Category Archives: People of Aviation

Blogging In Formation Series: My Journey to Flight

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space shuttleMy Journey to Flight

As part of the Blogging In Formation Series this is my post about how I was drawn to flying.

All of us have a different story of how we came to be involved in aviation. For some, you are just starting this journey, for others, it has been a life’s quest.

I came upon this path in a pretty conventional way. Like a lot of kids, Captain Eric Auxier included, I wanted to be an astronaut. Born in 1970, I missed the Space Race, but the Space Shuttle was heating up as I was coming of age and that coupled with sci-fi really got my juices flowing to go beyond our Earth.

At the time, only a few non-pilots flew into space, so it was a natural progression to see myself as a fighter pilot as a first step towards my end goal. As I peeled back the onion on what it would have meant to be a fighter pilot, the excitement of that almost eclipsed the original goal of becoming an astronaut.

I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma and no one in my family flew or even knew anyone that flew. Consequently, announcing I would be a pilot/astronaut some day was akin to saying I was going to join Heaven’s Gate; luckily my parents were really supportive – still are. 

Viper F16

Unfortunately it was for naught as bad eyesight precluded me from flying fighters. So I switched gears. I thought if I couldn’t get my thrills as a Viper Driver, I would go to work as an airline pilot and buy myself a Pitts Special. This was the vision I held in my head for over a decade and that is almost what happened.

The best part was taking this journey with my best friend Shawn. We both wanted to be fighter pilot/astronauts. We embarked on flying lessons in our early teens, but our families couldn’t sustain the costs so we accumulated a few hours and abruptly quit.

N757UB

Shawn is in the left seat and I’m on the right side of the ’78 C-152 that we solo’d.

That proved to be a lesson in life. If we would have just hung around we would have most likely been able to sweep floors and wash airplanes for an occasional lesson or two. I guess we thought if we weren’t paying customers we couldn’t go onto the property.

A couple of years later we did muster up the courage to ask if we could barter for lessons, which is how we got all of our primary training. It wasn’t fast, but as kids in school with regular jobs on top of working at the airport, it was steady progress toward our goal. We also hooked up with another dreamer, named Danny, and then we were three.

As upperclassmen in High School it was awesome training and getting our licenses  - we thought we were studs!

After graduation we all three went to flight school together at Spartan School of Aeronautics. I ended up going to a different school after nine months, which is another story (go here). I graduated from NAIA after only 4 months with all my ratings. Danny quit Spartan a year later. Shawn gutted it out there and graduated. I have regrettably lost touch with these guys over the years; Danny no longer flies, but I hear Shawn is Captain on a Gulfstream in Texas.

I didn’t end up flying airliners, I fly corporate jets. And I didn’t end up with a Pitts Special, rather I have an RV-8 that I built. I guess my crystal ball was just a tad off. If you have seen my RV you’ll recognize that it’s my defacto fighter that I dreamed about in my youth.

rv8 and falcon2000

On that particular day I flew my RV-8 and the Falcon 2000 in the background

I obviously never made it to space, but I’m very happy with where my life has taken me thus far. I’m still a huge fan of manned space flight and I continue to dream!

And as a common theme with the rest of my fellow bloggers, I couldn’t have done this without the support of my parents. They sacrificed a lot and took a big leap of faith to set me on this path and I will be forever grateful.

So what brought you to aviation and has the journey been what you expect? If you are just starting, what’s your plan? I’d love to hear your story. Feel free to put your thoughts in the comments below or send an email. Be sure to check out the rest of the blog series – see more information below.

 

by Brent Owens

Postscript – After getting my CFI, I returned to my home town FBO where a teaching job awaited me – nice that pumping gas and washing airplanes in High School paid off! During my time there, I got the privilege of teaching my dad to fly (article here) in an airplane we restored.

 

Blogging In Formation is a blog series where six aviation bloggers join forces to deliver their personal message about how they were drawn to flight. Each author will create one post that tells their story during the weeklong campaign.

You can see their posts at:

The series runs the May 7th-12th, 2013

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A Career Aviator is Celebrated!

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Cal Flanigan

It is rare that I recycle stories in the blog, but I wanted to share this great little piece written by Kelly Yamanouchi of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Especially with the ‘iffy’ press airline pilots have gotten after the movie Flight starting Denzel Washington. I could only wish to have such an illustrious career – you go Cal! I would love to meet you some day and shake your hand.

Enjoy!

By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The sky has had a hold on Cal Flanigan ever since he was a boy growing up in Conyers.

In 1968 he took a job as a mechanic for Delta Air Lines. But he kept his focus skyward.

“I knew I wanted to fly,” Flanigan said.

After being drafted into the Army in 1969 for two years, he used the GI Bill and extra cash from his Delta wages to pay for pilot training at a time few other African-American pilots were flying airliners. By 1976, he grasped his piece of the sky when he became a first officer flying the DC-9 for Delta.

After 45 years at Atlanta-based Delta, including 37 as a pilot, Flanigan is finally returning to the ground to retire. He is turning 65 — the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots.

It caps off a flying career that included 25 years as a captain and a record eight years as the company’s most senior pilot.

The last act of his career was flying a Delta 777 widebody from Los Angeles to Atlanta on Friday. He was greeted with a water cannon salute for the plane and a celebration at the gate on Concourse E at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Pilots in uniform gathered to salute Flanigan from the ground as he sat in the cockpit, and a special ceremony at the gate commemorated his retirement.

Flanigan is “very humble — he epitomizes the principles of servant leadership,” said Delta’s senior vice president of flight operations, Steve Dickson, adding that the senior pilot has led others with diplomacy.

In a message to employees on Friday, Delta CEO Richard Anderson called Flanigan “a hero of mine at Delta…. a man of integrity and the epitome of the Delta culture.”

“We are honored that you have been part of the Delta family for so many years,” Anderson said.

As the longest serving pilot at Delta, Flanigan has watched the airline grow from a small Southern carrier to a global force.

“When I started, if you were to look at the route map, it was east of the Mississippi,” Flanigan said. “If you look at our system map now, it covers the world.”

Flanigan saw the company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructuring. His work has included special assignments like piloting the delivery of a new long-range version of the 777 in 2008, when he told the AJC, “It’s such a pleasure to see the company on the rebound.” With the 777, “we’ll be able to reach parts of the world that we couldn’t have dreamt of before.”

He also piloted inaugural Delta flights to cities such as Dubai.

Flanigan, who still lives in Conyers, said he has “mixed emotions” about leaving the job he loves.

“It’s a career that has exceeded my wildest dreams,” he said. “I’ve been preparing myself mentally for the last year, knowing it’s coming and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Delta Airlines Calvin Flanigan

photos found at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In retirement Flanigan plans to keep his pilot license active and fly his own plane, as well as potentially pursuing other flying opportunities.

It will still be a big transition. At Delta, Flanigan has been senior flight instructor, line check airman and international chief pilot in Atlanta — and he never took a sick day in 45 years.

“My DNA always contained widgets,” Flanigan said, referring to the triangular Delta logo. “If you ever cut me, widgets are coming out.

By the numbers: Capt. Cal Flanigan’s flying career

  • More than 26,000 flight hours
  • About 12,500,000 miles flown
  • Landed at 95 destinations on 6 continents
  • Certified on 9 aircraft: DC-9, DC-8, MD-88, MD-11, Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, Boeing 727, 757, 767, 777
  • 45 years with Delta
  • 37 years as pilot
  • 25 years as captain

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Clipper Ships of the Sky: The great flying boats that shrank the world 1931-1946

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panamclippers

I have never really had any interest in the Clippers, although they were a big part of aviation’s coming of age. I just skipped over that era of aviation history,  but I was aware of the art deco posters that romanticized the big flying boats and their exotic ports of call.

Recently, someone sent me an email with several photos dedicated to the men and women of this era. I was blown away when I really started looking into this chapter of our heritage.

I can’t cover all of it here, but I would like to call out the highlights and a couple of the more obscure details.

314-Diagram

First these guys had some series guts setting out across vast oceans with extremely crude, almost non-essential navigation capabilities. The communications, what little they had, was even worse. Finding little specs of land out in the mighty Pacific isn’t for the unskilled or the faint of heart. They essentially developed their own long-range navigation techniques.

Clipper-3

It began in the early 1930s with a vision by Juan Tripp, the famous leader of Pam American Airways (PAA). A short 8 years after Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic,  Pan Am launched out across the Pacific with passenger service eventually reaching all the way to Hong Kong. Those flying boats where amazingly large. Starting with the Sikorsky S-40, then the Sikorsky S-42, which did the inaugural flight, moving a year later to the Martin M-130 in 1936.

But the flying boat that most of you think of from this era is the truly grand Boeing 314, this machine represented the pinnacle of luxury and technology at the time.

port washington

Back in the 1930s large runways were in short supply, especially in that part of the world, so the flying boat made perfect sense.

Did you know that the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, was a Pan Am Clipper pilot before turning to writing?

Also, PAA wasn’t the only one in the game, the predecessor to British Airways also had flying boats serving the far east from Europe.

415314337_3825d78f8b

Pan Am had 28 flying boats in all. The largest segment of these being the Boeing 314. If you consider that the only way across the Pacific was by boat, these airplanes represented a quantum leap in technology. Able to deliver passengers all the way to Hong Kong in a few days versus weeks.

Unfortunately this era with short-lived as the Pacific became a war zone in 1941, but the advancements made by PAA would help us in the this theatre as they continued to fly until 1946 in support of the war effort.

Pan Am Clipper

After the war, all those long runways out there negated the need for the flying boat, and technology had left them behind for sleeker and faster airliners.

My hats off to the men and women that made those journeys so long ago and helped shrink our world.

Resources:
http://www.flyingclippers.com/
Pan American Clippers: The Golden Age of Flying Boats - Amazon
The Pan Am Clipper – The History of Pan American’s Flying-Boats 1931 to 1946 - Amazon
The Long Way Home - Amazon
China Clipper: The Age of the Great Flying Boats - Amazon

by Brent Owens                                                                   Subscribe to this flying blog

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Call Sign: Juice

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Odyssey Battery RV_8

I hate to disclose this embarrassing nugget of information, but the confession might cleanse my soul – ok maybe not.

Some background first. If you frequent the blog you’ll know that I fly an RV-8. I love all sorts of airplanes; I am no RV snob, but I gravitated to the Vans designs some years ago and I am proud of my mount.
Th RVs are a large group with over 8000 flying, within that group they are several stereotypes that emerge. One that I fully embrace and that lends itself well to the RV, is the Walty-Mitty-wanna-be-fighter-pilot type. We fly formation, we run in packs (like squadrons), we do aerobatics….and we have call signs – I know ghastly. Some of us even paint our airplanes in warbird themes (guilty) and would be happy to slap some guns or missiles to it and do soldier-of-fortune work in the next third world theatre. I know, it’s bad!
Yes those are inert rockets under the wing.

Yes those are inert rockets under the wing.

In the best tradition of fighter pilots,  most call signs come from a play on your name or maybe a physical trait. Alternately, call signs can come from a mistake that you would have rather kept in confidence. That mistake thus become your brand, emblazoned on your airplane and every piece of flight gear you own. My call sign came from the latter.
It is simple enough. Last year I missed more than one sortie due to a dead battery, the cause of which was my utter incompetence (leaving the master switch ON). Thus my call sign is Juice.
battery switch
After receiving my call sign from my squadron mates, er I mean fellow pilots, I have now scrubbed two more launches due to this malady; the battery weakened by my two previous indiscretions and it finally gave up the ghost at the tender age of two.
$133 dollars lighter, my new battery is setting here waiting to be installed and its owner is waiting on warmer weather, which has been in short supply. Pass the Jeremiah Weed!
by Brent Owens                                                                   Subscribe to this flying blog
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Airshow Performer Duane Cole

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Duane Cole

Airshow Performer Duane Cole
When I was growing up, one of the best known aerobatic pilots was Duane Cole. It wasn’t because Duane flew a fire-breathing monoplane or did countless snap-rolls on his down lines; Duane was popular because he was an entertainer. He campaigned a modified Taylorcraft for most of his career, which spanned over 50 years.

In fact flying airshows was a family business. Duane was part of the Coles Brothers Airshow, which included his brothers, his wife Judy, and later their son Rolly along with some other “hired guns.”

In 1951, Cole was one of 12 men who gathered in Milwaukee to form a new airplane builders club that, two years later, became the Experimental Aircraft Association. Continue reading →

Foster Lane: Aviation Pioneer

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Foster Lane Air Facts Journal

Foster Lane: Aviation Pioneer
I wrote this article published in Air Facts Journal on one of the pioneers of general aviation, Foster Lane.

Foster learned to fly between the WWI and WWII and helped to develop general aviation from it’s earliest roots. He also created a sprawling flying business in central Ohio.

You can read about him here: http://airfactsjournal.com/2013/01/pioneer-aviator-foster-lane/

Lane Aviation aircraft pre-WWII Foster far left

Modern Day Barnstormer: John Mohr

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John Mohr Stearman Driver

Modern Day Barnstormer: John Mohr
If you haven’t heard of John Mohr, he’s the guy in the stock Stearman that flies so low you have to be in front of the crowd to see his performance.

I first saw John at the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends in 2007 here in Columbus, OH. This airshow was all about the Mustangs and warbirds, both old and new, so when this stock Stearman pulled out onto the runway, I honestly didn’t think much about it. Luckily the action started right on takeoff and I couldn’t avert my gaze the whole performance.

To say that John is the virtuoso of the Stearman is a huge understatement. He comes from a  family of pilots, with his grandfather being a real post-WWI barnstormer. Continue reading →

Self-Appointed Airport Police

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self-appointed airport police

Self-Appointed Airport Police
In my hometown we had a gentleman who took on the self-appointed role of airport police.

He was actually a nice guy and he meant well, but boy if he thought you were doing something unsafe, he was in your face.

We’ll call our man, John, for this discussion.

He was in his 70s and retired from a major oil company as a geologist. He had flown during WWII ferrying all manner of warbirds, including mustangs, but never flew in combat. He gave up flying for an honest living in the oil business after the war, but flew GA for fun.  Continue reading →

A shout-out to aviation’s volunteers

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volunteering at fly insA shout-out to aviation’s volunteers

Flying creates such an emotional connection that it really draws people in, many of these folks actually never fly. In fact, some of the more important people to our hobby aren’t licensed at all.

The good news about aviation is there are so many ways to be involved and you don’t need a ton of money, just some initiative. Continue reading →

Paying it forward: aviation style

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free airplane

Paying it forward: aviation style

This year Indiana resident and pilot , Nancy Warren, did an amazing thing.

Nancy is a member of the United Flying Octogenarians. That membership requirement is to be actively flying past 80 years of age. At 84 years young, Nancy has been going strong flying her trusty Cardinal.

A few years ago Nancy befriended a young college student who made contact about her flying exploits. Thomas Kieffer and her became fast friends. He introduced her to his friend, Eric DeBusk, and the three of them flew together often, sometimes in a rental and sometimes in Nancy’s Cardinal. They also made several long distance trips together. Continue reading →