Charlie Branch: 'Every day is a gift'

After graduating from the University of Montana, Charles Branch worked for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in the Clearwater National Forest and then in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

He then spent almost 21 years with the Cordova Harbor Master’s office, also in Alaska. He says he was “the office guy.”

Branch moved to Coeur d’Alene when he retired in 2011. He finds he is more busy in his retirement than he ever was when he had a full-time job.

“You’re better off not asking someone who’s idle to do something, you’re better off finding someone who’s busy because they’re more likely to squeeze it in,” he told The Press.

Branch volunteers as a crossing guard and an audio-video-light technician for Sorensen Elementary School and the First Presbyterian Church of Coeur d’Alene.

Every weekday for about 45 minutes, Branch is standing outside the front of Sorensen Elementary School. Parents wave to him and say good morning while their kids run by and slap his hand in a big high-five.

He exchanges secret handshakes with some of the kids, usually including a fist bump then an explosion.

“I like having fun with the littler kids who aren’t old enough to go to school yet,” he said.

Branch’s newest project is the Aviation Club. The club’s goal is to bring aviation to all kids. Through the club, aviation is accessible to kids with disabilities and helps get all kids excited about science and technology.

The club hosts events that let kids fly drones and use a flight simulator. The club is trying to get a plane for a project that would allow kids to learn to rebuild it. Branch, who has done work on planes, once moved one by U-Haul from Alaska when he moved back to the lower 48.

Branch sat down with The Press last Monday to talk about his love of aviation and what he does for the community.

You do a lot of volunteer work here in Coeur d’Alene with kids. You do the crosswalk for Sorensen and the church and you help run the Aviation Club. What kind of an impact do you want to leave on these kids?

Probably...the philosophy that dad and mom left me with, which was always leave a place in better shape than when you found it.

When did you first get interested in electronics and aviation?

Probably right around (the time I was) commuting to work and getting picked up every evening and getting a ride to work every morning by helicopter or float plane in Alaska. It’s just like defying gravity. You are no longer earthbound. You leave everything that’s down here...when you’re flying.

Tell me about the U-Haul story when you moved here from Alaska.

The airplane and power plant inspector was helping on the fuselage rebuild. He told me to get a plane and he’d teach me to fly it. So I bought the plane and the teaching me to fly it fell through, so I started modifying it.

We loaded it up in a 26-foot U-Haul. Once you stuff an airplane into a U-Haul truck, there really isn’t much room for anything else. So my daughters both flew up. They drove the Malibu down.

We took the wings off the airplane and stacked them in cradles on the side and rolled the fuselage on to the U- Haul.

Why did you bring the plane down here?

I brought it with me so I could finish assembling it down here, get it going. I brought it down from Cordova, Alaska.

Have you ever piloted a plane?

Yes. I spent two months in Reno, Nev., doing flight training with the aerobatics school. I helped a neighbor rebuild a fuselage. Everyone in Cordova said, ‘We might be instructors and mechanics, but when the weather’s nice we’re too busy being air taxi pilots, so go south and fly your tail off for a month where the weather’s good.’

So I did that and just started logging some solo time, but never quite made it to a checked ride. But it was a lot of fun. I’d rather fly aerobatic, with stalls and spins. It’s just fun.

Working with other airline pilots, they want to be just straight and level all the time. Southwest Air pilots would come out on weekends and our instructor would go up and come back and say ‘You guys are a lot better with the stalls and spins than these guys.’

Once you get used to it, it’s no big deal. The airplane’s flying as long at there’s air flowing over its wings. The plane doesn’t care where the ground is.

What project are you working on now?

The Aviation Club. We want to do one indoor flying event every month. I see this going big. We’d love to help these activities go national. Like the Elks Hoop Fest, turn it into a national drone fest. We took on the activity of setting up a flight simulator and maybe we’ll have another PC with a drone simulator on it.

You just keep growing and keep moving.

Even the older guys (think), ‘Wow, this is really good to see kids having a blast and doing this, getting them interested in aviation and something other than what they’re doing at school.’ And it translates into engineering and math and even art.

What are your proudest accomplishments?

Other than getting up every morning and going ‘Wow, it’s another day. It’s another day to live and every day is a gift,’ raising two kids and probably just showing up.

It’s nice being here because it’s only a four-hour drive from my folks. You’d think it’s a short drive but it ends up being more and more infrequent that I get to go visit them. And I mentioned one time my folks asked ‘How come you are so busy? Busier than you were when you were employed 40 hours a week?’

Well I think I remember dad saying, ‘Well if you’re bored, you just need to look around because there’s always something to do or something that needs doing.’