Exciting CPAs

Wild Blue Yonder Calls to CPA

Patty Gannon

As a teenager, Steve Clarke made the decision to join the Royal Air Force after watching a fighter plane leave beautiful contrails in the sky over his school. The apparent freedom of the pilot and the vastness of the sky appealed to him. To this day, Clarke, an Arizona CPA and the owner of two airplanes — a Piper Cherokee 235 and a Cirrus SR-22 — feels the exhilaration of taking off, and the freedom of guiding the aircraft hundreds of miles to a destination that only he chooses. He also volunteers his flight time to fly blood platelets around the state.

“I love to fly and have flown over much of the western U.S.,” says Clarke, a CPA with Lancaster Consulting. “I even managed to create a business venture with them because I rent them to Valley Flying Club, which is based at Deer Valley Airport.”

“I attended Manchester University in England, and I learned to fly a DeHavilland Chipmunk (a tiny single piston engine aerobatic aircraft) and studied all the aviation-related classes needed to become a professional pilot. After university, I went to the British equivalent of the Air Force Academy (called the RAF College, Cranwell) where I learned to fly jet aircraft.

“When I left the Royal Air Force in 1974, I continued my love of flying, and about eight years ago, I got my U.S. pilot’s license,” says Clarke, who flies approximately 75 hours a year.

“Both of my aircraft have GPS navigation systems that are incredibly accurate and far more sophisticated than existed even in high-end jets just 20 years ago. I have loved the process of learning to operate and manage the systems now available and I am in awe of the power of these well trained electrons to guide me to my destination,” comments Clarke, who often flies his friends and family around when they need to get somewhere.

“In this day of high security travel, I can beat a commercial airline anywhere within a range of 1,000 miles and I don’t have to take my shoes off to do it,” states Clarke. “But my greatest pleasure is in ferrying blood and platelets around the state for United Blood Services.” Through a group called “Flights For Life” Clarke flies blood from collection sites all over the state to Phoenix for processing (getting the blood through processing sooner helps preserve it) and also takes platelets from the processing center in Phoenix to Yuma and Flagstaff for use in open heart surgeries.

“It is incredibly rewarding to deliver the blood on time, knowing that someone’s life may depend on it in the next few hours,” says Clarke. — Patty Gannon

Know an exciting CPA? Email Patty Gannon at pgannon@ascpa.com.

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