SAM HAYCRAFT
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT CO-FOUNDER | WEST STAR AVIATION
BY JOE ESCOBAR
Sam Haycraft is the executive vice president and co-founder of East Alton, IL-based West Star Aviation. If you’ve been to an NBAA-BACE, EBACE or NBAA Maintenance Conference, you’ve probably seen him. He would be the guy with the long braided ponytail and handlebar moustache wearing a baseball cap and hanging out in West Star’s booth or walking around the show fl oor. His appearance may lead someone to think he is a gruff old-school aircraft mechanic who rides a Harley. Although Haycraft cut his teeth on the shop fl oor and happens to own a Harley, he has become a exceptional leader and manager thanks to the training he has received from his employers and the guidance from mentors over the years. This is his story. Haycraft grew up on a farm In Franklin ,IL about 50 miles Northwest of Alton, IL. His father Bill was a tenant farmer and rural mail carrier who worked a 160-acre livestock and grain farm. One of seven kids, Haycraft, the middle kid, grew up leaning the value of hard work by fi xing the machinery and making do with what they had to get the job done. This sometimes required lots of innovation as the farm changed. He went work for Bill Rees, the father of his childhood friend Richard Rees. Rees farmed a large
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grain farm that required extra help. Rees was an active EAA member and member of the FFA (Flying Farmers of America).
INTRODUCTION TO AVIATION Haycraft was introduced to aviation at a very young age,while hanging out with his friend Richard. Richard’s dad would take the boys to his shop while he and Charlie Calvin built a Biplane. Rees owned and fl ew a Cessna 170B and a Piper J5 Cub. Rees wasn’t the only aviator in
the area. There were three farmers in a seven-mile radius who owned airplanes and had grass landing strips on their farms. “Bill Rees, Jim Ransen and Byron Smith all fl ew airplanes from their farms,” Haycraft says. “Bill’s brother-in-law Allen Smith owned Flying S Farms and also bought and restored many aircraft over the years he had his A&P. They were all Flying Farmers of America and EAA members. I was surrounded by aviation while working on the Rees farm.” In the summer after Haycraft
turned 18, Rees ask him if he wanted to learn to fl y. Of course his answer was YES ! Rees told him he would furnish the J5 and gas . Haycraft would pay for the instructor. Haycraft soloed in eight hours and eventually got his private pilot certifi cate.
While Haycraft was working on the Rees farm, Carlos Shaw, an IA and maintenance manager for Byerly Aviation in Peoria, IL would go down to Reese’s farm every summer to do Annual inspections on the airplanes. When Haycraft was 16, he helped Shaw out and talked to him while he was at the farm performing his Annual inspections. Haycraft had wanted to become a pilot, but Shaw talked to him about the opportunities in aircraft maintenance. “He asked me if I had ever thought of going to school to become a mechanic,” Haycraft tells D.O.M. magazine. “That got me thinking. I liked maintenance. I liked doing mechanical stuff . So I started to look into A&P schools. Richard Rees was a year ahead of me in school. He waited for me to graduate and we enrolled together at Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa.” The two were at Spartan for
around seven weeks. During that time, Rees was traveling each weekend to visit his girlfriend Diane in Franklin, IL, about a 15-hour drive round-trip. “After six weeks, Richard’s dad said he was going to enroll him in Parks college in St. Louis. My dad asked me if I would transfer to Parks. I told him I liked it at Spartan. I was working half a day and going to school the other half of the day. Ultimately, I decided to transfer to
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