Pilots

"UPS Two-Seven-Five-Two heavy, hold short, landing traffic."

Mildly embarrassed that we had called ready with traffic on final, I again scanned the clear, blue September sky along the Louisville (Kentucky) International Runway 35R final approach. I finally picked out the tiny speck of traffic.

It was a Cessna 152. How appropriate, I thought. Nine and a half years ago when I met Hank Barkley — my first officer on this flight — he was flying traffic watch in a Cessna 152 and I was a new-hire Boeing 727 flight engineer. Today's flight to Dallas in a Boeing 767 was our first flight together in any airplane and was the culmination of a lot of dreams and determination.

I first met Barkley in April 1990 when I traveled to Lakeland, Florida, to shoot pictures at the Sun 'n Fun EAA Fly-In for an aviation newspaper. He worked part time ,or the Raleigh, North Carolina-based pub.lication when he wasn't flying traffic watch reporters over Raleigh roadways.

Barkley picked me up at the airport. On the road to Lakeland, he told me about his flying-career aspirations and grilled me about flying for UPS.

But the early 1990s was a poor time to embark on an airline career. USAir and TWA were furloughing pilots. Eastern had endured a devastating strike and wasn't long for this world. Pan Am was in trouble. Lots of pilots with heavy-jet experience were looking for the same jobs as Barkley.

He had minimum flight time when he telephoned the traffic watch service operator about a job opening in his two-airplane business. The operator said not to bother coming, he had pilots with twice Barkley's flight time lined up. Undaunted, Barkley scheduled a Cessna 172 and was on the operator's doorstep, 100 miles away, when the operator arrived at 5:30 a.m. the next day. Barkley left with his first professional flying position.

After 10 months of traffic watch and freelance flying, Barkley amassed the magic 1,200 hours making him eligible for FAR Part 135 flying. He knew a check-hauling position flying Beech Barons in Charlotte was about to open up. He called the FBO but was told he wasn't competitive. He borrowed a Bellanca Hiking and was in the offices of Commonwealth Jet in Richmond, Virginia, early the next morning in coat and tie with a fresh résumé. He left with a job.

As he built highly coveted multiengine time, he put out feelers to step up to the next level, turbine time. He interviewed with Mountain Air Cargo, located in his home state of North Carolina. They operated Cessna Caravan, Shorts 330, and Fokker F.27 aircraft for Federal Express.

But then a friend at Commonwealth Jet headquarters woke him with a phone call saying, "Grab your headset out of the airplane, they're locking them up!" The IRS impounded all the company's airplanes.

Barkley began to look for another fly-ing job, but within a week Mountain Air called. Could he start on Monday?

He flew the Cessna Caravan for a year from bases in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and the Caribbean. A Mountain Air F.27 first officer position opened up and he upgraded and moved to Indianapolis. After a year he was awarded a captain's slot that no one would take because Boston, with its sky-high living costs, was the likely base. Barkley earned his type rating in the F.27 only to learn that the aircraft was to fly out of affordable Richmond where FedEx based one of its 727s.

Once there, Barkley approached the Fed.-Ex station manager about working the ramp after his run to Newark, New Jersey, in the F.27. It brought extra money and provided him the opportunity to compete for a FedEx pilot slot from "inside."

While Barkley was working his way up the aviation ladder, I upgraded to 757 first officer in a Boeing 757, then captain, and 757 simulator instructor at the UPS Flight Training Center. One of my flights for UPS was an afternoon turnaround from Louisville to Richmond and back. The trip had a three-hour layover in Richmond, and Barkley would meet me. Over dinner, we discussed his job search and talked about how he could get on with UPS so I could train him in the 757.

I wrote letters and recommendations and pulled whatever strings I could to get Barkley an interview. In 1994, after a battery of interviews and a simulator check, he was placed in the UPS hiring pool. But it wasn't until December 2, 1996, that he began training as a 727 flight engineer.

Two years later, just as we imagined during our dinners in Richmond, I trained him as a first officer in the 757 simulator.

Barkley's story may not be much different than those of other airline cockpit crewmembers, but it's a good example of what unwavering dedication to a goal can bring. The flights he now makes to Europe and Asia are a long way from the cockpit of a Cessna 152, but they're the dividends of a lot of aviation sweat equity.