Photo: Gerald Gaige
The Baxter County Airport has a new volunteer working with the pilot community and airport officials to promote general aviation activity in the region.
Gerald Gaige has been appointed by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) as an airport support network volunteer at the county facility at Midway.
AOPA is the largest aviation community in the world, spanning 75 countries and representing almost 400,000 pilots with its advocacy for general aviation in the United States.
Through his work in Baxter County, Gaige hopes to enhance the value of the airport for area residents.
Gaige comes to the Mountain Home area from Greenville, South Carolina, where he and his wife, Larisa, lived for 12 years, after returning from their real estate careers in Moscow.
He served 10 years in South Carolina as the AOPA volunteer for the Greenville Downtown Airport, the busiest general aviation facility in the state.
Gaige has been flying into the Baxter County Airport since 1979, when his parents created their retirement home near Gassville. He learned to fly in west Texas and on graduation from Texas Tech University, he served in the United States Air Force as a jet fighter instructor pilot until the Vietnam War ended in 1973.
Gaige began a real estate career as an appraiser and development consultant that lasted 37 years — 20 in Houston and 17 in Russia — until retiring in South Carolina.
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