Paul Bigler, a nationally renowned pilot and aviation expert who headed the Federal Aviation Administration's op- erations office in Sacramento, has died at age 75.
Mr. Bigler died Aug. 29 after receiving chemotherapy for colon cancer for 12 years, said his son, Mike.
He was widely respected in the clubby flying community as a technically superior pilot, a fair but firm investigator and a likeable guy. He logged 28,000 hours of flying time in aircraft ranging from single- and multi-engine planes to seaplanes, gliders and hot-air balloons. He was certified as a pilot examiner, inspector, mechanic, and flight and ground instructor.
"Flying with him was a learning process," Folsom aviation expert and author John Lowery said. "I've been in the business a long time, but Paul was the most knowledgeable aviator I ever knew."
Mr. Bigler joined the FAA's flight standards district office at Sacramento Executive Airport in 1969. He investigated accidents, certified air operators and pilots, and oversaw aviation safety education.
He retired as FAA operations supervisor in Sacramento in 1992 and worked as an expert aviation witness in administrative cases and lawsuits. He was hired around the world as an aircraft safety consultant for major oil companies and traveled often to perform flight checks as the only certified pilot examiner for Cessna Citation business jets in Ireland.
He flight-tested pilot Chuck Yeager in the Lockheed Lodestar aircraft. In 1960, he flew with a reporter to film the skiing events from the air at the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley. He ferried many Sacramento executives on business trips and flew for California Govs. Ronald Reagan and Gray Davis and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Last month, Mr. Bigler received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. Recipients are nominated by peers for the top FAA honor, which requires 50 years of uninterrupted flying without any accidents or safety violations.
"Paul was a nationally acknowledged airman who could have worked anywhere in the world," said Bill Myers of Myers Pacific Aviation and Marine Insurance Co. "We're very fortunate he chose Sacramento."
Paul Robert Bigler was born in 1933 in Middletown, Ohio. Inspired by his uncle's experience as a B-17 pilot during World War II, he began flying at age 19 and graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute in Florida.
He served four years in the Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii and Mather Air Force Base in Rancho Cordova. He married Marian Searle in 1954 and flew for aviation companies at Executive Airport before joining the FAA.
Quiet and easy-going, Mr. Bigler was an active man who enjoyed fishing, hunting, camping and flying remote-controlled model airplanes. An avid motorcyclist, he rode on cross-country trips, participated in motocross and flat-track events, and owned a motorcycle shop near McClellan Air Force Base.
But his lifelong passion was flying, his son said.
"He flew anything with wings," Mike Bigler said. "He started in 1952 and was flying ever since, until two weeks before he died."
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