Celebrity Pilots

Hengelo

Hengelo

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Hengelo
Top Gun is all the news recently with chatter about Tom Cruise's pilot chops. I've read Commercial, IFR, Multi, Rotor, etc. Being the skeptic I am, I took a look at the FAA Airman Database...

There is only one "Thomas C Mapother" with a PPL dated 1947 (presumably his dad?)

Any ideas?
 
This matches what you say his rating and certificates are.
Screen Shot 2022-05-26 at 4.44.53 PM.png
 
One celebrity pilot that is always under the radar is Susan Oliver. On the original Star Trek she was the green girl in the Menagerie episode. She held a lot of flying records. Unfortunately passed away young.
 
harrisonfordplanecrash.jpg
 
John Travolta should also qualify and has a nice assortement of planes he calls his own.
 
Several race car drivers past and present. Mark Martin flew his own Citation is one that comes to mind. Marco Andretti has helicopter ratings. Jack Roush had his incident at Osh.

Also, Arnold Palmer flew his own Citation X (with another pilot up front of course). I was actually behind him at LBE on my solo XC many years ago. Arnold Palmer asking for takeoff clearance from Palmer Tower was a bit surreal.
 
I was at NASCAR International airport today and may or may not have walked past a dozen or so race car drivers (I have no clue what anyone of them look like) but I did see ‘some band’ fly in….I can only imagine they’re country because they looked like they suck. I thought “well I guess I could find out tonight when the race is on, maybe I’ll see them” but then I realized I have basically anything better to do than watch NASCAR.
 
Im also confident there’s another large thread on famous people pilots.
 
Dave Anderson said:
Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek), Tim McGraw, Jimmy Buffet
I'm from PA so can't forget Jimmy Stewart and Arnold Palmer both with Airports named after them.

Say what you will about Harrison Ford, he did a ton donating his name and time to Young Eagles
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Jimmy Buffet has even had a departure from PBI named after him. He’s owned quite an assortment of planes.

https://buffettworld.com/aviation/
 
Dave Anderson said:
Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek), Tim McGraw, Jimmy Buffet
I'm from PA so can't forget Jimmy Stewart and Arnold Palmer both with Airports named after them.

Say what you will about Harrison Ford, he did a ton donating his name and time to Young Eagles
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I have no problem with Harrison Ford. He did an excellent emergency landing on the golf course and he’s for sure not the first person to mistakenly land on an empty taxiway. The press just did their normal character assasination.
 
TommyG said:
Don’t forget the real celebrity pilot, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. What other band member flies their whole world tour on a 747.
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Bruce is a good one, but my favorite celebrity pilot story is Willem-Alexander.

As in King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. When he was Prince Willem-Alexander, he had a part time job flying Fokker-70s for KLM City Hopper. Don't know if he's still flying for them now that he's King.

Edit: A little Google search say that he's still flying, but now for mainline KLM on the 737.

https://www.royal-house.nl/members-royal-house/king-willem-alexander/flying
 
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
Sluggo63 said:
Alton Brown of Food Network fame.

I always thought he should do a "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" type show, but only go to airport restaurants where he flies himself in.
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That would be awesome. Cost prohibitive I suppose as while there are a few very good airport restaurants, most tend to be just average with a view that makes up for it.

Did you see his "feasting on waves" show? Is basically what you describe, except on a boat in the Caribbean. He also did the same concept on a motorcycle tour. He is one of a very small handful of celebrities that I would care to meet.
 
Todd82 said:
Several race car drivers past and present. Mark Martin flew his own Citation is one that comes to mind. Marco Andretti has helicopter ratings. Jack Roush had his incident at Osh.
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I never found out what happened, but Mark Martin somehow ended up off the side of the runway on departure somewhere out in Arizona. We sat for a few minutes while they figured things out. They ended up basically displacing the threshold so everybody else taxied just past his airplane to start the takeoff.
 
They say Angelina Jolie, but in the database she never got her license.
 
Clint Eastwood, Do you feel lucky that we landed safely.??

Kris Kristofferson landed on a Sunday morning sidewalk.

and Dr. Phil McGraw, Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right, and sometimes ya just gotta land it.
 
Bob Cummings, who served as a U.S. Army Air Force flight instructor during WWII. He owned several airplanes over his lifetime, and, as I recall, the opening credits of his 1950s TV series showed him flying a Beech 18. Please note that my "recall" becomes somewhat blurred as the years go by.
 
TommyG said:
They say Angelina Jolie, but in the database she never got her license.
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Can confirm. I talked to her on an airliner (ironically) about the fact that we were both Cirrus owners at the time. And btw - she initiated the conversation while I was minding my business - although I did steer it to flying…
 
Capngrog said:
Bob Cummings, who served as a U.S. Army Air Force flight instructor during WWII. He owned several airplanes over his lifetime, and, as I recall, the opening credits of his 1950s TV series showed him flying a Beech 18.
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Ah, yes. This Beech 18?
 
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