The Rural We: John H. Staber

Last Saturday, John H. Staber of Old Chatham received the Federal Aviation Administration Wright Brothers Master Pilot award to commemorate his over 50 years of accident-free flying and devoting much of his career to teaching others. In 1963, while working at Salisbury Bank and Trust in Lakeville he took several flying lessons and was hooked. He left his banking career to immerse himself in the world of flying, and has flown over 200 different amphibian aircraft all over the country and Canada…and he’s never even put a scratch on one. Certified to fly most Beech, Cessna and Piper light aircraft, Staber specialized in maintaining and teaching the art of seaplane flying in the Lake Amphibians. He retired in November 2021 after 58 years of flying.

I was born in New Jersey and lived in Bergen County until my parents moved to Lakeville in 1956. Sometime during my seven years at Salisbury Bank and Trust a friend said let’s go up to the airport in Great Barrington and see what you have to do to learn to fly. I booked a couple of lessons and after one or two, it became a disease; I couldn’t get enough of it. I got my private pilot license that year, and thought, I have to buy an airplane now. For $1,000 I purchased a beat-up old plane. My first instructor was rebuilding a plane that became a Lake Amphibian — an aircraft that can on land on water or land. I figured that was what I ought to have since my parents lived on a nice long lake, with a big field down to the lake. I found an amphibian in Dayton, Ohio, which was the home of the Wright brothers. It was absolutely perfect. I flew it for 500 hours and got my commercial license in it.

I continued to get aircraft ratings — multi-engine, instrument, and instructor ratings — and racked up in over 6,200 hours total time, most of it in Lake Amphibians. A lot of that time was teaching people how to fly; very few people knew how to fly them. I’m forever on call, although I retired at 83, when I decided not to renew the ratings.

I’ve landed on almost every body of water in Berkshire and Columbia counties. Lake Buel is a nice to place to land — unless it’s busy, and then you don’t. The Hudson’s a great place to land, but you have to watch out for lingering boat wakes and swells.

I’ve found almost everything ever printed about amphibian planes and put it all on a digital CD plus hard copy. I’ve also written a book on rebuilding them. My last work was all about lakes, how to fly and maintain your Lake Amphibian. It makes me feel good that I’ve done something for the lake aircraft owner group, and aviation in general.