‘Most of us pilots love to fly, so we do this flying at our own expense and time because we’re wanting to pay it forward.’

Doug Wohl, Fort Salonga

“I was in my mid 40s and a friend said, ‘I’m going for a demonstration flight in a small airplane.’ And he said, ‘Would you like to try it?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I went to Farmingdale Airport and took a flight — and I was hooked.

“Over the years I started flying for public benefit organizations, and PALS [Patient AirLift Services] SkyHope is part of it. I’m up to about 200 missions. It was a lot of hard work to develop the skills to take my wife and kids, and finally strangers, up safely.

“I fly a Cirrus SR22. It’s a reasonably new airplane with a lot of innovative safety features, like a full-plane safety parachute. When my wife heard about that, she said, ‘That’s the plane you’ve got to fly.’

“Most of us pilots love to fly, so we do this at our own expense and time because we’re wanting to pay it forward. When I started, my kids were young and I was partial to families with kids who needed help.

“PALS SkyHope does outreach with doctors, hospitals and programs to find patients who need help getting to treatment; they do mission coordination. You don’t have to be monetarily in need. Somebody could make a decent living but can’t travel eight hours for treatment or be away from family or work, or they’re immunocompromised and can’t take public transportation.

Most of us pilots love to fly, so we do this at our own expense and time because we’re wanting to pay it forward.

“The folks at PALS know I’m partial to kids. So when they have a family starting out for treatment, they reach out to me. If I told you I’m going to fly you from White Plains to Boston, high through the clouds, you might be a little nervous. So I give a lot of safety instructions. And we do a little sightseeing. If we’re flying over Manhattan and our route takes us over Central Park, I point that out. Or you can look one way and see the George Washington Bridge and look the other way and see New York Harbor and Statue of Liberty.

“I flew a young girl years ago. She was maybe a year old or so, and it was the first time she and her family were going for a consultation in Boston. She had problems walking. I flew her and her family many times over the years, and eventually I got videos of her running around her backyard with her brother and her parents. I still get a picture or video once in a while.

“Doing this, you do make lasting relationships with people.”

Interviewed by Rosemary Olander-Beach