80 years old (at least) and still flying

John Chirtea has been flying for 70 years. He still owns the airplane in which he soloed.

Chirtea hosted a group of pilots in his hangar at Eagle Crest Aerodrome in Milton Sept. 17. At age 87 (“87-and-a-half”, he said), Chirtrea was a youngster in this group.

The pilots are members of an organization called United Flying Octogenarians aka UFO.

Members have to be at least 80 years old.

“These folks have the stories of aviation. They’ve been there. They’ve done that,” Chirtea said.

John Sullivan is 92. He flew some of the hottest fighter jets and ground attack aircraft during the Vietnam War. He’s still an instructor, teaching much younger people how to fly.

“I have feathers on my hat because I flew as pilot in command after my 90th birthday,” Sullivan said. 

Poor weather forced all of the pilots to drive to the meeting. All, except one.

David Roeberg, 88, owns a sleek new jet called a Cirrus VisionJet. He was able to fly from Wilmington to Delaware Coastal Airport in Georgetown on instrument flight rules, or IFR.

“Five or 6 o’clock this morning, I was watching the weather. It improved a little bit, so we were able to go,” he said.

“I can’t remember what I had for breakfast and [dad] is able to fly a jet by himself at 88. There is probably not a better pilot in this world,” said his son, Ken Roeberg, who was in the right seat for the flight.

David has been flying for 65 years.

But, despite their age, some pilots are late bloomers.

Bob Mench, 90, was born during the FDR administration, but only got his pilot’s license when Barack Obama was president.

“My brother-in-law got me into flying. I got my license when I was 79. I just sold my plane, but I came to Delaware and met this great group of guys,” Mench said.

The UFO meeting was full of camaraderie, but the group did discuss a serious issue that all older pilots have to deal with: finding affordable insurance.

“When you’re over 80, the secret is that you have to fly the plane. If you’re not flying 70 hours or so a year, they don’t want to insure you. If you’re only flying five to 15 hours a year, they know that’s a problem waiting to happen,” said Ron Smith of Lewes. “You can’t just fly a couple times a year [because] that’s when the insurance really goes up.”

Another rule: the simpler the plane, the cheaper the insurance. Roeberg, for example, said he recently got quoted $84,000 per year with a $50,000 deductible on property damage for his high-tech VisionJet.

Chirtea, and his daughter Heather, are still waiting to get coverage on their latest toy: an electric flying car called a Black Fly. Their’s is one of only five in the country.

The Black Fly is the odd-shaped craft that some people mistake for a drone when it’s zipping around over Eagle Crest.

Rain grounded a planned demo at the meeting, but the Chirteas told the octogenarian pilots that the future is now.

They are now taking the Black Fly, by trailer, to electric vehicle shows around the country, where they are the only airplane on the lot.

“They have 20,000 people who drive in with electric cars, scooters, 4-by-4s, anything electric. They’ve got Ford, Kia and our flying car,” Heather said.

She said her dream is to be the first person to fly across the country in a flying car.

“The battery life is 20 minutes at a clip, with a 40-minute recharge in between,” she said. “Three thousand miles, depending on the route, could take me a year or two. So, we’ll wait until we have a much higher capacity of flight time.”

John Chirtea said no matter what you fly, it’s never too late to learn or to get back in the left seat.

“Some guys started flying 50, 60, 70 years ago. They dropped out because of family and jobs, but then came back in. We call them rusty pilots. But, keep flying. There’s still life at the end of the road, and it’s in the air,” he said.