Aviation

The millions of people who depend on safe air transportation every day have Clyde M. Cable to thank.
Born in Waterloo in 1928, he began is aviation career as a mechanic at his uncle's airport in Upland, California, while attending college. The work paid for flying lessons.

He did a stint at Douglas Aircraft Co. in Santa Monica before beginning a 36-year career with United Airlines in 1951.

While at United, Cable racked up an impressive resume, receiving two Awards of Merit, and was twice named Pilot of the Year by his peers. He received his awards for helping transition pilots after United purchased Pan Am's Pacific routes, and for his Cockpit Leadership Resource program (CLR).

It was Cable who first brought CLR to United Airlines. Now the crew-coordination discipline has been adopted by all major airlines. A recent study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals a 40 percent decline in pilot-error mishaps over the past 20 years, and credits such programs.

Cable's Award of Merit nomination reads: "Captain Cable is a 'pilot's pilot.' He has earned the respect of all United pilots through his exemplary dedication to his profession and his Company." He is also known for offering his passengers a handshake and a hearty "thank you" at the end of each flight.

Cable also made his mark in aviation in amateur circles. In the world of aerobic competition, where he is known as a fierce competitor and a safety-conscientious mentor. A member of the International Aerobatic Club (IAC) since 1980, he has served on the board of directors, is a national championship pilot, contest director and flight instructor, and is in the IAC Hall of Fame. Cable has trained judges all over the country and was instrumental in standardizing the judging program used at all contests.

Retired from United Airlines since 1987, Cable continues to make an impact on the aviation world by participating in the Young Eagles program encouraging youth to fly. It's only fitting since Clyde himself ventured into the skies early in life. Shortly after his birth, his father took him up in his plane. At the time he was the youngest person in the state of Iowa to fly in an airplane. His father, John Wesley Cable, was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame in 1990.

Captain Clyde Cable resides in Eaton, Colorado.

It's a rare thing to inspire dreams. But that's what Glen Niederhauser did. He was the bi-plane swirling overhead as Depression era children lie in the grass dreaming of escape into the wild blue yonder.

Born in Marshalltown in 1910, Neiderhauser and his four brothers set the stage for the golden age of aviation in central Iowa. By the age of 19 he had his pilot's license, and the Neiderhausers began barnstorming on the weekends, where flight became a way of life.

Glen started the first Marshalltown airport, and after a series of natural disasters moved it to near its current location. He ran the first airmail route between Marshalltown and Des Moines. When World War II arrived the airport became a pilot training school, with the Niederhauser brothers training some 100 Army Cadets in eight-week shifts. They operated with 35 planes, 25 flight instructors, 17 mechanics and five office secretaries, making Marshalltown one of the largest civilian pilot training facilities in the Midwest.

In the later years of the war, Glen enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a flight instructor in Dallas and New Orleans, then as a check pilot, acrobatics instructor and engineering officer at the U.S. navy facilities in Ottumwa.

By the late 1960s, Glen moved on to new challenges, taking over management of the Waterloo airport his brother had leased. He turned the struggling enterprise around, making it a successful operation.

When Glen began flying, airplanes had no instrument panels and navigation was a challenge. He once explained the tricks of the trade – "We'd swoop down low over a farm and look for the hog houses and chicken houses because they were always south of the house," he said. "And if you were really lost, you could follow the railroad tracks until you came to a town, then get close enough to see the sign on the depot."

Challenge was part of the fun when Niederhauser flew. During his 46-year aviation career, he obtained FAA ratings for commercial single and multiple engines, flight instruction, mechanics and ground instruction, while inspiring countless others to do the same.

Cable and Niederhauser will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in a banquet that will be held on October 2 at the Iowa Aviation Museum near Greenfield. Reservations are required by September 24. To make reservations, contact the Iowa Aviation Museum at aviation@iowatelecom.net or 641-343-7184. To view a complete list of Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame inductees, visit the Iowa Aviation Museum Web site.