What flying taught me
My Army aviation career began at Fort Rucker, Alabama, in 1990 with the Initial Entry Rotary Wing course. I spent about a year learning to fly the UH-1 Huey and the AH-1 Cobra, then attended the qualification course for the AH-64 Apache. I'm rated in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. I wanted to fly from the time I was a kid in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, watching medevac helicopters land on hospital rooftops.
Aircraft I've flown
| Type | Aircraft |
|---|---|
| Attack helicopters | AH-64 Apache, AH-1 Cobra |
| Utility helicopters | UH-60 Black Hawk, UH-1 Huey |
| Fixed-wing | Cessna 182, Zlin Z 242L (aerobatic), Beechcraft Baron, C-12 King Air |
Beyond the cockpit
Aviation was also my career on the ground. I ran aviation maintenance as a company commander, served as executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 145th Aviation, which runs flight school and air traffic control school at Fort Rucker, and commanded the 122nd Aviation Support Battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division. In my last assignment I was the Department of the Army's representative to the FAA in Fort Worth, handling restricted airspace and air traffic oversight for military installations from Fort Bliss to Michigan.
Two nights I remember
Bosnia gave me a few stories I haven't forgotten.
A week in Sarajevo. A hydraulic failure forced my Apache down near Sarajevo, and I camped in an abandoned hotel for a week waiting for parts. The city had been through a siege. Buildings were split in half, burned out and surrounded by crumbled concrete, and the Olympic site was covered in large bullet holes.
A dark cockpit. During night aerial gunnery away from any town, a generator failed and the cockpit went black. We had to put the aircraft down in an area we couldn't be sure was free of landmines and wait for parts. We slept on the wing of the helicopter.
Both nights are part of why I trust checklists, backup plans and a calm crew.
More flights I still think about
In flight school. My first flight without an instructor on board was two student pilots alone in the aircraft, and it nearly killed us. My fellow student decided to run an emergency procedure for a hydraulics failure. The controls felt stiff because he hadn't released the trim switch, not because anything had failed. On another flight, my instructor and I were descending toward an airfield when another student's aircraft was flying directly below us. I took the controls and avoided a collision.
Landing in Iraq. The flight I remember most from Iraq was as a passenger in a C-17 that came into the airfield in a steep downward spiral to avoid gunfire. On my way out of the country, I rode in a small aircraft that climbed so steeply I thought we might stall.
A night in Kandahar. In Afghanistan I flew Black Hawks. One dark night we were returning to Kandahar when air traffic control told the C-130 directly in front of us that it was taking fire from the rear. We were right behind it, and that got my attention.
Three habits from the cockpit that I use in real estate
- Checklists beat memory. Pilots use checklists because even experts forget things under pressure. I use a written checklist for every listing and every closing so that nothing depends on my memory.
- Brief before you start. Before every flight, the crew agrees on the plan, the risks and what happens if something fails. I do the same with clients before we go under contract, so we aren't deciding in a panic.
- Fly the plan, but watch the instruments. Markets, lenders and inspections change. I keep the plan, check the numbers regularly and tell you early when something looks different.
These are habits, not guarantees. No plan can control the market, a lender or an inspection, but good preparation makes surprises easier to handle.
Related
Read more about how I work with buyers and sellers on my About page.