Date: Fri 27-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Wayland-Johnson-TWA-pilot

Full Text:

w/photos: A Pilot's Career Ends On A High Note

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

There are few rewards in life more satisfying than raising children who follow

in your own footsteps.

So when TWA Capt Wayland Johnson made the final flight of his career last

week, it was what he called "an unbelievable stroke of luck" that his son,

Mike, was in the cockpit as the flight engineer.

Mike's wife, Cindy, also a TWA pilot, was in the cockpit, too, when TWA Flight

840 left Kennedy Airport for the eight-hour flight to Rome. Among the several

hundred passengers aboard the 747 were Wayland's wife, Diana, their daughter,

Sandra, who lives in Boston, and Mike's high school classmate, Sean Hanrahan,

who drove up from Delaware to join them.

The day in Rome, complete with a tour of the Coliseum and a celebration

dinner, was over quickly. Then Capt Johnson flew his entourage back to New

York where they met the oldest Johnson sibling, Dawn, and her husband, Martin,

both aerospace engineers, who flew in from California, arriving the same

afternoon.

As retirement parties go, it would be hard to top Wayland Johnson's.

"I had a wonderful career," Capt Johnson said, reflecting this week on his 28«

years with TWA. His career officially ended Wednesday on his 60th birthday,

the mandatory age of retirement for commercial pilots.

"I finished with about 15,000 hours (of flight time). Most (pilots) finish

with 20,000 to 30,000 hours, but I spent a number of years in management,"

Capt Johnson said.

Beginning in 1984 he served in various management positions in the airline's

New York domicile, including manager of the New York Training Center and

director of flying. In 1989, while serving as the pilot on the 10-day

chartered flight to Japan of former-President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan,

Capt Johnson was notified that he had been named the airline's chief pilot,

responsible for the flight operations of the airline and all pilot activities.

But in 1992, as retirement approached, he left management - where he flew

perhaps once every four to six weeks - and went back to the cockpit to finish

his career as a line pilot.

A graduate of Southern Illinois, with a degree in education, Wayland Johnson

taught general science in a junior high school in suburban Chicago for a year

before entering the Air Force in 1959. He completed four years of service and

a year and a half of pilot training in 1964 and joined TWA in 1965.

Johnsons have lived in Newtown for 23 years, building their home on Parmalee

Hill Road when Dawn, 31, was in second grade and the younger Johnsons hadn't

yet started school. Mike, 28, graduated from Newtown High School in 1986 and

earned a degree in industrial engineering at Clemson in 1990.

"I always knew I wanted to be a pilot," Mike said. "The whole time I was

growing up, that's all I wanted to do."

He worked for Milliken Mills in South Carolina for a year and pursued his

dream of flying through civilian channels, becoming a flight instructor and

working as pilot for a commuter line for a year. He met Cindy while both were

flight instructors at Tweed New Haven Airport; Sean was best man at their

wedding. Mike joined TWA last March in the first class that was hired to fly

the 747's.

"That was the key that allowed this whole thing to happen," Mike said,

explaining how he qualified to be part of the crew on his father's last

flight. There was also a bit of luck involved: Mike had a few days available

before leaving this week to begin DC-9 school in St Louis, Mo. Cindy, who

joined TWA in July, will stay here temporarily to finish training on the

727's. She sat in the observation seat in the cockpit during her father-in-

law's last flight, a seat generally used by FFA or airline inspectors.

Flying an airliner is serious business, but Capt Johnson's retirement flight

was not without its lighter moments. There was a cake at the airport in Rome

and a chorus of For He's A Jolly Good Fellow by his crewmates and the flight

stewards on the flight back to New York. The nine-hour flight touched down at

2:45 pm on Friday.

"Wayland made a perfect landing - the pressure was on," Diana said.

"It was a `greaser,' that's for sure," Mike added.

Now that he has retired, Wayland Johnson plans to become a student again.

"I'm going go back to get a master's degree," Mr Johnson said. "First I'll

probably take a few months off, perhaps take a couple of courses at WestConn,

then get my master's (in the aeuronautical program) from Emery Riddle

University, and go back into teaching."

"If it takes me five years to get the degree, that's great," he said. "I'm in

no hurry. I have all the time I need."