Retirement Flight To End A Career

Photo By Sam Chui
www.samchuiphotos.com/






At the ripe old age of 60, airline pilots are required to retire by federal regulation. Nothing like being put out to pasture while you are still snortin' and stompin'. But I reached that fateful milestone in January of 2001. My last flight was to be that month but because I was so junior (seniority wise), I could not predict what I would be flying on my last flight, thus making it very difficult for friends and family to join me, (fools that they are), Soooo I decided to see if I could charter the 747-400 for a couple of hours to fly my friends and family around as my parting shot at driving the heavy stuff. United said "no problem, pony up $15,000 dollars and if we can keep all the 747-400's healthy on the day that you want to fly your last flight, you can use the spare 747-400 we have standing by at SFO to cover the Asia flying". I signed that contract before the paper hit the desk and then the fun began. Who gets to go? (Amazing how many friends one has when one is doing something like this). What can we, my wife and I, do to make this special? What happens if the airplane goes bye-bye to Asia? What if the weather is the pits? What if I get sick? On and on the questions and insecurities go. Took a full year to plan and execute this flight, and in the end, it was a serendipitous occasion. On my trips around the globe I bought small gifts to give to all the passengers- Silk Scarves, bracelets, Flash Lights engraved with Final Flight, Brass Key Chain that said on one side "Nobody's Perfect"___ and on the back side it said "Except The Captain", a little Teddy Bear with a "T" shirt that said "Final Flight", Large Teddy Bears for the 12 flight attendants (all volunteers), each seat had a head rest cover with each passenger's name on it and a roundel depicting all the aircraft I have flown circling the globe and the date Jan. 6, 2001. My co-pilot was a volunteer also. He was a retired Air Force SR-71 Blackbird pilot and there are only 135 of those guys in the world! We wanted to serve drinks and dinner during the flight but decided not to because we didn't want to block the aisles. We wanted all the passengers to be able to visit the cockpit and crew rest areas on the 747-400. (I understand five passengers use the rest area to join the mile high club, can't confirm though). Instead we had boxed crew meals (quite good) boarded which we passed out to all the passengers and we sat the liquor carts up around the airplane. We also had a couple of beautifully decorated cakes for desert. More on this later. The flight left SFO at 3:00 PM so it was important to have food as most of the passengers would not get home until late. January 6, 2001 dawned bright and clear. A perfect day for flying. First bullet ducked. Showed up at the airport at 2:00 PM, all the flights had left for Asia. Second bullet ducked. Got my dispatch clearances, checked in with the co-pilot, talked to the flight attendants, preflighted the airplane, all was copasetic, those bullets ducked. On entering the terminal at SFO the departure board showed my flight -9060 -as Captain Larry Jobe's last flight departing from gate 82. All the 200+ passengers where in the boarding area and the plane was at the gate. I popped up through the crew escape hatch on the top of the 747-400 and waved to all, then I took a parachute we brought along for the occasion and proceeded to walk into the boarding area announcing to all that "I didn't know what their plans were but I planned to come back from my Final Flight". The effect was priceless. Now, as I describe the flight, you must remember that I am taking off at a weight which is below any weight I have ever flown the 747-400 at including landing. We only had the 200+ passengers, no bags, no cargo, and 90,000 pounds of fuel. Rarely did we ever land with that little fuel. We used runway 1R for departure and with reduced thrust, we broke ground before the runway 28 complex and climbed at such a steep deck angle that we dumped one of the cakes on the floor before anyone got to see it. ATC knew what we were doing and they where great about letting me go where I wanted and at the requested altitude. We wanted to make a low pass over Pine Mountain Lake Airport (1000') so we had warned all the law enforcement agencies in our area in case there were any calls about a crashing or landing BIG AIRPLANE-(there were). When I passed over Pine Mountain Lake we were below ATC radar altitude, so center was after me to climb before we went over Yosemite. Not thinking about the weight, or lack there of, I cranked in 15,000' in the altitude window of the auto pilot and the plane's flight guidance system commanded a climb, which it entered. About this time I get a frantic call from the head flight attendant (a dear and old friend who also resides in Pine Mountain Lake, Jeannie Tasker) telling me to "cut the deck angle-you are dumping the liquor carts over". 747 sure likes to climb when it's lite. We proceeded to fly over Yosemite (circled Half Dome) then up the back bone of the Sierra Nevada’s (over Lake Tahoe) and the Cascade Range to Crater Lake where we turned towards the ocean for the trip back down the coast to San Francisco. The sun was setting we proceeded down the coast with a beautiful golden under cast to the cloud layer which was over the ocean. We came in over the Golden Gate Bridge and around the city of San Francisco, after dark, for a perfect landing, (one of my best). Now you have to understand that the real danger in doing this flight was- IF I SCREWED UP THE LANDING, I WOULD HAVE 200+ WITNESSES TO REMIND ME OF THIS THE REST OF MY LIFE! Something else you should know is- with a big transport category airplane the lighter it is the harder it is to land smoothly, and this puppy was lite. Last bullet ducked, whew! We taxied off the runway to an arch of water provided by the SFO fire department "testing" their two pumper trucks water cannons. Everyone then assembled inside the terminal building for a short ceremony and last good by. Jeannie Tasker, my “A” flight attendant, did me the honor of retiring my wings. It had been my honor, only a short couple of years earlier, to pin Flight Attendant wings on her. Did I mention that one of our very beautiful ladies came up to the cockpit during the flight and wanted me to sign her BRA. Once I regained a semblance of my composure I located a felt tipped pen (actually it was in her husband’s hand) and signed her BRA which started a stampede of BRA signing. Sure beats BRA burning. My co-pilot, being the steely, sharp-eyed, professional that he is, had a hard time flying during this time period too. It's a good thing we were both airline pilots and not easily distracted by a bared and occupied BRA.