Page 28 - September21T

Owner’s
Corner
Circling Back to the Piper Navajo
by Jim Lum, Owner-Pilot
My stepdaughter, Katie, and her husband, Drew and their son, Jake. Jim and Dixie Lum.
We have been receiving Twin United. His Airline Transport Pilot I officially began flying lessons at
& Turbine for the last 11
years since we purchased our Piper Navajo in May 2010. During the 10 years prior to that, we owned two Piper Aztecs, an E model and an F model. These aircraft represent a full circle in my professional aviation life. My introduction to aviation began at birth. My father was a “new hire” DC-3 co-pilot for Capital Airlines in 1956. He had spent the previous six years flying PBY’s, PBM’s and the B-17 for the Coast Guard. I know what your thinking – the Coast Guard didn’t have B-17’s, but they did. They put a spotter in the nose turret and used the airplane for long-range, over-water search missions. United Airlines and Capital merged in 1961, and my dad finished his airline career as a B-747 Captain, flying the Pacific for
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Certificate was two separate cards because he had more type ratings than could fit on one.
age 15, soloed at 16, then floundered along for the next few years, more interested in girls and pole vaulting than flying. By age 20, I got my act together and was f light instructing while finishing up my Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Aviation. After graduation in May of 1979, I got a job hauling canceled checks up and down the east coast in a Piper Aztec. I was thrilled! Then, two weeks later, they put a Piper Navajo on my run. I could not wipe the grin off my face. The day after turning 23, I took my ATP checkride in one of the company Aztecs. I was then moved to the people-carrying side of the business, still flying the Navajo. Fast forward 33 years to March 27, 2013, and I am making my retirement flight for TWA/American Airlines as
Retirement flight in 2013.