Jun 10th, 2017

A Tribute to Batman – Adam West

Posted in Aviation News

When I was very young I had two favorite TV shows, Gilligan’s Island and Batman.  I would be in complete suspense when Batman and Robin would be caught by the villain (Joker, Riddler, Catwoman, and Penguin), caught in a trap, and on the verge of death.  How would they get out of it this time?  I would have to wait an entire week to find out, “Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel”.

My tremendous Mom would tie a long dish towel around my neck for a cape, give me a string with a metal clip on the end and I had my bat rope.  I would through my bat rope into the tree in the front yard on Dogoon Drive in Louisville, KY at age 4 and pretend to scale the trunk.  I was Batman.

Adam West, who played Batman, passed away today.  It will happen to all of us one day, unless Jesus Christ comes back.  It marks the end of an era for me.  When I got into elementary school, the Batman re-runs would come on WXIX-TV, Channel 19, as part of Larry Smith and the Puppets.  Right after school, all the boys in the neighborhood would watch, Jimmy, David, Kevin and then we would come out and play and compare notes on how Batman captured the villains yet again.

When I had my own kids, I made it a point to tape the show on an off channel and we would sit and watch an episode together every week or so.  My boys loved it, too.  In 2015, we got to see Adam West and Burt Ward at the Comic Expo in Cincinnati.  Batman looked great, even in his late 80s.  We even got to talk with Robin, who was very nice.

So what does Batman have to do with flying?  Batman loved to fight with the villains when it came time (Bam, Pow, Biff), but before he started fighting, he did a lot of thinking.  Batman was constantly analyzing the situation, looking for clues and thinking things through before he took action.  He would analyze the case (with Robin’s help, Holy Cow Batman) and think carefully before he acted or committed himself.  These are the characteristics of a good pilot.  In an emergency, a good pilot maintains aircraft control, analyzes the situation and takes appropriate action, and lands as soon as conditions permit.  Isn’t that what Batman did, maintained control (his composure), analyzed the situation and took appropriate action at the right time?  Come to think of it, maybe my first pilot lesson came at age 4, watching my hero, Batman.

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>