![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Clay-Lacy.jpg\")
Once the airport reopened, Lacy wasted no time in flying\nback into the airport with which he has a longstanding history. The\nentrepreneur, airline captain, military test pilot, air race champion, aviation\nrecord-setter and aerial cinematographer has accumulated more hours flying jets\nthan anyone on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has logged 50,000 flight hours in more than 300 aircraft\ntypes. Many of those hours come from trips to Catalina Island. Lacy began his\naviation career at age 19 and flew DC-3s to Catalina for United Airlines from\n1952-1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s Conservancy Ball was the first time I\u2019d ever\ntaken a boat over to Catalina – it got me there, but I prefer being in the\nair,\u201d said Lacy. \u201cI\u2019ve flown into KAVX on Catalina Island hundreds of times\nthroughout my career. The runway repairs made such a difference in the landing\nexperience at Airport in the Sky, and I am very proud to support this important\nproject.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The donation helped fund materials, transportation and other\ncosts incurred by the Conservancy, a nonprofit, to replace the runway\u2019s aging\nasphalt surface. Because of the condition of the runway, the airport the\nConservancy owns and operates was at risk of being closed to the public,\nthreatening deliveries by air of freight as well as flights by first responders\nand recreational pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are grateful to Clay Lacy for this incredibly generous\ngift,\u201d said Conservancy President and CEO Tony Budrovich. \u201cClay\u2019s longtime\ninvolvement with Catalina and Airport in the Sky is deeply appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clay Lacy will be recognized alongside other lead donors on\nthe Catalina Island Conservancy\u2019s donor recognition sign at the main entrance\nto Airport in the Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Catalina Island Conservancy announced that aviation legend Clay Lacy has donated $250,000 toward Catalina’s Airport in the Sky, ACE Clearwater Airfield’s runway repair project. Airport in the Sky (KAVX) closed to private aircraft Dec. 10, 2018 \u2013 May 3, 2019 for critical runway repairs completed in a unique partnership between the Conservancy and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13503,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501\/revisions\/13503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}