There was a period of 6 years, from 1970 to 1976, where I pretty much drifted between jobs, changed goals—if I ever had any to begin with, and I guess in general just tried to figure out who I was. I married the first time at age 22, the summer after my wife to be finished college. She was a school teacher who still works for the same school system, traveling to several different schools and working with hearing impaired children.
In 1976 I enrolled in an auto mechanics two year program at the local Technical Institute. Both years I finished at the top of my class, and at the beginning of the second year was hired by the school to repair and maintain the school vehicles. That included the Tech School and the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. After finishing the second year, I opened my own repair shop, specializing in automatic transmission rebuilding and repair.
Business wasn’t bad, I was making fair money, my wife was doing well, but there was something missing….something wasn’t right, wasn’t complete. I think it might be like what a pregnant woman goes through; when her body needs certain vitamins and such, and gives her the craving to eat everything and anything…hoping by chance she will get what her body needs. I was like that. I built a drag car and my wife and I both raced every Sunday. We built a street rod and were members of a car club. I worked out, 4 nights a week in the weight room, 2 nights a week followed by a short 2 ½ mile run, the other two nights followed by a 6 mile run.. Once a week I ran the 13 miles from my home to the health club and after a sauna rode home with my wife. I raised Doberman Pinchers. I got a Federal Firearms License and became a Firearms Dealer, did many other things but I still could not reach the itch and scratch it.
After almost 10 years of marriage we called it quits. I sold off my repair business as it was located on the same property as our home…which my wife’s father had co-signed for. I lived in Eau Claire, in an apartment, for about a year and started my pilots training. I enjoyed flying, but realized it was to expensive to do for fun….so I enrolled in one of the best, and the oldest, flight schools in the country. Spartan School of Aeronautics, in Tulsa, Oklahoma had its beginnings when Tulsa International Airport was a grass field. I took my commercial, instrument and flight instructor training there. After about a year of Flight instructing, I returned to Spartan for my multi-engine training. Later I got the multi-engine instructor rating and after 1500 hours flight time went to Olathe, Kansas and got my ATP rating. (Airline Transport Pilot)
In the 12 years after getting my commercial license, I logged over 6,500 hours flight time, about 4,500 hours of that in multi-engine aircraft. I flew about 50 different makes and models of aircraft, the many variations because I spent a lot of time doing ferry work for an aircraft dealer. I was a captain for TCNA (Turks and Caicos National Airlines), Aero Coach, Southern Outbound Air, and Airways International, and most of my airline time was on international flights.
My eye sight was bad, and the majors would not even talk to me, so when I had a bit of trouble with the FAA I left the flying business for good. A year passed doing odd jobs and collecting unemployment while fighting the FAA in court, and after winning my case I just decided the time was right to make another change. By now I was living with a girl friend, in fact we had purchased a home together, and we decided I would learn to drive a tractor trailer. After completing that training, once again at the top of my class, I drove for a small fleet owner for 11 months, then purchased my own truck and leased it to a large national trucking company. I have to change focus here a bit, because near the end of my flying career I started to notice something. When I was still living in Tulsa, I dated a doctor for about three years. She told me once that she thought I suffered from depression. I remember asking what I had to be depressed about, and then I guess we both just blew it off. Well, somewhere around 1991 I started noticing something felt wrong, and as time passed the feeling became more intense. I had always thought ---someday I’ll be making a lot of money----someday I’ll have a nice home----someday I’ll be happy. Well, that was the someday I realized that I never would. I was in the ready room at the Fort Lauderdale Airport, waiting to take my next flight out, and I realized I was never going to have those things. At that time I co-owned my home, a very nice home in a very good area, with the girl friend I already mentioned. I had a pretty good job, good health, and a significant other who said she loved me, yet I felt like I had a dark blanket thrown over my head. It reminds me of the way Dickens wrote of industrial England; my life seemed just like that. It was like a blanket of smoke lay over my head, the smoke from coal fired furnaces, clouding the air, choking me, dirtying my person. As the years passed it got worse. I also realized that the girl I was living with, while she would be a great friend, while she had many very good qualities and while there were many things that I admired about her, I did not love her, not in the way that a wife or girl friend should be loved anyway, it was more like the way you would love a friend.
I think this is a good place to end chapter two.
In 1976 I enrolled in an auto mechanics two year program at the local Technical Institute. Both years I finished at the top of my class, and at the beginning of the second year was hired by the school to repair and maintain the school vehicles. That included the Tech School and the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. After finishing the second year, I opened my own repair shop, specializing in automatic transmission rebuilding and repair.
Business wasn’t bad, I was making fair money, my wife was doing well, but there was something missing….something wasn’t right, wasn’t complete. I think it might be like what a pregnant woman goes through; when her body needs certain vitamins and such, and gives her the craving to eat everything and anything…hoping by chance she will get what her body needs. I was like that. I built a drag car and my wife and I both raced every Sunday. We built a street rod and were members of a car club. I worked out, 4 nights a week in the weight room, 2 nights a week followed by a short 2 ½ mile run, the other two nights followed by a 6 mile run.. Once a week I ran the 13 miles from my home to the health club and after a sauna rode home with my wife. I raised Doberman Pinchers. I got a Federal Firearms License and became a Firearms Dealer, did many other things but I still could not reach the itch and scratch it.
After almost 10 years of marriage we called it quits. I sold off my repair business as it was located on the same property as our home…which my wife’s father had co-signed for. I lived in Eau Claire, in an apartment, for about a year and started my pilots training. I enjoyed flying, but realized it was to expensive to do for fun….so I enrolled in one of the best, and the oldest, flight schools in the country. Spartan School of Aeronautics, in Tulsa, Oklahoma had its beginnings when Tulsa International Airport was a grass field. I took my commercial, instrument and flight instructor training there. After about a year of Flight instructing, I returned to Spartan for my multi-engine training. Later I got the multi-engine instructor rating and after 1500 hours flight time went to Olathe, Kansas and got my ATP rating. (Airline Transport Pilot)
In the 12 years after getting my commercial license, I logged over 6,500 hours flight time, about 4,500 hours of that in multi-engine aircraft. I flew about 50 different makes and models of aircraft, the many variations because I spent a lot of time doing ferry work for an aircraft dealer. I was a captain for TCNA (Turks and Caicos National Airlines), Aero Coach, Southern Outbound Air, and Airways International, and most of my airline time was on international flights.
My eye sight was bad, and the majors would not even talk to me, so when I had a bit of trouble with the FAA I left the flying business for good. A year passed doing odd jobs and collecting unemployment while fighting the FAA in court, and after winning my case I just decided the time was right to make another change. By now I was living with a girl friend, in fact we had purchased a home together, and we decided I would learn to drive a tractor trailer. After completing that training, once again at the top of my class, I drove for a small fleet owner for 11 months, then purchased my own truck and leased it to a large national trucking company. I have to change focus here a bit, because near the end of my flying career I started to notice something. When I was still living in Tulsa, I dated a doctor for about three years. She told me once that she thought I suffered from depression. I remember asking what I had to be depressed about, and then I guess we both just blew it off. Well, somewhere around 1991 I started noticing something felt wrong, and as time passed the feeling became more intense. I had always thought ---someday I’ll be making a lot of money----someday I’ll have a nice home----someday I’ll be happy. Well, that was the someday I realized that I never would. I was in the ready room at the Fort Lauderdale Airport, waiting to take my next flight out, and I realized I was never going to have those things. At that time I co-owned my home, a very nice home in a very good area, with the girl friend I already mentioned. I had a pretty good job, good health, and a significant other who said she loved me, yet I felt like I had a dark blanket thrown over my head. It reminds me of the way Dickens wrote of industrial England; my life seemed just like that. It was like a blanket of smoke lay over my head, the smoke from coal fired furnaces, clouding the air, choking me, dirtying my person. As the years passed it got worse. I also realized that the girl I was living with, while she would be a great friend, while she had many very good qualities and while there were many things that I admired about her, I did not love her, not in the way that a wife or girl friend should be loved anyway, it was more like the way you would love a friend.
I think this is a good place to end chapter two.
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