This is much delayed, but it has taken me this long to simply sit down, brace up, and write what I need to say.
On March 4, Tim Hartman and Rick Sandoval were the pilots in N113SH, a Cessna Citation business jet, on a flight from Oklahoma City's Wiley Post Airport to Mankato, Minnesota. When he picked up the flight as copilot the day before, Rick asked if I could meet them there, only 20 minutes' air time from Anoka, and we made plans for that. They never got out of Oklahoma City, crashing near 10th and Council Road shortly after takeoff. Rick, Tim, and three businessmen in the back all died in the crash.
What happened that day, and the very long night, days and weeks that followed, I'll leave to write another time, here or somewhere else. It has been very tough to lose someone who treated me like a brother for 27 years, who talked with me several times a week and e-mailed back and forth with me constantly at work and home, whose passion for aviation I shared fully, whose home and family we knew well and were always welcomed warmly in, and who mentored me in Christian faith in so many ways. I can't count the times I've picked up the phone to call him about something - new thing with the girls, new engine, new experience - only to realize I can't. So my focus has been squarely on helping his family as much and in as many ways as possible. We'll hopefully be back in Weatherford this month to see them.
While I'd never met Tim, I knew of him through Rick as a good man and pilot. Ironically, he had history in our 182 as well: Sometime in the late 1980s he planted the plane on a section line road in western Oklahoma with a seized engine and windshield covered with oil. The passenger that night spoke of it at his memorial service. So Tim's memory is with us too, every time we get in 55R.
Knowing Rick's faith in Christ, we all know where he is, and in that is happiness found. We will see him again. Until then please keep Monika, Hannah, Luke, Julia, his parents Richard and Karla, and his sisters Tamra and Krista frequently in your prayers. The same goes for Tim's family, a wonderful group of people, and the families of the businessmen, Frank Pool, Lloyd Austin and Garth Bates.
Although preliminary findings seem to show they hit a pelican, the final NTSB report won't be out for some time, so I'll save that discussion too.
I've started a separate folder in my "Photos" link which has all the digital shots I've taken of, or involving, Rick and his family. They're pitifully few for such a long friendship. More will come as I scan the older negatives.
Thank you.
