It's here in South Florida that I've found several of my dreams come true. I met my own dream-girl - Audrey. Audrey and I set up house in West Palm Beach, and with her support I began my career search.

In 1997 I received my Flight Instructors ticket at Chandelle at Palm Beach International and then immediately landed a job at the nearby Lantana Airport as an instructor.

About this time Audrey and I learned that we were expecting a child. All we both ever wanted was a mutual love for one another - which we truly had. But now we had a truly special gift on the way - we were thrilled.

Meanwhile - back in the career department, thanks to friend Dave Johnson, I got my start flying for other owners that needed copilots in their own airplanes. Most notable was F. Lee Bailey in his "Bailey Bullet" or his Twin Commander. I had wanted to fly the commuters, but the only way to go was to foot your own training costs and accept a low paying First Officer position, and with a baby on the way, that just wasn't possible. I took a part-time job selling furniture at City Furniture to supplement my income - but as you can imagine, flying Berkline lounge chairs versus real wings wasn't exactly my "bag."

About that time Dave calls me at the 'Berkline terminal' to tell me that a local contractor needed a pilot to fill a slot at nearby Palm Beach International. The company, Raytheon, has two Beechcraft 1900D's and five pilots who fly personnel to nearby Andros Island in the Bahamas on a daily schedule.

The training was to be paid by the company and the flying would be the best I had ever seen, so I ran (instead of walking) to the interview.