Meet the Skipper!

Brethren!

The gentleman in the front seat of the Hatz is Brother Brad Wigren.  His Oath to the Brethren was duly sworn---in the sky's above Jellystone Air Park on Sunday, March 11, 2012.  You can listen to his acceptance speech in the video below:

Brad and Gary first met when they were aviation cadets at Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Yeah, that was back in the day. . .  When Gary and I were flying for the FBO in Charlotte, North Carolina, "DC-6 Brad" was hauling conch in DC-6s for Turks Air, in Miami, Florida.  We were so jealous!  Of course we never really stopped to ponder how an old DC-6 full of 30,000 pounds of seafood smelled in the South Florida heat---DC-6s were cool!  Then in January 1986, when Gary was flying a King Air for Winn-Dixie Stores, and I was a new hire Flight Engineer at Eastern Airlines, Brad got the call from Northwest Airlines.  Since then he's been known as:  "Northwest Brad", or "DC-10 Brad", or "757 Brad", and since the Northwest-Delta merger, "ER Brad".  (ER is short for 767-300 Extended Range in Delta's world.)

Brother Wigren wears many hats.  He is also an expert motorcyclist (I'm assuming, since he's still alive), and more importantly; an outstanding sailor.  In fact, since 2008 he's skippered both of the BVI sailing adventures that Brother Barbeau and I (and our significant others) have enjoyed!  So with that in mind, I say:  Welcome to the Brethren, Skipper!  May you enjoy the pleasures of Jellystone Air Park henceforth.

DC-6s are still cool!