Karen Cardin flies above and beyond

It isn't every person who has the pleasure of owning and flying the first airplane her daddy owned, or - to keep groceries on the table - go blazing through the sky in a Cessna Citation at over 400 knots.

But that's just a couple of things Karen Cardin of Sisters can do, and do very well.

When she's not keeping up with her 14-year-old daughter, Keena, or chasing clouds in the higher parts of the Earth's atmosphere, Karen can be found pounding out a solid beat on her drum set, playing her electric bass for church, or kayaking.

She started going to FAA ground school with her dad "Bunk" in 1979, and then taking flying lessons at 19, and later on, when she was a "ramp rat" at Oregon's Hobby Field in Cresswell. She was about 23 then, and a student at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

While fueling airplanes and washing smashed insects mixed with oil off airplane windshields at Hobby Field, she had the opportunity to rub shoulders with famous airmen, like Bob Hoover, perhaps the greatest aerobatic pilot of all time. She also went riding in the open cockpit of a 1940s Stearman biplane and learned to do aerobatics.

"I can still feel the thrill of the first loop I experienced," she said, "being upside down, looking at the ground below me, and thinking, 'Wow! all that's holding me in the airplane is this harness.'"

It was at this time that she decided to leave the U of O (she returned years later and got her BS degree), head for Lane Community College and get involved in the aviation program. She started looking over the horizon to where her flight training would take her.

After 3-1/2 years at Lane, she had advanced to being an accomplished FAA Flight Instructor with instrument, seaplane, helicopter and multi-engine ratings. Along the way she flew with many people who she remembers with the grin she shares with anyone who wants to talk airplanes - one of them your coorespondent's son Ross Anderson.

"Like Ross, I did all kinds of flying to build my flying hours," Karen recalled. "I towed gliders, flew jumpers for parachutes clubs and did a lot of instructing at Lane - looking back I really did have it good: health insurance, retirement and a steady job."

All those experiences, and building PIC (Pilot-in-Command) hours qualified Karen for her next aviation job, flying fire aircraft with the U.S. Forest Service.

"I really enjoyed that time of my life," she said, as she recounted flying on fires throughout the Northwest. "One part of the job that was especially exciting was flying the infrared mapping crew. We'd go high above the fire, the tech guys would get all the data about the fire and then we'd come down to almost tree-top level - at night - and drop the data canisters to the fire crew on the line so they'd have an idea how the fire would act the next day."

While employed with the Forest Service, Karen also had the opportunity to fly the classic aircraft of aviation, the fabled twin-engined Douglas DC-3.

"Yeah, we flew smoke jumpers in that beautiful airplane," she said, wistfully, "but I never had the chance to get 'typed' in it (FAA certified in that specific airplane)."

That experience was followed with flying in the right seat (copilot) of a Brazilia EMB 120 for United Airlines, and then on to flying copilot in the Boeing 737.

Right in the middle of all that flying, Karen somehow found time to get married and give birth to a beautiful daughter, Kenna. Subsequently, this afforded Karen the honor of having another very important "rating" attached to her name, FTM, "Full-Time Mommy."

Today, Karen flies in the right seat of a sleek, Cessna Citation II for the Northwest giant tire company, Les Schwab.

For relaxation and pleasure, Karen takes her dad's old, beautifully kept-up Cessna 172 Skyhawk into the clear and beautiful skies of Central Oregon.