City car dealer flying across country with special reason

KIMBERLY PHILLIPS, Register Citizen Staff
May 08, 2001

TORRINGTON -- Ralph Capuano wanted to do something "different" this year.

He was tired of flying his seven-passenger plane out to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket each summer. His treks around New England for business seminars were for work, not pleasure.

That’s when the president of Capuano Buick, Cadillac, GMC in Torrington thought he should test his skills mountain flying over the Rockies, through afternoon thunderstorms over the Plains and snow in the Midwest.

Capuano recruited his younger brother William for the ride and made a personal vow to touchdown in each of the 48 continuous states, document the journey, and complete it all in seven days. It is a feat even the "Guinness Book of World Records" fails to list.

"It’ll be a little different," Ralph Capuano said about the flight. "I hope we’re able to accomplish it."

In his office Monday with a stack of New England air maps on a table just below a detailed picture of his plane’s cockpit, Capuano explained the trip he planned two months ago took on even more meaning when dealership sales manager Gary Jones told his boss his daughter’s story.

Darlene Clarke went to the dentist in early March with the complaint her teeth felt like they were loose. Her dentist said the gums and teeth looked fine, but a persistent Darlene asked her doctor.

Several days later, the 25-year-old New Britain mother of two was checked into Hartford Hospital and diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. On March 9, the day she was admitted, she began aggressive chemotherapy.

"She’s doing as good as can be expected," Jones said. "She just doesn’t have any strength."

With a lengthy chemotherapy rotation, a coming bone marrow transplant and an expectant remission, Clarke’s medical bills are mounting. She no longer can work her two jobs. Her husband lost his just before her diagnosis.

When Capuano heard of Clarke’s plight, he was certain he wanted to do something. His "Flight of America" was the how.

He printed 1,000 posters of the United States, plotted out the course he and his brother will take, and provided family photos of all involved. Each poster costs $1 for every state, $48 total. All proceeds will go to Clarke’s family.

The brothers will pay for the cost of the flight and the 1,000 gallons of gasoline the 300 horsepower Cherokee "Six" airplane will use. The two are expected to make a 15-minute stop in each state, beginning sometime in June when the steady weather moves in.

"Now we have to do it," he said.

The second and third weeks of next month look promising, Capuano continued, but there’s still the task of filing flight plans, prepping the Johnnycake Airport-housed plane, and taking assorted classes - mountain flying 101 at Brainard Airport on Thursday.

But if Clarke can go through her struggle, this should be easy.

Posters are available at Capuano’s car dealership at 790 Main St., Torrington. Checks should be made out to "Leukemia Fund Darlene Clarke." The cost is $48.

Posters also are available at the Cadillac Ranch on West Street in Southington. The "Leukemia Fund for Darlene Clarke" is established at Fleet Bank, 643 Farmington Ave., New Britain.