We might even have flown for the same company at Merrill.... Had been around since late 50s, family-owned and the Chief Pilot was also with Wien Alaska and later on Alaska Airlines.
Nah, did not really work for anybody @ Merrill, I was free-lancing. Instructed folks in the their own planes. Plenty of business.
That being said, I knew some of the guys at Wilbur's..Is that were you worked?
Bunch of the instructors and pilots came to a party me and my room-mate threw one fine summer day: The Chief Pilot or Chief Instructor whatever he was had blond hair, a red beard, black t-shirt and blue jeans...By co-incident, I also had blond hair, red beard, black t-shirt and blue jeans...I walked over to him and said: I don't like the way you look...He was too drunk to see the humor and instead got aggressive saying " I don't give a fukk what you like or don't like".....I was rolling around on the floor laughing...
Them were the days..Party to 0500, catch a few hours sleep, then up and shine..
Alaska is still there if anybody wants to go and fly airplanes full-time, then some. A little harder now because of TSA and background checks for any kind of flying job. Back then it was "dont ask, don't tell" if ya did not have a green card. They asked ya for a Social Security number though. I didn't have one, so I took a dead pilots number and changed a few digits, used that to pay taxes on..It would work for a few months before the questions started coming in from the IRS and the FAA..Then it was time to move on anyways...
