With a sad heart...

[ready2fly]

Clear skies and tailwinds forever O.A.!! RIP!! Very sad to have stumbled on this news today!!

 

[WacoFan]

Damn it.

Never had a chance to buy the man a drink. How honored I really would have been to have been able to accomplish such a small act for such a giant man.

Had no clue about his history, not like he was out in the open about it - and to an extent I can understand.

Tailwinds my friend, we shall all meet once again on the horizon to the west.

You know Josh - you make a really excellent point here. You two lived in the same town and that can actually make things "harder" to actually get together - it's almost as if the proximity creates an excuse of "we can do that anytime...we both live in ATL". Guess my point is, all of us should reflect on the suddeness of life and make a little extra effort to do things like this. Good post.

 

[Bandit_Driver]

Damn, this news sucks. I greatly enjoyed my converstations with you. OA, you will be missed.

Blue skies and tailwinds.

 

[Beech driver]

You know Josh - you make a really excellent point here. You two lived in the same town and that can actually make things "harder" to actually get together - it's almost as if the proximity creates an excuse of "we can do that anytime...we both live in ATL". Guess my point is, all of us should reflect on the suddeness of life and make a little extra effort to do things like this. Good post.

^^What He Said^^

As much as I would like to deny it, I just can't. At least in my case. A good friend of mine lives 2 miles from me, yet I seem to put more "work" into getting together with those that live further. I do believe it comes down to the whole, "we can do that anytime," thing. I mean, I am able to stop by his place anytime I want, right? Problem is, as often as I think that, more often than not I do not stop. Or even give him a call/text for that matter. I guess what I'm trying to say, take advantage of the opportunities you have to get together with those around you. You never know when the chance will be gone.

 

[mikecweb]

I had the unfortunate task yesterday of breaking this terrible news to one of John's former co-workers @ Piedmont. Got to hear a few stories about John and it looks like he was one hell of a pilot and even better person.

 

[Toria]

It is sometimes in the briefest moment that someone touches our lives with profound impact. Orange Anchor sent a couple words of encouragement to me a while back that made a huge difference in my life. He surely will be missed by all he left behind, including our own circle.

 

[falconvalley]

I too, knew he was a Vet, but didn't know he flew tankers in combat.

 

[SurferLucas]

Here's a very nice article from the Editor-in-Chief of Business and Commercial Aviation, whom John was a writer for and 2 time Journalist of the Year winner with.

The last line says it for me, "God bless and godspeed on what's next, Captain Wiley. Thank you so much for the flight you gave us. It was spectacular."

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/business_aviation/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3A2f16318d-d960-4e49-bc9f-86f1805f2c7fPost%3A40eef5d5-d2e2-4feb-b6b9-d9f641a6188c

Credit for the find goes to Polar, I was just able to find it online to share with the community.

 

[pullup]

Capt. Badass, you will be missed around here.

Nice write up, thanks for finding that.

 

[derg]

Something important to think about is using the lessons and guidance he offered and molding it into your life. October 19, 1998 I lost my best friend in the world and that was my father. Hardest, worst day of my entire life and to this day I'm still "working on it". Dad was the kind of guy that you could totally fail miserably at something, he'd pause, look you in the eye and say, "Douglas, did you try to kick it's ass?" "Yup." "Well, quit bitching and kick it in the ass again".

But the little snippets of advice, perspective and hell, guidance are things you can use everyday to make your life better and one day, be the one that can offer that guidance and encouragement to someone else.

Read Orange's writings, absorb, integrate and pass it on to people seeking guidance and those that you care about. Then the person you're honoring becomes immortal.

 

[pullup]

Beautiful, Doug, beautiful.

 

[SurferLucas]

But the little snippets of advice, perspective and hell, guidance are things you can use everyday to make your life better and one day, be the one that can offer that guidance and encouragement to someone else.

Read Orange's writings, absorb, integrate and pass it on to people seeking guidance and those that you care about. Then the person you're honoring becomes immortal.

Nicely said Mr. Taylor.

John was one of the first people on JC that I really started talking to and became friends with. He trained a friend of mine at Piedmont/USAir and that was how we started becoming friends.

John was always willing to indulge my questions about Piedmont and how great those days in aviation were. He also was there to give me words of encouragement when I was down after getting furloughed and having no luck with getting a job. For that, I'll forever be in debt. He loved to talk about odd aircraft that he had flown, or had a chance to ride along in...including some of the former Soviet Union, which is an interest we shared.

When I grow old (and hopefully still able to hang around on JC), I want to be remembered in the same way. Someone who was always willing to listen and share a word of encouragement, someone who loved to talk airplanes and loved to pass on that gained knowledge in hopes that it will influence someone.

 

[TFaudree_ERAU]

Fleeting Permanence

By William Garvey
Editor-in-Chief william_garvey@aviationweek.co

Don’t be blinded by familiarity.

MINE IS AN OLD NEW ENGLAND TOWN, COMPLETE WITH A CENTRAL green, stone walls, colonial tavern, the works. Revolutionary War skirmishes were fought on Main Street — a British cannon ball remains lodged in the old tavern’s wall — and combatants, both Patriots and Redcoats, rest in the Burying Yard.

Yes, George Washington really did stop here, as did Comte de Rochambeau and Benedict Arnold (when he was still fighting for the home team).

While modernity, with its sports bars, McMansions and nail salons, prevails now, there remain quite a few icons attesting to the town’s rich heritage.

On their way to wreak us havoc, the British passed a modest, pink colored farmhouse that would soon become home to the same family through six generations. Nearly 300 years later, the farm was long gone to development, but the house, albeit dilapidated, was still occupied by the family, and still pink. I drove by it regularly, and knowing some of the family members, felt a connection to all that history. But I confess, more often than not when I passed by, my thoughts were on more immediate matters.

One day as I zoomed along, I caught notice of yellow construction equipment in the pink house’s yard, but gave it no thought. The next day the awful news flashed through town; the family had sold the pink house and the new owners had demolished it in a matter of hours. There was nothing left standing.

In the uproar that followed, there was finger pointing in every which direction, but the results were unchanged. The pink house was gone forever. Now when I drive along that road, I am keenly aware of an emptiness at a place that once stirred my imagination and provided a sense of firmament.

That kind of loss happens to us all one way or another. Something integral and assumedly permanent quite suddenly disappears. And now that has happened to this publication.

A few weeks ago I was preparing to moderate a panel at an FAA conference in Washington when my BlackBerry began vibrating. The caller was John Wiley, a contributor and friend of long standing. He said he was going to an Atlanta Aero Club luncheon featuring the head of Delta Air Lines, and what questions did I want him to pose. I came up with a couple, for which he thanked me. After the call, it occurred to me that Wiley had just got me to buy him a free lunch.

I never learned the answers to those questions because John died suddenly a few days later.

Weeks have passed since the terrible news, but John’s absence hasn’t fully registered. Even though ours is a disparate staff and we didn’t see each other often, John’s presence was real and always welcome.

A Mensa-sharp Southern gentleman, he was given to self-deprecation and laughter, loved lampooning the self-important, and befuddling bureaucrats. His wit was wonderfully wry and sometimes zany. Robert Sumwalt, now an NTSB member, recalls a story John shared on a layover when they were junior pilots with Piedmont Airlines. Earlier while passing over Atlanta, John had kept staring out and downward from his side window. The fixation of the right seater finally prompted the captain to ask what he was doing. John deadpanned, “I’m looking at my house to see if I’m home.” The nonplussed four-striper “gave him a real funny look,” Sumwalt said, but was mute.

John had a special love of literature, ideas, his wife and two daughters, and airplanes. He was a pilot’s pilot — military, airline, corporate, genav — with an uncanny recollect, as demonstrated last summer at the Farnborough air show while working for Show News, a sister publication. Paul Jackson, a Show News colleague who more significantly serves as editor-in-chief of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, recalls John’s authority and strong opinion about almost everything aeronautical.

At one point, Paul says, John was at his computer “squinting at one truncated fin and wing in the background of a screen photo and asked, ‘Isn’t that a Gloster Javelin?’ John’s undying place in my affections was guaranteed that instant by the fact I am not worthy to touch the hem of the flying suit of any Yank who can recognize a fragment of Gloster Javelin.”

In addition to all that, John was a consummate storyteller, both spoken, which kept listeners enthralled, and in print, which garnered him awards and a following. His final yarn, among his best, resulted from his lifelong curiosity about the world and its inhabitants. It begins on page 42.

A lesson from John’s passing and the pink house’s destruction is to not let familiarity blind you to the solidly good. And, happily, I took that lesson to heart.

The Corporate Angel Network was co-founded in 1981 by the late Leonard Greene, the brilliant inventor-head of Safe Flight Instrument Corp. When his son, Randy, took over Safe Flight, he could easily have cut ties with CAN to step away from his father’s legacy. But he did not.

Rather he invested his own time, heart and treasure in the charity and has actively recruited some of business aviation’s best to help ensure CAN has the lift, funding and facilities to flourish. And it has. Last year, CAN arranged free travel aboard business aircraft for more than 3,000 cancer patients, a record.

For his singular commitment, Randy received this year’s Aviation Week Laureate for Business and General Aviation. I handed him the trophy at a fancy gathering last month in Washington.

John Wiley was surely smiling. A good man got recognized, and I got a free dinner.

Business & Commercial Aviation

 

[Tram]

I lost my best friend in the world and that was my father. Hardest, worst day of my entire life..

I can only imagine.. This thought scares me to death..

 

[pullup]

I can only imagine.. This thought scares me to death..

My father is still alive at 58 but my wifes passed away at 53 when she was 20 (9 years ago) Hardest day of my life and it wasn't even my own parent.

 

[darrenf]

My father is still alive at 58 but my wifes passed away at 53 when she was 20 (9 years ago) Hardest day of my life and it wasn't even my own parent.

It was 6 months ago this week that I lost my father. Not a day goes by that I don't miss him. I feel for your wife, that was way too young.

 

[Tram]

My father is still alive at 58 but my wifes passed away at 53 when she was 20 (9 years ago) Hardest day of my life and it wasn't even my own parent.

Yeh, my mom lost her parents at 9 and 12.. My wife and I still both have both our parents.. Makes me want to cry just reading your posts.. My hear goes out to you guys..

I lost an uncle back in 2001 and a very good friend almost 2 years ago, can't imagine my parents..

 

[derg]

It was 6 months ago this week that I lost my father. Not a day goes by that I don't miss him. I feel for your wife, that was way too young.

Sorry about your dad, bro.

It's been over ten years for me and it's something I've still got to work on that every day.