Native Wichitan Clay Lacy was in town last night to speak at Wichita State University. Lacy began flying at age 12. He flew for United Airlines for almost 41 years. He’s also set 29 speed records, flown 300 types of airplanes and has more than 55,000 flight hours under his belt. Along the way, Lacy was manager of Learjet sales for the western states before starting his own charter and FBO business in California. He may best be known for his work providing film footage for about 3,000 projects — including Top Gun and Armegeddon. He helped develop the camera system used in a specially modified Learjet. In a video he showed at the event, Lacy said, “Lucky Me.”
Actually, it was “lucky me.” Gracious hosts Bonnie Bing and her husband Dick Honeyman hosted a dinner for Lacy after the event, and I was lucky enough to be invited and seated next to Lacy.
At dinner, we asked him about some of the famous people he’s met along the way. He told the story of having dinner one night at Danny Kaye’s house with several other guests. After dinner they retired to a comfortable room for converstation. And Kaye mentioned all the professionals that were in the room. But, he said, there was one person he considered the most professional – Lacy. When asked why, Kaye said, “Well, when you ask a pilot why he got into flying, he never says ‘because my mother wanted me to.’”
