Fly In Cafe

As a child I always dreamed of flying. At the age of 12, I would ride my bicycle from West Pea Ridge through Altizer up and over Clark Estates to Route 2 to the Robert Newlon Airport just to watch airplanes take off. I met a man named Clarence (Smitty) Smith who took me under his wing. He took several local kids to his house and gave us ground school training and the opportunity to be around the airport.

One day I took an airplane ride. Once I took that first flight – I was hooked for life. I took up formal training at Bates Aviation at the Tri State Airport. My first instructor was Charlie Blakeman. I worked hours sporadically until never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would return to Robert Newlon Airport as the FBO. But as fate would have it, the baton was handed down to me by Jim Burdette who maintained and took care of after being at Robert Newlon for 3 years, Andy (Crusty) Ferguson approached me about starting skydiving operations at Robert Newlon. I thought it was a good idea, bought a 182 Cessna and with help (too many to list), WV Skydivers was born.