After 63 years, flying his old plane again

Nearly 63 years ago, in the summer of 1952, 21-year-old Jim Simmons was flying T6 Texan planes for the United States Air Force in Marana, Ariz., preparing to be a fighter pilot in the Korean War.

To his dismay, Simmons never got that chance.

Less than a year later, the war ended, and the Air Force told Simmons he was to become a navigator.

“In other words, not a pilot,” said Brent Simmons, Jim’s son. “So that was a deal-breaker.”

Jim Simmons left the military. But Friday afternoon at Henderson Executive Airport, Simmons, now 84, sat in his old Air Force flight jacket, beaming while clutching the controls of a T6 for the first time in more than six decades.

As a gift from his son, Brent, and daughter, Claudia Baker, Simmons was one of dozens of valley residents to fly in an array of antique military planes Friday, including a P-51 Mustang, a C-45 Expeditor and “Fifi,” the last flying World War II-era B-29 bomber. Simmons’ family surprised him with the gift less than a week ago, paying $645 for a two-person, 40-minute flight.

“Just really exciting,” Simmons said before his flight Friday. “It has been so long.”

Albert Kepler, Simmons’ co-pilot, served two years in the Marines. A staffer for California-based Commemorative Air Force, Inc., the nonprofit organization that hosted Friday’s event, Kepler has flown planes with the company for more than 17 years. Kepler said Simmons was the first T6 veteran with whom he had flown.

“A real honor,” Kepler said. “These kind of veterans are few and far between.”

A Denver native, Simmons studied criminology at California State University, Fresno for two years before he volunteered for the Air Force in 1950. An aspiring fighter pilot, Simmons said he was flying the T6 Texan alone just hours after receiving his first instruction.

“At the time, I thought it was great,” Simmons laughed. “But looking back, they were absolutely crazy to turn a 20-year-old kid loose in an … airplane, by himself with no instruction.”

After leaving the Air Force, Simmons became a successful businessman, owning training schools for building contractors and engineers across the country. To get around, he flew his own plane — a Cessna 210.

“Much more comfortable than the military birds, that’s for sure,” he said.

Simmons stopped piloting for good in 1984, when he suffered a heart attack and stroke after flying a plane in Logan, Utah. He retired shortly after, and moved with his wife, Claudia, to Hawaii in 1988.

When the Hawaiian economy took a turn for the worse, the two sold the house they had built and traded a life of scuba diving and tennis for greater economic opportunity in Las Vegas. Though Jim was retired, Claudia Simmons still worked in home sales.

“It’s a great life here,” said Claudia Simmons, who retired in 2002 after working for Del Webb Corporation.

The couple has lived in the valley for more than two decades. In addition to their children, Jim and Claudia Simmons have 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

When Jim Simmons’ T6 touched down Friday afternoon, he carefully stepped down from the cockpit onto one of the plane’s royal blue wings. Helped down by Kepler and his son, Brett, Simmons made a toast with a water bottle and touched it to another bottle in Kepler’s hands.

“That is one rough, tough old war bird,” Simmons said.

Simmons embraced his wife, son and daughter and sat down at a table with his personal flight log — a small, leather-bound book with a complete list of flights dating to his military days. The book hadn’t been updated since July 28, 1984.

Simmons handed the log book to Kepler, his captain for the afternoon, and asked him to fill in Friday’s details.

“Better to be an old pilot than a bold pilot,” Simmons said, grinning.

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.