Today, I said my final goodbye (on this earth, at least) to a good friend, Mike Angley. jungleSTEM as a company idea had been rattling around in my head for years, but I give Mike credit for presenting me with a challenge interesting and fun enough to form my LLC. Mike had approached me in March of 2022 after seeing a FaceBook post where I discussed tracking airplane ADS-B signals using a Raspberry Pi, USB receiver, and antenna. I guess he thought someone geeky enough to track planes in the area might be technical enough to pull off a need he had been struggling with for a while. I recall the conversation starting with Mike saying, “Hey, I think you might be the guy who can solve this for me.” Turns out he was right.
After retiring from the Air Force, Mike became an FAA certified NAVAIDs technician and his company AeroNav Services maintained these systems for regional airports in Georgia. The problem he had was the antiquated monitoring electronics in the airport offices or towers only had audible and visual alarms, but no way to let anyone outside of the airport know about a system being down. Mike wondered if a system could be developed to provide email and text alerts. As it turns out, a prototype was quickly developed and deployed at the Eastman airport in a month. Ongoing testing and development refined the hardware and software design to a completed version 1 of what was later named the PRISM™ NAVAIDs Monitor.
Mike would email me articles, tech specs, equipment manuals, anything to feed the new sponge eagerly soaking up this newfound fount of knowledge. Not only did Mike teach me more about localizers, glide slopes, and DMEs than I ever imagined learning, but he was gracious enough to support my work in other ways. Mike happily represented jungleSTEM at the first Middle Georgia STEM City Expo, showing off a mock up of our system and encouraging kids and young adults to take an interest in STEM education.
Mike was generous with his time and talents, a true servant of others. Friendly, smart, and quick to offer a helping hand. We spent many hours exchanging knowledge in our respective technical realms, but most of our conversations during road trips to visit airports were simply about life. I will always be thankful to God for the connection that started over a fun project, but grew into a deeper friendship.
So, today is bittersweet. I am sad. Sad for my loss. Sad for the loss to Mike’s family and friends. As I sat through the funeral service for Mike today, I was reminded we will meet again because of the hope offered only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mike was more than a friend, he is a brother in Christ more alive than he has ever been before. For that, I am happy. I guess it’s not goodbye after all, but ta-ta for now.
