More detail on this person: Wayne W. Siebe QB# 23340 - LOU April 25, 1940. Gone West Monday, Feb. 20, 2012. Lunken QB Lu Mays remembers Wayne as an Army Aviator. "I believe he served with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam, surviving numerous helicopter combat assaults and other missions. I believe he belonged to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association and still attended his unit's reunions whenever possible. "We had a great time discussing the performance of the Huey, in that I had been on the team that evaluated it before the Army purchased it for operations. Then Wayne put it through combat conditions far more extreme then we could possibly conceive. It passed his evaluation with flying colors and got him back home safely. "I know he was shot down twice rescuing wounded infantry directly from the battlefield, as a 'DustOff Chopper Pilot. He won a DFC for his efforts, but it wasn't 'til he knew I had one that he even mentioned his ordeal." Very few Lunken QBs knew either of these guys had been awarded DFCs until now. After serving his country and returning Stateside, Wayne was chief pilot for QB Lu Mays' Cincinnati Airways and Federal Helicopter Express. He was their first employee and friend for over 10 years until becoming a pilot for Rocky Mountain Helicopters. He managed flight ops as we grew from one 'copter to 12, with 15 employees, engaging in radio traffic reports, TV news, power line patrol, movie photo shoots, and crop spraying. One of the stories during this period of Wayne's aviation career was when Wayne and Lu instructed Neil Armstrong to fly the Bell 47-G5 traffic 'copter. Neil approached Cincinnati Airways sometime after the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, wanting to learn to fly the Bell 47 specifically because he had done more than 300 practice descents (only) in a specially rigged Bell 47 simulator before use of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicles known as the "Flying Bedstead." After that training for his July 1969 Apollo 11 landing on the moon, Neil wanted to learn how to take off and fly a helicopter since he believed he had the landings down pretty good. Wayne soloed Neil at Lunken airport. Neil appeared to really enjoy flying solo in such a slowmoving machine after all his hours in high-speed aircraft. Following Neil Armstrong's retirement from NASA in 1971, he occasionally flew for Cincinnati Airways, during the eight years he was a professor at the University of Cincinnati. Not many people can say they gave the first man on the moon a check ride. QB John Elsbernd first met Wayne in 1972 when John was hired as a helicopter mechanic for Cincinnati Airways. "Wayne took me under his wing from the first time we met. For some unknown reason he seemed to have total trust in me maintaining the aircraft he flew. He also took the time to teach me to fly helicopters, something I appreciated more than anyone can imagine, but that was the kind of guy he was. Thinking back, I can't help but wonder if, when we were out doing powerline patrols with me at the controls and high tension lines buzzing by, Wayne wasn't a little terrified!!" Many LUK QBs may remember Leo Wonderly, who was a local FAA Flight Standards inspector at Lunken. John Elsbernd took his commercial helicopter check ride with Leo. "I still think Wayne and Leo conspired against me to make sure I got my money's worth. I still remember Wayne and Leo laughing as this shaking, sweatsoaked aviator stumbled out of the helicopter after putting me through the ringer!!" I only worked with Wayne for about eight years, but I still look back at those years as some of the most enjoyable times of my career, and Wayne was a big part of that. Early on, our professional relationship quickly turned into a life-long friendship. I'll always remember the houseboat trips and parties we attended together with his lovely wife Doris. Wayne and Doris have two children, Debbie and Dan, and six grandchildren. Wayne also has a brother, Alan, living in Florida and whenever they came south they always made time to see us. Following his years at Cincinnati Airways Wayne went to work as Chief Pilot for Premier Health Partners, a helicopter air ambulance service in Dayton, Ohio, from which he eventually retired. I should be able to list dozens of other things but I guess in the end you can say for sure he was a devoted family man, he had a brilliant aviation career, he was a QB and therefore a Goodfellow. Maybe nothing else needs to be said. Wayne was a resident of Symmes Township in Cincinnati. He also loved woodworking and gardening. He had to have been the most humble, modest pilot we'll ever know, a model that all QB should aspire to. All of the history of Wayne's life shared herein was not known by most of us in the Lunken QB Hangar except to those few who lived it with Wayne and are now sharing it with the rest of us for the first time. There was so much more we all could have learned from this great helicopter instructor pilot QB, taken too early by cancer.
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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