We’ve all been there. Running late for a meeting, perhaps stuck in traffic, and you wish you could just fly to your destination. (Skipping the TSA shoe-scanning frisk-a-thon, of course.) But leave it to an overzealous parent to make the dream a reality.
This is parenting in 2008: Your child is late for tennis practice. So you fly your personal plane, land it — on skis, mind you, since this is a northern suburb of Chicago, and the ground is covered in snow — illegally on a golf course, and hope no one notices. Like a modern-day Charles Lindbergh, you heroically fly in, delivering your offspring to an informal practice, scheduled before team tryouts later in the week. Seriously.
A Lake Villa man hopped in his Piper Clipper airplane Saturday, breezed above the congested roads and landed at a golf course across a highway from the tennis club, where skis on the underside of his four-seater glided across the snow-covered fairway.
Police received worried calls about a plane circling twice, then touching down at the Crane’s Landing golf course at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort. Officials thought they might have a crash, with victims to attend to.
Instead, they found Robert Kadera, 65, and his 14-year-old son trudging through the snow, Prince racket and a bag of tennis balls in hand. They had parked on the 7th fairway, just 20 feet south of the retaining wall for Illinois Highway 22.
At least he stayed out of the sand trap.
Nice piloting, admittedly. Spoiled child, clearly. Obnoxious parent, most definitely.
Who thinks it’s okay to land a plane on someone else’s property — without requesting permission — just so your son can make it to tennis practice? Great lesson to be teaching the kids.
Parachuting in would have been a completely different matter.
(Sidebar: I’ve been on that road in Lincolnshire. There’s a great, classic miniature golf course practically around the corner: Par-King. Highly recommended.)
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January 1st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
The golf course had no problem with this.
The faa had no problem.
The only problem is with ignorant people like you calling the police because they thought a plane crashed.
Pilots have been landing on any flat surface since day one and the primary reason to own a plane is to get off the road. When this plane was new the roads were few and badly maintained. Now they are many and congested. I give him credit for the balls to land there and believe he will win any court battle over his usage of his air space. I think I’ll look for some ski’s
This is a reply to an obnoxious and obviously ignorant writer
January 1st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Dave, consider actually reading the post, and the linked article from the Chicago Tribune, before commenting and insulting the author. Enjoy your skis.
January 1st, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I read the post.
What makes the trubune believable?
I consider your artical misleading and inacurate.
He had every right as you and I do to land anywhere we please as long as the owner doesn’t mind and we don’t break restricted air space.
I know this guy and if you took the time to know him you wouldn’t call him obnoxios. If you wrote this about me would be havin a face to face. the opinion you express in your piece is no more than ignorant bullshit.
January 1st, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Oh, you know him? Then be sure to have him get in touch with me via the Contact link on every page of the site.
And fyi, the police chief explicitly stated that the pilot landed without permission. Have some video. If that has been corrected, post a link.