Seniors take to sky during dream flights

As a young boy, Jack Taylor would look up at the airplanes sitting on the runway of the Boise airport with a sense of wonderment. Today, at age 84, he remembers just how large those planes looked to a 10-year-old child.

“For amusement we’d drive out to the airport,” he said. “I always wondered if I wouldn’t have fun to fly.”

His first plane ride was after he joined the U.S. Army. Taylor would go on to be a rangeland ecology and management professor at Montana State University. Through his work he was afforded the opportunity to go up in several small planes as part of different scientific studies for plant ecology related to grazing and fires in Yellowstone National Park.

“I would always send students to drive around to learn how the land fits together,” he said. “You can look at vegetation on a map and see the patterns, but if you really want to see how it all fits together then you have to fly.”

“Plus it’s just sheer fun to fly,” he added. “On a cool morning there’s nothing like that feeling of flying — the air is fluid.”

Taylor got a chance the morning of July 18 to relive those past experiences when he boarded a 1940s Boeing Stearman airplane on the runway outside the Glacier Jet Center. The Boeing Stearman is the same aircraft used to train many military aviators in World War II.

Taylor rode in the front seat of open biplane with the pilot guiding the 15-minute flight that included circling over Whitefish Lake.

The flight was provided by the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, a nonprofit based in Nevada that provides dream flights free of charge, primarily to seniors and military veterans living in senior housing communities. Eight flights were provided for residents of The Springs at Whitefish assisted living facility.

As Jack was up in the air on his flight, his wife Kay, 81, sat waiting for him to return and her own chance to head up in the sky. She recalled the time she arranged a surprise anniversary flight for Jack in a hot air balloon. But they couldn’t go up in the balloon and instead, went up in a small biplane together. Before she was married she took a trip around the world with her mother in the 1950s flying only on twin engine planes.

“We love planes,” she said.

Having dressed for the occasion, Phyllis Bouton, 83, sat wearing a jester hat and studying the Bowing Stearman.

“I’ve done a lot of flying, but not in one these,” she said. “I like to do exciting stuff. At this age, it’s the time to do it.”

Bouton had major heart surgery in 2002 and said that was her second chance at life. Since she hasn’t turned down any opportunity that has come her way. She plans to go paddleboarding soon and she’d still like to ride in a hot air balloon. Not so long ago on a visit to the Whitefish Fire Department she asked to slide down the fire pole.

“Life is fun,” she said. “Life is too short not to do all the fun things.”

Bouton said she was waiting until she returned from the flight to call her two children. She considered telling them of her plans beforehand, but didn’t want to take the chance they might talk her out of the experience.

“Life is too short to sit around,” she said. “Sitting around doesn’t do you any good.”

Darryl Fisher founded Ageless Aviation in 2011. Since then more than 1,000 dream flights have been given in 31 states. More than 30 volunteers assist in providing the flights that take place on three different planes. For more information on the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, visit www.agelessaviationdreams.org.