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… 25 years ago this month, when I was about 12 years old and still living close enough to SNA to hear and see the jets executing noise abatement, from my house.
I had started drawing freehand side profiles to pass some time. My sixth grade teacher had a friend that was apparently a Delta Air Lines Captain. So one day I got it in my head to draw him a DAL MD-11 (had always loved the tri-jets!). Anyway, my teacher passed him the drawing, along with a note I must have written to accompany. I’m sure I went out of my way to ask about technical details of the aircraft and of flying–so hungry was I to connect with another on that level!
A few weeks later, I got some mail. It was a small piece of official company letterhead and a pair of genuine senior DAL pilot wings. The letter read:
May 15, 1995
“Dear Josh:
Captain Jim Chapman came by my office today to show me your picture of Delta’s MD-11. It’s a great picture, Josh–you are very talented.
Also, I must say I am very impressed with your knowledge of airplanes. You are very young to know so much. Maybe someday you will become a pilot for Delta Air Lines. But, in order to do so, you must stay in school, keep your grades up, and study hard.
Josh, thank you for sharing your interest in airplanes with Captain Chapman.
Cordially,
[signed] Richard Colby
Director of Flight Operations and Chief PilotMy dad took me to Aaron Brothers (used to be toward Newport Beach IVO Grant Boys and I think a really good donut shop!) to pick out a frame and matte the very next day. Now, it hangs right between a service academy diploma and my Army aviation nickel-ride certificate. Unfortunately, I *think* I read that Capt. Colby passed away a couple of years ago. I never did write him back to tell him what a profound impact this had on my life.
I know we all probably have one or two stories like this…chance encounters in our formative years that helped shape us and our passion for civil aviation.
Thanks for letting me share this bit of my own personal history with you all!
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What a great story! Thank you sooo much for sharing this. Not sure if I can see through the tears this brings up, or type through the goose bumps…but I’ll try.
When I was 16 years old (in 1976), washing airplanes in exchange for flight instruction at Danelly Field in Montgomery, Alabama, I had taken a break and went down to the apron to watch the airliners come and go. There were two 727-200s on the ramp, which was highly unusual any given day for MGM. Soon a tall and trim man in civilian clothes walked down the rear air stairs of one of the 727s, and right over to me. He introduced himself to me, and began to ask questions about the small Pipers all around the ramp where I worked. As we walked around looking at airplanes, he asked me about me; what I wanted to do in life, where I went to school, plans for the future. I expressed to him that I wanted to be an airline pilot someday. With that, he took me back to the 727 he had come off of, and allowed me to walk around it, through it, sit in the captain’s seat, and have him as a personal guide. Turns out one of the 727s was on a regular passenger run to/from Atlanta and had developed a grounding problem. My new friend was a reserve 727 captain at the time who had been called to deliver a good airplane to MGM for the stranded passengers and ferry the bad one back to ATL empty, except for the crew and mechanics. Soon I left the airplane, shook his hand, said good bye, and went back to scrubbing. A few days letter I wrote a letter to him, addressed to the Delta Air Lines Jet Base in Atlanta, where he was from. A few weeks later I received a letter back from him, inviting me to come to ATL for a visit…which I did. He took me through the bowels of the ATL airport, toured me through Greenbrier Center where the pilots trained, put me in the simulators to experience “big iron” flying, and let me fly a DC-8 “through the D.” Our friendship became very close, and I was accepted into his beautiful family as a son among his daughters. We maintained a close relationship and talked often for many years, until he retired from Delta as program manager of and line pilot in the L-1011 and moved with his family to a 58,000 acre ranch in Wyoming, where I visited him and worked on the ranch until he passed away in 2008. Gene Vieh was instrumental in who I became…he believed in me, encouraged me, and became a second dad to me over the years. I’m 60 now, and miss him no less now than when I had to say good bye and return to Alabama from Wyoming. I did fly for American for a short time in the late 90s, but had to leave because I was raising a daughter of my own, and being away from home so much wasn’t healthy for my family. I’ve been flying corporately now for more than 20 years, enjoying grand kids and model building…but I still watch airliners with a fascination and memory of a friend who flew them and took time to encourage a 16 year old with little direction. A chance encounter? Maybe. But probably not.
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There are so many of us who fly because of the interest shown to those who love aviation in our youth. I currently fly for American and am based out of KDFW.
I teach at the C.R. Smith museum three times a month. It is a true joy to introduce young men and women to our love.. Flight.
I appreciate you sharing your memoirs. So much much of what we love is going to disappear with our passing.
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
Greetings!
I think many of us have someone do something for us that is a life influencing event affecting us deeply without them realizing it at the time, and I know and understand what you guys are remembering as cherished memories of wonderful people. Sometimes it is not someone you ever see again or get to know, as it was in my case. Although my own dad was a huge influence, there was another group of people involved and it was they who sealed my fate, so to speak.
I wrote about it probably a little more than ten years ago, but I never told anyone about it when I was in college, and in fact I kept it to myself because I did not want there to be any possibility of someone getting in difficulty if the wrong ears heard about it. More than sixty years have passed now, so it would not be a problem anymore.
I have mentioned the website http://www.panamericangrace.com before, and it is here that I wrote about it. At the top you’ll see a header for “AIRCRAFT” and if you open that you’ll see “STORIES” and “GALLERIES” and the galleries contain many photos taken through the years at many places and of many airplanes, a treasure trove of memories and history. Under “STORIES” you will find “QUITO: SITUATIONAL AWARENESS” and “A BOYS MEMORABLE TRIP ON PANAGRA” and this is the special experience that affected me so much. This would be impossible today as you will realize if you read it.
Best regards,
Jeff JarvisPS: Please understand that I am NOT trying to upstage anyone else’s experiences. I certainly am not! This was an experience of the “I am extremely fortunate” type, and years later I was driven to succeed by it just as many others have been by their special memories.
God's "Curse" to aviation!
PS: Please understand that I am NOT trying to upstage anyone else’s experiences. I certainly am not! This was an experience of the “I am extremely fortunate” type, and years later I was driven to succeed by it just as many others have been by their special memories.
Hi Jeff;
Yours is one of the most touching stories to me. I remember those smells as a youngster at the airport; of exhaust clouds on startup, the “woosh” when the big props turned away from me and I got bathed in their prop wash, and most certainly the smells of the cabins of those glorious old prop liners. I remember my first ride on a jet, a Delta Air Lines DC-9 from Birmingham, Alabama to Dallas Love. I was immensely nervous, and downright scared. How was this thing gonna “go” with no visible means of propulsion…no PROPS!!
I, too, began wearing glasses in the eighth grade, and was discouraged from pursuing aviation. So I detoured and changed careers into aviation at 30. Being 60 now, I have been beyond happy and blessed for the last 30 years teaching others to fly, enjoying s short airline stint, and for the past 19 years as a corporate pilot enjoying the Challenger 350. All while wearing my glasses!
Thank you for sharing your story…just read it through…and it reminded me so much of my own experiences in the 60s and 70s growing up. Days gone by, wishing they could return…inspiring young enthusiasts is more difficult these days, but most assuredly not impossible.
Paul
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Hello Paul!
I thank you very much for your kind words and the shared inspiration. Obviously, you understand the spirit in which I told of it. Many of us have childhood heroes who intentionally, and sometimes unintentionally simply by chance as this one was, were an influence on us beyond all comprehension for whatever reason. Some of my heroes were Catholic Nuns of the Sisters Of Mercy from Brooklyn, New York who taught us in the St. Mary’s School in Balboa, Canal Zone. These nuns were only 15-20 years older than us, but they were dedicated and very good at what they did and they knew how to keep us in line and motivate us to be curious, inquisitive, and learn, Learn, LEARN. And then there were those Panagra pilots with whom my contact was purely by chance and only lasted less than ten minutes, but the effect was quite profound. It could never happen again in the world of today, and I never knew their names.
I was luckier than I ever deserved to be, and I hope I never forget that!
Guys (and girls), please keep your stories coming…….. I assure you, we all enjoy reading about them!
Best regards,
Jeff Jarvis
God's "Curse" to aviation!
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