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girl in 1925-and came across an airway beacon. He says the old urge to go back and fly the mail became so strong that he returned to Langley Field, turned in his resignation and went back into commercial aviation. He joined Boeing Air Transport, which later became a component part of the UAL system. There he stayed until 1935, when he gave up airline piloting for the full-time piloting of the ALPA whose growth already has been covered. 
Today, at 47, Dave Behncke still insists "I'm always at heart a pilot."
He's a big man-broad shouldered and powerful-with great drive and energy. (He hasn't had a regular vacation since 1935.) Sleepy eyes and slow speech-the words sometimes seem to be pushed unwillingly to the lips and then just tumble out of their own weight-belie his alertness and industry.
His graying hair persists in falling down over the ears and sole bit of apparent ostentation is a small, close-clipped mustache. 
He carries himself easily, despite his large frame and a slight limp resulting from serious injuries following the crash of an airliner he was piloting Dec. 21, 1934, in Illinois. (The accident board decided the probable cause of the accident was ice forming in the carburetors.)
When he travels he stays at a small hotels; when dining he looks for
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