Lyle W. McNames

Lyle W. (""Mac"") McNames, age 95 of Winston-Salem, NC passed away February 28, 2014. Mac was born in Rockford, Illinois and grew up in Byron, Illinois.

Mac was a professional pilot for 40 years, retiring from Piedmont Airlines in 1978 after being the Director of Flight Standards for the last 27 years of his career.

Mac often described the various chains of events that led to his success in both aviation and life to the kindness of many people who helped a young man of very modest means along the way and to just plain good luck.

Mac fell in love with aviation at a very early age and was hooked on flying for the remainder of his life. On Thanksgiving 1939, Mac made his first solo flight in a 1939 Aeronca Chief at the ""Hillcrest"" airport just outside Freeport, Illinois.

While working for Northern Illinois Power Company, Mac spent most of his spare time developing his flying skills until December 8, 1941 when the construction department closed due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In early January 1942, Mac moved to Coleman, Texas and obtained a job as a primary training (PT-19) civilian flight instructor for the Army Air Corps.

In early 1943, Mac moved to Memphis to become a directly commissioned officer in the Army Air Corps and pilot for the Fourth Ferry Group which had been charged with the task of delivering various airplanes constructed for the war effort from the factories to modification centers and to operational units, both domestic and foreign. In his first overseas flight (with no one on board who had ever crossed an ocean), he delivered a B-25 to Tunisia via the South Atlantic route (Puerto Rice, British Guiana, Belem Brazil, Natal Brazil, Ascension Island, Accra Ghana, Dakar Senegal, Marrakech Morocco and Hergla Tunisia) ; and in his second overseas flight a B-25 to India via the North Atlantic route (Long Island NY, Presque Isle Maine ,Goose Bay Labrabor, BW-1 Greenland, Meeks Field Iceland, Stornoway Scotland, Valley Wales, St. Mawgan on Land's End, Marrakech, Oran, Algiers, Tripoli, Cairo, Habbaniya Iraq, Abadan Iran, Sharjah UAE, Karachi Pakistan, and Agra India).
While stationed in Memphis, he also qualified on and flew the P-51, the P-38, the B-26, the Fairchild AT-21, the B-24 and the C-47. In December 1943, Mac was sent to Homestead Florida for training on the C-54, which at the time was the newest, most modern and largest transport plane in existence. Shortly before his death, Mac stated that the C-54 was his favorite airplane which he was privileged to fly.

On Easter Sunday, 1944 Mac, reported to the First Foreign Transport Group (""Fireball"") located in Miami, Florida. In June, 1944, he made his first Fireball trip on a C-87 to India. The flight from Natal to Ascension Island had a Life Magazine reporter doing a story about Fireball entitled ""To India and Back in 10 Days."" For the next year, his regular trip was flying the C-87 to Accra, Ghana. During 1945, Mac also flew the C-54 trip to Casablanca via Bermuda and the Azores.

Upon separation from the military in January 1946, Mac worked briefly with Chicago & Southern Airlines flying the Memphis to New Orleans route.

In January 1947, he moved to Burbank, CA to fly C-54's from Burbank to Tokyo for the Flying Tiger Line. The Flying Tigers lost the government contract in late 1947 and Mac heard about a start-up airline called Piedmont Airlines in Winston-Salem. Mac and his family headed to Winston-Salem and he began his last thirty one years in aviation with Piedmont. Of Piedmont, Mac said ""he was fortunate to have made the connection and where I was able to practice my chosen profession.""

From 1948 to 1952, Mac flew the line as a Captain. In late 1952, he was promoted to Division Chief Pilot which required management duties including pilot scheduling, check pilot, instructor pilot and maintenance test pilot.

In 1960 Piedmont was restructured due to FAA regulations and Mac was appointed Director of Flight Standards in order to provide crew training pursuant to the FAA regulations. Mac trained and qualified many Piedmont pilots on the F-27, the Martin 404, the YS-11, the Boeing 727 and the Boeing 737.

In 1968, Mac encouraged Piedmont to purchase one of the first available flight simulators in order to train pilots on the newly acquired Boeing 737's. Mac described the simulator as ""the greatest development in the field of aviation, since the airplane."" The Piedmont training department would ultimately run the simulator 24 hours a day in order to qualify pilots for duty on the Piedmont jets.

Mac flew his last trip as a captain on Easter Sunday 1978 and retired from Piedmont shortly thereafter having accumulated approximately 21000 flight hours and 4000 simulator hours.
Even though committed to retirement, Mac helped his friend, Frank Nicholson produce operating manuals for the start-up airline, Mid Pacific Airlines in Honolulu; and assisted at Piedmont, as a part time simulator instructor, when he retired for good in 1984.
Shortly before his first retirement, Mac started a new passion by purchasing a sail boat, first at Lake Norman and then in Bradenton, Florida, and later back at Lake Norman. Mac throughout his entire life, was passionate about learning and reading especially world history. He just recently finished reading Robert Gates book entitled ""Duty"".

Mac was always concerned and interested in the activities of his grandchildren; always attending games and following their careers as they became adults with families of their own.
Mac's true passion was his wife, Madeline, who predeceased Mac in 2011 after 68 years of marriage.

Mac is survived by his son; Dennis McNames and wife, Martha of Winston-Salem; three grandchildren, Jennifer (Jake) Eckert of New Orleans, La., Mary (Jordan) Kramer of Melbourne FL, and John McNames of Winston-Salem; three great-grandchildren, River Eckert, Quinn Kramer and Harper Kramer; and niece Sandy Wright (Jim) of Bonney Lake, WA and nephew Ed McNames of Portsmouth, VA.

The family would like to offer special thanks to Starr Cartrette, Mac's caretaker for the last several years.

A Visitation Celebration will be held from 2:00 to 5:00PM Sunday, March 9th at Hayworth-Miller, Silas Creek Chapel.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to First Christian Church, 2320 Country Club Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27104.

Online condolences may be made at www.hayworthmiller.com.