Sometimes the airlines surprise you

As incredible as it may sound, I recently had a great experience in the "human mailing tube." I was flying to Las Vegas for a client's conference and was fortunate to be upgraded to first class. Since I was so close to the front of the plane and the cockpit door was still open, I could see the pilots going through their pre-flight. I asked the stewardess if I could go up into the cockpit for a chat, she checked with the pilots and I was granted access.

The pilots were both late forties, former Air Force guys that had been with the airlines for over 15 years. I asked if it was still a good job and both agreed that it was. They were disappointed about the pensions being destroyed, but both guys said they were very happy flying for a living. When I told them I was a pilot the Captain, Bill Griffith, got up from his seat and invited me to sit in the left seat. Next he pulls out his cell phone and takes my picture! Bill seemed generally interested in what GA flying was all about and asked me lots of questions. Both pilots were amazed to hear about the instrumentation I had in my little plane. Neither seemed to have any idea that MFDs, moving maps and XM weather had made into GA cockpits.

It came time for me to leave and Bill took my e-mail address and promised to send me the photos. Below is the picture and the contents of his e-mail:

Dear Mr. Wellington,

I wanted to extend to you a note of thanks for your business …. It’s rare that we get to interact with passengers as we did with you in New York, especially someone who has your level interest in flying. Your enthusiasm as a pilot is so refreshing – makes me want to count my blessings and remember my earliest joy in starting out as a professional pilot.

During our cross-country flight, I was thinking about our conversation, and couldn’t help but wonder how I would fare as a private aircraft owner/operator. On the one hand, the freedom of going when and where you want is so appealing. Plus there’s certainly the pride of ownership that goes with a quality machine …. especially one that takes such a specialized set of skills to operate. But then I thought about the things I take for granted at the airline: Our on-going training and safety instruction, our ability to write up maintenance issues without worrying about cost but still confident that those issues will be fixed; the fact that we have a dispatcher looking out for our flight from beginning to end, keeping our operation covered in regard to weather, alternates, passenger issues, and maintenance; and the knowledge that I don’t have to initiate the flight unless I’m convinced it’s safe – essentially meaning, nothing is so important that I HAVE to take off. Clearly I would need to address my own attitude in preparing to operate my own airplane – I’m pretty sure the attitude that I take in operating my car wouldn’t work! Something tells me, you have gone through that thought process, and now you’re enjoying the fruits of that work.

Have you ever heard the “One Moose Airplane Story”? The copy I carry with me in my flight bag is by John Steuernagle, and was found in the AOPA Safety Report. (Sorry, I don’t have a date.) Anyway, it’s a great story, and in a very humorous way addresses the very issue of knowing that you don’t HAVE to take off. If you’re interested, I bet you can find it online, but if not, let me know and I’ll be glad to send you a copy, probably as a jpg attachment to an email. Again, thank you for visiting the cockpit, and for your selection of Delta Air Lines …. We still love to fly!

Fly Safe!!

Bill Griffith
Delta Air Lines
Captain / LAX

Man, does this guy do a great job for his airline! By the way, the plane took off on time and arrived 10 minutes early and my luggage was first off the carosel. Sometimes you just get lucky.