SAM COX
On April 20, while attending the Ruby Fly-In and competition, Sam died of an apparent heart attack in Gainesville, Texas. Sam Cox, (USUA 54 I 76), was a South Central Regional Repre entative, of the U.S. Ultralight Association. During his high school years. Cox worked with a fixed-based operator (FBO), Lefty Gardner of P-38 fame, working on many WWII-era fighters and bombers. Cox started flight training in college, but found aviation too expensive as a young family man. In 1995, he discovered ultralights and bought a Starflight TX I 000 that he restored. In his spare time, he was working on a Kolb FireStar II.
Cox was ever promoting safety, club unity and fun flying through ultralight contests. A big man, friendly and approachable, Cox will be dearly missed.
JOSEPH B. (DOC) HARTRANFT
Joseph B. (Doc) Hartranft, Jr., 86, the first president of the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA). died February 22 in Annapolis, Maryland. He was one of six founders of the AOPA in Philadelphia in 1939, a time when “the military’s concerns about impending world war threatened the freedom of civilian aviation,” according to AOPA President Phil Boyer.
He learned to fly, as a teenager, at Roosevelt Field on New York’s Long Island and amassed more than 17,000 hours during a flying career of more than 50 years. AOPA credited Hartranft with leading development of the basic visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument flight rules (!FR) radio frequency plans to alleviate congestion on very high frequency (VHF) communications channels; helping to originate the word “Unicom” to describe the common communications frequency used by pilots at non-towered airports; founding the AOPA Foundation (now the Air Safety Foundation) to promote safe flyng and forming the International Council of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (IAOPA) in 1962.
EDWARD “JIM” MODES
Edward “Jim” Modes, 83, of Prescott, Arizona, died on February 11 after a valiant battle with cancer. Modes was born in Earlville, Illinois and later moved to Glendale, California. He grew up during the depression and shared stories of hard economic times, simpler times, and how he contributed to help get his family through them.
During WWII, Modes flew in the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPT). In 1942, he joined the Army Air Corps, where he instructed in Stearmans and AT-6s, and flew P-51 s, P-40s, and many other aircraft. After the Army, Modes joined the Air National Guard, where he flew T-33s and F-86 Sabre jets.
Modes was noted for racing his P-51 Mustang “Candy Man” and an AT-6 “Hello- I I” in the National Air Races in Reno, Nevada. He was also known as the oldest airshow performer, performing in his T-6 for 27 years, with an unlimited aerobatic waiver. Modes and famous barnstormer Tex Rankin, Tex Rankin Air Academy, performed at Modes graduation a solo aerobatic demonstration which included flying through a hangar inverted. In civilian life, Jim Modes was a general contractor in the Glendale and Burbank areas for 40 years.
