by Dottie Barnes
photo by Amanda Pitts

Michael Shoemaker's fascination with aviation can be traced back to his childhood.

Shoemaker, associate professor of physical therapy, grew up in Tucson, Arizona, watching fighter jets from the nearby Davis-Monthan Air Force Base fly overhead. His dad often took him to air shows at the base.

"You could see the speed of the jets and hear and feel the raw power of the engines as their crackling thunder reverberated in your chest," Shoemaker said. "You could smell the jet fuel and hydraulic fluid as you walked in and among all of the different aircraft. To this day, those smells still bring me back."  

When Shoemaker turned 14, his dad gave him the ultimate gift: a ride in a glider. "Gliding is flying in its purest sense," he said. "There's no engine noise, just flying."

Shoemaker's desire to fly stuck with him as he earned degrees in exercise science, physical therapy and interdisciplinary health sciences. In 2004, he earned his pilot's license and started to rent single-engine Cessnas to log practice time.

"I was married and working as a physical therapist and flying was expensive," said Shoemaker. "Pilots refer to the $100 hamburger — the cost to take a short practice flight to one airport, grab a hamburger, and then fly back."

In late 2004, Shoemaker saw a brochure for the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). While he was initially attracted to the free flying it offered, he said he fell in love with the mission and purpose of the CAP.

The all-volunteer force performs emergency services (inland search and rescue, aerial reconnaissance and photography for natural disasters) and homeland security missions on behalf of the U.S. Air Force, Homeland Security and other government organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Shoemaker is a CAP mission pilot and serves as the deputy squadron commander of the Grand Rapids Senior Squadron and as the Michigan Wing Law Enforcement Liaison.

The Grand Rapids crew is often called out to investigate emergency locator beacons, which activate when a plane crashes or has a hard landing, as is most often the case. But not all missions are routine. "In 2012, we were called out for a missing persons search in the Keweenaw Peninsula," said Shoemaker. "Two hikers were missing. We did grid searches over the entire peninsula. After several hours, they were found alive and well by a CAP aircraft."

Shoemaker said his passion in life is teaching physical therapy and conducting research, while flying is a hobby he loves for two very different reasons.

"Practice doesn't always make perfect. Flying is like golf," he explained. "You never have a perfect game of golf and you never have a perfect flight.

"So first, I like the procedural stuff and flying within the air traffic control system. It's a challenge. It's about proficiency, safety and striving for perfection."

The second part of his love for flying came when Shoemaker achieved an instrument rating from the FAA. The rating means he is qualified to fly under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). A significant value of flying under IFR is the ability to fly in instrument meteorological conditions, such as inside clouds.

"Flying in and around the clouds and right up against them, that's the romance of flying," he said. "It's like being able to play in the third dimension of a cloudscape and having an opportunity to see and feel the power of our natural world up close."

"Two hikers were missing. We did grid searches over the entire peninsula. After several hours, they were found alive and well by a CAP aircraft."
— Michael Shoemaker, physical therapy professor and CAP pilot

When Shoemaker isn't flying in the clouds or on CAP training or actual missions, he enjoys renting planes for more personal "missions," like flying his family or friends to Kentucky and the Upper Peninsula to rock climb, or to Cedar Point or Mackinac Island.

"I surprised my wife for her 40th birthday and we flew to Traverse City for dinner," he said. "That was just about being cool."