IN MEMORIAM
In Loving Memory of my father Captain James Lynden Betts. At the end of his career Jim had over 40,000 logged with almost all “Flying low and slow”
Born in Columbus Ohio, he fell in love with flying at 10 years old. He worked every job possible to pay for his flying lessons.
In 1939, he was hired by Steve Whitman as a flying instructor in Oshkosh Wisconsin. An article in the Columbus Dispatch stated, that at the time, he was the youngest flight instructor in the United States.
Jim joined the fight as soon as war was declared and flew TBM Avengers until about halfway through the war when he lost his flight status after a navy doctor mistakenly said he had a heart murmur. He then joined the infantry and fought in the pacific and the Philippines.
After the war Jim found work as a crop duster. He bounced around the USA spraying with various operators and then moved to Lancaster California where he opened his own business CISCO (California Insecticide Company).
He bought cheap Stearman’s and built his fleet to over 10 aircraft Seeing there was a need for additional Fire fighting Aviation assets, Jim purchased 3 each TBM Avengers and one PB4Y2 and converted them all to Water tankers. He quickly got contracts from the California Division of Forestry. Jim operated this company successfully until 1962 when he sold it to a friend.
Rare 1958 copy of TV show 'You Asked for It' about CISCO. Narrated and hosted by Art Baker, a young Jim Betts is the pilot filmed flying closeup.
Unable to sit still and having the travel itch, Jim signed with Continental Air Services to fly a Pilatus Porter and moved his family to Laos in 1963. He flew continuously there for 10 years being shot down once and had 2 forced landings due to engine failure. Both failures occurred with CAS Astazou powered PC6 Porters.
The pilots of CASI and Air America supported the Hmong tribe in their little known war with the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao. They also flew FAC missions for the Ravens and Lao Air Force.
Continental Air Service pilot James Betts, Butterfly FAC Charlie Jones, and Thai FACs Poach and Capt Bart aboard a Pilatus Porter on a mission. A hand-fabricated co-axial cable can be seen connecting a battery-powered ground radio PRC-41 UHF set to an external antenna installed by CAS aircraft mechanics.
Classified Secret: Controlling Airstrikes in the Clandestine War in Laos by Jan Churchill
They were also eager to support in any way the many rescue missions for downed American airmen in Laos. One of these missions was the search and recovery of 1st Lt. Robert Gerald Hunter, who was shot down May 25, 1966 over the skies of Laos. An account of this story can be read at this web site:
www.flickr.com/photos/losinggeorgia/collections/72157603787884342/
This is a picture of Jim Betts with Charlie Jones. It is believed they are at the hill top village of San Tiau where Lt. Robert Hunter's body was extracted to by local villagers.
When the Lao operation wound down to nothing Jim went to Cambodia to fly DC6’s for a company called South East Asian Air Transport or SEAAT. He flew there for about 1 year until the Khmer Rouge rockets closed down all operations. He was asked to evacuate his aircraft and company personnel to Taiwan, which he did.
Jim finished up his flying career up in Alaska flying a Shorts Skyvan for Arctic Circle Air Service until forced to stop flying at 65 years old. A study of his accumulated logged hours was 42,347 hours. He said to me “That’s only what I put in log books, in the beginning I never used to log anything!” Whether it was a Stearman, TBM Avenger, B-25, F7F Tigercat, PB4Y2, DC-3, DC-6, SC-7 Skyvan, PC6 Pilatus Porter, Beech 18 or a host of other aircraft, Jim was always happy going to work.
The most common comment I heard about my father was that he was just an excellent pilot and a fun guy to be around. I guess so, I couldn’t really say, because he was always flying!
Jim passed away in Red Bluff California in 1996 at 73 years old.
Footage of a CISCO TBM, converted by Jim to drop water for fire fighting and another he converted into a cropduster for spraying large tracts of land, making it the fastest cropduster in the world.