Sorry to hear that. John was a real character.
There was some particularly bad weather offshore Galeota Point and John was the only pilot airborne while the weather blew through. The CP, whose name escapes me, called him up and asked how the storm was and John replied, "What storm?"
At the time he was single pilot in a fixed-float equipped 205. The name 'awacs' may have stemmed from that episode.
He was sometimes known as 'cherry-lips' too but only during Carnival.
RIP John