OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE: Anderson operates cars, planes as hobby

Mar. 23—Pilot and race car driver Mike Anderson said he considers himself a motorhead.

"Anything with a motor — tractors, bulldozers, track hoes, race cars, airplanes — I'm into it," he said.

He recalls going to race tracks since the 1960s and worked in an auto parts store for a while. He raced his first car in 1976.

"An old Impala street stock, they called it," he said. "I didn't go to my senior prom in 1976 because I was racing at Thunderbird."

Anderson said he raced for 20 years, quit for 20 years, then got back into racing about five or six years ago. He now races modified cars, partly because the tracks are close to home.

"There are three tracks within an hour of here," he said.

He traces his love of flying to a trip to Pearl Harbor his family took after his high school graduation. He recalled taking a boat to the USS Arizona Memorial.

"There was a little Cessna 150 flying over the harbor and I told my mom and Dad, 'when I get back, I'm going to start taking flying lessons,'" Anderson said.

He earned his pilot's license in 1983. At the time, he was working in the family business, Anderson Wholesale. He later operated a car lot and a diner.

"We got into buying and selling airplanes, when the opportunity came up to buy the fixed base operation at Davis Field," he said.

Anderson said he and his wife have owned Davis Field Aviation since 2002.

"Were a full service fixed base operation," he said. "We sell fuel, rent hanger space, teach people how to fly. We have maintenance space, work on airplanes, have an avionics shop."

Anderson owns several airplanes, including an experimental plane, he keeps in an airport hangar.

He said he also coordinates plenty of air shows. He got involved with "Tora! Tora! Tora!" an airshow that recreates the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He flies a World War II era T-6 refitted as a Japanese Zero carrier plane.

Anderson relaxes in dirt cars

Mike Anderson races in a U.S. Racing Association B modified car with an 800-horsepower engine.

He said it's a relaxing escape.

"When I get in the car now, I don't have the phone ringing, I don't have the anyone bugging me," he said. "I can almost relax I don't have the world and everything coming down on me."

He keeps two cars in a hanger. Each has a steel roll cage, covered with flat pieces of aluminum.

He has to crawl into the driver's cockpit, which is barely bigger than him. One cockpit has a custom built seat.

"All this is handmade," he said. "My son Blake builds bodies."

Anderson said he's been racing for so long, he now goes up against the children of people he raced earlier.

Thunderbird remains his favorite race track.

"It's where I cut my teeth racing," he said, adding that he prefers dirt racing.

"Asphalt is for parking," he said. "Dirt is for racing."

Preparation is a key to winning a car race, Anderson said.

"To finish first, you first must finish, that's what it all boils down to," he said. "If you break down, if something breaks on your car, you don't finish. Eighty percent of the races are won in the shop the week before the race. Preparation, making sure you don't have anything broken on the chassis, making sure the engine's running right, making sure the nuts and bolts are right."

He said Blake and friends work on his pit crew.

"They keep the car up and in good shape."

Variety spices Anderson's flying

Anderson owns a variety of airplanes.

They include a the twin-engine, pressurized Cessna 340, a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza a36, a four-seat Cessna 172 used for flying lessons and the experimental R-V8 from Van's Aircraft.

"Every single airplane's got its own personality and its own quirks," he said. "A lot of flying different airplanes is knowing what those parameters are. You learn that so you don't get yourself in trouble.

The R-V8 usually comes in a kit, but Anderson said he got his already built.

"It's fully aerobatic and a hoot to fly, he said. "It's like a little hotrod, a little fighter plane. I just enjoy it."

Anderson said learning to fly and obtaining a pilot's license is "kind of special."

"It's a very big sense of accomplishment," he said. "There are so many different things in aviation that you can do when you're flying. You can be a commercial; pilot a regular old private pilot, an air show pilot, an ag pilot."

Older airplanes have distinct personality

The old T-6 Anderson flies at the "Tora! Tora! Tora!" air shows has a personality of its own.

"No computers no fancy stuff, it's what we call stick and rudder flying," he said. "You've got to keep the aircraft coordinated. You have to know the ugly side of the airplane to keep yourself out of those situations."

Anderson said one ugly side is its accelerated stall. A stall occurs when one wing doesn't produce lift because it is at too much of an angle. Anderson said accelerated stalls occur when one wing quits flying before the other one.

"Before you know it you're upside down," he said. "If you're too close to the ground and you let that happen, you cannot recover."

He said the old airplanes are honest.

"The stick's shaking and telling you 'hey dude, if you don't turn me loose, I'm fixing to stall and fall out of the air,'" Anderson said. "And you have to recognize those signs and you have to be familiar with it."

Pilots avoid stalling by not flying too slowly and not overloading the plane.

"Air speed is what flies airplanes," he said. "You just can't get it too slow and loaded up and out of coordination."

HOW DID YOU COME TO BE AN OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE?

"I grew up here, live here, do business here, lots of roots and ties here."

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT MUSKOGEE?

"Small town atmosphere, laid back, everybody knows everybody. When I'm in town, my high school classmates and I play golf every Wednesday."

WHAT WOULD MAKE MUSKOGEE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?

"More industry, which is jobs, more people. The more people we have the more jobs we got. Maybe we can keep our infrastructure fixed up, our roads fixed up."

WHAT PERSON IN MUSKOGEE DO YOU ADMIRE MOST?

"My dad, J.T. Anderson. When my grandfather retired, my dad and uncle took over the family business. My dad was chairman of the hospital board for years. He was very instrumental, being a deacon and elder in the Church of Christ. He loved to play golf.

"Another person who had influence was Gene Wallace, one of my dad's friends. Gene had a lot of influence on me, just being a friend, being Dad's friend. When my dad passed away and I needed fatherly advice, I'd talk to Gene."

WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING TO HAPPEN TO YOU IN MUSKOGEE?

"Having grandbabies and watching the grandbabies grow up."

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?

"Fly airplanes, play golf, race cars. We live on 140 acres, we raise cows. My wife takes care of them most of the time. We fly air shows."

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP MUSKOGEE IN 25 WORDS OR LESS?

"Laid back, small town, reasonable cost of living, great community."