Oh, that's a great story. I was actually an engineer at DuPont before I became a pilot. After two years of that, I told my dad that I had enough of sitting in a cubicle drawing circles and squares, so to speak. He asked me what else would I rather be doing. I told him that I always wanted to fly. He said he knew that by all the model airplanes that I had put together. I tried to fly in the military, but they told me that I was too tall, which I found later was a lie. I had also tried to get a nomination from my Congressman to attend the Naval Academy, but he wrote to me stating that my GPA wasn't high enough and that I was beat out by other candidates with a higher GPA. Oh, well.
I attended flight school and two weeks before graduation was recruiting day when airline recruiters would be able to come to the school and try to persuade some of the students to work for them. I was approached by three air lines probably because I finished second in my class. Each one interviewed me for about 30-45 minutes and each one told me that they would get back to me. A few weeks later I began to receive letters. The first one that came was from Air Wisconsin, which was my first choice. I also received offers from the other two, but even though AW wasn't the best offer, it was my choice. After two years, I was bumped to their contract flights flying under the name United Express. I flew for AW for eight years, until I got a call that would change my life forever. I had sent my resume to United Airlines and waited for almost two years before they reached out to me. "Can you come down to Dulles for an interview?" "You bet your Bippy I can."
I started out flying the Boeing 737, then advanced up to a 757 and then a 767 and finally the 747. After two years of flying the B-747 between Chicago and Hawaii, I was ready to stay put in the U.S. and returned back to the B-757 & 767. I never had a true desire to fly international and I have no regrets not doing that, although if I could have done it as a here and there type schedule, I may have tried that, but we had to make a choice. You either fly domestic or international. Choosing what plane and what routes are a tricky ordeal and are mostly based on seniority. Same for moving up the ladder to become a Captain.
When I decided to change planes from what I was flying, which was the Boeing 757 and 767, I wanted to fly the 747 and I chose the Chicago to Hawaii route. First, I had to become certified. To do that meant spending hours in a simulator. Luckily, my home airport, which was Dulles in D.C. had a 747 sim. (We call them sim for short.) I think I spent about 60 or 70 hours learning the 747 avionics. Then, of course, I had to actually fly the real plane. When a pilot changes airplane certifications he has to have so many hours of flying, plus so many takeoffs and landings and then fly the plane with a check pilot watching over his/her shoulder. The pilot in training has to be evaluated by the check pilot several times before he receives his certification. Once he is good to go, it is not unusual if someone from the FAA goes along for the ride to make sure th pilot is ready to command the aircraft.
I've seen the one near Tuscon.
It seems like I also saw what might be a "boneyard" somewhere around Roswell, NM; there were a lot of planes parked there in orderly rows. Maybe just a storage facility?
Gee, I'm sorry, I never kept up with the planes that got stored and exactly where all of the storage facilities are located. The facility that I went to was like visiting a cemetery. Very solemn with sand and dust blowing in the wind on a hot afternoon. It kind of broke my heart to see the many planes just sitting around without a future. And then, I think about the billions of dollars that are just going to waist.
