Flying Tiger Line Pilots Association

Flying Tiger Line Pilots Association

In Memoriam...

Spencer Sydney

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My brother Spencer Sidney is on your list, My name is Ed Sidney, I am with and have been with Federal Express for 21 yrs now, and sometimes run across somebody that worked with him at Tigers, I sorta grew up on the tiger ramp in BUR, Spence and I were about 16 yrs apart so I was the kid brother hanging around with him and the old Tiger crowd, I got my first airplane ride with him in 1956 in his old 7ac champ out at the old San Fernando airport, so anyway what I have here is from my memory as a kid mostly so I don't have a bunch of details, I was lucky enough to run across an old Tiger mech in ORD and he gave me a mint copy of Tiger View 12/76 it had him on the back page (In Memoriam) it was strange to find that after all these years.

He started with Tigers in 53 as a radio mechanic, went from there to line maint, then maint rep in Germany and England, also was involved for some time with the DEW line project up north, he was then the Rep in Tokyo for some time before moving on to maint train on the CL44, he then went on to become an FE (1961) on the Connie, CL44, 707 and DC8 worked in flight training for a while then as chief check engineer, upgraded to pilot DC8 then upgraded to B747, he went back to the 8 before he died, he died in Manila of a heart attack after landing, he was from the old bunch of hard drinking, smokin, fighting guys, and I think that is what lead him to his early death at 44 yrs old, I think he and those old Tigers back then packed more life in 44 yrs then most of us could ever dream of, it seemed as though he and his buddies were always off on one adventure or another, something most of us now days will never experience.