Mack Secord: flying angel

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Mack Secord of Buckhead has flown more than 100 Angel Flights. The nonprofit transportation service shuttles patients to doctors and hospitals across the country.

Angel flight pilot Mack Secord of Buckhead and Shamalla Simmonds of Austell put Simmonds' 2-year-old daughter Shalaja Henry in Secord's plane as they prepare to leave Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany. This was the final leg of a multi-leg trip by Angel Flight pilots to take Simmonds and Henry back home after a 10-week stay in Miami.

Mack Secord, 77, talks to tower personnel DeKalb-Peachtree Airport before he takes off. Secord has earned the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, given by the FAA to aviators with more than 50 years of flights without accidents, incidents or violations.

Two-year-old Shalaja Henry had a mult-organ transplant in March, and her mother took her to Miami for medical care. Mack Secord waited four hours for his passengers to arrive in Albany because of severe thunderstorms in central Florida. "This is our only option to fly," said her mother, Shmalia Simmonds of Austell.

Mack Secord checks the fuel levels in his 1975 Cessna 182 Skylane as part of the pre-flight checklist. Secord has turned his passion for flying into a meaningful adventure, shuffling patients around the southest as one of the longest-serving volunteer pilots with Angel Flight.

Mack Secord goes over a well-used pilot's checklist before he flies.

Mack Secord carries the belongings of his passengers to his plane at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany. He has performed more than 100 such flights.

A rainbow shines through the clouds after a rainstorm north of Albany.

Angel flight pilot Mack Secord of Buckhead takes his 1975 Cessna 182 Skylane back through the skies of Georgia as the sun sets on the return trip to Atlanta.

Mack Secord returns his 1975 Cessna 182 Skylane to his hangar at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport after a nine hour trip.

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Angel flight pilot Mack Secord of Buckhead and Shamalla Simmonds of Austell put Simmonds' 2-year-old daughter Shalaja Henry in Secord's plane as they prepare to leave Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany. This was the final leg of a multi-leg trip by Angel Flight pilots to take Simmonds and Henry back home after a 10-week stay in Miami.

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