DEL BOOTH PILOT FTW GSW DAL DFW Posted at the FL Club: George Ceshker and the amazing bunch Amazingly, an article from the Dec 1975 FL newsletter has turned up showing George, Del Booth and 3 other pilots marking their 25th anniversary with the company. To my knowledge, all five are still alive. I've uploaded the article to the Club files as SeniorPilots. Does anyone have more info, such as contacts, photos, etc., of this amazing group? -Jake Lamkins (4/20/06) I received word today that Del Booth, Central/Frontier retired pilot, died today at 3am in Seattle. More info as I get it. -Jim Ford (5/10/07) Thanks for letting us know about Del. He was a fine guy to fly with, and I know he will be missed by friends and family. Blessings, -Donna Harrison (5/10/07) Posted at the FL Club: Pilot Del Booth has died Jim Ford emailed: "I received word today that Del Booth, Central/Frontier retired pilot, died today at 3am in Seattle. More info as I get it." -Jake Lamkins (5/10/07) DELBERT EUGENE BOOTH (Age: 90) SILVERDALE, WA STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO WEBSTER, FL FORT WORTH, TX -Intelius.com (5/11/07) This is all I could find on Del Booth. No obits that I could find although there might be one in a local paper that doesn't have a website. --------------------------------------------------------------- King County deaths BOOTH: Delbert E., 90, of Shoreline, May 10. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/316214_deaths18.html -Frosty Frost (5/18/07) Thanks, Frosty, I haven't been able to find an obituary either. -Jake Lamkins (5/18/07) Posted at the FL Club I want to start work on the memorial webpage for pilot Del Booth and station agent Roger Ballast. I still do not have an obituary for either. If anyone has one, please email to me or post here. Thanks, -Jake Lamkins (5/22/07) It's been nearly a month since word was received that Del Booth had died but other than a brief note in the Seattle newspaper, nothing more. That's sad because Del was a vibrant person back in the old days. Del told me he started out with United Airlines just before WW II and after the war he took a leave of absence and bought a Fixed-Base flight operation at the Ponca City Airport. He figured after a year or two leave of absence, he'd have it set up so he could go back to United and check on PNC on his days off. One of his businesses at the airport was delivering the daily Oklahoma City newspaper in his Piper Cub or whatever was available. But he couldn't extend his leave at United as much as he needed so he chose the FBO operation..... a mistake he regretted many times in the future. The first time I met Del was in March 1958 when he was the instructor/check pilot on a one hour DC-3 instrument training flight from Meacham Field and I was one of the 2 new-hires in the "mill". That all went OK and a night or two later he met the night flight I had been getting my line observation time on from OKC-ACF with Gordon Bourland and Dave Dodd. They moved in back and Del jumped in the left seat and I crawled into the right one and I proceeded to get my night T/O and Landing qualifications satisfied on the ferry flight to Meacham Field. I flew quite a few trips on the line with Del but the one I probably remember best was a 3 dayer with the second overnight at AMA. We launched at about noon for BGD but Del said he felt a strange vibration in the floorboards so he turned back to AMA. Smilin' Sam Hayes met the airplane and he and Del began arguing about this vibration. When they asked me I diplomatically stated that all the many vibrations on a DC-3 were strange to me since I was brand new to the airplane. So Del and I started flying test hops all afternoon.....5 in all! By then all the passengers at AMA had left and we started out for BGD, WGD, PNC, BVO, TUL, MKO, FSM, PRX, DAL, ACF and FTW. The Phillips folks were still waiting for us at BGD for the ride back to BVO but we flag-stopped WDG and PNC. Del said that when we got to TUL we were going to the hotel for the night. But when we got there, here was a crew waiting to deadhead back to FTW with us and they were in no mood to wait any longer. So we launch out for FSM where we had revenue waiting, passing MKO. After climb out of FSM, Del announced that he was going back to stretch a little and here comes the deadheading co-pilot (the same one I had just trained with) stumbling sleepeyed into the cockpit to fill the left seat. I asked him to fly awhile but he was useless so he just kept the seat warm. One or other of the stews kept bringing up coffee for me and even in the rain shower turbulence, no real flying help showed up! We overflew PRX and ACF but by the time I got home at 3 AM the duplex was dark and the screen doors were securely hooked. Since the neighborhood was occupied mostly by hookers, carnival workers and new-hire airline employees one didn't routinely bang on doors at 3 am. So I had to find a pay-phone someplace and wake up the wife to tell her to unhook the damn doors! It was a long day and it was confirmed later that Del and Sam Hayes never could get along. Del trained me later as F/O on the CV-240 but the most I remember of that training was buzzing Bobby Martin's house out on Eagle Mountain Lake for a couple of mornings at 7AM! I had flown the 240 at American a couple years before so it was mostly refresher for me (except for the buzzing!). Del's picture once hung in the Smithsonian Air Museum in the display for Aerobatic Aviation. He spent alot of time and effort developing a US Aerobatic Competition Team which did quite well as best I can remember. Del was a nice guy. I enjoyed working with him. He was an excellent pilot. He did have quite an ego but also had a great sense of humor to go along with it. I think a mark is still on a light pole at FYV as a memory to his miscalculation while parking a DC-3! There must be much more to remember this great guy than: Booth, Delbert, 90 in the Seattle paper. -H. A. "Jack" Frost (6/3/07) Thanks for the note about Del. You're right - not much in the paper. Don't know if it's still there, but the light pole Del hit had a "Del Booth Memorial Light Pole" sign on it until FL left FYV in 1982. That sign pissed Del off something fierce everytime he saw it. -Jake Lamkins (6/3/07) D E BOOTH Seniority date of 12/12/49 on the 9/1/72 FL/ALPA seniority list. -Jake Lamkins (6/4/07)