Vlado Lenoch Tribute
Pilot, Airshow Legend, Family Man, Friend
Vlado Lenoch standing next to the P-51 Mustang "Baby Duck"
Vlado Lenoch, an expert warbird pilot, Heritage Flight pilot and well known P-51 airshow performer died when the P-51 Mustang he was flying crashed near the Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport in Atchison, Kansas.
Vlado was 64 years old and a native of Burr Ride, Illinois. He was survived by his wife and three children.
His love of aviation began in 1970 when, at the age of 17, he learned to fly at Chicago's Midway Airport. He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Perdue University and a masters degree from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following college he was employed by the Boeing Aircraft Company on the 747 program. After Boeing he was employed by two major airlines flying the Boeing 727 and Douglas DC-9 aircraft. Most recently he flew a Cessna Citation corporate jet for a private company in Illinois. Vlado was a airline Transport rated pilot with flight instructor ratings in single and multi-engined aircraft, instruments and gliders. He held aircraft authorizations in the B-747, B727,Cessna 525, F-86, A-1, A-37, L-39, T-33, P-40, P-47, F-6F, F4U, T-28 and the P-51 Mustang. He accumulated over 11, 000 hours of flight time. Vlado also built his own Pitts S-1T and competed in aerobatic competitions around the country. More recently, Vlado served as an aerobatic Competency Evaluator for Warbirds of America and ICAS.
Inscription "In Memory of Vlado Lenoch”"
A member since 1997, the year in which the USAF Heritage Flight was founded, Vlado was one of the most seasoned pilots in the Warbird community. He was a lifetime member of the Commemorative Air Force, Soaring Society of America and the Experimental Aircraft Association. Vlado's great uncle, Cvitan Galic (of Czech ancestry) was a 39-victory Luftwaffe fighter Ace in the ME-109 during world war two.
Everybody in the aviation community knew Vlado. He was one of the most personable guys you could ever meet, he enjoyed conversing with everyone, from a student learning to fly at the airport to an accomplished pilot who had logged a million hours flying. "He was such a neat guy," said Chris Lawson, director of the Joliet Regional Port District; Vlado's home airport. "He could just about fly anything, but he never let that go to his head" Lawson said.
Photo from NBC Nightly News
Celebrating a civilian pilot with the vintage war plane he loved to fly
Courtesy of NBC Nightly News
Vlado Lenoch flew his beloved P-51 Mustang, named ‘Moonbeam McSwine,’ for years at air shows before selling it. After he died, Vlado’s friends honored his legacy by purchasing Moonbeam and bringing the treasured plane back home.
VIEW this video on NBC Nightly News.
Photo from Ti Windisch,
EAA Staff Writer
New Quonset Hut Dedicated to Vlado Lenoch
By Ti Windisch, EAA Staff Writer
July 26, 2018: The Warbirds Youth Education Center, a new Quonset hut located near the Warbirds Living History Encampment, will be dedicated to the memory of Vlado Lenoch on Friday at 11:30 a.m.
Harold Cannon, EAA Lifetime 466240, a Warbirds of America board of directors member and committee chairman for the Warbirds youth program, said a generous donation, in part from Vlado’s family, made the new building possible.
“Vlado was an absolutely integral part of our community, very widely respected and certainly very widely liked,” Harold said. “This building will be dedicated to his memory.”
VIEW the complete article on EAA.Org.