Pilots

The high school years are influential ones. Enduring friendships and interests often develop, and the road first traveled as a teenager can lead to lifelong and fulfilling vocations. For a lucky few, that road comes with at least one tour guide called a mentor. Jeannie Dismukes has had several. For her, mentors have led the way to a deep love of aviation, to an established aviation career, and to matrimony.

Today, the 26-year-old flies a Saab 340 as a first officer for Business Express Airlines. But it was while a student at Napa, California's Vintage High School that Dismukes gained her first aviation mentor, a science teacher named Leo Gallagher. "I owe a great deal to him for seeing my interest in aviation and giving me the confidence to pursue it."

Gallagher was a certificated flight instructor. Thanks to him, Napa students could take private pilot ground school for official science credits that counted toward graduation. Gallagher hooked Dismukes up with a local CFI when she turned 17. There was no looking back.

As much as Dismukes wanted to fly, she also wanted to understand airplanes, their structures, and systems. Upon graduation from Vintage, she applied to Solano Community College's airframe and powerplant maintenance program. She was the youngest woman in the A&P program and the second youngest person in the entire class. Her enrollment was such a novelty that it made the front page of the local newspaper, the Vacaville Reporter.

While attending Solano, she took a pair of jobs that would further advance her career. She started waiting tables at the Napa airport's fly-in restaurant and signed on as a self-described "ramp rat" at Napa's Bridgeford Flying Service. At the restaurant, she struck up conversations with dining aviators, who provided her with a wealth of career advice. At the airport, she acquired her second mentor, Jack Bergen. There she kept the books, acted as a receptionist, and worked the line. When she graduated from Solano with her A&P, another mentor, Jimmy Rollison, gave her a wrench and pointed her toward his Lockheed Lodestar. A captain for Federal Express, Rollison also provided practical airline career information. Dismukes finished her private pilot certificate and other ratings in exchange for "washing a lot of airplanes."

She left Bridgeford for several area flight instructing jobs, which eventually led to a gig as a corporate pilot flying a Beech Baron. During this time she met a special "friend of a friend," a commuter pilot named Will Dismukes. He also became a mentor, advising her on rating strategies. Eventually, he would become something more. On a Saturday 15 months later, they eloped to Reno and had a one-night honeymoon. By then, Will was flying DC–8 freighters in California. Jeannie was due Monday in Phoenix to start a new job flying single-engine pistons for a Part 135 scheduled freight operation. On Sunday she hopped a Southwest Airlines 737 to Phoenix, wedding bouquet in hand. When the crew inquired as to the whereabouts of her husband, Dismukes explained an answer they already knew too well, "We're pilots, we've got to get back to work."

In Arizona, Dismukes logged 16-hour days in Cessna Stationairs and Piper Lances. Not wanting to bet her life on desert VORs, she carried a handheld GPS receiver she borrowed from her father-in-law, an active glider pilot. She flew the routes for six months, gaining valuable experience and honing her judgment. One night she aborted a flight rather than climb the Cessna through potentially severe icing conditions. Lesson learned: "You're not going to be able to do the flight every day. Nothing's that important."

With only 250 hours of multiengine time, Dismukes was hired as a first officer by an East Coast commuter operating Saab 340s. Training on the 340 lasted two months and was unpaid. The simulator was based at New York's La Guardia Airport. The Napa Valley native took up residence in the gritty Q Gardens section of Queens and developed "a high level of self-preservation."

After training, Dismukes was domiciled at Providence, Rhode Island, and later at Boston's Logan Airport. Will already had accepted a transfer to the Boston area. As a reserve first officer, she lived on the beeper as an on-call pilot. With both of their careers somewhat established, the couple decided to hold a more formal wedding for family and friends back in Vacaville, and a Hawaiian honeymoon was planned.

But the fickle hand of the aerial journeyman again intervened. Will made it to the majors. Because of his training and likely assignment schedule, the Hawaiian honeymoon was scrapped. However, the wedding proceeded as planned, in Duncan Miller's hangar. Two Stearmans and a DC–3 provided the backdrop for the nuptials. The couple spent their "second honeymoon" in the VIP quarters at nearby Travis Air Force Base.

Dismukes' hardscrabble path to the airlines has not dampened her enthusiasm "to fly every airplane on the field." For now, the twin-pilot marriage has survived prolonged transcontinental separations and, according to Dismukes, the two never tire of talking shop. When they do travel together, no matter where they are "we always stop by the airport. I mean, we're airplane nerds. That's what we do."