If Pete Luster is in the cockpit, there's a good chance Arnold Palmer is sitting next to him. It should come as no surprise that the man Palmer hired to be his chief pilot knows a thing or two about the flying game… Luster spent 20 years in the Air Force before retiring in 1986. "I was sitting behind a desk at that point and I wasn't ready to do that"

From the air, rural Indiana can look like a whole lot of nothing. But from the ground, the uncluttered horizon is a wide–open stage for a young boy's imagination. So it was for Pete Luster, who followed the Indiana sky from a family farm in the center of the state to the farthest reaches of Southeast Asia and beyond. Today, the former Air Force pilot and flight instructor is Arnold Palmer's chief pilot and friend, traveling the world and managing to squeeze in a few rounds of golf in–between trips. Countless flying hours into a career that's always kept his feet off the ground, Luster still remembers his first ride in a plane.

"That was back when I was in high school, probably about 16 years old," he says. "I had a friend whose sister and brother–in–law had a little Piper Cub, and I somehow worked a ride in that thing and kind of thought right then I had an interest in flying."

Closer to the ground, Luster's days were spent with the corn, soybeans, hogs and "a few old milk cows" on his family's farm in an area of West Central Indiana that is, as he says, "barely findable on a map." Hard work to be sure, but as Luster remembers it, "a good way to grow up."

The year Pete left for college at Purdue University, Luster's father sold the milk cows. Technically, Luster's official course of study was agricultural economics. More telling, he entered the ROTC program and earned his private pilot's license. And in 1966, after graduating (with his agricultural economics degree), Luster left the ground behind and entered the Air Force. Pilot training was first on the list, followed quickly by deployment to Vietnam.

Citation X

Business jet
Manufacturer: Cessna Aircraft Company

Speed: Mach .92 (approx. 600 mph)

Ceiling: 51,000 ft

Range: 3,070 nautical miles

First Delivered: June, 1996, to Arnold Palmer

While current offerings from competitors are starting to match the Citation X's top

speed of approximately 600mph, the X was the first production business jet to go that fast. Elegant and relatively efficient, the X can make the Los Angeles–to–New York flight in just under four hours, and the New York–to–London journey in under six hours. The wings are swept back 37 degrees to decrease drag and increase efficiency, the baggage compartment is heated and pressurized, the galley is more elegant and better equipped than most bachelor apartments and the available communications and electronics are state–of–the–art. If you want to get where you're going fast and in style, take a dozen friends along and stand up in the aisle, this is the plane for you.

USAF AND BEYOND

When Luster arrived at Cam Rahn Bay, he climbed right into an F–4 Phantom — the hottest thing flying at the time.

"I was 1st Lt.," he remembers. "You made it in 18 months back then — and you didn't even have to try too hard!"

After one year of flying the F–4 in Viet Nam, Luster returned home and took a position as a pilot instructor, flying T–38s at Laughlin AFB near Del Rio, Texas.

"It was an option coming back," he says. "I had a young family at the time: a wife and a little girl, born while I was over in Vietnam, so she was brand new. I think I first saw her when she was three and a half months old."

Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, Nellis AFB in Nevada, Fighter Weapons School and the first–ever class for the F–111 (plus years flying the F–111 in the U.S. and in England)… Luster spent 20 years in the Air Force, finally retiring in 1986 as a Lt. Col. As Luster told Airport Journals publications, "It was a great Air Force career, but I was sitting behind a desk at that point and I wasn't ready to do that."

PALMER

From the military, Luster went to work as a demonstration pilot for the Cessna AircraftCompany. Fully checked out on all of the company's Citation series of jets, Luster eventually went to work as a corporate pilot, spending almost ten years flying for various clients until he and Palmer found each other in 1996. That year, Palmer was the proud recipient of the first production Citation X. The fastest production business jet in the world, the Citation X was more than just another plane to Palmer. He'd owned several Citations, but he actually had a hand in developing the X. Cessna President and COO (and former Palmer Chief Pilot) Charlie Johnson told Airport Journals that Palmer influenced "the range of speed perimeters and the interior" of the X, and that the golf legend was probably the first non–Cessna person to fly it. Either way, with Palmer's new plane came the search for another chief pilot (Lee Lauderback, who followed Johnson in the position, retired in 1990). Palmer was looking for someone, and Luster says he was looking for something different. Charlie Johnson and another Cessna personality, Russ Meyer, made the connection and the rest, as they say, is history.

TWO PILOTS

Now going on 11 years, Luster says his job with Palmer is going great — even if it's a little different than his former jobs. Unlike many of Luster's other clients, Palmer is an accomplished pilot and, as Luster points out, "[Palmer] has been flying longer than I have." So how does that work in the cockpit?

"Really well," says Luster, laughing. "I joke with him sometimes and say we're probably like an old married couple: we know what to expect from each other, which really helps in the cockpit… It's a very comfortable environment — and he's fun to fly with. We make it fun, have a good time, and get the job done at the same time."

And what a job it is. Luster is responsible for maintaining the airplane, keeping it tidy and ready to go "whenever Palmer wants to go". Furthermore, Luster keeps the paperwork straight and oversees the hangar in Orlando, Fla., where both men spend plenty of time. Because Palmer splits his time between Latrobe, Penn., and Orlando, Luster does too, bouncing between his condo at Bay Hill and a house Palmer provides in Latrobe. Of course, as the fastest production business jet with a range of 3,000 nautical miles, the X travels a bit farther than Florida and Pennsylvania.

"Costa Rica, Ireland, Scotland… The overseas trips are always unique," says Luster. "But we've been to Hawaii about ten times now I guess, so that's kind of old hat…"

Nice to call Hawaii "old hat", but understandable considering the flight hours the two rack up. "I'm his sidekick on a lot of trips, which I thoroughly enjoy," says Luster.

When he's not flying around the world with Palmer, Luster can be found reloading his own shotgun shells, preparing for skeet and trap shooting, which he enjoys. He plays a little golf and a little tennis, has a boat but doesn't fish ("The boat came with the condo; I don't even have a fishing pole. I'll probably jump in the water a little bit when it warms up…") and enjoys being a grandfather to his son's and daughter's kids.

As for the degree in agricultural economics, he smiles when he thinks about it. "I'm so glad I didn't ever have to try to make a living at it, because I was never that interested in it," he says.

"But you had to have a four–year degree to get in pilot training, and once I realized I had a shot at that, it's all I cared about."