By Sam Oleson
Ever since he was around six or seven years old, Joe Lienau, EAA Lifetime 64171, has been completely enraptured by aviation. About 80 years later, not a whole lot has changed — aviation is still one of Joe’s primary passions in life. But it all began by chance when Joe was just a kid.
“My parents were storing a footlocker for a gentleman who was in the military and he never came back to pick up his footlocker,” Joe explained. “So in that footlocker was all kinds of aviation magazines and several of them were Flying magazines and it had a lot of the World War II airplanes in there and a lot of civilian airplanes in there. And I got hooked on airplanes at that point and I started my own airplane manufacturing plant. I built just about every model airplane that became available for the next 15 years or so. My brother and I, control line, radio control, free flight, we did the whole thing.”
Joe grew up in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, with Door County Cherryland Airport “in his backyard.”
“I joined the Explorer Scouts and they used to hold a winter fly-in that was called a ‘frigid fun flight.’ And during one of those events, I was offered an airplane ride in a red and black T-Craft,” he said. “That was my first airplane ride. That would’ve been early ‘50s, somewhere in that area. And of course, [during] high school, I did more airplanes than I did studying in high school, but that’s beside the point.”
In 1959, Joe enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was sent to Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois and attended instrument repair school. When he completed school, he was shipped to Lincoln AFB in Nebraska, where he spent the next few years. While in Lincoln, Joe joined the base’s aero club and learned to fly, getting the opportunity to learn under the tutelage of current Air Force instructors. He earned his private pilot license in 1961 and flew the club’s Cessna 150s, 172s, and T-34s until a new base commander arrived and closed the club. Following his nearly five years in the Air Force, Joe attended Lewis University in Illinois, earning his A&P certificate in 12 months. In 1965, American Airlines hired Joe as a mechanic before he’d even graduated A&P school, and he worked as an avionics mechanic until 1973. During his time at American, Joe used the GI Bill to earn a bunch of pilot ratings and certificates, including his commercial, multi-engine, instrument, CFI, CFII, and ground instructor, among others.
In 1973, Joe was hired by American’s flight department but unfortunately was furloughed shortly thereafter due to the oil crisis affecting the U.S. and other nations at the time. In 1975, American called Joe back as a flight officer. He was then promoted to copilot and upgraded to captain in 1987. During his years with American, Joe flew a variety of airliners, including the 727, 767, and 757. In 1987, Joe checked out in the MD-80 as a full-fledged captain, flying the Super 80 for 14 years until his retirement in 2001.
While Joe’s professional career saw him in the cockpit of commercial airliners, he stayed heavily involved in the general aviation side of things as well. He was, and still is, a member of EAA Chapter 153 in Schaumburg, Illinois, serving on the chapter’s board of directors, running its newsletter for about a decade, and flying Young Eagles since the program’s inception in 1992. In fact, Joe is EAA Young Eagles pilot No. 536. In 1986, Joe moved to Brookeridge Airpark in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, where he lived for the next 35 years, continuing to host Young Eagles rallies and stay involved with GA wherever he could. In 2020, Joe and his wife, Mary Lou, moved to Fish Creek, Wisconsin, bringing him back to Door County.
On the homebuilding front, Joe and Mary Lou built a Bede BD-4 over the course of 12 years, from 1970 to 1982, and still own and fly the airplane today. He’s also got another BD-4 that he’s been tinkering on for the past 30 years. Aside from the BD-4, Joe owns a 1969 Cessna 150, which he actually flies more than the BD-4 because of its fuel efficiency.
Joe’s initial involvement with EAA began when he was looking for an airplane to build, which of course turned out to be the BD-4.
“I hadn’t heard about EAA and then a friend of mine when I was working as a flight instructor for Lloyd Flying Service said, ‘You know, Joe, you keep saying you want to build an airplane.’ He said, ‘I found a perfect one for you,’ and it was the BD-4. So I actually started in 1970. I didn’t get to Oshkosh [in 1970], family interference stopped that. So I finally got to Oshkosh in 1973 and looked at all the other BD-4s there. I hung out there a lot.”
Joe officially became an EAA member in 1976 and hasn’t missed Oshkosh since that first year attending in 1973, excluding 2020, of course. In addition to his chapter volunteering over the years, he’s also regularly volunteered during AirVenture.
“I’ve been doing that [volunteering] since I was a tech counselor before they built the big hangars there that used to be in the other buildings, the international building and that,” he said. “And that’s when I started volunteering at the Homebuilders Headquarters. We stood by the window there and answered questions and tried to help people along into their projects. And then they started holding the hands-on places, so then I started going to the sheet metal [workshops]. I’ve been doing that for 25 years.”
In addition to his longtime EAA membership and involvement, Joe is a member of the Vintage Aircraft Association, AOPA, NAFI, and the United Flying Octogenarians, among a number of other organizations and associations through the years. Recently, Joe received both the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award and Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award from the FAA, a fitting honor for someone whose life has been devoted to aviation both personally and professionally.
