Welcome New Member Peter Lagergren

Ok…let’s see - I’m guessing that my early childhood won’t be of interest to anyone, including me. So, shortly before I had to start shaving, I joined the US Army, which was a knee jerk reaction to being turned down for the Naval Aviation Cadet program which had been closed. Since I had always wanted to fly, I kept pestering the Army to send me to flight school, which they finally did in an effort to shut me up.

After graduating as an Army Aviator, I was posted to the Republic of Vietnam as an “advisor” to the South Vietnamese Army. This posting consisted of flying close air support air strikes as a gunship pilot for everyone who needed it, even occasionally the ARVN. After a particularly regrettable mission, I spent a year tucked into a Navy hospital, which I thought was a bit of revenge in a way, before returning to flight duty as an Advanced Phase Instructor Pilot which was fractionally safer than flying combat missions.

Done with that, I went back to college to get a couple of degrees and then became a serial entrepreneur. Long hours, hard work, but at least I got to have my own corporate airplanes which I flew with enthusiasm, building up lots of hours. During this period I had the good fortune to become one of the pilots for a T-28 formation airshow team, which was the high point of my flying career. It was just a thrill being 5 feet apart at 240 KIAS inverted and pulling g’s. For me the real thrill was being taught the airshow trade by Neil Anderson, who was the chief test pilot of General Dynamics who had flown the F-16 in at least 1500 airshows.

RIP Neil…

Duty called and I moved to Canada for 15 years where I got reacquainted with flying at the Victoria Flying Club and eventually moved back to the US to Sequim (Skwim I was told). After getting incredibly bored with retirement, I thought I would give flying a go and had a gig as a freight pilot in Dallas, which is like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. My next iteration was flying King Air as a medevac pilot, which has been the most satisfying job I have had. However, no one does very much interesting flying with patients aboard, so I bought a Van’s RV-8 that I keep at KCLM while my son, Winston, and I are trying to restore it to flying condition. Pretty much the kind of fun a barrel of monkeys have with an old tire, but it has been a blast for both of us and certainly interesting to meet all the kind and helpful folks we have met through EAA.

Editor’s Note: Peter has the following ratings: USA Commercial, ASMEL, Instrument, Helicopter, Helicopter Instrument, CFI, Type rated T-28B; Canada Commercial ASMEL, Instrument, Helicopter, Helicopter instrument, numerous type ratings.