Pilots

Long before Delta Air Lines First Officer Bambi Greene donned a pilot uniform, the computer science major from New York—who took her first lesson in 1986, soloed on her dad's birthday, and once hocked a car to fund her flying — knew the destination her career path was designed to reach. She did not know the course it would take.

If this image rings of fulfilled prophecy, readers may recall "Pilots: Monica Wichmann and Bambi Greene" (January 1992 Pilot). Two Delta flight attendants, Greene and her longtime friend Monica Wichmann (now a pilot with Atlantic Southeast Airlines), were discussing the future. One told the interviewer, "It is our goal to move up to the front of the airplane." Quite a plan for two new pilots, but there was a strategy to back it up: a mail-order pilot-supply business to help fund training, layovers long enough for recreational flying and training, and total immersion in aviation during spare time. "We checked out anyplace and everyplace," Greene recalled. Earning her instrument rating lent the dream an air of reality because she knew that "if I got that far, I'd get a chance of making it a career."

From her base of operations at the now-defunct Stone Mountain Airport near Atlanta, she set about acquiring her commercial ticket and multiengine rating, flight instructor certificate, instrument and multiengine instructor titles — and celebrated her 1,000-hour mark. Seaplane flying, fire patrols, instructing, and a summer job conducting sightseeing flights came along in 1994. The experience brought charter opportunities and corporate flying within reach, and "1995 is when things started to fall into place."

Now there were opportunities to fly corporate missions and acquire jet time. She took month-to-month leaves of absence from the airline. The work that awaited was night freight, "in a Cessna 310, mostly alone, often flying up to seven legs in a night, Monday through Friday." The "go rate" was about 98 percent. It was a 1,400-hour year — only rarely did Greene take time off "to see my husband and do laundry." She and Wichmann also flew the Great Southern Air Race in a decrepit twin-engine Piper Seminole.

But you can't career-build forever on leaves of absence. Greene, with 12 years' seniority, faced the Big Decision. "I told Delta I had to go," she said. She flew part time for a major pharmaceutical company, and in 1996 was hired by corporate operator Executive Jet, acquiring a Cessna Citation type rating and flying eight months later as captain. In March 1999 she was hired by American Airlines as a Boeing 727 first officer.

She had been an airline pilot for a year when she set her sights on her original dream of moving up to the front of a Delta airliner. She applied, and was hired in March 2000. Her assignment — Boeing 737 copilot — was another dream come true, but even this had to be measured against job security. Already, "I had 1,100 people below me at American." Looking back, "the two scariest times were leaving Delta, and coming back."

She saw some odd looks on the faces of people who had known her as a flight attendant but did not know she had become a pilot. She met other ex-flight attendants who had made the transition. Soon she knew: "I love coming back. I feel like I'm home."

Greene participates in the programs of Women in Aviation International ( www.wiai.org), encouraging women to seek opportunities in aviation.

"I have seen many sides of it: students, people who want to quit their jobs, divorcees." One day the task might be "to help a guy with 350 hours write a cover letter." (Yes, she did say "a guy." WIAI has many male members. She encourages others to join.)

Most mentor work is one on one, but she has these observations for anybody seeking to break into the business: Strive to be as well rounded an applicant as possible. "Companies don't want logbooks. They want the whole package. Get your degree — for you, and for a fallback."

Embrace the idea of "paying your dues — everybody has to do it one way or the other. The reality is that you are going to have to sacrifice something." (Those night runs in the Cessna 310 come to mind). Most important, learn the virtues of persistence. "That is what is going to pay off in the long run."