~ IN MEMORY ~
WA/DL Capt. Peter ‘Pete’ Bonofiglio Jr.
August 1, 1934 ~ January 23, 2021
From friends and from an ancestry family tree posting we have
learned that retired Western/Delta pilot Capt. Peter Bonofiglio Jr., aged 86, has
passed. Born in New York state, married in
1963, Captain Bonofiglio joined Western Airlines 08-29-1966. He retired with Delta Air Lines in August 1994,
based 030/SLC at the time of his retirement.
Pete was widowed in October 2015 with the passing of his wife Martha
Miller Bonofiglio.
To date I’ve not been able to locate an online funeral home
announcement….making my information limited.
If anyone has additional information to share, it is always appreciated
and we can post those updates.
Thank you,
~ Carol for the PCN
…..adding an interesting story: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/1999/november/pilot/california-flying-(10)
CALIFORNIA FLYING BIG BEAR'S JET…..November 5,
1999
Pete Bonofiglio, with his Czech-built Aero L-29
Delfin jet trainer, is a pilot for whom blue sky is an ever-present beacon.
With some 30,000 hours in his logbooks, the retired Delta captain is always
ready to roll.
The only jet based at California's Big Bear
City Airport, the Delfin — christened the Pasta Burnerrrrr, a name influenced
by Bonofiglio's Italian roots — is a fixture in the airspace over the high
mountain community. "I should have named it the Lira Burnerrrrr," he
quips of the jet, which burns 150 gallons of fuel an hour. The Pasta Burnerrrrr
also has been featured at a number of airshows, garnering First Place Jet at
the 1997 Camarillo Air Show and First Place Warbird at the 1998 Big Bear Air
Show.
The Delfin, Bonofiglio says, is a counterpart
to the Lockheed T-33 jet trainer. In 1961, the Delfin became the standard
advanced trainer of the Warsaw Pact countries. Bonofiglio's warbird was built
in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1968. It redlines at 368 knots, cruises at 270 kt
indicated, has a maximum speed of Mach 0.7, and is certified to fly up to
39,000 feet. "It'll pull eight Gs positive, six negative," Bonofiglio
says.
A member of the Classic Jet Aircraft
Association, Bonofiglio is one of a growing number of people who roar through
the skies in jet airplanes that have come out of retirement. Depending on the
day and the destination, he has invited others to go along — making flights of
fantasy a reality for dozens of passengers.
Though skies above Big Bear are frequently
wind-swept, the solidly built Delfin barely appears to notice, moving as if
there was not even a ripple in the air. "It's built like a Sherman
tank," Bonofiglio says, rapping the jet with his knuckles. "The wing
skin is thicker than your car bumper."
When Bonofiglio flies with passengers, he has a
typical routine that leaves them astounded, nearly breathless, and happy for
whatever it took to make the trip to Big Bear City Airport. "I like to do
maneuvers abeam the airport, at a safe altitude," he says, "so their
families and friends can get videos. It's a lot of fun."
Bonofiglio adds that passengers, who must be at
least 18 years old for insurance purposes, are equally split between men and
women, but he observes that women "are more aggressive than men" when
it comes to aerobatics. Sensitive to his passengers' beginner status in the
cockpit, he is careful with limits. "Most people like to do the rolls and
high Gs," he says. "Those are fine, but I won't do violent maneuvers.
They're not trained for that."
Passengers, sitting where the radar officer
would be on a standard training flight, are told how to release the webbing of
straps that fasten them tightly to the rear seat, how to open and close the
canopy, and how to release their parachute in the event that a quick exit from
the jet is needed. "I don't want the plane going down with you in
it," he says, explaining the timing and succession of events that must be
followed in the event of an emergency. He adds that the Delfin, which does not
have ejection seats, would be inverted just before pilot and passenger push
away from the airplane and fall to earth.
The briefing also heightens the sense of
excitement that goes along with the ride. It's a tiny taste of the real thing —
what it's like to prepare for a mission.
There's a panel of instruments in the rear that
allows passengers to monitor such parameters as airspeed, vertical speed, and G
forces. There's also an intercom so that passengers, never out of touch, can
hear radio calls and communicate with the pilot.
On takeoff, the ground falls away like a
caterpillar's cocoon, and with a climb rate of 1,500 feet per minute, it soon
seems a world apart. The Delfin is in its element, and the aerial ballet
begins. When Bonofiglio lifts the nose and pulls the stick to the left, the jet
leans into a precision 360-degree roll. The scene through the canopy is like a
view through the looking glass. In a heartbeat, the ground and sky change
places. As the jet glides through loops and rolls, clouds blend with earth in a
kaleidoscopic panorama.
At cruising speed, the Delfin is surprisingly
quiet. During a high-speed pass, the air seems to scream past the canopy. A
pullout and a roll at the end of the high-speed run measure gut levels of
endurance and fortitude, as well as offering a quick check of how well head and
neck are attached to shoulders. Passengers can call it quits at any time.
Bonofiglio says that no one ever has.
Bonofiglio has always been a dauntless pilot.
When he began flying in the early 1960s and worked as a pilot and A&P mechanic
for Don Barber at Riverside Air Service, his career literally took off when the
gutsy pilot/mechanic, wearing greasy overalls, managed a tarmac interview with
the chief pilot from Zantop Airlines. Did Bonofiglio have a suit and tie, and
could he be in Detroit in five days? Answering, "Yes, and yes,"
Bonofiglio was hired on the spot. He went on to fly for Western Airlines,
becoming a captain at age 41. Western was bought out by Delta in 1987, and
Bonofiglio retired as a Delta captain in August 1994.
Flying long before metal detectors were
imperative to airport security, Bonofiglio's career spanned the evolution of
commercial aviation. He holds the industry distinction of having received the
most bomb threats — five in all. "Three times we had to return to the
gate," he says. "And we had two evacuations right on the runway. One
of the evacuations was on a flight from Minneapolis to Hawaii. None of the
passengers had overcoats; they were all wearing shorts. It was January and 20
degrees below. We were out there for an hour before anybody came for the
passengers. We just kicked the chutes out and got people off the plane. Nobody
thought about grabbing blankets."
Another flight resulted in a four-hour onboard
party in the wake of a near disaster. "We were flying the entire cast of
Airport '77 to Alaska," Bonofiglio recalls. "And we blew out the
tires on the runway. It was funny — that whole movie was about airport disaster,
and here we were with Charlton Heston. I asked him if he was responsible for
all this."
While repairs were made to the airplane,
Bonofiglio's crew and Heston's crew mingled aboard the Western jet. "They
told us all about making the movie, how stunts were done on the set,"
Bonofiglio says. "We had a really good time with them. When the movie
premiered in Alaska, we all got invited."
Looking back over his career, Bonofiglio misses
the "old" days. "There was a lot more camaraderie in the early
years," he muses. "It's different now. Crews worked as a team and
played as a team. We'd all take three or four days off and go skiing or fishing
together. It's not the same anymore. Now every time you land, you've got
different airplanes, different crews, different gates, different flight
numbers. You don't know who you've got back there."
He believes that a positive change in the
industry is in-creased safety. "As far as quality and de-pendability,
planes are a lot safer now. This new generation of planes is a hundred percent
better than before. Now you can fly for years and never have a problem."
But Bonofiglio enjoys flying his current steed,
even if it is a jet from an earlier generation. If you're ever in the
neighborhood, stop by Bonofiglio's hangar at Big Bear City Airport. If he's on
his way out, you might get lucky and get to go for the ride of a lifetime.
