After graduating college I wanted to travel the world. I got a job as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. While working there I met my first female pilot, and decided I wanted to be a pilot too. I started taking flying lessons at Wings Inc. After a year of lessons, I was instructing flying lessons.
I taught over 1000 hours to many students in a Cessna 172. In my lessons I would teach taxiing, takeoffs, talking on the radio, emergency procedures, instrument work and landing. I needed to instruct to build up my flight time to apply to the regional airlines.
While flight instructing I also worked part time flying for the State of MN. I flew state employees around the state of MN in a King Air B200 (Even The Gov Jesse Ventura).
My first airline job was with Chicago Express Airlines. I flew a 34 seater SAAB 340 out of Chicago Midway Airport. With this new job, I moved to Chicago. I lived in a house with 4 other pilots. I worked as a first officer at Chicago Express for 3 years.
Just as I was finishing my Captain training on the SAAB 340. I was told that Chicago Express was going under, and I was losing my job. Luckily a company called Colgan Air was buying all of Chicago Expresses airplanes and they needed Captains to fly them. So I was off to Houston Texas to fly as Captain on the SAAB!
After flying at Colgan Air for a year, I got a call for a job of a lifetime. I was hired to fly for Continental Airlines on the Boeing 757 and 767 as a first officer! I am currently based in Newark, NJ flying international routes. It is my dream job!
Inside a SAAB340 with a Flight Attendant and me as a Captain!
