Ernie Knight is dead at 97.

[DemoTex]

Ernie ran the airport in Griffin, Georgia, and gave me a job in 1962 (I was 14) pumping gas, mowing grass, and washing airplanes to pay for my flying lessons. Ernie was my first instructor in a 1946 Aeronca 7-AC. Ernie was 3/4 deaf from a life around big airplane engines. He was too old for WWII, so he got a job ferrying P-47s and P-51s to Europe. Ernie believed in helping the airport "kid." For a few years, that was me. RIP Ernie. And thanks.

[freetobegay]

1. Ernies got his gold wings now.

Rest in peace.

[Sporadicus]

2. I Didn't Know Ernie

but news of his death saddens me. I've been fortunate to have known some individuals like him in my lifetime, but there are fewer as time goes by.

FWIW, I worked in a similar job at age 15. I got paid in flying lessons! My favorite plane was a '42 Piper Cub, but I also enjoyed flying this Cessna 182 the instructor owned.

[DemoTex]

3. That's why I posted.

It's a shared experience. There were many Ernie Knight-types at the small airports across the country. We were lucky to have known them and had them as mentors.

[MuseRider]

4. WOW I had an Ernie too!

He lived across the street from me while I grew up. He had flown in the war and had become a flying instructor and crop duster. He used to take us flying now and then just because he was a hell of a nice guy. He was all bent over, walked sideways from cracking up several planes crop dusting in areas where there were really too many trees. I did not take flying lessons from him but he was a good man who got me a job at the airport the summer after my father died and I had not been able to look for work, 1973. RIP to your Ernie.

[DemoTex]

5. I just remembered ... Ernie was a proud member of the OX-5 Club.

The OX-5 was the 90-hp engine that powered the Curtis Jenny. Ernie had flown the Jenny. That makes Ernie an aviation pioneer in my book.


OX-5


Curtis Jenny