Treat Williams has been a pilot for over 40 years. His love of flying began when his high school football coach, who was holding his ring during a game, lost it, and offered him two free flying lessons in his Super Cub in lieu of payment. Treat accepted and has never looked back. He soloed the the cub in 1969 off a grass strip in New England and in 1973 while a senior in college, he drove a cab, sang in a band, and painted houses to pay for his private license. While working in Grease on Broadway he purchased his first airplane from an Airline Pilot, a Clip Wing Cub for which he paid 3 thousand dollars, and which, when it came up for annual, the mechanic refused to work on. He should have known. Over the next few years Treat gained his instrument, Muti Engine and commercial ratings. After building time in his Cherokee 180 flying coast to coast, he purchased a Seneca which he flew for 20 years.
During that time Treat went on to get his CFI and his Helicopter commercial add on. He has had the privilege to fly with some of the best aerobatic and stunt pilots in LA. He is also lucky to have flown with some of the legends and soon to be legends here , Tony Bill , John Travolta, Barry Schiff to name a few. As for non aviators, he is still recovering from having flown Chris Walken and Robert DeNiro to Cuba for a film festival, most of which he does not remember.
He was particularly honored to fly with the great Art Scholl , in the film, Pursuit of DB Cooper ,Treat and Art tried to destroy Robert Duvall's car with the landing gear of a Stearman, and, a few years later Treat stood on the landing gear of a 172 with no parachute for a fight scene with Art at 3000 feet. (He is not getting this award because he is smart).
During that time he purchased one of the great loves of his flying career, his T6 Texan November 522 Lima Uniform, which he flew for sixteen years.
For eight years he owned Cineflight, a company that provided aviation services for films and television. For ten years, while living in Park City Utah, he owned and flew a Navajo Chieftain and became type rated in and flew the Cessna Citation. During that time he wrote the children's book, AIRSHOW! as a way to present a child's perspective of the joy of flight.
Mr. Williams now lives in a small town in Vermont with his wife and two children, two dogs, and eighteen chickens. He continues to fly regularly and now, after more than ten thousand hours in the cockpit, his greatest pleasure when not making films is to fly a Piper Cub ... off of a grass strip...in New England.
He is proud to be recognized by Kiddie Hawk for this great honor and to be in the company of such an extraordinary group of people.