Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994 TAG: 9406240028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Dillard, 81, has both hands on the controls as the plane slows.
"Way to go, Jack," says the co-pilot, Kevin Cooper, a flight instructor with Hillman Aviation.
Dillard spins the plane around and parks it, one wing only a couple of feet from the gray metal Hillman Aviation building. "Thank you," he says to Cooper. "That was absolutely lovely. It was a great flight."
Twenty minutes earlier, the Skyhawk zipped down the runway and lifted into the blue skies above Roanoke Regional Airport. At an altitude of 1,600 feet, Dillard banked the plane into the hazy Sunday sunshine.
"We're going to 2-5-O" - a term for a turn position, Cooper told his pilot. Dillard obliged.
It's hard to tell when he's piloting a plane that Dillard suffers from a form of dementia with symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease.
That's Jack Dillard, according to his doctor, Karen Quinn.
"Jack wants to live," she said.
Dillard had some difficulty answering a reporter's questions before his Father's Day flight, but had no problems following Cooper's instructions in the air.
"It's really amazing," Cooper said during the trip. "Jack's been doing this for about a year now. He needed a little help at first, but now he's landing the plane himself."
One of Dillard's three daughters, Beth Wilkerson, credits Cooper with getting her father back in a pilot's seat. Wilkerson and Dillard flew with Cooper on a sightseeing trip of the Roanoke Valley in spring 1993. On the flight, Cooper discovered that Dillard trained Army Air Corps pilots stateside during World War II.
"I asked him if he wanted to take the controls for a few minutes, and I quickly found out that he still knows exactly what he's doing," Cooper said.
Wilkerson, who accompanies Cooper and her father on most flights, was apprehensive at first.
"I wanted to make sure Kevin knew about my dad's condition," she said. "He has significant memory problems. But this has really turned into something special. [The flights] give him energy and something to look forward to. He's an eternal optimist."
That much is clear. After getting out of the plane, the first thing Dillard said was: "When are we going to do it again?"
Wilkerson laughed. Cooper then scheduled another flight for July 24.
"Sometime, we're going to make a trip to an airport somewhere and eat lunch," he said to Dillard.
"That's just great," replied Dillard, a former car salesman with a firm handshake who rides a bicycle several times a week. "I'll even pay for the lunch. I can't wait."
Memo: Below