John "Krum" Krummel
Yearbook Photo
Sandi & Krum 2011
Since departing the holding pattern at Vance AFB in the summer of ’72, I hung around the Military Airlift Command up until the day Tony McPeak decided to revert the Air Force back to the leather helmet days.
After graduating from the United States Air Force, I did a few odd ball experiments in the civilian job market. This is where I met Sandi. She actually was my supervisor during a stent with a home healthcare durable medical equipment company. We did not necessarily get along, but we did tolerate each other. Eventually, a golfing buddy of mine, who happened to own the local Miller Beer distributing company, ask me to manage his aviation asset. What a great deal, the opportunity to get back into the aviation business and get paid with hops and barley. This is also about the time Sandi and I really started liking each other. We had been dating for about four years when, during a weak moment in a parking lot in Yakima, Washington during the fall of 1998, I ask her to marry me. She accepted without hesitation and before I could make the return trip to Abilene, Texas in mid December, she had made all arrangements to seal the deal on January 1st, 1999 at the Hills Country Club, in Austin. Although we have known each other for almost 19 years, we have been happily married for 13 years now.
Once Sandi and I became a party of one, I realized I could no longer aviate for beer. Without any solicitation on my part, I was offered the job as Chief Pilot for Abilene Aero Charter Department. The charter business is an interesting operation, but, I soon came to realize there are far fewer FAA restrictions if you can get into FAR Part 91 flying. I was afforded the opportunity to fly for a corporate flight department in Amarillo, Texas. Sandi and I packed up and moved to Amarillo in the early part of 2001. We both enjoyed our tenure working for the family in the High Plains. We did come to realize why the Texas Panhandle was sometimes referred to as Siberia Texas. In the winter, the only thing between Amarillo and the North Pole is a barbed wire fence across the panhandle of Oklahoma.
All good things must soon come to an end. Pockets get a little shallow, and when this happens, the first thing to go is the aviation business and assets. In the fall of 2005, I was in the process of closing down the aviation department in Amarillo, when I contacted my old boss in Abilene to ask if he was interested in brokering our airplane asset. His statement to me was, “Krummel, if you sell that airplane, you don’t have a job. I just sold a King Air to a client in McKinney, and he is looking for a pilot. I will call you back in 30 minutes.” He did and gave me a phone number to call. I visited with my new boss for about 30 minutes. He hired me sight unseen. So, we moved to McKinney, Texas in January, 2006, and I took over management of his corporate flight operations.
Sandi was not to keen about moving away from her dream home in Amarillo and all her friends, until I told her we would be moving very close to her son and his wife, who lived in Frisco, Texas. This helped soften the disappointment of uprooting her from the serene life of the Panhandle country and moving her to the hectic confines of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.
Since our arrival in McKinney, Shane and Becky have provided us with two adorable grand children. Jorja Mae is 4 years old and Liam Cullen is 8 months old. Since I never had any children of my own, I am thoroughly enjoying my right as “PaPa” to wreck my grand kids, then send them home to mommy and daddy to be re-civilized.
I truly look forward to getting reacquainted with everyone from the UPT Class of 73-01.
After graduating from the United States Air Force, I did a few odd ball experiments in the civilian job market. This is where I met Sandi. She actually was my supervisor during a stent with a home healthcare durable medical equipment company. We did not necessarily get along, but we did tolerate each other. Eventually, a golfing buddy of mine, who happened to own the local Miller Beer distributing company, ask me to manage his aviation asset. What a great deal, the opportunity to get back into the aviation business and get paid with hops and barley. This is also about the time Sandi and I really started liking each other. We had been dating for about four years when, during a weak moment in a parking lot in Yakima, Washington during the fall of 1998, I ask her to marry me. She accepted without hesitation and before I could make the return trip to Abilene, Texas in mid December, she had made all arrangements to seal the deal on January 1st, 1999 at the Hills Country Club, in Austin. Although we have known each other for almost 19 years, we have been happily married for 13 years now.
Once Sandi and I became a party of one, I realized I could no longer aviate for beer. Without any solicitation on my part, I was offered the job as Chief Pilot for Abilene Aero Charter Department. The charter business is an interesting operation, but, I soon came to realize there are far fewer FAA restrictions if you can get into FAR Part 91 flying. I was afforded the opportunity to fly for a corporate flight department in Amarillo, Texas. Sandi and I packed up and moved to Amarillo in the early part of 2001. We both enjoyed our tenure working for the family in the High Plains. We did come to realize why the Texas Panhandle was sometimes referred to as Siberia Texas. In the winter, the only thing between Amarillo and the North Pole is a barbed wire fence across the panhandle of Oklahoma.
All good things must soon come to an end. Pockets get a little shallow, and when this happens, the first thing to go is the aviation business and assets. In the fall of 2005, I was in the process of closing down the aviation department in Amarillo, when I contacted my old boss in Abilene to ask if he was interested in brokering our airplane asset. His statement to me was, “Krummel, if you sell that airplane, you don’t have a job. I just sold a King Air to a client in McKinney, and he is looking for a pilot. I will call you back in 30 minutes.” He did and gave me a phone number to call. I visited with my new boss for about 30 minutes. He hired me sight unseen. So, we moved to McKinney, Texas in January, 2006, and I took over management of his corporate flight operations.
Sandi was not to keen about moving away from her dream home in Amarillo and all her friends, until I told her we would be moving very close to her son and his wife, who lived in Frisco, Texas. This helped soften the disappointment of uprooting her from the serene life of the Panhandle country and moving her to the hectic confines of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.
Since our arrival in McKinney, Shane and Becky have provided us with two adorable grand children. Jorja Mae is 4 years old and Liam Cullen is 8 months old. Since I never had any children of my own, I am thoroughly enjoying my right as “PaPa” to wreck my grand kids, then send them home to mommy and daddy to be re-civilized.
I truly look forward to getting reacquainted with everyone from the UPT Class of 73-01.