RON HAZLETT

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 Young Eagles from Blackwell

 

Ron is our Newsletter Editor.  He currently owns a 1965 182.  Thank you Ron for submitting this:

Growing up as a Navy "BRAT", Dad flying in helicopters and submarine hunting P-2V and P-3 aircraft, kept me around airbases and looking to the skies. Navy bases may not be much to look at but the planes, man, the planes.

After Dad retired and we moved from Brunswick, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, I was enrolled in a high school that required me to research and write a paper about a vocation that I may like. I wrote about flying; specifically, Aerospace Engineering. A sophomore in high school and I had a goal. This led me into a curriculum of maths and sciences that would help me get into a university as an engineering student. I also looked beyond the skies and thought – Astronaut. Although accepted at Purdue University I stayed near home and went to a small private university in Portland. They did not offer Aerospace Engineering but I graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a commission in the Air Force with orders to pilot training. I was on my way! I used my Air Force training and got my FAA commercial/instrument rating.

After completing a year of pilot training in Columbus, Miss., I flew the ancient T-33 Shooting Star. A "square jet with a cast iron engine" was one of the first jet aircraft designed (pre-1950). After just over four years and a whopping 1600+ hours later I was selected to fly the F-111. From a small single engine jet with straight, fat wings, to a sleek mach 2+ swept (moveable) wing attack fighter. I flew this ultra smooth, and very fast, machine for a bit over three years in Idaho and Great Britain. Supersonic over the North Sea at low altitudes kept the fishing fleet watching more than their lines!! Following my tour in England I was sent here to Vance AFB to fly the T-38. I split two tours in the Talon with a short assignment with NATO. This was my only non-flying post but kept me involved in the flying business with operational planning of missions over Bosnia and the like.

After my second tour in the T-38 I "retired" and moved down the hall from my office to a contractor’s position teaching students in the T-37 then T-38 simulators and classrooms.

After leaving the Air Force cockpit I, along with Ken Sumpter and Dave Chael, started my search for some wings to call my own. I joined this chapter for the hangar talk and to gain more insight into owning an airplane. Not having the patience to build one I found a Cessna 182 in Wyoming that seemed to fit my wants and Dave and I were off – driving in a snowstorm – to inspect this new toy. We had to drive. The weather was too terrible to fly there but more importantly, I needed the CFI to help me fly back. In these past three years my "Orange Crate" has taken my family to Florida and California. We flew to the Air Force Museum in Dayton and over the Grand Canyon (with extra help from Center but that is another story).

I served nearly a year as the secretary/treasurer and now look forward to helping with the newsletter. The camaraderie of the Chapter has been terrific, the fly-outs fun, and increased knowledge of flying priceless.