Introducing Staff, Stringers, Videographers, And People Who Make It All Work

Anyone who's ever been to Oshkosh knows that there are hundreds of events and activities as well as tens of thousands of people that descend (some quite literally) on Wittman Regional Airport in mid-summer. While we have a very hard-working and dedicated staff, ANN could not provide you with the extensive information we do without the help of some equally ... some might say more ... dedicated volunteers who give a week of their time to make sure you have the best possible coverage of the show. As we lead up to this year's edition of AirVenture, we'll be introducing you to the people that make all of that possible.

Tom Woodward: Stringer

Tom started flying gliders at the age of ten on the family farm in New Jersey. Many years of playing sports and chasing girls passed before he went with my Father for a ride in his Citabria. "As I remember, it was a white knuckled ride and though my Father didn’t do anything radical I can still see my hands clenching the window bars," Tom said. He started trading line boy time for glider flights and eventually got his PPL.

With the thought of making money, Tom worked on his commercial glider rating which required 100 flights. The FAR’s only required that each flight have a 360 degree turn so he made about 30 flights a day, releasing at about 500’, circling once and beating the tow plane back to the ground so he was positioned for the next tow.

Next Tom earned his CFIG and began teaching. About the same time he began work on his PPL for powered planes. During one summer Tom earned his commercial, instrument, multi engine and ATP ratings, and then started looking for a job with about 900 hours, 650 of which were gliders.

"I remember eating a lot of peanut butter that summer as every dime went to flying," he said.

Tom was instructing in Gliders in Boulder, Colorado when a friend alerted him to a job possibility in the Virgin Islands. With only 7 hours of Multi-time (I told them I had 50 and they never asked to see my logbook or the jig would have been up!), he was hired flying a Twin Otter from Island to Island as a First Officer with Coral Air making $800 a month. Coral Air was growing fast and went from 3 airplanes to 15 airplanes in two months. "Unfortunately they went from 15 airplanes to 5 in the following month and I was out of job."

Tom returned to Colorado and was immediately hired as an FO, again on the Twin Otter, by Rocky Mountain Airways making the poverty wage of $675 per month. Rocky Mountain was a seasonal airline, and after 5 months Tom was again out of work. "At least I got about 3 hours in the Dash-7 before being let go on December 22. Merry Christmas!," he said.

It wasn’t long before Tom was hired at Comair, flying the Saab-340. A year and a half later, he was flying for American Airlines.

Twenty-six years later, with 18,000+ hours, type ratings on the B727, B737, B757, B767, B777, MD80 and the MD11, Tom retired at the age of 55, "before the Company stole all of my retirement going bankrupt. With all that it still cost me $5 for a cup of Joe at Starbucks! No respect."

Tom now owns his own his own flight school, teaching tail wheel transitions, bi-annuals and some basic training.

Tom has attended Oshkosh every year but one since 1979. He's been known to walk around Wittman Regional Airport wearing a T-shirt advertising his flight times and begging for a job. "It didn’t work," he said, "but I’m sure it provided some people with a good laugh."

FMI: www.aero-news.net