Captain Eric Walden — Professional Aviator

A word from the founder

It all started with a hamburger stand…

I am a fourth generation pilot, and was born to fly. My earliest memories are of my grandfather Albert Ueltschi flying his helicopter in for a landing on our front yard, taking us on trips to Florida in his plane, and telling tales of his days at Pan Am in the Clippers, Connies, 707s, and many more. He was my inspiration and greatest motivation to become a pilot, and I carry his lessons with me every day, in and out of the cockpit. The name of this company derives from his own humble yet amazing beginnings.

As a poor farm boy from Frankfort, Kentucky, he had much greater visions for himself. Starting a small hamburger stand to earn extra money, he gained the attention and respect of a local banker. My grandfather, with his sights set on owning his own plane to continue his flight training, convinced that banker to use the hamburger stand as collateral on that purchase. He purchased a Waco OX-5 biplane and the rest is history.

The name of the hamburger stand was The Little Hawk.

On my father's side, his grandfather was an early pioneer of aviation — inventing, flying, and often crashing, the first American monoplane on Long Island just a few years after the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. While I never met him, seeing his very familiar face in the Air and Space Museum many times was always humbling and inspirational. Dr. Henry Walden was a pioneer, not afraid to forge his own way forward and create paths where none existed before.

Beginning flight school in 1991 at the age of 16 at the FlightSafety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida, I soloed at 8 hours and finished my private training at just over the minimum of 40 hours. All of my primary training was done there. I could not take the private checkride that summer — you have to be 17, and I did not turn 17 until September, by which time I was back in Virginia for school. So I returned to Vero the day after Christmas to finish, and passed the checkride on 5 January 1992. Nearly every summer through high school and University I went back to Vero Beach for yet another rating. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1997, I became an instructor at the Academy — a crucial time, as teaching others to fly exposes nearly every way to make a mistake in an airplane, and I learned at least as much as they did.

I took that experience to my first airline job on 12 October 1998, at Atlantic Coast Airlines, flying the Jetstream 41 as First Officer, upgrading to Captain in the summer of 2000 and to the Dornier 328Jet that winter. As a 25-year-old Captain at a regional airline, I was the subject of many "Are you old enough to fly this thing?" questions. Turns out I was.

After several thousand hours of flight time all over the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, I set my sights on a new kind of flying and obtained a position at NetJets, flying the Citation XL and later the XLS. Eleven years of some of the most dynamic, exciting, and taxing flying imaginable. I visited every state in the lower 48, every province of Canada, much of Mexico and the Caribbean — working out of small, often unimproved and remote airports, maintaining a level of safety and comfort that kept aircraft, crew, and passengers secure at all times.

But I found myself yearning to use my skills for something beyond flying within the structure of a giant corporation. Taking a lesson from my grandfather, I decided that in order to be truly happy I had to sacrifice greatly. After many months of planning, research, and evaluation, I resigned my position at NetJets and the security it offered. Having found the perfect aircraft for the mission I had developed over those months, I embarked upon the founding of Little Hawk Logistics — the next and most exciting stage of my career.

Now partnered with 45 North Aviation at my home airport of Charlottesville, Virginia, I bring a needed and unique addition to their existing fleet. I am very excited to continue building Little Hawk Logistics into a premier provider of exclusive private aviation in the uniquely well-suited Daher TBM series of aircraft.