To say that Dan Case has an unusual commute to work would be a serious understatement. Some aspects of his travels are predictable: Usually he'll be on a westerly heading, and there's a good chance that he'll be crossing an international border.
One journey began with a 170-mile drive from his home in Kingston, in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, to Bangor, Maine. There he spent the night at a local inn before boarding a West Coast-bound airliner. The destination: Pasco, Washington, where an emergency department was short a doctor for a week or so, and Daniel J. Case, M.D., who works locum tenens as an emergency physician, would be filling in.
| Name: | Dan Case |
| Age: | 48 |
| Certificates: | Commercial pilot, Airplane single and multiengine land, airplane single engine sea, instrument airplane, CFII, AGI |
| Career: | medical doctor |
| Flight time: | 1,600 hours |
| Aircraft flown: | Cessna 172, Piper Twin Comanche, Beechcraft Bonanza, Aeronca Champ |
| Home airport: | Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada (CYSJ) |
Case, 48, is a Connecticut Yankee who took his first few flight lessons in 1987 while studying medicine. His intro flight was, let's say, of the forgettable variety. Fortunately, Case could see past a poor presentation, and the second try - different airport, different instructor - was more like it. What made it work? CFIs, take note of the answer: "The essence of it was: The second guy was patient. He treated me with respect."
The "second guy" was instructor Nick Mason, flying from Robertson Field in Plainville, Connecticut (4B8). Mason instructed for the love of teaching, Case said, and was always very encouraging of his new student. A calendar year and 70 flight hours later, Mason encouraged Case, now a new private pilot and medical resident, who wanted to set his sights on an instrument rating.
Case's profession called him away. But that early sense of encouragement never faded. Matching aviation opportunities to professional travel, Case kept flying. Having earned his instrument rating in Caldwell, New Jersey, he moved to Indiana. Exotic logbook entries appeared when he had the chance to sample Southern Hemisphere flying in South Africa. Returning to Indiana, he earned his commercial ticket in a Cessna 210. Living in the West in the early 1990s, he became a business flier, launching from a base in Olympia, Washington, and crossing mountains in a 180-hp Cessna 172. A twin might be useful for that kind of flying, so it was off to Shelton, Washington, to earn the multiengine rating in a Piper Twin Comanche. Along the trail he also has become a float and taildragger pilot.
A medical mission to Australia produced logbook entries Down Under: "A horrible, wicked test was the Australian IFR [written] exam." Back to Indiana. A mentor by nature and feeling motivated to share the love of flight, he earned his flight instructor and instrument instructor credentials in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1999.
A move to New York followed. In 2003 came relocation to Atlantic Canada, where he recently fashioned his work as a medical circuit-rider. For many, that would have put instructing in the States on hold (he flies only for personal business in Canada). But nowadays, when Case packs for a trip, his doctor's bag or his CFI's flight case may come along. Turns out, you can work locum tenens as a flight instructor too, if you don't mind the traveling.
Case clearly doesn't, and he networks the region for instructing opportunities: "A four-hour drive or a five-hour drive, stay a night or two - that would be fine by me," he says.
Dan Namowitz is an aviation writer and flight instructor. A pilot since 1985 and an instructor since 1990, he resides in Maine.
