My New Hire class at Eastern Airlines started the day before Thanksgiving, 1985. I was twenty-seven years old, had just over 1,900 hours, and my ATP certificate was three months old. I remember thinking: "It can't be this easy!" As it turned out; it wasn't. But that's another story. . .
Life as a 727 Flight Engineer was quite the adventure. A typical four day trip would have nine or ten legs, and total twenty-five hours of flight time. Layovers were in places like Tucson, Arizona, Kansas City, Missouri, and San Diego, California. Prior to Eastern, most of my flying had been on the East Coast---so I was having a grand time! I would send post cards to friends, and family, from all my exotic layovers. Eventually; I realized the post cards were getting boring. The cards were different, but the writing never changed. I had a problem. I wanted to share my adventures, but I didn't want to annoy everyone doing it. I decided to change tactics. Here's an example:
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| Back side of the Tucson card. |
I began creating stories to go along with the drawings. Sometimes a theme would snowball and continue on for years. Billy Ray Bob MacAllister is one such example. He survived the Eastern and Pan Am years, and is likely to appear again sometime.
I found the next card in the old Airliners Store in Miami, Florida. I thought it was unusual, and figured I could do something with it eventually. I saw the name "Rosko Buljam" in the closing credits of a movie. Sometimes; things just work out.
The EG's father flew C-47s in North Africa during WWII.
When I started this back in 1986 I had no idea it would catch on the way it did. What started out as a way to kill time on layovers has morphed into a twenty-six year tradition. The fact that people saved any of this stuff still amazes me. Keep checking your mailbox, you never know what will show up.
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