Lewisburg resident Gary Michael McComas overcame his childhood stutter and got his pilot's license in 2007. Since then he has more than 250 hours of flight time in his friend's two-seater Cessna 152.

McComas says the hardest part about learning to fly wasn't taking off or landing, but getting comfortable talking on the radio. A favorite trick of people who stutter is to word substitute, he says, but in the aviation world there are certain things you have to say.

The two-seater Cessna comes in for a smooth landing at the Greenbrier Valley Airport on a clear day.

Gazette photo by LAWRENCE PIERCE.......'STUTTER2'.......8x5.31......Gary McComas a private pilot and bad stutter when he was younger.......3/17/11.......