Terry Huntling has spent his whole life loving airplanes and anything that flies. As a child, he owned homing pigeons and was in the Pigeon Club. He longed to be up in the air with the birds!

Terry's father worked in aerospace for various different Southern California aircraft companies living close to the Torrance airport. Terry spent much of his preteen and early teenage years looking up at airplanes while running a newspaper delivery route in Torrance.

As Terry grew older, he really wanted to learn to fly - so he began working as a cook on the Redondo Beach Pier to pay for flying lessons. Terry soloed in 1969 but that was just the start of his ongoing love of airplanes and being in the air.

After graduation from high school, a stint in the army as an aircraft mechanic, and graduation from Northrop University in Inglewood, Terry began his career as a General Aviation mechanic earning his A&P license in 1976.

Terry worked at Torrance Airport for various different flight schools and Fixed Base Operations (FBO), but made opportunities for flying, and test flew many of the planes he worked on. Because of his location at Torrance, his excellent reputation as an A&P and his many friends in aviation, Terry became the mechanic for many World War II war birds and airshow aircraft, meeting many heroes of aviation and working on their airplanes.

Terry's best friend, Greg Vusovich, was an airshow pilot flying a 1939 Waco UPF-7 open cockpit biplane, and Terry not only worked on - and sometimes flew - Greg's plane, but also worked on Bob Hoover's planes. He performed onsite airshow support for Bob and Greg and other airshow aircraft. Terry knew Art Scholl and met Chuck Yeager and other famous pilots and was the onsite mechanic for the Disney sponsored 50th anniversary airshows from the Queen Mary in Long Beach in 1989.

In 1985, Terry received his Inspection Authorization license and in 1991, he moved to the Palm Desert, CA, area. In 1995, he was designated by the FAA as Director of Maintenance for Desert Airlines, a charter aircraft company flying out of Bermuda Dunes.

In 2006, Terry formed his own aircraft maintenance company, Aero Bear Aviation, that he currently runs as the FBO at Bermuda Dunes Airport (UDD). Terry still flies regularly – and doesn’t want to retire if it means no longer doing his favorite thing in the whole world – flying!