Baloo

"If it's got wings, I can fly it. Sometimes if it doesn't!"

There have been pilots who have made themselves heroes in their own time. Most freelancers and hotshots acquire a certain notoriety. Exceptional corporate pilots gain prestigious status within the company ranks. But very few aviators have become living legends. It takes a person with extraordinary skill, unusual character, but most of all the passionate conviction that flying is what life is all about. Only one individual has met these standards and still remains down to earth and the "bare necessities" of life — a bulbous bear named Baloo.

A scruffy gray bear with a heart of gold, Baloo Bear is in many ways a creature of habit. His standard attire consists of a red pilot's cap and a faded tan flight shirt with rolled sleeves. Baloo protests against wearing a standard flight uniform or even a decent set of clothes, arguing that since he is a pilot he should dress like a pilot. After all, clothes make the bear. Given his early experiences with Rebecca ("Becky") Cunningham's unusual fashion sense, Baloo's opinion is understandable.

When it comes to life, Baloo feels that everything should be taken free and easy. There's no reason to dwell on the past, and worrying about the future doesn't help anything — Baloo prefers to live in the here and now, lying back and enjoying the simple "bare necessities" of life. When he makes judgments, he usually makes them based on what's in it for himself. Jovial and carefree, Baloo moves to the beat of a different drummer, a fact clearly exemplified by his love of music — particularly a treasured record, once belonging to his father, of "I've Got Them Flat Broke, Sticky-Shoed, No Banana Boogie-Woogie Blues."

When it comes to enjoying life's simple pleasures, Baloo has no equal. Never one to miss a good party, Baloo regularly stops at Louie's for a little rest, relaxation, and a cool mango fandango — often during one of his cargo runs, a nasty habit that keeps Baloo on his toes thinking up explanations (excuses) for Rebecca as to why he is always late. Eating is another habit of Baloo's — his stomach doesn't complain, or as Baloo puts it, "Whatever's okay by the big guy is all right by me!"

Of course, one of the bare necessities of Baloo's life is flying. Hardly a day goes by that does not find Baloo at the controls of the Sea Duck, pulling loops and barrel rolls across the sky.

That is, when Baloo is not busy earning a living by hauling cargo for Ms. Cunningham. Money is of great importance to Baloo in his hopes of someday buying back his beloved Sea Duck. Unfortunately, his work ethic — if it exists — leaves much to be desired. Convinced that "working is a fate worse than being broke," Baloo often resorts to beating the system through such risky and potentially hazardous means as treasure hunting, trading, and trying his luck at the Tortuga Turtle Toss. Despite his best efforts, Baloo is usually left with only a few dollars to his name as well as an extended tab at Louie's Place. However, Baloo does keep a hidden stash somewhere at Higher for Hire. In time, it may grow large enough to pay for the Duck's pink slip.

The true love of Baloo's life is the Sea Duck. Purchased many years ago along with the business formerly known as "Baloo's Air Service," the Sea Duck has been Baloo's oldest and best friend — he calls it his "baby." Granted, Baloo can fly anything in the sky, but only he is intimately familiar with the Duck — every screw, every panel, every vibration of the plane in flight. While unable to perform detailed repairs himself, Baloo has made several alterations to the plane, from dive flaps on the wings to snack stashes in the cockpit.

For a best buddy, Baloo has his navigator and partner Kit Cloudkicker. Back when he was flying solo, Baloo had no bosses, no obligations, and no sense of responsibility. All that changed when "Little Britches" came into Baloo's life, offering the bear friendship and a new outlook. In a way Baloo's conscience, Kit acts as the voice of responsibility and duty in Baloo's otherwise irresponsible lifestyle. In return, Baloo serves as a guardian and father figure for the young orphan, who calls him "Papa Bear" with the same affection a son would. Those unfamiliar with the two would suspect that Baloo and Kit truly were father and son.

Baloo's other pals include Louie and Wildcat. Baloo has known Louie, a scat-singing ape from Cape Suzette, since way back and the two are fast friends. When Louie moved out to a deserted tropical island and began building his famous club, Louie's Place, Baloo helped him move supplies and became one of Louie's first (and best) customers. Baloo met Wildcat about the same time and partnered with him to perform many special alterations to the Sea Duck. Both Louie and Wildcat have shared adventures with Baloo before and after the advent of Higher for Hire.

As far as women, Baloo has no "significant other." The one woman presently involved in his life (or rather, running it) is Rebecca Cunningham, Baloo's boss and owner of Higher for Hire. Even when they first met, Baloo and "Becky" never saw eye-to-eye. The two of them seem forever at odds over most issues, particularly work. Jealous that Rebecca owns the Sea Duck, Baloo constantly schemes to buy back his plane — Rebecca's "nagging" over work and deadlines also cramps Baloo's naturally freewheeling lifestyle. Still, Baloo admits that he has a certain fondness in his heart for the "boss-lady," and one may correctly assume that the two of them are indeed good friends — even though in Baloo's opinion, "She's got a lot to learn about planes."

Baloo's experiences with women have not been limited to Ms. Cunningham. Baloo has an eye for a pretty face, and several times during the course of his adventures has he run across a damsel in distress carrying a map to a hidden treasure. More often than not, her problem turned out to be more trouble than it was worth for Baloo. He shares this same weakness with Louie — countless times have the two of them sworn off "pretty faces with crazy stories," only to break that pact all too quickly while competing for some foxy lady's attention.

Ask Baloo about flying and you are talking to a master of the art. To Baloo, the freedom and joy of flying is what life is all about. Blessed with natural skill and a love for the air, Baloo has never been accused of not being able to pilot an aircraft. The truth is, Baloo can fly just about anything with or sometimes without wings. Flying is the joy of Baloo's life, and when he is at the controls of the Sea Duck, flying becomes living.

This love for flight began when Baloo was just a boy, enthralled by the daring exploits of pioneer aviators. Adventure and excitement were in the air, and young Baloo felt his life's calling even at that age. He read comic books and thrilled to newsreels and radio broadcasts of his childhood heroes Rick Sky and Whistlestop Jackson (whom he idolized nearly as much as his own dear uncle Moe). Both of these men Baloo actually met later in life, but not before establishing his own reputation as an ace of aces. Baloo still holds a special fondness for the days of his childhood, as well as the men and machines from this bygone era of aviation.

Baloo has also gained a reputation as one of the few pilots in the skies to dare to stand up against the Air Pirates of Don Karnage. Baloo has never armed the Sea Duck with machine guns, relying instead on his extraordinary flying skills to baffle the less experienced pirates with stunning aerobatics. His cheerful defiance of the odds, coupled with wisecracks delivered over the radio, have earned Baloo the especial hatred of Captain Karnage himself, who considers the bothersome bear an "annoying amateur" and his "worstest enemy."

Baloo's passion for flying is manifested in the countless contributions he has made to the field, whether officially or unofficially recorded. Among other things, Baloo has been the first to break the sound barrier, fly a plane made of ice, and make a three-point landing inside a volcano (see the inset at right for details).

While Baloo has not generally gained public recognition for these feats, he has made quite a name for himself within the circle of freelance and corporate pilots of the civilized world. Most pilots (except for the most arrogant) will concede that Baloo's considerable talent makes him one of the finest flyers of all time. In Louie's Place, a meetinghouse for pilots across the globe, Baloo's picture tops the pyramid of photos on Louie's "Air Ace Wall of Fame."

Baloo takes special pride in his fame as an aviator. Although unwilling to compare himself with his childhood pilot heroes, Baloo believes that he is the "Ace of the Base" and deservedly so. Still, with fame comes the temptation to brag, and given enough encouragement Baloo can easily go on an ego trip. Somewhat insecure, Baloo often feels he must prove himself time and again to show that he's a "somebody," forgetting the fact that he is already the best in the eyes of his partner and buddy, Kit Cloudkicker.

Of course, not all of Baloo's exploits have been so spectacular, a fact which puts him squarely in his place. Certain incidents Baloo looks back on with amusement, such as the time he lost both engines over Spango-Pango and went into a ten-thousand-foot dive. Others are actually quite embarrassing, such as Baloo's infamous "Pelican Dive" which submerged the Sea Duck underwater for an entire week. Baloo has also received his comeuppance a few times from hotshot pilots such as Airplane Jane and Ace London. When asked why he is sore at Plane Jane for pulling a "fast one" that won her the Great Armadillo Cookoff and Air Rally, Baloo replies with a wince, "Cause, I wished I'd thought of it first!"

Such stunning achievements by a single pilot in less than a full lifetime — they seem all the more amazing when weighed against the flip side of Baloo's character. Viewed in the worst possible light, Baloo is an overweight slob who lacks any responsibility and would be content to snooze each day away if he didn't have to eat. Baloo's patterns of behavior do little to discredit this harsh assessment; indeed, even close friends have made similar observations about him (though not as extreme as his critics).

By his own admission, Baloo is a slob, and he is proud of it. His happy-go-lucky, party-loving self dislikes taking orders and refuses to be tied down by any burdens or obligations. As early as childhood, Baloo found it difficult to conform to others' expectations of him, which perhaps explains his early failure to graduate from grade school (a little-known shortcoming that he has lately corrected), as well as his epic struggles with driver's education. These failures came not through lack of effort, but sprang from Baloo's misguided belief that "detail stuff" is unimportant in the long run and coming close is good enough — a frame of mind Baloo has at least come to reconsider, if not revise.

Baloo's avoidance of work is a career in itself — just ask Rebecca Cunningham, "boss-lady" of Higher for Hire. Plagued by chronic (Rebecca would say, terminal) laziness and a low tolerance for labor, Higher for Hire's sole pilot conserves precious energy between cargo runs asleep in a hammock, easy chair, or anyplace where he can get a little shuteye. In the air, Baloo barely resists the urge to shirk his deliveries in favor of a quick stop at Louie's Place; despite his navigator's warnings, Baloo easily yields to the temptation to eat, drink, and party the night away. He also steadily accumulates quite a backlog of parking tickets.

When Baloo's not lying down on the job, he's lying about it, spinning tales of hurricanes, cannibals, giant armadillos — any excuse for a late shipment or skipped deadline. His outrageous alibis have worn pretty thin on Becky, whose ability to see through Baloo's lame stories only drives him to bigger schemes to secure some time off. For somebody so bent on dodging work, Baloo invests an awful lot of time and care in preserving his image as a careless, ill-mannered slouch. Life's easier, after all, when others expect little of him — something that is very hard to maintain given his self-denied, but proven knack for heroics.

In spite of being broke all his life, Baloo knows the value of a dollar and what enough cash can bring: the title to the Sea Duck and all the freedom that goes with it. However, Baloo looks at the big picture and sees that a fast buck will suffice just as well as an honest dollar, spurring him onto many wild, money-making ventures. Baloo has vowed to stay at Higher for Hire until he scrapes together enough money to purchase his plane from Ms. Cunningham, a goal which makes him view his employment as indentured servitude. But in his quest for financial independence, Baloo forgets the bonds of friendship are what really tie him to the Higher for Hire gang, should he even fall heir to a fortune. A reminder along the way might be helpful, but when he's put to the test, Baloo comes through for his friends with flying colors.

Whatever the circumstances or the situation, Baloo Bear remains the "Ace of the Base." Snow or warm, pirates or storm, Baloo can handle anything and comes out on top, grinning and enjoying the bare necessities of life.