Joliet Regional Airport

Reason #N515AG why my grandfather is radder than yours:
My grandfather is passionate about one thing above most anything else… flying. Weather its on ground on a motorcycle or the way he prefers– up in the air, he loves it all.
My childhood was filled with many days of going flying in my grandfather’s cessna parked right here at the Joliet Airfield for over 2 decades.
Did you know that every airplane in North America starts with the letter N in its name?
My grandfather was told he could choose the number for his plane. His favorite number is 5 but 555 was taken so he chose 515. Years later he would come to own a house with that same number but that’s another story.
Instead how about something inspirational and a bit cheesy?
When all of us grandkids were born my grandfather wrote our names on the tail of his airplane. He would point them out to all of his airport friends. He was so proud.
I’ve been riding in airplanes almost as long as I have been in cars. My grandfather would take us flying to random airfields to have lunch. Nothing super fancy mind you but how many kids have grandparents that say «hey let’s fly to x city and have a grilled cheese sandwich.» I feel so fortunate to be the granddaughter of a self proclaimed «Flyboy.»
Flash forward through my childhood and my grandfather is starting to get old. He is involved in an accident where his plane was wrapped around a tree. He walked away with nothing but bruises.
Never to fly again? Yeah right. Not grandpa.
He would point to a trunk that had the only salvageable portion of the plane and say «You see that? That’s my plane. I’m going to put that in another one and I’m going to fly it again. Just watch.»
Sure you are Pappy. Suuuure.
And you know what? He did. In the pictures accompaning this review you can see for yourself. My grandfather did it. The plane in the pictures looks identical to the one he crashed minus our names on the tail. He’s still flying it.
If there’s anyone that is an example of what passion is, its my grandfather. Still alive. Still living his dream up in the sky.
Now I have to hurry up and get my pilots license too so I can fly right along with him. But for now the checklist duty will have to do.