'Needed something to do': 90-year-old veteran building plane in his Arlington garage
ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — We all had more time during the COVID-19 pandemic to tinker around the house. Many of us picking up a pastime to fill the void of isolation.
But 90-year-old Bill Vickland didn’t go with knitting or scrapbooking to calm his nerves. Vickland is building a plane inside his Arlington, Virginia home.
“Bored and lonely and just needed something to do. Well, it makes sense for a guy who is 90 years old living alone. There’s not a whole lot to do after you’ve mowed the lawn once or twice a week," says Vickland with a chuckle.
The Pandemic Plane Project
“If I’m asked what this is doing in my garage, all I can say is it’s better in the garage then in the family room," says Vickland.
Bill Vickland is admittedly no spring chicken.
Vickland says, “We’ve been working on it now for about 14-15 months: about 75 percent complete.”
But he still manages to see life through the lens of childhood.
“I started building model airplanes when I was 9. I started flying at 17," Vickland adds while looking over childhood photos.
Vickland’s love of planes and their parts evolved into a life-long infatuation with flight. He began his career as an Air Force jet engine mechanic, after that rocket propulsion engineer, then diverted to humanitarian work.
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He was on the ground in the 1960s for The Polio Project in Guyana, South America, improving the lives of countless children.
“I was with Peace Corps at the time and I would ferry the Peace Corps volunteers from one little airstrip to another. In some cases, the kids would walk 10-15 miles," says Vickland.
Vickland graduated to a diplomacy position within the State Department, traveling to the former Yugoslavia to witness and report on atrocities that haunt him to this day.
“I saw women and children who were fetching water from the only water supply in Sarajevo get shot down by snipers from a mile away," Vickland adds.
Despite those bad memories, he always found comfort on the home front with his beloved wife Joan.
She was the Love of my Life
Vickland says, “Best friend I ever had. You’re married 62 years something has got to be working right.”
In retirement, they nearly perfected the sport of glider racing. With Joan his crew chief they soared the skies, finishing runner-up in 3 national championships, all the while loving deeply.
Vickland says, “I was searching through my pictures and found this one and rediscovered how pretty she was, beautiful actually.
For all that this retired jet engine mechanic can do with his hands, there’s no tool to mend a broken heart.
“My wife died six years ago and I spent four or five years really pretty lonely. And [I] began drinking just a little bit and then drinking a little more in the evening. As time went on, it was two and pretty soon it was three until I was stumbling up these stairs, banging against the walls to get into my bedroom, like an old man. And finally, I decided I didn’t want to do this," says Vickland.
Finding Purpose
So, he turned to the only other thing that keeps him grounded.
Vickland readily admits, “It clearly saved me. It really has given me a great purpose in life.”
This restoration project began an hour west of town just as the pandemic percolated.
Vickland and his partner on the project discovered, amid a cluster of hangars, an old American Champion Citabria at the Warrenton Air Park.
Vickland recalls the classic, single-engine two-seater was in horrible shape, bearing no resemblance to the other gleaming machines that are stored and fly out of this rural airstrip.
He chose the comforts of home to restore this plane piece by piece. Family friend Chiara Shokite is helping rehab the fuselage in Vickland’s garage.
“I only come once or twice a week but I’m really happy to be doing it with him. I’m super proud of him and I can’t wait for it to be done," says Shokite.
The Landing Gear and Wings
To see the rest of the plane, we need to travel 100 miles to the west.
In this stunning hangar nestled along the West Virginia border resides the aircraft’s landing gear and wings. Property owner and flight instructor John Ayers is Vickland's plane rebuilding partner.
Vickland makes the long drive out here often so two old friends can create something hopeful in a time so wrought with worry. Eventually, Vickland will haul the fuselage here to connect the pieces of this remarkable pandemic puzzle.
Vickland proclaims, “I will feel good if I’m able to fly it.”
Bill Vickland has every intention of flying the Citabria. Her maiden voyage on an airstrip just a stone’s throw from this hanger.
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But first, he and his friends need to finish it. Maybe by the end of the summer if all goes right.