Air Park's Inspiration

Though Steve Hensley has no personal or financial involvement in the air park project, his brother credits him with inspiring the idea.

"One of my earliest memories is Steve pointing to an airplane flying in the sky, and saying to me, 'One day I'm going to take you flying in one of those machines, '" Ted Hensley said.

At the time, he said , he found it funny to picture his brother flying a plane. But by the time Ted was about 16, Steve was an established flyer and was even giving flying lessons - already deep into a lifelong obsession with aviation.

Ted Hensley said that airplanes haven "been Steve's life, totally. He's always been the kind who could look outside, and whatever he was doing, drop it and go to the airport," whenever he was in the mood to fly. "I call Steve a 'wing nut,'" he said.

Steve Hensley has made a living buying, repairing, and selling planes. On his property, planes peek out of barns doubling as hangars and pieces of aircraft sit here and there, waiting to be sold. He advertises through word-of-mouth and on the Internet.

In recent months, Steve Hensley has been wheelchair-bound as he undergoes treatment for brain tumors. He continues to work the phone, however, when prospective buyers of airplane parts call in.

"I've always loved to fly, " Steve Hensley said in a recent interview at his home, located near the Ebenezer United Methodist Church in Chuckey. "Now I'm content to watch my friends fly."

page 4 - An Aviation-Centered Family