Thursday, April 26, 2012

My father, Wayne Heald, worked for Flying Tigers at LAX from 1969 until 1981. He worked at the hangar off of World Way West. He was referred to as "Sarge" since he was a retired USAF Master Sergeant. I remember that Davey Cervantes was a good friend of his. I also remember Vic Schneider as being a friend of his.

I remember traveling on the DC-8s riding stand-by from LAX to ORD (Chicago). I distictly remember the tele-types that were coming across the printer while in Chicago.

My couple of rides in the DC-8s are very memorable now. Riding behind the pilot, I remember that the pilot said that we will be going beyond my dad and I's final destination of Fort Madison, IA. I remember not believing them, although it was actually true.

I also remember that my father had a good friend - H. Ueno (from Japan) that would occasionally come to Los Angeles for training. He was a flight engineer.

Stan McElrath is a person who comes to my mind. He was a Sprint Car driver and an employee of Flying Tigers at LAX. My father painted his race car for him. Stan was a CRA Sprint Car Champion in the early 1970s.
One thing that sticks in my mind is that people used to mention to my dad that he should take me to the simulator...He never took me there.

1 comment:

  1. My mom tells me that my dad always spoke very highly of working at Flying Tigers. He was very proud to work there.

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