AUGUST 2019 FLYINGMAG.COM | 47challenges to take flight.
As someone with a long-running
slight fear of flying, Galen, pellucid
and present with thought, paused and
with a metered tone said: “I believe
this achievement is within you. Not
only will I encourage you to run the
marathon, I will run it with you. Side
by side, shoulder to shoulder, over-
coming any hurdles we face, we will do
this together.”
The goal was set, the vision was
clear. We would cross the finish line as
a team and shake hands in the achieve-
ment of our mutual goals, as two fully
certified pilots.
REDEMPTION IN THE AIR
There are people among us who walk
with invisible capes. Jim Wilkinson is
one of those people. Beyond his myr-
iad aviation, life and business achieve-
ments, Jim’s high-performance state
of mind and inspired demeanor make
him an exceptional force for global
positivity. Proving the universe
always has your back, a sky-surfing
mentor was moments from entering
my life. While I was working with the
FA A to achieve my medical certifi-
cate, Galen began his f light training
in a Cirrus SR20 owned and operated
by Jim’s company, Mountain Lion
Aviation. Mountain Lion is a premier
charter operator between the U.S.
West Coast and all the fun that hap-
pens here in Lake Tahoe. Flying a
modern f leet of Cirrus SR22T aircraft
along with a TBM 930 single-engine
turboprop, the outfit aims to connect
any airport to its home base in
Truckee, California.
Galen set a meeting with Jim’s
executive assistant, in hopes he could
give further advice on the path for-
ward. All of us seated at a boardroom
table large enough to land a helicop-
ter on, Galen, Shawna and I laid out
the plan for the mission ahead of us.
Jim wanted to help: “I’ve heard your
story and understand your desire to
f ly. If you have the volition to inno-
vate and earn your way down this
path, we would like to support you
in making that happen. If someone
is not a pilot, they can’t understand
how painful it is to come so close to
earning that license, and then not.
We are behind you. Mountain Lion
will support your dream. Prepare for
launch.” My mind blown, I was over-
come with emotion. My gratitude
exploded. Empowered and inspired
by Jim’s belief, I picked up the baton
and leaned hard into the journey.
The day finally came. The man,
the myth, the legend who Galen was
training with walked through the
door at the Atlantic FBO at KRNO.
Chris Barbera is CEO and chief pilot
of Mountain Lion, a jet-rated captain,
and the man in the movies you want
to see raise his hand if anything goes
wrong in an airplane. Galen and I
immediately took to Chris, who we
coined “Charlie Bravo.” He was abeliever, a rare talent and was with us
in the mission all the way.
With Charlie Bravo leading the
charge, I began my training in one
of Mountain Lion’s SR20s. I put my
mechanical engineering degree to use
and went to work designing a novel
FA A-compliant hand-brake control
system that would allow me to fully
operate the brakes, rudders, yoke,
power settings, avionics and radio.
Mark Levrett is a competitive off-road
racing force in the desert world, race-
truck builder and master fabrication
wizard. After sitting with me in the
cockpit to evaluate my needs, watch-
ing how I drive a car and noodling
on my preliminary prototype ideas,
he went full “mad scientist” in his
shop and emerged with an engineer-
ing masterpiece. From my first f light
back in the cockpit, the Cirrus slipped
on like a proverbial glove. Returning
to the sky was an experience of new-
found rapture, applied freedom on
high, a departure from struggle.
Charlie Bravo poured his heart,
talent and time into training me to
show up big on game day to seize these
opportunities. Each step forward in
my training brought powerfully pos-
itive emotions to my life. Milestone
after milestone, my skyward jour-
ney has been a release of the past,
a connection to the present and a
yearning for the future. Flight after
blissful f light, I finally arrived at my
FA A medical check ride.
It was a high-density-altitude day in
July when my opportunity came. Make
no mistake, this was the crucible. Fail the
medical test, and the dream of leaving the
ground fails with it. The examiner pulled
no punches and put me through every
foreseeable configuration his testing
mind could conceive. In the end, I had
performed my best flying to date and was
granted the exact same medical status I
had achieved before my injury: an FAA
first-class medical certificate. Not long
after my medical test, I completed my
first solo and then cross-country flights,
and after putting in the hours, I found
myself back in the exact same place I
was nine years earlier: polishing my
skills and knowledge to pass an upcom-
ing check ride, securing that first step of