[ QUOTE ]
Who was Craig Funk?
and
Just curious, Mike, but do you ever wonder what you would be doing if you had stayed at the 135 freight job (as opposed to AF) and worked your way up? 10 years is about what it took me to go from ERAU grad to UPS.
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Good question on what I'd be doing 10 years from now. A number of guys that flew with me had gone to American Eagle, etc. A few had also gone to American, and I think may have been furloughed (or close) post 9/11. It's an interesting question of where I'd be, and one that I'd be curious to know if I ever could. At the time, my aspirations was to fly for UPS/Fedex/Airborne, etc, since I was already in the cargo system, knew the overall job, liked it, and was already acclimated to it.
Craig was an ex-USAF pilot that was a professor of Air Science at Riddle when Doug and I were there. Knowlegable and professional guy. Used to have two daughters. Both were killed in a Cessna 172 crash at Lake Amistad, near Del Rio, TX. The Cessna was doing all sorts of stupid aerobatic maneuvers over the lake and near the surrounding terrain, in addition to being over 300 pounds overweight and out of the aft CG envelope. The pilots were an AF IP and an AF student from the nearby Laughlin AFB, and the flying happened to be getting filmed by some people on a boat who happened to have a video camera. During a hammerhead maneuver, the plane stalled and hit the water, killing all four aboard. Funk was the Chief of Flight Safety at the time at Laughlin AFB.
Funk taught Aviation Safety classes at Riddle-PRC. The last day of class, he comes in says "good morning" and says that he'd like us to watch a video. He puts in the amateur video of the crash that killed his daughters (no one is aware of his past as he hadn't talked about it). Everyone mocks the video as the Cessna is doing it's flying...all the way up to it impacting the water. At the end of the 3 minute video, Funk asked "what did you think?" Several people made jabs about the stupid people in the plane, etc. Funk responds "if you took nothing else out of this class this summer, take this thought with you: Your job in the safety field, even that of a pilot, is to help insure that accidents like this never happen. I've harped upon many things in this class over and over, sometimes ad naseum. In this accident (pointing to the TV), I lost my only daughters. THAT is why I do what I do. Please remember that in your future careers."
With that, he ejected the tape, turned off the TV, and walked out of the room.
You could hear a pin drop from the stunned silence.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001213X33055&key=1
Who was Craig Funk?
and
Just curious, Mike, but do you ever wonder what you would be doing if you had stayed at the 135 freight job (as opposed to AF) and worked your way up? 10 years is about what it took me to go from ERAU grad to UPS.
[/ QUOTE ]
Good question on what I'd be doing 10 years from now. A number of guys that flew with me had gone to American Eagle, etc. A few had also gone to American, and I think may have been furloughed (or close) post 9/11. It's an interesting question of where I'd be, and one that I'd be curious to know if I ever could. At the time, my aspirations was to fly for UPS/Fedex/Airborne, etc, since I was already in the cargo system, knew the overall job, liked it, and was already acclimated to it.
Craig was an ex-USAF pilot that was a professor of Air Science at Riddle when Doug and I were there. Knowlegable and professional guy. Used to have two daughters. Both were killed in a Cessna 172 crash at Lake Amistad, near Del Rio, TX. The Cessna was doing all sorts of stupid aerobatic maneuvers over the lake and near the surrounding terrain, in addition to being over 300 pounds overweight and out of the aft CG envelope. The pilots were an AF IP and an AF student from the nearby Laughlin AFB, and the flying happened to be getting filmed by some people on a boat who happened to have a video camera. During a hammerhead maneuver, the plane stalled and hit the water, killing all four aboard. Funk was the Chief of Flight Safety at the time at Laughlin AFB.
Funk taught Aviation Safety classes at Riddle-PRC. The last day of class, he comes in says "good morning" and says that he'd like us to watch a video. He puts in the amateur video of the crash that killed his daughters (no one is aware of his past as he hadn't talked about it). Everyone mocks the video as the Cessna is doing it's flying...all the way up to it impacting the water. At the end of the 3 minute video, Funk asked "what did you think?" Several people made jabs about the stupid people in the plane, etc. Funk responds "if you took nothing else out of this class this summer, take this thought with you: Your job in the safety field, even that of a pilot, is to help insure that accidents like this never happen. I've harped upon many things in this class over and over, sometimes ad naseum. In this accident (pointing to the TV), I lost my only daughters. THAT is why I do what I do. Please remember that in your future careers."
With that, he ejected the tape, turned off the TV, and walked out of the room.
You could hear a pin drop from the stunned silence.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001213X33055&key=1