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“You are responsible for getting people in the back from one place to another safely,” Joye said. And the weather can make flying tricky.
“It is good to be 40,000 and 50,000 feet up in the air,” Joye said. “I can’t really describe it.”
Throughout his flying career, Joye has enjoyed flying “small airplanes as much or almost as much as I do flying one of those big jets.”
When asked if he still flies, Joye said, “Oh yeah!”
“A friend of mine owns a twin engine airplane and I get a chance to fly with him sometimes,” he said. “I just fly and if I have to sit in right seat, I do. I just like to be there.”
“Mr. Aviation,” is how his wife Beverly describes him. “He would rather fly than eat when he is hungry. If you mention airplanes, he is all for it.”
She called the recognition “awesome.”
“A lot of pilots don’t reach 50 years and hang with it. He is still hanging in there. This is a major honor for him. This man loves to fly,” she said.
Joye is originally from Orangeburg but has lived throughout the area, including Branchville, Bamberg and Rowesville.
Joye’s love for flying started after he entered the United States Air Force in 1957.