Antoinette (Tina) Goyer at work editing aviation articles. She passed on November 5^th , 2009.

By:          Norm Goyer

On Thursday November 5^th my beloved wife, Tina, passed away after a long bout with congestive heart failure. She was 83 years old. We had just celebrated our 62^nd Anniversary. Tina was my co-pilot and partner for over 60 years of flying. The great memories of our life  will allow me to keep my sanity in the very lonely days, months and years to follow.

On our very first date in 1946, we went flying in a Fairchild PT-19 over the valleys and hills of the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts. It was then I learned  Tina loved to fly. And fly we did, for 62 years of happiness. Tina was in the Navy Nurse Corp and had one more year of study before she graduated. She lived in Lowell, Massachusetts on the Merrimack River; I lived in Northampton, Massachusetts on the Connecticut River. I had the use of a brand new Taylorcraft on EDO floats. On almost every nice weekend, I would fly east over the Quabbin Reservoir and splash down very close to St. Joseph’s Hospital. On her days off we would fly the coastline from Portland, Maine to Cape Cod.

One beautiful autumn day, with the maple leaves alive with vivid colors, I took Tina for a glider ride over the Berkshire Mountains. There was a cloud street at about 8,000 feet which enabled us to soar for a very long time. It was spectacular. We were married on October 11, 1947, and our life together started taking shape with aviation as a major portion. When our first child was a year old I bought a surplus PT-22 and once again we took to the skies. The Ryan was succeeded by an Aeronca Champ. In a few years, we had six little future pilots to bring up and we were never happier. As the kids grew in size so did our aircraft fleet which included a five passenger Cessna 195 a Piper Cub and two North American SNJs.

Our entire family loved to fly, but our hours in the sky were restricted due to the bad weather on the East Coast, rain, clouds, ice, snow and freezing temperatures which kept us grounded. Then our life changed, we sold our small airport near Albany, New York, packed up and headed to California, where we understood you could fly every day. We settled in Apple Valley, California, with six kids, one granddaughter, one daughter-in law, three airplanes, four motorcycles and three cars. Tina and I purchased Apple Valley Aviation and put all the kids to work. Tina ran the restaurant and the Unicom while our kids pumped gas, learned to fly and got married. Soon we were managing the Barstow-Daggett Airport, Needles Airport, Twenty Nine Palms Airport along with our flagship, Apple Valley Airport. We had Cessna and Piper dealerships; Tina was in her glory. Our kids were working with us and our hangars were full of brand new airplanes to fly. We flew ocean to ocean 27 times in a variety of aircraft including new Pipers, Warbirds, new Cessnas and even a Lake Amphibian. Tina and I flew Hollywood Zeros, Vals and Kates to air shows around Southern California for ten years. What a wonderful exciting life.

Then the aviation  fell apart and we sold out. Our life changed again. It was back to producing television ads and working in the motion picture industry (Aviation Consulting) took up the next ten years. Tina continued to be the backbone of our small company. We next turned to writing and editing; once again her skills provided me with copy editing that continued to present. When tragedy struck, our large family came from New York, Texas, Oregon and Hawaii to help their mom and dad. Our family is large, loving and supportive. We will all miss Tina greatly; life and flying will not be the same without her.

Thanks for reading my sad story; I just needed to tell my readers that a great lady and a friend of aviation has passed on, Norm

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