OPERATOR PROFILE – Forty-Four Years and Five Commanders Make for a Love Affair
Charles West has been in business for 49 years, and flying for 54. In West’s case, the two belong together. Almost all of his flying is for Wells & West, his general construction and development company founded and still based in Murphy, North Carolina. He’s owned 28 airplanes and two helicopters, and currently has five. Talk to him for two or three minutes and you’ll know what his favorite airplane has been over the years. “When I was a little boy in the 1950s, the Forest Service used to come in with a Commander,” he says. “I said that someday I’m going to get me one of those.” In 1970, after owning a Beech 18 and a Cessna 310, he…
From the Flightline