When Robert Vinroot heard through the grapevine that his WhiteStone senior living community neighbor, Katy Sigmon, had a birthday wish he could help make possible, he jumped at the opportunity.
“I heard Katy wanted to fly over Greensboro for her 97th birthday,” said Vinroot. “I said, ‘Let me make a few calls and see if we can get her up in the air.’”
Vinroot, who was a former US Airways pilot and still teaches pilots to this day, connected with a student of his to schedule a flight for free. In December 2022, Vinroot, the pilot and Sigmon climbed into a Piper Archer airplane that took off from the Air Harbor Airport to fly across downtown Greensboro, NC.
They saw the Greensboro History Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum, and Elm Street from the sky.
“This is my dream,” Sigmon said with a smile. “I owe so much to Robert for making this possible. My friend Nancy Howard connected with him and within three minutes flat, she told me I was going to fly for my birthday. I could have gone into orbit right then.”
Sigmon has lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, since the 1940s but has never seen the city from the air. This is the second year in a row Sigmon has checked an item off her bucket list. In 2021, she rode on the back of a Harley. She plans on continuing to check bucket list ideas off her list next year.
Both Sigmon and Vinroot live in the independent living retirement community at WhiteStone in Guilford County. You can see more from Sigmon’s flight which aired on WFMY-TV, by clicking on the link below.