LEO CANAVAN 1961 - 1986 PILOT FTW GSW DAL DFW DEN Posted at Dick Cottingham's guestbook: Dick was a fine gentleman and aviator. I enjoyed flying and associating with him from Aug 61 'till he retired. -Leo Canavan (12/21/06) L. J. CANAVAN JR Pilot seniority date of 8/23/61 on the 9/1/81 FL/ALPA Seniority List. He's not on the 9/1/85 list. -Jake Lamkins (3/13/11) Leo Canavan was a favorite captain of mine! One summer, about 1980, I was furloughed from Frontier for 8 weeks. I had accrued 9 weeks of furlough pay, so I enjoyed two months OFF, paid to fish and goof-off around Yellowstone with my old camper! The Convair 580, and captains like Canavan, "made me" a pilot. -Al Beardsley (3/14/11) Leo flew with my Air Guard unit for awhile. The boss was always pissed at him because he would smoke in the airplanes (F-100) but they could never catch him at it. Did Leo ever tell you his F-4 over Formosa story? He was doing an acceptance flight on an F-4 that had come out of the depot on Formosa. Weather in mainland China along the coast was low ceilings. When he was finished, he headed for mainland China as fast as the airplane would go and then dove for the deck to get under their radar. The Chinese scrambled a bunch of fighters and they weren't very good instrument pilots. Anyway, the spooks monitoring the tower freqs at the Chinese bases said that two airplanes crashed after takeoff. I don't know if Leo got credit for the kills or not. Probably not. -John Schmieder (3/14/11) Leo Canavan I've been missing e-mails from Leo. I've had no luck reaching him by phone (either cell or home#). His cell phone isn't set up for messages and his home # is full... Hopefully, he's OK. Have any of you been in touch with Leo lately? -Billy Walker (12/18/14) I have not heard from Leo, Billy. However a websearch to see if there was an obituary (None found) turned up an interesting article at http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/13593885/ Have you ever heard that story before? -Jake Lamkins (12/18/14) Holy smokes! I never knew this story! I sure hope Leo is OK, but it's got me worried. He was always in touch! We've been to the Reno Air Races together, met at a hotel in San Salvador, you name it. -Billy Walker (12/19/14) Billy, Bob Erdmann phoned today to tell me Leo flew west last month. Thanks for the notam, Bob. http://supersabresociety.com/leo-canavan-headed-west/ -Jake Lamkins (12/30/16) L J CANAVAN #151 on Sep 1981 seniority list. #133 on the May 1984 domicile list. He is not on the May 1985 domicile list. 1/10/86 is RT on ALPA roster. -Jake Lamkins (1/1/17) L J CANAVAN Emp# 02371, DEN Address in Grand Prairie, TX per the Nov 1984 and Aug 1990 Frontier Rosters. -Jake Lamkins (1/2/17) FLacebook - FL Club FLight West: Leo Canavan FTW GSW DAL DFW DEN pilot Leo Canavan's memorial webpage is posted at http://FAL-1.tripod.com/Leo_Canavan.html Post your remembrances of him. -Jake Lamkins (1/2/17) Leo was a favorite. I ran into him in the USAirways training center in CLT about Dec. 1989. We had a good reunion. He was there setting up a training program for Air Berlin. He told the story about how the East Germans, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, would crowd around a store window and cause everyone to wonder what the big attraction might be. He said that he worked his way into the crowd and saw that they were looking at a modern telephone and a television. Leo was a fun guy. I know he will be missed. -Jim Currie (1/2/17) I always thought that he just flew when he wasn't on a movie set. -Bob Ostrom (1/2/17) Thought I knew all the DFW pilots. Did not know him. -Keith Sturgeon (1/2/17) Great guy. Had a few drinks with him a couple of times. -Kevin Porreco (1/3/17)