You know, maybe I haven't found it and it exists on here, but I can't find a forum on Pilot Heroes.

I don't know how big of a deal aviation is to anyone else on here, but I am finally at the age of 32 living out the dream that I have had on the cusp of my existence since I was 8 years old. There hasn't been a day of my life that I didn't think about flying since the day I saw a Thunderbirds formation fly over my house in Lincoln, Michigan practicing for an airshow. I was hooked. I have read the books on Noel Wien and his brothers, on the early aviators around the world. Of all aviators though, there is one that stands out as a hero of epic proportions for me personally that I hope to one day sit down for a cup of coffee and a chat with.

For me, that pilot is Paul Claus.

It's funny, I never really idolized any heroes growing up. I have never been the kind of person that really participates in that kind of thing, but Paul is to me the stuff made of legends. I have had a multitude of opportunities to actually say hi to the guy but in all reality I am sure I am just some new green pilot to a guy like that and it is pretty humbling to think he had the time to chat it up. I'd love to pick his brain for a few years.

Anyway, anyone else have this or am I just a crazy airport bum with a dream of getting 37,000 hours of bush flying at some point in my life?

Funny you mention this. I was just having a debate about heros in aviation and of course the most common one I hear now is Sully and his impressive Hudson River ditching...that doesn't cut it for me...(Im not saying it wasn't impressive )
I don't know if hero is the word for some of these folks but inspirations perhaps and people i look up to....
I got a job painting hangars at this airport in Maine when I was 14 years old...one day this guy started working there as a CFI, this guy was in his early 30's....as a typical dreamy eyed kid I wanted to fly 747s etc....well this guy was a 727 pilot and I remember how much I looked up to him when I was younger. The coolest plane at that point to me was the 150 and to meet a "real life" airline pilot was out of this world! He took the time to talk to me and teach me as much as possible, he took me on my first IFR flight well VFR on top. shot my first approach with him, learned ATC with him etc... He and I are still good friends and continue talking weekly, from flying 150's to my current corporate flight job its been a long journey and he's been there the whole time.....
Theres also another guy (who happens to frequent this site) that I looked up to. I worked for him for a little while and I remember being in awe of his flying ability. Over the years that I've been flying I slowly moved from being impressed by what they flew, and instead was impressed in how they flew. Nothing drives me crazy like hearing people talking about how well THEY fly. Chances are, they can't. This guy however just had this quiet confidence that was really cool to me and I spent as much time as I could talking with him about flying and airplanes. I think in the short time I worked for him I learned more about flying than in any of my other prior 12 years of flying at the time.
Those are the types of "heros" I have, people who have a direct impact on your life. Sully is cool, don't get me wrong, but I don't know him. probably will never meet him and really can't relate to anything he's ever done....but the people who have taken the time to show me the ropes, guided me along in aviation and gave me the time of day....well those guys are my heros I suppose.

I think of the guys from WWII who we don't even know their names.

In the here and now the two guys I want to be like are Joe Dory and Bobby Cox.

Cheers...Rob

Lots -First on my List is Dale Tillaly and Cliff Lincoln who I worked for and taught me how to fly when I was young . Many more including many U.S. Army Military pilots I flew with in Indian Territory.Other civilian pilots Sparky Imeson would top that list . Hero is a rather general term for someone who flys.
I really think that "HERO" should be some who comes to your aid in very dangerous time> like a fireman who saves your life or keeps family out of harms way.

Bill, I agree. It's a term WAY overused today . . . .

My aviation inspirations were more military in nature, which probably had a big part in my joining the USAF those many years ago. Joe McConnell, Jim Jabara, Chuck Yeager, Steve Ritchie, Jim Fleming are just a few. I didn't fly in the military, but their stories certainly pushed me into the air to get my license and fly. . .

I have had the pleasure of spending a fair amount of time with Paul Claus. I don't think I know of anyone else that can tell a story as well (true stories). There are very few pilots that can go from Otter to 185 to Super Cub and make every one of them perform to its maximum capabilities but there is no doubt that Paul does it consistently and with style. Take some time and fly to Ultima Thule and I am sure you will get a story.


Greg

Sierra Hotel wrote:Bill, I agree. It's a term WAY overused today . . . .

My aviation inspirations were more military in nature, which probably had a big part in my joining the USAF those many years ago. Joe McConnell, Jim Jabara, Chuck Yeager, Steve Ritchie, Jim Fleming are just a few. I didn't fly in the military, but their stories certainly pushed me into the air to get my license and fly. . .

John hows the 182 working out ? I watched your "taking 182 to Alaska blog" Had a nice time in Mo. except for the "SNOW -and Cold " for this desert guy.

All good responses.

I will add one though, Don Sheldon. I have seen some previous posts on Sheldon, so I know that it has been discussed here before, but If you haven't read Wager With the Wind, you need to. Absolutely great book and it highlights not only what a great aviator he was, but a what a good human being he was as well. Stretched his neck out for perfect strangers more than once.

Wish I could have met him.

I'd have to go further back. My aviation hero is Glenn Curtiss.

He started flying when a cross country was the length of a football field.
He got his ass chewed by his wife for flying too high (above the trees).
He started that relationship between airplanes and motorcycles that we have talked about on this forum.
He straddled a honkin' big V-8 to set a world motorcycle speed record of 136mph+ in 1907 that stood until 1930.
He fought the Wright brothers who thought they were gods and felt that anyone who flew owed them money.
He and Alexander Graham Bell invented the aileron.
He built and flew airplanes in Canada to avoid the Wright brothers patent infringement BS.
While the Wrights were hiding their airplane, scared that somebody would copy something, Curtiss was making leaps and bounds for aviation. In 1908, 5 years after Kitty Hawk, he made a one mile flight that he pre-announced so everybody could watch. The next year,1909, he went to France and kicked butt, giving the Europeans a lesson in big American V-8's that Caroll Shelby would have been proud of. The year after that, 1910, he flew his Curtiss pusher, a bunch of bamboo poles tied together with wire, from Albany to New York City. So, two years after his miracle flight of one mile, he flew 137 miles to NYNY.

The list goes on, but in my mind, the fact that he did all this without any knowledge of Va, or Vne or gust loads or even critical AoA is a mind blower. The fact that he KNEW he didn't know any of this stuff but flew anyway suggests a watermelon sized pair.

While the Wrights were suing all flyers, foreign and domestic, Curtiss was sharing most everything he discovered about flight and flying. The Wright patents suppressed aviation in America to such a degree that when WW-I started, we had NO suitable combat aircraft so our pilots had to fly French planes. The government had to step in and say knock it off.

A while back, I got a chance to go to Old Rhinebeck airfield in NY state to see, hear and smell a lot of the old flying machines. Looking at the Curtiss pusher, with it's wicker lawn chair tied to some bamboo a foot in front of a huge radiator, followed by hundreds of pounds of hissing V8, all of which was just waiting for you to f---k up so it could make you into a meat sandwich... I had to lift my hat to Curtiss and ALL the guys that started expanding the envelope for the rest of us.

YB

Bill, I agree. It's a term WAY overused today . . . .

Yeah, i guess it is overused but sometimes Paul Claus, Pops Dory, Patrol Guy, and even your buddy sitting at his desk at home in front of the radar become a hero every now and then. Those guys are always saving me and they don't even realize it! Okay, maybe not Claus yet, but that boy sure can fly a glacier!

182 STOL driver wrote:

Sierra Hotel wrote:Bill, I agree. It's a term WAY overused today . . . .

My aviation inspirations were more military in nature, which probably had a big part in my joining the USAF those many years ago. Joe McConnell, Jim Jabara, Chuck Yeager, Steve Ritchie, Jim Fleming are just a few. I didn't fly in the military, but their stories certainly pushed me into the air to get my license and fly. . .

John hows the 182 working out ? I watched your "taking 182 to Alaska blog" Had a nice time in Mo. except for the "SNOW -and Cold " for this desert guy.

Bill, things are going good. I haven't flown in almost a month now due to work, being gone a week fishing, and now 50' ceilings. Hoping to get out and kill some bugs here this coming week . . . .

The weather we had in February was MUCH better than what I had when I went to get the plane. That weather just downright sucked!

I'm privileged to be hosting one of my aviation heroes right now- Lowell Thomas Jr.

I have lots of "Pilot Heroes" whose exploits have inspired me: Chuck Yeager, Robert Rosenthal, Bob Hoover and the like.

Lately though, I've been doing some reading on some of the pioneer aviators of the 1930's like Amy Johnson, who flew a Tiger Moth 11,000 miles from London to Darwin, Australia in 19 days. Or Jean Batten, who made the same flight and shaved five days off the record, in the same type of plane!

My newest "pilot hero" is the first woman to fly around the world solo... and it wasn't Amelia Earhart!

It was Columbus housewife Jerrie Mock, who accomplished a 23,000 mile, 29 day odyssey in an airplane we all have a soft spot for: A Cessna 180. It's hanging in the Udvar-Hazy Annex of the National Air and Space Museum in DC.

Alan

I guess being from Canada and in the north, mine would have to be pioneers of Northern Aviation although I did realize a dream few years ago and went and paid my Respects to Mr. Lindbergh in Hanna, HI... the Yukon connection is with the Queen of the Yukon..which was the #1 out of the factory, Charles was to fly it but decided to go with #2, SOSL...thus #1 came to the Yukon & AK and is now retired at the smithsonian. Others like Mo Grant, Punch Dickens, Max Ward and Mr. Cameron are up there too with other mountain Flyers out of the Yukon but #1 is grand pa...still kicking in eastern Canada... Lancaster pilot, shut down on Mission #3 over Polland..only him and one other crewmate lived the crash after being shut down and gained confidence of a farming family who took them under their wing...lived underground till the war was over.. My son's middle name bares his name.