Pilots

The axiom is that beer and flying don't mix. No question, end of story. But, for corporate pilot Annette Taylor, you'll have to take your axiom with a twist.

For four years, Taylor has been flying Commander 114s — first a 114B and now a 114TC — for the Black Mountain Brewing Company of Cave Creek, Arizona. Black Mountain's claim to fame is Chili Beer, the beer with a green serrano chili pepper floating in the bottle.

Taylor got her start with Black Mountain after being contacted by "Crazy Ed" Chilleen, owner of the microbrewery and its sister operation, Ed's Satisfied Frog Saloon and Restaurant, north of Phoenix. Through a family connection, Chilleen had heard of Taylor and, after checking out her ratings and hours, offered her the job of Black Mountain's first (and only) corporate pilot.

Soon after the beer's introduction in 1990, sales skyrocketed, leaving Black Mountain with the need to cover a widespread territory quickly and efficiently. A private pilot himself, Chilleen now had the justification for bringing an airplane into the business. He decided that a fast and attention-drawing single would work both as transportation and as a marketing tool, and the Chili Beer airplane was born.

For Taylor, the demands of flying for a burgeoning business soon became apparent. "When I started, we were gone every week; the business was growing so fast that I was home only on weekends," she says. The Commander 114B, bought new, was replaced with a brand-new 114TC in February 1996. Taylor's schedule has hardly slowed and leaves little time for a social life, but it provides valuable flying time and experience, both of which are important to a pilot new to the business.

The company uses the airplane to move its sales staff throughout an ever-increasing territory and also to a number of restaurant conventions and trade shows. "Ed's a businessman, and using the Commander has been more cost-effective than using the airlines. The Commander is well equipped, and with its unique beer company logo on the tail, it tends to draw a lot of attention on any ramp.

"I've flown it to Chicago and New Orleans, and it doesn't matter where we go, there's never been any kind of negative reaction to the connection between beer and the airplane," Taylor recalls. She describes the Commander as a "sweet flying" and fast airplane that works to make a pilot look good. "The landing gear makes every landing like coming in on a marshmallow."

Several years ago Black Mountain sent the Commander to nearby Williams Field in Mesa, Arizona, to promote its beer at the Incredible Universe Phoenix Air Races. The slick Commander and its pilot continually pulled large crowds away from nearby vendors and displays. There were the inevitable "free sample" jokes, but most pilots wanted to see the airplane and talk to the outgoing Taylor. "It was the first time the company had used the airplane as a marketing tool at an aviation event, and it was such a success that we took it to Oshkosh."

It was obvious that at first more than a few people in the air race crowd took a while to accept Taylor as the company's pilot, not just its spokesperson. She easily shrugged it off with a smile. "They'd say I don't look like a pilot, whatever that means. I don't let it bother me because when it's time to go, I'll be the one flying."

Taylor, who took her first ride in an airplane when she was 16, has accumulated more than 2,100 hours, about 1,000 of them in the Commanders. Putting herself through school, she earned her bachelor's degree in aviation engineering technology from Arizona State University, including training in avionics, welding, and mechanics. It was there that she earned her commercial certificate and instrument and multiengine ratings. "To build time, I've flown Civil Air Patrol search missions, Flight for Life flights, 'blood runs' in a Beech Bonanza — whatever I could," she says.

She'll readily admit that she considers herself fortunate to be flying the Commander 114TC for Black Mountain, but when pressed about the future, the 34-year-old keeps her options open. "I'm happy doing this. Who wouldn't be?" she asks. "This is a great experience. But I can look ahead to a time when I may want to work for the airlines."

When she's not flying, Taylor plays volleyball and is an avid skier, both water and snow. And, as many do in the West, she has her own horse at her home near Phoenix. She describes the active life in the desert as a good way to get away from her job for a while, but it doesn't take too long before the urge to get back in the Commander takes over. "My friends know it immediately if I haven't been flying for a while. I get crabby. I need to fly."

As Chili Beer's popularity continues to spread, it seems certain that Annette Taylor will have plenty of opportunity to fulfill that need.