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...

  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...

It was a push. Taking a private airplane into South America at a time when drug cartels nearly controlled some countries and kingpins like Pablo Escobar reined supreme. However, our three-month goodwill expedition by private airplane seem to be graced with serendipity, good luck, and great people. In country after country, our “Espiritu de las Americas” (Spirit of the Americas) tour provoked good vibes. Flat broke but inspired The trip was inspired by a breathtaking photograph. I saw on the...

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. A husky half-back was coming right at me, full speed. Unfortunately I got in the way. Our head-on collision nearly killed me. We both...