Getting to Know You: Deb Cox

Deb’s first ride in an airplane when she was seven or eight years old was at a flour bomb contest in California. Her dad was the pilot and Deb dropped the bag. She was hooked. After that flight, she knew she would be a pilot. She was an Air force brat until she was 12 years old. Her life adventures have taken her to all these places: Texas, Massachusetts, California, New York, Illinois, Colorado, Washington, Alaska and back to Washington. She graduated from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois with a BS in Biology with an emphasis on wildlife management/birds. Between the ages of 14 and 20, she spent most summers in Colorado hiking, backpacking, white water rafting, and horseback riding at a camp in the Collegiate Range (Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains ).

She got her private pilot’s license in 1981 and the first airplane she owned was a Cessna 120. She currently owns a Cessna 182 (“Lucy”), the first airplane she’s owned in 30 years. She was a flight instructor from 1982-1990 and owned and operated an FBO in Chugiak, Alaska. During that time she was the Chief Flight Instructor and DPE (Designated Pilot Examiner). In 1990 she went to work for the FAA as an Aviation Safety Inspector Operations at the Anchorage International Airport FSDO (Flight Standards District Offices). In 1994 she transferred to the Seattle FSDO and retired from there in 2004. She was the FSDO operations inspector of the year( National) in 1997. Also as an inspector, she was one of about 6 in the country qualified to do 135 and CFI check rides in the Robinson R22 helicopter so traveled around the country to do these rides.

Before she went to work for the FAA, she worked as a fill in pilot for ARCO Co. for one year, flying crews across the North Slope in Alaska, flying the DHC-6. This was one of her most memorable flying experiences with lots of actual IFR, polar bears, snowy owls, musk ox, grizzlies and native villages. She remembers one winter day on her flight leg: dark, -90 degrees wind chill and blowing 30 kt. crosswind! She describes it as a “handful!”

On another occasion she was taking a charter in the R22 out to a mine in AK. Her passenger didn’t tell her until they were almost there why they were going; he was planning to repossess a radio-telephone. In Alaska, most remote folks had firearms and she told him she was not going to shut down and would take off if need be. Fortunately, no one was there.

Her most fun time was ferrying an R22 from Anchorage to LA or Scottsdale when her FBO had the R22 dealership. She did this 3 times, twice by herself. One time was in March, leaving AK and stopping in Whitehorse Yukon, she paid $85 to hanger the aircraft for one night. They were long 8 hour days, no autopilot and lots of planning each night since fuel was needed every 2 hours.

On one flight she landed at a gas station on the Deese Highway and fueled up with purple gas. She couldn’t fly the trench because of the need for fuel every 2 hours. On one fuel stop in Canada, it was blowing so much the rotors never stopped turning (Kluane Lake). On one pass out of Ft. Nelson, she was in a hover crossing the pass and showing 60kts.

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Her last ferry flight was from LA to ANC and took 35 hours with lots of tail winds and head winds.

She has never had an accident and accounts for that by being conservative and following her gut if it didn’t seem like a good idea to fly that day.

She has the following ratings: ATP AMEL, R-Hel R22, Commercial ASEL, ASES and has flown the following airplanes and helicopters over the years: C 152, C172, C172RG, C 210, Be 95, Decathlon, Baby Great Lakes, Stearman, Taylorcraft, PA-12, Pa-28, Mooney (M20). PA-23, Be-58, PA-44, Be-90, Pa-34, AC 1121 (Lead Sled), C-310, Ce-180, Pa-31, Beech Baron, Beech Bonanza, DHC-6. Helicopters: R22, R44, Bell 206, Hughes 269, Hughes 500, Augusta 109. She was a CFI/CFII in both fixed and rotor until she let them expire in 2006.

She was a member of Whirly-Girls International when she lived in Alaska. She has been a member of EAA 430 since 2018 and currently is the Programs Director.

Since 2000 she and her husband, Tom, have lived in Sequim. Besides airplanes & flying, her favorite things to do are hiking, traveling and volunteering with therapy dogs at the cancer center. She and Tom have been raising guide dog puppies since 2007.

She enjoys doing challenging things on her birthdays. She’s done a tandem sky dive jump, rappelled down a 40 story building in Seattle for Special Olympics, Walked for Relay for Life several times and has been in the iFly wind tunnel. She’s not sure what she will do next year.

On her bucket list is to fly a glider and travel to New Zealand, Iceland and Antarctica.

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On her farm in Palmer AK, she raised pretty much every type of animal/livestock: chickens, turkeys, goats, rabbits, sheep, pigs & calves..

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Graduation Day for guide dog, Julius, with his new master, Ruben, who is legally blind.

Hiking in the

Olympics