Renaissance Men

By David Brown The dictionary Definition of a Renaissance Man is: A person who excels in various areas. This certainly applies to the father and son team of Bud and Ross Granley, who have both been successful in challenging careers as instructor pilots, fighter pilots, airline pilots and now fly together as Washington state-based Granley Airshows. Their displays range up and down the West Coast of the USA and into Canada.Bud learned to fly on a Royal Canadian Air Cadet scholarship and started flying with the RCAF in 1956. He progressed through basic and advanced training in the T-6 and T-33. He flew Sabre jets at Baden-Baden in Germany for three years and was later an instructor and demonstration pilot on the T-6 at Red Deer, Alberta.  Bud’s first chance to pilot a warbird was a P-40, and he has since gone on to fly many vintage aircraft. Bud retired from United Airlines in 1997 and continues flying T-6 displays together with the Fouga Magister jet and a number of warbirds.Ross has had a career piloting jets in the RCAF, which has included flying with the Snowbirds for two seasons, and flying CF-5 and CF-18 fighters. On leaving the RCAF in 1997, Ross started flying for United Airlines and currently flies out of San Francisco.The Granley family loves to fly. Of Bud’s six children, one (Ross) flies for United, Chris flies for Air Canada, Deb flies a 737 for Alaska, and Bob chose a career in the Navy and ferries the Yaks on occasion.Ross and Bud fly the aircraft at Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection (FHC) at Paine Field in Seattle. Only nine pilots in total have this privilege. On a good-weather day in June 2013 Ross flew the blue-nosed P-47, and Bud flew the Collection’s P-51D. They alternated leads for a series of impressive low passes for the crowd at FHC.I was invited to attend last year’s Luftwaffe Air Day at the Museum where Bud was displaying the Me 109. However, the weather did not cooperate, and high winds prevented the warbirds from flying that day. Bud taxied the Me 109 so that we could have a look at this rare aircraft, which was shot down during WWII, rescued years later from a beach at Calais in France, and rebuilt into the immaculate aircraft that is flown today.I next caught up with the Granleys at the Chino Airshow in May 2016, when I saw their one-of-a-kind display with Bud and Ross in their two Yak aerobatic aircraft. This was an impressive synchronized performance using two widely differing aircraft in terms of weight, size, and performance. Inside and outside maneuvers, opposition loops, rolls of every flavor, all were carried out to perfection. After flying had finished for the day, I had a chance to sit and talk to the Granleys. This turned out to be as unconventional as their performance, as I was tag-teamed by this loquacious pair of individuals. They were still in their red flight suits, talking a mile-a-minute, and still carrying on multiple conversations with their fellow airshow performers and with Bud filming all his friends on his hat-mounted camera (Catch his Chino 2016 Yak 55 performance from this hat-cam on Youtube).After many years of aviating, both Granleys still enjoy their flying and took time out to talk to this interviewer with good humor and lavish hospitality.I asked about Bud’s Warbird flying, starting with the P-40 and now ranging from the Corsair to the Spitfire, Hurricane, Zero, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51D, and Me109.“It’s a privilege to fly these aircraft,” Bud said. “I’m lucky to have these opportunities”When asked how he copes with the variety of vintage warbirds, Bud said, “It’s mainly just a matter of reading the flight manual and learning the systems” (Bud is too modest. I suspect there is a bit more to it than that. The Corsair he currently flies, a Goodyear FG-1D with a monster R-2800 radial engine, won the Grand Prize for Warbirds at Oshkosh in 2015 and had been through a painstaking restoration for the Olympic Flight Museum, which took more than 11 years to complete).I’ve seen him fly the Mustang and Corsair. He makes it look easy.Bud’s motto is: “Make the difficult look easy  Make the easy look spectacular Never attempt the impossible”A colorful character in every sense, Bud is known to fly warbirds in his trademark green sneakers.I asked Ross about the very unique Yak 18T he has flown in displays with Bud for more than 10 years:“The Yak 18T is a four-seat cabin development of the Yak 18 aerobatic aircraft. I’ve got a yoke for roll control, rather than a stick, but it rolls nicely. It’s typically rugged and of simple construction. It still has fabric-covered outer wings because it’s the best way of doing it. It was designed in the ‘60s to train Aeroflot Pilots. It has typical Russian systems with pneumatic flaps, gear, and brakes. It has the same nine-cylinder 360HP radial as the Yak 55. Although it weighs a lot more than the Yak 55, we compensate for this during our display sequence.”And flying the warbirds?“I’m in a fortunate position flying these old fighters. I grew up watching my dad having a lot of fun flying planes. And here I am.”