THE SECRET SEX LIFE ON A PAN AM INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE PILOT

Update to the blog as of January 5, 2013. I have started the book!!!

Target date for completion of the ebook version is the end of July 2013.

To Write or Not to Write

Many times my wife has asked me to write a book on my airline flying career with Pan Am, but I've always declined because it wouldn't sell --- That is unless it was titled something like...

 "THE SECRET SEX LIFE OF A PAN AM INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE PILOT,
    around the world in 80 ways"

...or something like that. 

However, since I've started blogging I've thought more about it, and instead of a book, perhaps I could just write blog posts about some of the things I've experienced over the years as they come back to my memory. 

I decided on this blog post title just to see if it would create some curiosity. However, if you are expecting to read sexploits I'll have to disappoint you. But perhaps during the series you may find a subject that you may find interesting.

Here are some of the subjects that I will write about:

• Landing at Kai Tak Airport at Hong Kong, the worlds most exciting and dangerous approach. (Next post)
• Meeting Charles Lindberg
• Hong Kong Island Skyline
• Some of the celebrities on our flights
       Marlon Brando & Tahiti
       Lawrence Harvey   
       Steve McQueen
       Nick Nolte --  He did a "gotcha" back at me
       Shel Silverstein in Tahiti
       Prince Philip (Queen Elizabeth's husband)
• Greenland
• The Liki Tiki at Moorea near Tahiti 
• My belly landing in the Armstrong Whitworth Argosy (I still have the photo somewhere)

..and anything else that I may recall, but not necessarily in that order. 

The Early Years

My flying career began in 1957 when I started flight training at a small airport near Detroit, MI. I was torn between pursuing a career as a musician or going into the business world, and neither seemed to be the best option for me. So I was looking for something else.

When I was still in the Army in 1956, serving in the Ft. Hood Texas 4th Armored Division Band, one of my fellow drummers talked me into taking some flying lessons in a Piper Cub with him. My wife objected because it was expensive, at $5.00 per hour (1956 dollars). But I justified it by using only the extra money that I earned playing dance gigs at local clubs.

Airliners.net Photo ID 1685090:

Click photo for large version!

In Detroit, after the Army and while I was trying to make up my mind on a career to pursue, one of my college friends was interested in becoming an airline pilot. That interested me because I had flown about 12 hours while in Texas and had soloed; so I did have the flying bug. We decided to go out to the airport and find airline pilots to talk to and find out more about the career.

Flight Training

After doing that research and determining how I would pay for the flight training, I made up my mind to pursue a flying career, and started to work on my licenses. First I borrowed money from a local loan company at a pretty high interest rate. However, that allowed me to fly more and progress faster, so in the end it took fewer flight hours so the high interest rate was a wash. The GI bill paid for 75% of the flying. The loan would pay an advance amount to the flight school, and when the government reimbursed them, the loan company would advance more. Then of course I had to pay the loan off in a couple of years.

Using that loan, I was able to get my Private Licence, Commercial License and Instructors Rating in about 8 months. Then I got a job instructing and did that for two years until I got a job with Zantop Airlines, an all freight airline that hauled auto parts to and from Detroit. In 1966 I left Zantop Airlines to go to work for Pan Am.
          
The Curtis Wright C-46 pictured below, was the first large aircraft that I flew, and I'm happy that I had that experience because the C46  is the hardest aircraft there is to land in a cross wind.

The reason is, that you land by touching down on the two front wheels first; then you lower the tail wheel to the ground as the aircraft slows. The body is very wide, and has a very large tail fin/rudder area, so before the tail wheel comes down and touches the ground, the wind can push that large mass of metal around very easily.

When a pilot learns to do cross wind landings in the C46, they can land any plane in a cross wind.

Airliners.net Photo ID 0557081:       
Click photo for large version!

The instructors job was not an 8 hour a day job. I would usually only have an average of three to four students a day, so I had to supplement the income by working dance gigs with bands in night clubs and private parties. Those were very lean years because we had two children by then and a third on the way.

The Decision

Recently I was talking with AR Ambassador Margaret Rome and something triggered me to tell her about the time when I was fortunate to have Charles Lindberg on our flight and he came to the cockpit to talk to us for awhile. Meeting Charles Lindberg was one of the great highlights of my career, and will be the subject of one of the short stories.

Margaret then encouraged me to go ahead and do some posts on some of the people I met on the flights, as well as some of the places I visited, and incidents that may be interesting to some.

My Favorite City

So thanks to my lovely wife and to Margaret Rome, I will be doing some aviation posts on ActiveRain. My first one will be on the (now closed) famous Kai Tak International Airport on the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has always been my favorite city to visit, and I was fortunate to have many Pan Am flights there and be able to get to know Kowloon and Hong Kong Island quite well. The flight approach and landing at Kai Tak Airport to runway 13 is the most exciting and most dangerous approach in the world, and that is what I'll begin with. I'm spending some time now trying to locate videos and photos that will portray the excitement of that approach.

I'm in the process of writing a book, half of which will be about the non-aviation phase, and the rest will be about the aviation phase of my life, and I'll tell as many stories as I can recall that I hope people will find interesting, and will give younger generations more insight into Pan Am the once greatest airline in the world. I'm requesting that if anyone wishes to make any suggestions about what should be in the Pan Am section, or in any other section, that can make the book more interesting, I'm open to all suggestions.

For information or to offer suggestions, send an email to Pan Am Captain Bill Travis

My goal is to have the book completed in ebook form by the end of July 2013.

 Other Blogs about Aviation and Pan Am:

Pan Am, Most Exciting and Dangerous Approach and Landing

Pan Am series, First Airline Pilot Job Interview

Pan Am series, My First Flight as an Airline Pilot

Photo of Zantop C-46 on Zantop Ramp at Detroit Metro Airport

Pan Am series, Hong Kong Victoria Harbor Photo, 1986 by Captain Bill Travis

Pan Am series, Greenland and Nick Nolte

Pan Am series, Marlon Brando, the Celebrities

Pan Am series, Pan Am Pilot Photos, 1 Don Rees

Pan Am series Pan Am Pilot Photos 2 Bill Spence

Pan Am series Pan Am Pilot Photos 3 Dick Mayer

Pan Am series Pan Am Pilot Photos 4 Keith Woodmansee

Pan Am series Pan Am Pilot Photos 5 The Nude 

Pan Am series Squaw Valley

Pan Am series Famous Pan Am Pilots

Pan Am series Get Ants Out of Her Pants

Pan Am series Yo! This is Your Captain Speaking, Listen Up

Pan Am series The End of a Career

PAN AM, by Captain Bill Travis, Pan Am Retired

THE SECRET SEX LIFE ON A PAN AM INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE PILOT