Dan Miles 12/27/2013

As most people know, I have flown with Dan for a long time. I think that I first met him about 32 years ago while working at my dad's dry cleaners. He told me stories of flying with my dad and took me out and showed me what flying a combat airplane looked like. Quite impressive for a guy who had only flown 1/2a airplanes up to that point. He took me to my first contests with combat when I was in high school and he went with me to contests like Sig and Brodak (that guy could snore like nobody's business) as I was getting on my feet after coming out of the service and going through school. You know, the trip to Sig was about 10 hours each way and he had stuff to talk about the whole way there and back. He taught me quite a bit about CL flying in general and a bit about engines as well. Some of these things I still use quite effectively today. We never quite saw eye to eye on the muffler debate, but when we flew at Broome it did not really matter. As a compromise, I would let him fly 15s and smaller at my place without a muffler. No doubt in my mind that he loved to fly and loved to tinker on the airplanes and engines. He also liked to come out with odd projects to play with at the field.

He was more than just a flyer though. He was a businessman at heart. I worked for him twice at hobby shops. Once while I was in college and once after I got out of the service and was in college again. I don't think that he ever realized his vision with these establishments, but for him it seemed to be cool to say that he owned a hobby shop. He had dreams of driving a "hobby truck" to meets where people could buy things and work on airplanes in a built in workshop on the truck. Never saw that project, but I am sure he had it all laid out in his mind. He also started an internet based service for one of his other passions, karaoke. I am not sure if this project ever went anywhere, but he was in it following his dream of supporting something that he had a passion for. In my mind it seemed like it was not paramount that he fully acheive what he was looking for, but that he was actively working towards the goal.

Probably one of the things that I never really understood about Dan was his passion for people. While I like to help people from time to time, he was very active in supporting as many people as he could at all times. He did this often and with personal sacrifices being the norm. He would say that he had to go here or there to take someone to do something, or he would build something for someone to replicate a childhood memory. If someone helped to cover his costs, great, but if they did not, it didn't matter as he was still there willing to help them out the next time around. There is probably something I could learn from this. It was always sort of funny to me that he could not be without his phone, even from the early days of cellular service. In retrospect it was because he wanted to be available to others at all times. Quite a trait for a person to have. I think that Dan was a great man, not for what he possessed, but for the relationships he built.

He left a mark on many of us that is now a good memory of the man that he was. Without a doubt a straight shooter and someone you could count on. I always felt bad that he did not seem to get ahead in the financial arena, but he was true to the debts he made and worked towards paying them off. His focus on personal relationships probably took priority over the financial side of his life. It was pretty common to chat with him about what he had done with whom lately, what he was working on and what plans he had coming up. Instead of complaining about not having money, he would say things like "when I get the money together....." and continue on with what he would do. I guess he was satisfied with where he was and had some ideas on where he wanted to go.

I know that I will miss him. Probably not so much now, but more when I get home. Going to the field and not seeing him there flipping a prop or sitting in the shade and BSing will be odd. I envy those of you that get to attend the memorial as it will be a good chance to share memories of Dan and allow people to see other sides of the man that he was. Enjoy the time with each other at that event.
John Paris