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George Bockerstette thinks back to the years when he was a firefighter/EMT with the West Carrollton Fire Department.

"I'd be sitting at the fire station, since we are so close to the airport, and I could see these small airplanes go over and I thought that would be interesting," he said.

One day he decided to drive over to the airport and take an introductory flight. "I just got hooked," he said.

It was a fortuitous move, that chance peering at the sky, because Bockerstette is now manager of the Moraine Airpark. It's a position he's held for 10 years.

He began working part-time at the airport while he was a firefighter. Then, in 1998, when he retired from his fire duties, he moved to the full-time position.

The Moraine Airpark is what Bockerstette calls "a grass roots airport," where plenty of older planes seem to congregate. Even so, the airport has a 3,500 foot "hard-surfaced" runway.

It's an uncontrolled airport, which means pilots usually radio their intentions before taking off or landing. But it's an informal arrangement, where traffic pretty much follows the weather.

If it's a cloudy day, Bockerstette might be found cutting grass instead of other airport duties.

The airport is nonprofit and it's owned by stockholders. The five hangars behind the office are an example of how the program works.

"If you 'buy' one of those hangars, you get four shares of stock," Bockerstette explains. There are another four rows of hangars that are rentals. In all, about 120 aircraft call the airport home.

The airport is also home to a flight school and an active Experimental Aircraft Association chapter. There are two full-time flight instructors.

Bockerstette calls airport traffic "about average." He said it hasn't been affected so much by 9/11 as by the price of gasoline.

"When auto fuel goes up, it hits people's pocketbooks and they can't afford to fly."

"When aviation fuel goes up, you've got to raise the price of plane rentals. It's a tough situation," Bockerstette said.

He said it wasn't uncommon in past years for pilots to fly to Urbana to buy a hamburger. "Now they call it the $100 hamburger," he said. Bockerstette spent six years in the U.S. Army, ending his career at Fort Knox, Ky., as a staff sergeant and drill instructor. He completed three tours of duty in Vietnam.

It was when the Army wanted to send him back a fourth time, that he said he had had enough.

He worked for Frigidaire for a while and at a gas station in Washington Twp. That's where he watched his first firefighters be dispatched. "I just said, 'I gotta do that,' " he said.

Bockerstette, 63, lives in Germantown with his wife, Lynn.

Typically, Bockerstette arrives at the airport at about 6 a.m. and doesn't leave until 4 p.m. He checks in on weekends to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Nearing retirement age, what does the future hold? "It depends on what the airport does," he said. If the airport continues needing him, he'll continue enjoying his time with general aviation.

Care to see if you'd like flying? Call the Moraine Airpark at (937) 866-2489. Depending on your weight, a 30-minute introductory flight with an instructor costs about $56.

Contact this reporter at (937) 696-2080 or williamgschmidt@verizon.net.