Pilot dreams of being in the sky

Jul. 1—LENOIR

Caldwell native Wes Parlier is a life-long fan of anything related to airplanes and flying.

"When I was 2 years old, my mom and dad took me to an airshow in Winston-Salem, and I still remember seeing this red and white bi-plane doing aerobatics," Parlier said. "When it came time to go, I specifically remember grabbing on and hanging onto the fence and crying as my mom and dad had to pull me off to get me out of there. And from that moment on, this is the only thing I've ever wanted to do, is fly airplanes. It was never anything else."

"The NFL career didn't work out," he joked. "Growing up, this is all I've ever wanted to do."

Parlier's uncle, who served in World War II as a bomber pilot, was a mentor and big influence on his life.

"He flew B-52s," Parlier recalled. "He flew 50 missions and was shot down on his 50th mission. He was supposed to go home when he got back, but instead he got shot down and was a POW for a year."

When Parlier began learning how to fly airplanes, his uncle was his very first passenger.

As a young man fresh out of high school, Parlier attempted to join the Navy, but due to his poor eyesight, he was deemed not physically qualified (NPQ). However, Parlier did not let that stop him from following his dream. He flew night freight for a while, then flew for a commuter airline before becoming an official pilot for United Airlines, with whom he has flown for 25 years.

Parlier is the proud owner of an original 1941 Boeing PT-17 Stearman that was built Sept. 10, 1941. The PT stands for "primary trainer." He keeps her in his hangar at the Lower Creek Airport in Lenoir. He has given her the name "Fandango" after the 1985 film about five college students who embark on one last road trip together as they face graduation, marriage, and the draft for the Vietnam War.

Before the plane came into Parlier's possession in 2019, she traveled all around the world as a training plane for military pilots in WWII.

After she was built, she went to Thunderbird Airfield outside of Phoenix, Arizona to train British, Chinese, and American pilots how to fly.

"People don't know that the majority of British pilots came to the U.S. to learn how to fly," said Parlier.

The Stearman also trained pilots in South America and later at the Aeronautical School in New York, where she didn't fly for 40 years but was considered a "static trainer."

"This thing is built like a farm tractor," said Parlier. "It's very rugged, very tough, and very simple to work on if you know what you're doing."

Finally, a plane mechanic in Pennsylvania bought her, where she sat for about 10 years before he restored her to her former glory.

"This is a zero-hour restoration," Parlier said. "She's a brand new plane, practically. The fabric [on the wings] is brand new and hand sewn ... The engine and the cylinders and the pistons came out of a box from 1941, they're brand new. Everything else was overhauled or re-manufactured. She's just like she was in WWII, except for radios and stuff that have to be on the airplane now for me to fly."

Parlier said he is proud to be one of the Stearman's many keepers.

"A friend of mine taught me a long time ago that I am just a caretaker," he said. "She'll go on to somebody else and somebody else. It's just a privilege to be able to take care of her."

Parlier loves the freedom of piloting his own plane.

"It's like riding a motorcycle in the sky," Parlier said. "When you're out there, it's loud, it's windy, it's noisy, but you're fully exposed to everything, especially when you go upside down, you realize that the seatbelt is the only thing holding you in the airplane ... We live in a very, very beautiful place. I like to fly at night to see the sunset."

At numerous local events, Parlier performs fly-overs in his plane for free.

"I don't advertise anything, but people come to me," he said. "I've done the National Anthem at Tri-County, Hickory Speedway, and Crawdads games. I've done fly-overs for funeral services. Veterans are a big deal, I gave a 100-year-old man a ride who fought in D-Day and Normandy, he was on a gun crew."

On Saturday, July 2, Parlier will perform a fly-over above the Tri-County Speedway during the performance of the National Anthem.

"Timing is everything," Parlier said in regards to his flight patterns. "I've learned you have to figure out how long the person takes to sing the National Anthem. Usually it's around a minute and a half. So I go flying over the racetrack during the day when nobody's there, and then fly outbound for about a minute and a half and find that landmark. So I just sit there and wait on him to call me on the radio and tell me that they've started singing. So I head back, and typically that should place me right over the racetrack right when they finish the National Anthem. It's very hard to do, because this plane can't speed up or slow down. Like jets you see over the Super Bowl, they can adjust their airspeed tons. This thing goes 90 to 100 miles an hour and that's it."

Along with events and fly-overs, Parlier is also an active volunteer member of the Hickory Aviation Museum. He and the other volunteers are dedicated to bringing the joy of flight to everyone in the community.

"We're trying to expose kids to aviation to give even one person that jolt that I got when I was 2 years old," Parlier said. "That's all it takes, and then off you go. There's not enough people learning to fly these days, nobody wants to do it as a career, that's why there's a huge pilot shortage."

Parlier's mission with his airplane is to bring awareness to his uncle's achievements, to honor veterans, and to bring attention to the museum.

"The museum is a big deal. It's going to be phenomenal," he said. "It'll be closest to one of the nicest aviation museums on the East Coast, it's that good. We have some incredible artifacts."

One of these artifacts comes in the form of an original F-18 Blue Angel.

"All these museums clamor for this stuff," Parlier said. "Of all the ones they gave away, us and the Smithsonian Institute were the only ones that had the planes flown in. The rest were taken apart and brought on trucks and shipped in."

The Hickory Aviation Museum is dedicated to maintaining the facts and artifacts of the golden age of aviation. The Museum provides a unique opportunity for all generations to learn and appreciate aviation history by adding new exhibits and aircraft on a regular basis.

"We're just about appreciating veterans, appreciating the aviation, and trying to bring new kids to realize this world history," Parlier said. "This is a time machine right here, it's an 80-year-old airplane that trained these people to fly in WWII. It's very heroic to me, that piece of machinery."

Visit www.hickoryaviationmuseum.org for more information.

"My life is around my uncle and his influence on me, my appreciation for the military, and my love of airplanes and the museum," said Parlier. "Everybody is a volunteer at the museum, none of us get paid, so it is a labor of love."