Bob Lussow

Bob Lussow’s first declaration of his future profession occurred in fourth grade when he wrote a book called Flying Airplanes. He spent his teenage years riding his bicycle to airports in northern Illinois working odd jobs in exchange for the opportunity to be around and fly airplanes. He soloed an airplane before receiving his driver’s license by convincing his mother that the parental permission required to solo was a permission slip to begin driver’s education class.

Graduating from high school in 1961, Bob worked odd jobs and attended the School of Aeronautical Engineering at Tulsa University in Oklahoma. In 1963 he married Tina, and two years later was hired by Delta Airlines to become a Flight Engineer.

In 1972, Bob was awarded a captain’s bid and went on to fly the Douglass DC-9 and Boeing 727, 757, and 767. Relocating to Wisconsin in the 1980s, Bob purchased his first airplane and embarked on building an RV-6. In the early 1990s, he formed the Friends of the Tomahawk Airport to improve the airport’s infrastructure by working with the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics and the Federal Aviation Administration. In 1998, with the support of his wife, Bob founded Northern Skies Unlimited, LLC, training students in a Cessna 172.

Over his lifetime, Robert Lussow has amassed more than 40,000 hours of flight time while serving multiple volunteer roles within the aviation industry. He retired from Delta Airlines and has been honored with the National Association of Flight Instructor’s Master CFI and the Federal Aviation Association’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot awards. Today, this octogenarian pilot continues to serve aviators as a flight instructor, role model, and mentor.