ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / April 7, 2000

RESERVE – When James Finley isn’t dealing with pipes, hot water heaters and el joints, you can find him hanging out at the hangar at the St. John ParishAirport fixing up his plane, or just trading flying stories with other pilots.

A pilot since 1963, Finley has seen a lot from the air. He also served as apilot in the Air Force in Vietnam. Not only did he fly combat missions, butended up flying generals around in a big jet.

When he came back to southeastern Louisiana, Finley took up the family plumbing business, C.N. Finley Inc. in New Orleans. He and his wife, Lynnmoved to LaPlace and settled in with the flying crowd out at the St. JohnParish Airport.

Finely is part of a very important flying service that helps people in need. Heis the state coordinator for Air Lifeline – a service that transports sick and injured people to hospitals when they can’t afford to fly.

“I’ve done a lot of flying to the Shriners Burn Hospital in Galveston,” said Finley.

Finley is one of only six pilots in Louisiana that perform this service. Hecoordinates the flights of the other five pilots and makes sure that people get to the hospitals that will help them.

“It’s a great service for people who can’t afford air travel,” Finley said.

Finley says that they are always looking for more people to fly with Air Lifeline. If you have an aircraft and are licensed by the Federal AviationAdministration, Finley urges you to call 1-800-446-1231 and get an application.

Finley’s life-saving activities are not limited to just flying people to hospitals.

As a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Finley is also a member of their search and rescue teams.

As a searcher, Finely is only reimbursed for aircraft fuel and maintenance.

His job is to go out and search the bayous, swamps, rivers and ocean for lost boats, kids and hunters. Then he radios in the location to the Coast Guardhelicopter that performs the actual rescue.

He is pretty humble about what he does.

“I just go out and look,” Finley says. “The really brave guys are the searchand rescue swimmers. They jump out of helicopters and sometimes theyhave to spend the night in the ocean because there is no room left in the chopper after the rescue. Those guys are tough.”Finley also goes out and looks for poachers and pollution, all part of his public-spiritedness.

Return To News Stories