Safety Spotlight: Make an impact

All with stern faces. My boss, the squadron commander, got right to the point: “It’s clear we need a new operations officer” (my position). I surveyed the stern faces, everyone standing. The general picked it up: “We need a new operations officer… because you’re leaving to be Thunderbird 1.” The stern faces turned to smiles, and vigorous handshakes. It took me a few seconds to process it all, to transition from thinking I was being fired, to accepting that I had been selected for the job of a lifetime.

Departing the meeting, I detoured slightly and paused on a small hill to survey the bustling Tyndall flight line. My mind drifted back, and almost visible through the heat shimmering up from that very ramp was a dad hustling across the sweltering concrete to watch the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, his young son jostling atop his shoulders. The noise, the sight of jet airplanes flying so fast and so close to the ground and each other, the smell of burnt JP-4—all so intimidating, and yet intoxicating.

Returning to my office, I phoned that dad to tell him the young boy atop his shoulders had just been selected to command the team they’d seen fly so many times. That call remains one of the most cherished memories of my life. My dad would be the first of many mentors, so important to my aviation career.

Shortly after I took command of the Thunderbirds, my new boss advised that retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Wilbur “Bill” Creech would be my mentor. Although I had never met Creech, I certainly knew of him. An imposing figure, with an incongruous high-pitched voice, Creech was one of the chief architects for the U.S. Air Force in its modern form: night, stealth, precision attack, and an equipage strategy favoring high-tech aircraft over superior numbers. The U.S. Air Force that dominates the skies today is largely the U.S. Air Force that Bill Creech built.

Early in his Air Force career, then-Capt. Creech was a Thunderbird pilot and later the commander and flight leader of the U.S. Air Force Skyblazers, the jet demonstration team in Europe. As a four-star general, Creech rescued the Thunderbirds from the congressional chopping block in 1982 when four pilots died practicing a line-abreast loop over a training field in the Nevada desert.

Creech revamped the team’s swaggering culture, put them in modern airplanes, and modified their operations. Riding his reformations, the Thunderbirds flew low-altitude, high-speed formation aerobatics for 36 years before experiencing another fatal accident.

Many previous Thunderbird leaders disliked Creech’s meddling and resented his influence. For me, he became a trusted confidant whom I admired for his knowledge and his instincts. It was clear he cared deeply about the team, and about my personal success as a leader. His assessment of the team and of my performance in the lead aircraft meant a great deal to me. Sometimes I sought it; other times it came unsolicited. It was always valuable.

Throughout my Air Force career, I would visit home on occasion and reattach to my GA roots with my brother, Cliff. He came up in aviation the hard way, funding training and advancement on his own. He bought a Decathlon and flew competition aerobatics, and owned a Beech 18 to haul freight and log multiengine time. Cliff picked up avionics, engine, and airframe maintenance skills owning a variety of airplanes through the years on a tight budget. He’s widely known as one of the toughest—and best—CFIs around, and he took no mercy on me during flight reviews. I’m a better pilot and a smarter aircraft owner thanks to his mentoring.

We’re in the midst of one of the largest GA growth spurts in decades, and there’s a strong need for mentors to help guide the new faces in aviation. Look around and you’ll see plenty of opportunities to mentor pilots joining our ranks. Knowledge, experience, genuine concern for the pilot, and a love of aviation are all that’s needed to be a valuable mentor. I encounter thousands of pilots that meet these criteria every year.

Go fly, and when you do, look for that eager pilot and give her or him a boost. You will develop one of the richest relationships of your life, and you never know the influence you may have.AOPA

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