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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Lynn Dawson

Steven Carl Roth was born December 30th, 1945 in Lehighton,
Pennsylvania. His passion for flying stems from spending time with his dad, Jack Roth, at the airport watching planes come and go. As Steve grew up, they built and flew model aircraft from his father's land just outside of town.
Steve joined the Army and moved away. After an honorable discharge, the CIA
recruited him. Upon returning from an overseas tour, Steve was lured into the world of ultra-light flying. Feeding his burning desire to fly these things was partially due to the many ultra-light flying magazines received from his best friend, Rick Matson.
Steve made many a trip to Maryland to learn to solo his plane. One memorable character he encountered while learning to master the ultra-light was Bob "deaf n dumb" Diffenbaugh. He moved his plane to Warrenton Airport, where he joined the small group of budding ultra-light flyers. There were some interesting characters such as Bob "da skatewheel" Breeden,Bob "chainsaw motor" Chapman, Pat "helicopter helmet" Derry, Tom "de flying scarf" Simions, Woody "f-king nuts" Jones, Dave "de Phantom" Maitland, Charlie "gee I wish I had a Staggerwing" Maples and finally Chuck "nervous energy" Tippets.
Moving on to the expensive planes found Steve in the company of a host of instructors at Leesburg Airport. These guys were headed by Steve "de bottle" Leckie, who rented the most well used and tired 152s in the area. Greek Dunigan joined the group shortly after that and a year later, they all had their private tickets.
The ultra-lights were sold and bigger money was spent buying a little fleet of Cessnas. Steve bought his 1956 straight-tail C-172 (N6166E) from a famous artist, Loyd Kelly, and proceeded to put his plane into show condition. Somewhere out of the woodwork came Chuck "da body language" Davis. Everyone needs a CFI buddy, but Chuck gives you so much more. Many trips were made to Oshkosh and Sun-N-Fun. One of his favorites was to Oshkosh with his Rick and his dad. After all, his dad was the guy that really
Got Steve into aviation. Shortly after that, Steve moved to Florida with 66E.
A good friend in Tampa, Walt Bullock owned a Swift and although Steve had no taildragger time, he knew this was the airplane for him. In 1999 he found N2397B, a beautifully restored 1948 Swift, in Texas. With Walt's help, he ferried it back to Florida. Jaybo Habeeb taught him to fly it and on his first solo flight, the landing gear failed to extend. He hand-cranked the gear and landed safely. Sun-N-Fun is still a favorite destination, but now there's an annual trek to Athens, Tennessee for the Swift National Fly-In.