High Flying

Mike Steiner’s Award-Winning Aviation Journey…

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.

It’s a venerable aviation axiom and it’s one Mike Steiner firmly believes in. At 78, the Cottonwood resident qualifies as a (relatively) old pilot, but as his recent commendation from the Federal Aviation Administration attests, he’s a safe one.

In December, Steiner was presented with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, a distinction reserved for licensed pilots who have flown for 50 or more years without violating any FAA rules or regulations.
As an added measure, Steiner also was presented with the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award for 50 years of unblemished work as a certified Airframe & Powerplant mechanic. The award is named in honor of Charles Taylor, the first aviation mechanic in powered flight.

Steiner has been flying for 54 years and has been in love with aviation since he was a 10-year-old boy pulling weeds alongside his adoptive father on an Indiana soybean field. It was then that a leather-helmeted pilot in a homebuilt one-seater buzzed the two workers before being induced to land nearby in a freshly mown hay field.

Steiner says he nearly wet his pants from the excitement of meeting an actual pilot and getting to sit in the plane’s cockpit. From that moment, Steiner says he knew he’d leave the farm and spend his days in the clouds like his newfound idol.

That boyhood fantasy inched closer to reality a few years later when Steiner received a draft notice after graduating high school and joined the Air Force. After training, Steiner left on
an “all-expense-paid tour” of Vietnam, where he served for 13 months as a flying crew chief aboard a C-130 Hercules based in Cam Ranh Bay.

After being discharged from active duty in 1970, Steiner picked up a bachelor’s degree in aviation maintenance management from Sacramento State as well as his A&P Certificate. He earned his private pilot certificate in 1971 and continued his training up to multi-engine airline transport status.
Steiner also put down roots, building a home on 20 acres in Browns Valley near Marysville. The spread had room for cows and horses—and a grass airstrip. “Perfect for raising a pilot’s family,” he says. That family includes his wife of 56 years, Gayle. The two started as pen pals while Steiner was serving in Vietnam. They have three daughters, four granddaughters and three great-granddaughters.

Military service continued in short order when Steiner joined the Air Force Reserve in 1972 at Travis Air Force Base. He served a total of 26 years “flying sideways” as a flight engineer on a C-141 Starlifter. That stretch included 15 months of active duty during Operation Desert Storm.

In between his one-weekend-a-month Air Force obligations, Steiner started buying, refurbishing and selling small airplanes. That practice continued for more than 50 years and 45 airplanes. Steiner has settled on a pristine red, white and blue Cessna 177 Cardinal that he continues to fly. He had the registration or “N” number changed to N177MP to reflect the model and the initials for “Papa Mike,” the nickname his grandkids use.

Steiner also logged thousands of hours flying for a non-scheduled airline based in the San Francisco Bay Area, piloting Boeing 707s and 727s and the DC-8 and DC-10. He finished in 1996, the same year he retired from the Air Force Reserve. Throughout his aviation career, Steiner has flown or instructed in 105 different aircraft.

After retirement, Steiner answered a second calling, earning a master’s in pastoral ministry at Simpson University and joining Village Missions, an Oregon-based organization that helps place pastors in rural communities. Steiner has been with the organization for 35 years; he was a pastor in Manton for 19 years and has spent the past two years ministering at the Ono-Igo Community Church.

As a proud member of the Redding-based Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 157, Steiner enjoys the camaraderie of fellow pilots and promoting aviation to the next generation through the chapter’s Young Eagles program. •