Bowker
Biography:
Lloyd Staats
My father was a draftsman, my mother was a teacher. I learned
to read before I started school at five, we had no
kindergarten. My grandfather put the reins of a team of horses
in my hands when I was two years old. My dad taught me to
drive a Model “T” Ford when I was seven. My uncle taught me to
drive a tractor and to plow when I was nine. At fifteen I was
the youngest student ever to go through the Private Pilot
course at the old Ryan School of Aeronautics in San Diego. I
graduated from High School at sixteen. I worked as an
apprentice airplane mechanic for Carberry Crop dusters in
Brawley Calif.
I joined the United States Army at seventeen. I was
commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Fighter Pilot in the Army
Air Forces at nineteen. I got my Instructors rating when I was
twenty. I was assistant manager of North Brunswick Airport
when I was twenty two. I had three instructors, three
secretaries, two mechanics, about eighty students and ten
airplanes to take care of. I was recalled to the United States
Air Force for the Korean Conflict when I was twenty five. I
served a year in the Korean Theater as a pilot and engineering
officer for the 62nd Troop Carrier Squadron of the 314th
Combat Cargo Wing. I joined American Airlines as a Flight
Engineer, upgraded to First Officer and then as Captain before
I was thirty. I was the only Captain on American Airlines to
upgrade to a four engine jet airplane under forty years of
age, at that time.
I acquired three years of assorted college credits at four
different schools, El Centro Junior College, the Univ. of
Tenn. The Univ. of Calif. At Berkeley, and Rutgers. I flew for
American Airlines for thirty five years. When I retired I
learned to fly a Helicopter and started Mid Jersey
Helicopters, we were primarily a flight school. I then managed
the Millstone Valley Flight School. Then I flew for Taft Air,
a 135 Charter Operation until 9-11. Since then I fly with an
Aerial Photographer and have renewed my Flight Instructors
Certificate and taught a grandson to fly.
I married a beautiful Stewardess, we have six children and
fifteen grandchildren and one great grandchild. On July 20th I
passed my second class FAA physical without glasses and on
July, 21st 2005 I became “80” years old.
Email:
fljdstaats@worldnet.att.net
Address: Meta-Sequoia
644 Millstone River Rd.
Belle Mead, NJ 08502
Phone: (908) 359-5905
