BodyBuilding.com CEO Ryan DeLuca flew right over the wreckage of Steve Appleton’s airplane Friday on his way to Disneyland.

With his wife and three children aboard.

He got into flying eight years ago, when his wife bought him lessons for Christmas.

“She was nervous (Friday),” DeLuca said. “She had me double-check everything.”

DeLuca, who lives in Eagle, shares Appleton’s love of flying and his dual responsibilities on the ground — to his family and to the business he runs.

“I got a bunch of emails and calls from employees today,” DeLuca said Friday night.

“ ‘Be careful. We don’t want to have this to happen to our company.’ It definitely made me think about it. It makes me just want to be safer with my flying. It’s something I love so much. … It would be really difficult for me to quit, but every time I get in the plane I’m thinking about that, family first and the business second, and the effect it would have.”

DeLuca said he was scared at first, taking the controls of an airplane.

“Immediately, it turned into something I just loved,” he said. “You grow this passion that it becomes all-encompassing, that you become obsessed to a point. The freedom to be able to fly, the sense of accomplishment to be able to take a trip from one airport to another. It’s something you really can’t explain, but pilots understand.”

He knew Appleton and had visited his hangar.

“It was a total shock and emotional and tough,” he said of Appleton’s death. “For me, being a pilot also and really being able to relate to that made it more difficult.”

Chadd Cripe: 377-6398