning, some cooperative
weather and Jim was up in the air again Thursday afternoon, flying a Cessna
Skyhawk II, a four-seat airplane, with his wife, Wanda, in the back seat and
Cordell LaBrier, president of Ideal Aviation Inc. at St. Louis Downtown
Airport, flying co-pilot. With one of his daughters, four grandkids and several
hospice workers watching, Jim soared off, flew around his old town of Valmeyer
and landed back at the airport, tired but happy. He said he wasn't up to the
standards he used to hold himself to as a pilot, but it felt great.
"I'm not like I used to be," he said. "I was a little tentative on the
landing." His daughter, Cindy Williams, couldn't help but cry seeing her dad so
happy. She had a lot of memories of going flying with Dad and Mom when she was
small. "There was one time coming back from Michigan where we had to land at
Chanute Air Force Base," she said. "All the MPs came out to meet us. Luckily,
my sister could prove to them she was sick." Jim said he took his family up to
fly a lot. "My wife was always invited along," he said. "Sometimes she didn't
go, but she was always welcome." Well, maybe not the time he was the first to
fly an experimental airplane a friend had put together from a kit. "He was
afraid to try it, but I flew it," Jim said. "I didn't know that," Wanda said.
"It's a good thing." Jim had several jobs, including mushroom packer in the
mushroom operation under the cliffs of Valmeyer and also as a printer with Mar
in Valmeyer. But when he wasn't working or taking care of his family, he was
flying. "In the '70s I got my license, after getting out of the military," he
said. That was six and a half years in the U.S. Marine Corps. "I built up to
where I had between 500 and 750 hours of flight time," he said. He put together
a list showing 10 aircraft he had qualified to fly. He said he took advantage
of every opportunity to fly. That included giving rides to people who wanted to
fly by the Arch at a penny a pound on Sundays, an all day thing. "My kids grew
up in airplanes," he said. "We went to every air show around here and twice to
the big air show up in Oshkosh (Wis.)." "I'm not really bragging, but I was a
good pilot," he said.
He recalled flying to Arkansas once when strong
winds forced him to land in Cape Girardeau, Mo. "The airport manager came
running out and tied down the plane," he said. "He said, 'I can't believe you
landed in that.' I told him we were used to a few crosswinds where we live."
But as flying became more expensive, so did raising a family. The combination
was too much for a working man. "I gave it up," he said. "It's been 28 years
since I flew." But he was back in his glory Thursday, at least for a while.
After his flight and a little medical attention, Jim was back to his usual
self, joking and talking. "There are not enough words to thank you people," he
told everyone. |
