Dear Garrett..

It wasn’t that I was lacking for worthy activities to keep me busy. Between my prisoner transports, company flying, Nate’s and Jennifer, I managed to find time to work on the additional training required to earn my next FAA pilot certification credential, my CFI (Certificated Flight Instructor). CFI is the official nomenclature for a person who has become federally licensed to train other persons to become licensed pilots.

Between my other duties (and endeavors), I worked on my CFI training with multiple instructors. I trained with Stephen Wells Canty, Fredrick Brice Crunch (not his real name), Ed Nervino and Darrell Freeman.

Though an exceptionally sharp pilot, Freeman was not a CFI. Nonetheless, I learned a lot from Darrell that equipped me to become a CFI.

Stephen Canty was a stickler for accuracy when flying on instruments. Plus or minus 20 feet was his acceptable altitude tolerance. If I deviated more than 20 feet off an assigned altitude when flying with Stephen, I heard about it!

Frederick had recently showed up as a freshly minted pilot trained by American Flyers, a nationally renown pilot training school in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Though a young and new instructor, Frederick was hired and declared to be the Chief Pilot and Chief Flight Instructor for our company.

Frederick could best be characterized as a “strange bird.” Though young (early 20’s), he already had a hunch shouldered posture. Frederick was maybe 5′ 8″ in stature and about 150 pounds. Unless someone got him to laughing about something, he continuously wore a guilty looking expression on his face. His entire countenance appeared to look guilty about something!

Frederick was the first person I’d ever seen with different colored eyes – one green eye and one blue eye. You could tell having different colored eyes bothered him. He’d look away if he could tell you were looking in his eyes while trying to figure out what the deal was with his eyes.

To add to the challenges of dealing face to face with Frederick, there was the matter of his mustache too. Frederick sported a mustache shaped like the grill on the lower front end of a locomotive. Instead of laying flat below his nose, his mustache angled outward at about a 30 degree as it descended downward toward the top of his upper lip.

Between his perpetually sheepish looking expressions, his different colored eyes and his locomotive shaped mustache, you had your work cut out for you handling a conversation with him.

Frederick’s primary interest in life didn’t seem to involve flying. Although he was a licensed professional pilot, the aviation profession seemed to be of little importance to him. Frederick didn’t talk about flying like most pilots do.

After beginning his employment with us, it didn’t take Frederick long to take a liking to our company secretary. And it didn’t take her long to reciprocate! Her name was Edith. We called her Twiggy because she looked like Twiggy (the actress).

I first noticed the connection between Frederick and Twiggy one day while walking from the hangar to our office. Leaving the hangar, I looked out at Frederick’s Twin Beech aircraft parked on the ramp out a ways from the hangar. Also parked was Twiggy sitting on Frederick’s lap facing Frederick. I saw them sitting together through the fuselage window of Frederick’s Twin Beech! Twiggy looked like she was trying to churn butter while sitting on Frederick’s lap?

Another strange thing about Frederick was his habit of drinking water from a faucet on the outside of our hangar. Frederick had a daily routine of walking out to his car – – a blue MG MGB GT – – and get a clear plastic cup out of his vehicle. Then he would walk over to the hangar faucet and fill his cup with water. Then he would return to his car and sit in it while drinking his water. I still wonder what else he put in his water during his daily ritual. I eventually came to suspect vodka.

I remember flying a night training mission with Frederick and Canty over to Salinas to have an evening meal together. Frederick and Canty enjoyed a few drinks during the meal. On the way back to Watsonville later that evening, it was decided that I should do some upper airwork maneuvers to complete a more thorough night training flight. Frederick was the instructor and I was flying.

I remember thinking while I was flying the steep turns and slow flight maneuvers, “Should Frederick be giving me night dual flight instruction in an aircraft since he’d been drinking just prior to the flight?” I figured since I was the one actually doing the flying and I hadn’t been drinking that we were legal. Though it didn’t feel right or good at least we were legal for my part in the flight.

Soon after the sparks began flying between Frederick and Twiggy, it was announced they were going to both take time off from work – – maybe for a week. We were informed that Frederick had a sailboat in a Southern California harbor and that they were going to spend some time on his boat sailing.

A month and a half later they returned to Watsonville to resume their work with our company. Twiggy told us that during their month and a half on the boat, they never untied the boat from the dock. They both looked pretty worn out when they returned to work.

Having four instructors meant that I could get one of them to work with me on my CFI training whenever I needed one of them to work on my CFI maneuvers training. My fourth Instructor was Ed Nervino. Ed was a pharmacist by trade. He owned a pharmacy on Freedom Boulevard around the corner from the Watsonville Airport.

Like everyone else at our airport, Ed had a special name astutely originated for him by Freeman. Freeman called him “Nervous Ed” when he wasn’t around to hear his assigned airport name. Ed was an extremely kind hearted person. He was a somewhat heavy set Italian. Ed really did look nervous. I never saw him when he didn’t look nervous. Even when he would smile or manage a slight laugh about something, he looked nervous.

Ed was smart enough to purchase a WWII Army surplus North American AT-6 Aircraft. The AT-6 was new, still in a crate, in perfect condition when Ed acquired it for $600. Ed could fly his AT-6 really well. He would take anyone of us flying with him whenever we asked him to or when we were invited.

Our pilots could also depend on Ed for more than just pilot training and flights in his AT-6. Ed, being a pharmacist, was a good resource when a pilot needed help in handling germs he may have run across during possible periods of indiscretion. Ed handed a big pill to one of our pilots one day and told him, “This will take care of anything you might be worried about.”

Thanks to all the help generously provided by my distinguished instructors, I completed my FAA CFI Training requirements and got “signed off” (legally recommended) by Stephen Canty for my CFI Checkride to be administered by an Oakland, California FAA GADO (General Aviation District Office) Inspector.