Clay Lacy has three loves: flying, aircraft and the Van Nuys Airport. At 84, Lacy is founder of the oldest aircraft charter and maintenance business at the general aviation airfield, Clay Lacy Aviation Inc., which took off in 1968 and was the first firm of its kind on the West Coast. In his flying career, Lacy has flown more than 300 aircraft types including F-86 fighter jets, the P-51 Mustang World War II fighter-bomber, commercial aircraft, business jets and as a test pilot for the unusual Aero Spacelines B-377PG – called the Pregnant Guppy – which was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser modified to carry portions of a Saturn rocket. Question: Why did you start Clay Lacy Aviation at the Van Nuys Airport? Answer: It was the only airport in L.A. County that was strictly general aviation and had a big runway, and didn’t have airline traffic. It was an excellent airport, and still is an excellent airport. What makes it excellent? Location primarily. Here we are in the middle of a heated metropolitan area – and that’s good. Number two, it has a very good runway, and number three, it has access to a full traffic control system. You can take off from Van Nuys and feed into the same system of airplanes taking off from Los Angeles. What are your favorite planes to fly? Gulfstream and Learjets – they’re great airplanes. I’d say some of my best memories were when I was manager of sales for Learjet from 1964 to 1968, and that was a very interesting time because I was giving people their first flight in the Learjet, and some were well-known Hollywood people, and they were all into it. I had different partners – one of them was the late Danny Kaye. And the late Frank Sinatra was a customer. How often do you go to the airport now that you’ve sold the business? I go every day; I still love it. I started flying out of Van Nuys when I was 19 years old. Van Nuys Airport has been like a home for me. What was the airport like when you first saw it? It had a 6,000-foot runway between Roscoe Boulevard and Sherman Way. The Air National Guard had fighter planes there, and there was a lot of activity. It didn’t have all the businesses that are there now – the large FBOs (fixed-base operators), including ours. There’s a lot more activity now for corporate airplanes. We have probably one of busiest airports for corporate jets in the world, and more corporate jets based here than any others, probably more than even Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. In my opinion, it’s one of the greatest non-airline airports. It’s just a jewel for us to have. It would be hard to duplicate. What is happening to the airport and where is it headed? Everything that has been done out there has expanded the uses. It’s non-military and no longer has any manufacturing going on there. It’s basically for civilian-use companies, and it’s going to continue in that direction. – Carol Lawrence
