“Great is what we’re going for...the world’s greatest pilots fly American”
Local native retires after 32 years as a commercial pilot
By Darla Bracken
Claud Scott Lillard was born October 30, 1954 in Clovis, NM to C L Lillard and LaVelle Scott Lillard. Scott’s ancestors had come to FRIONA in 1905 from Richmond, Missouri. The John Lillard family started the first livery stable in FRIONA located at the corner of 6th and Euclid (where the American Legion Building is located). They had three sons Lawrence, Claude (C L) and Earl. Lawrence married Edith Maurer, C L married Carrie Weir and Earl, who did not marry a FRIONA girl, later returned to Missouri.
C L, Sr. and Carrie had five children: Virginia, Frank, Marshall, who died in 1921 at 19 months, C.L., Jr., and Wilton. C.L., Jr. was born in Clovis, NM but his family moved back to FRIONA when he was just one year old. His father, C.L. Sr. served as the local railroad agent at the Depot for many years. C. L. Jr. attended school in FRIONA all twelve years and played football for the Chieftains in high school. After a short trip to California as a senior, he and some football friends graduated there.
In 1942, C.L. was the first 19 year old drafted for WWII in Parmer County serving in the United States Army from October 1942 to November 1945. He fought in the European theater including the D-Day invasion at Normandy, Ardennes, Rhineland, Northern France, Central Europe and in the Battle of the Bulge. Following the war, Sgt. Lillard returned to FRIONA and started working for his brother-in-law, Louis Woodford, when he met LaVelle Scott through a mutual friend. LaVelle is from Tipton, OK near Altus. They married in February 1949 in Clovis, NM and moved to California ‘to get rich’ but returned to FRIONA in 1950 when C. L. went into the Real Estate and Insurance business, his lifelong career. His office was in an historic building which had been a glass pump gas station in early FRIONA for many years.
Scott followed in his dad’s footsteps and attended FRIONA schools all twelve years . He had some of his Dad’s teachers, Carmaleet Truitt and J. T. Gee and even went to the ‘Old Red’ building as his dad did before the building was torn down in 1965. As a child Scott dreamed of being a pilot and never gave up on his dream. Following the Lillard legacy, Scott played sports from the 7th grade on up to his senior year including track, some basketball and lots of football. During Scott’s school years dad C. L. bought an authentic chieftain headdress for the mascot to wear. He also furnished a full blood Arabian horse, Jamzed, for the Chieftain mascot to ride at games for the 1965-66 school year.
After his graduation from high school in 1973, Scott attended Lubbock Christian College and enrolled in the Air Force ROTC at Texas Tech. His goal was to become a pilot in the military, but when President Carter closed the program for training new pilots, he had to find another way. He sold Kirby vacuum cleaners to work his way through college. Commercial airlines require a four year college degree in aircraft operations plus 1,500 hours in flying experience, so he had his work cut out for him. On the way, he met his future wife Susan Snow who was from Fritch, TX while attending a LCC. They married in 1975 and have two sons, Shane and Jeremy. Divorced in 1990, Scott married Linda Greco from Massachusetts in 2016.
Although Scott’s dream began in early childhood, he experienced his first flight at Benger Air Park at age 12 with his dad C.L. and a local crop duster pilot. He was hooked! Later, he rented many planes at Benger from Elvie Jennings. He took his first flying lesson in January 1977. Scott realized his dream and became a commercial airline pilot for America West Airlines AWA in October 1987 based in Phoenix, Arizona and quickly became captain. In 2005, America West announced that they were buying the bankrupt U S Airways. “My company’s name changed as did my uniform, but my AWA boss, Doug Parker, ran U S Airways as well.” In December 2013, U S Airways acquired the bankrupt American Airlines again keeping the acquired company’s name for business name recognition. “My old boss at AWA still runs the new American Airlines and once again I got a new uniform and kept my Captain status.” Captain Lillard has been captain for 28 of his 32 years with all but the last year based in Phoenix. American is now the largest airline and they do have very good training.
“In 2018, I changed from flying the Airbus 319, 320 and 321 to my retirement aircraft, the Airbus 330, the largest in the fleet.” Flying the 330 is the pinnacle of a pilot’s career, but one doesn’t get the opportunity until your number comes up. “My last flight came on October 26, 2019 from Prague in the Czech Republic back home to Philadelphia, home base for the 330. I retired with around 26,900 hours of flight time or about 3.2 years if you could fly 24/7/365 and mostly night flying for millions of nautical miles.* I loved the 330 but just flying is not for everyone, but if you do have the bug, it is very hard to get rid of it.”
The AIRBUS 330 200 and the Airbus 330 300, both have crews of 3 pilots, 1 captain and 2 first officers, and 10 flight attendants. The 300 flies 5200 miles and carries 291 passengers. The 200 flies up to 8300 miles, has a wingspan of 198 ft., weighs 516,686 pounds and carries 269 passengers. Pilots rotate during long flights with one at rest, but all 3 are on the flight deck for takeoffs and landings. His mandatory retirement came on October 29, 2019 one day before his 65th birthday.
What’s next on the horizon for Captain Lillard? Perhaps a contract to train future pilots in flight simulators in Dallas. A true perk above the bright blue? All those beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Seeing St. Elmo’s fire, static electricity, dance across the windshield during storms was a more frightening experience. When I asked him about the grounding of all planes after 9/11, he said that he was in Europe and had to stay put for 17 days... A sad reality, several hundred crew members are injured each year in trips to and from the airports in hotel vans. Some with career ending injuries.
Please join me in congratulating Captain Claud Scott Lillard, Flight Operations Pilot for American Airlines, a distinguished FRIONA High School graduate upon his service and retirement.
* 15,500,000; a nautical mile measures distance and knot measures speed or one nautical mile per hour
* Nautical mile is how far you travel in one minute of Latitude based on the Earth’s circumference and is slightly more than a statute mile.
Note: Scott’s mother, LaVelle Lillard, is a resident of Prairie Acres and is 93 years young.
My husband Rex, Class of 1963, rode ‘Jamzed’ for C L and Hugh Moseley, owners. Rex rode ‘Jamzed’ at several games dressed in the buckskin costume and headdress for C.L. and the Chieftains, after he graduated.
My younger brother, Leslie, and Scott were ‘across the alley’ best friends before they started school and spent hours playing football, riding their tractors, and of course, pretending to be airplane pilots. Metal lawn chairs lying on their backs made the perfect cockpits for two little boys and their vivid imaginations...db
Claud Scott Lillard
