Earning her wings after a 30-year hiatus

Highly motivated and positively driven by an insatiable curiosity, Gail Franks embodies the epitome of a “can do” attitude. With grit and gusto, she tackles most anything from coding intricate software programs to mechanical repairs and operating heavy equipment.

Her most recent successful achievement was earning her private pilot certificate after a 30-year hiatus from flying after her first solo.

Gail grew up underneath the final approach path to Berry Field, now Nashville International Airport (KBNA), in Tennessee. Seeing and hearing those airplanes flying overhead fostered her fascination with aviation.

“My dad loved airplanes and he took me to local airshows when I was a kid. It was always a thrill to watch the Thunderbirds fly. When I was about 4, I took an airplane flight at the Hazel Green Airport (M38) in Alabama, and I just had a blast,” recalled Gail.

When Gail was a teenager, she’d drive the short distance to Berry Field just to see the airport and airplane lights during night operations. Little did she know at the time that she’d later marry Ken Franks, a private pilot who was an air traffic controller at Berry Field.

In 1988, Gail and Ken married and Gail attended Oshkosh with Ken for the first time.

“I was 25 years old and it really had an impact on me,” she recalled. “Of course we’ve been attending ever since.”

Prior to their marriage, Ken had been working on his ratings and was just a checkride away from getting his CFI when a job opportunity took priority in his life. Then in 1990, when Gail showed an avid interest in learning to fly, he decided to get back into flying.

They bought a 1977 Cessna 172N Skyhawk (N734CC) in March 1990, affectionately known as “Charlie Charlie.”

“I started showing Gail the basics of flying, and we made a game to practice landings, similar to H-O-R-S-E where kids shoot basketball goals, and I’d shoot a certain kind of approach and then Gail would try to shoot the same type approach, only better,” Ken explained.

Solo, Take One

Gail started taking lessons from CFI/IA Clay Derryberry at Ellington Airport (KLUG).

“Gail’s really sharp and had a good touch with the airplane — in spite of Ken’s influence, she did pretty well!” chuckled Clay.

On May 9, 1992, Gail soloed Charlie Charlie. But gradually, an unintended, decades-long hiatus from flight instruction evolved.

Gail hadn’t lost interest in aviation — quite the contrary. She became more involved in multiple facets of aviation than she’d ever dreamed.

Gail and Ken were on a mission to find land and build a runway. They were both working full time in Nashville, so their quest for property continued for about three years, by airplane and by car. Then a chance acquaintance mailed them an auction flyer. Gail recognized the property immediately as a narrow, north-to-south tract that had piqued their interest when they had flown over it.

Gail and Ken bought the 25-acre lot, as well as a long, intersecting west-to-east 10 acre lot at an auction on Nov. 14, 1992.

“That’s where the name T-Top comes from,” explained Gail.

Buying the property was a dream come true, but building their own grass runway and home took top priority, so Gail put her flying lessons on hold to focus on developing the private airfield.

Building T-Top

“We cleared probably a total of 700 or more trees from the property,” she recalled. “My dad came down from Nashville every day to ditch, move dirt, and set off dynamite to blast rocks so we could make water flow where we wanted it to.”

They bought a used Ford 4000 tractor and started buying implements to work the land as they could afford them.

“We’d pick an area to clear, cut the trees down, lay them in a circle, and then cut the limbs off and pull them to the center to make a burn pile,” said Gail. “We had a bulldozer pull out the stumps. My son, Kevin, and I picked up 100 dump truck loads worth of rocks from the runway.”

In October 1993, they sowed grass on 2,600 feet of cleared runway. By spring 1994, it was flight usable. From then on, Gail and Ken continued flying together from T-Top.

In 1995, they had a hangar built, and then spent a year building an apartment inside the hangar. By their eighth wedding anniversary, they were living at T-Top.

1997 entailed more work, including grading a long driveway and establishing an attractive picnic area in a grove of trees.

Throughout these years, they acquired additional acreage and were able to extend the runway farther south, increasing its length to 3,600 feet.

Hosting Fly-Ins

In 1999, Gail and Ken became charter members of the Airport Owner’s Association (AOA) in Tennessee. Gail somehow found time to be the AOA newsletter editor for four years.

By that time, local university aviation students started hanging out at T-Top.

Gail and Ken enjoyed the associated camaraderie of sharing their airfield, and hosted three-day fly-ins each spring and fall, from 1999 to 2005. As many as 65 aircraft would attend, and all were welcomed to camp onsite where meals were provided.

Meanwhile, Ken drafted legislation to help protect airfield owners in the state, and was successful in getting that legislation passed in 2010. 

In 2017, Gail and Ken were both enshrined in the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame for their roles in promoting and fostering general aviation in the state.

In recent years, Gail has voluntarily invested her time to create and maintain a detailed database for the hall of fame’s registration and membership, and help with the annual gala.

Back to Flying

In the early 2000s, after most of the airfield and hangar work was completed, Gail’s job demanded a great deal of travel, so her ambition to get back to her flying lessons was placed on hold. But she never abandoned hopes of earning her private pilot certificate.

In the late 2000s, her job became more manageable and required less travel, so she finally had time to start flying lessons again.

Prior to taking flying lessons again, Gail needed to address one particular issue. She was basically healthy, but had experienced a bout with A-fib, and didn’t know whether that would medically disqualify her. So she gathered up her medical records and visited the FAA building at Oshkosh during the annual show.

“The Central Region AME reviewed my files and unbelievably, I got my special issuance that day,” she said. “I kept it a year, and then I was able to do BasicMed.”

Ground School

Ken encouraged Gail to attend a ground school at Shelbyville Airport (KSYI).

“Attending a class made me accountable, and we went for six weeks during the winter of 2020, until COVID hit,” said Gail. “We were using Gleim, which is very well written material. So on my own, I went through every study guide that Gleim had before I ever looked at the test questions, and then I drilled myself on the questions.”

Gail laughed as she recalled: “When I went to take the written, the young guys in the room looked at me funny — here I was, a woman in her late 50s, and they wondered why I was there. When they gave me my score, they were shocked that I only missed one.”

Solo, Take Two

Finally, in March 2021, Gail started taking flying lessons with CFII Kary McNeal at Maury County Airport (KMRC).

“At first, I was terrified to get back in Charlie Charlie with an instructor, because I had not flown in several years. But Kary is a family friend, and it worked out well because he’s gentle with a good sense of humor,” said Gail.

Gail flew her second solo in Charlie Charlie on April 16, 2021.

Celebrating Success

On May 2, 2022, almost 30 years to the day after her first solo, Gail earned her private pilot certificate in Charlie Charlie at Murfreesboro Airport (KMBT).

“At 16, a driver’s license meant freedom. Little did I know that at age 58 the feeling of freedom would be taken to literally a higher level,” smiled Gail. “It feels wonderful!”

Gail flew home from KMBT to T-Top, with her first passenger, Kary, on board.

“Gail has been a joy, and I could not have had a better student in all my 40-some years of teaching,” smiled Kary. “The DPE said she was well prepared, flew tremendously, and is absolutely a safe pilot.”

Her second and third passengers were Ken and her brother, Kenneth.

“I’m proud of Gail and I think she’s a good pilot,” shared Ken. “I have all the confidence in the world in her. She can do anything she wants to do.”

On Memorial Day weekend 2022, Gail took her granddaughters Ellie, Ashlynn, and Rilynn (one at a time), up for a flight. Then she took her son, Kevin Hall, and his youngest daughter, Tensley, for a sunset flight.

“I hope some of my grandchildren have an interest in aviation some day. Flying changes your life. On terra firma we are ‘down in the weeds’ with the rest of humanity and all of life’s issues. When we break ground and fly, we rise above it all,” reflected Gail thoughtfully. “Your mind leaves the worries of the day behind and shifts to the beauty of the landscapes around you: The distant hills, patterns of the farm fields, the ever-changing weather, and the beauty of the rising or setting sun. You can take a deep breath and relax, not thinking about anything but the beauty around you, and the ability to enjoy that beauty with your new-found wings.”