For 67-year-old John Cooper, few pleasures in life equal climbing into an airplane almost as old is he is, then pointing it down a grass strip and opening the throttle to go bore a few holes in the sky.
It’s something he’s been doing for more than 50 years.
The owner of Cooper’s Airfield on Fish Hatchery Road at the Hamblen and Greene County line, Cooper grew up with airplanes as a normal part of life. His father, Max Cooper, started the airfield before World War II. It’s been in the family ever since.
"I started flying a lot with Dad when I was 14 and 15," John said.
While his father taught him plenty, once he was old enough the young flyer went to Morristown’s legendary flight instructor, "Mama Bird" Evelyn Johnson, for his official flying lessons. He was still a teenager when she passed him for his private pilot license.
While he has had the license in his pocket, it’s never been needed.
"I’ve flown all my life, just about, and I’ve never been asked for my license once," he said.
Cooper is a fan of antique airplanes, especially one model—Aeronca 7AC Champions built in the years right after World War II. The planes are universally known among pilots as Champs. The one Cooper flies today is a 1946 model.
"I’ve had seven Champs since Daddy passed away in 1984," he said.
The Champ is not an airplane for long trips. It has two seats in a tandem arrangement and only cruises at about 80 to 85 miles per hour. It’s a plane beloved of pilots like Cooper because it allows them to fly low and slow, seeing the scenery from the viewpoint of a soaring hawk.
Cooper said he has never had any desire to fly as a career. For a living he depended on the family farm and a trucking business he owns. Flying has always been strictly for recreation.
He did make a few trips in a more modern four-seat Cessna 172 he once owned. The longest he can recall was to Lakeland, Fla., for an air show and fly-in.
Mostly, however, he has always been one of those pilots who found the best flying is simply "a turn around the patch," spending lazy warm evenings flying over the local area.
Like many such pilots, Cooper and his airstrip attract like-minded flyers. Among the variety of planes based at the flying field are two others of the same vintage as his Aeronca.
One is a 1943 Taylorcraft L-2 that started life in military service during World War II.
The other is a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub. Cooper admires both of them almost as much as his Champ.
While Cooper has never flown as a job, he has almost made a career out of promoting flying for the fun of it.
For more than 20 years he has sponsored a local fly-in at his airstrip during the first weekend in October.
In addition to hosting pilots and planes from a wide area, the fly-in is open to the general public with no admission charge. He said he does that to let non-pilots get a close up look at what sport flying is all about.
The grass field has one unusual quirk. Fish Hatchery Road runs between the hangars and the landing strip.
That was no problem when Max Cooper first opened it because everything was on the same level.
But in the early 1950s the road was relocated and built up. Since then it has been necessary for pilots to taxi up a steep bank, cross the road, then taxi down a steep bank on the other side.
More than one driver has been startled to suddenly see an airplane appear in the middle of the road. So far, though, nobody has ever hit a plane with a car.
The field is a hangout for people who love flying for fun. When a group gathers for a session of "hangar flying" and the talk turns to old airplanes, Cooper is usually right in the middle of the conversation.
After a half century, going aloft to putter around over East Tennessee is still as much of a thrill for him as it was when he was riding with his father in the days he was still too young to fly himself.
