Aerial Advertising
By Britni Williams | ELYRIA, Ohio — “Have a seat in my office,” Konrad Balunek said as he slid aside the door. He wasn’t dressed in what one would consider business attire. He wore faded blue jeans with a white T-shirt and worn, brown work boots. His office didn’t have the sterile feeling of a typical […]
Diving into Marriage
By Rachel Hagenbaugh | ALLIANCE, Ohio. — At first, Warren Swegal is just a dot 10,000 feet in the air. Gradually, the shape of the parachute starts to take form. Sometimes he spins around in a circle, but only for a few seconds. To those on a ground, it seems like a long time. For the […]
The Old and the Bold
KENT — Some time after the first solo and before becoming licensed, every pilot who has learned how to fly since the 1920s has been warned, “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots—but there are no old bold pilots.” How then, does one explain Richard Schwabe?
Small World
Dr. Ron Siwik had to make a decision: Comply with an air-traffic controller who demanded he deviate from his flight path. Or ignore the voice on the radio and risk immediate peril in one of the world’s most hostile nations. This is the choice he faced in Rangoon, Myanmar, on his 24,604-mile, around the world solo flight in 2008.
All in the (Skypark) Family
WADSWORTH — Why are aspiring pilots from Belgium, France and Japan traveling to a small country airfield in Ohio? Dan Weltzien knows—he invited them. He also manages one of the most affordable flight training operations in the world from his apartment above Skypark Airport’s narrow airstrip. But don’t ask him about the Egyptian mummy case.
