No Better Time Than The Present

by Dave Weiman
Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine June/July 2022 Digital Issue

Friends gathered April 29, 2022, at the “JET ROOM,” located at Wisconsin Aviation, Dane County Regional Airport, Madison, Wisconsin (KMSN): (L/R back row): Tom Kretschman, owner of Sugar Ridge Airport, Verona, Wis.; Jeff Baum, President/CEO, Wisconsin Aviation, Inc.; Dave Weiman, Editor/Publisher, Midwest Flyer Magazine; Al Whitaker, attorney, private airport owner and former UW football player. (L/R front and center): Photojournalist Don Winkler and his wife, Carol Winkler. Midwest Flyer Magazine Photo by Gustav Klokner

If it is one thing we got from this lousy pandemic we’ve just gone through, it is a greater appreciation for family and friends. While many parents and their children may have grown closer to one another because of having to homeschool, the complete opposite occurred at the workplace when many of us were required to work from home and socializing with friends ceased to exist.

Learning at home online and virtually was difficult for both children, parents, and teachers. Not participating in sports and other extracurricular school activities, and not seeing friends, was difficult.

For us pilots, the pandemic meant learning how to disinfect our aircraft after each flight without damaging our avionics and trying to keep current without infecting others in the event we had covid or vice versa. It has been a challenge for all of us, and unfortunately for most, the pandemic has taken the lives of some family members and friends.
Hopefully now, we are done with the major impacts of covid, and can once again enjoy life as we once knew it, providing we continue to take what we feel are necessary and reasonable precautions. Regardless, I think we all gained a greater appreciation for life and the people around us.

Realizing how fragile life can be, and ready to resume life as it existed prior to the pandemic, a few of us pilots got together recently for brunch at the Jet Room Restaurant at Wisconsin Aviation, Dane County Regional Airport (KMSN), Madison, Wisconsin. This was a good start to what we hope will be a fun-filled and rewarding flying season ahead.
Whatever you do, don’t put anything off you want to do or accomplish, thinking there will be plenty of time later on, as something else might just come up that will make that impossible.