My CFI died from Covid

rv7boy · #1 01-30-2021, 11:47 PM

I was saddened today to learn that my CFI who taught me to fly, signed me off to solo, and instructed me through my first 30 hours died on Friday of Covid 19. He was also a good friend to me and many other pilots at my hometown airport in Tennessee. Paul Bridges had been the Airport Manager of John Baker Field (0M3) for over 40 years.
He will be missed.

Foghorn · #2 01-31-2021, 03:34 AM

Sorry for your loss Don.

John Owen · #3 01-31-2021, 07:16 AM

So sorry for your loss. We have lost a lot of good people.

John

bkervaski · #4 01-31-2021, 07:19 AM

Awe man, so sorry for your loss

DeltaRomeo · #5 01-31-2021, 07:56 AM

Don, I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.

Keeping you and your friend in my thoughts.

Ironflight · #6 01-31-2021, 07:58 AM

Very sorry to hear this Don - I am hearing of a lot more tragic stories among people I have known because of this thing.

Paul

flyboycpa · #7 01-31-2021, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rv7boy

I was saddened today to learn that my CFI who taught me to fly, signed me off to solo, and instructed me through my first 30 hours died on Friday of Covid 19. He was also a good friend to me and many other pilots at my hometown airport in Tennessee. Paul Bridges had been the Airport Manager of John Baker Field (0M3) for over 40 years.
He will be missed.

I've spent a lot of time with Paul the last few months as I have been working on the Swift and Navion that the late R.C. Humphrey had in the hangar. Paul was such a fun guy and always willing to come out into the cold hangar to help hold a light, move the prop, whatever was needed.

We followed the updates from a local friend of ours that has a large hangar there that Paul eventually went on the ventilator, and that his family finally made the tough decision to remove him from the vent. So sad. He will truly be missed. His obituary is as follows:

Mr. Paul M. Bridges, a loving friend to all of Hohenwald, passed away on Friday, January 29, 2021, at the Maury Regional Medical Center in Columbia at the age of 74.

Paul was born on October 2, 1946, to Joe and Gracie (Jackson) Bridges, in Trenton, TN. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the United States Army, of which he was a proud veteran. Eventually, he moved to Hohenwald and lived here until his passing. He met and married his best friend, Janice (Murphy) Bridges, and they lived a long and wonderful life together.

Paul worked as an office technician for the telephone company for many, many years. However, he is best known for his other title of Airport Manager at the airport here in Hohenwald. If he wasn't at home, he was at the airport. He lived to fly, and he was dedicated to his position there for over forty years. He taught countless people to fly and enjoy the view over his tenure. He started at the airport when the office was a little taxicab stand with no bathroom and stuck with it until they finally built the larger building and offices. He was a member of the Civil Air Patrol during his career as well. He loved his airport family like they were his own.

Along with his wife, Janice Bridges, of Hohenwald, he is survived by his son, Brent Bridges, of Hohenwald, TN, and one brother, Stanley (Ruby) Bridges of Mt. Pleasant, TN. Also, he leaves behind a huge aviation family.

Along with his parents, he is preceded in death by his brothers Clyde, Robert, and Alec Bridges, and one sister Betty Jo Bridges.

Visitation with the family will be held on Monday, February 1, 2021, from 11:00 AM-01:00 PM in the McDonald Funeral Home Chapel. A short memorial service will follow. Burial services will be conducted at a later date.

In consideration of the health and well-being of others, we ask that if you are able and feel comfortable to please wear a mask.

"Your wings already exist, all you have to do is fly."
-Unknown

Darin Watson · #8 01-31-2021, 12:52 PM

Don,
I am sorry for your loss. I have lost a good friend here in Canada and several down in the US. It pains me to see the US losing the equivalent of a 9/11 daily, knowing everyone is special to someone.

This disease surprises me in that at times I think that person will struggle or even die and for whatever reason their affliction is mild and vice versa a fit 48 year old will struggle a surprising amount.

As I see it we now have two effective and well proven vaccines. Here in Alberta we have delivered well over 120k doses, with a full 1/3 of those being elderly in assisted living and 20 adverse reactions, all mild to moderate ranging from sore arm or rash, to nausea and diarrhea.

I don’t know why that when we have two with good efficacy (the J&J data does not look promising at 65% effective) that we are not taking a war measures approach to turn to every pharma to produce some of either version instead of developing their own. Just like Ford or Inglus during WWII they produced what needed to be produced at a set profit with a small royalty to Jeep or Colt respectively, for the IP. We have a pattern and precedence for how to get this done, when lives depend upon it.

Sorry for the drift, but I felt the need to advocate as every life lost is 1 too many.

rocketman1988 · #9 01-31-2021, 03:03 PM

You know, I had typed up a paragraph on the virus and how it relates to overall deaths in the US...

I deleted it because it would just bring about "discussions" that have no place in this forum...

Sorry for your loss...

rv7boy · #10 01-31-2021, 07:37 PM

I really didnt intend my post to lead to a discussion of the virus. Rather, it was an expression of grief over the death of a person who made a significant contribution to my aviation life by being my first instructor. Paul was a good guy- smart, quiet, helpful, blessed with common sense. We had maintained our friendship through the years because he was usually at the airport when I flew back home to see my folks. Often he was the voice that answered my Unicom calls.

I feel fortunate to have had Paul as my instructor, and I appreciate the many expressions of sympathy both public and private.