Line upon Line

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The cherry red airplane built by airshow pilot Danny Sorensen was slated to take three years to complete–at least that’s what he projected. This wasn’t a plane made from a kit, sent in the mail, but a machine he drew and designed piece by piece.

Yet, having built an airplane decades before under a demanding schedule that had taken him away from his family for large swaths of time, he decided he would never do that again. With the demands of life and the unexpected pains and trials, that plane took 14 years to build.

Danny said, “All this time, I thought I had been crafting this airplane, my Heavenly Father had been crafting me.”

“The Craftsman” is a new segment to add to the Meet the Mormon films that play at intervals exclusively at Salt Lake City’s Temple Square and other select LDS visitors’ centers. The idea of letting people know what Latter-day Saints are really like in their vast variety of interests, ethnicities and nationalities was created by a group chaired by Elder David A. Bednar in 2010.

After four years in creation, Meet the Mormons was released in theaters in Oct. of 2014, a destination that originally committee had not contemplated nor imagined. To the surprise of many, the film has become one of the top 35 most popular documentaries of all time.

Though the first movie highlighted the story of six Mormons, including a kickboxer from Costa Rica, a humanitarian from Nepal, and the candy bomber from the Berlin airlift days, three more stories were added as separate segments more recently. Now this year the Meet the Mormons project comes to an end with “The Craftsman” and another segment which will be released a few months from now.

The new “Meet the Mormons” segment, “The Craftsman,” depicts Danny’s life as airshow pilot, retired firefighter captain, devoted father and grandfather, and Mormon.

Danny and his wife, Allyn, consider themselves very quiet and private people. Cameras and microphones were completely out of their comfort zone. When asked how they were chosen to be the subjects of the next “Meet the Mormons” installment, Danny jokingly explained, “We were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

When you first meet Danny, it’s easy to envision him at the controls of a plane. His cheerful demeanor and slick bomber-esque leather jacket spoke of his many flights in the skies. The film footage which includes his doing vertical climbs and aerobatic maneuvers like rolls, rotations and loops makes you wonder how he found his way into such a courageous pastime.

Danny Sorensen’s fascination with aerobatics started as a child. At age five, he would ask his father to teach him how to make his toy model airplane do aerobatic tricks. This passion for aerobatics has continued to grow throughout his entire life, culminating in his decision to build his own airplane. Danny crafted every component of his airplane entirely from scratch, down to the nuts and bolts.

Though flying was his passion, Danny wanted to provide a stable life for his family. Professionally, Danny served as the Captain for the Salt Lake City Fire Department. Since his retirement, he has enjoyed pursuing his lifelong dream to become an airshow pilot.

Danny says he witnessed miracles during the filming of “The Craftsman.” He recounted “When we were doing the flight scenes, the weather was just rotten.” Many of Danny’s aerobatic stunts are quite complicated, exerting up to five time the force of gravity on his body, so adverse weather during an airshow poses a significant danger. However, the filmmakers and Danny went forward with filming, having faith that the weather would clear up.

Danny described the moment when the clouds parted by sharing, “You could hear the William Tell Overture playing.” The Sorensens expressed that taking part in the film “was a very spiritual experience—things just lined up.”

The Sorensens are no strangers to miracles though. While Danny was serving as his ward’s bishop, their four-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was diagnosed with cancer. Soon after the doctors’ discovery, Jennifer underwent a nine-hour surgery to remove the tumor at the base of her head. While the process of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation left Jennifer sick and weak, she miraculously came out as a survivor.

After Jennifer had recovered was when Danny decided to pursue his goal of building the airplane. He originally planned for his airplane to take three years to complete, but he promised himself that he would commit his time first to his family, and then second to his airplane. Staying true to his commitment to make his wife and five children his priority, it took fourteen years and four days for the featured star of “The Craftsman” to finish building his airplane, which he ultimately named “Unfinished Business.”

Danny says the inspiration for the airplane’s name comes from the fact that “life is just unfinished business,” explaining that we will always have children to care for, yardwork and housework to do, or meals to prepare. He exhorts the viewer to remember that “people are more important than things.”

Overall, Allyn and Danny hope the film sends a message of hope to the viewers. Danny explains, “Really hard things happen to good people every day. Just know that God loves you. Don’t give up hope and don’t give up faith.”

You can see the full segments from the Meet the Mormons at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building at Temple Square and at other select LDS Visitors’ Centers.