He was affectionately called ‘Bad Chas’, a nickname he earned for shutting down one engine on unsuspecting applicants during multi-engine check rides. He was loved and respected by the thousands in his audiences and his hundreds of flight students, many of them now flying heavy iron.

‘Bad Chas’ was a teddy bear of a guy—bright, articulate, funny and generous.

On June 27, we lost one of our finest speakers. Chas amazed the medical community, putting up a valiant fight with painful pancreatic cancer for nearly a year. His beautiful, loving wife and constant companion, Von, said he never complained and he never questioned, ‘Why me’?” But those that knew Chas well wouldn’t be surprised in this. In his life, Chas just never did complain.

Chas was best known for his gripping presentation on awareness and personal vigilance known as The Color Code System. In addition to his personal appearances, this safety program is broadcast on satellite television to subscribing cities and governments. Chas had a uniquely dramatic way of speaking, using vivid mind pictures. Clients claim his safety program has saved them millions of dollars, injuries and lives. Here at the bureau, we felt good when booking his programs as we might then help to save injury and lives too.

His banquet keynote program, As The Examiner Sees It, would get the pilots howling with laughter. Chas would tell his humorous aviation stories gathered in his 20 years of flights as an FAA designated pilot examiner.

Chas taught hundreds of aviation safety courses across the United States including many Flight Instructor Revalidation Clinics for AOPA’s Air Safety Foundation. After discovering aviation in 1962, he became a Flight Instructor in 1963. He opened his own flight school in 1967, which eventually grew into one of the largest operations of its kind in the southwest. In his fleet, a P-51 Mustang was one of his favorites to fly. Chas safely logged in excess of 13,000 hours of flight time, gave 9,000 hours of flight instruction, and administered more than 5,000 flight tests for pilot certificates and ratings.