Hugh Jorgan
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
- Posts
- 2,307
John Lear gave this talk on July 9th, 2004 to a group of fellow pilots
> in Las Vegas called, the "Hangar of Quiet Birdmen". Each month one
> pilot in
> the group gives a 15 minute talk on his career.
>
>
> John Lear on John Lear:
>
> One of the anguishes of advancing age is losing old friends. The
> upside
> of that, though, is that I get to tell the story my way.
>
> I learned to fly at Clover Field in Santa Monica when I was 14.
> However
> before I got to get in an actual airplane Dad made me take 40 hours of
> Link with Charlie Gress. I can't remember what I did yesterday but I
> guarantee
> you I could still shoot a 90 degree, Fade-out or Parallel radio range
> orientation.
>
> When I turned 16 I had endorsements on my student license for an Aero
> Commander 680E and Cessna 310.
>
> I got my private at 17 and instrument rating shortly thereafter. The
> Lockheed 18 Lodestar was my first type rating at age 18. I went to
> work
> for my father and brother flying copilot on a twin beech out of Geneva
> Switzerland after I got out of high school. Dad was over there trying
> to
> peddle radios to the European airlines.
>
> However just after I turned 18 and got my Commercial I was showing off
> my aerobatic talents in a Bucker Jungmann to my friends at a Swiss
> boarding
> school I had attended. I managed to start a 3 turn spin from too low
> an
> altitude and crashed. I shattered both heels and ankles and broke both
> legs in 3 places. I crushed my neck, broke both sides of my jaw and
> lost
> all of
> my front teeth. I managed to get gangrene in one of the open wounds
> in my
> ankles and was shipped from Switzerland to the Lovelace Clinic in
> Albuquerque where Randy Lovelace made me well.
>
> When I could walk again I worked selling pots and pans door to door in
> Santa Monica. In late 1962 Dad had moved from Switzerland to Wichita to
> build the Lear Jet and I went to Wichita to be work in Public
> relations
> until November of 1963 about 2 months after the first flight when I
> moved
> to Miami and took over editing an aviation newspaper called Aero News.
>
> I moved the newspaper to El Segundo in California and ran it until it
> failed. I then got a job flight instructing at Progressive Air
> Service in
> Hawthorne, California. From there I went to Norman Larson Beech in Van
> Nuys flight instructing in Aircoupes.
>
> In the spring of 1965 I was invited by my Dad back to Wichita to get
> type rated in the model 23 Learjet. I then went to work for the
> executive
> aircraft division of Flying Tigers in Burbank who had secured a
> dealership
> for the Lear.
>
> In November of 1965 my boss Paul Kelly crashed number 63 into the
> mountains at Palm Springs killing everybody on board including Bob
> Prescotts 13 years old son and 4 of the major investors in Tigers. I
> took
> over his
> job as President of Airjet charters a wholly owned subsidiary of FTL
> and
> flew
> charters and sold Lears. Or rather tried to sell them. It turns out
> that I
> never managed to sell one Learjet in my entire life.
>
> In March of 1966 2 lear factory pilots Hank Beaird, Rick King and
> myself set 17 world speed records including speed around the round the
> world, 65
> hours and 38 minutes in the first Lear Jet 24. Shortly after that
> flight I
> got canned from Tigers and moved to Vegas and started the first 3rd
> level
> airline in Nevada, Ambassador Airlines. We operated an Aero Commander
> and
> Cherokee 6 on 5 stops from Las Vegas to LAX. This was about the time
> Hughes moved to Las Vegas and I was doing some consulting work for
> Bob and
> Peter
> Maheu.
>
> The money man behind Ambassador was Jack Cleveland who I introduced to
> John Myers in the Hughes organization. Cleveland and Myers tried to
> peddle
> the 135 certificate to Hughes without success and Jack ended up
> selling
> Howard those phony gold mining claims you all may remember. I went
> back to
> Van Nuys and was flying Lear charter part time for Al Paulson and Clay
> Lacy at California Airmotive, the Learjet distributor.
>
> That summer I started a business called Aerospace Flight Research in
> Van Nuys were I rented aircraft to Teledyne to flight test their
> Inertial
> Guidance Systems. We had a B-26, Super Pinto and Twin Beech. I think
> we
> lasted about 4 months.
>
> I then went to work for World Aviation Services in Ft. Lauderdale
> ferrying the Cessna O2 FAC airplane from Wichita, fresh of the
> assembly
> line to Nha Trang in Viet Nam with fellow QB Bill Werstlein. We were
> under
> the
> 4440th ADG Langley VA. and hooked up with a lot of other military
> pilots
> ferrying all manner and types of aircraft.
>
> Our route was Wichita to Hamilton, Hickam, Midway, Wake, Guam, Clark
> and then in country. The longest leg was Hamilton to Hickam an
> average of
> 16
> hours, no autopilot, no copilot, and one ADF. We also had 3 piddle
> packs.
> Arriving in Nha Trang we would hitch a ride to Saigon and spend 3 days
> under technical house arrest, each trip, pay a fine for entering the
> country
> illegally, that is being civilians and not coming through a port of
> entry,
> catch an airline up to Hong Kong for a little R and R and straight
> back to
> Wichita for another airplane. I flew this contract for 4 years.
>
> During some off time in 1968 I attempted to ferry a Cessna 320 from
> Oakland to Australia with the first stop in Honolulu. About 2 hours out
> from Oakland I lost the right engine and had no provisions for dumping
> fuel. I
> went down into ground effect (T effect for you purists) and for 3
> hours
> and 21 minutes flew on one engine about 25 feet above the waves and
> made it
> into Hamilton AFB after flying under the Golden Gate and Richmond
> bridges.
> An
> old friend Nick Conte, was officer of the day and gave me the royal
> treatment.
> Why did I go into Hamilton instead of Oakland? I knew exactly where
> the O
> club was for some much needed refreshment.
>
> In September of 1968 between 0-2 deliveries I raced a Douglas B-26
> Invader in the Reno Air Races. It was the largest airplane ever raced
> at
> Reno, and I placed 5th in the Bronze passing one Mustang. It was
> reported
> to me after the race by XB-70 project pilot Col. Ted Sturmthal that
> when I
> passed the P-51, 3 fighter pilots from Nellis committed suicide off
> the
> back of the grandstands. In the summer of 1970 I helped Darryl
> Greenamyer
> and
> Adam Robbins put on the California 1000 air race in Mojave California.
> That's the one where Clay Lacy raced the DC-7.
>
> I flew a B-26 with Wally McDonald. I then started flying charter in an
> Aero Commander and Beech Queen Air for Aero Council a charter service
> out
> of Burbank. They went belly up about 3 months later and I went up to
> Reno
> to
> work for my Dad as safety pilot on his Lear model 25. After my Dad
> fired
> me I was personally escorted to the Nevada/California border by an
> ex-Los
> Angeles police detective who worked for Dad and did the muscle work.
>
> I went back down to Van Nuys and was Chief Pilot for Lacy Aviation and
> was one of the first pilot proficiency examiners for the Lear Jet. In
> the
> summer of 1973 I moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia as Chief Pilot and
> Director
> of Operations for Tri Nine Airlines which flew routes throughout
> Cambodia
> for Khmer Akas Air.
>
> I flew a Convair 440 an average of 130 hours a month. We had unlimited
> quantities of 115/145 fuel and ADI and were able to use full CB-17
> power
> (which was 62" for any of you R-2800 aficionados). In November of
> 1973 I
> moved to Vientianne, Laos and flew C-46's and Twin Otters for
> Continental
> Air Services Inc. delivering guns and ammo to the Gen. Vang Pao and
> his
> CIA supported troops.
>
> We got shot down one day and when I say we, Dave Kouba was the
> captain.
> We were flying a twin otter and got the right engine shot out.
> Actually
> the small arms fire had hit the fuel line in the right strut and fuel
> was
> streaming out back around the tail and being sucked into the large
> cargo
> opening in the side of the airplane and filling the cockpit with a
> fine
> mist of jet fuel.
>
> I held the mike in my hands, "Should I call Cricket and possibly blow
> us up or...?" (Some of you may remember "Cricket"... "This is Cricket
> on
> guard with an air strike warning to all aircraft".)
>
> VBut Davy found us a friendly dirt strip and we were back in the air
> the next day. When the war came to an end in 1973 I moved back to Van
> Nuys
> and
> started flying Lears for Lacy again until October when I went up to
> Seattle and sat in on a Boeing 707 ground school for Air Club
> International
> on
> spec.
>
> V3 weeks later I ended up in the left seat of the 707 with a total of
> 8
> hours in type. Air Club begat Aero America and we flew junkets out of
> Vegas for the Tropicana and Thunderbird Hotels. I left Aero having
> not been
> fired and in the summer of 1975 I was Director of Ops for Ambassador
> Airlines 2
> flying 707 junkets also out of Vegas. After that airline collapsed I
> moved
> to Beirut, Lebanon in September of 1975 and flew 707's for 2 years for
> Trans Mediterranean Airways a Lebanese cargo carrier.
>
> in Las Vegas called, the "Hangar of Quiet Birdmen". Each month one
> pilot in
> the group gives a 15 minute talk on his career.
>
>
> John Lear on John Lear:
>
> One of the anguishes of advancing age is losing old friends. The
> upside
> of that, though, is that I get to tell the story my way.
>
> I learned to fly at Clover Field in Santa Monica when I was 14.
> However
> before I got to get in an actual airplane Dad made me take 40 hours of
> Link with Charlie Gress. I can't remember what I did yesterday but I
> guarantee
> you I could still shoot a 90 degree, Fade-out or Parallel radio range
> orientation.
>
> When I turned 16 I had endorsements on my student license for an Aero
> Commander 680E and Cessna 310.
>
> I got my private at 17 and instrument rating shortly thereafter. The
> Lockheed 18 Lodestar was my first type rating at age 18. I went to
> work
> for my father and brother flying copilot on a twin beech out of Geneva
> Switzerland after I got out of high school. Dad was over there trying
> to
> peddle radios to the European airlines.
>
> However just after I turned 18 and got my Commercial I was showing off
> my aerobatic talents in a Bucker Jungmann to my friends at a Swiss
> boarding
> school I had attended. I managed to start a 3 turn spin from too low
> an
> altitude and crashed. I shattered both heels and ankles and broke both
> legs in 3 places. I crushed my neck, broke both sides of my jaw and
> lost
> all of
> my front teeth. I managed to get gangrene in one of the open wounds
> in my
> ankles and was shipped from Switzerland to the Lovelace Clinic in
> Albuquerque where Randy Lovelace made me well.
>
> When I could walk again I worked selling pots and pans door to door in
> Santa Monica. In late 1962 Dad had moved from Switzerland to Wichita to
> build the Lear Jet and I went to Wichita to be work in Public
> relations
> until November of 1963 about 2 months after the first flight when I
> moved
> to Miami and took over editing an aviation newspaper called Aero News.
>
> I moved the newspaper to El Segundo in California and ran it until it
> failed. I then got a job flight instructing at Progressive Air
> Service in
> Hawthorne, California. From there I went to Norman Larson Beech in Van
> Nuys flight instructing in Aircoupes.
>
> In the spring of 1965 I was invited by my Dad back to Wichita to get
> type rated in the model 23 Learjet. I then went to work for the
> executive
> aircraft division of Flying Tigers in Burbank who had secured a
> dealership
> for the Lear.
>
> In November of 1965 my boss Paul Kelly crashed number 63 into the
> mountains at Palm Springs killing everybody on board including Bob
> Prescotts 13 years old son and 4 of the major investors in Tigers. I
> took
> over his
> job as President of Airjet charters a wholly owned subsidiary of FTL
> and
> flew
> charters and sold Lears. Or rather tried to sell them. It turns out
> that I
> never managed to sell one Learjet in my entire life.
>
> In March of 1966 2 lear factory pilots Hank Beaird, Rick King and
> myself set 17 world speed records including speed around the round the
> world, 65
> hours and 38 minutes in the first Lear Jet 24. Shortly after that
> flight I
> got canned from Tigers and moved to Vegas and started the first 3rd
> level
> airline in Nevada, Ambassador Airlines. We operated an Aero Commander
> and
> Cherokee 6 on 5 stops from Las Vegas to LAX. This was about the time
> Hughes moved to Las Vegas and I was doing some consulting work for
> Bob and
> Peter
> Maheu.
>
> The money man behind Ambassador was Jack Cleveland who I introduced to
> John Myers in the Hughes organization. Cleveland and Myers tried to
> peddle
> the 135 certificate to Hughes without success and Jack ended up
> selling
> Howard those phony gold mining claims you all may remember. I went
> back to
> Van Nuys and was flying Lear charter part time for Al Paulson and Clay
> Lacy at California Airmotive, the Learjet distributor.
>
> That summer I started a business called Aerospace Flight Research in
> Van Nuys were I rented aircraft to Teledyne to flight test their
> Inertial
> Guidance Systems. We had a B-26, Super Pinto and Twin Beech. I think
> we
> lasted about 4 months.
>
> I then went to work for World Aviation Services in Ft. Lauderdale
> ferrying the Cessna O2 FAC airplane from Wichita, fresh of the
> assembly
> line to Nha Trang in Viet Nam with fellow QB Bill Werstlein. We were
> under
> the
> 4440th ADG Langley VA. and hooked up with a lot of other military
> pilots
> ferrying all manner and types of aircraft.
>
> Our route was Wichita to Hamilton, Hickam, Midway, Wake, Guam, Clark
> and then in country. The longest leg was Hamilton to Hickam an
> average of
> 16
> hours, no autopilot, no copilot, and one ADF. We also had 3 piddle
> packs.
> Arriving in Nha Trang we would hitch a ride to Saigon and spend 3 days
> under technical house arrest, each trip, pay a fine for entering the
> country
> illegally, that is being civilians and not coming through a port of
> entry,
> catch an airline up to Hong Kong for a little R and R and straight
> back to
> Wichita for another airplane. I flew this contract for 4 years.
>
> During some off time in 1968 I attempted to ferry a Cessna 320 from
> Oakland to Australia with the first stop in Honolulu. About 2 hours out
> from Oakland I lost the right engine and had no provisions for dumping
> fuel. I
> went down into ground effect (T effect for you purists) and for 3
> hours
> and 21 minutes flew on one engine about 25 feet above the waves and
> made it
> into Hamilton AFB after flying under the Golden Gate and Richmond
> bridges.
> An
> old friend Nick Conte, was officer of the day and gave me the royal
> treatment.
> Why did I go into Hamilton instead of Oakland? I knew exactly where
> the O
> club was for some much needed refreshment.
>
> In September of 1968 between 0-2 deliveries I raced a Douglas B-26
> Invader in the Reno Air Races. It was the largest airplane ever raced
> at
> Reno, and I placed 5th in the Bronze passing one Mustang. It was
> reported
> to me after the race by XB-70 project pilot Col. Ted Sturmthal that
> when I
> passed the P-51, 3 fighter pilots from Nellis committed suicide off
> the
> back of the grandstands. In the summer of 1970 I helped Darryl
> Greenamyer
> and
> Adam Robbins put on the California 1000 air race in Mojave California.
> That's the one where Clay Lacy raced the DC-7.
>
> I flew a B-26 with Wally McDonald. I then started flying charter in an
> Aero Commander and Beech Queen Air for Aero Council a charter service
> out
> of Burbank. They went belly up about 3 months later and I went up to
> Reno
> to
> work for my Dad as safety pilot on his Lear model 25. After my Dad
> fired
> me I was personally escorted to the Nevada/California border by an
> ex-Los
> Angeles police detective who worked for Dad and did the muscle work.
>
> I went back down to Van Nuys and was Chief Pilot for Lacy Aviation and
> was one of the first pilot proficiency examiners for the Lear Jet. In
> the
> summer of 1973 I moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia as Chief Pilot and
> Director
> of Operations for Tri Nine Airlines which flew routes throughout
> Cambodia
> for Khmer Akas Air.
>
> I flew a Convair 440 an average of 130 hours a month. We had unlimited
> quantities of 115/145 fuel and ADI and were able to use full CB-17
> power
> (which was 62" for any of you R-2800 aficionados). In November of
> 1973 I
> moved to Vientianne, Laos and flew C-46's and Twin Otters for
> Continental
> Air Services Inc. delivering guns and ammo to the Gen. Vang Pao and
> his
> CIA supported troops.
>
> We got shot down one day and when I say we, Dave Kouba was the
> captain.
> We were flying a twin otter and got the right engine shot out.
> Actually
> the small arms fire had hit the fuel line in the right strut and fuel
> was
> streaming out back around the tail and being sucked into the large
> cargo
> opening in the side of the airplane and filling the cockpit with a
> fine
> mist of jet fuel.
>
> I held the mike in my hands, "Should I call Cricket and possibly blow
> us up or...?" (Some of you may remember "Cricket"... "This is Cricket
> on
> guard with an air strike warning to all aircraft".)
>
> VBut Davy found us a friendly dirt strip and we were back in the air
> the next day. When the war came to an end in 1973 I moved back to Van
> Nuys
> and
> started flying Lears for Lacy again until October when I went up to
> Seattle and sat in on a Boeing 707 ground school for Air Club
> International
> on
> spec.
>
> V3 weeks later I ended up in the left seat of the 707 with a total of
> 8
> hours in type. Air Club begat Aero America and we flew junkets out of
> Vegas for the Tropicana and Thunderbird Hotels. I left Aero having
> not been
> fired and in the summer of 1975 I was Director of Ops for Ambassador
> Airlines 2
> flying 707 junkets also out of Vegas. After that airline collapsed I
> moved
> to Beirut, Lebanon in September of 1975 and flew 707's for 2 years for
> Trans Mediterranean Airways a Lebanese cargo carrier.
>