The Steamboat Pilot & Today

It’s an old axiom in the business world that it’s easier to keep an existing customer than it is to find a new one. It rings particularly true for Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame member Ralph Hood.

Hood, a columnist for trade magazines and a guest on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” will be one of the featured speakers at the fourth annual Wild West Air Fest on Saturday and Sunday at Steamboat Springs Airport.

For much of his career, Hood worked in airport sales.

“I’m proud to say I never sold an airplane anybody ever got killed in,” Hood said this week. “To the best of my knowledge, all of my customers are still alive.”

That’s something for an aircraft salesman who once specialized in selling Piper Ponies to crop dusters in Alabama.

Hood is drawn to predictable aircraft that rarely allow their pilots to get in trouble — planes such as the Cessna 172 and 182, along with the Piper Aztec.

“All three kept the pilot out of trouble,” Hood said. “They are middle-of-the-road airplanes — all the gauges stayed right in the middle.”

Hood doesn’t pretend to take full credit for the survival of his customers, but he hopes selling them an aircraft that is a good fit for their skills and experience level is a factor.

However, Hood also has a soft spot for a less predictable little front-and-back two-seater Luscombe that he used to fly to sales calls with crop dusters.

“That was a tough little airplane,” he mused. “But it could rise up out of nowhere and teach you a lesson.”

Hood is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Air Fest.

Also speaking will be Burt Newmark, who was only 20 years old in February 1945 when he was shot down while strafing German trains near Frankfurt. His P-51 Mustang was hit by flak from anti-aircraft guns.

“It was really too low to bail out, but I didn’t want to go down with a burning plane, so I ejected,” he told a California newspaper. “I think my chute had just opened when I landed in a tree.”

Newmark survived the crash and imprisonment by the enemy. He is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. both days.

Probably the most embarrassing moment of Hood’s career involved crop dusters. He’d had the good fortune of making two sales at one time to two pilots in different locales. Flying from Montgomery, Ala., Hood needed to deliver one plane to Union Springs and another to Dothan. The problem was, they had identical paint jobs, albeit different tail numbers. They were easily confused.

“I delivered the wrong airplane to the wrong pilot,” he said. “I never lived that one down.”

Hood has every intention of giving three humorous talks during his Labor Day Weekend visit to Steamboat Springs Airport. However, he promises that if his audiences don’t laugh, he’ll pretend that he meant to be serious all along.

Don’t be surprised if he expands on an analogy between life and the kind of flying conditions pilots dream of.

There are days when pilots arise to find drizzle, puddles on the tarmac and gloomy skies, Hood said. Then they receive the report: “It’s clear on top.”

“When you’re flying, that’s a great weather report,” Hood said. “You climb through the clouds, the sun is shining and the ride is smooth.

“The most empowering people in life are those who can take others to a place where “it’s clear on top,” Hood said. “Some people rise above the everyday problems that keep the rest of us down.”

— To reach Tom Ross, call 871-4205

or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com