Morganton retiree shares joy of flight with senior living center residents in Greensboro (2024)

At almost 80 years old, it seems Sam Tate has always been in the air — or on it.

A pilot since 1970, the former radio host and Morganton native couldn’t let his passions go when he moved to a retirement home.

Tate arrived at Carolina Estates in Greensboro after experiencing some health problems last year. He quickly shared his love of flying with his new neighbors.

“When I came here, there was so many people just sitting around with their heads down like they’re waiting to die,” Tate said. “And I said, ‘No, there’s got to be a better way.’”

Tate wanted other seniors to experience the joy of flying. He booked lessons for some of his fellow Carolina Estates residents with Piedmont Flight School in Winston-Salem.

“The way it works, they are actually in the driver’s seat, in the left side,” Tate said. “The instructor would take them up for about 3,000 feet to level everything off with the plane, then they say, ‘Hey, now you fly the airplane.’”

Top Gun? No ma’am

Janie Shell, one of the residents at Carolina Estates, said she has always had a taste for adventure. She took Tate up on his offer and said she loved the experience. Shell dedicated the flight to her late brother, who was a paratrooper during the Vietnam War.

“Whenever we took off, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m really doing this,’” Shell said. “And then when he turned over the instrumentation, I went, ‘Do I do Top Gun?’ Where you pull it all the way back and go straight up? He just laughed at me and he said, ‘No, honey, we can’t do Top Gun in this.’

“I had an absolutely wonderful time flying. When we got back, I asked him, ‘When can we do it again?’”

After her turn in the co*ckpit, Shell said after 1,498 more lessons she can fly a commercial plane.

“I’m 73 years old,” Shell said with a laugh. “I don’t think we got anything to worry about.”

Twenty years her senior, Amarylis Allree said she had never thought about flying unless it was as a passenger.

“My first thought was, ‘He’s kidding me,’” Allree said. “I really didn’t think he meant it … and he kept on. I just laughed, and I thought he was joking with me.”

When Tate told her he was serious, she decided to get on board.

“I told my sister about it,” Allree said. “She sent me a card and it had a Band-Aid in it, and it said, ‘I think your brain is leaking.’ I said, ‘It may be, but I’m having a lot of fun.’”

Annie Lanier said flying was unlike anything she ever imagined. She said she hoped more people would take the opportunity to fly if they ever got the chance.

“They’d be surprised what difference it makes seeing the environment and the wonders of the earth from the plane looking down as opposed to looking up,” Lanier said. “It is beautiful. You see the marvelous works of the Almighty Creator. It gives you another look on life.”

Tate now is being asked to bring his message to retirement communities around the area, including one in Thomasville, to encourage older people to stay active and enjoy life in all its seasons.

“It’s one of the most exciting things for us,” Tate said. “Even when I was teaching students how to fly, I would let them know, ‘You need to learn this skill because you’re one of the chosen few.’”

Everybody has a story

Tate is working to get his new friends on the air, as well as in the air.

Tate, who might be better known to Greensboro natives as Sam “The Sham” Tate, has worked in radio since 1964, getting his start at WEAL in Greensboro while he was a student at N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University.

He worked at WMNC in Morganton for about 20 years, built a radio station in Blowing Rock in the 1980s and is the cofounder of a nationally syndicated oldie-goldie Black gospel show, Gospel Gems Network.

Coming full circle in his radio career, Tate now has a show called “Flashback,” where he interviews his neighbors at Carolina Estates about their lives.

“Everybody has a story to tell,” Tate said.

Tate said he doesn’t want any story to go unheard.

“Our society is the only society that overlooks the elders,” Tate said. “I’m one of them, so I refuse to let us be overlooked.”