Our story
A Marine's standard.
A pilot's lifetime.
Delbert “Del” Doddy has been flying since he was a young man at Lunken Airport. This is how a student pilot became a Marine in the Marine One squadron, a flight instructor, a business owner for four decades, and the founder of Perfect Airways.
The Student
1970s
A kid at Lunken who couldn't afford the next lesson.
Del's flying started where Perfect Airways is based today: Cincinnati's Lunken Airport. He took private pilot lessons until the money ran out.
So he made a plan. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, knowing the GI Bill would cover most of his flight training. It wasn't a detour from flying. It was the flight plan.
c. 1976
Dress blues portrait
Delbert “Del” Doddy, U.S. Marine Corps.
The Marine
1976 – 1979
Cleared by the FBI. Posted beside Marine One.
During advanced training, Del learned about Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1), the squadron that flies the President, and requested assignment. The FBI ran a full background investigation. Agents canvassed his grandmother's neighborhood, and her friends came running to ask what he had gotten into.
He was cleared. For more than three years he served with the squadron out of Anacostia, near Washington, D.C., traveling with the presidential detail. More than once he stood at the aircraft stairs and greeted President Jimmy Carter as he came aboard Marine One.
In 1977 he received the Presidential Service Certificate for honorable service in the White House.
c. 1977
Standing post at Marine One
Corporal Doddy in dress blues at the aircraft stairs. Squadron Marines greeted the President as he came aboard.
The Aviator
1976 – 1979
Every rating, earned between assignments.
Because the squadron always came home, Del could keep studying. He earned a two-year degree in Airport Management from Northern Virginia Community College and worked through his ratings: private, commercial, instrument and multi-engine.
In May 1979 he graduated as a Certified Flight Instructor, and went on to become an instrument instructor (CFII) and multi-engine instrument instructor (MEII). He was qualified to teach others to fly by instruments alone.
He still counts the World War II veterans he flew alongside at the aero club, and the stories they shared, among his best teachers.
“It's like playing chess. You keep your mind five moves ahead of the plane.”
May 12, 1979
Certified Flight Instructor: Airplanes
Graduated from the FAA-approved course at Piedmont Manassas Aero, earned while serving with the squadron.
The Builder
1980 – today
Forty-plus years of doing it right when it was easier not to.
Back in Cincinnati, Del started his own business in 1980 and built it into Perfect Cut, a tree service known across Greater Cincinnati. He taught himself the trade from arboriculture texts and industry conventions, and carried the high-risk insurance that cheaper competitors skipped.
His work drew a following. One Christmas tree he cared for became a local landmark, and visitors came from as far as Indiana and Kentucky to see it.
1977
White House Christmas card
From President and Mrs. Carter, signed Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter.
The Return
Today
Back to the sky, and taking you along.
Years of long drives between Ohio and the company's winter operations in Georgia brought him back to the obvious answer: fly. He brought Mooney N3483X home to Ohio and never looked back.
Perfect Airways is the next chapter: the discipline of the Marine One squadron, the care of a forty-year business owner, and an airplane that turns a long day on the road into a morning flight.
1970s
Marine One over Washington
An HMX-1 VH-3 over the Potomac, with the Washington Monument behind.
The archive
The record, as it hangs on his wall.
Photographed from the framed originals. Select any item to view it larger.
Credentials
On paper, and current.
Pilot certificates and medical are current. Copies are available on request.
- Pilot certificate
- Commercial: single and multi-engine, instrument
- Instructor ratings
- CFI · CFII · MEII
- Education
- Associate degree, Airport Management, Northern Virginia Community College
- Military service
- U.S. Marine Corps, Corporal · HMX-1, Jan 1976 – Jun 1979
- Honors
- Presidential Service Certificate No. 5551 (1977)
- Business
- Owner-operator since 1980, Perfect Cut, Greater Cincinnati