Aviation Milestones

What a buildup. I tend to fly around these big boys.

Just yesterday, I celebrated my tenth year flying for a major airline. I’ve never held the same job for so long nor felt so good about it. I’ve been lucky. It will be over in a blink, but what a ride. The days can be long, yet the years pass at warp speed. Sometimes I want to dig my heels in to slow down. Milestones are sentimental, but they honor one’s personal commitment to achieving a goal.

I didn’t have a parent or sibling in aviation, so I had no idea what to expect nor how far it might take me. When I look back at my well-worn track, I realize the distance I’ve come. It’s easy to show up to a job when you like the people you fly with.

Lately, I’ve flown with two different senior female captains. Both of them had fathers who flew professionally. Michelle got to fly with her dad after getting hired at the same airline. On a bring-your-kid-to-work day years ago, she and her father worked together as a crew. Michelle recently flew with her own son, a new hire at our company, carrying the family tradition forward on a work trip to Maui. It’s an amazing milestone: three generations of pilots flying for the same airline. Michelle retires this fall, no doubt with a smile on her face and the hope that perhaps her son might carry the family tradition forward.

Flying with Captain Michelle, third from the left, who is retiring this October and has flown with both her dad (in the 1980s) and her son (two months ago) at the same airline.

Marianna, another captain I fly with, had a dad who flew at Western Airlines. Rodeo, my spouse, flew his first flight ever on Western back in fourth grade. He is now a captain at a major airline. Marianna’s husband, a retired airline pilot, now flies corporate jets. Her mother was a Pan Am flight attendant.

Flying with Marianna, seated on the right, who’s dad flew for Western Airlines and whose mother was a Pan Am flight attendant.

Our aviation path often begins with a discovery flight. For my young friend, Josie, who lives a few blocks away from me in northern Wyoming, that first flight hooked her. She dove into aviation with the gusto of someone truly bitten by the aviation bug. Josie finished her ratings in eighteen months. To pay for it, she won four EAA scholarships, totaling $14,000, sold plants, worked multiple service-industry jobs, took care of local cats and dogs, and hosted numerous yard sales. She even sold her own bed to pay for training and now sleeps on an air mattress. Last week, Josie landed her first flight instructor job at the local airport, crossing that golden threshold into the realm of getting paid to fly. She is only 21.

Josie, my rock star kitty sitter, who just got hired as a flight instructor at the local airport.

Every time one of us succeeds, the rest of us cheer loudly. When Josie got her job, her mother jumped up and down. I got a text from Josie on a work trip and started to cry. Luckily, I was in a hotel room.

It isn’t easy to stick to a plan in aviation. On several occasions, I have toyed with quitting this career because the hours were too long, the time away from home too much. These days, I’m relieved that I stayed the course. The view out my office window still takes my breath away. When I do a good landing, it continues to make me happy. I don’t work as much as I used to, yet my pay continues to rise. The rewards are both emotional and financial, the way it should be. Milestones remind us to savor our effort because the sacrifice is worth it.

My 10-year service pin. I will never wear it because I would lose it. I also received 10,000 miles on my airline to honor my flying anniversary. That’s something I will use!