Navy Pilot Teaches Daredevils to Glide Through Their Aerobatics

George Watkins loves to see the test pilots from Edward Air Force Base arrive at his glider field in Llano.

They have a little swagger that seems to say, “This is going to be pretty tame stuff for me.”

Then, Watkins straps one of these Edwards jet jocks into one of his two-seater, aerobatic-ready gliders for a just-for-fun little joy ride.

After 15 minutes of a ride that seems to take a lifetime, the Edwards guy may look a little green.

He gets out of the glider, takes another look at Watkins.

Watkins just grins.

“It’s not pulling the five or six positive Gs that gets them,” Watkins says. “They can do seven or eight positive Gs. They are used to that.”

What is new to them are the 2 to 2 1/2 negative Gs that make you feel like you’re being sucked out of the plane by the Mother of All Vacuum Cleaners. “That’s a new experience,” Watkins says.

(Positive Gs can be compared to the way gravity makes one feel heavier when hitting the top in a roller coaster. Negative Gs are the lighter sensations one has when hitting the bottom.)

Jet jocks are not the only ones who go on what he calls his Top Gun aerobatic spin. He offers the ride to the public, who for $60 get a few minutes of air time, a few minutes that you will never forget, according to Watkins.

If fun for you is flying upside down, end-over-end, inside-out, stalling and falling in a plane with no engine, this one’s for you.

“How bad can it be?” asks Watkins innocently. “One of my best customers is a local 10-year-old girl who takes the trip about once every six weeks.”

Watkins owns and operates Crystal Soaring, located in Llano, about 15 miles east of Palmdale.

He boards private gliders there, and also runs a school that teaches glider flying and aerobatics, as well as offering sight-seeing and aerobatic rides to anyone interested.

The $135 ride is the favorite and takes passengers up over the nearby San Gabriel Mountains where the view, on a good day, is clear to the Pacific, Watkins says.

But keeps this 71-year-old former Navy test pilot smiling are the aerobatic flights that he flies himself.

Watkins is a California kid who was born in Pasadena and grew up in Alhambra. He is a U. S. Naval Academy graduate, Class of 1943.

Before going to flight school, he saw action in the Pacific as a lieutenant junior grade on the battleship Pennsylvania.

By the time he was graduated from flight school, the war was over.

He became a naval test pilot, which is where he learned about thermal-powered aircraft. “The Navy used gliders to teach us how to get into and out of certain threatening situations,” according to Watkins, who spent most of his military career jockeying around in high-flying hot rods with afterburners.

After retiring from service, he went into the landscaping business in Virginia Beach, Md. “My dad had taught me about landscaping when I was a boy in California, so I decided that was what I would do,” he says.

Then he met and married his English-born wife, Monica, who had been a flight attendant for Pan Am for 20 years. They eventually got tired of winters in the East and moved west.

“First, we moved to Arizona, which was warm, but we were looking for something else,” Monica Watkins says.

“Then, George saw an ad for Crystal Soaring in a flight magazine and we decided to have a look,” she adds.

The glider field had been operational for 30 years, but, by then, she says, had become run down.

The couple bought it two years ago and set out to set it right.

Now, in addition to the privately owned craft, they have eight gliders and three tow planes in residence as well as five pilots and/or instructors.

They also have the only field in Los Angeles County offering aerobatic flying instruction, Watkins says.

So, if you want to get your glider to do Cuban 8s, erect spins, loop-overs, Immelmanns and hammerheads, this must be the place.

Watkins says he is currently tutoring three aerobatic students--an orthopedic surgeon, an engineer and a Los Angeles Police Department forensic specialist.

He’s looking forward to the day when his 10-year-old student has her pilot’s license.

He thinks she’s a candidate, as well.

It’s a Mitzvah to Feed the Food Bank

At the recent bar mitzvah of 13-year-old Brian Finkelstein at Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills, his parents, Allan and Bonnie Finkelstein of Calabasas, used cans of food instead of flowers for the table centerpieces.

After Brian got his last hug and wish for a happy future, the cans were loaded in the family car and driven to a Reseda warehouse called Sova. From there, food is given out weekly to those in need.

The name Sova comes from the Hebrew word for a feeling of well-being and of being well-fed, says Jean Kaplow, director of Bay Cities Jewish Community Center, which manages the program.

For 11 years, Sova has been feeding the hungry, and every year the need and the volunteer staff grows, she says.

Kaplow adds that no one thought at the beginning of the program that this would be the way things would be.

“When we opened in Santa Monica in 1982, we thought we would be useful for a while, and then the need would fade away,” she says.

“Back then we served about 100 people each month from our one location. Now we serve about 1,200 people a week from three different locations,” Kaplow says.

The newest location is at 6027 1/2 Reseda Blvd. in Reseda. It opened in July. From there, food bags are given out each Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Staff members are volunteers.

“There is no qualifying process for getting a food bag. If you are hungry, we want to give the food to you,” Kaplow says.

The week the Reseda center opened, 50 people showed up for food bags. Now, several hundred show up each week, she adds.

She says almost all the food is donated by individuals and organizations. Schoolchildren give fund-raisers. People bring in canned food.

Kaplow says the best times, for her, come when she hears from those previously assisted who send a check and note that says, “You helped me, now I’d like to pass it on.”

Overheard

“Of course, you can get a nose ring and butterfly tattoo, right after you start getting straight A’s, graduate from law school and start sending money home.”

Mother to her teen-age daughter at L’Express restaurant in Encino.