Louisville Biplane Pilot Is Flying for a Cause

By Larry Muhammad, 'Louisville Courier Journal'

On most days, pilot Steve Koch of Classic Biplane Tours gives customers tours of Louisville-area landmarks aboard his biplane, but once a month for the past year he has also used his piloting skills to deliver supplies to Christian missionaries in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas. "We've done lots of marriage proposals, birthdays, anniversaries," says Koch. "We do a lot of charity work. We do an event for kids with Down syndrome, and we've done fundraising flights for a cancer-research organization." Koch adds, "Flying into Third World countries to help people, it's like realizing a dream. Doing this kind of work has given me a whole different view of what's important in life, because it's so different there than what we're used to here." The supply flights are done in coordination with Agape Flights, a Florida-based faith-based nonprofit that serves close to 400 missionary families in the Caribbean. Koch is among five volunteer pilots working with the organization, which was founded in 1980. "The work Steve does is crucial because planes are the only way we get supplies to the missionaries, so the commitment is substantial," says Agape Flights Executive Director Charlie Gardner.

August 20, 2009