In celebration of a life lived passionately on the ground and in the air, a new memorial awaits visitors to Town Center Community’s Aviation Park. For decades, Jim Settle, an Atlanta pulmonologist and renowned aviation enthusiast flew his single-engine aircraft from McCollum Field, often soaring over the site in which the park sits. Jim’s family is now honoring his life and passion with a donation of a memorial plaque adorning a bench in the popular aviation-themed park.
A beloved figure to his family, business associates and many friends and patients in the area, Jim passed away at age 80 in January 2024. He leaves behind his wife of 30 years, Becky, and a long list of children and their spouses, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, and nephews.
A Celebration of Life event in his honor was scheduled at the park to unveil the plaque and fondly remember this remarkable man. When asked about the memorial, Jim’s daughter Shawn Angiono said, "He would have loved it. He loved his family, his job, and flying. It means the world to celebrate my dad at a place he loved so much with the people who care most about him.”
However, there is more to his story … much more. Jim was a Vietnam Veteran and Air Force Captain, serving as a flight surgeon on B-52s. Perhaps it was being onboard wartime aircraft in the throes of battle that sparked his interest in aerobatics, albeit in the more peaceful skies of Georgia and what is now Town Center Community.
McCollum Airfield was Jim's haven, according to Shawn. She recalls how it was more than just an airport, it was a second home. “Any weekend he wasn’t on call, he was at McCollum.” It was the place where he went to live out the joy of performing aerobatic biplane tricks, and he was very good.
Aerobatics may have been fun and games, but the immense level of piloting skills required to pull off such stunts may have saved his life on one fateful day. Jim was flying near the convergence of I-75 and I-575 when he experienced one of a pilot’s worst nightmares. The aircraft’s engine died, leaving him to glide to the ground. Like it or not, he was going down and was clearly not going to make it to McCollum Field.
With no suitable places to land, he deftly maneuvered the plane through its descent with no power and no ability to climb over onrushing trees, cell towers or other obstacles. Looking for any spot on or next to the highway, he encountered the ominous and unavoidable specter of utility lines, which he struck. The plane flipped upside down, crashing in a ditch.
End of story? Hardly.
Jim survived that harrowing experience and perhaps equally amazing, he wasn’t deterred in the slightest. He flew many times in the years that followed, and so often right over the spot in Aviation Park that is now home to a permanent reminder of his life and legacy.
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