Wiley, whose sense of humor has kept pilots and aficionados chuckling for 17 years at the city's airport, said Tuesday he isn't getting out of the business entirely.
"Oh, I'll be around," he said. "I'll be doing some work at Tahlequah, Stilwell, Fayetteville and other places."
Many pilots find that Wiley's ability to work on airplanes and their engines, to keep them in the sky and keep the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) happy, is an important part of their flying. Wylie noted that only one aircraft that he worked crashed, and that was determined to be the fault of pilot error. Wylie is also authorized by the FAA to do inspections, without which airplanes are not allowed to take flight.
Wiley said he wanted to go into aircraft maintenance for one reason..."I didn't want to go to college."
He explained, "My dad wanted me to go to college, but I didn't want to go. A friend of mine was going to Spartan (College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa).
"He didn't last, but I did," Wylie said with his trademark grin.
After a stint ("four years and nine months") in the U.S. Air Force, Wylie returned to Fort Smith, Ark., and joined the crew at Stone Aviation, now known as TAC Air, at the Fort Smith Municipal Airport. Wylie worked there for 13 years before the opportunity to operate the Sallisaw airport landed in his lap.
Wylie had a one-word reason for why he took the Sallisaw FOB job..."Freedom!" At Sallisaw he was his own boss.
"Things are a lot slower paced here than at the Fort Smith airport," Wylie said. "At Fort Smith I had to keep five people busy. Here I am just responsible for just me."
While Wylie operated the Sallisaw Municipal Airport, several changes have taken place, including increased use. There have been improvements to the facility, which Wylie said were the result of the city's continuing plan to improve its airport, and the airport has also hosted sky diving and sky diving schools, flight schools, fly ins and other events.
But Wylie said the best thing to happen to him while he was operating the airport was "This is where I met my wife, Brenda."
The couple has been married nearly 10 years, Wylie said, and met when Brenda arrived one day to take a sky-diving lesson.
The couple now has one son, Dakota, and Wylie says he plans on spending more time with his wife and son now that he has retired.
Sky diving was also "One of my top three most exciting experiences out here, and one of my top three most scary experiences."
While most first-time sky divers elect to jump out of an airplane in tandem, meaning they are harnessed to an experienced sky diver who operates the parachute, Wylie chose to go it alone.
"I was able to pull the cord and land by myself," Wylie said proudly. However, once was enough.
Wylie is also a favorite at some of the local eating establishments, where the waitresses have as much fun teasing him as he does teasing back.
"I think a lot of them," he said. "I think of them as very good friends. So does my wife!"
Burch has been backing up Wylie for the last few weeks, and stepped easily into being the FBO on Jan. 2.
He and his family, which includes wife, Rebecca, and their four children, Tiffany, 10, Jacob, 8, Kelsey, 6, and Nathan, 4, moved to near Bonanza from Atlanta, Ga., where Burch worked for Delta Airlines.
As airlines struggled to make ends meet, Burch said he was furloughed about nine months ago, and he decided to try his own business. Because he has family in western Arkansas, the family moved to the Fort Smith area where Burch's wife teaches for Fort Smith Public Schools.
Burch said he received his training in airframe and power plant (also known as A&P) maintenance from Clayton University, south of Atlanta.
He did flight control restoration for a company in Covington, Ga., for awhile, and attracted those who wished to restore airplanes.
But then "We got married and our family started to arrive, so I decided to go to work for Delta," Burch said.
Burch said he worked mostly on the heavy jet passenger aircraft, and was a service check inspector.
"That means we were responsible for having the aircraft ready to go on the flight line," Burch explained.
Burch said he liked working for Delta Airlines, "because they have a strong training department," but he also developed a love for aircraft restoration during the early part of his career.
"I like to get my hands on the aircraft," Burch said, explaining there are many skills needed to restore old aircraft.
"You have to know how to weld, work with fiberglass and carbon fiber, and sheet metal," Burch said. You also have to know how to use fabric and mix the glue, or dope, to protect the fabric which covered the very first airplanes.
"I even learned how to sew," Burch said.
But from the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, in a fabric covered plane in 1903, to the present, fabric is still needed as the light-as-air material which can help keep an aircraft aloft.
Burch is hoping he will be able to do some aircraft restoration in Sallisaw along with engine and airframe maintenance.
For more information about Burch's Blue Skys Aircraft Maintenance Services call Sallisaw Municipal Airport at 775-4384.
