Arnold Zimmerman jokes that he doesn’t like heights.

That he really doesn’t mean a word of it is evident when it is considered that the Downers Grove pilot has spent thousands of hours at the controls, aloft in any one of the many airplanes he’s owned over the past 50-plus years.

And he’s had some awe-inspiring adventures high above the clouds.

There was the time that he took an attendee at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on a quick demonstration flight aboard one of his airplanes.

Soon after takeoff, Zimmerman said, he realized his passenger was controlling the dual-controlled plane’s movements.

He didn’t panic.

For one thing, “There’s nothing he could do that I couldn’t correct,” Zimmerman said.

For another thing, the passenger, who was doing a beautiful job of guiding the plane through the air, was more than qualified to fly.

It wasn’t until later that Zimmerman discovered his passenger was one of three Russian cosmonauts who recently returned from a trip to outer space.

Zimmerman, who’s been piloting planes since 1955, also took Space Shuttle Endeavor commander Ron Grabe for a ride.

The two space travelers are among more than an estimated 12,000 passengers who have soared through the skies with Zimmerman, who was inducted, along with three other Illinois pilots, into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame in May.

That day, he said, he was flying his Breezy, an aircraft he built himself. The tiny craft, which has no cabin — riders sit in an open cockpit — can carry a pilot and a passenger. Zimmerman said he usually takes it to an altitude of about 1,000 feet. It cruises at about 75 mph, he said, and with a fuel tank that can carry 21 gallons, has a flying range of about three hours.

“I still fly the Breezy. I’ve had the Breezy for 34 years,” he said.

Zimmerman was named to the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame for his excellence as a pilot and his volunteer efforts and community involvement.

“We look at volunteer efforts,” said Walter Kessler, president of the IAHA. “We have a lot of people that give their time and efforts to young people.”

Kessler said Zimmerman and his three fellow 2010 honorees were chosen from a field of about 2,500 candidates and about 20 nominees.

“It’s the highest honor you can bestow on anyone in aviation in the State of Illinois,” Kessler said. “(Arnie’s) been flying a little more than 50 years now. He’s received quite a few awards.”

Kessler added that one of Zimmerman’s most recent efforts to reach out to youth interested in flying is his involvement with establishing an aviation museum at Clow International Airport in Bolingbrook.

Zimmerman said he began his love affair with aviation in 1955 as a college student at the University of Illinois in Champaign, when he got his private pilot rating after attending the Institute of Aviation in Savoy.

He bought his first airplane in 1961.

“In the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, I had a flight school at Midway Airport,” he said.

In 1967, he was part of a group of more than 20 pilots who founded the Brookeridge airport and subdivision in Downers Grove.

Today, Zimmerman and his family live in the Brookeridge Aero Estates, where his house is adjoined by a hangar, where he keeps two of his three planes. A third plane, he said, is housed in a neighbor’s hangar.

Zimmerman holds commercial, instrument, glider and seaplane ratings. He’s been giving free rides at the annual Oshkosh show, held the last week of July, for the past 20 years.

“I go up there every year,” said the 73-year-old. “There are people from all over the world.”

Retired from a family business, he attends air shows whenever he can and continues to receive recognition for his efforts to educate young, aspiring pilots and share his passion for flying.

By his count, he’s registered more than 1,160 young aviation enthusiasts in the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles Program, which was started in 1992.

One notable alumni of that program, he said, went on to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy and fly F-16s.

In 2005, he was awarded the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, presented in recognition of his exemplary safety record – 50 year of flying without an accident.

“That’s the object of flying. We try to stay safe,” said Zimmerman. “There is nothing magical about making an airplane fly.”