FINDING HOME ABOVE THE SURFACE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR LANDS IN DUNCAN READY TO TEACH
Q & A AND PHOTO BY CHARLENE BELEW
Everybody has heard the old adage , “ The sky is the limit .” But if you ask Richard Martin , he ’ ll tell you , “ The sky is home .”
You could say the love Richard has for the wide blue yonder runs in his blood .
Martin , who spent most of his life growing up in South Houston , took his first flight in the pilot ’ s seat around the age of 11 . It ’ s safe to say he ’ s been hooked since .
Richard ’ s connection to aviation stems from his family — his uncle is a corporate pilot , his grandfather worked maintenance and served in the Navy , his dad ’ s dad represented the Air Force and his own father worked in the Army fixing helicopters .
The taste at a young age stuck with Richard throughout his older years . He went to college , but college isn ’ t for everyone . That ’ s when his grandparents suggested using the family hangar to learn maintenance and flight skills .
“ My grandparents always said , if you want to learn how to fly , you want to work on the craft first so you can do it right ,” Martin said . “ And so that ’ s kind of how I got involved in aviation .”
A trip back down to Houston and Martin finished his training , where he obtained his private , his instrumental and his commercial certificates and licenses .
But Richard wanted a change of pace , so he moved to the Sooner state after completing most of his training . He first went to Ardmore but eventually landed himself in Duncan — which Martin had never heard of — as 5B Aviation ’ s Head Flight Instructor after an impromptu visit with a friend .
That visit obviously led to much more for Richard , and he began to make relationships at Duncan Municipal Airport and 5B Aviation quickly . The hire almost came immediately , and Richard began splitting his time between Ardmore and Duncan .
A year after that , he officially met Chris Billings and they began hashing out details and envisioning the flight program .
That was two years ago almost , Richard said .
5B Aviation is open daily from 8 a . m . to 5 p . m . and is located at 2700 S . 13th St ., Duncan . For more information , call 580-656- 2020 , find 5B Aviation , LLC on Facebook or visit www . fivebravoaviation . com .
Q : What ’ s the most important thing for the community to know about aviation that they probably don ’ t know ?
A :
There ’ s a lot more options to getting into aviation than what they expect . So everyone , the first thing that they look at is loans . That ’ s the first thing that people think of for aviation , especially since everything ’ s for the rich , right ? Well , there ’ s multiple different ways to go about it . There ’ s grants , there ’ s scholarships . AOP has a great organization that helps students become pilots and in getting scholarships , and getting your medicals and any other questions that they may really have . EAA is another one , they have what is called the Young Eagles program . They even have a program called the Eagles . Typically , those are two different companies that I push people to for scholarships and other ways to get involved in aviation .
24 DUNCAN MAGAZINE | FALL 2022