A local pilot, responsible for many aviation milestones in our area, is going to be honored by the Federal Aviation Administration. Chuck LeMaster will be presented the Wright Brothers Pilot Award for having 50 years or more of flying with no accidents or license revocations. Chuck turned 93 inJanuary. He has been flying 76 years!
He picked up pop bottles and other odd jobs to pay for flying lessons as a teenager, earning his private pilot’s license when he was 18. He became an air traffic controller in the Air Force in the early fifties and began crop dusting on the side while stationed in Texas. Chuck came back home to Ottawa after his Air Force Service in 1955. He continued his flying career aerial spraying, and as a flight instructor, commercial charter pilot, instrument instructor and commercial helicopter pilot. He ran the Ottawa Airport for the City of Ottawa, accumulating an amazing 34,000 flight hours.
Chuck has owned several very rare and historical aircraft through the years. One is currently in the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. He traveled the country during the sixties and seventies barnstorming and giving rides in the famous 1929 Ford Trimotor. Chuck can usually be found at the airport these days and is still a current pilot, and loves to talk about anything related to aviation.
The ceremony will be held Thursday, February 27th, at noon
