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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Suzanne Chandler

Gary Chandler is 87 years old and started flying at the age of 8 in his father’s j3 Cub. He had to have pillows behind him to reach the controls! The young man was raised in the air and never looked back!

‘Growing up in Maine, Gary enjoyed an Idyllic boyhood flying in and out of ponds and fields fishing, hunting, and trapping with his dad in their tail dragger.
“Oh to be 16 years old with an airplane!” His daughter quips. Some of his adventures included flying into Mount Katahdin with a tail wind to test the “mountain effect.” You take your best friend, fly strait at the mountain, and thankfully, you rise hundreds of feet a minute as you get caught up on the wind going up the side of the mountain. You clear the top, and do it again!

Another trick a teen would like: He and his flying buddies used to take their dad’s planes, go 5000 feet up into the blue sky, throw a roll of toilet paper out the window, and do loops through it all the way to the ground, to see who could do the most! There was nothing a boy with an airplane was afraid of; he loved acrobatics and still does. However, after almost 80 years in the air, he would say “ There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there aren’t any old bold pilots!”

Gary soloed for his private license, got it and it only took him 4 days less than a year to obtain his commercial pilot’s license after that first exam. He was 19 years old.

After graduating from Lee Academy, he went into….the Air Force of course! He became an aircraft mechanic. The people in his home town of Enfield wondered what he had done wrong when the FBI came to town to investigate him. They raced to his parent’s house with questions. They were all pleased to hear he was chosen to to obtain top security clearance and became the crew chief for President Eisenhower’s Aero Commander.

After flying all over the country in the Air Force, he went to Tulsa Oklahoma to attend Flight instructor’s school. He took a lot of “odd jobs”. What are “odd jobs” for a pilot? Towing Banner, Flying Jumpers, and taking charters. Over the course of his long career, Gary logged thousands of hours and taught hundreds of students.

Since the very first flight by the Wright Brothers happened just over 100 years ago, the FAA likes to recognize people who have flown over 50 years without an accident. They call these pilots pioneers and authors of the sport. Gary W. Chandler received the wright Brother’s award and was named Master Pilot on April 26th, 2018.