Page 7 - Volume 17 Number 10

er eorA GreatFamilyCruiserGeoff Hood always knew he was going to be a pilot, and an airplane owner. His uncle flew a Beech Sundowner and he took a young Geoff out to the airport to see airliners come and go. When Geoff took that first ride in the little Beechcraft, he was hooked; someday, this would be his dream to fulfill.By college time, Geoff was on his way. He graduated from Central Missouri University’s aviation program, earning his private in 1991. His first airplane was a Piper Comanche 250, a plane he loved and used for his instrument training. But, as family needs expanded, he moved up to a Piper Aztec F and began to accumulate twin time; at this point, his logbook has half the total in the multi-engine column. As Geoff recalled, “The Aztec burned twice the fuel and only cruised about ten mph faster, but it gave us deicing, radar and lot more utility.”Exchanging the Aztec for the Navajo some nine years ago was necessitated by his mother’s progressing disability. Moving her from the wheelchair, onto the Aztec’s wing, and in and out of the cabin, was getting increasingly more difficult. Geoff started looking for cabin-class airplanes with an airstair door, or even a Piper Seneca with its separate aft entry. In the end, he settled on a too-good-to-pass-up Colemill-modified 1979 Navajo C (now available as the Lock and Key Navajo Renovation from Mike Jones Aircraft Sales in Murfreesboro, Tennessee). It was big, comfortable and much easier to boardOCTOBER 2013TWIN & TURBINE • 5ppjj