Harold J Woosley

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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Timothy James Woosley

It was in the late 1920s during an airplane race from someplace in the East to Seattle. Hal was just a child on a farm in Montana when several of the planes flew over. One pilot in a biplane flew very low over the barnyard and waved at the little boy who remembers seeing the goggles covering the pilot's eyes.

At that moment Hal decided he was going to be a pilot. The family moved to a ranch in Wyoming where there were lots of rough and muddy roads and barbed wire gates to open and close. Hal dreamed of being able to fly over all of that.

He started flying lessons at Hastings College, Nebraska, where he earned his pilot's license soon after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Of course he was soon on his way to the Army Air Corps where he trained in B-17s, B-24s, and the most sophisticated flying machine of the time, the B-29. His squadron was waiting in Kansas for the ship carrying their ground support crews and supplies to arrive at a new air base on Okinawa when the atom bombs were dropped and the Japanese surrendered. Hal was grateful that he never had to drop bombs on anybody.

The war was over but Hal still had the flying bug. He bought a lovely little Luscombe 8A at Omaha and flew it home to the family ranch at Buffalo, Wyoming, where he set about to make an airplane a working tool on a large livestock ranch. His Dad was dubious about the value of this flying machine until he found that it was a good platform for hunting down the coyotes that were eating far too many of the baby lambs.

The ranch headquarters were thirty miles from town so the airplane was handy for getting supplies and repairs. But the 65-horsepower Luscombe couldn't carry much useful load so it got traded for an Army surplus Stinson L-5 with a 190-horsepower Lycoming engine that could haul more freight - a wonderful plane for the job, but when surplus repair parts became nearly impossible to get the next move was into a Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser. This plane was outfitted with skis that clamped over the tires for quick installation and removal that proved extremely valuable during the terrible winter of 1949 in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. The plane was the only way to get help to hundreds of head of sheep and cattle that were starving in the deep snow.

The next trade was the badly worn Super Cruiser for a brand new yellow Piper PA-11 which Hal flew out West from the factory at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. That little bird worked very well until a 100-mph wind storm destroyed its tee-hangar and smashed the plane beyond repair. The plane had become such an important part of the ranch equipment that it was quickly replaced by another almost identical 90-hp Cub.

By this time Piper had realized they had a strong demand for this very useful little flying machine, but it needed more horsepower, so they came out with the 150-hp PA-18 Super Cub. Of course Hal's 90-hp Cub was soon exchanged for the 150-hp Super Cub which really fulfilled the vision of an airplane being a practical working tool on a large ranch. Hal did not own a car - he had a horse, a pickup truck, and an airplane, all within a few steps of his ranch house.

During those years the airplane was used for a wide variety of tasks beyond just running to town for business and supplies. Several landing strips were graded at strategic locations on the ranch so men and supplies could be moved quickly (they didn't have to open the barbed wire gates). A spray rig was mounted under the belly to kill several thousand acres of sagebrush which multiplied the grass production on those acres by two to eight times. Grasshopper plagues and alfalfa weevils, even mosquitoes were sprayed.

Probably the most useful function was during cattle round-ups. A loudspeaker was mounted on the left side of the fuselage with a push-to-talk switch on the top of the control stick. Hal could fly over a large pasture at daylight in the morning to locate the cattle. With the speaker he could direct the cowboys where to go to find them quickly and gather them together. This method reduced the time required for roundups from days to hours. The ranch horse herd and riders required were reduced to less than half required without the plane.

The plane was used for fire patrol under contract with the Bureau of Land Management. We started the aerial counting of antelope and elk for the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and used those counts over the years to help set the hunting permits allowed. (We always knew where the elk herds were at the beginning of hunting season.) We did numerous aerial search and rescue missions for the Wyoming Aeronautics Division. We surveyed thousands of acres of potential uranium claims and identified several that became productive mines.

One September day Hal was invited to go on a blind date with a new school teacher who had arrived to set up the guidance counseling system for the local high school. When he found out that she too was a pilot he decided to give up his membership in the local bachelor's club. During the Christmas holiday they flew together in the Super Cub to be married in her home town of Terre Haute, Indiana. The honeymoon included a landing over the bouncing ice flows at Meigs Field to celebrate the New Year in Chicago, then working their way west under a big winter snow storm.

Eight years and four sons later they sold the Super Cub along with the ranch so they could move to Bellevue, WA to start a new career as vice president of a new Life Insurance Company and subsequently to develop and manage commercial properties. Hal had acquired a Piper twin Aztec B to commute back and forth from Wyoming to Seattle while he was marketing the ranch and helping get the new company started. Without turbocharging and oxygen it proved to be inadequate for flying over the mountains and the weather so it was traded in on a nearly new Aztec C model with all the required equipment.

Besides using it for company business this plane was leased to Seattle Flying Service for charter and for contract work for Boeing, for Governor Evans, and for the US Forest Service. Between charter works Hal would take his family and friends and go exploring the Great Northwest. Trips were made as far south as Mazatlon, as far west as Nome, and as far north as Barrow, AK. It was a comfortable, forgiving airplane that was a joy to fly.

But Boeing decided to use a different combination of charter airplanes. Governor Evans liked flying so much that he arranged for the state to buy a plane for official use, and the Forest Service use became sporadic. Hal was looking at four sons to educate and two engines that needed to be overhauled so the Aztec was sold. Hal joined the Wings Aloft Flying Club at Boeing Field where he flew a Cessna 182RG and a Turbo 210 whenever he was so inclined. Many pleasant trips were taken, some to visit family and friends in Wyoming, some with the Seattle Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (SAOPA). The most memorable of those was the trip to Albuquerque to the Balloon Festival.

Two of Hal and Marian's four sons also have their pilot's licenses.