NOV. 17, 2006 | Henry Lile, M.D., said he was one of those kids growing up who always looked up whenever he heard a plane flying overhead.

In 1947, at age 13, he began taking flying lessons – although he listed his age on paperwork as 16 to get around age restrictions. In September, the assistant professor of radiology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) was designated a Wright Brothers Master Pilot by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a designation that recognizes 50 or more consecutive years of safe flying.

For the record, he has flown for 59 years now – as he indulges his passion for flight these days as a major in the Civil Air Patrol.

“It’s a humbling thing,” Lile said, when asked about becoming just the fifth Arkansan to receive the award. “But I am very appreciative.”

Lile said he was talking with some friends who work for the FAA, when they suggested he complete the paperwork for the designation. After all, he had more than 50 years in the cockpit without any safety violations as required for the award.

Growing up during World War II, Lile said, also played a role in his interest in flight as he was fascinated by the military aircraft. He began hanging around a local airport, where one day he was told, ”If you’re going to hang around we might as well get something out of you and teach you to fly.”

In the 1950s, he joined the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), an organization of volunteer pilots overseen by the U.S. Air Force. The group handles most of the search and rescue operations in the country and also is involved in disaster response.

Lile left the organization for other interests, including serving as a flight surgeon in the Air Force and Air National Guard. Over the years, he has owned several planes and found opportunities to use his flying skills.

He has served as a safety counselor for the FAA. Since the 1980s, he has flown medical missions, delivering medical supplies and care to remote areas in Mexico as part of the organization Pilots for Christ.

He returned to the Civil Air Patrol in 2003. Most recently he has participated in missions that include searching from the air for a missing woman in southwest Arkansas and conducting reconnaissance missions of hospitals and nursing homes in the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

“The Civil Air Patrol is a tremendous service organization,” Lile said. “After 9/11, I wanted to do something, and a 70-year-old can’t go on active duty in the Air Force, so I went back to the CAP.”

His service has gone beyond flying as he also is active in the disaster relief group Missions for the World. The work of the group, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, has taken him to places such as Iran following a massive earthquake and Sri Lanka following the 2004 tsunami. He goes as part of a team of doctors, nurses and counselors to provide health care and other aid following a disaster.

As for flying, the Civil Air Patrol keeps him busy. He said he recently sold his own plane, but flies or is a part of the three-man crew in a CAP plane probably two or three times a month.