These war stories are as much about recording my experiences for posterity as for the entertainment of others. I have been with American Airlines since 1986, so some of these names are no longer on the front pages of People magazine. If this is true for you, simply check Google or Wikipedia. I flew them here or there and am taking the time to record what I remember.
My career has taken the following path:
1987-1992- 727 flight engineer and co-pilot,
1992-1996- 767 Copilot, mainly to Europe from .
1996-1998- MD-80 Captain
1998-2020- 767 Captain & Check Pilot
2020-2022 (retirement)-787 Captain
727 Flight Engineer and copilot, 1987-1992
Joan Baez, “The night they drove old Dixie down”, already a has-been
around 1987.
Frank Perdue, SR: “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” He rode
in coach around 1989. Died 2005
Richard Lewis, JAX to RDU circa 1990. Celebrity would be a stretch, I’m just
saying… “All about love” with Jamie Lee Curtis
Duke Snider- Baseball Hall-of-Famer
Terry Bradshaw: Eagles QB turned sportscaster. He very nicely stuck his
head into the cockpit while deplaning to say thanks with a big smile. Great
guy.
Mike Krzyzewski: I was based in Raleigh-Durham at the time, so it only made sense that the winningest Duke basketball coach, destined-to be Olympic coach, would show up sooner or later.
767 Copilot, 1992-1996, based.
Amad Rashad, sportscaster. From somewhere in Europe to Chicago. Hid the whole flight, under a blanket, like he didn’t want to be recognized, as if he would be.
MD-80 Captain 1996-1998, based.
Sissy Spacek, to her home in Richmond. Circa 1997 On the MD-80.
Rockets: Yes, the whole team. I got a call on reserve and took the trip with
little info other than it was a charter from BOS to BWI . Pressing for more detail, it was
said to be for the Houston Rockets, so I listened to them playing the Celtics
on the radio during my drive to the airport. Very shortly after the game was
over, they were arriving at the airplane, which was scheduled to take them to
the next game in Baltimore. I received a briefing from the #1 flight attendant about how these charter trips are different, the normal rules don’t apply. I remember saying to her that the concept surely has its limits, for example, they still have
to have their seatbelts fastened for takeoff. Her reply was just a blank stare.
There is a population of pilots, management types, who do a lot of these,
presumably with the requisite attitude. I guess nobody volunteered and they
were left with a younger me. I decided to close the cockpit door and plead
ignorance to what was going on back there. I got up during cruise to see a party by all measures going on. Chicken wings and hors d’oeuvres galore! The big stars were in first class, most notably Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon. (the latter had his first bout with heart arrhythmia after my trip, but surely nothing I did). I shook Charles’ very large hand and told him how much my 7 year old son liked his animated movie, Space Jam. It was mildly true anyway, right Nick? In Baltimore, they had us taxi to a remote site. At one point I went too far and I almost got into a situation that would require a tug to get out of, but only almost. Besides seemingly turning circles and taking a lot of time, I think it was invisible to the team. After dumping them off, the copilot and I ferried an empty plane back to Boston, arriving after midnight and in time for its regular schedule the next morning.
Sandra Bullock: To New Orleans with her significant-other of the time. As it happened, I had a self induced gear problem on final approach. The nose gear did not lock down. I had forgotten to turn on the hydraulic boost pumps, which I had fortunately forgotten once before in the simulator, so I was right on top of the solution. I was annoyed, as a relatively new MD80 captain, that the flight attendants didn’t bother to tell me she was back there. Acting only as a motivated young captain, I jumped out of my seat and opened the cockpit door to bid farewell to the passengers, even before the agent had the main entry opened. Surprise! I was suddenly Face to face with Sandra and thinking, I know this person, and before I could conjure her name, she was gone.
Loretta Lynn: This time I was told that she was back there. I was inbound to
Nashville, presumably taking her home. Starting in the 1980s the FAA began naming waypoints in the sky using a 5 character standard. Often the names are creatively chosen and reveal somebody’s sense of humor. Here are some good examples of that, like FIDDL and PICKN. Some fixes are named after celebrities or famous people from the area. So, I ripped an approach plate out of my book, circled the fix named LRETA, and passed it back to her with a note asking rhetorically “Did you know there was a fix named after you?” The flight attendant relayed back to me that she was completely unimpressed, did not respond, and I never heard another thing about it.
767 Captain NY and , 1999-2020
Tyne Daly: From TV show Cagne and Lacy. My first actual landing from the left seat of a 757 was on a flight from to LAX with a check airman in the right seat. Simulators today are good enough that a pilot’s first landing in the actual airplane can be on a revenue flight with passengers on board. Furthermore, some of my best landings have been the first one after a long absence, and this one did not disappoint. She loved it and thanked me on the way out.
Judge Judy, to LAX 1999. At this time, maybe still, she was living a bi-
coastal life and flying those trips often. She was also very nice and thanked
me on the way out.
Leonard Nimoy, LAX to JFK 2000?. We exchanged notes about his
autograph session at Ann & Hope circa 1968. He admitted to being a bit
hungrier then. I have both notes, the one from the flight and the one from
1968 autograph session, thanks to my sister. Remind me to post a picture of the notes, since given to my Trekky cousin Brian.
Brittany Spears, to JFK Nov 4th, 2003. I remember the date because I was
assigned the trip on my birthday; I remember the year because it was right
after she locked lips with Madonna at the MTV awards. Her body guard, a big
black guy, sat adjacent to the crew rest seat, and she was directly next to
him. She was sleeping and I was sleeping, so tell people that I slept with
Brittany Spears. The word was that she had partied the night before and she
slept the whole way, with a blanket over her head just like Amad Rashad.
Shortly afterwards she hit bottom with substance abuse issues.
F. W. de Klerk: Google him, President of South Africa during Aparthied. Took him to the St Maartin. 2004?
Kelly Ripa. JFK to Providentiales, Turks and Caicos vacation island. With
hubby. Exchanged greetings as she deplaned. In a word, thin. 2008?
Mariska Hargitay. AKA Olivia Benson from Law and Order special victims
unit. Traveled with her family, including teen ager and baby adopted from .
Did you know she was Jane Mansfield’s daughter? Some would ask, who was
Jane Mansfield?
Senator (and former FLA governor) Rick Scott and family. Miami to Paris. Guessing 2014.
Honor flight-Oshkosh 2017= 757 full of VietNam veterans to DCA.
Indianapolis Colts IND-BNA-IND in 2017 (they won).
Buzz Aldrin LAX-MCO approximately 2018. Visited during preflight, talked about himself a lot, we took pictures, had to kick him out to depart on time.
Tommy Lee Jones- Buenos Aires to DFW, was told he owns a place in Argentina.
The guy from Chicago Fire, who renames nameless because I had him removed from the flight because his companion was reportedly intoxicated. Those details are not suitable for social media, but next time you buy me a beer I might tell all, including who I should have kicked off from the above for the same reason.
Captain’s Log 