Flying

I’ve been flying since I was sixteen years old. The school I went to offered a science class in aviation, and after a field trip to the airport I was hooked. I just retired from 26 years with Northwest Airlines as a pilot. The last eighteen years of my career were spent on the generic 747, flying the Orient and Europe. It was a job I absolutely loved, despite pay cuts and jet lag and all sorts of career ups and downs.

Singapore and Hong Kong were two of my favorite cities, and Saipan is my favorite destination. Of course, Amsterdam, London, Guam, Bangkok, Manila, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Beijing, Osaka and all the American cities were fun, too. I stayed senior most of my career, since I had two kids at home and I wanted to be with them as much as possible. I usually worked ten days or less a month with a full schedule. And my layovers were fantastic – more like vacations.

You don’t have to be rich to be a pilot, but it would have helped. I was a receptionist, a waitress, and a flight attendant for rock groups. I pumped gas, washed airplanes, and taught flying. I did whatever I could to be able to keep flying and building hours. It was worth it, and I’m writing a book called “Getting There is Half the Fun,” because, for me, it was.

I worked for a coal mine in Utah. It was my job to analyze the coal and be the Health and Safety Officer for the site. I flew a Cessna 206 to and from the mine to build time. My multi-engine rating was expensive, so I used the tips from my summer job as a flight attendant to pay for it. Flying America, Poco, The Commodores, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Elvis’ band and Bad Company were unforgettable. I got to meet The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and John Travolta. Pumping gas in Orlando, I met Richard Bach. One of my major learning lessons was about fame: don’t let other people determine who you are. Fame is a funny thing, and it is so fleeting.

I loved teaching flying. Teaching is gratifying because the joy of success is so palpable. That “Aha!” moment when everything comes together is worth waiting for. Finally they can maneuver an airplane onto final approach at the right height, in the right configuration, and touch down perfectly right on the numbers. They jump the first hurtle, then the next – step by step everything comes together. Fun.

The last job I had before Northwest hired me was as an infra-red pilot for the U.S. Forest Service. Flying all night over the fires and mapping them was like flying over the Pacific. Hours and hours of boredom… and a few moments of sheer panic or terror. Once we almost hit the lead plane, a Beechcraft Baron, as we came out of the smoke. I also made my first and only zero/zero instrument approach. It was too snowy to taxi to the terminal, but that’s another story.

I came home from a trip two years ago, tired and hurting. I thought I had the stomach flu. Instead, it was appendicitis. Except they found a tumor in my appendix and it was malignant. Here I am retired from a job I loved at 52. I had just checked out as captain on the Boeing 747 the year before. At least I finally checked out!

Now I have a whole new life. Staying home is anything but boring, and I have family, hobbies and friends to keep me busy. But I need to feel like I am making a difference, so I’ve pursued a second career as a motivational speaker. I talk to kids at traditional schools, juvenile facilities, private academies and corporate functions. I just came back from Tucson where I participated in several prorgrams for Raytheon Missile Systems.

I love speaking to teens. After speaking to thousands of kids in the last thirty years, I still get excited and jazzed when I am invited to talk to them. When you see that spark ignite in their eyes and that hope light up their faces, you know you are getting somewhere. So many people are full of gloom and doom, pessimism and negativity, worry and stress. No wonder kids are hesitant to jump into the workplace or a career – all they have to do is look around at today’s “successful” adults struggling to be happy.

I don’t try to talk teenagers into being pilots. As much as I loved my job, I realized that it was my passion not everyone’s. If you go into any career for the money or the time off or the benefit package, your motivation is wrong. It won’t sustain you if things change. You have to love aviation to survive its “ups and downs.” I talk to kids about doing what they love: pursuing and finding their passion. I also talk to them about choices.

Don’t be afraid to choose a career. I think there were multiple careers I would have enjoyed doing. I wasn’t afraid of choosing one. You can still pursue your other interests, no matter what you decide to do. I found that flying fulfilled my passion for travel and excitement, but I still could read and write and take pictures and do my art in my hotel rooms around the world. Instead of closing doors when you choose a career, you are picking a path that has lots of branches.

This is how I looked when I started flying in 1981:

The picture above is me, on a layover in Narita. The 747 taxiing out of Anchorage is “mine” – I just flew it in, then watched it leave an hour or so later, as I waited for my flight home.

The nose on my freighter lifts up so that you can load from the front or the back. You can see how icy and treacherous the freighter ramp gets in the winter in Alaska.

This picture was taken while holding over Japan.

If you want to read about a friend of mine who is also a successful author and 747 pilot, go to http://susangrant.blogspot.com/