Captain Frank Cowles

Frank Cowles was only 16 when he first flew an airplane. It was an OX-5 powered Travelaire. The young Oklahoman continued his education at Northern Oklahoma Junior College and Ponca City School of Aeronautics. He worked at flight and ground instructor jobs until he became a Primary Flight Instructor for the Army Air Corps at Chickasha. The year was 1941. Shortly after, he met Bea and on June 1, 1942 they were married.

A year later, on June 1, Cowles joined United and progressed from First Officer on DC-3's through DC-8's, the Convair 340, Boeing 737, and eventually was dual qualified as a Flight Manager on the B-747 and DC-10. His last command was of 747 Flight 1991 to Honolulu on August 10 return of Flight 114 on August 11 of 1978.

Frank started in San Francisco; he flew the Pacific, and in 1946 returned to domestic flying out of Seattle. He was promoted to Captain at SFO later that year. Then began the roller coaster ride. In the next year and one-half he was reclassified from Captain to First Officer and First Officer to Captain 26 times! They spent more money on UG's than Frank earned. Finally, on October 1, 1948 they said, "From now on you're a Captain no matter what seat you fly in - except for pay purposes, of course."

He moved to Los Angeles in 1947, served as First Officer, Captain, local Flight Instructor and Temporary Flight Manager until his transfer to Denver at Flight Manager-Standards. Five years later he was back in LA as a Flight Manager.

Always interested in his profession and his fellow pilots, Captain Cowles has given a great deal of extra effort to make airline flying safer and he has helped many pilots realize their full potential.

Along the way, he served on many committees and working groups, among which were: a committee to apply Specific Behavioral Objectives to the ground school portion of training; he started a program to move more flight training into simulators; was very active in the development of United's flight Safety Awareness program; was a member of the committee for development of approach procedures, Chairman of the Human Factors working group of the IATA Manager organization, aviation adviser to Pepperdine University and Long Beach City College, a member of the working group to develop Flight training, and was on the Flight Operations team that interviews pilot applicants. Last January, he received the special Flight Operations Award in recognition of his outstanding work and dedication.

Frank was survived by his cousin, Virginia Luscinski and her husband Robert of Georgetown, MA, and his close companion, Rosemarie Georges of Laguna Woods, CA. He was preceded in death by his wife, Bea.

Frank was a "flyer" to the end and loved it!