Shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday a single-engine plane went down in an area about a mile west of Martha’s Vineyard Airport. The pilot, who was the only one on board, was uninjured during the emergency landing.

For more than 20 years, Father Nagle has retained a position as the aeronautical gatekeeper to the Trade Wind airfield, one of two grass airfields on the Vineyard.

A mechanic by trade but a pilot by passion, Dan Wilson can be found roaming the skies when he’s not busy taking a wrench to a faulty airplane engine, or completing annual inspections.