Lifetime of flight for local pilot began with family vacation
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EAST LIVERPOOL --For local pilot Jim Pusateri, a lifetime of flying began with a family vacation on a trip to Europe at the age of 16.
Pusateri recalled his parents taking him and his three siblings on the trip which took them all over Europe for three weeks.
"We were in Paris, we were in Rome, we were in Berlin; both east and west at Checkpoint Charlie and all that. We went all through that and that was an experience. That opened up my eyes. I had never seen anything like it. It was terrible," Pusateri said about Checkpoint Charlie. "We were in Brussels, Belgium, Amsterdam, we were all over. So, I flew a bunch."
Pusateri kept it in his mind during that trip of desire to learn to fly. He had already developed a plan. But he believed there would be a big obstacle to overcome.
His father had a brother who served in World War II as a pilot on a B-26 Marauder. He was on the seventh mission in the Battle of the Bulge. On Dec. 23, 1944, he and his crew were shot out of the plane with no parachutes. There were no survivors.
He thought his grandparents would be concerned over him wanting to fly because of his uncle's death.
"I really wanted to fly, but I thought it was going to be tough because it was a bad experience for them," Pusateri said. "But to my surprise and delight my parents were excited and they actually wanted to see that happen."
He started flying in May 1968 -- just one month after turning 17 --and obtained his license that November.
"It just kept going from there," Pusateri said. "My parents eventually bought an airplane when I was in college in 1971. That bought a beautiful twin engine Bonanza model."
Since he was the only one in the family who flew, he ended up taking the plane to school with him at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he earned a degree in aviation management.
He spent the four years he was in college flying to locations such as the Bahamas and San Juan. His parents would go down to the university and fly with him.
Pusateri said he intended to make a living in aviation, but that never really happened. He got involved with the family business -- it was during the end of the Vietnam era --and pilots who served were getting the airline and corporate pilot positions. Still, he continued to fly as often as he could.
In February 1983, Pusateri started flying classic and vintage war planes for the Mid Atlantic Air Museum. Tim O'Hara, who he currently co-owns a plane with, joined him in flying with the museum as a co-pilot with Pusateri in 1989.
Pusateri has flown for the museum doing airshows for more than 40 years. But he now wants to cut back and not do air shows any longer. He wants to spend more time with his grandchildren and his wife Monica.
The only flying he does now for the museum is what they call ride days where people buy rides on a plane and then they tour the planes and museum.
"It's fun and I enjoy doing that; It's only one day," Pusateri said. "We had some real interesting experiences doing that over the years and I met some real interesting people."
While participating in the World War II shows the museum puts on once a year, Pusateri met some interesting people such as Robert Morgan, the original pilot of the Memphis Belle who flew its first 25 missions; and Bob Hoover, a pilot who was shot down on his 59th mission and was taken prisoner of war from which he escaped after stealing a German plane.
During his time at the museum, Pusateri got the opportunity to do some movie work with the planes. He and two of the planes from the museum are in The Movie "War and Remembrance." They spent 12 hours on the set to be in the movie for a minute and 29 seconds. After the filming he got the opportunity to hang out and talk with actor Robert Mitchem.
Pusateri currently serves as the president for the Columbiana County Airport Board of Directors and continues to fly the Mooney he owns with O'Hara. He has logged over 8,600 hours of flying and has flown 47 different makes and models of planes including a variety of war planes.
In June he was awarded the Orville and Wilbur Wright Master Pilot Award which is presented to pilots who has flown for more than 50 years without any accidents, violations or FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) write-ups.