From Court to the Clouds
Another personality from Hope, Arkansas, seems to have made it “sky high.” Attorney John Collins may be found humming the familiar lyrics ”…cause I’m leaving on a jet plane…don’t know when I’ll be back again…oh, babe I hate to go,” but he doesn’t really “hate to go,” and he isn’t exactly “flying a jet plane,” but Collins, of the Collins and Collins and Ray (CCR) law firm in Little Rock, can be found speeding across the Natural State and the Lone Star State in a small two-seater beauty – a 2008 Sting S3 aircraft which travels at about 135 miles per hour, has GPS and autopilot. Collins purchased his airplane a few years ago as part of a lifelong interest in air travel. He also chose flying as a more efficient means of travel because he covers about 40,000 miles per year. “I thought I could save time and have fun if I were above traffic instead of stuck in the middle of it. I have found I could cut my travel time in half,” he said. ” And it’s truly fun to see Arkansas from the air.”
Safety and efficiency are both important to Collins when it comes to his life’s passions. A minimum of 40 hours is required to get a pilot’s license. Collins had 127 hours because he chose to have a flight instructor with him while he flew to his destinations in his early days of flight.” I wasn’t in a hurry and from a safety aspect I wanted to be sure I was safe.” He said typically it is just him alone flying.
“It is very economical modern avionics with a modern air frame and has its own parachute with a pull handle,” he said. The small aircraft burns only 5 gallons of fuel per hour.
Collins practices law from the air, one might say, after watching the video shorts he creates for entertainment and some for educational purposes. When not in a courtroom practicing law, he can be found editing the footage he captures on one of his several attached cameras. “We use all the angles to make the videos,” Collins said. “It’s just really cool. It is just something I’ve always wanted to do. I usually fly at 4500-5500 feet. Flying over the Delta you can get a view of how flat the area is and then flying over the Ouachita mountain range and the Ozarks, you can see how mountainous we are here in the Natural State.
Collins incorporates gorgeous scenery from footage captured while flying from court to client, or client to court. “You truly don’t know how many lakes are in Arkansas until you see them from the air,” the attorney pilot said recently in an interview from a Texarkana College Aviation hangar. On a clear day flying over Hope, you can see Bois d’Arc Lake to the south, Texarkana Lake straight ahead and Millwood Lake to the north. Collins adds music to the scenic videos in his spare time for his followers on social media. Collins specializes in defending cases related to drinking and driving. His legal video subject content ranges anywhere from “selling urine to hauling drugs.” They are informative videos to educate the public on laws and where confusion is common. Collins moved from Hope to Texarkana in 1988 to attend college. He went from there to Dallas, Texas, in 1991 where he served as a police officer and from there to Little Rock, Arkansas, for law school.
When asked how it feels to go from court to clouds, Collins replied, “I feel very free..”
So, whether glancing up to the sky or down to your phone you just may see this “Free Bird” jetting across the sky to some familiar tune.
