Life as a Furloughed Air Line Pilot

Out on the street with no income...

I was wholly unprepared.  To add complications to the matter Martha was about 5 months pregnant with Melissa.  We had weathered the first year pay scale and had just started to save again.  Now we were headed back to living off savings again.  I had no plan, but I did briefly think of going back to the Air Force Reserves again, but that would require and unpaid move.  Some guys went back to the Air Force full time and would retire some 15 to 20 years later.

I needed something to do... So... in the end I asked a neighbor who owned a printing company for a job.  On September 1, 1980 I put my blue jeans on and went to work.  I worked in the back end of the plant counting out sheets of paper and delivering them to the presses... minimum wage... amazingly minimum wage was more than my first year pay at Braniff! 

One good thing was we now had health insurance and Martha's pregnancy was still covered by Braniff's policy... double covered...

I quickly forgot about Braniff since they were still laying off more pilots.  None of my friends were getting jobs.  No airlines were hiring and interest rates were surging to 20% and few companies could afford to hire.  It is hard for an airline pilot to get a regular job because everyone knows you will head back to flying as soon as you can. 

I started learning about printing.  I wondered why the pressmen got so much paper so I learned the formulas and began asking more.  I helped the pressmen, I hauled the trash I began to really know everyone in the plant... I considered everyone of them friends.  Within 6 months I found myself in production and planning.  Salesmen would bring me the artwork for a print job and I would plan the layout for printing and set it in motion.  My pay doubled.  Without thinking about it I was becoming a workaholic.

During those first few months there was an accident.  Martha's car was hit by a college kid on the way to school.  Martha was taking a suitcase of clothes to a friends house for Sharla to spend the nite... we were heading to the hospital the next day for a C-section to bring Melissa into this world.  

Martha took an ambulance to the hospital and I actually got to the accident site and followed the ambulance to the hospital.  Everyone seemed fine but they did an emergency C-section just to be sure Melissa was ok... she was.  The medical costs were now triple covered because it was an accident... boy did we need that.

About a year after entering the door of the printing plant I found myself in the office of the owner and he had called the plant manger in to gloat.  I had just asked to go into sales... there were no windows... I needed windows... I was used to sitting all day and looking out windows... a salesman had windows in his car.  The owner and the plant manager had a bet on how long it would take for me to ask to go into sales... the owner won.  Their only concern about me was... I told the truth... I was too honest... I had always thought that was a good thing...

My concern was meeting and talking to people I didn't know.  I have always preferred being the quiet one in the corner. 

I will never forget the first time I pitched for the Annual Report of a local oil company.  I was in the huge well appointed office of the CEO and my mouth was dry and my voice was cracking... some how I found my voice and I got the job. 

One day in 1982 I was asked into the owners office with the plant manager.  Braniff had filed for bankruptcy and they were celebrating because Braniff was gone and I probably wouldn't leave any time soon.  I hadn't thought about leaving... at that point... but it made me a little angry... Braniff was my dream and those were my friends who were in turmoil.  But, I forgot about it and went back to work with a vengeance.  My sales were doubling every year as was my pay.

Sometime around 1985 I found myself in an office next to the owners office... it was my office.  I was running the company and still selling.  We had about 140 employees and we had grown to about $15 million per year in sales.  The goal was to run the plant 24 hours a day and we did.  I had an open door policy that was killing me slowly.  I would come in early and leave late.  I was always on the phone with someone and had someone in my office waiting on me. 

The pressure was getting to me... I started getting tunnel vision... graying out.  The muscles in my neck were tight and constantly tensed up.  I figured that was the source of my problem.  A trip to the cardiologist told me I was ok... of course I didn't share the whole truth with anyone back then... pilots can't have these kind of problems, so we keep them secret.  I was still thinking like a pilot...

Crude oil dropped to $13 per barrel.  The Texas economy was heading for disaster.  The owner had started another company that printed billboards and it specialized in the big backlit photographic billboards.  Business was lagging some but I was flying to Houston, Dallas and Corpus and bringing in new business. 

Braniff had been re-incarnated and was commonly refered to as Braniff Two or B2... the second Braniff.  They started back up with the same pilots and were slowly growing and recalling pilots.  I was way down the list.  Braniff was not on my radar... I was too busy.

Then a small thing brought about a big change... My favorite briefcase was wearing out and I decided to try to get it fixed, rather than buying another.  I dropped it off at a luggage repair shop and promptly forgot about it.  Months later I was on the way home late one night and I was going by the repair shop and the light was on.  The repair shop owner was there and as I was paying the bill he handed me a pen to sign the slip... It was a Braniff pen.  I mentioned it to the the guy and he revealed he was a Braniff agent.  I told him I was a furloughed pilot and he asked my why I didn't come back... everyone had been recalled... I said; "no... not everyone".  He said he would ask around and call me with the answer.

He did call me back.  Everyone had been recalled... they missed me.  A few days later I went to the airport and met an arriving Braniff flight.  I visited with the pilots and they confirmed they were hiring off the street... the recall was done.  I asked about the pay... it was low... it would be an 80% pay cut for me to go back to flying.

SO... I thought about it and thought about it.  The stress I was under at work was getting worse with the bad economy.  One day I noticed a job running on the press and the wrong paper was being used... a cheaper substitute.  That happened a few more times and we continued to get away with it... but I was "too honest"... I confronted the plant manager and he told me the owner substituted it.

In the end his dishonesty was enough for me to make the decision to return to flying.  It would have been a very tough decision leave before this started happening.

I called Braniff and they said I didn't answer my recall. They were wrong.  They didn't recall me.  After many phone calls I got on an airplane and flew to Dallas and refused to leave the VP of Flight Ops Offices until they put me back on the seniority list.  They finally relented and 3 weeks later I got the call.

I returned to Braniff with my original seniority number and had enough seniority to start right up as a Co-Pilot.  I had not flown an airplane in about 10 years at that time so I decided to play it safe and bid Flight Engineer.  Six weeks later I was back in the cockpit and commuting to Kansas City.  It was good to be back... I was home.

After six months of watching the other pilots fly the airplane I was ready fly the jet... I bid for open co-pilot positions in Kansas City.  Six weeks later I was having a co-pilot checkride in the simulator.  I had received 6 hours of simulator flight training and I had just been told I had passed my checkride when I felt an uncomfortable feeling.  I didn't feel ready to go fly.  I asked for more training.  They turned me down and said I was ready... I wasn't.

I was back in the right seat and flying again.  The airplane was a handful at first but I was ok on a nice clear day.  Flying at night and in the weather was another story... I was unprepared.  My instrument flying was rusty.  I was uncomfortable... no... scared... shaking scared... freezing... white as a sheet scared... Just hoping to keep the airplane right side up on dark stormy nights.  Gradually my skills returned and my confidence did too.  There were several "iffy" months that I was thinking; "what have I done?"

Soon life was good again.  I had learned how to fly again and I had learned how to work the commuting world.  Braniff 2 was growing slowly and was being well managed by the Pritzker family.  They were the 5th richest family in the USA.  They also owned the Hyatt Hotels... flight crews had the nice benefit of staying in very nice hotels of the Hyatt chain.