Want to up your game for long-term success? Mastering workplace resilience is one sure way to get there, quick! In the following short story, you’ll see a perfect example of how it’s done. (For other aviation-related stories of success, check out our best selling book, Pull Up – Lead, Succeed and Achieve, Despite Snafus, Setbacks, or Sucker Punches ————– It’s Sunday morning. Flight instructor, Evelyn Johnson, jumps in her car and heads down the road for church. As the world’s...

Learning to fly is pricey. And water is wet…right, we all know this. But a father/son duo discovered a way to make flying affordable using “tag-team” flight training to keep lessons cash-conservative and fun. Out of Money and Out of Reach From the start, both David Mann Jr. and his father, David Mann Sr., had the bug to fly. But the high cost of flight lessons, made the dream a tough sell. Knowing they could barely afford training for one...

  Want to know how empathy resolves conflict, even in the most threatening workplace situations? Mike McNeill shows us how in the following true story. Mike McNeill is about to run into a very “unreasonable customer” As a captain on a de Havilland Dash-7 aircraft, Mike prepared to make a flight from Killeen, Texas, to Dallas. A 45-minute hop. Shortly after the airplane leveled off, a passenger came into the cockpit and suggested a new destination: Cuba. When McNeil turned...

Steve Jobs once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” When you finally find an endeavor or occupation that speaks to you, it may initially seem unconventional, crazy or even unattainable. Therefore, the last thing you need, is some naysayer to water down your passion with discouragement. Kazuko Uramatsu, a flight instructor from Tokyo, Japan, provides a beautiful example how she avoided a lifetime of regret, when someone close to her tried to discourage...

In May 2001, I wrote an article for Plane & Pilot magazine, entitled Never too Old to Fly. A quarter century ago. Old stuff, right? In fact, just the opposite. Back then, interviewing people like Ralph Charles (the oldest pilot on the planet at 101), and Evelyn Johnson, an active instrument flight instructor and Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE), well into her 90’s, was a game changer for me. These people were hot. They loved life and were beyond passionate. I...

In 1989, United Airlines Flight 232, became one of most striking examples of extraordinary teamwork in aviation history. I had the distinct honor to personally interview Captain Al Haynes after the accident. Below are six crisis management lessons from the cockpit, that I drew from that interview. _____________________ UAL Flt 232, was a DC-10 carrying 285 passengers. It had departed from Denver, and was enroute to Chicago. An hour into the flight, while cruising at 37,000 feet, the jet experienced...

Taking a private airplane expedition into South America by two guys just out of college, flat broke, and drunk on optimism, was not exactly a recipe for success. But there was an unseen power source that seemed to override any challenge. It was simply the ability to define, focus, and execute a gutsy goal. Desire + Clarity = Done Deal In his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says success takes two initial components: Desire and clarity. The desire...

There is a little know secret, that, if used correctly, can transform a person’s life in less than 4-seconds. Consider the following true story. In 1968, our high school football team played Calaveras High, located in the mountain town of San Andreas, CA. The school boasted some big guys, and a championship record to boot.  At the time, I was a fairly underweight, 120-pound defensive end. Mr. Turner was our coach.  Calaveras decided to run a sweep around my end....