AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2012 - 75

With his all-American good looks and big build, Rob Lock easily adapts to the role of his character “Waldo Wright” and to his big New Standard biplane, both of which fly passengers back to a bygone era.

throwing, sneaker-squeaking business of basketball. “The two things I wanted to do when I was a kid: I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a commercial pilot,” he said. “I got to do both. Lucky, I guess.” Lock was a standout basketball player in high school. In the summer after his sophomore year his skills on the court became apparent. He was invited to attend a basketball camp in Santa Barbara, California, called Superstar Camp, where college scouts gathered to see the best West Coast players. Most of the nearly 200 players there were going to be seniors, while Lock was just preparing to enter his junior year. “I would look up into the stands and see all these college coaches there, like Dean Smith [University of North Carolina], and John Thompson [Georgetown University], and I was just like, ‘wow!’” He composed himself and by the time the camp wrapped up, Lock had been named to the All-Tournament team. “Toward the end of the week I called my father and he said, ‘You have a bunch of mail here.’” Lock came home to 20 letters from colleges across the country. “At that point it was like, I’m going to go get a scholarship and go play basketball.” Lock attended the University of Kentucky on a basketball scholarship. He graduated with a degree in marketing, and took the next step into playing professionally after school. In 1988 the Los Angeles Clippers drafted him. He went

fifty-first, in the third round of the draft. “I had to guard guys like James Worthy [Los Angeles Lakers], Bill Laimbeer [Detroit Pistons], and Larry Bird [Boston Celtics].” After the NBA, he spent eight years playing in the European leagues, where he found himself competing in Italy across the court from players like Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant, the father of Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant. Lock hung up his sneakers at the relatively youthful age of 30. After nearly a decade of living on a separate continent from family and friends, he was ready to come home. “Sometimes it’s time to move on in life,” he said. Through it all, aviation remained a focus. “When I first started playing basketball, I started buying airplanes,” Lock said. First he bought a Waco, then he bought another, and then a third. That led to the purchase of the two New Standards. New home Lock had never actually seen a New Standard when he bought the two restorations that he’s based his company on. He knew the front cockpits had room for four passengers, which would make them the perfect machine for hopping rides. His first impulse was personal, not professional. “I wanted a biplane I could fit in,” he said. The New Standards are big enough to fill that bill. He fits just fine inside the pilot’s roomy rear cockpit.

During a 1996 trip to Sun ’n Fun in Lakeland, Florida, he saw a New Standard in the air, hopping rides from the grassy infield. That experience flipped the switch, and Lock began an eight-yearlong restoration process that brought both of his basket-case New Standards to like-new condition. He isn’t finished yet, though. After finding a set of classic Edo floats and buying them, Lock found one of a handful of remaining Travel Air E-4000s and sent it through a complete restoration. The floats have now been mated to the Travel Air, which allows Waldo Wright’s Flying Service to provide its customers with something that hasn’t existed in the general aviation marketplace for a long while—anyone care for an opencockpit biplane ride off the water? The Travel Air sports a cozy two-passenger front cockpit, so you can take someone special along. In explaining to a potential customer the difference between their flight to Florida in an airliner and the experience he can share in the New Standard, Stearman, or the Travel Air, Lock says, “That’s transportation, this is flying.” Waldo Wright’s Flying Service is located in central Florida halfway between Tampa and Orlando. Visit the website for more information (www. waldowright.com). Jamie Beckett is a writer and flight instructor living in Winter Haven, Florida.
AOPA PILOT • 75 • FEBRUARY 2012

http://www.waldowrights.com/ http://www.waldowrights.com/

AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2012

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