Flight Engineer

Everything at North Central Airlines was amazing.  They actually had one of their airliners decked out as a cooperate style aircraft with a luxury cabin.  This was for the Board,  and the top execs.  It was a Convair 580.  The paint job was in the North Central colors.  But very subdued.  Just some modest thin stripes.  And the Mallard Duck logo not on the tail like the line 580's,  but discreetly on the forward fuselage by the main door.  The pilots assigned to fly the cooperate 580 were regular line pilots.  The duck logo was the most recognized in the industry.  The duck had a name.  "Herman".  

I had applied to most of the major airlines.  This was in 1978.  I wasn't getting interviews.  My resume was pretty much the story of a light plane pilot.  I had lots of hours.  But only my DC-3 time set me apart from the CFI's with college degrees.   You had to be in a three piece suit.  You had to have your log books,  You had to have a four year degree.  You had to have an ATP.  You had to have your hair cut.  You had to know somebody.  You had to have the "Flight Engineer written" passed.  I had everything.  Except I didn't know anyone.  And airlines like Delta and American were hiring military pilots with "Jet Time".  Not civilians like me. 

There was a company called "Flight International" doing different things.  Charters.  Government contracts.  Overseas endeavors.  One day I saw a little tiny ad in "Trade a Plane" or "AOPA Pilot" or something.  The ad offered a Flight Engineer Rating for $2995.  From Flight International in Atlanta.  Must be a missprint.  I thought.  Don't get me wrong,  in 1978 $3K was a lot of money.  But an FE Turbojet rating usually went for four times that.  Well it wasn't a missprint.  Flight International had lost it's VA approval and could no longer train the veterans that were getting the airline jobs.  So they needed cash.  And they had the waiver which allowed the Flight Engineer ticket to be issued without the student ever being in a full blown motion simulator.  I got my FE "ticket" .  All my "simulator time" was in a "procedures trainer".  One that Delta used to get their students ready for the real simulator.  This "paper trainer" was the meat of the course.  I had to take the "oral" from the FAA in Atlanta.  I had to do a "walk around" with the school examiner.  This was the same day as my checkride in the B727-100 which was a Federal Express aircraft.  My hop around the pattern in the engineers seat was a blur.

I updated all my applications with my new FE rating.  The interview offers started coming like crazy in the mail.  There was no e mail.  There were no cell phones.  I went to nine interviews in 1978.  World, Braniff, American,  Delta,  Northwest,  Federal Express, United, etc.  Now I had the interviews,  but no offers.

It's true,  I didn't know anybody.  But somehow I seemed to fit with North Central.  I had done a lot of flying out of Ypsilanti, next to Detroit.  I was used to seeing those 580's and DC-9's with the duck on the tail.  I was tired of the cattle calls and three piece suits and WWII aircrew selection tests.  When I went up to Minneapolis I had shed the polyester.  I had my blue wool blazer which was probably the only piece of quality clothing I owned.   The moment I got on the DC-9 at BWI,  I could tell that this airline,  North Central Airlines, was different.  Everyone was nice.  Everyone was recommending to me that I come to work there,  because it is nice.  And there was a big merger coming.  Southern Airways will merge with North Central bringing to the party it's fleet of DC-9's and it's Atlanta hub.  The new airline would be called "Republic". 

Downstairs at headquarters my personnel interview went fine.  Upstairs even better.  Just me and the Flight Ops guy.  In the empty company board room.  After a few pleasantries he said "Lloyd,  tell me about the DC-3."   So I did,  and he told me about  his first job at North Central. As co-pilot on the DC-3.  I listened. North Central retired it's highest time DC-3 and donated it to the Ford Museum in Dearborn where it still resides.

As I rode home from Minneapolis to Baltimore with my positive space pass,  I  knew this was the best interview I had ever had.  North Central had just ordered it's first 727's.  They weren't on the property yet. I had a turbojet engineer rating.  North Central had just begun service to DCA out of Detroit and Minneapolis.  I was from Washington, DC.  All the Captains I would fly with at North Central had flown DC-3's.  I had a DC-3 type rating.  North Central was hiring a lot of civilian pilots due to the 580's and the operating into smaller towns like Hibbing,  Oshkosh, etc.  I was a civilian.

Up in the loft of my hanger in a box gathering dust is the wall style,  rotary,  yellow,  kitchen phone from my parents house.  The phone on which I was offered employment as a pilot with North Central Airlines.  The same phone that ten years before I had been called on to tell me that I had passed, on the final try,  the third and last chance try,  the exams to complete the Spaatz Award.  This was the completion of the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program.  This would be comparable to "Eagle Scout".

Why did I save that phone?   Because I'm a pack rat?  Yes I am.  But I'm sentimental.