We try to balance each other. He sees the nuts and bolts of why something is important whereas I may not understand the significance of it because I wasn't there at the time. I like to think that I come in and am somewhat more detached because I've been gone for three or four days. I like to tell the pilots that we're their graduate school. They go and get their private and commercial licenses from either an Embrey Riddle four-year institution or Central Texas College or Waco State's aviation program.
Most airline pilots are college graduates.
They may get a four-year degree in English or something, but they find a local instructor who gets them through all their ratings. This gets them their license to learn, so to speak, and it's time to get their experience. Then they go to an air taxi operator, like us, or to a commuter to get the hours a major airline requires. There's ultimately no substitute for experience. You can go to all the schools in the world, but eventually you have to go out on your own and make the decisions.