Man this hurts !!

[Yooper Rocketman]

In 1991, my aspirations to fly and be part of aviation were finally satisfied, as my cousin and close friend invited me to be a fourth partner in a hangar project.  My cousin, Dave Oliver, and Steve Phillips, who he worked with at a Fed Ex maintenance facility, had added a third partner, Bob Larson, (the founder of Northwoods Airlifeline) just prior to my opportunity.  I complained that not only could I write the support check, I had carpentry skills and was capable of helping with the build.  Just as we completed the hangar, Dave decided he wanted out for a pretty silly reason (that was his way), and Steve, who barely knew me, asked "I suppose you want out too?"   I said emphatically NO.  A partnership and friendship blossomed from there.

Steve owned the beautiful E model Mooney I've posted pictures of in the past.  He accompanied me in 1994 for the pre-purchase of my first plane, a C-150 (Steve was an A&P too).  He flew me down to Falcon Field in March of 1996 to do the same blessing on my first Mooney, an F model.  He flew with me to Seattle in 2001 to do the same on my Rocket purchase.  I performed most the maintenance and annuals on all 3 planes over the years, under Steve's guidance and leadership. By the end of the years he trusted me to perform his annuals as well.  We flew many, many airlifeline flights together, flew to Florida for a pre-purchase on my sister's Cherokee 180, and he flew it to Denver for her with me in chase (well, he was in chase to MY Mooney).

About 3 years before finishing my Lancair, I talked him into giving up his last job, truck driving (he loved the road) to help me finish the Lancair.  He asked how much time before we would be done.  I told him 6-9 months.  He never failed to remind me that ended up being 2.5 years.  He also drove for my dealership, delivering trucks that were far enough away they would require an airplane ride from me once delivered.  He took on another Lancair Propjet project, moving it to our hangar, to finish the instrument panel and wiring installation (Joe Trepicone's from Columbus OH).  Steve was with me on two engine failures in the flight levels.  He helped me by flying the Rocket down to TN when I dropped the Lancair off for paint and interior, and brought me down to pick it up when done in May 2018.  We flew both planes to Houghton for a Young Eagles Event, and have flying stories long and deep enough I could write a book.  He was my camping buddy at Oshkosh too.

Most recently, he was "key man one" on the EAA Chapter hangar/concrete project I just posted about, there for every work session in spite of his own on going home re-siding project.  28 years ago he was new friend.  15 years ago he was one of my 3 best friends.  For the last 10 years..... he was my best friend....... I mean BEST FRIEND!

While in Florida this past Monday (came home Tuesday), he son called me and told me he died of a surprise heart attack.

Man this hurts!!!!

Tom

Picture of Steve's last flight with his Mooney and him and his wife this summer at Oshkosh.

[MooneyMitch]

You’ve got many, many, wonderful memories to be cherished.

 Thank you for sharing this.

I’m very sorry for your loss.

[orionflt]

sorry to hear that Tom, Prayers for you and his family

[carusoam]

Nice words, Tom.

Thanks for sharing a part of Steve’s story...

Best regards,

-a-

[kmyfm20s]

Very Very sorry! 

[Yetti]

Tough situation.  Sorry for your loss

[aaronk25]

Very sorry. Sounds like a great best friend!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[jonhop]

Condolences to you and Steve's family! You have my thoughts and well wishes. 

[Oldguy]

So very sorry for this loss. Condolences to you and his family.

[thinwing]

I think of the long time friends I’ve lost and feel your pain.They can’t be replaced but memories live on when you find yourself smiling at some of the things they did.Best wishes for happy memories..

[Skates97]

15 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

We flew both planes to Houghton for a Young Eagles Event, and have flying stories long and deep enough I could write a book. 

Tom, I am sorry to hear about your loss and my prayers are with Steve's family as well as yourself.

I would encourage you to write down your stories, not to publish a book, but for you and your family (and Steve's) to look back on. There have been times in my life where I was very good at keeping a journal and times where I wasn't. I am surprised by the number of times I can open up one of those journals and flip to a page, start reading, and realize I had completely forgotten about a certain event. It is easier now than ever to keep a journal as typing is faster than writing and using voice to text is getting better and more accurate all the time.

[steingar]

Tom, I am SO VERY SORRY.

[Danb]

Tom sorry for your loss, losing your very best friend is difficult to deal with, as mentioned good memories are to be cherished.

Steve’s event is troubling to me, my wife apparently is one of the lucky ones having her first known heart attack in September, I only hope all of our Mooneyspacers will get a proper physical including having a review of their heart and associated systems. Steve’s event should spark all of us to get checked out hopefully mitigating a similar outcome.

[mike_elliott]

Tom, we will be thinking of you and the loss of such a great friend. Heal well, these are hard to heal from.

[aviatoreb]

Oh Tom, I am so sorry to hear of your loss.  Life is too short.  To you and his wife and family, my sincerest best wishes.

[tigers2007]

Wow Tom that is very unfortunate and is a huge loss to all of his friends, family, and the flying community. As we are an extremely small group in the vast sea of people, I’m always still amazed at the camaraderie and generosity that goes around in the amongst us aviation enthusiasts. I have been mentored and encouraged by so many pilots and mechanics and I try my hardest to pass it on to others.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Yooper Rocketman]

15 minutes ago, tigers2007 said:

Wow Tom that is very unfortunate and is a huge loss to all of his friends, family, and the flying community. As we are an extremely small group in the vast sea of people, I’m always still amazed at the camaraderie and generosity that goes around in the amongst us aviation enthusiasts. I have been mentored and encouraged by so many pilots and mechanics and I try my hardest to pass it on to others.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ed,  

He was at the chapter meeting you attended after covering that last Airlifeline Flight for me.   

I refrained from commenting on this thread up until now because how truly painful this loss has been.  

That said, my community of Mooney pilot friends has made getting through this just a little easier.  I absolutely appreciate every reaction and comment to my original post as I try to figure out how I’m going to get through tomorrow, his funeral.   

And to be clear, I’m a tough love type of old fart.  Not real good at relaying my feelings towards people    Fairly recently I was talking to Steve and mentioned him as “friend”.  He looked at me and said “friend”?  I retracted and said “best friend !!”  Only then did he smile and was happy with my response.  He clearly wanted assurance he “was MY BEST FRIEND” .  

Not sure how I’ll find the enthusiasm to attend another Oshkosh “Air Adventure” after losing him.  It will NEVER be the same.  

Thanks,

Tom

[Andy95W]

3 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

 

Not sure how I’ll find the enthusiasm to attend another Oshkosh “Air Adventure” after losing him.  It will NEVER be the same.  

 

I have friends who will never make it to another Oshkosh.  I still go, I keep them in my memories, and I still try to enjoy myself.  It's a celebration of aviation.  What better way to celebrate our love for our airplane friends, whether they can attend or not?  

When I'm gone, I want my friends to go to Oshkosh and have fun.  I hope, at some quiet point in the day, they take a moment to say, "I wish you could be here, Andy."  That's good enough for me.

Good luck, Tom.  I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm very glad you had such a friend in your life for as long as you did.

[donkaye]

4 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

Ed,  

He was at the chapter meeting you attended after covering that last Airlifeline Flight for me.   

I refrained from commenting on this thread up until now because how truly painful this loss has been.  

That said, my community of Mooney pilot friends has made getting through this just a little easier.  I absolutely appreciate every reaction and comment to my original post as I try to figure out how I’m going to get through tomorrow, his funeral.   

And to be clear, I’m a tough love type of old fart.  Not real good at relaying my feelings towards people    Fairly recently I was talking to Steve and mentioned him as “friend”.  He looked at me and said “friend”?  I retracted and said “best friend !!”  Only then did he smile and was happy with my response.  He clearly wanted assurance he “was MY BEST FRIEND” .  

Not sure how I’ll find the enthusiasm to attend another Oshkosh “Air Adventure” after losing him.  It will NEVER be the same.  

Thanks,

Tom

Yes, this hits home right now.  As many of you know, my (or should I say our) good friend Dr. Bob Achtel passed away at the end of September.  We had shared a home in Oshkosh 18 of the past 20 years with Ricci and Bob.  The last two were the exception, as Bob's health had been failing.  But I always thought he would break through and we would enjoy the good old days at Oshkosh again.   That was not to be.  The funeral was very difficult and burial even worse, but I knew I had get up and share my thoughts.   Maybe they will help in your case.  Here they were:

I’ve known Bob for over 26 years having met at my first Mooney Pilot Proficiency Program in Fresno.  Since that time, we’ve had many adventures together shared with both Ricci and Shirley.  

We all attended many, many AirVentures in Oshkosh together and shared the same house during those times.  Ricci was the point woman for finding all the great restaurants around Oshkosh—and we needed her.  It seems that every time we found a good restaurant it went out of business the next year.  It got so we were almost afraid to pick a new one for fear of jinxing them.  

Bob always presented at several forums every time we attended, and that was lucky for us.  It seems he had helped the lead person in charge of parking with a major medical problem in his family.  After that, we always got the W lot, the best parking on the field.  The attendees will miss his humorous style and the knowledge he always imparted, and we will miss that unbelievable parking.

Bob had a passion for aviation, and loved to fly.  I often flew up to Sacramento with Shirley, and while the girls went off to do their favorite thing, shopping, we would go flying.  One time I had injured myself doing a preflight on a student’s airplane in Palo Alto.  A few days later we made one of our trips to Sacramento.  I mentioned to Bob that there was quite a bit of pain associated with it.  He took one look at it, and we were off to the hospital where I got preferential treatment, since I was with him. 

On another one of our adventures we were flying Commercially to Minneapolis to pick up his plane after some maintenance work.  Being frugal we were on a red eye. It was right after 911 and we needed to change planes in Las Vegas.  After transferring planes we were ready to go.  It was around 12:30 am.  Then word came that security had been breeched and we were to get off the plane and the whole terminal was shut down.  We waited around with thousands of other people until nearly 2:30 before we were allowed to go.  We arrived in Minneapolis early in the morning, just in time for Bob to meet with a Company who he was trying to convince to manufacture pulse oximeters for pilots.  It was Nonin and shortly thereafter the era of pilot pulse oximeters began.

Bob was always on the forefront of trying to make our lives better.  He was one of my best friends, and I’ll miss him—a lot.

[Yooper Rocketman]

Thanks for sharing Don.  It sounds like you can really relate.

Steve and I would tow our campers down a week before the show (we live just under 3 hours away by car).  I would leave my truck down there so when I flew in on Sunday I had a vehicle for the week.  We staged our campers next to each other, door to door.  We never started or ended a day down there without each other.  It's not that I wouldn't enjoy the show, it's that there will be no one to share the entirety of the event with.  Camping by myself just doesn't have any appeal.  Hopefully I can find someone that wants to experience Oshkosh like the two of us did.

Tom

And BTW, I bought my Nonin from Bob after purchasing my Rocket in February of 2001.  I still use it today.

[aviatoreb]

6 hours ago, donkaye said:

Yes, this hits home right now.  As many of you know, my (or should I say our) good friend Dr. Bob Achtel passed away at the end of September.  We had shared a home in Oshkosh 18 of the past 20 years with Ricci and Bob.  The last two were the exception, as Bob's health had been failing.  But I always thought he would break through and we would enjoy the good old days at Oshkosh again.   That was not to be.  The funeral was very difficult and burial even worse, but I knew I had get up and share my thoughts.   Maybe they will help in your case.  Here they were:

I’ve known Bob for over 26 years having met at my first Mooney Pilot Proficiency Program in Fresno.  Since that time, we’ve had many adventures together shared with both Ricci and Shirley.  

We all attended many, many AirVentures in Oshkosh together and shared the same house during those times.  Ricci was the point woman for finding all the great restaurants around Oshkosh—and we needed her.  It seems that every time we found a good restaurant it went out of business the next year.  It got so we were almost afraid to pick a new one for fear of jinxing them.  

Bob always presented at several forums every time we attended, and that was lucky for us.  It seems he had helped the lead person in charge of parking with a major medical problem in his family.  After that, we always got the W lot, the best parking on the field.  The attendees will miss his humorous style and the knowledge he always imparted, and we will miss that unbelievable parking.

Bob had a passion for aviation, and loved to fly.  I often flew up to Sacramento with Shirley, and while the girls went off to do their favorite thing, shopping, we would go flying.  One time I had injured myself doing a preflight on a student’s airplane in Palo Alto.  A few days later we made one of our trips to Sacramento.  I mentioned to Bob that there was quite a bit of pain associated with it.  He took one look at it, and we were off to the hospital where I got preferential treatment, since I was with him. 

On another one of our adventures we were flying Commercially to Minneapolis to pick up his plane after some maintenance work.  Being frugal we were on a red eye. It was right after 911 and we needed to change planes in Las Vegas.  After transferring planes we were ready to go.  It was around 12:30 am.  Then word came that security had been breeched and we were to get off the plane and the whole terminal was shut down.  We waited around with thousands of other people until nearly 2:30 before we were allowed to go.  We arrived in Minneapolis early in the morning, just in time for Bob to meet with a Company who he was trying to convince to manufacture pulse oximeters for pilots.  It was Nonin and shortly thereafter the era of pilot pulse oximeters began.

Bob was always on the forefront of trying to make our lives better.  He was one of my best friends, and I’ll miss him—a lot.

Don and Tom, I wish there were a "extend empathy" button instead of the like button, and even the sad button is the wrong button.  To both of you, I remember that the dear people in our lives are the most important thing in our lives.  My sincerest thoughts to both of you.  Erik

[Nick Pilotte]

Tom, I neglected to pass my sympathies in our exchange yesterday.  Nonetheless, you have my thoughts and prayers to go with the rest of the outpouring you see now.  Friends can never be replaced, but the memories are alive in your heart and mind.  I hope you can continue the tradition of Airventure this year, finding solace that Steve would likely do the same if the tables were turned. It won’t ever be the same, but it doesn’t have to be.  Fair skies and tailwinds to your best friend. 

[bonal]

As we move through life we must suffer the pain that it brings. Your loss makes me think of my closest and life long friend and how much it would hurt were he to pass can't even imagine how hard that must be for you. Nothing more important than those closest to us. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your dear friends family.

God bless 

[Hector]

Tom, sorry for your loss. God bless. Go to OSH next year. He’ll be there with you in your memories and spirit.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[steingar]

All we can do is keep on keeping on.  The price of growing older is those we leave behind.  It'll get worse for all of us.