New York Pilot Earns Award, Looks Back on Safe Flying Career

Apr. 10—QUEENSBURY — Ed Daley sat in a conference room at the Warren County airport as planes took off into the cloudy gray skies from the runway behind him on Friday morning.

His " Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award," which he received on April 2, was placed on the table. Daley earned the award for his more-than-50-year career of safe pilot operations.

Daley, a resident of Johnsburg, said he didn't know the award existed until someone put him up for it.

Daley and his wife purchased property in the county in 2002. His wife finished building their home in 2016, according to Daley.

They spent some time during the fall months in their upstate home before deciding to move into it full-time last January.

Daley believes a friend of his who is in management with the United States Flight Standards District Office in Oakland, California, which is connected to the Federal Aviation Administration, recommended him for the award.

He wasn't aware that he was up for the award until he received the paperwork in the mail.

"I said, 'What the heck is this?'"

He filled out the application, which required signatures of three individuals who knew for how long he had been flying. FAA procedure is to then pull the pilot's entire record to make sure the person had at least 50 years with no accidents or violations.

Reflecting on a safe aviation career

After 61 years of flying with a clean record, he was able to take a step back and reflect.

"Usually you just live in the moment," Daley said. "They (the FAA) wanted me to look back through my log books and come up with some things that I had done during my career. It made me review the whole thing."

He was born and raised in Queens, where he described himself as a "street kid." He would hang out at the local airport and offer to wash planes, hoping someone would give him a ride. He chuckled and recalled that no one ever did.

Growing up, a friend's parents had a cabin on a lake upstate. He would join them on weekends during the summer.

"For a street kid, that was great. Go fishing, canoeing, run through the woods," he said.

Daley started out as an aircraft mechanic when he was 19. He had dreams of flying through the skies or making it up to space.

But he couldn't afford flying lessons. He would ride his bike to Flushing Airport, which was in operation until 1984.

He got his mechanic's license from the Academy of Aeronautics at LaGuardia Airport. After that, he was able to become a mechanic for United Airlines.

"I started kicking at the door of the Air Force. I figured that was the only way I was going to get it," Daley said of acquiring a pilot's license. "Because it's free, and they pay you."

He was accepted into the last class of the Aviation Cadets. He said that at that point it was typical for those in the program to have a four-year degree. He thought that he was in over his head, only having two years of mechanic school under his belt.

He finished on time near the top of his class.

"That gave me such a confidence boost. I was not afraid to take on anything after that," Daley said.

After returning from the Air Force, he got a job as a flight engineer before becoming a pilot with United Airlines. He was home for two weeks before going off to pilot training.

His last 13 years with United were spent in a management role. He started off as a training check captain before becoming a flight manager.

Then he became a chief pilot in San Francisco, California. His office looked out onto San Francisco International Airport.

"I had 1,800 something pilots underneath me there," Daley said. "Big operation. The whole Pacific, a lot of West Coast airports. It was a big responsibility."

While his goal wasn't to end up in a management position, Daley found it fulfilling. He said that he was at a level where he could make change.

"When I said I wanted to change something, a policy, I could do it," he said. "As a line pilot, it's like shouting in the wind."

Toward the end of his career, there was a movement at United to take over space shuttle flying. Daley said that all projects at NASA are supposed to go public after a while.

"Shuttle was too expensive to ever come out of the government," he said.

Daley said that United, along with five other companies, were looking into flying shuttles commercially. The question was whether the airline pilots could transition into flying a spacecraft.

Daley was picked for the initial training. He was nervous at first. He had a similar feeling at the start of his career.

"All of these guys had engineering degrees, some had advanced degrees, they're all test pilots. And here I am," he said. "I have a lot more hours flying than they do, but not the kind of flying that they had been doing."

He once again finished on time with the rest of his training class, which gave him another confidence boost.

The kid from Queens had achieved another one of his goals.

"Just apply yourself and you can do it," he said. "I was always peeking under the tent to try to sneak in the back door, and I managed to do it."

Flying into retirement

After retiring on the day of his 35th anniversary at United, Daley went into accident investigation as an expert witness for air carrier accidents. He said that having the experience as a mechanic, pilot and in management prepared him for that role.

After that, he and his wife bought much smaller airplanes to fly and explore.

They first purchased a Long-EZ, which Daley described as an "exotic looking" small plane.

It was the sister plane to that of singer-songwriter John Denver, who died in a plane crash on Oct. 12, 1997. Daley was chosen to investigate the accident, since he had been flying the same style of plane.

Now they own a Trinidad general aviation airplane that they use to take adventures and visit family.

"It's a lot of fun. I can go where I want to go, not where the airline wants me to go," Daley said.

Jay Mullen is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls, Warren County and crime and courts. You can reach him at 518-742-3224 or [email protected].

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