I was born in Albany Georgia, where my father was stationed as an Air Force pilot. A USAF family, we moved around the globe as four children grew to adulthood and found their own callings. As all three sons worked as electrical engineers we also became licensed pilots, though I don’t think any of us ever really thought about an aviation career. Still, it was a passion that took hold of me like nothing before. I loved to fly and by the time I soloed, I was hooked for life. While great fun however, flying is no great strategy for financial success so I continued to work as an electrical engineer until founding a “low-voltage” contracting company (specializing in alarms, home automation and entertainment.) Along the way, I slowly accumulated the typical professional pilot, as well as rotorcraft and seaplane ratings.
At 47, I found myself finally able to pursue my passion for aviation on a full time basis by stumbling into a flying job. After five years working as a TBM pilot for a fast growing defense contractor, the principal told me to sell the TBM and buy a jet. By the time I had the TBM sold however, military spending was on a notable decline and our business was in no shape to own any corporate aircraft. I was just one of hundreds that lost jobs there, but probably one of the luckiest as it forced me to rethink what I really enjoyed most about aviation: the basics… stick and rudder flying, acrobatics, basic attitude instrument flying, mock air combat, formation flying… all the fun stuff! Though some of these may sound advanced, they all share roots in basic aviation concepts such as AOA control, stick and rudder skills, pitch/power/performance relationships and basic scan patterns.
About half of the 1500 flight hours I flew the TBM as a corporate pilot, I was acting as a flight instructor. The owner was not rated in his TBM but enjoyed flying and when he was not interested in taking the left seat, I would offer it to anyone on board who wanted the chance. Looking back, I have been a very lucky pilot who has had amazingly diverse opportunities to fly many different aircraft on all sorts of missions, Through all of this, I discovered that I am happiest sharing what I have learned about flying with others in the dynamic one-on-one environment that the cockpit provides.
Now I am literally living my dream: sharing basic airmanship, knowledge and judgment as well as advanced IFR skills with pilots who are not only fortunate enough to own a high performance aircraft like the TBM, but generous enough to share the cockpit with me.