So you are in college and have waited until now, your junior or senior year, to seriously look for a job. But where do you start? Maybe you don’t feel qualified for the job you would like to have. Well, you have to start somewhere, so here is what I did, January 1, 1975.

I was in my apartment in South Portland, Maine wondering where my life was headed. I had college degrees in Electrical Engineering Technology and Business Management. Currently, I was driving a taxi for Town Taxi in Portland. I enjoyed driving and meeting people; but I new I had to work towards some type of career. So, I devised a plan. I started to make a list – a list of everything that I was interested in that I could consider as a career goal. I ended up with a list of 16 items. It included becoming an architect, a photographer, computer programmer, writer/author, a pilot, a professional tennis player, a professional baseball player and a number of others. Just then, a Boeing 727 flew over the apartment building on its descent into what is now Portland International Jetport. I had decided!

I was always interested in anything that flew, and had been all my life. UFOs (My brother and I actually saw one over our home in Kittery, Maine in the late 1960s.), birds (I was an active, enthusiastic bird watcher since my early teens.), airplanes (I had made over 40 plastic models and displayed them all over my parents living room when I was a teenager.), balsa wood gliders, bats, space travel and the list was endless. So why not become an airline pilot? It looked exciting, the pay was not bad. I could travel and meet people (certainly more than I would driving a taxi cab!)  And, I decided, “That’s it – an airline pilot!”

I went to the phone book, looked up several flight training schools and chose Maine Aviation. I talked to a flight instructor by the name of Bill Jensen. When I told him I wanted to be an airline pilot, he said, “Great! Why don’t you come out here and we will go up?” I did so; and on New Years Day, 1975, I took my first flight lesson (really just an introductory flight) and was hooked on flying! Why?

Well, it was fun!  And it was exciting, provided a sense of freedom and gave me a different perspective on life.  From 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the ground, people are just specks!  Even a car or truck was not much bigger.  I often thought, “How could my problems be so huge, when I am just one of those specks down there?!”  The fact was my problems were not all that big!  I never did a lot of worrying, but I did think much about where my life was headed and what I would do for a career.

Later that year I took my private pilot checkride and received my private pilot certificate in September 1975.  I had done much studying both at home in the apartment as well as in the taxi cab when waiting for my next fair (i.e. paying passenger).  In fact, I paid for most of my flight training by driving a cab; however, my parents did help with whatever I could not afford.  And I stayed with that training over the next four plus years.  By the spring of 1979 I had earned my commercial pilot certificate for single-engine land, with an instrument rating. My next step was to find a good flight school, no a great flight school, no the very best flight school I could possibly find and then train to become a flight instructor.

I looked all over the country and decided on Sierra Academy of Aeronautics in Oakland, California (now in Livermore, CA).  I planned on starting my training by mid summer 1979.  However, in early spring of 1979 I had a major setback. Someone had stolen my taxi cab; and the boss was none too happy!

(to be continued)