ONE OF my favorite photographs is a picture of my father and me, after my first airplane ride, sitting on the tire of his Cessna 170 on a turf landing strip in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. I was 1-1/2 years old at the time. My father has owned and flown various Cessnas since the early 1960s, and I share his love of flying. I obtained my private pilot's license in 1996, my instrument rating in 1998 and my single-engine sea rating in 2002. Today, my father and I own a Cessna 182.

Similar to my father and me, the owners of Johnson Aviation Insurance earned their wings at an early age. In 1935, the S.C. Johnson Wax Co. flew a Sikorsky S-38, an amphibious biplane, to Brazil in search of new sources of the palm tree that produces carnuba (or carnauba) wax. In 1998, the late Sam Johnson, then chairman emeritus of S.C. Johnson, and his sons, Curt and Fisk, recreated that trip in a replica S-38. Today, the company, known simply as S.C. Johnson, has a fleet of six corporate aircraft. Many of its associates own and fly aircraft.

My own passion for aviation didn't stop with the Cessna, but rather led to my current position as the aviation practice leader at Johnson Insurance. I'm keenly interested in aircraft of all kinds and keep a photo album with pictures of clients' planes and photos from various airshows. We insure a number of each. In all, the aviation department at Johnson Insurance has about 400 accounts and generates about $4 million in annual premium.