AI2023 Banquet Speech: David C. Powell & Connor McCauley

By David C. Powell

Editor’s Note: This speech was given by David Powell and Connor McCauley on June 24, 2023, at the annual Airliners International 2023-DFW Banquet.

Connor McCauley and I are here to talk about the appreciation we feel for the friendships that have resulted from these shows, beyond the models, barf bags and postcards and other items. What we’re here appreciating tonight is the part when all the fun talk about planes goes beyond that, to personal long-term friendships. 

Like so many of you, I’ve loved planes and trains since I can remember. My Dad would take me and my younger brother to Philadelphia (PHL) to see DC-8s Viscounts, Electras, 707s, CV 580s, 880s and Caravelles, some of which would disappear behind their own black exhausts until liftoff.

On my 10th birthday, my Dad took my brother and me on our first flights: a United DC-8 from Philadelphia to New York-JFK to take part in New York Airways helicopter rides. Our return was on the iconic TWA Connie from JFK back to PHL. 

When I was 14, Dad “volunteered” me to work in a travel agency where I hand-wrote tickets. I was mesmerized by the domestic and international OAG books.  I collected timetables, had and built models, hung posters on my walls all the while I was thinking, “yeah, ha, right…. me and about 20 other people in the world go for this kind of stuff.”

I discovered this hobby group at age 32 through a truly strange connection – an advertisement in, of all things, an ATP decal catalog that spoke of an airline show in Indianapolis, IN. I was working for Conrail and they transferred me to Indianapolis.

When I registered, this gentleman, Phil Brooks calls me and asked “How come we haven’t heard from you before? Are you new?” We met that day and went into the office where he worked at American Trans Air. That was July 1, 1987. I joined the local Indy group that Phil had started. 

Clint Groves, owner of ATP passed away a few years ago- but, I am grateful to him nonetheless, for placing that advertisement.  

That simple connection led to the mind-blowing event that followed: Phil was running the convention along with our great friend Art Smit-Roeters as his co-chairman, Art just passed at 92 in March 2023. 

The Indianapolis convention was attended by 770 similarly-minded folks!! Holy Cow. A whole new world had just opened up for me. I was beyond words, I was overwhelmed! Can anyone relate to this?

Phil was my first Airliners contact and we became fast friends. We decided to take a trip together. Our first trip was to Central America. We landed and took off from Tegucigalpa. In Guatemala City, we intended to ride a Convair 580 but it had a nose gear problem. Phil then sees this plane and says, “I don’t know where it’s going but we’re riding it!” It was an Aerovias Dart Herald! We rode it to Flores, Guatemala and back. We rode trains coast to coast in Costa Rica (for $3) Then on a regularly scheduled SANSA DC-3, once landing while standing up behind the pilots! We also rode a CASA 212 Aviocar. 

On an overnight at our hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica, in the middle of the night, I hear mumbling. I didn’t know where I was. Then Phil broke into “Britt Airways announces the departure of Flight 132 with service to Danville and Chicago. Please have your ticket out and available.” Well, at breakfast the next morning, I remembered this and asked Phil, “Did you ever work for Britt?”  Phil said, “I never told you that! How did you know?” I replied, “Because you made a boarding announcement in your sleep!” After much laughter, Phil said, “I did? NEAT!”

We then went to the Paris Air show, and he took me to the place where Charles Lindbergh stepped off his plane. 

We dipped our toes in the Arctic Ocean together at Tuktyoktuk and flew an Air North DC-3 pancake flight from Whitehorse to Fairbanks and then took the 12-hour train ride to Anchorage. 

We also flew on the the milk run aboard an Alaska 737-200Combi aircraft. 

We flew the world’s shortest scheduled commercial flight in the Orkney Islands together, only 2 minutes! 

It was his idea to use discounted Northwest miles to go to Sydney, Australia and return with a Honolulu stopover after a last-minute fuel stop in Noumea! 

Spent a weekend riding the US Air/Trump 727 Shuttles together. It all had been amazing.

My interest in trains had an effect on him for sure. What great times we have had together, a thousand wonderful and fun and funny memories. And a few absolutely astounding coincidences too! Thank you, Phil!

While at a mini-show with Phil in Atlanta in 1989, I met John Doan. We also became fast friends. I watched as he got hired by Eastern ATLRR in Atlanta and he would non-rev on DC-9s to visit me in Indianapolis.

I encouraged him to come to a Seattle show (we flew together on an Eastern A-300) and enter a model of his in the contest. He won a prize! We attended the show that featured Tex Johnson as the guest speaker. John was working the night EAL shut down.

We traveled to San Juan and flew on a Latin America Pass Frequent Flyer promo to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, as well as to Quito, Ecuador and Bogota, Colombia.

John has been a great friend. He would have been here but, he just moved to Vancouver. He still LOVES DC-9s and Super-80s. He even taught a parrot to say: “Dee-cee-Nine!”

Phil introduced me to Bill Demarest who was then living in my native Philadelphia area. Bill introduced me to Joe Crawford in Seattle in 1990. Joe had just missed the Hartford, CT show as he was attending Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach, FL. He was handing out car rental coupons he was too young to use, and somehow got a group of us into the Admiral’s Club!

Joe and I started taking trips with lots of segments on American Airlines where he had status. We went to Panama and Belize and flew the SANSA DC-3 and a Trilsander together in Costa Rica as well. We once went to Edinburgh via Miami, New Orleans, and Dallas/Ft. Worth for the weekend!

In 1994, Joe suggested doing an incredible offer made by Chart House restaurants. Spend $25 in food at all 65 of their restaurants and they buy you two round trip tickets. Our first dinner was at Atlanta AI. 

Joe busted his left knee skiing at Mammoth Mountain on one trip. 

A group of us celebrated our 65th dinner during the Phoenix AI show at the Scottsdale Chart House. It was a truly amazing and magical night!

Joe got a medical waiver that day (knee) and joined the Rhode Island National Guard to fly C-130s!  Unforgettable celebratory night that all came together.

For the reward trip, in 1995 we flew Delta- Singapore-Swissair to New York JFK, San Francisco, South Korea, Taiwan, then Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport, Singapore, Phuket, Katmandu, Delhi, Bombay, Cairo, Rome, Switzerland and many more. The whole voyage took 28 days. 

A group of us got together one night at the CR Smith Museum celebrating Joe’s million miler passage in style! Amazing stories and loads of adventures! Too many to tell. Joe and I once went to Saba and climbed to the top of that mountain to have a view. He even once rented a plane and he flew us down the Hudson River flyway and circled the Statue of Liberty, plugged in a CD player with singing Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York! It was followed by a canoe ride on the Delaware River. Still my best day ever!  

We took a LOT of really fun and really great trips together!! It all made life really worth living!!! 

Valuable friendships happen here. It has been fun supporting Joe and watching him rise from instructor pilot to Kalitta, US Airways, Japan Air Lines and now flying the A321NEO at Hawaiian. Joe, you have been an amazing friend for 33 Years! 

There were 5 of us doing the lucrative Star Alliance promo that brought us together in Istanbul to get on that required THAI flight which flew three times per week from Munich.

I attended Tom Livesey’s wedding.

I was pallbearer at Joe’s dad’s funeral. 

We always had excellent and fun times with Scott O’Leary, and watched him go from college student to Aeroplan executive.

We miss Art, Paul K., Joe Yeager, and Jon Proctor. Jon published my article in May ’97 on my MGM Grand DC-8 trip roundtrip flight. Jon was a great guy; I even stayed at his place a few times. 

I could go on and on with trips and shared life experiences and long-term good friendships that have meant so much to me and so many. 

I wanted to share this sampling of these amazing experiences with you because I realize that NONE of them would have transpired if it weren’t for Clint, Phil, and this organization. None of these experiences!

WAHS has been a game-changer for me and I’m sure many of you. I don’t wish to think about what life would have been like if I’d never matched up with anyone here. Too much fun I would have missed. So, I am just mighty grateful.

Kind of a life lesson here: one simple act of sharing and inviting others can make a big difference.

I also think it’s good to stop for a moment to recognize all the great folks, who have, for years, sacrificed their time and energy to keep this organization and shows going and serving to facilitate not only the fun of the shows, but the extra great secondary benefit of the valuable friendships and enhanced life experiences that result from shows like this one. I’ve heard more than once attendees say, “I mostly go to these to see my friends again.” 

Many of us, like Connor, can relate to the joy of entering our first big annual show. There are hardly words to describe it all. It’s like coming home. It’s a feeling of, yes, I belong here, surrounded by like-minded aviation enthusiasts. These shows lead to friendships. 

Last year, while waiting in the check-in line at the Chicago show, I met this young man, Connor. It was his first show ever. He’s from a small town in Oklahoma. He didn’t know any aviation buffs there, so he started making aviation YouTube videos at age 10 to share his enthusiasm and love of aviation. There are now more than 35,000 followers of Red River Aviation of his Instagram feed and Youtube channel. Here is the simple act of sharing in motion.

As you can see, I love taking trips with folks; you really get to know someone that way. In January 2023, Connor and I rode Amtrak from Oklahoma City to Ft Worth. We then took a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Miami, and a Delta 757-300 to Atlanta. We had a blast. You could hardly meet a smarter, more enthusiastic, joyful, and kinder person than Connor. We have more fun trips planned!

And now, here is Connor to share a few words.