Stories from the South Central Skies

August was an exciting month with several pilots hitting major milestones.

Rob Garrett recently celebrated his 100th mission in a special flight with a young passenger who has flown with him before. In 2017, Rob took baby Cohen and his mom Kimberly on their first Angel Flight. Two years later, Rob marked his 100th mission as he again flew Cohen and Kimberly to Fort Worth. They were greeted by the American Aero FTW team with a 100-themed celebration (will include pictures).

Rob flies a Cessna 182F. He has photos of himself in front of the plane when his dad owned it in 1974 and again more recently when he obtained his advanced pilot ratings. After a 20-year separation from the plane, Rob tracked it down in 2014 and has spent the past five years rebuilding it. He likes to say that he has a “new” 56-year-old Cessna 182F.

Larry Forney joined AFSC in September of 2015 and set a lofty (pun intended) goal: he would fly 200 missions in four years. When you do the math, that boils down to about one mission per week. He achieved this goal ahead of schedule by flying his 202nd AFSC mission on August 28th. Larry has not only succeeded in accomplishing what he set out to do, but he has made a remarkable difference in the lives of the patients he has flown.  Larry’s AFSC missions have facilitated the travel for patients to life-saving appointments from 78 different cities across 12 states.

Larry served as the Southeast Texas Wing Leader for two years shortly after joining AFSC. In 2017, he became a member of the Board of Directors, where he now serves as the Vice Chairperson.

Congratulations to Larry and Rob for hitting these major milestones!