Howard Layton, Airman

The following is an excerpt from "The Thirteen Club."

"Back when World War II had not yet begun, I used to spend some of my Sunday mornings visiting the local airport at Baginton near Coventry. Sometimes I would go with my friend Doug Phillips, and sometimes I would go alone. Sitting on the grass at the edge of the field, I would watch the local flying club doing its stuff. There would always be takeoffs and landings to see, and sometimes there would be air-shows with all sorts of breathtaking maneuvers going on right above the airfield. I got to know some of the pilots and instructors and was able to see how students progressed as the weeks went by. In the first few hours of their training, before they had learned to advance the throttle smoothly, takeoffs tended to be erratic and, on landing, the little Tiger-Moth biplanes would bounce a few times before settling down on the grass. Now and again they would bounce along like performing porpoises and the instructor would have to intervene to rescue the landing.

As weeks went by and skill and confidence developed, the same student was able to take off and land more smoothly. The sudden power bursts on takeoff were replaced by smoothly controlled surges to steady crescendos, and on landing, the point at which the aircraft would touch down became more and more predictable. It was an absorbing way to spend a couple of hours now and then, and I promised myself that some day I would be one of those pilots. I would be flying instead of watching."

By 1973, Howard had his own six-seat flying truck (Piper Saratoga) that he used for ten years to deliver much needed spare parts to customers of his hi-tech manufacturing business. He holds a commercial license with instrument rating, and had logged a thousand hours in his aircraft before bidding it goodbye. He still holds a current FAA medical certificate at the time of this writing.