Business & Military

You saunter out to the mailbox expecting the usual: a utility bill or two a few pieces of junk mail, another credit-card statement that produces a mild state of depression; and, thankfully, a Victoria’s Secret catalog that at least momentarily dissipates the thought that the cost of your flight training has brought you to the […]

The cost is staggering, isnt it? The price of admission to a professional flight deck wherein you can actually be paid to aviate can be overwhelming to the average Joe or Joan.You were first impressed by those great-looking, four-color display ads in the magazines. But a quick call to the admissions reps at a dozen […]

Airlines … Corporate … Airlines … Corporate … Airlines … Corporate …Enough already!You — you’re the odd one. You joined the aviation fraternity for something entirely different. Hauling 50 RJ passengers crammed into an aluminum tube from “A” to “B” as an air transport driver is not your cup of tea. Catering to the whims […]

What a difference a couple of years makes. It was barely two years ago that the pilot employment market was sizzling. Airlines were siphoning thousands of pilots into the cockpits of Boeings, while corporate flight departments and fractional jet outfits were recruiting airmen by the truckload, it seemed. All of that upward movement created vacancies […]

You are resolute in your pursuit of a flying career. Despite what the pundits have stated in their gloomy predictions about the state of the economy, no matter that there are still many qualified aviators on furlough from their airline jobs, regardless of forecasts that predict a soft job market and a slow recovery for […]

George is holding a phone in his right hand. On the other end of the phone, a pilot is telling George his woes of the day — how the weather was bad in Louisville, how lunch didn’t agree with his co-pilot, and how his wife spends too much money. Between his head and his shoulder, […]

It was about eleven at night when I pulled into Signature’s ramp at Baltimore. It had been one of those weeks in the check-hauling business; I’d battled a fair amount of poor weather all week, though in this instance it had been the low-ceiling-and-visibility variety more than the thunderstorm or icing types, which is what […]

While hanging around and working at the Sarasota-Bradenton airport (SRQ) in the mid-50s, I became aware of a small group of pilots my father called “airport bums.” It was years before I realized that was intended as a derogatory term, for they were my heroes. That was probably why Dad put me into forced labor […]

It suddenly occurred to me that I’ve never done a column on my all-time favorite airplane! How could I have so neglected my old sweetheart? My logbook reveals that I have 1,864.08 hours in this old classic, second only to the 747 time, which we won’t count because it’s a nosedragger, it burns that stinky […]

Jumpseating — the practice of bumming a ride aboard a human mailing tube headed somewhere you need to go — is one of the time-honored institutions of the airline industry. Some use their privileges to commute, others to move around on company business. But, in the right hands, it’s really more of an art. Come […]