On 2007-06-12 18:23:41 -0400, Bertie the Bunyip said:

Bob Moore wrote in
46.128:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote
You must have also known Sal Labate before his fall from grace.

Ah yes....Uncle Sal. :-) Sal had to do something with all of that
ill gotten money, so he started Guy America Airways to be fronted
by his nephew Tony Terri who took a leave from his PanAm FE job.

I flew B-707s there for about a year. Also served as Manager of
Flight Crew Training and B-707 Check Airman.

For PAA or GAA?

Nobody ever figured out what Uncle Sal was supposed to be doing back
there in a corner all by himself. Our headquarters was located in
Queens.

Of course, we had all heard about Sal's medical retirement from an
American Airlines DC-10 Captain job with a "funny" heart attack.

Do you know the real truth about Sal?

Well, I know about where he got some of his money, alright. I know about
the Douglas in the forest, too. I heard he wormed his way out of the
mess somehow as well..
I met him a good few times. He was always around invovled in some
hairbrained scheme or another. I remember he had a "Flying Circus" he
based at Woodbine, NJ, close to the shore. they had a Sopwith Camel
Replica, a Fokker DR1 and a Stampe as well as a Cub and a couple of
other things to give rides in. They advertised on the radio most of the
summer for their weekend airshows but I doubt that more than a few
hundred came to see it all summer.. Half the time they couldn't get the
airplanes started. Actually the best part of it was a flying fool act
done by some local farmer in a Cub and Sal's Stampe display, which was
quite tidy.. One of my friends was involved with him repairing some of
his airplanes when he was stil in high school so I was up at his place
on the Delaware a couple of times with him. He had some cool airplanes!

There are an incredible number of scoundrels involved in aviation!

Chuck Weldon is another one who springs to mind..


Bertie

Don't forget Jim Bede, not that he was a scoundrel, but what a mess
they made of the BD5 kit situation :-))
And then there was Jesse Stallings and Capitol Airways operating out of
Symyrna Georgia and Wilmington Delaware and Anchorage Alaska. I knew
their chief pilot fairly well. We shared a Cessna 336 together. I
learned more about loose good looking women and good booze from the
good folks at Capitol then I did anywhere else in my entire career in
aviation
:-)
Dudley