Gig Harbor resident and retired U.S. Air Force pilot Larry Bielstein is with currently a lieutenant colonel and flight instructor with the Peninsula Composite Civil Air Patrol based at Bremerton National Airport. Bielstein was a fixed wing, rotary wing and civilian pilot who flew in combat in Vietnam, where he was awarded several medals including the Bronze Star.
LEE GILES III
As a boy, Larry Bielstein built his first model airplane with his uncle. It crashed.
“Neither of us knew anything about aerodynamics,” Bielstein recalled.
He’s figured things out since then.
Bielstein, 78, is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with a load of “fruit salad” on his former uniform, which includes a Bronze Star. He’s been flying for more than 50 years, earning awards along the way and volunteering his time with the Civil Air Patrol and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. In 2009, he was a recipient of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, which recognizes pilots with more that 50 years of flying accident free.
He and his wife, Marilyn, live in Gig Harbor near the airport.
Bielstein’s accident free for a reason. Pre-flight, the 78-year-old is meticulous. He checks each part of his light-sport American Champion Champ airplane before it leaves his hanger, he calls for weather, he runs through his worn and well-used checklist.
A 20-year-old when he joined up in the Air Force, enlisting hadn’t been the original plan. He’d been attending college at Santa Clara University while working laying sewer pipes, or “underground engineering” as he calls it. The job paid his tuition and he was on his way to becoming a manager when tragedy struck: His boss was killed in a car accident. Bielstein joined the Air Force and put college on hold, eventually finishing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Nebraska-Omaha later on. He also earned an MBA at the University of Puget Sound while still on active duty.
His work in the Air Force took him all over the world. In the Vietnam War, Bielstein spent a year flying rescue helicopters. That’s where he earned the medals on his uniform. His assignments usually focused on rescuing Army helicopters and downed fighter pilots, Bielstein said. Staying alert, the crew was on watch and could be called any time. When called to action, the helicopter had to be ready to go within five minutes. It was a harrowing year.
“I’ve been shot up, but I’ve never been shot down,” the veteran said.
After retiring, Bielstein missed flying, so he got involved in the area with the Civil Air Patrol and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. However, he’s reaching the point where he’s scaled back on much of his flying work. He doesn’t do much instructing.
Mainly, he can jog from his house to the Tacoma Narrows Airport and fly his burgundy plane across the blue sky.
“It’s just the joy of being airborne,” he said.
Story and Photos: http://www.gateline.com
Larry Bielstein proudly shows his recent award from the Federal Aviation Administration, The Wright Brothers "Master Pilot" Award at Tacoma Narrows Airport last Saturday, August 24, 2014.
LEE GILES III
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