{"id":87753,"date":"2017-05-13T08:21:23","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T13:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=87753"},"modified":"2017-05-14T16:43:50","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T21:43:50","slug":"flyover-of-former-pilotinstructors-house-fitting-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/05\/13\/flyover-of-former-pilotinstructors-house-fitting-tribute\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyover of pilot’s house fitting tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

The flyover of Steve McCollum\u2019s house by a number of aircraft last Sunday\u00a0was a fitting good-bye for a longtime local pilot and instructor who taught many local residents to fly, said his longtime flying partner.<\/p>\n

\"Local
Local pilot Randy Thompson flies his Velocity kit airplane over the late Steve McCollum’s house last Sunday.<\/strong> Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fred Fisher, McCollum\u2019s partner in a flight instruction school for a number of years and the organizer of the memorial, said seven planes and a helicopter participated in the flyover.<\/p>\n

Pilots and passengers taking part include pilots Fisher and Chuck Koch in a Mooney airplane with passenger Fletcher Collins, a Cessna 172 airplane piloted by Jim Black and Tom Jones, a Velocity kit airplane piloted by Randy Thompson, a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane piloted by Mike Keysor and Fred Pond, a Cherokee Warrior piloted by Ralph and Maria Shindeldecker, a Warrior piloted by Jerry Mazur and Jim Rhoades, and a Champion Citabria aerobatics-rated airplane piloted by Tom Wilkin, with passenger Susan Fisher, which performed an aerobatic routine over McCollum\u2019s house (see independent photos from May 8).<\/em><\/p>\n

Later, a helicopter piloted by Andy Gordon, with passenger Steve Bailey, flew over McCollum\u2019s house on its own.<\/p>\n

Fisher said he was very pleased with the number of pilots who participated in the flyover on May 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat shows how much Steve was thought of by the pilots in the area,\u201d he added. \u201cThey jumped at the chance to honor him with this memorial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher said he and McCollum had a long history of flying together, and as flight instructors.<\/p>\n

The local pilot and First Ward Van Wert City Council member, who earned his pilot\u2019s license in 1985, said McCollum, who earned his pilot\u2019s license 11 years before that, began their long association after talking about flying while watching their daughters play softball years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI helped him with his commercial and flight instructor certificates,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cShortly after he became an instructor, we started a flight school in 1993 and we instructed together until he was no longer able to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher said McCollum was an excellent flying instructor and taught a number of area pilots to fly over the years. He also purchased an Aeronca Champ airplane that allowed him to do aerobatics and became a very good aerobatics instructor as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral local pilots, me being one of them, had the privilege of taking lessons from Steve in order to fly aerobatics,\u201d Fisher recalled. \u201cMore than once, we all heard his favorite saying (\u201cWhat were you thinking on that maneuver?\u201d)<\/p>\n

Fisher said that phrase always came after a pilot had messed up and then had what he called \u201cthe extra thrills\u201d of regaining control of the airplane. Of course, McCollum\u2019s follow-up was \u201cLet\u2019s do it right this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say the least, we had a great time learning together and lived through it to tell about the experiences,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n

He also noted that McCollum loved flying and loved to share that love with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve was a good pilot and friend to all who knew him,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cHe would stop in a second to tell flying stories to anyone who asked a question about flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher said he and other local pilots were saddened by McCollum\u2019s death on April 25 after a period of ill health.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be sadly missed by a lot of us, for a lot of different reasons, but most of all for me as a fellow flying buddy, as we have had the pleasure of flying all over this country together,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor The flyover of Steve McCollum\u2019s house by a number of aircraft last Sunday\u00a0was a fitting good-bye for a longtime local pilot and instructor who taught many local residents to fly, said his longtime flying partner. Fred Fisher, McCollum\u2019s partner in a flight instruction school for a number of years and the organizer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 07:38:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}