pilot
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The Captain and His Shark Skin Boots
Airline crews are easy to identify at the hotel bar. Especially if it’s closing time when the lights are bright, and the staff is attempting to clean for the morning. We’re a group of middle-aged folks from various genders and races eating and drinking and carrying on like it was a reasonable hour. “Too late…
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Jack Hanna was Once Disappointed with Me
I had the great fortune of interacting many times with Jack Hanna over the years during my childhood through my father’s work with Busch Gardens in Tampa and later, SeaWorld in Orlando. He was always truly kind to me and curious about what I was up to and the things I had done since we…
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The Flight When Our Passengers Decided to Drive
There was a time when being a Regional Pilot meant you never left the very small region your employer flew in. Often this was no larger than a thumbprint on a map. In the early days of my airline career, when my hair was significantly less grey and my ears could hear things without a…
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All Work and No Play
On this one-hundred-and-something-ish day of being a virtual school teacher’s assistant, IT support, lunch lady, PE Coach, and Dad I’m finding myself talking more and more to myself. The virtual teacher’s lounge has become the safe space in the house (er… school) between classroom meltdowns to pour another cup of Mother’s Little Helper from the…
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Spring 2020 Is the Year Our Son Grew Up
Yes, his hair has gotten too long with the barbers closed so he suddenly looks like a broody teenager but with the all the news and his adult questions about COVID and after a few months stuck in the house together, he’s found independence and an increasing need to “go to my room and have…
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Some Pilots Just Know It All
There are a few ways people can make money flying airplanes around. The two big easy examples are flying people or flying boxes to people. I’ve never considered the latter as, for the most part, I enjoy the humans. I like being around them. I like looking at them. I like making fun of them.…