My Favorite Ride: 74-year-old student pilot realizes it's never too late to pursue a dream

Some Sundays after church, Greg Hess's dad would take the long way home, past the LaPorte County airport, where he and his two sons would watch for planes taking off or landing. This was about 1957; Hess was 8 years old.

"One day there was a plane sitting there. and a gentleman sitting outside by it, and my dad said, 'Let's go take a look at that one.' And the man said, 'Boys, why don't you jump in and we'll go for a ride,' and we climbed up into the back. We were thrilled," he recalled. "It was like going to the moon."

Looking back, he realized it likely wasn't a chance encounter that day. His dad was president of the local Kiwanis Club, and Hess figured the pilot was a fellow Kiwanian who had offered to take other members flying during a time when airplane travel was not a way of life.

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Hess remembers his first flight for two reasons. "It was so out of character for my dad to do something nice like that. He basically was a mean grouch."

And the other thing? "The exhilaration of flying. We flew over downtown, and went down low and picked out our house, and we flew over a lake where we went swimming … it was unusual back then," he said, to just go flying like that.

"Ever since that day, I've wanted to be a pilot. When I came down to IU to go to school in 1968, I thought about joining the Air Force ROTC because then I could train to be a pilot. But as I became more politically educated, I realized it meant I'd be bombing farmers in Vietnam."

Hess took a different path, protesting the war during his college days. In May of 1970, he was arrested for disorderly conduct at an antiwar demonstration on Kirkwood Avenue. Hess was arrested when he shouted an obscenity heard by then-Sheriff Clifford "Babe" Thrasher.

"We'll take the f------ street later," Hess yelled as police cleared protesters from the street. That innocuous statement led to a local misdemeanor conviction that the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned in a landmark ruling that still stands.

Hess stayed in Bloomington, where he and his wife raised a family. He tamped down his yearning to be a pilot, never having the means to pay for expensive flying lessons and plane rental.

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"There were guys I knew who would go get a pilot's license, they'd fly awhile and then they'd get tired of it and stop flying," he said. "I figured that would probably happen to me."

From 1990 to 2000, he took up flying radio-controlled model aircraft. He designed, built and then flew them at an RC plane field near Ellettsville. "It was a thrilling thing to do, and I got a lot of satisfaction out of it. The biggest one I built had a 74-inch wingspan, and it would fly for miles."

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hess installed a three-screen, 180-degree flight simulator in his basement and taught himself the basics of maneuvering an airplane. "I was retired and mostly stayed at home before, but the shutdown gave me a good excuse to take on a project."

"I can't wait to solo. There's something about going up alone, just experiencing that by myself, controlling my own destiny. "

At a family reunion in Ohio last summer, Hess's brother-in-law presented him with a certificate for an introductory two-hour flight lesson at the Monroe County Airport. He soon signed up for more lessons, and expects to get his ticket, or license to fly, this fall.

Getting a private pilot's license at his age was a challenge. But he discovered a sport pilot program he can complete to be certified for daytime flying below the clouds in a two-passenger aircraft that doesn't exceed 1,320 pounds.

This week's favorite ride: Hess's Renegade Falcon LS Light Sport aircraft. It was made in Hungary of a carbon fiber and Kevlar composite. Maximum gross weight: 1,320 pounds. Empty weight: 805 pounds, Maximum speed: 138 mph. Range: 530 nautical miles. Ceiling: 10,000 feet. It has a Lycoming fuel-injected motor with an electronic ignition.

He says, "She is like a member of the family, the daughter I never had."

Hess won't always be alone; there will be excursions with his wife. They'll pack up their camping gear, and fly away. He doesn't expect that thrill to ever fade.

Have a story to tell about a car or truck - or airplane? Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Activist turned aviator, Greg Hess looks forward to first solo flight