"You will be the highest paid pilots in the industry"  
(Former CEO, Ed Beauvais in 1987)

[Of course, we never were . . . quite the opposite!]

A Different Career

Following the demise of Pride Air, and while still awaiting a legal resolution regarding my job at Continental, I started my own consulting business. Surprisingly, it was quite successful from the beginning. But I missed flying. Of course, flying the F-14 part time in the reserves was great. But having been promoted to Commander, I knew my time flying in Navy aircraft would soon be coming to a close in the not too distant future.

While working with a defense contractor - and an old friend and former POW from our USS Midway cruise - I learned that he would soon be leaving his company. Like me, he missed flying and had applied and been hired by a new, upstart airline named America West Airlines. He kept me abreast of the airline's growth and recommended I apply. Eventually, I did, and was hired in January of 1987. It meant a large cut in income, but my wife offered to go back to teaching. I was happy with the opportunity to be flying full time again.

It must be noted that although it may be called "flying" for both, there really is no relationship, nor can there be any comparison between flying as a Navy aircraft carrier fighter pilot and flying as an airline pilot. The two professions exist in entirely separate and different universes. Any comparison of the two is illogical. The skills required of each are hardly similar, nor interchangeable. Nevertheless, although hardly equal, both can still be challenging, enjoyable, and rewarding, each in their own separate and unique ways.

For a while my two flying careers delightfully overlapped. I had the best of both worlds - flying both as a commercial airline pilot and as a Navy Reserve fighter pilot, concurrently. Then, when my 21 years of active and reserve naval service came to an end, I was most fortunate at that point to be able to continue on with my airline flying career to the present day.

While I enjoyed airline flying, it naturally lacked the competitiveness and challenge I had so grown accustomed to as a Navy fighter pilot. Perhaps that is why I accepted a position with our pilots' union, ALPA. When asked to help negotiate for the Air Line Pilot Association, our first ever pilot contract at America West (although it did present personal problems), I accepted. The result was the first ever labor contract at America West - a 5-year pact of significant pay and benefit increases. Unfortunately, it still fell far short of industry standards, but it was an essential and beneficial, major first step for our pilots.

Over the many years of flying with America West (and now USAirways), I had many enjoyable experiences. However, when compared to my years and many experiences flying as a Navy fighter pilot, flying in harm's way off of aircraft carriers, my airline career although enjoyable proved to be relatively mundane and unremarkable.

And that is exactly how I wanted it!

It is precisely how it should be in the airline business – nothing unusual.

Anyway, I already had had enough excitement for one lifetime, without adding anything to it, in the safe and efficient transport of my nearly two million special airline passengers over the many years. And my many expert and dedicated flight deck and cabin crew-members made sure any unwanted "excitement" was always kept to a minimum.