Never Give Up!

It should be a way of life.

I grew up poor by most standards. My parents had divorced when I was four, and my mother moved from New York City back to Denver, Colorado, where she was born. That was in 1946. The Second World War had been over for less than a year, and there was a severe housing shortage across the country. As a result, we lived in boarding houses, and even for a time in a converted garage. I didn’t have a bedroom of my own until I was in my last year of high school. I wanted a better life, and I learned a basic philosophy of life. NEVER GIVE UP!

My first job was as a “bag boy” at a local grocery store, delivering orders to local customers, mainly in the first new high-rise apartment built in the area since before the war. As I remember, I was paid fifty cents an hour, and was grateful if I received a quarter for a tip. I was ten years old. As I grew older, I mowed lawns with a push mower in the spring, summer, and fall, and shoveled snow in the winter. I had two paper routes. In high school, I worked as a “fuel boy” for a local Cessna dealer and washed airplanes to earn the money for flying lessons. I didn’t date much or spend money foolishly. I was moving forward. Never give up.

I got my Private Pilot’s license when I was sixteen, and ferried airplanes around the country to gain flight hours. I wasn’t paid, just given expense money and a train ticket home. Doing this, I qualified for a Commercial Pilot’s license and eventually Multi-engine and Instrument ratings. Next, I got my Flight Instructor’s certificate and got a job doing that at the Cessna dealer. Being the “new guy,” I ended up with the problem student pilots, the ones the other instructors didn’t want.

I will never forget one in particular. He was a dispatcher for the local Yellow Cab company. A big guy from a Middle Eastern country. He was kind of scary looking, like a villain out of the Arabian Nights. He had many hours with other instructors, but still hadn’t been soloed. I soon found out why. As we walked out to the Cessna 150 for his lesson, I asked him why he wanted to learn to fly. “I want to be an airline pilot” he said. “They make good money.” We squeezed into the tiny cockpit, started the engine, and he taxied to the active runway. I handled the radio. It was obvious he had his hands full just taxing the airplane. Cleared for takeoff, we rolled down the runway, and he suddenly jerked the airplane off the ground, way below a safe climb-out speed. I took the controls and flew us out to one of our designated practice areas.

He had already logged more than twenty-five hours of instruction without soloing, so I knew this was going to be interesting. I had him do a few clearing turns and then told him to do a stall series, beginning with a power-on stall. I did this to demonstrate how serious a stall close to the ground could be, after his takeoff performance. He pulled back on the yoke until the stall warning sounded and the airplane pitched down as it lost lift. Instead of going through the stall recovery procedure, he let go of the yoke and grabbed the assist handle above the door! He was obviously terrified.

I took control and flew back to the airport, landed, and taxied to the ramp. I shut down the engine and told him he would not be charged for today, but it was my opinion that he should choose another occupation other than aviation for his own safety and others. No one, including the chief Flight Instructor, questioned my actions that day. They knew he was an accident waiting to happen. In my many years being an instructor, both in general aviation and with my airline, he was the only student I “lost.”

Despite what the airlines tell you, aviation is a potentially dangerous business. Although technology has made it safer over the years, it is still the skill and training of the pilots that make it safe. Never forget that simple fact. Even in the most dire circumstances, pilots don’t give up. A curious fact is that when autopsies are performed on light plane pilots involved in fatal crashes, the medical examiners invariably find that both their wrists are broken! They were obviously trying to regain control of the airplane right up to the moment of impact.

I am sure that was the case with the UPS pilots in Louisville. They courageously fought to the very last instant to save the airplane and their lives. May they Rest In Peace.

A final thought. As the pilot hiring cycle ramps up in the coming months and years due to the number of airline Captains reaching mandatory retirement age, the flying public must demand that the foolish concepts of DEI aren’t part of the hiring programs instituted by the airlines. An example of that is United Airlines’ statement that at least fifty percent of their new hire pilots will be women or “people of color”. There is simply no way to do that except by lowering their standards.

In years past, something like ninety percent of airline pilots were former military. I was one of the minority civilian pilots hired at the time. Why? Because I never gave up trying. These days, the reverse is true. There are just not enough pilots being trained by our military. So, I propose that the government establish a program to select and train to the high standards of military aviation at a national flight academy on a par with the military academies. Candidates for that institution would be selected solely on merit and demonstrated potential, with no other factors considered. Only then can the flying public be assured that the people in the cockpit meet the highest standards achievable. To those who want to choose this way of life, I offer this advice. NEVER GIVE UP!