The True Events In Our Story
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Hi, I'm Michael Adrian. During the 1980's and 90's, I piloted and reported from radio and TV news helicopters based at the Austin, Texas airport. When not in the air covering breaking news, I spent my time at Austin Aero - a gas station for private aircraft, and I got to know a great many pilots at various stages of their careers.
Some of them were at the top of the career ladder, such as flying the governor of Texas' jet, or that of a major corporation, like the pilot who flew the owner of Dillard's Department Stores. But some of them were just starting out. Regardless of their status, they all had amazing, true stories from their lives in and around airplanes.
Mona's Flight Into A Thunderstorm
One of the most memorable pilots I met was a young woman who is the basis for our story. To tell you the truth, I don't think I ever knew her real name - we all just called her by the nickname "Moansalot." I always assumed it was a play on her real name that described her fiery, determined sprit. In our story I give her the name Mona, figuring it was a good guess as to her real name (I did a search of the FAA pilot data base and there is no Mona or Monique Lott registered, so her true identity remains a mystery). Mona, as I call her in our show,
started at Austin Aero working as a "ramp hostess," wearing a skimpy little cheerleader outfit while directing the corporate jets where to park.
Moansalot had her instructor's license but didn't have enough students to pay the bills. Like every pilot starting out, she was willing to park planes, clean planes, fuel planes - anything to be at the airport where she might build a few more flight hours and climb the pilot job ladder.
Moansalot finally got her big break when one of the regular pilots who flew a nightly "check run" (moving cancelled bank checks for the Federal Reserve) up to Dallas didn't show up for work. The manager of Austin Aero had no choice but to draft her for the job.
She told me the experience of that first night, being lined up behind a big American Airlines jet, waiting to take-off right into the teeth of a huge thunderstorm. The tower controller asked her if she wanted to wait to take off and see if the big American jet made it through. She answered, "Dudn't matter, he makes it or not, I'm going anyway." She told me the flight was harrowing but she survived.
In our story version of her first flight, I add a true event as told to me by the Chief Pilot of a huge corporate jet owned by (as he called him) "Old Man Dillard," the founder of Dillard's Dept. Stores.
He told me of a night flight when he was a new pilot and first flew with radar. He recounted a scary tale of barely surviving flying into a huge thunderstorm due to his ignorance of how to read the radar screen. He said the turbulence was so bad it
I broke every glass instrument in the plane. Once on the ground he was shaking so badly he couldn't pour a cup of coffee. His true story is dramatized in our show but we give it to Mona.
The Plane Lands Itself In A Corn Field While Mona Sleeps
While this actually happened, it didn't happen to Moansalot. The event depitcted in our show is exactly as it was related to me one morning around the coffee pot in the pilot lounge. We had a group of regulars (mostly Fed-Ex pilots flying small, single engine Caravan's on overnight runs), but often there were others, including the Texas Governor's pilot. One of the pilots disappeared for about 6 months, and then one day reappeared. He told us that he had been suspended after waking up while at the controls of a small
airplane...sitting in a Kansas cornfield. The plane had been on autopilot while he caught up on his sleep (he was working 2 jobs), and was equipped with landing gear that lowered automatically within 300 feet of the ground. The plane had flown itself until it ran out of gas, and then landed unscathed in a corn field. He said he sat in the plane for 2 hours trying to think of a story that he could tell the FAA but couldn't come up with one and so had to tell them the truth! (Some years ago I found a web story that confirmed this tale but it has since disappeared. I'm sure a quick check with the FAA could confirm this story).
Please click on the button below to be taken to a web page that documents several times this has occurred to other pilots.
Captain Insists They Fly A Lear Jet With A Broken Tail
This story was told to me by the pilot that I modeled Mona's boyfriend after, and his real last name was indeed...Wright. At the time I knew him, "Will" was flying an EMS hospital helicopter in Austin, but as the summer was ending, Will told me he was leaving Austin to be co-pilot on a little Learjet flying "hotshot" deliveries for the auto manufacturers up in Detroit. We all said good-bye to Will, but in about a week, surprisingly, he was back. He said the Learjet Captain was a novice who nearly killed them several
different ways in just a week. Will said he put up with it until the night they were refueling and the fueling crew failed to support the jet's tail with the required little jack (the Lear 23 gets "tail-heavy" until the forward tanks are filled).
The jet fell back hard on its tail and crumpled the fuselage. The Captain insisted that they fly it anyway. When Will refused, the Captain summoned a mechanic and bribed him to say the plane was still airworthy. "It'll probably make it," said the mechanic while not being able to look Will in the eye. At this point, Will dropped the Learjet's ignition keys and the company credit card on the ground and walked away. We tell the story just as Will told it to me...only we let our heroine, Mona, live it.
The Love Story
The pilot I knew as Moansalot did fall in love...a passionate love affair (do pilots have any other kind?) with another pilot based at Austin Aero, and I had a front row seat as the love affair roared and then flamed out. The causes of the break up were exactly as shown in our show - long periods of separation, and a hectic, demanding work life.
The Reunion 10 Years Later
There was a reunion 10 years after the love affair ended, but it was Moansalot...with me!
I flew out of Austin Aero a long time, and one morning this huge corporate jet pulled up in front of the terminal building. The plane's door opened and stepping down the air stair was...Moansalot wearing
her immaculately tailored Captain's uniform, dripping in gold piping on the sleeves. We hugged and she quickly gave me a brief recap of her prior 10 years. She had flown for the forest service in Montana, and flown a float plane in the Bahamas, among a half dozen other flying jobs; slowly building her flight time, and increasing the size of the aircraft she flew. She said she had applied to several airlines and was waiting to be called to interview with them. I asked her if she ever heard from the ex-lover, Will, and she said "No...but I'd like to." And this of course, is the slim piece of hope for a reunion that gives our show its happy ending.
A Tribute To All That Fly
At the end of our show while we reprise our main theme, we show pictures of early female aviators and give a brief note on each one's accomplishments. While this is our way of "tipping our hat" to the ladies, our show is really meant as a salute to all who have chosen to live the pilot's life with the sacrifices it requires.
