50 years in pilot's seat

John Linke has been flying for 70 years — which is quite an accomplishment since he’s only 69 years old.

As it was, Linke’s mother was pregnant with him when she was taking flying lessons. The scenario worked until Linke’s father suggested that it might not be wise for a pregnant woman to be flying an airplane.

Even without his mother’s influence, it’s likely that Linke would have developed a love of aviation. His father was also a pilot, having been part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program during World War II.

“I remember my parents sitting at the table going over the questions so he (his father) could get his instrument license,” Linke said.

The family was living in Texas where the elder Linke worked as a crop duster. Linke thought about doing the same and even teased his mother about it. She wasn’t amused, he said, which is understandable since her husband was killed in a crop-dusting accident in 1957.

But his father’s death didn’t deter Linke, and shortly after graduating from high school in 1966, he started taking flying lessons.

He just celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first solo flight. At the end of the month, he will retire as a pilot for LifeNet Medical Transport. He’s been based in Norfolk since the service opened in 2001, and before that he was in Omaha.

His flight plan from Texas to Norfolk was not a straight line.

After graduating from high school, he worked for the New Mexico Highway Department where he earned enough money to take flying lessons.

Soon Uncle Sam came calling, and Linke was sent to helicopter training school where he flew ‘Huey” helicopters.

In January 1969, he was sent to Vietnam where he managed around 50 soldiers working in a helicopter maintenance shop.

That maintenance office ... probably saved my life,” he said.

Although he did fly a few combat missions, he spent most of his time repairing helicopters.

After a year in Vietnam, he was sent back to the United States, only to be sent back to Vietnam to close down the maintenance shop he had managed.

By then, the war was winding down, he said. In 1972, the government discharged him and he went looking for a job that would allow him to fly.

But so were thousands of other Vietnam War pilots.

He worked as a locksmith for a few years before landing a job in Texas as a helicopter pilot with a company that serviced the oil and gas industry by moving people and equipment offshore. In 1981, he and his family moved to Colorado where he continued to work in the same industry. For a while, he owned his own company in Colorado.

But the expense of owning and maintaining a helicopter was prohibitive, especially after the oil and gas industry encountered hard times, he said. That’s when he took a job with LifeNet Air Ambulance in Omaha.

From there, he moved to Norfolk. Now, he flies patients into Faith Regional Health Services or from Norfolk to other hospitals.

While the nurse and paramedic on board take care of the patient, he takes care of the aircraft and flight details.

“I pride myself on giving people a smooth ride and a safe trip,” he said.

That may mean refusing to fly, which is what he had to do on June 16, 2014 — the day tornadoes damaged much of Pilger and surrounding farm places and towns.

Emergency personnel asked him to fly a patient to a hospital in Omaha, and he had to refuse because of the turbulent weather in the area.

“I need to make flight decisions based on whether I’m ready, the aircraft is ready and the weather,” he said. “The weather is an important factor.”

Fifty years of flying have provided some memorable experiences. One of them involves an eagle that flew over the wing of the glider he was flying in Colorado.

“One could fly their whole life and never see that,” he said.

When preparing for his anniversary, Linke added up the time he’s spent in the sky and came up with 13,000 hours. He’s flown 60 different “flying machines,” including airplanes, helicopters and gliders.

“I enjoyed flying the Huey; it was like driving a sports car,” he said. “Flying the LifeNet helicopter is like driving a Cadillac.”

And although he’s retiring from LifeNet, he plans to continue flying the plane that he spent five years building. Once he’s not on duty, he and his wife will fly just for fun.

“We’ll fly mostly just to blow a hole in the sky ... just for the pleasure of flying,” he said.

Source:  http://norfolkdailynews.com