Douglas D. Daigle, 49; Helicopter Charter Operator, Philanthropist

Douglas David Daigle, an aviation visionary who turned a boyhood fascination with helicopters into a career that produced a world record and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity, died Monday of pneumonia. He was 49.

Daigle died at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, said longtime friend and business partner Mike Irwin.

Thirteen years ago, the Laguna Beach man set the record for the world’s longest helicopter hover when he and three other pilots kept his restored Bell 47B aloft for 50 hours and 50 minutes over Anaheim Stadium.

The effort raised $250,000 for Lestonnac Free Clinic in Orange.

As founder and president of charter operator Tridair Helicopters, Daigle developed and licensed the TwinRanger, a twin-engine version of a Bell helicopter, in an effort to make a safer aircraft.

He was also the force behind construction of CenterPort, the world’s largest private heliport, which opened in 1989 at John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

“Doug did a tremendous amount to further the helicopter industry from the time he was a flight instructor,” said Rod Anderson, president of HeliStream, a flight school and charter company based at CenterPort. “He loved flying, and he loved people. And he never spared any effort to support either one.”

Daigle, who was named for the Douglas aircraft manufacturing company where his father worked, first became enthralled with helicopters as a toddler after watching Santa Claus alight from a chopper at an Azusa shopping center, said sister Jessie Bynder, 54, of Corona del Mar.

“After he saw that first one, helicopters became the center of his life,” she said. “Through his work for charity, he became a pilot and a Santa Claus.”

Daigle fashioned his first toy helicopter out of potatoes and Popsicle sticks. He refused to play army with friends unless he could be the helicopter pilot.

His family moved to Orange County while he was in high school, and he began bartering his services washing helicopters and airplanes for flight lessons. He became an instructor at 19.

When he first started piloting helicopters, the baby-faced Daigle looked so young he still could get into movie theaters at children’s prices.

One of his first scheduled passengers refused to enter the helicopter.

Throughout his life, he bore a resemblance to singer-actor Donny Osmond so striking that bartenders often gave him free drinks, his sister said.

As a pilot, he ferried workers building the Alaskan oil pipeline, aided in U.S. Navy weapons drills and helped filmmakers shoot Imax films.

More than a decade ago, Daigle restored a red-and-white Bell 47B, the last flying model of the world’s first commercial helicopter, to use in fund-raisers.

He often decorated the aircraft in the spirit of the event, such as attaching oversized pig ears and a curly tail to make the helicopter look like a giant piggybank.

Relatives said he was gratified when the helicopter was accepted for permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution’s new branch of the National Air and Space Museum, which will open at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in 2004.

Daigle, who would have turned 50 next Monday, is survived by his partner of nearly 13 years, Jeff Clark; his mother, Jill Hatfield of Orange; sisters Bynder, and Joyce Meyer of Sparks, Nev.; and brothers Joe Daigle of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and Leroy Daigle of Portland, Ore.

Services will be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 428 Park Ave., Laguna Beach.

Memorial contributions can be made to the St. Mary’s Building Fund.