“Anybody that knows any kind of history in aviation will know the name Clay Lacey,” said Patricia Lynn, FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) member and event organizer. “He is an amazing fellow. He’s Mr. Learjet. He’s known internationally, all over the world. It’s an honor to have him in our Santa Maria community.”
Lacy has logged more than 50,000 hours of piloting experience and has been flying since the early 1950s. He started his aviation career with United Airlines and flew military planes with the California Air National Guard. He was one of the first pilots to receive a Learjet Type Rating in 1964, and he founded Clay Lacy Aviation four years later.
Today, Lacy remains CEO of his company and was recently inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. He’s viewed by Professional Pilot magazine as the ideal person to evaluate the latest and greatest advancements in aviation. His impressive résumé as both a pilot and operator speaks for itself. He’s also the guy Hollywood turns to for aviation expertise.
Lacy will be in town on March 16 to speak at the bi-monthly FAA Safety Team meeting at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight. He’ll discuss the importance of thorough preflight planning, including flight conditions, airplane condition, and the ability of the pilot to handle whatever situation might arise during the course of the planned flight. The goal of these meetings is to educate others, from aviators to the general public, on flight safety.
“We are going to have an invitational dinner beforehand where we will present Mr. Lacy with an award for his 25-year support of the museum,” Lynn told the Sun. “The museum is our history. It’s been an icon in our community forever.”
The museum is on the north side of the Santa Maria Public Airport, which was established in early 1942 to train pilots for World War II. In 1945, the site, then called the Santa Maria Army Air Field, was chosen to be the base for the first jet fighter squadron in the Army Air force, flying the Bell P-59 aircraft.
However, Santa Maria’s aviation history goes back even further, to 1927 with the Allan Hancock Air Field. Captain G. Allan Hancock established his flight school there one year later. That site is now Allan Hancock College.
By the end of World War II, the Santa Maria Army Air Field was phased out and moved to March Field in Riverside. The old airbase eventually became the present Santa Maria commercial airport, where the museum sits.
The local FAA Safety Team is headed by Lynn and Richard Jensen. For the past three years, they’ve been responsible for putting together meetings on the third Wednesday of every other month. The speakers are usually well-known aviators, and the talks always center on safety topics.
The crowd at these events is usually made up of local aviators, like Lynn, or fans of aviation, but the general public is always welcome.
“We hold our meetings at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight because that is the largest area for us to entertain a crowd for our presentations,” Lynn explained. “We are trying to educate, and we try to bring in the outside community not directly involved in aviation.”
She said there’s no better figure than Lacy to educate people on aviation.
“[Lacy] is an example of a lifetime of aviation,” she summed up. “He’s inspiring and encouraging to anyone wishing to be involved in aviation.”
For more information on FAASTeam, visit faasafety.gov.
This article appears in Mar 10-17, 2011.