CHARACTERS Auto-Pilot

UNLIKE THE TYPICAL AUTOMOTIVE garage waiting room-Goodwill-reject couch, pinup calendar, dog-eared magazines-Bill Signs’ waiting room at Swedish Auto in Farmer’s Branch is a repository of the eclectic souvenirs brought home by Signs, who enjoys flying bis single engine airplanes to exotic locales and setting records while he’s at it.

The shop clock is a relic from a Soviet submarine. On Signs’ desk, mounted dried pira-hanas nip each others’ fins. A walrus oosik (penile hone) acts as an enormous paper weight. In the hall, overlooking the service bay window, hangs a photo of two Mongolians holding “Ross Perot tor President” signs.

“I flew the first U.S. airplane of any type all the way across Russia to Nome, Alaska,” Signs says of his flight in 1992. In January, 1995, he became the first to fly a single engine plane roundtrip to Antarctica without refueling. Signs’ grandest dream awaits fulfillment-a first-ever, around the world flight in his Cessna, with a stop on each continent. Who knows what exotic treasures will adorn his shop after that flight?