Pilots

In his 38-year career, retired United Airlines Capt. Bob Siegfried never strayed far from his general aviation roots. "I always considered myself not as an airline pilot who also flew little airplanes, but as a lightplane pilot who flew airliners for a living," says Siegfried.

At the airline, Siegfried lived the transition from pistons to jets and from "steam gauges" to glass cockpits, but he says that the biggest change he has seen in GA in more than 50 years has been the acceptance of IFR flight in small aircraft. "It obviously is in a large part due to the electronics available, but I think that the attitude has changed, too," he says. "Fifty years ago it seemed that a multiple-body professional crew was required to do such a thing. Now, fat old grandpas like me do it all of the time!"

The flying bug bit Siegfried early. "Peoria, Illinois - my hometown - was a stop on the airmail route flown by Lindbergh," recalls Siegfried. "The older kids who had been around at the time of Lindbergh's famous flight acquired the habit of waving and hollering, 'Hi, Lindy!' at every airplane that flew over town." Siegfried says that he joined in even though he had no idea then what they were hollering about.

Mt. Hawley Airport was near his home, and Siegfried bicycled to the small field to hang around the airplanes and pilots. He eventually took his first airplane ride with a line boy named Marion Cole, who later became famous as an airshow performer.

World War II closed the airport, but as soon as the war was over Siegfried signed on as a line boy. The opportunity was so good that he quit high school. As a line boy, he was paid 50 cents an hour and could fly the Piper Cubs at half price - $4 per hour. "There was a 1940 Franklin-powered J-3 with no brakes and a tail skid that no one else would fly, so that became almost my personal aircraft."

He soloed in May 1946 and returned to high school, but soon enlisted in the Marine Corps. After boot camp came aircraft mechanic and electrician's mate schools. "Things were going along great until I started to have problems with a skin rash," says Siegfried. It seems he was allergic to the solvents used to clean aircraft. Even though he had his sights set on officer training and aviator wings, "I was mustered out of the Corps and back home as a disabled veteran by the time I was 18."

Siegfried completed high-school equivalency and his private pilot certificate while in the Marines. He still wanted to fly, so he decided to try for the airlines through the civilian route. "At that time, most all of the airlines were asking that applicants have at least two years of college," recalls Siegfried. He worked at several jobs to build up enough flying experience for a commercial certificate and completed two years of college, picking up flight instructor and instrument tickets along the way.

In May 1951, shortly before his twenty-second birthday, United Airlines hired Siegfried as a DC-3 copilot. He spent his entire 38-year, 38-day career based in Chicago, and flew the Douglas DC-3, -4, -6, -7, -8, and -10; the Boeing 720, 727, 737, 747, and 767; the Convair 340; and the Aerospatiale Caravelle. His pilot, flight engineer, instructor, and mechanic certificates with ratings take up six cards.

When Siegfried wasn't flying airliners, he was involved in all facets of GA. With partners, he operated an FBO, flight school, and avionics shop. He also was a designated examiner in gliders. "I lost money in every phase of aviation there is," he laughs.

Siegfried keeps his hand in the airline world by participating on the Internet-based Bluecoat Forum, where airmen from around the world discuss issues relating to the latest automated glass-cockpit airplanes. His posts to the Bluecoat contain keen observations that are rooted in experience and spiced with humor. The e-mail address he uses in this cyberworld of heavy-iron pilots, [email protected], honors not his dozen or so airliner type ratings and more than 24,000 flight hours, but his beloved 1978 Beech Bonanza.

Siegfried and his Bonanza reside at a fly-in community in northern Illinois. Living at the same community are three of his children. His son Rick, a United 767 captain, was the first of the family to buy a home at the airport. Siegfried and two other children - Bob, a research scientist, and Rand, a toy designer - have bought there in the past ten years.

Siegfried and his wife, Thelma Jean, have been married 50 years. "I won't say that there was any pressure to be an aviator in our family, but all five of our children soloed a glider on their fourteenth birthday and an airplane on their sixteenth birthday; the boys are still active pilots today." Between Siegfried and his three sons, they own or are partners with others in at least seven airplanes and two gliders. In his spare time, Siegfried helps manage the fly-in community.

Ever active in GA, Siegfried is president of the Midwest Bonanza Society, and is active in the American Bonanza Society and the Twin Beech Society. He participated in the very first "Bonanzas to Oshkosh" mass arrival at the big airshow in 1990. "The first year, there were nine of us," he says. "I missed the second year and have made all of the others."

Siegfried says that when he decided to pursue an airline career through GA, he was told by almost everyone that the only people who had a chance were the military-trained aviators. When he retired to his Bonanza in 1989, he held United Airlines system seniority number five and was senior pilot at the Chicago base.

"I'll take luck over skill anytime!" he says.