James Thibodeaux is the guiding light behind the airfield, and is the one responsible for getting it built. Piece by piece, he and Beth (his wife) and close friends built the airfield and cabin and hangar, and it’s his love of the place that keeps it going, along with the amazing crowd of people he has managed to attract.
When he’s not flying, which he’d rather be doing more than just about anything else, James manages a local orthopedic doctor’s real estate and whatever various business projects the doctor has going at any one time.
It’s a time consuming and high stress job, and he’s actively looking to get into more flying. He teaches ultra-light flying for a select few lucky folks, and at some point or another has taught almost all the others who use the field – he’s a true “old timer”. James manages the airfield, and is getting licensed for additional aircraft.
James does aerobatics in planes as well as flying his ultralights, and he flies passenger aircraft for business clients. He and Albert own an aerobatics plane and he and Greg own another plane for aerobatics, the Citabria.
James is famous for his antics, and stories abound about him – from the time he landed an ultralight on a semi-truck on Interstate 10 (yes the truck was moving at the time) to his landing an ultralight on the top of an SUV (they did put a big piece of plywood on it), to the time he broke his back in an ultralight crash and didn’t know it for several days.
With his still-blond hair (he’s nearing fifty), his slender build, and his ultra-cool pilot’s sunglasses, James is the quintessential pilot. With his good looks, and his cool under pressure (he admits to a time when his temper wasn’t always so even), his dry and constant sense of humor, and his daredevil antics, he’d make a great leading character in a romance novel.
But don’t let the looks and antics fool you – James is very widely read, pays attention to everything, has an engineer’s mind, and can carry on an intensely interesting and educated conversation on any number of subjects.
Albert was our first introduction to the rest of the airfield crowd. Wandering out our first morning there, we saw someone in the hangar, and decided to go see who it was. By that time Chelsea and I had moved our bicycles from the porch to the hangar, figuring they’d get better protection from the rain and animals.
A maybe-late-40’s guy was working intently on one of the aircraft, over near our bikes and trailers. He took a good look at us, and commented, “Y’all are the ones on the bahcycles.”
Albert is another daredevil at heart. He’s been flying since forever, and has more stories than you can shake a stick at, not the least of which was having broken his back in an ultralight crash right next to the airfield a few years ago.
Working “by day” as a traveling MRI technician, he’s got a huge heart, a great sense of humor, and a wicked gleam in his eyes. He’s the one who keeps the planes in sparkling mechanical condition.
We discovered quickly that there’s an airfield crowd that meets every Sunday, and often on Tuesdays as well. It used to be quite regular for quite a time, but in recent months the attendance has dropped a bit as days got hotter and lives got busier. We were lucky enough, though, to meet many of the main characters.
There’s Kurt Babineaux, who wields a Nikon D40, and produces an incredible number of awesome photographs. Check out his website at www.airheadjr.com. He’s got a great video there of the Annual Crawfish Fly-In which gives a great feeling of what goes on the airfield.
Kurt is a pro at Photoshop, and his videos and photography are well worth taking a look at. He gave us a good lead for learning Photoshop and other software – www.goodtutorial.com.
Kurt looks very unassuming, but then he opens his mouth and it’s one unbroken string of hilarious comments and stories. It was hysterical being around him. He flies ultralights too, and he and Greg fly in a club together.
Dale is a neighbor at the airfield. He lost 3 houses and a condo in Plaquemines Parish in New Orleans during Katrina. Not wanting to start over again there, he sold everything and bought almost 9 acres near Abbeville, near the airfield. He owns an ultra-light.
Robert is another old-timer. He built his own ultralight, and shows up regularly with his wife and their dog Jackie, a Portuguese podengo. Robert’s wife makes killer cookies!
Greg Myers is a licensed pilot who owns the Citabria with James. He has flown aerobatics in a bi-plane, and is a close friend of Kurt. He’s tall, good-looking (with echoes of Ben Affleck) and quiet, and really loves flying.
Greg took me up in the Citabria, and even though I was initially terrified, it took about 2 minutes to realize that I loved it. Chelsea was braver than I was – she went up with Greg and agreed to do a loop and a roll with him. She loved it, and I’ve been kicking myself ever since that I didn’t say yes!
Fred Campbell Jr. works a dragline – he does dredging in rivers and waterways and builds seawalls, retaining walls, docks etc.. When an accident sidelined him for a while about a year ago, he got a small settlement, and used it to by an ultralight. He’d been having James teach him for some months before he got his plane, and now he’s unstoppable…he flies any chance he gets.
Fred will take off for an hour at a time, unlike the others who will float around locally, come back down, and go up again. Fred was the awesome guy who took us up in really windy conditions before the others arrived, and took Rosemary up again while James was flying with Chelsea so we could get photos up in the air of each other. We’ll have more about Fred later.
Beau and Kevin are two guys who work for an oil company. Beau lives up near Lafayette, and has a few acres where he wants to put an airstrip. Kevin lives only about 6 miles from the Thibs airstrip. They went in together to buy an ultralight, and had the original idea of having James teach them. They ended up getting a few lessons and then teaching themselves; now they are both hooked.
Thibs airfield reminds me of what I think about the US about 100 years ago – when times seemed simpler. It’s a group of people doing what they love; having frequent informal get-togethers around something they love. Food is a part of it – dinner is barbecued every Sunday and people bring potluck.
There’s a sense of freedom and independence. It’s like it was at the beginning of aviation in our country, and it’s like a flying club – everyone who loves it gets together and talks planes, and flies around. There’s always someone in the air or working on a plane except at dinner. People fly in from other airports to join the fun; someone is always buzzing the hangar, doing aerobatics; flying in formation.
This is a crowd that is very accepting if you’ve got heart. They love spunk. There’s a real appreciation of individuality; a real appreciation of skill; a real appreciation of adventure. It seems as though they all travel by plane and motorcycle, primarily; they’re constantly going somewhere or just coming back from somewhere. They really appreciate someone who is willing to expand personal boundaries. There’s a lot of the pioneer spirit here, and a sense of helping out – all for one and one for all if needed.
James is the force that pulls it all together – he draws people together, and provides the environment for all this to flourish – he attracts people who offer something wonderful to the group – mechanicking, mowing the grass, repairs and maintenance, video and photographs. He brings in those with new planes; he finds strong individuals.
It’s a motley crew of individuals; everyone is loyal – they want to keep coming back, and they really appreciate what they have here. It’s an awesome group, and we feel both humbled and honored to have been a part of it. It changed our lives and opened us up to a world we never knew existed, except in story books, and it’s a world we have come to love and appreciate tremendously.