Those Were The Days

[written on March 5, 2019]

On the morning of March 5, 1979 at 0630 I was in the kitchen when the phone rang. I quickly picked it up.

It was the Director of Operations at Ransome Airlines, who said "Good Morning," then told me I'd been hired and that I was to report for training on Monday, March 19th. He asked if I accepted this, to which I replied "Yes Sir" without a second of hesitation.

After all, Ransome Airlines in 1979 was the country's most respected commuter airline, a reputation it maintained throughout its existence.

[In case my non-aviation readers are wondering about the name, Ransome Airlines was owned by aviation pioneer Dawson Ransome, hence Ransome Airlines.]

I should tell you that my hiring was communicated in a military manner: crisp and low key. That's because most of the pilots at Ransome, including the Director of Operations, had military backgrounds and tended to be militarily clipped in their communications.

After hanging up the kitchen phone, I let out a yell at the top of my lungs, thereby waking up my wife and one-year-old son. I probably should have been a tad less exuberant because my new career as an airline pilot lasted but two weeks, which is how long it took my class to get furloughed. Mercifully, the furlough was short-lived.

The best thing about my class of 1979 became the best thing about being in the airline world, which was this: the people I worked with over the decades turned out to be some of the best people I've ever known, and I'm not talking about just pilots. I'm talking about pilots and flight attendants and mechanics and crew schedulers and instructors and loadmasters and operations personnel and crew car drivers and I could go on and on.

Three pilots from that 1979 class are among my Facebook friends—Rick Henry, Tom Brielmann and Jack Greifzu. Rick and Tom haven't reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 and are still flying for the airlines. Rick's flown all over the world as a senior captain and check airman with Fed Ex. Tom's not only a Delta captain; he's the head of Delta's ALPA. Jack soared to great heights in the airline world but now, like me, Capt. Greifzu is beyond 65.

Even with all their aeronautical achievements, it wouldn't surprise me if when Captains Greifzu, Henry and Brielmann look back on those eight-leg days between PNE, PHL and DCA, they remember it as a time when we truly became airline pilots. Or as a senior captain said back in 1979:

"If you guys can fly into Washington National at 5pm, you guys can fly into any airport in the world."

You know, Jack, Rick and Tom, maybe he was right. I mean, how often in your flights all over the world has Approach Control cleared you for something as complicated and drawn out as the curved RNAV MLS STOL RWY 33 HOLD SHORT OF RWY 36 approach?

Or as a stressed out DCA approach controller said to us in the cockpit of a DHC-7 on a busy weekday afternoon at 5pm:

"Hey Ransome, would you do me a big favor and just head for the airport and land!"

Those were the days...40 years ago.