The ladder was leaning against the Corporate wall - and I was about to crest it
After a few years flying as Captain with Great Lakes, I was becoming...bored. The challenge had been conquered, I was a Domicile Manager (writing the monthly schedules, covering crew absences, etc), and I was ready to take the ‘last step’ in my climb to my goal, Corporate Flying.
I bought a computer, a laser printer, and a subscription to a job opening and corporate flying department address list. I was set. I had a type rating, a couple thousand hours of Multi Engine Turbine PIC flight time, 8 seasons operational experience in the Midwest, etc. I was well qualified. But, as I would come to learn quickly...I did not have an ‘in’.
In the Corporate world, you have to know someone. It is essential. Whether it’s another pilot, someone from within the company itself, or a friend of either of those two...start networking if you are serious about going places.
I sent out over 400 resumes that summer. Some, were more than resume/cover letters. One, went with a single shoe in a box. In the box was a note that stated I was looking to ‘get my foot in the door’.
Most companies, did not even respond. I think I may have received 10 letters back. All with the common theme. ‘Thanks for applying, but we are not looking for anyone right now.’ I was more than deflated. I was also young and impatient. I needed to meet people, no one knew who I was...I was just a name on a piece of paper.
The missing piece to the puzzle
For me, I met that someone while I was based in Quincy, IL. I would, occasionally, hang out at the local FBO at the UIN airport. The General Manager there at the time, Jim Osbourne, and I would talk once and a while about my aspirations. Over 18 months or so, Jim became very aware of my continued hunt for the coveted Corporate pilot position.
Then one day, Jim invited me into his office. I was not sure what it was about, but he had my attention. He went on to tell me that he knew of a position opening up soon, just East of Quincy. It was a Chief Pilot position with a Food Distribution Company. The current Chief Pilot was retiring, and they were looking to buy a Turbine Multi Engine airplane. Rumor was a King Air, maybe a Cheyenne.
Jim told me he could talk to the CEO, put in a good name for me. I had a good feeling about this one. This particular corporation had their aircraft serviced in Quincy, at Jim’s FBO. He knew the people that ‘hook me up.’
I interviewed a few weeks later. I had Jim’s recommendation with me. I also had, as references, certain people from Great Lakes that knew me very well, and knew how I flew. The interview itself was conducted on a Saturday, in the office, at the Corporate Headquarters in Mt. Sterling, IL. There was no one there, but the CEO- Pat Tracy. If things went well, I would be working for Pat, flying a Senecca III and Arrow III around the midwest.
DOT Foods, Inc., is huge food distributor in the Midwest. Today, they have a fleet of over 700 Semi Trucks, and 3 aircraft. Things have changed a lot since I was there in 1995.
Pat told me all about the job. Not only was it for a pilot position...but the Chief Pilot. I was also going to be a taxi driver. If a part for a truck needed delivered to an area with no airport, then I was expected to drive the part there. I would also be quoting trips, providing flight time quotes, segment lengths, etc to the Administrative Assistant. I would also be responsible for yearly budgets, hiring and training part time pilots, etc.
It was ‘a little more than I was looking for’. I came from jobs where I flew airplanes. Maybe ground school if I was not flying...but I was a pilot. Pilots fly I thought. Not drive cars around delivering parts.
Having said that, this was my first and only interview since I started my quest for a Corporate Pilot position. I only had one concrete source to compare what I was getting into with. And his flight department was much larger than DOT’s. So, this was it. I decided to suck it up and give this a shot.
I went home and anxiously awaited the phone call that would secure my position in my new home. The call came a few days later. It was Pat, and he told me that he was not comfortable with me working for him. I was confused. The interview went well, we got along fine. So I figured maybe he would tell me why he was not comfortable. I asked him why he had arrived at his decision.
He told me point blank that he felt that I was headed for the airlines. And he did not want to take the risk of hiring me only to watch me leave a short time later. He is telling me this on the phone, and I am really trying to make this work out...I want the position! So I re-affirmed what I had told him during the interview. I told him that I had no interest in the airlines. (I did not, I wanted to end up in a Corporation) I told him again, ‘No college, poor eye site, I’m not going anywhere.’ I asked him to reconsider his decision. There was a pause. Then, he offered to have another interview next week. He said he would call my references during the next week, and we could meet the following weekend to discuss any further involvement in the selection process. I had taken a chance, and it had paid off so far.
During this week, I did some homework. First, I called Mac (from Great Lakes), and told him what had happened. And Mac had something to tell me as well. Mac was concerned for me. He had seen a few pilots leave the Commuter to try the Corporate gig...only to end up not liking it. Then, they were out of a job. So Mac told me he wanted me to consider something.
His idea, was to have me ask DOT if they would allow me work there full time, Monday through Friday (and any weekend they needed- although that was very rare)...but at the same time, I would remain employed by Great Lakes on weekends and Holidays. In effect, I would be working all the time. I would also retain my seniority at the Airline along with pay and vacation. If the Corporate job did not pan out, then I could return to Great Lakes, no harm, no foul.
I said, ‘That’s a great idea!’ Then I asked him how this was going to work with Great Lakes. How is this done? He told me to take care of DOT, he would take care of Great Lakes. I said ‘done.’
I also spoke with Jim Osbourne again. I explained to him what had happened. He knew through our conversations that I was serious about the Corporate route. He also knew that I did not believe I had a shot with the Majors because of my vision and lack of any College Education. So Jim called Pat to re-affirm my aspirations.
The next Saturday came, and I headed back to Mt. Sterling. This interview went very well. Mainly, because my references had been contacted and Pat got a much better picture of who I was and what I was all about. He told me that Mac had changed his mind after speaking with him. (Again, I owe Mac more than you can imagine) He also told me that Mac had thrown out the idea of me working full time for DOT and part time for Great Lakes on the weekends. He liked the idea.
That was it! I was hired. I started soon after.
My first week as a Corporate Pilot
The first order of business was to fly the Seneca with Pat and get used to it. Pat was not only my boss, he was an Instrument rated Multi Engine pilot. He had been flying the airplane for years. And since there were no type ratings, crew requirements, etc., I could simply go fly with him.
The airplane was nice. Great shape, nicely equipped. I just could not land the #$%^ thing! All the landings with him went horrible. It was absolutely embarrassing! I was not putting on the best show for day one. I could roll a 1900 on the ground in a stiff or gusty cross wind...but could not figure this ‘light twin’ out.
We went back to the hangar, put the airplane away, and chatted a few minutes before heading home that day. He told me it would come, and that I had a trip the next morning down to STL. I would be taking a passenger down to connect with a Commercial flight. Quick trip, down and back. Then, back to the office till 5 pm. If I was not flying or taking care of airplanes, then I was in the office doing paperwork. That was not a good time either, but it was part of the job.
The trip down to STL went fine, I was already finding a groove with the airplane. I just needed to get familiar with it. Everything was pretty much falling into place.
The following year was full of work. I did work Monday through Friday at DOT, and every weekend at Great Lakes. I also worked all the Holidays at Great Lakes, which was a win-win for Great Lakes and anyone who thought for a second of being jealous about my part time position. Over that year, I had 7 days off. That was it. Luckily, I was 24, and my new wife understood how the business worked. She was very tolerant of my new ‘drug’.
One of the opportunities that proved to pay dividends later, was a chance to hire two part time pilots. Pat told me one morning that he wanted me to place an ad in the local paper for two part time pilot positions. Up until now, I was the only pilot. I was a Chief Pilot with no pilots :) But, that was about to change.
I told him I had not interviewed anyone before. So he said, ‘That’s ok, I’ll have so and so brief you on the legal aspects of interviewing, and I think we have some audio courses in the Library you can listen to while driving to work.’ That was to be my training...an audio course. Ok.
I placed the ad in the local paper. And I waited for the resumes to start coming in. And come in they did!
-Now what’s ironic about this, is that, just a few months ago, I was in the position of sending my resume into Corporate Flight Departments. And now, I am to be the one opening the mail, reading these resumes, and forming candidate piles and rejection piles. The tables had turned that fast. What I was about to learn, would prove to be invaluable, and it would eventually get me into United Airlines.-
As the resumes came to my desk, I found myself opening the envelope, quickly glancing over the entire document looking for key information, and then placing the resume in one of two piles. One pile, was for viable candidates based on what Pat was looking for AND what I was looking for. The other pile, was for ‘back up.’
After a month, I chose my favorites and took them into Pats office for us to review. We did not see eye to eye on a few of them, others pleased us both. So the interviews would begin. After I contacted people. I called them, scheduled the interview around my ‘schedules’, at the Office. I was able to interview my number one choice, Paul Dawson. He was flying in nearby Jacksonville, IL as a Flight Instructor. I called Paul, and set up an interview for the day after my return from the East Coast.
The interview was delayed due to a mechanical issue with our Seneca. During the interview, I pretty much decided that Paul was someone that was ‘on the short list’, but I also knew that Pat was not keen on hiring him due to his age and Pats perception that he would not be around long (same airline story). Paul was very nice, well spoken, knowledgeable for his experience level, and most importantly- someone I seen myself getting along with stuck in a cockpit for the day, or possibly overnight out on the road.
Through the next few interviews, it became apparent to me right away that, one of my big questions was ‘Could I get along with this person while training, flying a trip with, or out on the road with?’ It had little to do with flying abilities, hours, qualifications (nothing to do with College), or anything else. It was about getting along during the interview.
How much does this person talk? How is he/she groomed? What did they decide to wear to the interview and why? Were they on-time? Did the logbook match the resume (hours, years, ratings, experience)? Did they interrupt me while I was posing a question? Were they confident? There was so much I learned to look for during those interviews. And I was learning something else too...and that was how I was going to present myself to an interviewer if that were to ever occur again. You can’t put a price on that. And it just happened, unplanned, no cost associated with it.
After all interviews were concluded, I met with Pat, and we tried to come up with a common two candidates. We seen eye to eye on one, but not the other. His focus was on hiring someone that would be ‘there’ for quite a long time (to reduce training costs, etc). Funny thing was, after we hired his choice, and I completed his training, that person left our company and took a full time job with the State of IL. Sometimes, thats how it goes. Our mutual choice, is still employed by DOT, part time. So we hit 50%.
The really neat part about this happening was that, with all other candidates gone, busy, or just not being considered, we were now down to one part time pilot. So, I talked Pat into letting my Father fill that other vacancy. And so it was, if the first part timer could not get away from his full time job, then I was calling my Dad to come fly for us. It worked out really well, a win win for everyone and a very nice memory in big scheme of things.
Here’s where it get’s a little messy
Keep in mind, I was hired to buy ‘a turbine aircraft’. King Air, Cheyenne, etc. When I interviewed, I asked about the time frame that Pat thought that may happen. He told me one year. So, we had come to an agreement during my interview process that, if a Turbine aircraft was not on property in 12 months (with no progress toward that result, or any attempts to purchase), then I would probably return to Great Lakes as a Full time Captain. He agreed.
One problem that Mt. Sterling airport had, was that, there was no fuel available on-site. For years, DOT had been landing short, and filling 10 minutes South at an airport that had a ‘self-serve’ fuel tank. For the most part, that worked ‘ok’. There were times though, that the airplane was sitting full of fuel, and 5 passengers with golf clubs were now going out the next day instead of the 2 we had planned the day prior. Now you start getting into Weight/Balance issues, not to mention Performance issues on one engine, hot day, at Gross Weight.
I told Pat, that with a Turbine Aircraft, at that field (4,000 feet of runway), there would be days that the airplane would not have the performance to meet balanced field. So, tankering fuel in, full, then taking the maximum number of people out, was not going to work for me. At that point, I had a good 35 years of flying left, and I was not going to risk my Ratings / Certificates for DOT just because we could not get a fuel tank on the field.
Pat told me to come up with 3 possible solutions. Get costs, quotes, write a report that he could take to the Board of Directors and try and get approval. Fine. That kept me ‘busy’ for a while. I came up with 3 solutions, wrote the report, and turned it in. We had agreed on the solution that was going to run us about $35,000 for a two tank set up (Jet-A in one, and 100LL in the other). He took it to the Board.
The Board denied the Fuel system. This was happening around the 11 month time frame. We had demoed a King Air F90. We were looking at airplanes, I was talking to insurance companies, things were moving, but we were no where near the point of buying an airplane.
At the same time, I’m still flying at the Commuter part time, on weekends and Holidays (when DOT did not need me). I was ‘in the loop’ as to what was happening at Great Lakes. And, I was getting very close to holding Brasilia Captain. So I called Jim Tostenrude (the Chief Pilot), and asked when he thought I would be ‘up’ for training ‘if I came back full time’. He told me I could start Nov 4! It was Oct 15...a perfect two weeks out. I told him to put me in class, I would be there on Nov 4, back to full time.
Oh boy, now I need to tell Pat. It was Friday, and through the weekend, coming into Monday, was going to put me just under the two weeks I ‘personally’ always give an employer as notice of resignation. So I called him and gave my two week notice, stating lack of meaningful progress on the acquisition, the fact that we could not spend $35,000 for a fuel system, but were still entertaining the idea of buying a $500k to $1m dollar airplane. And I told him I had an opportunity to go back to Great Lakes and start Brasilia ground school in November.
He was disappointed, but understood. We did have an agreement, and he delivered on that agreement by treating me with respect and thanking me for all my work during the past 11 months. He also thanked me for the Flight Training I gave him on Fridays. We would fly early morning, and shoot approaches, do single engine work, etc. I used tricks I learned from Great Lakes, passing them on. He told me it was the most thorough and comprehensive training that he had received- and I think that’s one of the better memories from working there. But the best memory is the people. DOT is full of talented people, that know the business, close the deals, and ‘git-er-done’.
The next 10 months...
Long story short, I went back to Great Lakes, and checked out in the EMB-120 as Captain a month later. Then, I ‘started over’ in the Seniority chain, going back to the CIU (3rd time now) for two months. After two months, I got a call from the Chief PIlot stating that I was being ‘bumped’ out of the Brasilia, back into the Beech 1900, and the only place for me to go was Marquette, MI. I ended up being based there for two months while some Politics played out between the pilots Union and Management. At the end of that, I was sent down to Savannah, GA, as a Brasilia Captain! This was beginning to ruin my good mood. Now, I had to hop a flight from Quincy, IL (where I lived with my ‘pregnant’ wife) to Chicago, get on American down to Raleigh Durham, then hop our flight to Savannah- just to go to work! It took all day, a day off, to get in position to work. And to top all that, I ended up flying a 1900 80% of the time down there because Great Lakes had placed the 3 oldest EMB-120’s on earth down there...and they were broken most of the time. So I flew a 1900 if the 120 was down.
So there I am, flying a 1900 out of Savannah, GA (most of the time) when I could be flying the 1900 from HOME! I called the Chief Pilot back. I was at the end of my rope by the 3rd month of this circus. I told him I needed to be based back in UIN if I was gong to continue working for Great Lakes, because commuting all day to fly one out of Savannah was, well, stupid!
He agreed, and did get me back to UIN, flying from home. But it was already too late. Going back to the 1900, then to Marquette, and eventually down to Savannah lit a fire under my behind to get the heck on to the next position. And as luck and timing would have it, a position was open at my ‘top of ladder’ company, Newell Rubbermaid. They had just lost a pilot to United Airlines, and they were looking to fill his spot. I had a friend of the family there (as a pilot) that had been telling me how great this place was for 9 years. And now, a spot is open. I began working that very diligently.
While I was commuting to Savannah, flying a full schedule, I found a few days away to attend interview 1 of 3 with Newell. Then, after I had been based back in UIN, I completed the last two interviews over two months. And that is where I will start the next Chapter to my story....
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