FBOs

It’sbeen a very satisfying month in the Pilot’s Lounge. Summer is spooling down andthe temperatures are dropping, so our airplanes are actually starting to performon takeoff. Dave, tail wheel pilot, one of the Lounge regulars, and owner of aHusky, just passed his check ride for his instrument rating. Doing such a ratingin a tandem, tail […]

Wayne Handley was born March 26, 1939, in Carmel, Calif.After a career in Naval aviation, he built a successful crop dusting business in Salinas,Calif. In 1983, after years of performing for unappreciative grapes and lettuce, hedecided to enter the International Aerobatic Club competition. Finishing 20th out of 21was humbling enough to make him serious about […]

Bob Pond was born in May of 1924 in Edina,Minn. As WWII wound down, he, like other naval aviatiors, had his eyes set on a careerwith the airlines. Instead, he went back to school and worked part-time in the familybusiness, Advance Machine Company. The landscape of Mom and Pop grocery stores were beingreplaced by supermarkets […]

Al Haynes was born in Dallas, Texas, in1932. After four years in the Navy he joined United Airlines, where he rose through theranks for the next 35 years. He never aspired to be a test pilot, but he became one onJuly 19, 1989, enroute from Denver to Chicago. That’s when a 12″ pie-shaped sectionof fanblade […]

Evelyn Bryan Johnson was born Evelyn Stoneon November 4, 1909 in Corbin, Kentucky. She graduated with honors from Tennessee WesleyanCollege and later attended the University of Tennessee where she met and married WyattJennings Bryan. In 1944, while living in Jefferson City, Tennessee, with W. J. serving inthe Air Corps, an ad in the paper for […]

Bill Dana was born November 3, 1930 inPasadena, Calif. He graduated the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and served fouryears in the U. S. Air Force. He joined NASA on October 1, 1958, the day it was founded,which makes him NASA’s first official employee. As a test pilot he flew the triple-sonicYF-12 (precursor […]

Cecil Ewell was born December 25, 1939, inLos Angeles, Calif. After graduating from high school in Nashville, Tenn., he earned afootball scholarship to the University of Florida. He finished the pre-med program with aBachelor’s Degree in Chemistry and was accepted to medical school. Those plans changed oneweekend when he and some friends went to Jacksonville […]

Basedon the title, if you thought this column would deal with locating a place to setan airplane down in the event you were to be confronted with an unscheduledoff-airport landing (a forced landing), you would be mistaken. However, if youreally want to know my opinions on that subject, stick around and I’ll tell you,but first […]

Every pilot out there is going to hate mefor this, but I cannot help but tell this story. To brag. To flaunt my pleasureshamelessly. Please, cut me a little slack, for this has been one of the most wonderfulachievements of my flying career. I cannot stop grinning, every time I think of it. Adream has […]

It’slate at night in the pilot’s lounge. Outside the windows, the pilot-activatedrunway and taxi lights are dark, silently awaiting the next airplane – althougha propeller hasn’t turned in several hours. Everyone left quite a while ago;some inquired as to whether I was going, and accepted my “a bit later”before becoming receding taillights. There is but […]