DALLAS MORNING NEWS | by Valerie Wigglesworth
David Snell’s holiday light tours offer the sort of view typically reserved for Santa himself.
At 1,500 feet, Snell guides his Cessna 172 from one neighborhood to the next, pointing out the lay of the land by rote.
Bright lights from the big city dominate, with steady white lines snaking along the major thoroughfares. Holiday lights appear in pockets. Trees get in the way now and then, and the finer details of yard displays go unnoticed. But the brilliant sparkles accenting geometric shapes are a memorable sight from the dark sky above.
“It’s spectacular,” said Snell, who is spending his 20th holiday season buzzing around North Texas as owner and one of the pilots for Starlight Flight.
The 41-year-old entrepreneur from Frisco never tires of people’s reactions to his unique sightseeing tours. And from his seat in the cockpit, he’s heard more than 250 marriage proposals. The most recent came Wednesday night.
Waitress Jessie Kidwell was expecting a fun night out with her boyfriend, firefighter Kyle Rummans. They arrived at Addison Airport just before 7 p.m. The two 24-year-olds from Josephine climbed into the Cessna’s back seat and donned headsets to hear each other over the drone of the engine. Snell checked in with air-traffic control before taxiing down the runway. He headed south for Love Field then downtown Dallas.
