The flight was part of Advanced Home Health and Hospice’s “Make It Matter” program which fulfills patients’ wishes.
“They come from those crucial conversations, to look at a person as a whole, not simply as a patient,” said Stephanie Crase, senior administrator for Advanced Home Health and Hospice. “We don’t know what we’re looking at tomorrow.”
Whitehead, a cancer patient, admitted he was nervous about taking off while waiting for Warren County pilot Ken Ross to finish pre-flight preparations.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
He said he’s loved airplanes for as long as he can remember, and recalled watching jets try to break the sound barrier during his childhood near Hazard, Ky.
He had the opportunity to fly once as a child, an opportunity he regrets turning down.
“I wouldn’t go. I had a fear of flying I guess,” Whitehead said.
Decked in a commemorative U.S. Air Force hat given to him by his brother, Carl, and a scarf provided by one of his nurses, Whitehead put his fear of flying behind him and took off for what what supposed to be a 15- to 20-minute flight.
He and Ross returned almost an hour later having flown over his residence in Blanchester, Caesar Creek State Park and Cowan Lake, and after having come in for a landing, circling and heading right back up for another loop around the airfield.
Whitehead even took the controls for a few minutes and flew, something the Federal Aviation Administration says less than 1% of the population has done.
“He did a good job,” said Ross, a former flight instructor who presented Whitehead with an official logbook of his flight.
Whitehead was all smiles and thumbs up when the Cessna 182 finally pulled back to the hangar.
Was flying as good as he hoped?
“Oh no! It was a lot better than I thought it would be,” Whitehead said. “i know one thing, I’m not afraid of flying anymore.”
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