Hanson marks 50th anniversary of first solo
50 YEARS OF FLYING — Jim Hanson stands by his Cessna 120 airplane in the hanger at the Albert Lea Airport, which he manages. Earlier this month, Hanson celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first solo flight, which he took before earning a driver’s license. (Star Eagle photo by Kathy Paulsen)
By KATHY PAULSEN
Staff Writer
The names Orville and Wilbur Wright are familiar to everyone. The pioneering brothers were the first flight instructors and taught the world to fly.
The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award is given by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in recognition of pilots who demonstrate aviation expertise, skills and professionalism, as they were first established by Orville and Wilbur Wright.
On Saturday, May 4, the FAA bestowed this honor on James Paul Hanson, for a distinguished flying career spanning more than 50 years. Hanson first soloed an airplane on his 16th birthday, May 1, 1963, and on Saturday, May 4th, 2013, he threw a party for his friends and relatives to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the event, at the Albert Lea Airport, which he manages.
Hanson told those in attendance he had been flying for 51 years, 50 since he got his license, and without violation or accident.
Hanson is not only a flyer, but a writer and speaker. He writes for a number of aviation magazines, about his experiences and information of interest to other pilots.
As a teenager, Hanson says, he asked his parents if he could learn to fly. They told him he could do anything he had the time, money and interest to do.
The first big thing they consented to was letting him spend a summer going to school in Mexico, when he was 15. He paid his own way doing odd jobs.
Then he asked again about learning to fly. His parents agreed, as long as it didn't hurt his school grades, he paid for it, and he put in the time. He rode his bike between Clarks Grove and Albert Lea, earning his way with lawn mowing and odd jobs.
On his 16th birthday, with 35 friends and family on hand, he flew his first solo. He didn't yet have an automobile driver’s license. Flying came first.
Flying conditions for Hanson’s first flight weren't ideal, but Jim thought he could handle it, and the instructor agreed. After takeoff, he looked over at the empty airplane
seat next to him and thought, "It's up to you - nobody else can help you." He landed successfully three times and then taxied over to many waiting admirers. His aunts asked, "Weren't you afraid?" He replied, "No, I wasn't afraid, I am a PILOT!"
On a rainy day in November of 1963, Hanson’s dad (a non-pilot at the time) told him about a plane for sale. With $900 he’d earned working for a drainage contractor, and another $900 from his dad, father and son bought their first plane, a Cessna 120. Later Hanson bought a Cessna 182, a Cessna 210, and then a Cessna 206, which he has owned ever since.
Hanson has owned 538 airplanes since that first one. He has flown 312 unique types of planes, which have taken him to 78 countries on six continents (including Antarctica), seeing sights most people haven't even dreamed of. He has flown land planes, sea planes, antique and experimental aircraft, helicopters, gliders, balloons, blimps and jets, operations from an aircraft carrier, and even a NASA shuttle simulator (only two weeks after the first flight).
"Today I wouldn't part with that old Cessna 120 again," Hanson says. “Our history is too strong. That plane was delivered six weeks before I was, and lived three miles from where I grew up. We taught each other to fly and that old Cessna still knows how to fly. It has some dents, but so do I. We pound them out and keep on flying.”
Ten years after Hanson first soloed, he married Maryalice (they were both 26), and now they are approaching their 40th anniversary.
Maryalice tells people, "I don't have to worry about ever being divorced – Jim never throws away old things."
“Make your play your work, and you’ll never have to work again.” Hanson agrees with that, but adds a caution: “Don’t make your work so hard that you forget to have fun.”