R. Dean Stickell

Preferred Name: Dean
Date of Birth: July 30, 1941
Highest Military Grade: 0-6 – Colonel
Hometown: Frederick, MD

Colonel R. Dean Stickell, USAF (Ret) was born in Frederick, MD, on July 30, 1941. His fascination with aircraft started early. As a young boy, he rode his bicycle out to the maintenance facility on the local airfield and stayed until the shop closed at 5 p.m. He’d ride back home for dinner and back out to the airfield to hang around the administration building. There were three aircraft tied down in the grass: a yellow Civil Air Patrol Piper Super Cub, a Piper PA-12, and a Taylorcraft.

On his 14th birthday, a mechanic set him up for what Stickell calls “his first lesson”. At 15, Dean joined a local flying club with an Aeronca Champ. He paid $50 for a share, rentals were $3 and then $3.50 an hour wet. Dick Green, the airport manager, and an FAA examiner liked Stickell and didn’t charge for instruction. Dean pumped gas and cooked burgers at the airport making $1/hr (on weekends and in the summer) to pay for his training.

He entered the US Air Force in 1963 and became one of the 6 Air Force pilots on the Lightweight Fighter Joint Test Force who tested the YF-16 and YF-17.

He served as Commander, 16th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron, and 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing. Dean was the first pilot to log 1,000 hours in the F-16.

He retired in 1992 with the rank of Colonel.

Upon retiring Col. Stickell returned to Frederick, MD, and serves on the mayor’s Airport Commission. He is the president of the Airport Association and a flight advisor with the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

(Source: Taildraggers to Jet Fighters Return to GA Roots,  Frederick Pilot Reflects on Airport History, AOPA, September 3, 2014, by Sarah Deener)