WAL-DAL Capt George M Elbel

        ~~ In Memory ~~

WAL-DAL Capt George M Elbel

May 16, 1940 – July 28, 2024

                                             Capt George Elbel  FO Mark Sztanyo

It has been reported that Capt George M Elbel, Flew West, July 28^th, 2024.  Surviving George is his wife Jeanie.  An official obituary is not yet available and I could not find pictures of George to share.

George was a military aviator and after was hired by Western Airlines. He spoke well of the time spent there at Western. After Delta bought Western, George eventually came out to CVG to fly with us Delta pilots with his new airline.  And if I had  to guess George, who was a good judge of skill and ability,  I believe he was satisfied with both in his new Delta pilot group here at CVG.  Being a longtime line check pilot on the B737, George had many “Boeing” tips to share with those eager to learn.

George looked for and bought a farm, with an existing airstrip on it, near Hamersville, OH.  George lived at and maintained the airstrip known as Elbel Airport code: 81OH.  He owned a Piper Aztec and a 1954 Piper Tri-Pacer (N8290C) seemingly forever and was a very long time member of the SWPC Short Wing Piper Club.  At George’s airport he had a couple of hangars and I must say the cleanest painted hangar floors you will ever see.   Later the Elbel’s sold the airport and moved to 1688 Autumn Oak Dr, Batavia, 45103 Ohio. 

On a personal note, it was always fun for me to fly with George and I had many memorable and learning moments that happened while flying the B727 together.  On one last leg into CVG, landing on Rwy 27, we were faced with a rather sporty approach with direct headwind at 45G60. It was my leg, as the FO, and I thought George might order a divert or maybe he would take the controls for this one.  But no, he apparently had enough confidence in me, that after we talked it through, I started the approach.  The Engineer was brand new with less than a month.  And at this time we did not have the later more established wind and Xwind formula of speed to “add” to VRef.  I shared with George that I would be adding some speed and proceeded to fly 40 over Ref.  When half way down the slope the SO shouted, “you’re too fast!” and was worrying that we wouldn’t be able to stop.  George knew the plane and by this time I did too and while we were bouncing around a bit, the speed gave us the stability that we otherwise wouldn’t have had and groundspeed was actually pretty normal.   He turned to the SO and said, “No, were ok right here.” Meaning our eyebrow raising ‘indicated speed’ would end up being ok.  In that time Rwy 27 wasn’t 12,000’ long it was 10,000’ and the intersection of Rwy 18C was roughly half the way down the runway.  We landed in the zone and without any hard braking at all we turned off on the taxiway BEFORE the intersection of the Rwy18C.  In other words with an indication of about 180 knots, we landed and rolled out in less than 5,000’.  When we cleared the runway, there was an audible gasp from the SO, and on the taxi in George and I met eyes and we both smiled.  Great mentor, teacher and friend. Enjoyed every flight I had with him and will miss him.

 George’s younger brother DL Capt Eric Elbel died this Jun 8^th , 2024.  https://pcnflightwest.blogspot.com/2024/06/dl-capt-eric-park-elbel-sr.html

No known memorial service has been announced.  And no public obituary has yet been produced.

Fly West, George, Fly West!