About The Author:

Born and raised in Austin, Texas.  I was brought home from the old St. David's hospital to an address on Concordia Avenue in East Austin.  I attended Maplewood Elementary School and Pierce Jr. High and then our family moved to South Austin off of Riverside Drive in the summer of 1968.  I graduated from Travis Sr. High School in 1973.  I attended college at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas received an Associate degree in 1975 and graduated from the American Technological University aka University of Central Texas aka Tarleton State University in 1977 with a B.S. in Aviation Technology.   ATU/ UCT/Tarleton State has since become Texas A&M University-Central Texas.

As a young man with a bicycle and living in close proximity to the old Austin airport (Robert Mueller), I used to ride over to the airport and just watch airplanes all day long.  You used to be able to just walk right out to them and look inside the cockpits of the small aircraft parked at the fixed-based operators located on Airport Boulevard.  Sometimes, the pilots would be around and open them up, let you sit inside and then answer endless questions.  Those were definitely the good old days... Before oil embargos and 9/11.

With the love of aviation firmly implanted, I joined the Civil Air Patrol in junior high and later in high school, I took flying lessons at the old Tim's Airpark off of Dessau Road and I-35 in Austin.  There's a little company by the name of Dell Computer that owns that property today... But in 1973, I did my first solo landing on what is one of their parking lots today.  Then it was on to CTC for further flight training.

After college, I moved to the Houston area and begin making a living plying my trade wherever I could find the opportunity in everything from single-engine aircraft to corporate jets.  In 1982, United Parcel Service purchased 40 old Braniff 727's to start their overnight express service and I was able to land a job as a flight engineer with a company out of North Carolina (Orion Air) whom they had contracted to provide crews and maintenance.  Four years later found me at Federal Express back in the 727 flight engineer's seat having been a Captain on the same airplane at my old carrier.  Such is aviation...  Always be nice to your crew because you never know when you may end up working for them at some later time in your career! 

I have been very fortunate to be employed nearly 25 years now with FedEx and I am currently a Captain on the Airbus A-300.  My career goal was always to fly as Captain on an airplane that I could walk underneath the belly without having to bend over.  I have accomplished that goal.

Of course, it wasn't exactly easy.  Not on me or the people close to me.  I have been married three times but out of those, I have three "great" children and three beautiful grand kids.  My wife Lisa and I have been married for 11 years and we are enjoying living out on the lake in Hill Country with our three dogs and two cats.  I enjoy my time on the lake in my sailboat and Lisa stays socially active in our lake community.  She is in the real estate business; so she knows everybody and we have many good friends and neighbors.

I would guess most of you are reading this having been brought here by a search engine while searching for Culp family history.  Thanks goes to my deceased Father for all his work in that area for which I am now merely the reporter..

Thanks for stopping in...  If I happen to have known you in another life, don't hesitate to drop me a note.  I have been busy my whole life it seems and it would be nice to do some catching up!

David Culp