On a trip to Disney World, the pilot told sisters Ashley and Stephanie Wiley to peer outside the window as they flew over the Magic Kingdom. The pilot of the private plane was their dad, John Roy Wiley III.
"We had such an opportunity that so many people didn't have," Ashley Wiley said. "Dad knew he had wanted to be a pilot since he was 2."
Mr. Wiley grew up in College Park, where he interacted with pilots who lived in the community. His mother, Frances Wiley of College Park, worked at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
"He loved flying almost more than anything," said Joyce Wiley, his wife of 33 years. "He ate it, breathed it, slept it and lived it. He has flown so many airplanes, so many different kinds. He had a full life."
The Marietta resident had been an avid runner and biker who suffered a cycle fall that resulted in two left shoulder replacements. He was exercising that shoulder in a gym Friday when he apparently suffered a heart attack. He was 65.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday in the chapel of H.M. Patterson & Son, Canton Hill, in Marietta. He will be buried with full military honors in Marietta's Georgia National Cemetery.
Mr. Wiley first fulfilled his dream to fly from 1967 to 1974 as a decorated Air Force pilot. Richard Rector, a friend, perused the Vietnam veteran's military records to prepare for the memorial service.
"Page after page had supervisors who said he was unequal in his flying skills, and at the bottom it would say something about his wit, humor and personality," Mr. Rector said. "Every one of his supervisors said nobody flew like John Wiley."
After the military, the veteran was a pilot for Piedmont Airlines, later US Airways. He retired as a senior captain and instructor, and in later years he became an award-winning aviation writer.
He was nominated as an Aerospace Journalist of the Year several times and twice won the international award. He won for best air transport submission in 2001 and best safety submission in 2008, according to the website www.ajoya.com.
He recently spent three months in Iraq as an aviation consultant for KBR, a U.S. engineering, construction and military contracting firm. While there, he sent e-mails to family and friends and an editor who wanted to publish the missives.
"He was a very precise writer who did beautiful work," said his daughter Stephanie, who lives in Marietta. "We knew him as a great pilot, but as a father he was just as amazing. He was the kind of dad that made up stories to tell us, clever, interesting, funny stories that had characters. He was an amazing writer but also a great mentor."
This University of Georgia English major liked to read, cook, sketch and paint.
"He was an extraordinary man," Ashley Wiley said. "And if he were in the air, he was happy."
Survivors other than his wife, daughters and mother include a sister, Norma Ballard of Conyers.
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