Patrick Carey, production test pilot for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. of Long Beach, FAA Designated Pilot Examiner, and Chief Instructor Pilot of Security Aviation flight school located at Northrop Field was the featured speaker at the October 20 dinner meeting at the Northrop Rec. Facility. His talk was scheduled to be " Obtaining Your Private Pilot’s License". We supposedly designed the meeting to attract young members who presumably would want to know what it takes to get into recreational flying. Oh, Boy- were we wrong !

Instead, about 10 ‘Old Fellows’, all presumably flying buffs, showed up. So, agile on his feet, Pat sort of changed his theme to the possibly more delightful, ‘My Life and Hard Times in Aviation’, which more or less described how he got to be where he is happily now, without becoming an airline pilot. But, before I tell you his story, let me give you his original talk’s bottom line: These days it takes about $4000 to get your private license, and you can’t try soloing until 15 hours of dual time. Contrast this with my story from 1944, when I soloed after 8 hours of dual. Then, you could get dual instruction on a Piper Cub for $3 an hour, and solo for $2 an hour- spending about $300 for your license!

Pat, a local boy, learned to fly in ’62-’63, and got his Commercial ticket in ’65. He lost his student deferment from the ‘Nam fiasco and ended up in the infantry. Fortunately, he was assigned to the Army Flight School in Texas, and after 40 weeks training was a genuine helicopter pilot Warrant Officer. Off to war, he put in 930 hours flying a Cobra gun ship, and was only shot down once. He came back and spent 3 years as a primary helicopter instructor, got promoted to Captain in the Artillery, got a BA and a Master’s at USC on his own, and finally got a fixed wing Army job, from which he retired.

In 1987, he became a corporate pilot at Northrop and eventually was their Chief Pilot towards the end of his 12-year association. During this time, he flew many strange planes and flew several ‘strange’ missions. In 1994-5, he joined his fellow pilots to turn the Northrop Flight Department into a separate commercial operation, which after a rough start, is now very successful as Northrop-Grumman Aviation. They run 2 King Airs, a Twin Otter cargo plane, a LearJet, and a Citation 10 for Northrop’s CEO.

In July this year, an old friend, using money and new challenges as coercion, got him to join Gulfstream, who produce the Cadillac of bizjets, the G-4, and the top-of-the-line G-5. These are manufactured in Savannah and flown to Long Beach for final painting, outfitting, and check out before delivery. Pat and two other pilots do the flying, sometimes carrying as many as 10 technicians, each checking the performance of their particular subsystems. The G-5 is very advanced and has all the bells and whistles: a GPS-based navigation system, a Heads-Up Display for IR night landing assistance, and a ‘talking’ system which reports out altitude and height above runway on landing, for example.

On the weekends, Pat trains flight instructors at Security Aviation, and is often called on to perform FAA sanctioned Pilot Examination flights, where he grades the performance of private and commercial pilots. He keeps busy, and is a very happy man- pleased with what he has accomplished in a business that he loves. He says that there is a critical shortage of commercial pilots now, and he dearly needs flight instructors for his school. He will provide information and training (310) 676 2206.

All the ‘Old Fellows’ present had their tongues out. What a great thing to do but, alas, life has passed us by!