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Tom was among the inaugural class inducted into the Beechcraft King Air Hall of Fame in 2022.
California or being on a ship! But this led to two events that God brought into my life that would play a huge part in my King Air career.
First, teaching at the Nuke School – heat transfer and thermodynamics were my teaching specialties – gave me lots and lots of classroom teaching experience. The Nuclear Power Program, then still under the tight grip of Admiral Hyman Rickover, was thorough and instructors were evaluated in the classroom at least once a month. Sloppy performance was not acceptable.
Second, being single and receiving officer’s pay, I had a bit of discretionary income that I quickly allotted to pay for more flying. At Navajo Aviation in Concord, California, I got my commercial, instrument and instructor (CFI, CFII, AGI) ratings. I landed a part-time job at nearby Sonoma Skypark. I taught my first and several other newcomers to earn their private pilot certificates. I got tailwheel qualified and even helped an owner get his commercial license in his Luscombe 8A. I also used the FBO’s old 150HP Apache to get my multiengine rating. I bought my first airplane, a 1946 Stinson 108-1. (I have owned a total of eight airplanes, the last one being a Cessna 180.)
After college, a well-known Ivy League school accepted me into an MBA program. In the back of my mind, this was my plan after my Navy commitment. But now, four years later, and maybe partly due to the “do your own
Tom’s headshot for Beechcraft Training Center is on the top row.
thing” culture of the San Francisco Bay Area in the late ’60s and early ’70s, I decided to pursue flying instead. What a fateful decision that turned out to be!
Teaching at the Beechcraft Training Center
Who would want a 1,500-hour pilot with all the fixed-wing ratings but little worthwhile experience? I sent resumes to all airplane manufacturers, sales organizations and advanced training schools that I could find. Wonder of wonders, one of my replies was from Beech Aircraft Corporation! Whereas I thought my “best fit” with a manufacturer would be as a demonstration pilot, they wanted me to come to Wichita, Kansas, to interview for a ground and flight instructor position.
Since all of Beech’s instructors taught ground school and flight training, I am sure my four years of ground school instruction at Nuke School were a huge factor in why I was interviewed with the low flying time I had and helped me get the job.
In January 1972, I began work at Beech. As I have written in other articles, it was a wonderful time to start at Beech. I was there for five years and rose from a pilot instructor to the head of all pilot training to the head of the whole Beechcraft Training Center, which also included maintenance and sales training. What an experience! The aviation market began some fantastic growth years at that time. In the mid-1970s, Beech
DECEMBER 2024
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 5