In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the EAA Air Academy in 2018, we’re featuring Air Academy graduates whose stories inspire and exemplify the impact of the program.
James Alaggio, EAA 717427, was rare among his 2003 class of EAA Air Academy attendees, having arrived in Oshkosh with more than 1,000 hours of flight time and his private pilot certificate.
“It was a great group of kids, and the advisors were super nice,” James said. “I think I was 16 or 17 when I attended, and I had been flying well over 1,000 hours at that point. … They weren’t really used to kids having that kind of experience. It was kind of funny. I helped a lot of the kids along the way as I was there.”
James said it was thanks to his uncle taking him to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh when he was 8 years old, and then gifting him his first flight lesson on his ninth birthday, that he became obsessed with flying.
He found chances to get aloft wherever he could, including finding an opportunity at a glider field where, if he worked all day, he could get either one longer tow or two shorter ones at the end of the day. By his early teens, James was an accomplished glider pilot.
An old Citabria served as his airplane as he learned to fly powered aircraft, and James was lucky enough to get time flying warbirds as well. At 18, he began flight testing homebuilts, and then James became the chief pilot of a banner towing company that flew primarily Vietnam-era warbirds.
After that he had a few jobs, most of which he really enjoyed, but James could never shake his itch to follow his dreams.
“I always wanted to end up in Hawaii at Hawaiian Airlines,” he said. “That was my dream. I quit my job, which was a really good job, and went to Great Lakes Airlines. I lived in a trailer home in South Dakota for a couple years.”
As he built up airline experience, James started to do his research on how to get a job flying in Hawaii. He found out that Hawaiian Airlines was flying some new turboprops that were pretty rare, and flight tracked one until he found it at a mainland airport.
“I found the airplane just sitting on a ramp somewhere,” James said. “So I walked in the door with my resume and asked them how I could fly for Hawaiian Airlines. They asked me, ‘Who the heck are you, and how do you know this is a Hawaiian airplane?’”
After explaining the situation and his love for Hawaii, James landed a job as first captain at Ohana, a subsidiary airline flying in Hawaii. Opportunity came knocking again when James’ warbird time proved useful.
“They realized I had many thousands of hours of [relevant] experience,” he said. “They asked me if I wanted to fly the original airplane that started Hawaiian Airlines in 1929. Of course I said yes.”
That airplane was a 1929 Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker, which James described as a sweetheart airplane, and he flew it for company employees until he managed to get an interview for a position with Hawaiian Airlines. He got the job and now flies 767s across the globe.
James said he loves flying, period, so his time in the sky is not limited to his airline career. He also flies his glider in Hawaii, and does formation wingsuit flying, helicopter flying, and fixed-wing flying when there is time.
James said he’s gotten back into gliding in the past few years after falling out of practice while he worked to get to Hawaii. In 2017, he got the chance to compete in the World Glider Aerobatic Championships in Poland with the U.S. Glider Aerobatic Team. He said he’s currently in the perfect place to glide literally all day long.
“Hawaii is the best place in the world,” James said. “That’s why I moved here. We live next to a 9,000-foot runway that’s uncontrolled, and right next to it is a ridge line. We have persistent trade winds that are almost perpendicular to the ridge line, so it gives us constant lift. I can take off at sunrise and land at sunset almost every day of the year here.”
If you or someone you know has an Air Academy story to share, e-mail Ti Windisch at twindisch@eaa.org.