Bill Cox – July 4, 2025
By Diana Jones
If you knew Bill at all, you knew his passion for the sky, but also his creativity and flair with the written word. As a ferry pilot, he had the opportunity to fly almost anything, almost anywhere in the world. And never being at a loss for words, he was always able to bring the reader into the cockpit as his copilot.
He fell in love with airplanes at the age of 13 and took his first airplane ride as a Civil Patrol cadet in a Piper J-3 Cub on skis out of Merrill Field in Anchorage, Alaska. He attended the University of Alaska – Fairbanks for two years and the University of New Mexico – Albuquerque for nearly five years, earning a pair of bachelor’s degrees, one in science and one in art (music).
He obtained his private pilot certificate in 1966 for $9 per hour in a Piper Colt and an Aeronca Champ. He moved on from there earning other certifications over the years: commercial certificate with multi-engine, instrument, seaplane, glider, and helicopter ratings. In the process he set 28 NAA/FAI world speed records.
A former aerospace technical writer for Douglas Aircraft, Bill became a full-time, independent, freelance writer in 1974 and went on to sell some 2,000 articles. Between 1985 and 1991, Bill worked with then-ABC/TV senior vice president Phil Boyer (now retired AOPA president) as an on-camera host, writer, and primary formation pilot for the ABC/TV series “Wide World of Flying.”
Starting in 1977, Bill delivered new and used aircrafts overseas and he made 220 delivery flights across the world. Notably, Bill delivered Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s former Cessna Grand Caravan from Long Beach, California, to its new owner in Seoul, South Korea.
Bill started writing for Cessna Owner Organization and Piper Owner Society in the early 1990s. He shared his love for flying and his admiration for each of the planes he flew in our featured plane articles. His column, Lessons from the Logbook, gave a deeper glimpse into the various lessons he learned over his many years of flying adventures. He was our longest running writer, clocking in at 27 years.
One former editor, Rocky Landsverk, that worked with Bill for many years shared this about him, “As a longtime writer and editor, I have always tried to tell the story in an interesting and almost poetic way. When I was working with Bill Cox, it was a humbling experience. Bill was a natural and prolific storyteller, which is why he became a writer and also why we asked him to write a book. His articles are what I would call ‘gorgeous’ from a literary standpoint, and his book is exactly that. If you wanted to call Bill to talk magazines or airplanes, you had to make sure you had enough time, because in either case, you were going to get a story. It was going to be sprawling and interesting, and it might wander a bit — it was like floating above the clouds.”
In a half-century of flying, he’s had 13 engine failures (two at a time), but has only lost one airplane, a Piper Lance in the Ogaden Desert of Ethiopia in 1998.
Bill logged approximately 15,000 hours in 60 years of flying.
Bill finished his days out in San Pedro, California, with his better half, Peggy, a veterinarian and also a pilot; his Siberian Husky, Kenai; and his Australian Cattle Dog, Scout.
