Chattanooga area dads and their kids share their stories about bonding over unique outings

Nick and Tara Jessen at together at Gregory Bald in the Smoky Mountains this past March. / Photo by Nick Jessen Nick and Tara Jessen at together at Gregory Bald in the Smoky Mountains this past March. / Photo by Nick Jessen

By Barry Courter May 28, 2019 8 min read

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Dads

Kegan Cove Cabin in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. / Photo by Nick Jessen

Johannes de Wet with his sons Dane and Wouter. / Photo by Santie de Wet

Dane, Johannes and Wouter atop Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps.

Preparing to launch a helium balloon outfitted with a camera are Dane, Wouter and Johannes de Wet. / Photo by Santie de Wet

The de Wet father-and-sons team enjoys hiking together, as well as high-altitude balloon. They equip the balloons with GoPro cameras and Arduino microcontrollers with GPS boards and radio antennas that communicate via the Iridium network. They also often include a Spot tracker GPS module as a failsafe as well, according to Wouter de Wet. / Photo by Johannes de Wet

Flying has been a father-son tradition since before young Michael, now 21, was born. / Photo by Debbie Brown

Father, Mike, and son, Michael, have been flying and attending airshows together for more than two decades. / Photo by Debbie Brown

Now that Michael is a student at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, he and father Mike Brown each fly their planes to national airshows, such as this one in Lakeland, Florida, in April.

The father-child relationship is complicated – often forged more by shared experiences than probing conversations.

Talk to almost anyone about their father and the conversation will quickly turn to ball games, fishing trips or camping trips. Dads share through doing; and when it comes to father-child bonding, actions legitimately speak louder than words.

This month Chatter talked to area fathers and their children about the experiences, past and present, that form the ties that bind them.

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From the time Michael Brown was born 21 years ago, his father, Mike Brown, knew flying would be part of their lives together. A longtime aviation buff, the elder Brown developed a love of airplanes when he was younger, visiting his father while he worked for Delta Airlines at Lovell Field. Today, he and Michael try to attend one or both of the yearly national air shows in Chicago and Lakeland, Florida. It’s become a tradition the two pilots hold dear.