Famous pilots you have met.......I'll start out...

I met @Ted. Poor guy was trying to eat lunch in peace with business colleagues so I refrained from asking for an autograph. After that all others paled in comparison. Lol lol lol.
 
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write-stuff said:
Chuck Yeager, Patty Wagstaff, Robin Olds, Jim Lovell, Frank Borman, Bill Anders, Gordo Cooper, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Wally Schirra, Bob Hoover, Al Worden, Joel Paris III, Lee Lauderback, Bud Anderson, Buzz Aldrin, Gabby Gabreski, Paul Tibbets, Gene Cernan, Dick Gordon, Robert L. Scott, Scott Crossfield, Edgar Mitchell, John Young, Joe Engle, Max Trescott, Rod Machado, Dick Truly, Pappy Boyington, Gunther Rall, Bryan Turner
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I have met many famous pilots over the years, including several on the above list. Everyone’s definition of “Famous”, can be different though. Is it because of an achievement that they are famous, or household names, etc?

I have met several celebrities, some aircraft engineers/designers, airline CEO’s, etc.
 
Trained with Mike Novosel (MOH, B-29 Instructor, Squadron Commander & Army Dustoff pilot.) The main street at Fort Rucker is named for him.
An old Air America pilot died at 3 AM this morning in an auto accident. You may have seen the 1975 photo of him on the rooftop heliport of the Philips Hotel in Saigon. He was solo in the Air America Bell 205A1 that was evacuating civilians. Bob Caron was 88. Coincidence: The accident happened close to Mike Novosel's home in Ft Walton Beach, FL. Never met him, but I know a lot of the old fart airmen in the P'cola area.
 
Spent some quality time with Doug Wheelock, LTC US Army test pilot and Nasa astronaut. It was in the club at Ft Rucker, AL . It was not too long after he and another did an EVA to free up a fouled solar panel on the ISS. It never passed my little mind (until he mentioned it) the massive amount of electricity the panel was generating while he and his bud were tugging on it. He said that he was scheduled to go to the ISS 6 months later.
 
It was after New Years day in 1969 in the club at Ft Sam Houston. I had just started a class at the Army Academy of Health Science. A Nurse class was throwing a bash and they always have great hors d'oevrs. Wouldn't miss it. Then a scrawny dude entered and he had a smile on his face that would not go away. He was surrounded by nurses immediately. I caught his name. Major James Rowe. He was all over the papers and TV. He was barefoot in Viet Nam a few days ago and he killed his Viet Cong guard, flagged down a chopper and just flew away to freedom. He was a Green Beret LT. and was captured five years earlier.
I made my way over to him when the tide of nurses thinned and shook his hand. He said it only took the Army a day or two to get him back to the states. They booked him into Brooke Army Medical Center. They couldn't hold him on the ward however, He had recent escape experience and a ton of back pay and the nurses were partying. He never stopped grinning.
 
Reno Air Races (2015 if memory serves), Hoot Gibson and Bill “Tiger” Destefani. Both signed my PPL solo cutout at the air races (which just happened to be one of my older Strega shirts).

I walked past Bob Hoover at least twice while he was there for a book signing, thinking “I need to swing by there”...unfortunately I never did, and he flew west before I had another opportunity.
 
Maxnr said:
Trained with Mike Novosel (MOH, B-29 Instructor, Squadron Commander & Army Dustoff pilot.) The main street at Fort Rucker is named for him.
An old Air America pilot died at 3 AM this morning in an auto accident. You may have seen the 1975 photo of him on the rooftop heliport of the Philips Hotel in Saigon. He was solo in the Air America Bell 205A1 that was evacuating civilians. Bob Caron was 88. Coincidence: The accident happened close to Mike Novosel's home in Ft Walton Beach, FL. Never met him, but I know a lot of the old fart airmen in the P'cola area.
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Not sure if your talking about Michael Novotel Sr Medal of Honor recipient or Jr who also was a Army Helicopter Pilot and both served together in Vietnam...Senior was the WW-II B-29 pilot who the Air force did not want back on active duty so joined the Army as a warrant officer. Pappy as we all knew him as was a fixture at Ft Rucker and I considered a mentor...I was the Adjutant in his retirement ceremony and parade...close to 2500 flight school students/WOC’s and instructors spent two days practicing for a ceremony shutting down Rucker and training. Pappy spoke for over an hour in the Alabama summer heat...there was a record number of pass outs...he just kept talking...I think senior died in 2006 and JR was 3-4 years later from cancer...both were true American hero’s. After retiring Pappy would hold court most mornings with coffee at the Hardies just off post...Anyone was welcome...miss those days.
 
I was in a training class for my former employer, and CJ Simonsen was a classmate.

https://blueangels.fandom.com/wiki/Lieutenant_C.J._Simonsen

Never knew he was a BA until the guy running the class mentioned something. Super nice guy, he put up with my nerdy BA questions.

Steve Foley was BA #1 in 04-06, and he was the EVP of the company I worked for. Only briefly met him.
 
Warlock said:
Not sure if your talking about Michael Novotel Sr Medal of Honor recipient or Jr who also was a Army Helicopter Pilot and both served together in Vietnam...Senior was the WW-II B-29 pilot who the Air force did not want back on active duty so joined the Army as a warrant officer. Pappy as we all knew him as was a fixture at Ft Rucker and I considered a mentor...I was the Adjutant in his retirement ceremony and parade...close to 2500 flight school students/WOC’s and instructors spent two days practicing for a ceremony shutting down Rucker and training. Pappy spoke for over an hour in the Alabama summer heat...there was a record number of pass outs...he just kept talking...I think senior died in 2006 and JR was 3-4 years later from cancer...both were true American hero’s. After retiring Pappy would hold court most mornings with coffee at the Hardies just off post...Anyone was welcome...miss those days.
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Sorry. tried to be brief. There were three M.N.'s: Senior, Junior and the third. I trained w/ senior. He told me of his B-24 & B-29 instructor gigs. He then xfered to Tinian and then put the 29 to work. Post war, he was assigned to USAF Armament Ctr at Eglin AFB. Had repeated tours there and lived in Ft Walton near Destin. Commanded a reserve 29 Squadron. He was a LTC) He told me of one Eglin B-29 project that he worked on. Search the web for PROJECT PINBALL. P-63's. He flew DC9s for Southern A.L. until his glaucoma got too bad. Somewhere he got into the Army as a WO. Never was clear where he picked up RW quals, but he popped up in Central America flying an H-34 for S.F. (?) He the went Dustoff and did 2 tours w/ 81st Med Det(HA) in the delta. The USN Seawolfs were in the area and did ops together. Several of the Seawolfs retired and migrated to P'cola. They showed up at his 80th birthday party in Ft Walton. My wife (a CW4) and I also attended. Also, several ret. Seawolfs, one of which was running the Naval Aviation Museum at the time.

I had seen the front page of Stars & Stripes w/the pic of senior and junior in an 81st Dustoff Huey cockpit. One day senior was shot down and rescued by junior. Couple days later it was reversed. True story.

Post tour, Mike & Mike were assigned to Bragg and flew up to Ft Meade (my assignment) in a club Cherokee. I lent them a car so they get to D.C. and visit branch.

Junior left the Army and flew a Hughes off a Tuna boat until he joined my outfit in LA: Air Logistics. We never shared a cockpit but flew out of KPTN together. Junior & I were good buds for years. Senior and Junior both had mirror image homes side by side on a cove in Ft Walton.
 
catmandu said:
Some to varying degrees of fame, but the one that got the most sincere “It’s a true honor to meet you” was Sir Frank Whittle.
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I wonder how many folks recognize that name. I don't recall it coming up during my degree in aeronautical engineering at all. But of course he made huge contributions to the industry.
 
This is kind of a weird list we have going on. We have some people who are legitimately famous, even by @EdFred's definition. Then we have those who are famous among aviation/space geeks, and then we have those who are only famous among internet-connected pilots.

Sully is probably the closest, at least of those I can think of offhand that I've met, to being actually famous to the general public. They probably don't remember his name, but if you said "The pilot who landed his plane on the Hudson River in 2009" many would know who you were talking about.

But the rest? They're just people. In the second group, I know several astronauts, I've had drinks with Gene Soucy, Bob Carlton, and Patty Wagstaff, and I could probably list a few dozen other people that many of you would know.

And the third group would include me - While my internet-aviation fame came from before YouTube was as popular as it is today and thus I can remain relatively anonymous in a crowd, I've also had meals paid for my anonymous people who heard my voice, and I've had my voice recognized by ATC on frequency too. Whoopty doo, I'm still just a plain old normal person who likes to fly and talk about airplanes. :dunno:
 
The woman who is the photo editor for Air and Space magazine snapped a picture of me, John King, and Sully in the middle of a discussion of aviation safety. I've been meaning to get it from her.
 
Bob Hoover autographed my logbook in 1969. Still look at that page regularly.

Worked with Dave Scott for a while, flew rc sailplanes with Paul Bickle (holder of world altitude records in glider for decades), Tommy Morgenfeld, Helen Dick ( possibly the best sailplane pilot ever), flew right seat in an R4D one afternoon with Einar Enevoldsen, annoyed Gary Kreisler endlessly, Gordon Fullerton, John Manke, Milt Thompson, Hal Farley, Bill Dana, Bill Park.

Not really pilots, but appropriate, Ben Rich, Norm Nelson, Baldy Baldorf, Pete Law, Dick Cantrell. I had a minor argument with Kelly Johnson, but that was just how he said hello.

Lots of memories.
 
Ok, since I can't count knowing a guy who knows a guy, I did meet Steve Fossett, the first guy to fly solo non-refueled fixed wing aircraft around the world, as well as breaking 90 other aviation related records. I met him in Salina KS when he landed the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer that set that world record. I interviewed him right after he got out of the plane. Now 16 years later, ironically the one thing I really remember about that, was not what he said but how he smelled after being cooped up in that plane for 67 hours. He really needed a shower. It was pretty sad when he was killed in that plane crash. Downdrafts and high density altitude were likely causes of that crash. I have met several others that have been mentioned, but I would say that in my opinion, Steve would be at the top of the list that I have met.
 
I met, talked with, and drove with him to the Hamilton Airport to view his DGA 11.............Amelia Earhart's flight instructor...Hugh Rueschenberg.
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kgruber said:
I met, talked with, and drove with him to the Hamilton Airport to view his DGA 11.............Amelia Earhart's flight instructor...Hugh Rueschenberg.
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It really makes you realize how young powered flight actually is when we can be contemporary with some of aviation's pioneers.
 
Piper18O said:
It really makes you realize how young powered flight actually is when we can be contemporary with some of aviation's pioneers.
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Half Fast said:
....and how old some of us are!
:D
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I have been a licensed pilot for 47% of the history of aviation since Kitty Hawk. You'd think I'd get it right by now.
 
Maxnr said:
I had seen the front page of Stars & Stripes w/the pic of senior and junior in an 81st Dustoff Huey cockpit. One day senior was shot down and rescued by junior. Couple days later it was reversed. True story.
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I remember reading it. Nobody could make up story like that. In fact, the Novosel life story reads like an out-there Rambo movie. B-29s? Back in a plodding helicopter in Vietnam because he wanted to? Son doing the same thing?

Had the good fortune to meet the senior Novosel at a Quad A convention and shake his hand. A career highlight. That Medal of Honor looks impressive close up.
 
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This is Memorial day and I have to mention a pilot I used to know. Hugh "Buck" Thompson came to work at the same place that I was working. He flew a Jetranger in the energy industry south of Houma/Lafayette, LA, his home town. He passed through my base daily. I helped him out one stinking weather day when his fuel tank had become filled with air. I took the mike from the FF radio operator and gave him a little help finding a fuel location near his position. You may recall his actions back in 1968 when he landed between troops and local villagers at a town called My Lai. He was flying a military Hiller 12 with two other crew. They were armed with a single machine gun. He kept the peace until a medevac helicopter arrived. He left aviation to serve with the VA as a counsellor. He died of cancer in 2006.
 
Piperonca said:
I remember reading it. Nobody could make up story like that. In fact, the Novosel life story reads like an out-there Rambo movie. B-29s? Back in a plodding helicopter in Vietnam because he wanted to? Son doing the same thing?

Had the good fortune to meet the senior Novosel at a Quad A convention and shake his hand. A career highlight. That Medal of Honor looks impressive close up.
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I mentioned that he left his airline gig with claucoma. Must have convinced an army flight surgeon to approve him because they had plenty of eye drops. Back in the states, I was chatting with my commander who was flying with Mike in the 81st. He told me that Mike scared the @&%# out him. He said they had just loaded up with wounded and the bullets hitting the ship were getting louder. "Hoss" looked over at Mike as he was carefully putting drops in his eyes. Said " OK, now I can see the tree line barrier, lets go."
 
Mike told me of instructing in the B29. A routine maneuver was stalls in a 60 degree bank. Training was done with a full crew aboard. "Y'all hold on back there!"
 
Maxnr said:
This is Memorial day and I have to mention a pilot I used to know. Hugh "Buck" Thompson came to work at the same place that I was working. He flew a Jetranger in the energy industry south of Houma/Lafayette, LA, his home town. He passed through my base daily. I helped him out one stinking weather day when his fuel tank had become filled with air. I took the mike from the FF radio operator and gave him a little help finding a fuel location near his position. You may recall his actions back in 1968 when he landed between troops and local villagers at a town called My Lai. He was flying a military Hiller 12 with two other crew. They were armed with a single machine gun. He kept the peace until a medevac helicopter arrived. He left aviation to serve with the VA as a counsellor. He died of cancer in 2006.
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The bravest of them all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.
We will have to start another thread or take this offline. I first saw Hugh Thompson in the Americal DIV HQ in Vietnam. He had been brought back incognito to escort LTG Peers through the on-site part of the My Lai investigation. I was responsible for flying them around the AO.
 
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I at least recognize a majority of the names brought into the thread. That I haven't met any of them tells me I need to get out more. OK, I did meet Rod Machado once, but he was signing a book I bought at an AOPA convention, so it was more of a commercial transaction than a social one.

I did spend a lot of time talking aviation with Livingston Taylor once, though he's better known as a musician than a pilot. He flew a 206 based on Martha's Vineyard, as I recall. We were at a new student reception for the Berklee College of Music, where my son was enrolled and he was adjunct faculty. He was supposed to be chatting up the incoming freshmen, but was so enthusiastic about aviation that he spent most of the night talking to me, even after the organizers, repeatedly, dragged him away to talk to students.
 
GaryM said:
I at least recognize a majority of the names brought into the thread. That I haven't met any of them tells me I need to get out more. OK, I did meet Rod Machado once, but he was signing a book I bought at an AOPA convention, so it was more of a commercial transaction than a social one.

I did spend a lot of time talking aviation with Livingston Taylor once, though he's better known as a musician than a pilot. He flew a 206 based on Martha's Vineyard, as I recall. We were at a new student reception for the Berklee College of Music, where my son was enrolled and he was adjunct faculty. He was supposed to be chatting up the incoming freshmen, but was so enthusiastic about aviation that he spent most of the night talking to me, even after the organizers, repeatedly, dragged him away to talk to students.
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It was a 205.

 
I let Bobby Unser use my truck in Tok, AK so he and his wife could go get a bite to eat.

I guess he is more well known in the racing world than the aviation world.

No speed records were set, no races won and my truck came back in one piece....
 
I tend to agree that it depends on how you define "fame." I've probably been on TV more times than most other PoAers, as a result of Cloud Nine, but I never considered myself famous or particularly well known. It was very rare to come across anyone who'd heard of me or Cloud Nine when I was flying homeless pets. Most often I was confused for being part of Pilots'n'Paws.

Right after I'd been featured in AOPA for the first time (January 2011 issue, as I recall) Danos and I flew to Cancun and a couple of King Air pilots who'd seen the article recognized me and the Aztec, introduced themselves and said they thought what we did was cool. That was one of few times that happened.

Probably the most famous pilot within the US (defined as known or at least heard of by a lot of pilots and non pilots) I met was Tammie Jo Shults. She came to my company and gave a talk a bit before the Covid lockdown. I got a photo, although it didn't come out very good:

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I also met some airshow pilots. Patty Wagstaff, Mike Goulian, Sean Tucker. I got a picture with Jim LeRoy not long before he died.
 
Neil Armstrong. He kept his 310 a few hangars away (actually, we had the hangar, his plane was at a tie-down.) I met him shortly after the moon thing, and then several times afterward, as we lived close and apparently shared grocery stores. His wife attended my flight school (though dropped out, as I recall. Her first husband had been killed in a plane crash!) He wouldn't have known me from Adam, however.
 
I've met many of the pilots mentioned on this thread, and I'll add one not mentioned yet:

Paul Tibbetts. Heard him give a talk, then spoke with him briefly when he autographed a copy of his book for me.
In case anyone doesn't know ho he is:
He flew the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay when it dropped Little Boy, the first atomic bomb used in warfare on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
 
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