My Pilot Earned his Wings
The Road to a Mainline
A job as a pilot at one of the mainline legacy US airlines (American Airlines, United, Delta + Southwest) is not handed to you. You must earn those wings. This includes a combination of having enough flight hours, the ability to maintain a Class 1 Medical certification, and having the proper personality. You must be able to remain calm in incredibly high stress situations because you hold in your hands the lives of countless individuals. It is up to you to ensure that they remain alive as long as they are on your aircraft.
My pilot’s journey to a mainline included a four year degree in aviation (We actually met at university. He was going to be a pilot, I was going to be an engineer), a brief stint doing some aerial photography, working a few years as a “freight dog” delivering people’s packages around the Caribbean, and then a little over five years at a regional airline based in Seattle. After getting those flight hours and several months of interviews, he received the exciting call: His class date at American Airlines was November 15th, 2023.
Although I have not frequently spoken of it, I have been by his side since his early days working at the regional. It has been an absolute honor to watch him go from some college kid with big dreams of becoming a pilot to showing up for his first day of work at American Airlines.
“Would you like to join me?”
American Airlines extends the invitation for every new pilot to invite a guest to their very first day. According to American Airlines:
At American, you’ll find this is not just a place to work; it’s a place where you’ll find your family – more than 100,000 strong in the U.S. and abroad. Of course, we know we won’t replace your “real” family — we want to get to know them, too; that’s why we’d like to welcome them aboard as well… If you are bringing a guest, this is a terrific opportunity for them to hear firsthand what to expect, and to join you at the dinner on Wednesday evening as we celebrate this incredible milestone in your career.
AA Pilot Orientation Website
American Airlines was willing to fly me space confirmed for a quick turnaround trip to DFW so that I could be by my pilot’s side on his first day of (according to them) the last job he will ever have. I am thankful that my current job gave approval for me to attend. Again, this is big.
Getting There
I left work around noon on Tuesday to fly to DFW. I should have left sooner and I had several things that happened that put me further behind where I wanted to be. First, I went to the wrong parking garage, delaying me fifteen minutes. Then, there was an issue with my ticket. I am TSA pre-check, but because someone else arranged my flights, that was not reflected on my ticket. Correcting this involved chatting with the ticket agent asking him to add my known traveler number to my reservation so that I could go through the fast lane of security. In reality, I did get to my gate with plenty of time to board. But I am that individual that wants to be sitting at the gate 1.5 hours before departure, not 30 minutes.
Once I got to DFW, I headed to the hotel. I knew it was Hyatt at DFW. After following signs, I ended up at the wrong hotel. Did you know that there are actually three different Hyatt hotels (one, two, three) on the DFW campus? Apparently arriving at the wrong Hyatt happens quite often and they just shuttled me to the proper hotel. My driver told me that I was the third person he picked up from one hotel and driven to the other hotel that day! By this point, I was dizzy and still had about an hour before my pilot arrived. I rested in the hotel room.
Once I found my pilot, my dearest addy sister Michelle picked us both up for dinner and a Target run. It is always a pleasure to spend time with her, and this was her first time meeting my pilot!
And so it begins…
The next day (Wednesday), we all met in the lobby to be taken by shuttle to the training center. I struggle with social anxiety especially when I am out of my comfort zone, and this felt very outside of my comfort zone. His class had a total of 66 pilots in it and many of them did bring their plus ones. Some of the pilots had already known each other due to working for the same regional. My pilot and I knew no one. But everyone was kind and everyone was excited about this next step in their career.
The chatter of the morning was “assignments.” When a pilot is offered a job at an airline, they are merely offered the job of “pilot.” They do not know what aircraft they will be assigned nor where they will be based. That is all decided during orientation with a limited number of slots given out by seniority. The oldest guy in the room picks first. Although scheduled to happen at the end of the day, it was on the forefront of everyone’s minds.
The moment everyone was waiting for…
After a long day of useful presentations, the time finally came. The “Orientation Angels” put an excel spreadsheet up on the front screens that had a list of everyone’s name in order of age and all available assignments. When your name was called, you stood up, stated what you wanted, and then a person from that airport would greet you and hand you a packet with information about the city and the airport. The oldest in the room was born in 1963. The youngest in the room was born in 1997. My pilot was on the younger side, but definitely not the youngest. This meant that he might get what he wanted, but it was not guaranteed.
Truthfully, what he really wanted was not an option. Just because American Airlines has a base does not mean that there would be assignments on that base for that particular class. The pilots in his class were not able to be assigned to Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas / Fort Worth, or Phoenix. While there is always an opportunity to transfer later, it would not happen day one.
The bidding process was one of the coolest and stressful things I have ever witnessed. We were determining people’s futures in a public forum. I frantically was highlighting and marking off the reference sheet as spots were claimed. It was exciting and the room was full of nervous energy. The pilot who claimed “LGA/FO/320/D” (New York, First Officer, Airbus 320, Domestic) received a large round of applause because not many people willingly choose to work out of LaGuardia.
It’s almost our turn…
Would my pilot get what he wanted? He was vying for PHL/FO/320/I (Philadelphia, First Officer, Airbus 320, International). There were 28 of those slots, so it was a higher chance than say the singular Boston slot or Los Angeles slot. The moment was drawing closer… and… it was looking… tight. There were three slots left, and he was fourth on the list. Then there were two slots left, and he was third on the list. Maybe? Maybe someone would want to pick something else, allowing him to get that PHL/FO/320/I position! It wasn’t completely out of the question…
… Until the pilot one seniority higher than him, stood up, and declared that he would like to take the last PHL/FO/320/I position. We were SO CLOSE. My pilot ended up with a MIA/FO/737/I position. He will be based in Miami (this also includes both the Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale airports) flying some international routes. Was it his top choice? No. But it is better than those LGA/FO/737/D routes. Those were the last to be claimed by the youngest men in the room. And yes, everyone clapped.
Fancy Dinner
After the bidding concluded, we were shuttled back to our hotel to prepare for the celebratory dinner expected to start at 6:15pm in the hotel ballroom. However, before the meal there was to be a class photo.
As we were walking back from the photo to the ballroom, I whispered to my pilot, “I’ve made a terrible mistake. I need food.” By this time, it was 7:15pm and there was no sign of food any time soon. Typically I always carry at least one snack on my person at all times. However, I switched to a small handbag that could only carry my emergency injection. I figured that dinner was going to be around 6:15pm so I shouldn’t need to bring food to dinner. That was a very bad miscalculation. I was getting worse, and I was scared.
My pilot volunteered to discreetly run back to our hotel room and grab my bag of almonds. At first, I told him no because I did not want to draw more attention to ourselves. He told me it was fine, and he was off! The table host asked where my pilot went, and I informed him “to grab me food.” The table host dismissed me by stating “Oh, you’ll get food soon enough.” I sternly replied, “It’s medical.”
A Helpful Outlook
My pilot returned with my almonds, which stopped my spiral. It was now approaching 7:30pm and I had last eaten a snack at around 3:00pm. It took an additional 20 minutes before we got our meal. Later, I apologized to my pilot because I was trying so hard to not let any medical things flare so we could just focus on his milestone career achievement.
He told me not to worry, and he had actually noticed that I had been getting progressively worse around the start of the group photo. He was actively monitoring my situation and already had a plan if I crashed. According to him, there were two likely scenarios. Either he got me a snack and I recovered or I didn’t recover and he would have to deliver my emergency injection. If he had to intervene medically with me, that would just prove to the room how awesome of a pilot he is because he was demonstrating in front of everyone how he handles a high stress crisis situation.
His optimistic outlook on life is one of the many things that I absolutely love about him.
The next day, he left for his additional class session. I stayed at the hotel before heading off for my flight later that afternoon. The morning was rough on me with respect to my adrenal insufficiency as I was not feeling well. Truthfully, I did not begin to feel “human” until around noon that day. Thankfully, my flight wasn’t until 1:00pm.
Concluding Thoughts
The past few years, it has felt like my world has shrunk. In my 20’s, I traveled all over the world refusing to be knocked down by my medical conditions. Now it seems like when I’m knocked down, it takes me longer to get back up. And there is a fear surrounding it. My body and soul remember the scary moments of being carted away by ambulance in unknown areas unsure if I shall receive the proper medical care. That is trauma, and the response to trauma can be crippling. I have to fight hard to continue to push my limits and test the boundaries.
This turn around trip to support my pilot was me testing my limits. Y’all, this trip was hard for me medically. And I did make mistakes. It was a very critical error for me to not bring a snack to dinner. I’m so thankful my pilot was aware of the situation and able to step in and stop my crash, enabling me to recover enough to enjoy the moment.
My pilot earned his wings at a legacy mainline carrier.
And I got to stand by his side as he did it.