Anyone have a contact for Capt Bobby Spielman? I believe he was a B737 fleet mgr. He and his uncle were a big influence in my career. Just PM me, if so.

GF

 

PM sent. Filler.

 

Thanks for PM; he was in the first group of '79 hires.

GF

 

We had a 727 F/O in CLE when it closed in 1988 by same name. Would this be same person? If so he was real nice guy. I lost track of him many years ago.

 

Duck,

Might be him. I learned to fly out of Danbury, CT, Bobby, Jim Fenely (UA retired in '86) and his son, Craig, we're all UA. Jim taught me more about the airlines than possible, including, "here's you copy if Flying the Line, read it, there'll be a test." Great guys from my distant past. Billy Willson was another UA pilot from my youth.

GF

 

Learned to fly at Danbury well. Bob Ward (while on strike from Eastern) co owned the place, and Joe C (now Peck) as my instructor.

Dc

 

C11DCA,

I know the name, but can't picture Bob Ward. I was Eastern, '84-'89. A lot of Eastern guys wound up at UAL. I did some more searching and Bobby Spielman retired about a year ago with a single-digit seniority number.

GF

 

Jim Feneley was one great guy. I was a 727 F/O on a reserve trip with him. Dhd all over the place to actually fly one single leg. We're in dispatch finishing the work and ready to head for the airplane. He takes out a coin and as flips it up into the air he says to me "heads or tails for who gets the leg. Call it."

So I call it and he grabs the coin in mid-air slaps it on his arm, peeks at the coin - of course I can't see it - and he says "you lost - my leg."

Another time we're somewhere in the mid-west, DSM, OMA or something and this is right after they let pilots use the computer systems so it had to be early 70's.

Anyway, Jim's not there in the dispatch area, so I type up this semi-official looking notice and print it that says "Upon arrival at Chicago, Captain Feneley will be met by the police and charged with a paternity suit." I stick the print out in the dispatch envelope and when we setting up the airplane he goes through the envelope, finds the fake message, blinks his eyes and proudly announces "that's the nicest thing anyone ever said about me."

One in a million guy.

 

Fireman0174,

Thanks for the stories. He was a genuinely great guy to me when I started out flying. I was there when Jim Jr. was killed with three friends near Danbury at a too young age. Saddest day in my career. I last saw him in St Petersburg, he was still fun even if aging. He left the Navy after punching his XO in the NAS Pensacola club. Started in last days of the -3 and finished on the -10.

GF