Two years ago, Peter A. Bedell left his position as technical editor for AOPA Pilot to pursue a career with Atlantic Coast Airlines. "It was one of the toughest decisions of my life," he recalls. "Do I leave a good, stable, and enjoyable job as an aviation journalist and start a new career as an airline pilot? I'd start out making poverty-level wages and be away from home more than 10 days a month. The worst was wondering whether I'd simply get sick of flying," he recalls. However, the lure of someday landing a job at a major airline and seeing the world from the cockpit of a big Boeing or Airbus prompted Bedell to go for it. In " Heading to the Big Game?" (see page 119), Bedell describes what it was like to transition from being a civilian general aviation pilot flying light singles and twins to the right seat of a 29-seat regional airliner with a glass cockpit and a crew of three. "I had been through FlightSafety and SimCom courses before, but this was different. There's very little individuality allowed in Part 121 flying; you fly the airline's way or you're gone," says Bedell. But, he adds, "I don't regret my decision at all. Flying for the airlines is a great experience that I won't walk away from; however, it makes me appreciate general aviation much more. Even after flying all week in the Jetstream I love to get in the family airplane and escape from the grind of the airline world."
On Saturday, July 13, Keith Mordoff, AOPA's senior vice president of communications, lived out one of his youthful dreams in the front seat of a 1943 Stearman biplane. It happened during his first biplane ride (see " AOPA Centennial of Flight Sweepstakes: A Winning Combination," by Associate Editor Steven W. Ells, page 131). The symptoms were easily recognizable — the wide smile, laughing eyes, and slight tremor in his handshake proved that open-cockpit flying had pulled another into its flock, says Ells. "I've always wanted to fly in a biplane," Mordoff said. "I've got 110 hours in trainers and Cessna 172s, but it never got to me like my first biplane ride." Mordoff joined Ells, Waco-checkout winner Shannon Elliott, Waco owners Mike and Kendle Hanson, and pilot Bob McClory to document Elliott's ride in the Waco UPF-7. Mordoff and McClory flew in the Stearman in formation with the Waco to shoot photos. "Bob let me take the controls of the Stearman about 500 feet off the ground. That was great. But it really got to me when we were flying in formation with the Waco at 500 feet agl along the coastline," says Mordoff.
As a journalist for The Associated Press, Chris Hawley has covered hurricanes, landslides, droughts, epidemics, natural gas explosions, and even a volcanic eruption. But the article he wrote for AOPA Pilot in July 2001, " Flying New York," turned out to be a prelude to the greatest tragedy of them all. On September 11, Hawley was at work at the AP headquarters in Rockefeller Center when he heard a jetliner roar low over the city. "That's a strange approach," he thought, seconds before American Airlines Flight 11 hit the first World Trade Center tower. The next year was a blur, but eventually Hawley returned to the AOPA Pilot article for an extensive rewrite. "New York is still a great place to visit — especially for pilots," says Hawley. See Hawley's story beginning on page 87.
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