Soon Bryant-Denny Stadium will be filled with fans full of anticipation for a another successful season. No problem…right? This year, however, it will be without Nick Saban. But on this Saturday morning four members of Fayette Friends of the Animal Shelter were on a mission ABOVE the Stadium.

We were on a mission to perform the first of many fund-raising flights from Fayette’s airport (M95) to overfly the Stadium. We also were able to see Tuscaloosa from the air and then return to Fayette for the aerial view of our city before landing.

We chose 8 AM for departure time to “beat the heat”. We provided a little more cooling by climbing up to 4,000 feet for the short flight to Tuscaloosa. It’s 10 degrees cooler at 4000 feet so we were nice and comfortable.

But let’s go back to the beginning for a moment. Jackie Stevens, her daughter, Blakeney and son Cooper were with Pilot, Steve Fowler, (also a member of FOTAS) to get a first-hand experience of the aerial Stadium tour. Since FOTAS intends to begin conducting these Stadium “fly-overs” periodically to raise money we needed to test the idea.

Now the Fun part!

We met at the airport in Fayette and sat in the lobby to discuss the basic aspects of safety for the flight. Just like when you fly on an airline, there are safety items to discuss. Those safety items include how to use the emergency exit, safe entry and exit of the airplane and when it is safe to talk to the pilot.

<– Steve and Cooper go over the controls.

We also discussed crew duties for each occupant which included looking out for other airplanes in the air and to confirm, with the gear lights, that the wheels were locked down before landing.

When we had all the items covered and questions answered, we went out and boarded N69HB (November Six Nine Hotel Bravo in pilot vernacular). We have 6 seats on “9HB” but today we had only 4 occupants.

City of Fayette–>

Since Cooper was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, he was shown how to taxi the airplane (under close supervision). We taxied to the end of the runway and made our announcement on the radio stating our intentions. These announcements are made on a designated radio frequency for any and all to hear. It gives others a chance to see and hear what the intentions are of other aircraft operating at the Fayette airport. Our call was “Fayette Traffic, Cessna 6-9 Hotel Bravo is entering runway 19 for a south departure”. No one acknowledged the call so we assume there was no other aircraft in the area.

We lined up with the runway centerline and advanced the power. The roar of 500 horsepower divided between the two motors would have been deafening without our noise cancelling headsets but the ACCELERATION was not muted at all! In seconds we were going 100 mph and then climbing to our cruise altitude at 140 mph.

<— Blakeney and Jackie Stevens

Cooper was lightly holding the controls to get a feeling of how much movement in the controls was needed to maneuver the airplane. He did great and learned it doesn’t take much.

As soon as we were above the trees, we could see the buildings of Fayette on our right and especially the dome of the Court House. It was very cool.

In a couple of minutes, we were level at 4000 feet and we could already see the Black Warrior river in the distance. Shortly thereafter we were asking the Tuscaloosa Air Traffic Control Tower for permission to overfly Tuscaloosa and specifically the Bama Stadium.

It literally goes like this: “Tuscaloosa Tower, Cessna 6-9 Hotel Bravo is 10 miles out requesting to over-fly Tuscaloosa and the Stadium”.

Bryant-Denny Stadium –>

We could all hear the radio communications and immediately the tower responded: “Cessna 6-9 Hotel Bravo you are cleared to overfly Tuscaloosa and the Stadium as requested. Report when you are returning to M95 and have exited Tuscaloosa airspace.”

We were cleared to drop lower and get a nice bird’s eye view of the Stadium, the campus and the city of Tuscaloosa. The jumbotrons in the stadium were on and displaying some video program to the empty stadium. A little unexpected.

We had accomplished the main goal of our mission, seeing the Stadium, and now we were changing course to return to Fayette. The sky was clear. The air was smooth and 69HB was humming along at 180 MPH for the 15 min flight to M95. On the way back the pilot explained the landing procedure and how landing differed from flying straight and level.

Soon we saw the familiar dome of the Court House and we made our announcement to potential Fayette air traffic (there is no control tower at Fayette so pilots communicate with each other stating their location and intentions) It sounded like “Fayette traffic Cessna 6-9 Hotel Bravo is 10 miles south, landing on runway zero one.” (north)

There was a helicopter at the airport that had landed for fuel. He told us where he was and that he would be clear of the runway while we were landing.

6-9 Hotel Bravo kissed the runway and we were taxiing back feeling great about what we had experienced, the company and the mission. All that and it wasn’t even 9:30 AM!

We are ready to accept reservations for this flight from anyone in the community. Those who have expressed an interest will be contacted, in order, to see if the flight time is compatible. If the proposed time is compatible with their schedule, they will be on board.

We can take 3 adults or a combination of adults and children up to 5.

We don’t know how long we will conduct these flights. They are a fund-raising event and we suggest a donation of $80 or more, per person. This flight takes about 45 minutes and the suggested donation is a bargain.

Visit our website CLICK HERE to express interest. There is no obligation initially. We are using the sign-up form to gauge interest

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For those who don’t know or have forgotten, Fayette Friends of the Animal Shelter is a civic group of volunteers in Fayette. Our mission to is have no homeless pets and no pets abandoned into the community.

Until we achieve that goal, we will continue our program of going to the Fayette Animal Shelter each week to bathe dogs and allow them to run in the exercise kennels. Clean dogs and puppies are more easily adopted. We also socialize cats and bathe kittens. Sometimes kittens are brought to the Shelter without a mother and too young to care for themselves. In those cases, we organize kitten ICU which may include bottle-feeding, a vet visit (for which we pay) and, in extreme cases, we will find someone to foster the kitten until it can thrive.

The Shelter usually is full and there are people waiting to surrender a pet. Sometimes, however, there will be one or more empty kennels. We are going to work until the Shelter population is ZERO.

Here is the ugly truth: Until EVERY SINGLE dog and cat are spayed or neutered there will always be an avalanche of puppies and kittens brought to the shelter or picked up by the Shelter staff in the community.

We are working with local leaders to propose a “common sense” set of incentives to have every pet spayed or neutered. We will work with adjoining counties to make these measures wide-spread that will actually make a difference. When you are asked if you agree with such measures, express your support in unambiguous terms. Please.

In the meantime, plan to attend our meetings and assist the organization in one of the many ways available. One way to start would be to buy some of our FOTAS “merch” at this page on the website CLICK HERE.

You can read this story and other FOTAS success stories at CLICK HERE.