On behalf of my husband, Joe Oram, who cannot do this himself because he has Parkinson’s Disease, and me, Gerry Oram (Clermont, FL), we want the Bourn family to know how wonderful it was to be a friend of Doug’s and how great a time he showed us in our flying days. (I think Joe met some of you once in Battle Mountain when he was with Doug.)
Gerry and Joe Oram on a trip to Sunriver, Oregon, in the 310.Joe and four of his friends bought the 310, and Joe asked Doug to “get qualified” so he could be our pilot for trips in the 310. Doug bought our remaining shares when we moved to Carmel in 1996. We had many great times with Doug in that airplane, including one of his Angel Flights to Las Vegas. One of our most ambitious trips was to Branson, Mo, which included several trying situations, the first of which was having to land in Springfield instead of Branson because of weather. But Doug never missed a beat, and we rented a car and drove on down for the weekend.
On our way back to the Bay Area, we had to stop in Prescott, AZ for fuel, and one of the engines would not start. A local “geezer” offered to hand prop the engine, and Doug was hesitant to let him do so. But the guy insisted, and he did indeed start the engine. We talked about that many times afterwards, and we were glad we could laugh about it. When we got home to the Bay Area that night, we flew straight into Palo Alto instead of San Jose, where we had started out, so that we would not have to worry about starting the engine again. Doug, bless his heart, took us in his car to San Jose so we could pick up our car. This was at 10:00 at night after flying as PIC all day. That was Doug—considerate, caring, and just an overall good guy. We’ll cherish our memories of him always.
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