…..as taken from the Wallybird site: passing of WAL/DAL Captain Don Hallock, age
88
~ IN MEMORY ~
WA/DL Capt. Donald R. Hallock
December 25, 1932 ~ December 25, 2020
Captain Donald Raymon Hallock joined Western Airlines 05-01-1962
and retired with Delta Air Lines with 30+ years of service, and was based PDX
at the time of his retirement.
~ Carol for the PCN
POSTED: DECEMBER 31,
2020 DICKDEEDS@PACBELL.NET
I regret to inform you of the passing of my good friend and
fellow instructor Don Hallock on his birthday this Christmas. Don and I ran the
the entire electra training program in Ontario for 2 years. I will miss him.
Dick
My name is Vance Hallock, I am Don Hallock’s son. I am very sorry to inform his friends that he
passed away on Dec 25th. My Dad was 88
years old and was fighting a respiratory problem for the last few years. He died peacefully without any pain. His wife Ruth and his three children were
with him when he made his final landing.
Wife Ruth Hallock
ruth.hallock@gmail.com
We lost one of the great ones. Don's legacy is one of very professional contribution to WAL. I enjoyed working with him on DC-10 overwater procedures and when displaced to S/O, worked with him on many dark nights in Sacramento giving rating rides. He never took any crap from an FAA Inspector. He told them what wS acceptable - and he knew!
ReplyDeleteWe remained in email communications almost weekly upuntil his passing on all things aviation and political. He was a patriot I am proud to have called friend.
Don and I flew many DC-10 and MD-11 trips together. While I was working as Assistant Manager, Flight Standards DC-10, it was not unusual to get a phone call from Don or Lloyd Wittenberg asking me to meet them in airports all over the United States to ferry a broken airplane home at a minutes notice. When Delta sold the Western Airlines DC-10's following the merger, Don, Lloyd and I would spend countless days in Atlanta for maintenance flights, acceptance flights and delivery flights all over the U.S.. One of my favorite memories was receiving a phone call from Don in the middle of the night asking me to meet him and Lloyd in Honolulu the next day. Apparently one of our DC-10's had an engine failure during takeoff from Maui and it was our job to 2-engine ferry it from Maui to Honolulu. For those of you who don't know what a 2-engine ferry is, it was a special program with specially trained pilots to bring an aircraft to a maintenance station where a replacement engine was waiting. This was was much quicker, and easier than shipping the engine to the broken airplane. Lloyd booked us rooms at a flee bitten hotel near Kahalui airport (definately not a vacation resort)! After a sleepless night in a noisy room and 2 unsuccessful attempts at takeoff, resulting from different systems failures during taxi (hydraulic and electric), we finally were airborne and landed in Honolulu 30 minutes later.
ReplyDeleteAnother time during an acceptance flight in Atlanta when the customer (American Airlines, I believe) was in the cockpit, occupying the First Officer and Flight Engineer seats. I was occupying the First Observer jump seat directly behind Don on takeoff. One of the most critical moments on a flight is immediately after lift off. On this occasion immediately after takeoff the Flight Director started moving from a nose up normal command of 15 degrees and started moving downward toward a nose down position. If Don had followed the command, the aircraft would have stopped climbing or descended back into the ground. Both of us saw it but didn't say anything (the customers were sitting next to us in the cockpit). When we had a quiet moment later in the flight and Don quietly leaned over and said, 'did you see that?' all I could reply was 'yes I did'!
Though I could continue telling stories about Don, I will share one last memory. Don, Lloyd and I spent many, many days at the Holiday Inn at Atlanta Airport showing up before dawn to ferry, or fly DC-10 acceptance or delivery flights. During one of those sets of flights to a U.S. leasing company the CEO was significantly impressed with our program and following delivery of the DC-10, he approached Don to ask if our crew would fly to Spain to recover a DC-10 that was in the process of being repossessed. After some interesting conversations of aircraft condition and airworthiness, maintenance and how to repossess a DC-10 from someone who probably didn't want it repossessed (not to mention Delta's lack of enthusiasm and understanding) we opted to pass up this opportunity.
Don was a master Gin Rummy player which we would play for hours in our room in-between flights or when deadheading home from a mission. Don and I later worked closely on the MD-11 program and enjoyed many experiences together with Lloyd Wittenberg.
Don was a gifted aviator and a good friend. Over the years we have stayed in touch through emails and his never ending political satire. I will miss you Don.
Capt John Billon, retired
jbillon2@gmail.com
Thanks Capt John for those remembrances of Don.
ReplyDelete