I started my private pilot career flying a Cessna 150 out of Lakefront Airport in New Orleans in 1971. As a 17 year old engineering student at Tulane University, on Saturday mornings, I would bicycle from the beautiful New Orleans Flower district 16 miles, to take my lesson, then bike back to the University campus.
After leaving Tulane to study psychology at New York University with Dr. Ted Coons, who later became my Ph.D. mentor, my flying was put on hold until a fateful day when an Eastern Airlines flight I planned to take from Bar Harbor Maine to Boston and LaGuardia airport never took off due to the pilots not showing up. It was at that moment, that I committed to train for my private pilot license. It only took a year of study and training for me to receive my first pilot certification, ASEL.
While the failure of Eastern Airlines pilots was the primary reason I became a licensed airman, it was a provocative dare from my first wife that moved me to buy my first airplane, N58162 a single engine 200 horsepower Mooney, the Porsche of single engine airplanes.
Sometime after receiving my airman license and before my birthday in February, my former wife asked what I “wanted for my birthday.” My genuine response was “Nothing” to which she clearly said “you never want anything for your birthday, there is something wrong with you.” For some reason that statement triggered my immediate response “I want an airplane” which was thereafter immediately met with, “you are not going to buy an airplane,” which meant that I absolutely had to do exactly that. After some research, that is what I did! See the photo of N58162, what a great machine.
According to my logbooks, I flew the Mooney almost 1,000 hours, making hundreds of trips between Westchester County airport (HPN) and Bar Harbor Maine (BHB), fully eliminating any reliance on Eastern airlines, schedules, delays, equipment issues and cancelled flights. The independence of being a private pilot with a capable aircraft, also allowed me to expand my real estate development activities in Maine.
By 1998, it was time to move up to a more capable twin engine airplane, and after research decided to find a Model F Piper Aztec, an aircraft known for its excellent airframe, stable performance and significant useful load. It was this useful load that made the aircraft famous for its use by marijuana smugglers bringing pot in from Jamaica to the US earlier in the decade!
Training for my Multi-engine Instrument certificate took about 5 months, working with the very experienced corporate pilot and instructor, Jim Hendricks. Shooting multiple practice Instrument landings after a simulated engine failure was just one of the many emergency procedures I practiced in addition to stalls, spins and other potentially dangerous multi-engine situations.
After searching globally for the exact right aircraft, I found N58162 in Lake Geneva airport in Switzerland. Then after a week of international negotiation with the honorable Swiss owner, I arranged to fly over, purchase the plane and fly it back to Westchester County airport. That 30 hours of flying, became the most amazing flight I ever made.
The flight plan took me from Lake Geneva to Wick Scotland for an overnight, then to Iceland for an overnight, then to Greenland for an overnight. The last legs of the flight from Greenland to Westchester County HPN via Labrador, included a flight at 2,000 feet along 15 miles of an unspeakably beautiful Greenland fiord, before climbing to 14,000 feet on the leg to Labrador to refuel. On that same leg, the air temperature outside the aircraft was -50 degrees F, proving the cabin heater incapable of warming the cabin interior to even +40 degrees F.
I flew N6544A almost 600 hours into the Canada, the Caribbean, to the West coast with many one of a kind stops all over the US. My strict policy when carrying a non-pilot passenger in the co-pilot seat was to insist they fly the plane, and they always did. I sadly parted ways with N6544A after my annual flying dropped too far below the 100 hours per year that I determined was necessary for me to stay sharp and safe. I miss N6544A to this day.
Have a look at the left engine pointed straight down the Greenland fiord at 1,500 feet MSL, taken on that, irreplaceable, once-in-a-lifetime- ride. Who knew that the failure of Eastern Airlines would lead to my Airman ticket, and who can guess how many careers will begin like mine with the demise of a commercial airline like Spirit. Its always about the taking the long view.
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