There have been a few days in my life that took me way out to the
edge but one that I will never forget was a day back when my son was
getting his aircraft mechanics license in Fargo.  He was taking the
training out at Hector Field at a school called Dakota Aero-Tech. It was
a 14 month course for full certification on all types of aircraft.
Anyway,  he was there and had called home the night before and said he
was probably going to fly to Wisconsin with another student who had a
plane there at the Fargo airfield.  Of course my first question was–How
many hours does he have in that type and what type plane is it?  He
assured me that the pilot was well qualified and flew all the time.  To
me,  that isn’t ALL there is to know but it does certainly help.  The
next day I was working in my shop and happened to have the radio on
Public Radio listening to music while I wrenched on some project at
hand.  A news flash came on the radio that a plane had been reported
missing on a flight out of the Fargo Airport.  Of course the first thing
that I thought of was that Dave and his buddy might be the plane.  Then
I told myself that there are hundreds of planes in and out of Fargo
every day so it could be ANY plane.  A short while later the next report
said it was a private plane that was presumed down over Minnesota while
on a flight to Wisconsin.  Now I started to get real concerned.  I was
pretty sure there wouldn’t be that many planes with that flight plan out
of Fargo that day.  I paced the floor and waited for another broadcast.
Then it came.  The flight that was presumed down was believed to be two
students from  Dakota Aero-Tech.  It was pretty hard to hold my panic
and I knew I had to call my wife at work and tell her what was on the
radio before she heard it from somewhere else and went wild.  I paced
the shop with a pounding heart and dry mouth for a few minutes and then
called Dakota Aero-Tech to confirm the story.  The secretary answered
the phone and when I asked  who was on the plane that was presumed
down,  she said,  and I understand fully now,  “Sir,  I can’t give you
that information.”  I basically said,  “Listen,  I think my son is on
that plane.  YOU WILL TELL ME!”  She asked who my son was and I told her
Dave Johnson.  She said,  “Sir,  he is not on that plane.  He is here in
the shop.”  I nearly lost it.  I asked if I could talk to him RIGHT
now?  He came to the phone and I could hardly hold the twisted emotions
I had at the sound of his voice!  I wanted to hug him and then kill him
for not calling me!  He said, “Oh,  yeah,  I probably should have called
you.”  He told me that he had decided the night before that he wouldn’t
go after all and that another kid jumped in and went along.  The ELT
(emergency transmitting locator)  signal hadn’t been heard and Dave and
some of his aviation friends figured that with the flight path the plane
was on and the time out from base,  the plane had crashed into a lake in
MN called Walker Lake.  They had it figured right.  Both young guys were
still in the plane at the bottom of the lake.  While it certainly was a
tragedy for two families somewhere to lose their sons,  we didn’t have
another trauma on our hands in our family that time.  Don’t really need
any more of those.  Bad day going in–good day coming out!  Thanks Gary!

Dick