Bird's eye view / LJWorld.com

24 hours in Lawrence

May 22, 2007

Keith Allen, an instructor at Hetrick Air Services at the Lawrence Municipal Airport, looks over a Cessna 172 before giving a flight lesson to Lawrence resident Don Parker.

Keith Allen - Life above Lawrence

It's noon, and most people in Lawrence are headed for lunch. Not Keith Allen. He's 2,500 feet above town. Enlarge video

It's noon, and most people in Lawrence are headed for lunch.

Not Keith Allen. He's 2,500 feet above town.

Allen, 20, is an instructor for Hetrick Air Services at Lawrence Municipal Airport. When he's at work, he spends more time in the air than on the ground, getting a bird's-eye view of Lawrence and the surrounding area.

"Just being able to fly gives you a great sense of freedom. You're not tied down by roads or your car," Allen says. "You're able to move around as you please."

Today, he's in the passenger seat next to Don Parker, a 73-year-old retired insurance executive living out his dream of learning to fly. This is Parker's 10th lesson.

"A lot of people my age think I'm crazy," Parker says, "and they might be right."

After a preflight check on the four-seat Cessna, Parker fires up the engine. It's a fairly calm day, and just a little hazy - a good day to fly.

Today's destination is Topeka, where Allen hopes to show his student the ins and outs of communicating with an air traffic control tower. Parker guides the plane to Billard Municipal Airport in northern Topeka. He sets it down on the runway four times to practice touch-and-go landings, heeding occasional pointers from Allen.

Like the flight to Topeka, the flight back to Lawrence is uneventful - exactly the way it's supposed to be.

Parker lands the plane back at the Lawrence airport, having made it one step closer toward his pilot's license.

Allen, meanwhile, gets ready for his next student. He'd rather be in the air than on the ground.