From Gen Botha Muster List

Eddie Turner was born in Claremont and came to the General Botha via Wynberg Boys’ High School.

On leaving the Botha he joined Clan Line and served in the Clan Brodie, King Arthur and Umtata.

Eddie left the sea in 1959 and, after marrying Natalie Watt of Bloomfield, New Jersey, emigrated to the USA and joined the US Army. He saw service in New Jersey, Ludwigsburg in Germany and finally Georgia, USA.

In 1964 he attended the National Aviation Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida. Graduating with various flying qualifications, he commenced a career as a general aviation instructor with various flying schools in Florida and California, adding in due course to his commercial/instrument pilot’s licence by obtaining a Cessna 500 rating, becoming an instructor in that rating as well.

Throughout his two years at the Botha and during his time at sea, he was always known as ‘Eddie’ but with another ‘Eddie’ in one of the flying schools his name had been summarily changed to ‘Ted’! It stuck; he was known to all and sundry as Ted and that’s how we’ll refer to him for the remainder of this entry.

In 1968 he joined Western Airlines as a pilot instructor, teaching systems on Boeing 727-200s, Boeing 737-300s and McDonnell Douglas DC 10s. In 1978 Western Airlines merged with Delta and Ted was transferred to Atlanta, Georgia, where he continued training pilots on the Boeings. He then worked on the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 in Long Beach, California, developing a new computer based training programme for Delta. Appointed Senior Instructor by Delta, he taught and trained other instructors to teach on this aircraft.

He also oversaw the design and development of a flight training device in Montreal; this was incorporated into Delta programmes, shortening pilot’s training time and later extended to cover training on Boeing 737-800s.

In 2006 Ted and Natalie retired and moved to Englewood, Florida, where he formed a company known as Pixel Maniac, involved in photography and website development. Ted is also actively engaged in spurring economic growth and assisting local businesses in downtown Englewood in the updating of their facilities.

Active in his 70s! Ted and Natalie have two sons, Robert and Matthew and two grand-children ‒ all resident in the USA. Their daughter Megan was tragically lost in a motoring accident in 2000.

Deceased 8th January 2019.