A priest and a lawyer walk into a hangar…
Sounds like the beginning of an old joke, right? For Monsignor William “Bill” King and Ron Turo, it’s the setup to a friendship full of jokes and easy banter. The priest and the lawyer share much in common—their sense of humor, travel, the law, a good Scotch—and flying. And it’s the flying that creates a bond between the two, which solidified a friendship that started 40 years ago in high school.
Boy Scouts
In the 1970s, King and Turo were typical kids growing up in a small town. Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, had a population of about 9,500 then. The pair went to Trinity High School, one of two high schools in the area. Turo’s dad was the area Boy Scout leader, and Turo made Eagle Scout—scouting’s highest achievement—when he was 14. King, the younger of the two friends, snuck in two weeks before the age-18 cutoff, thanks to Turo’s father helping him get his final merit badges. They both liked the same girl—Claire Fetterman—but Turo is the one who married her, and the couple now has two grown sons.
The two men lost track of one another as each went to college and then to graduate studies: King to the seminary and Turo to law school. “I was going to be a physician,” quips King. “But God and I fought about it and He won.” King earned his doctorate and studied in Rome. He is pastor at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Turo was a criminal defense attorney at his own law firm in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and recently retired. He now works part-time as a juvenile defender. He is also part owner of a flight school and owns a Cessna 172N.
“I have a list of things I want to do and flying was on that list,” Turo says. “My wife and I both got our licenses.” He started flying about 15 years ago, purchasing the Cessna for his training. The flying bug bit everyone in the family; his son is an F/A–18 pilot in the Navy.
When King returned to the area, the pair met up again and realized they shared many of the same passions. “Wine, travel, and beautiful women,” says Turo.
“Oh, don’t say that. My bishop might call me if he reads that,” says King.
Laughter is important to the friendship. “We’re not doing this for you,” King tells the author.
“We joke all day long,” adds Turo.
Flying friends
King started taking lessons with the help of Turo, Turo’s flight school—Cumberland Valley Aviation—and Turo’s business partner and CFI, Barbara George. “Ron took me flying in his 172, and I was hooked,” King says. He took his checkride in Turo’s airplane.
“He likes me because I have an airplane,” Turo says.
“We like hanging out together,” King says. “The friendship is important. And of course, he deeply needs spiritual care.”
The two friends set aside every Wednesday to fly together. King calls it “My holy day of no obligations.” But they found flying around their area didn’t provide the challenges both craved and enjoy. So Turo suggested they attempt to fly to all of the 124 public-use airports in Pennsylvania.
“It keeps us flying on a regular basis. It gives us a reason to fly. And both of us have greatly increased our hours,” Turo says. “It keeps us up to date with our technique.” Both are working on their instrument ratings.
Flying the commonwealth
Pennsylvania is a large state (46,000 square miles), and some of the 124 public-use airports are quite a trek in a 172. King and Turo are about halfway through the list. But their joy at discovering new adventures and experiencing unusual events has brought the two friends even closer together.
They’ve found airports that aren’t well-maintained and challenged their landing skills. They’ve seen coyotes and deer on runways. King observed a bald eagle flying parallel with him on final, and Turo found a new favorite airstrip. “Penns Cave Airport is a private strip, a small strip, that’s up a hill,” he says. “That made for some challenging takeoffs.”
“We think a lot alike,” says King.
“Which is frightening,” says Turo.
But they’re always joking and they trust each other. One usually flies out to an airport and the other flies home. On one flight they had a partial engine failure.
“That wasn’t a fun story,” says King.
They were flying to Maryland’s Harford County Airport and King was in the left seat. When he made his 10-mile inbound call, pushed the fuel mixture to full rich, and reduced his rpm, the engine began to sputter and the airframe began to shake. Since he had the field in sight, he radioed that they’d be doing a straight-in approach. But they were high and fast and he feared they’d hit the trees at the end of the runway.
“The line guy said he called everyone out to look [at us] because he’d never seen a crash before,” quips Turo. King decided he’d have a better chance if he executed a go-around to land midfield. The engine sputtered and kicked, but they were able to make a successful turn back around to the runway and land.
They taxied off the runway and attempted to clear the spark plugs with high rpm and leaned mixture. “That did the trick,” King says. “We returned to Carlisle with Ron in the left seat—I told him if we were crashing, he should drive his own airplane into the ground.”
The like-minded friends do have one difference of opinion: landings.
“I land high,” says Turo. “I admit it. He [King] lands like you should.”
“I like to point out the VASI lights to Ron,” King says. “His landings have greatly improved my prayer life.”
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