ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award is a major honor among the piloting community, and recently, Liberal added another name to that list.
Last Friday, longtime local pilot Jim Floyd was named as the community’s most recent recipient of the award.
“The gentleman who had announced the Master Pilot Award the evening I donated my plane to the Mid-America Air Museum, Marion Manis, had actually nominated me for the award in early 2020, but then the COVID-19 pandemic came along, along with some other circumstances,” Floyd said. “I actually thought that had faded and been forgotten, but then that evening, when he got up and announced I would get the award, was when I found out. I thought it was a little over the top, but I was happy to get the news. Two of the main requirements to receive the award are having 50 or more years of pilot experience and no license revocations, and I reached both of those, so again, it’s really neat.”
Floyd said his interest in aviation began at a young age.
“I grew up in Southeast Virginia and I grew up being involved in 4-H and worked with steers and other animals for projects, and we were also close to military aviation, which I originally figured I probably would never end up being around, but it’s funny how things turn out in life,” Floyd said. “I learned to fly in the Aero Club at Patrick Air Force Base. I wasn’t eligible for military pilot training because I didn’t have good enough eyesight, but I ultimately ended up getting all my various pilot ratings. While I was on active duty with the U.S. Air Force, I served as an air traffic controller in an interesting aviation environment at Edwards Air Force Base. I was not planning on a career in the Air Force, so when I got out, by then is when I had my pilot’s license, so I went ahead and decided to combine my interest in aviation and my interest in agriculture to become an agricultural aviator, and that ended up being my calling for many years. While most of my piloting experience was as an agricultural aviator, I also did charter flights, flight instruction and aircraft delivery.”
During his many years in the cockpit, Floyd said there are a few memories that stand out for him.
“There was one flight where I crashed and burned pretty severely, so that stands out – I’d misjudged a little bit west of Perryton, Texas, and that happened Nov. 15, 1973, and I hit the ground, which ended up not being good. I never did tell my mother about that incident,” Floyd recalled with a slight chuckle. “I don’t remember ALL the details about the first field I ever sprayed, but that was also a pretty big event since that’s what got me started, and there were a lot of other smaller events along the way. I’d rather have kept going – I retired when I was 75 – but I know another 50 years wouldn’t have been enough for me. I also witnessed the last flight of the B-70 and the X-15, and there were a lot of other interesting things that happened while I was on active duty. I also got the chance to fly in a F-104, during which we went to MACH 2, which was quite something.”
The people he worked with, Floyd said, helped keep him going for his long career.
“I’d always been interested in agriculture and an interest in aviation, which I think every young boy goes through, and I was ultimately able to combine the two, and it ended up being a perfect fit. I never, ever got tired of it,” Floyd said. “I would get up at 4:30 a.m. every day so I could go the airport and get everything ready to go when the sun came up, and I just enjoyed all of it – maybe less so the getting up at 4:30 every morning, but I did enjoy the actual work and seeing the sun coming up over the town when I was up in my plane. I like to joke I could tell who’d recently mowed their yards and done that maintenance, and that was because I was flying just about everywhere in town. I did crop-dusting for a lot of farmers throughout my career, and they were all good people, so it was a good career. The airplane I flew in the most, which was my 1971 Grumman Ag Cat that got donated to the air museum, was the most maneuverable of all the aircraft I flew, aside from maybe a helicopter. I enjoyed all of that, and I also really liked the intensity of the work and trying to get everything exactly right and exactly how the farmer(s) needed it. I was also really good about not letting my mind wander too much – I was actually talking to an old college friend of mine who was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and advanced pretty far up the ranks, and he said most of the accidents happen because the pilots are distracted by family problems and other circumstances.”
With multiple Master Pilots in the Liberal community now, Floyd offered encouragement for other area pilots to work toward such honors.
“It’s a really neat honor to try for, and like I said earlier, two of the main qualifications for the award are having 50 years or more of pilot experience and no license revocations on your record, so it’s not something totally insurmountable,” Floyd said. “I know I don’t have as many flight hours as some guys do, but there really aren’t too many pilots who keep at something like this for 50 years or more, whether it’s due to health issues or other circumstances. And with agricultural aviation, you can be a little more independent, especially if you have your own business. If you’re in the military or airline aviation, there are mandatory retirement ages there, which I can understand. But I would say if something like this is something you want to try for, go for it.”
Overall, Floyd said, he is truly honored by the recognition.
“I truly thought my nomination had been forgotten in the mess of the COVID-19 pandemic and everything else going on at that time, but I was really happy to get the news I’d been officially chosen to receive this honor,” Floyd said. “It’s not every pilot who gets nominated for this, and I’m happy and humbled to now be officially known as a Master Pilot.”
