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Flying for Good
Olivia Halverson
A wide-eyed, curious little boy spent his
youth trotting the globe from one military
base to another. His dad was a senior master
sergeant in the United States Air Force. He
was born in the Philippines. His playground
was an aircraft hangar, stocked with real-life
fighter jets, transport planes, and other
flying machines of the late 1960s military
variety. That kid, Jeff Wall, dreamed that
one day he would fly an airplane of his own.
Today, Jeff and his wife Cynthia live in
Flowood, Mississippi. He owns and operates
The Tire Depot Automotive Services. He
spends his days off cruising the clouds in one
of five planes shared by the members of his
flying clubs. Jeff rarely flies by himself.
Some of his passengers have included
cancer patients, burn victims, dogs, and
even some lemurs. Yes. Lemurs. Why such
a variety of passengers, you ask? Jeff is not
your typical pilot.
Jeff only recently started flying planes.
He acquired his pilot’s license in 2011.
Before that, he spent 27 years working for
a printing company. Jeff thrived in the
corporate world working his way up from
production operator to plant manager.
Despite his success, Jeff lacked a sense of
fulfilment from his work. Eventually the
printing company lost its allure. That is
when he decided to open his own business.
For every new stage of life that Jeff
encountered, his dream of flying airplanes
intensified. Until he became a business
owner, his circumstances were never quite
suited to make that childhood dream come
true. But at the age of 46 Jeff ran out of
excuses.
“I didn’t even know why I wanted to fly,”
Jeff said. “I just knew that I had to, and I
couldn’t wait any longer.” And just like that,
Jeff signed up for his first flying lesson at
Madison Flyers, in Madison, Mississippi.
Jeff equates the process of earning a pilot’s
license to learning a new language. It
required 3 years, over 175 hours of flying,
and a whole lot of studying. But he did it.
Today, Jeff is not only fluent in aviation, but
30 • December 2018