Ted Garlatz Sr., `Man In The Sky' For Komo -- He Flew 2.6 Million Air Miles While Reporting Traffic

Ted Garlatz Sr., KOMO radio's popular "man in the sky" for two decades, died Sunday. He was 73.

"He was a very gentle, kind man," recalled Larry Nelson, KOMO-AM's morning host, who worked and flew with Mr. Garlatz.

"Teddy really took me under his wing. . . . We called him `Garflaps.' "

By the time he quit flying in 1983 after suffering a stroke, Mr. Garlatz had logged 2.6 million air miles, about as many as a retired commercial airline pilot, said his son, Ted Garlatz Jr.

Despite two crashes during his career at KOMO, the elder Garlatz felt no pressure and no fear, said his son, who followed in his father's footsteps as an eye-in-the-sky traffic reporter.

Mr. Garlatz walked away from both crashes, each of which involved emergency landings at Husky Stadium. His friends dubbed the stadium "Ted Garlatz Memorial Airport."

Nelson recalled a hoax he and Mr. Garlatz pulled after it became clear that competing stations KING and KOL were using KOMO's traffic reports. On a prearranged signal from Nelson, Mr. Garlatz reported over a two-way radio (but not over the air) that a truck full of oil barrels had overturned on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. The sting worked.

KING sent news cars to the scene, and KOL and KJR both put traffic alerts on air, Nelson recalled.

"The news director at KING was screaming that we were perpetrating a hoax and were going to sue," Nelson recounted. "It turned out their attorney was our attorney."

Mr. Garlatz was born in Seattle Dec. 30, 1919. He went to St. George Elementary School in south Seattle and graduated from Cleveland High School in 1937.

He then went to school in Glendale, Calif., and became a sheet-metal specialist, working on aircraft. He worked for Boeing during World War II and later joined the Navy, where he fixed bullet-damaged planes, despite wanting to be a fighter pilot.

Mr. Garlatz began soloing in the 1940s and obtained his commercial pilot's license in the early 1950s.

"He desired to fly until the day he died," his son said.

Ted Garlatz Jr. occasionally filled in during his father's final 10 years at KOMO. When events were particularly newsy, such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, both flew for KOMO in separate planes.

"We were the only father-and-son team that ever flew a traffic watch that we know of in the United States," the son said.

Mr. Garlatz made a remarkable recovery after his stroke, traveling to Europe with his son, Larry Nelson and another friend three months later.

From the early '60s until his retirement from KOMO, Mr. Garlatz and his son ran a flight and air-taxi operation, Seattle Air Charter, at Boeing Field. In the past decade, they ran a property-ownership and management business.

For the past five years, Mr. Garlatz had been suffering from leukemia, and his death resulted from complications related to the disease.

Besides his son, Mr. Garlatz is survived by his wife, Mary E. ("Patty") Garlatz; two sisters, Mary A. Carr and Camille Jacobs, and two grandchildren, all of the Seattle area. At his request, there will be no services. Remembrances are suggested to a favorite charity.