Honoring my dad, pilot and captain

My dad was born in 1933. He put himself through college in the ROTC, graduated from Ohio State in 1954, and joined the Air Force. He learned to fly in T-35s, then went on to fly bombers (B-25 and B-47) during the Cold War. In 1964, he went with American Airlines as a flight engineer, then FO, and eventually made Captain. He flew Boeing 707s and MD-80s. He went all over the world. He loved to fly. It broke his heart when he was forced to retire at 60. He bought a beautiful Cessna 172 and flew sight seeing trips along the NorCal coast.

I got interested in learning to fly and finally started training in Jan 2025. I passed my PPL checkride 10 days ago on Tuesday Sep 29. He couldn’t fly with me because of his health, but he was very excited that I passed.

He died 2 days ago at 92. He was a pilot through and through. Our conversations about flying were some of the best we ever had. I wanted to honor him here with a community who knew something of how he lived.

https://redd.it/1x30ti7
@r_aviation