My Flight Plan: Plane Talk
By Tony Albanese

About the time most ten-year-old boys would have been content riding their bikes in and around the neighborhood, I had dreams of flying over mine in a custom built airplane. The idea of flight started a few years earlier when I was a three-year-old watching the TV show, Sky King. I was glued to the TV. The characters flew an airplane and that planted the seed in my head that I was going to fly.

What followed soon afterwards was a series of balsa wood model airplanes that I built, everything from simple gliders, rubber band powered planes, and a scale model of the Wright Brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer that hung over my bed. With airplanes firmly a part of my vocabulary, it seemed only natural to celebrate my eighth birthday at Fullerton Airport.

On my first cross county flight in a TWA jumbo jet with my family about a year later, I had seriously contemplated changing my middle name from Christopher to William so that I would be Tony William Albanese (TWA). It was however the May 1968 cover of Popular Mechanics — not too long after my tenth birthday — that had the greatest impact on me. On the cover was an airplane that could be built at home for around $600, and a simple VW engine powered it. I remember telling my friends I was going to build it. While I never built that plane, I couldn't let go of the magazine or the dream of flying my own plane.

At the age of fourteen, I had my first flying encounter in a Piper Warrior airplane at Riverside Airport. I thought it was the best experience I had ever had. I knew that one day I would be in the pilot's seat. Just like the thousands of other wanna-be pilots, I would later spend many formative flight hours in a similar aircraft, completing the majority of my flight training in a rental airplane that would become my flying classroom. Before I could do that though, I had to answer another school bell because I was still in high school. Auto shop was my latest interest, and it was the teacher, Francis "Frank" Walker, who would soon become a mentor, not only in auto mechanics, but flying as well.

Meeting another like-minded aviation enthusiast and working in auto shop was a major turning point in my life. Mr. Walker recognized my mechanical aptitude and I was given ample training ground to hone my skills on almost every car that came into the shop. On the side, however, he was building a lightweight KR-1 aircraft designed for the first-time builder. My entire junior year seemed to be devoted to auto shop and helping to bring the VW engine powered KR-1 aircraft to life. These two worlds had converged and I could see my future.

Just before the plane was finished though, Mr. Walker decided to sell it. But it wasn't too long afterwards that another plane was being constructed under his direction in class. This time we were building an all-metal single seat twin rudder airplane. After completing this new plane in my senior year, it would be trailered to Hemet-Ryan Airport for its initial series of test flights. Soon afterwards though my mentor and his airplane had moved to Santa Rosa. I remained actively involved with cars after high school and I was also into speed boats and racing, but six years would pass before I started flying lessons.

In 1981 I began flying lessons in a series of single-engine Cessna's. I started with the 152, and after nine months of lessons I had my Private Pilots license. It wasn't too long after that I moved to the 172, and finally moving up to the 182. After building time, I was checked out in a Mooney 201 and I just loved it. Not long again, I was flying the Mooney 231; this airplane offered the best performance of any single-engine aircraft that I had flown before. I flew as much as I could afford and then some.

While having lunch one afternoon in the Fullerton Airport café, I noticed a brochure to fly in a Pitts S-2B with Mike Blackstone. After a phone call to Mike, I was scheduled to fly in the most popular aerobatic plane in the world. We met at his hangar and soon after the ground briefing, I found myself being strapped in. The takeoff was very exciting and once we were over the practice area, he started demonstrating what this airplane could do. WOW, I was hooked.

I would start flying with Mike every chance I could. It wasn't too long after we would fly together with another airplane, a friend of Mike's had owned a Christian Eagle. After we took off in the Eagle and went once over the practice area, we found ourselves dog fighting each other in the air. After the flight we would play back the videotape to see who shot who. This was about the same time the movie Top Gun was playing in the movie theaters, and that's where you would find Mike and his son and me. Mike had this idea to start his own dog fighting school for the public and this is how Air Combat USA was born in 1986.

In 1989 I went to work as one of the mechanics for Mike Blackstone at Air Combat, working on the Siai Marchetti SF-260. Soon afterwards I earned my Airframe and Powerplant license. We really enjoyed working there, as it did not seem to be a job, we simply had a lot of fun. Mike became another mentor, and to this day, we are very close friends.

In 1997 I was hired by Toyota Racing Development "TRD" as an engine builder for the cart series program. I would continue helping out at Air Combat as much as I could. After working all day at TRD, you could find me working on an airplane and doing what I truly loved, sheet metal repair. It would be late in 2000, when the Bushmaster 2000, a Tri-Motor airplane arrived at Fullerton Airport. A friend introduced me to the owner and soon I found a new project to work on. Everyone involved in the Tri-Motor seemed to really enjoy helping out with the flights. We all thought of it as another family. The group of us would help out at the different local air shows.

In August of 2004 the Tri-Motor flew rides on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After a very good weekend we flew it back to Fullerton and parked it for the next three weeks. On the Friday before Fullerton was having airport appreciation day, the Tri-Motor was washed in preparation to fly rides on Saturday, September 25, 2004. My plans were to get our hangar cleaned up for a barbeque after the air show was over. I did not plan on doing any work on airplanes that day. Soon after I arrived and began to get things ready. Someone came over to tell me they were having trouble starting the center engine.

I didn't want to do any work, but I thought if we could get the plane going, they would fly rides for a few hours. As I approached what I could see that the engine made no attempt to start. The first thing I thought as it had no spark, and remembering the plane was just washed the day before. I checked the magnetos for water and they were wet. I dried the points and the rest as best as I could and had the pilot try starting again; sure enough, it started to pop and backfire, telling me there was a spark now. After a couple more times, it started. We did a ground run-up and it seemed to be a lot better. I suggested to the pilot that we do a test flight before people were to board. As we taxied to the runway, everything looked OK. And that's about all I remember before the plane crashed.

It took twenty months for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to complete their investigation of the accident. Their findings coincided with what had already been speculated by many of my friends in the aviation community, that the plane crash could have been easily prevented if the pilot had properly checked the plane prior to take off. A spectator at the airport videotaped the accident sequence, and provided the footage to the NTSB investigators. In addition to the videotape, other spectators at the airport submitted numerous photographs. One such photograph, enhanced by the Safety Board vehicle recorders specialist, clearly showed that a strap connecting the left elevator to the rudder had not been removed. The pilot never removed the strap. As a result, the aircraft was rendered uncontrollable on the ground and in the air.

The video showed how the plane on its takeoff roll had made an abrupt left turn and started heading toward the crowd. The pilot pulled the plane into the air and just missed hitting the spectators by as little as fifty feet. Once airborne, we were headed right into the control tower. The plane then rolled left and within seconds crashed in the street across from the tower. Nobody on the ground was hurt that badly except for me. It could have turned out much worse.

I had a severe spinal cord injury along with third degree burns over half of my body. As for the pilot, he was still strapped to his seat and was ejected clear of the burning airplane. He received not so serious injuries and he was released from the hospital a week later. I was not so lucky. It took a year-and-a-half and nearly a dozen surgeries before I got to go home.

I spent a total of eighteen months in hospitals. This included five months at University of California Irvine's (UCI) Medical Center's Burn Intensive Care Unit, where doctors did numerous skin grafts and where I began the first phase of occupational and physical therapy. I was in coma for nearly a month when they brought me there, and while unconscious at UCI, my friends organized two very successful events on my behalf. There was an airport barbeque-fundraiser and a few days later, a blood drive was held in my name for UCI. There was an overwhelming response for both events, exceeding all attendance and blood donation expectations. Hundreds turned out for the barbeque that raised thousands of dollars. This money was placed into a special fund to help my family pay for my medical costs. According to UCI, they still get people who come in from time to time to donate blood in my name. Some people who were never blood donors before have become regulars, continuing to help save lives in the community.

Then I was at Saint Jude Medical Center in Fullerton for over half a year and everyone was committed to helping me through a very difficult healing process. Because I was immobilized in bed since the time of the plane crash, I developed a pair of life threatening bedsores while at UCI. These chronic "pressure ulcers" were successfully "flapped" over in a specialized surgery at Rancho Los Amigos, where I spent over two months before I could finally make it home in May 2006.

Last year I was invited as a guest speaker at the third annual motorcycle Burn Out Ride and Poker Run. I spoke to hundreds of participants and supporters at the October 1, 2006 fundraiser. The words just poured from my heart when I told the Orange County crowd about my story as a burn survivor. What might have been a distant goal only a year ago, I am now able to help others find hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. I spoke from personal experiences, one of my new challenges is advocating for other burn survivors.

As of January 26, 2007 I was able to fly once again in my favorite airplane, the Marchetti SF 260 with Mike Blackstone. Mike worked the foot pedals of the Marchetti, while I took control of the flight stick. About the same time that I had returned to flying, some friends got together and bought a new light sport airplane with hand controls already installed. They thought it would be a great idea to start a corporation called The Fullerton Chair force to help other disabled pilots like me continue to fly. The airplane is the Sky Arrow 600 Sport. I am looking forward to helping other disabled pilot's return to flying with the Sky Arrow. You can read more about me on my website www.friendsoftony.com

Thank you for reading this,

Tony Albanese