Both on film and in the air, Aaron O’Connell is winning over people’s affections.
Recently, the actor, who portrayed the romantic lead in the Hallmark Channel’s With Love, Christmas and 12 Gifts of Christmas, participated in a dreamlike charity trip that assisted a rescue dog in reaching her new home.
O’Connell is the owner of a Cirrus SR22T (Turbo) aircraft at the time he received his private pilot’s license in the year 2012.
“I got my pilot’s license and enjoyed flying, and then I bought a Cirrus, and I enjoyed flying even more,” he says to PEOPLE. He also mentions that he is now working on earning his “commercial rating.”
Once O’Connell had obtained his pilot’s license, he immediately began searching for other chances to fly. According to the actor, he made it a priority to look for opportunities to give back while he was traveling.
“I started doing some Google searching and found Pilots N Paws,” said to O’Connell.
Pilots N Paws is a charitable organization that facilitates connections between volunteer pilots and animal rescues and shelters who are in need of transporting dogs across great distances in a safe and expedient manner completely free of charge.
“I thought, ‘If I can do some of these trips, I feel like it’d be not only rewarding and I’d be helping out, but I’d also be able to fly and fulfill my passion and dream of mine,'” O’Connell recalls thinking.
2015 was the year that he began flying with Pilots N Paws. Following a number of volunteer rescue flights, O’Connell is even more smitten with Pilot N Paws than he was when he first began his involvement with the organization.
“I started doing these flights, and I found out that I loved it more than I thought I would because you’re not only rescuing these animals, or taking them to life-saving surgeries, or adding new members to families, but you’re meeting great people that want to be part of a great mission,” O’Connell, who is responsible for caring for a puppy who is known as Fig, says.
O’Connell finished his most recent Paws N Pilots journey on March 28. During this flight, he had the privilege of accompanying Patches, a rescue dog, to her new home.
It was an unexpected litter that Patches was a member of. The adoption of her mother took place in Ramona, California, with an older family. When the dog eventually gave birth to seven pups, her pet owners were taken aback since they were unaware that the dog was carrying a litter of puppies.
“It was way beyond what they were able to take care of, but they were willing to take care of these puppies until they all got adopted, which I thought was great,” O’Connell describes in detail.
Patches was one of the unexpected puppies, and via Grandma Betty’s Animal Rescue, she was able to locate a potential adoptive family who lived a few hours away from Ramona by road. A post was made on the Pilots N Paws forum by the rescue organization, asking for a volunteer pilot to get the dog to her new home as promptly as possible.
It came to my attention that Patches was eager to be saved and adopted into a new home; however, there was no means to get her to that family. Which is why I came into the picture. When O’Connell was asked about how he became a part of Patches’ tale, he responded by saying, “I jumped at that opportunity.”
In order to pick up Patches, O’Connell traveled to Ramona in preparation for the journey. Before taking off, the actor let the Great Pyrenees mix puppy to get used to his Cirrus aircraft. This was done before the actor took off.
“I put her in the plane by herself so she could just get acclimated to the smell and see what it was like,” he adds in response.
constantly looking for “the safest way to transport” his animal passengers, O’Connell is constantly planning ahead. The night before Patches’ trip, he participated in a pre-flight briefing and saw that their flight route “showed some significant turbulence descending into” their first destination, which was an airport in Burbank.
“It’s not necessarily a big thing for me as a pilot because I fly through that all the time, but I’m always leaning towards, ‘How is the dog going to do?'” As O’Connell puts it. Therefore, he made the decision to alter the flight itinerary and land at an airport in Bakersfield, which made it possible for Patches to have a flight that went without a hitch.
As soon as the puppy had been used to the aircraft, O’Connell made preparations to put her into the aircraft for the voyage.
“Depending on how they appear and how they are when we first meet, I either put them in a crate or I put them in the backseat and put towels down and let them roam,” he adds. He goes on to state, “In this particular circumstance, Patches was a little bit timid.” I then had the notion, “You know what? First, I’ll place her in the crate, then I’ll construct a nest for her, and last, I’ll make sure that she is comfortable.'”
Patches slept out within the first ten minutes of the trip after he had tucked himself into the “nest” that the pilot had created for that purpose. Following a “great flight all around,” O’Connell and Patches arrived in Bakersfield, where they were able to meet Annie Beaman, who would later become her adoptive mother.
It was at the airport when I presented Annie Patches. It was such a wonderful moment when Patches decided to give her a huge embrace. In addition to making all of that worthwhile and making the flight worthwhile, it was also a lot of fun to see,” adds O’Connell.
As of right now, Patches is living with Beaman and her family, which includes an adult Great Pyrenees who is thrilled to have a younger sister. It was over the Easter holiday that the family reached out to O’Connell to inform him that Patches was settling in nicely to her new residence.
In this regard, I would want to emphasize how simple it is to begin working with an organization such as Pilots N Paws. He explains that if you go to the website of Pilots N Paws, they have a simple sign-up process that allows you to become a member, and once you do so, you will be alerted of local transports that are available in your region.
“If you’re a pilot and you want to continue to hone your skills and gain hours, this is a great way to not only do that but also give back,” O’Connell further points out.
