Reserve dentist pulls Gs instead of teeth on weekends

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Charlie Miller
  • 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs g
Goshen, Indiana --  Air Force Reserve dentist Lt. Col. Scott Sayre regularly trades his dental instruments and dentist chair for a pilot's seat and cockpit flight instruments, but not on a wing C-5 Galaxy. The colonel flies a Beech T-34 Mentor with the Lima Lima Flight Team, a precision formation flying group.

Col. Sayre, who has been with the 445th Aerospace Medicine Squadron at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio for more than two years and flying for over 35 years, does not see piloting a C-5 in his future, but he does have aspirations to fly. The C-5 Galaxy aircraft is what the pilots of the 445th Airlift Wing flies.

"My dream is to go to Flight Surgeon school and get my wings so I can help in the overall mission," the colonel said. "However, I would love to fly any aircraft that the Air Force Reserve would want me to fly."

The Flight Surgeon school has a better chance of happening than flying a C-5, Col. Sayre said. "With the training I'd need and my age (52), piloting a C-5, that would never happen."

When he's not at Wright-Patt for drill weekends or tending patients at his private dental practice in Cincinnati, Col. Sayre can be found hop scotching the Midwest performing with Lima Lima at air shows.

"The team does anywhere from 10 to 20 events a year," the colonel said. Some weekends, Col. Sayre and Lima Lima may do multiple shows. For the long Independence Day weekend, the team did two shows in one day in Indiana and few to Michigan in between the shows for a briefing on three more upcoming shows there.

"Out of the potential millions of air show patrons that see us each year, if we could get a couple of young people to explore aviation or the Air Force/ Air Force Reserve as a career, then I would be very happy. I do air shows because it is a really great thing to let the non flying public see these old planes and get a taste of aviation past, present and future."

There's a lot of practice involved with the performances because, after all, it is a precision formation flying group.

"We have many practice days. We practice for a week or so in the spring and then for each show we do we will have a practice day. Since the team members come from all parts of the country we need seasoned formation pilots who can practice on their own and then come together and also practice as a team," said Col. Sayre, who had a small air show team with T-34's and T-6's before joining Lima Lima.

"The military guys have an advantage because they flew jets and had military flying experience. With me it's the opposite; I can take this back with me to the 445th. The discipline of formation flying that I've learned as a civilian pilot can be helpful in a military setting," Col. Sayre said.

There is an extraordinary amount of mental stress involved with formation and acrobatic flying.

"This is a very challenging and unique form of flying," the colonel stressed.

Physically tiring, too? Yep. Pulling four g's ten times or more per show is certainly a physical drain. "When I land, I'm done," Col. Sayre said. If the weather is dicey, especially with windy conditions, the mental and physical aspects of the job get cranked up another notch.

"If there is a lot of wind, then I have to fight the plane to keep it smooth. My plane weighs 2,900 pounds. A fighter jet weighs like 25,000 pounds and just cuts through most winds," Col. Sayre said.

Col. Sayre, nicknamed "painless", who joined Lima Lima before joining the 445th, is kind of the odd man out with the team. All of the current and former Lima Lima pilots have a military flying background, fly full time with a commercial airline or are retired from an airline.

"It's uncommon to find a guy with Scott's skill level," said retired Air Force pilot and Lima Lima member Lt. Col. Skip Aldous. The colonel flew F-102's and F-16's for 20 years while on active duty and with the Florida Air National Guard.

"Scott is an excellent pilot, a solid formation pilot," Col. Aldous said. "It's usually a 2-3 year process to learn to do it the way we do it. He learned to fly with us faster without a military background. For those of us with a military background, it was just learning a few new procedures."

Col. Sayre plans on flying with Lima Lima for another 10 years or longer. "In the past, most team members finish by about age 65 but I may go a little longer. I think I have another 10 years of good flying in me without any problems,"

The colonel has about 4000 hours of flying time and several different pilots' licenses. His father and uncles were U.S. Navy pilots in WWII and after.

"They got me hooked on aviation as a child but I have always loved dentistry and medicine. I am happy to not be a full time commercial pilot. I'm suited better in my vocation as a dentist however I love formation and aerobatic flight, so this is a great combination. Had I been able to fly fighters then maybe I would have preferred a different career path," Col. Sayre said.

The colonel has been practicing general and implant dentistry since 1977 in the Cincinnati area.