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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Joy Wetterholm

My father, Harry Charles Goakes, born November 17, 1902, began his aviation career when, at the young age of 19, he loaned a friend $50. Unable to repay the debt right away, Harry's friend offered to give him flying lessons instead. Harry accepted the offer, and loved flying! This was in the early days of flight, and many of the young pilots were doing daredevil stunt flying. Harry became one of the daredevils, and had many wonderful - and I'm sure dangerous - adventures. He and his best friend, Vernon Dorrell spent many hours wing walking, and stunt flying together. They flew out of Ernie Longbreaks Airport on Western Avenue, and also Clover Field, in Los Angeles, California.

Harry also began teaching other aspiring pilots how to fly. One of his students, an oriental named Kow Doy, reportedly became head of the Chinese Air Force in the 1930s. Lloyd Stearman, a friend of Harry's, had rented a small building in Venice, California, and hired Harry and four other men to help him build the first Stearman airplane. When it was finished, Mr. Stearman took them all up for a ride, and let each man fly the plane.

In 1929 Harry was hired by Pickwick Airlines, and was one of their first pilots to fly the route between Los Angeles and San Salvador, Central America, with stops in between. He flew the Ryan airplane which was single engine, without radio or navigational equipment! In 1930 he was offered a job with Pan American Airways; better airplanes, better salary, and his friend Vernon Dorrell also hired on with them. He again flew routes from California to Central America.

He had a serious bout with malaria, and was on home leave for several months. Following his recovery he began flying for Trans World Airlines, flying tri-motor, ten passenger planes. In October, 1932, Harry made his first trip flying the night mail in a single-engine Northrop, open-cockpit plane from Glendale, California to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Later he flew the night mail to Mexico.

Using a stop watch he worked out an instrument landing, presumably the first ever attempted, and soon other pilots adopted this means of landing in the fog. This soon became standard procedure.

In 1935 he began flying for Western Air Express, and flew with them until late 1939. In 1940 he and his family moved to Guatemala City, Guatemala, where he handled operations and also flew chicle out of the jungle for an airline which was a subsidiary of Pan American Airways. Pending a revolution in Guatemala, Harry and most of the other American pilots, resigned and returned to the U.S.A.

In 1941, at the beginning of World War II, Harry was hired by the newly set-up Air Transport Command as Chief Dispatcher and pilot, and later the title of Emergency Equipment Research Engineer was added. He was instrumental in getting warmer clothing for the pilots, and also worked on perfecting equipment, such as a water still, medicine, food, and a cover for life rafts. The culmination of this work was that survivors of downed aircraft could live much longer on a life raft before being rescued. He also spent five days and nights on a life raft off the coast of North Carolina, along with four men also working on the project, checking out the equipment. They returned home safely, but tired and sunburned!

In 1943 he accepted a position with the Civil Aeronautics Administration, working for them in South America -- in Peru, Argentina, and Brazil. In 1956 he became the Chief of the U.S. Civil Aviation Mission in Santiago, Chile. In 1961 he retired, and spent his many years of retirement living in California, Arizona and Nevada, and also travelling in the U.S. and Mexico with his wife Jewel. Harry died in Tucson, Arizona at age 102, on January 23, 2005. His interest in the advancements of aviation never waned, and in a lifetime spanning a century, he certainly witnessed many wonderful changes, both in aviation and technology!

His friendly and loving ways, and warm smile, endeared him to his family and many friends. He was a wonderful story teller, and everyone loved listening to him tell of his many adventures.

In 1990, at the urging of many people, Harry, with the help of his wife, Jewel, wrote a book titled "The Ups and Downs of Harry Goakes." He did not want this published, feeling that it should be for family and friends only. The statistics I have used are from this book, and are as accurate as he (and I) remembers them.

Note: Along with the above profile, Joy Wetterholm, Harry Goakes' daughter, submitted an article written by Mr Goakes in 1933. It explains how to use dead reckoning to make a "blind approach" to the Los Angeles Airport when it is fogged in. He uses time, distance, and heading off the Saugus Radio Station. Previous methods had included, ". . .have a ground man locate the position of the plane by the sound of the motor or motors."