Flying Tigers Aim High and Think Big

By Al Lopez

About the Author

AL Lopez was born in Antonito, Colorado and learned to
fly during his last year in high school while being absent
from school.

Principal, George Schilthuis, summoned AL to his office
to expel him. Upon learning what AL was doing during
his absence Mr. Schilthuis, chose to give AL permission
to miss school three afternoons a week to work at the
airport and fly. Al was a pilot for the Flying Tigers for 35
years.

Since retirement AL has been a Real Estate Broker,
Toastmaster, Auctioneer, Youth Motivational Speaker,
and is an author. AL resides in Leesburg, Florida

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 9, 2010
• ISBN: 9781465318077

Al Lopez

AL Lopez was born in Antonito, Colorado, and learned to fly during his last year in high school while being absent from school. Principal George Schilthuis summoned AL to his office to expel him. Upon learning what AL was doing during his absence, Mr. Schilthuis chose to give AL permission to miss school three afternoons a week to work at the airport and fly. Al was a pilot for the Flying Tigers for thirty-five years. Since retirement, AL has been a real estate broker, toastmaster, auctioneer, youth motivational speaker, Literacy and Character Counts! volunteer. AL resides in Leesburg, Florida.

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Copyright © 2010 by Al López.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

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This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

CAUSE AND EFFECT

AIRPLANES

A SUMMARY OF AIM HIGH

FOREWORD

CONCEPTS FOR LIFE

CHOICES

EFFORT (INPUT)

EXAMPLE

ENTHUSIASM

SPIRITUAL

PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL

PERSONAL

ENCOURAGEMENT

ASK YOURSELF

PURPOSE

ACTION (OUTPUT)

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY—BOOKS

DEDICATION

To Robert Prescott and the thousands of crew members who served, and in memory of the crew members who lost their lives in accidents, specifically my friends Cristal Reiter, Yolanda Frey, Don Palamar, Jack Grey, Lloyd Moore, Barbara Wamsley, Patrcia Wassum, Geraldine Clemente, Bill George, Robert Roberts, and blessed survivor Carol Gould Hansen, Also, Parker Goldsmith, the first union leader, who stood for bettering our working and retirement environment and my son Guy who during 32 years as a Flying Tiger and FedEx pilot has devoted time, effort and skill as an attorney to help his fellow pilots

Robert Prescott, a visionary whose imagination of aiming high and thinking big aided with his determination and perseverance to pursue his goal making it possible for thousands of us to have had the opportunity of becoming Flying Tiger crew members.

Robert Prescott and several FTL stewardesses pose before a flight in which he, along with some of his friends, were on their way to attend an American Volunteer Group reunion.

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August, 1971 Robert Prescott, Anne Hilliard, Jadie Cato, Martha Maxim, Patty Funk, and Anne Hilliard while on a business trip approximately 20 years later, makes a brief appearance at the hospitality suite in Las Vegas.

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The beginning

October, 1945—The first passenger transportation. 115 homesick sailors chartered a Tiger plane from Los Angeles to New York.

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The ending

August 6, 1989 Flying Tiger Flight 2272-06, Aircraft N890, From RJTY (Yakota Air Base, Japan) to Anchorage, Alaska. Block time: six and a half hours, four hundred seventy-eight passengers and a flight crew of eighteen

The ending Flying Tiger passenger flight represented 44 years of Flying Tiger history, flying thousands of flights throughout the world. I believe all of us who flew as Flying Tiger captains or crew members envy Tom and his crew for the honor fate bestowed on them: to have served as crew members on this last official Flying Tigers passenger flight.

The National Skyway Freight Corporation was awarded its first transpacific contract in December, 1946, to fly eight flights daily. On February, 1947, the name was legally changed to The Flying Tiger Line Inc.

The picture of Captain Tom Scott and his crew symbolically represents thousands of Flying Tiger crew members who flew during the history of the Flying Tiger Line Inc.

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The August 25, 1958 issue of life magazine featured 53 stewardesses representing 53 airlines. At that time stewardesses were the glamorous girls of the air, then one of the most coveted careers open for young American women.

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Third row down, third stewardess from left to right, is Mary Lynn Who represented Flying Tiger stewardesses.

For this book Mary Lynn symbolically represents every stewardess who flew for Flying Tigers. Approximately 25 years ago I saw Mary Lynn on a flight to San Francisco. She beamed with pride, telling me her daughter Kerry had recently become Doctor Kerry Lang, M.D.

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Solo Flight—Piper J-3

March 20, 1951

INTRODUCTION

Success lies not in achieving what you aim at, but in aiming at what you ought to achieve, and pressing forward, sure of achievement here, or if not here, in the hereafter.

—R. F. Horton

How high is your aim and how big can you dream? As high and as big as your imagination, determination and perseverance will take you!

Life is too short to be little.

—Disraeli.

Life is too short to settle for thinking small. Think big and your accomplishments will be big; think small, and your accomplishments will be small. You can succeed by believing you can succeed. If you don’t believe you can accomplish something, you may condition your subconscious to fail. To achieve what we desire is simply concentrating and focusing on it.

Pay attention, and you will discover incredible opportunities. Pay attention to the way the world functions and you will find powerful strategies for improving your personal performance.

Don’t overlook the powers of humility, self-discipline, praise and honest appreciation of others!

The potential for the height of our aim and the bigness of our thinking is hidden, like an iceberg whose size cannot be judged by what is showing above the surface.

A friend, Sir Steve Gould, told me, Aim for the stars and accept nothing less than the moon! Steve added, With the help of God all things are possible.

We need confidence. Confidence comes from within, and it’s usually affected by our self image. If you like what you see in the mirror, you feel better about yourself. The questions you should ask yourself when you look in the mirror are "What do I see? What do I like? What don’t I like? What do I want to change?" Set priorities and focus on one thing at a time until you get what you desire. Our mind makes us who we are, and our mind is in its own place.

All Flying Tiger pilots had to aim high and think big to get what they desired. Our children inherit our family’s physical traits and as parents, with all the elements of home and community life influence our children to be the kind of man or woman they will become in adult life. I hope we have all influenced our children and grandchildren to aim high and dream big.

My granddaughter, Sara’s, imagination and determination enabled her to win second place in the 100-meter hurdles and third in the 300-meter hurdles which qualified her to go to the state meet in Fairbanks, AK. In the semifinals, Sara came in second; she made the finals, and in the 300-meter hurdle race she had the fastest time in the state. In the 100-meter hurdle race she came in second, losing by .2 of a second. In a race, all the runners run but the one who comes in first gets the biggest prize.

Sara is in 12th grade in Anchorage and is an excellent hockey player, but what I admire about my granddaughter is her self-discipline in devoting the time necessary to her studies while planning ahead by getting adequate rest.

Discipline is the surest road to greater freedom and independence; it provides the focus to achieve the skill level and depth of knowledge that translates into more options in life. Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.

—Julie Andrews.

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them as superior to circumstance.           —Bruce Barton

Courage is another important virtue needed to achieve success and since the beginning of mankind, courage has been regarded as one of the human virtues. The best point to remember is that courage to accept a difficult and disagreeable fact has often been demonstrated by gallant people.

Aim High and Dream Big is not only about aiming high and dreaming big, but also about taking a risk and disciplining yourself to do what has to be done. All of us are products of our dreams, but could it be that many times we limit our horizon by dreaming small rather than big? Aiming high and thinking big applies to those who have the ambition to rise above mediocrity.

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My granddaughter Sara and her team at a Tournament in Hartford, Conn.12/30/08

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My granddaughter, Brooke, an excellent tennis player.

Recognition

Crew members’ wives need recognition for having been our support system when we were on trips. In my case, as a crew member for North American Airlines, Flying Tigers and then FedEx, I was gone sometimes more than 30 days, but I always knew, when I returned home, Shirley would have everything in order and I hope it was likewise for others.

During the fall of 1955, while based in Miami, FL, I visited my friend Bob Legg’s father. Mr. Legg had a plaque in his den: A good wife is a gift from God. Shirley meets the criteria outlined in the plaque because she has always done her best to be an excellent wife, mother and grandmother.

The man who finds a good wife finds a good thing; she is a blessing to him from the Lord.

—Proverbs 18:22

If you do housework for money, you are called a maid; if you do it for nothing, you’re a wife.

A good wife and good health are a man’s best wealth and the best safe for a man’s money is a prudent wife.

A salesman knocked at the front door and a young mother with two kids clinging to her answered the door. The salesman said. Oh, I wanted to speak to the head of the family. How about speaking to the heart of the family? replied the young mother.

Shirley has always been the heart of our family and has always been prudent, but at times her heart has been broken by me, because rather than traveling a prudent path, I have occasionally followed the gust of a wayward wind!

In back of every achievement is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.

Brooks Hayes, aide to President Kennedy, December 1, 1961

A husband and his wife had a big fight. None of their family or friends knew what the fight was about, because each time one or the other told the story it changed. After a while, the husband and wife begin fighting about what the fight had been about and what the other person had said. Technically, they were not talking to each other, but they talked enough to keep the fight going.

Maybe, if you are fed up with me, I should get a divorce, the man said. Fine, said his wife. But you take the kids! The couple’s guardian angels had a summit conference and decided something had to be done. They arranged for the husband’s car to be bumped by a hit-and-run driver. The car was not badly damaged, but the husband had to spend two days in the hospital under observation. Suddenly, the quarrel was quickly forgotten. Sometimes I think I’d be better off without you, the wife said, But this has made me face the real prospect of being without you, and I realize I would not be better off. Me too, agreed the husband. So the couple reconciled and fell in love all over again.    Andrew M. Greeley

Shirley often writes her thoughts down and then throws them away. Not long ago I came across some of her written thoughts: Think happy! There are always many reasons to do so and love eases pain.

Be able to forgive yourself. Let go—move on to today. I am in control of how I respond to the behavior of others, not how well they behave, good or bad.

Each day is special. It is literally the first day of the rest of our lives. Enjoy it!

I am responsible for my thoughts and actions and every day we should assume responsibility for our actions. No one else can be our savior

Life can be difficult, filled with problems and pain; when life hurts, joy eases the hurt and I must be more joyful. I must accept responsibility for my own happiness.

Life is to short to waste time hating anyone and no one is in charge of our happiness but us. Time heals almost everything, give time, time.

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Shirley and me—wedding day. May 12, 1951

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Shirley, Leslie and Guy—May 1959

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Granddaughters Sydney, Erika and Grandson Ryan

The idea to write this book and title it Flying Tigers Aim High and Think Big is the result of a conversation I had with Tom Scott while I was visiting my son, Guy, in Anchorage.

Tom and I discussed how we became pilots and recalled the background of many crew members. We agreed that, in order for pilots to have achieved their goals, we had followed most of the principles outlined in Aim High, the book I had published in 2008. In view of the fact we had flown 747’s capable of taking off at a weight of 820,000 pounds, I thought adding Think Big to Aim High seemed an appropriate addition.

Many times in life we are faced with a challenge which is really an opportunity to do something better. When the situation presents itself, there may be a quick moment of selfishness that gives us an excuse to ignore what needs to be done. Many times we do not get a second chance to get it right and we have to live with the consequences.

I did not include in my book Aim High any reference to the effort pilots have to make to get qualified. Writing a second book to include paying tribute to all the crew members who flew during the history of Flying Tigers gives me that second chance. When life gives us a second chance, it is not given as exoneration but rather as an education. We can’t undo the first mistake, but we can take time to think about what we might do in a similar circumstance and try again to do it better.

To fly west, my friend, is a flight we all must take for a final check

—Author unknown

I believe we all have a need to leave something of ourselves when we take that final check, but do all of us have to fly west for a final check?

Everyone who has served as a Flying Tiger crew member has a story of how it came to be.

Captain Lamont Shad Shadowens exemplifies living the dream of aiming high and thinking big, and symbolizes many who have done likewise.

I flew with Shad early in 1957 and during a layover in Manhattan, while walking down Broadway from the Henry Hudson Hotel to the Times Square area, he said, Someday you are going to look up and see a big building named after me. During the next thirty—five years Shad moved up from copilot to captain, check pilot, and director of flight operations. He is also an attorney and has done many other things. I also am proud that my son Guy, an MD11 captain based in Anchorage is also a lawyer who passed the California bar on his first attempt. He uses his knowledge to help his fellow pilots.

As a result of Shad’s telling me exercise is good for us, I have maintained an exercise discipline for years. I was impressed by him doing the Canadian Royal Air Force calisthenics in our hotel room after a flight while laying over in Chateauroux, France.

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Bob Martin, Don Sanders and