Earl
Earl hired me over the phone to work for him in Oct 84. I left there less than a year later to pursue a short lived career with the FAA in ATC. From that, I worked my way up to a UPS 757/767 pilot.
In short....Earl was an asshole and treated pilots like dirt for his own person gain.
Should you choose to read on....
Earl was an icon in the canyon. LMA was around for a long time and gave a crapload of people a nice ride through the big ditch that was the experience of a lifetime. LMA gave a lot of pilots, me included, a break into the industry that allowed us to build time outside of being a CFI. I was promised an intervew at Skywest if I stayed a year. Most did, and many guys went from LMA to Skywest back in the day when they flew Metros. Supposedly, Earl new the head dude at Skywest pretty well and if you stuck around a year and didn't cause trouble, he'd help you get on there. Earl liked me, at first, because I had a CFI and could take care of the occasional student pilot who walked in the door at the old Boulder City airport. Later, I fell out of favor, as I wasn't interested in going the extra mile for six days a week and six dollars an hour. He targeted me as a "lazy, primadonna, airline pilot" (his words, not mine) and that turned out to be very accurate.....and I say that without any remorse whatsoever.... The inner circle were the guys who would sit around the couch during the slow times and BS with him. After a short time, I decided I'd rather go out to the hanger and do busy work than listen to his rants. He figured out pretty quick I wasn't going to be one of "the guys" and doomed me to a slow progression off the 172 into the queen of the fleet, the T207's. I didn't really mind the 172's, though, or being in Earl's dog house. I knew I wasn't going to be around long.
I left LMA to work for the FAA. Though I promised to stay a year, he hired a few guys after me that didn't have to make that promise. One guy was from Alaska and left in less than a year to work for a BA-146 outfit that started up is LAS called Great Western Airlines (how many of you remember them?) I never thought that was fair and didn't have any problem leaving LMA to pursue a career in ATC, which was what I thought I wanted to do at the time. I got a bad recommendation from LMA because I didn't stay a year. Later on, that cost me a twin job in 402's at Air Nevada.
I look back on LMA with some bad feelings. Earl truely was a typical fat type-A personality that was lucky to make it to 80. We might not have won WWII without assholes like him but it's people like him that have made unions thrive in the aviation business. I can say I've never had a worse employer than LMA and a worse boss than Earl. Some will disagree but that's my experience.
Art Gallinson was Earl's right hand man. He was a really smart guy and better suited as a boss than Earl. I say that even though Art signed the letter I have to this day saying LMA wouldn't recommend me to another employer. Earl would have been better off walking away from the operation and letting Art just run it.
Sandy Sanderson, the mechanic, was a friggen jewel. He kept those planes in top shape and was a big part of LMA's success. I once inquired about oil temps being in the red arc coming out of the canyon and he said as long as the pressure stays up, it's not a problem. As hard as those airplanes were flown, we never had an accident of any sort during my sort tenure. Though, I heard they crashed one at Tuweep after I was gone.
If anyones really interested in LMA. AOPA did an article on Earl and LMA maybe 7 or 8 years ago. If anyone has the issue date I'd love to go back and make sure I save it.
I hate to poop on a man's grave, but I've been waiting a long time to write this. Earl taught me how not to treat people and how not to be a boss. I guess that counts for something. Thanks for the education, Earl....
