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Cecil is an accomplished pilot and author who has flown in all corners of the world. From Boeing 707's to Military Tankers to Bush Flying in Africa, he shares his story, how he got into flying, and the variety of jobs he held, right here on the blog. His book, The African Bush Pilot, is well worth a read for any aspiring pilot. His second addition of the novel was released just a few days ago! Thanks for writing in Cecil, here he is:
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I grew up as A Good-Ole Country Boy in the coal fields of Southwest Virginia, with a dream of flying the beautiful Boeing 707 that had just begun flying the sky’s in the mid 1950s.
During the period of duty with the Tennessee Air National Guard, in 1968 I volunteered for special duty status with an organization called “Joint Church Aid USA’, which was supporting the country of Biafra during a revolutionary war from the country of Nigeria. From this point, there was no turning back. I became a pilot on the C-97 Stratofreighter, which we used to carry supplies to the Biafra Ibo Tribe to Uli air strip within the country. After that, the same company organized “Foundation for Airborne Relief” which was destined to support Bangladesh around 1972 by getting C-133s from the bone yard in Arizona for the mission.
While maintaining my position with the Tennessee Air National Guard, the KC-97s were replaced by KC-135s in 1978 which did not require flight engineers. I then took up residence at Charleston S.C. flying C-141s. This organization took me to virtually every country in the world.
While at Charleston, I finally acquired a civilian flying position with Fleming Airways in Miami. This was a non-scheduled cargo carrier which were operating L-188 (Lockheed Electra’s). After a while I upgraded to captain of the ship and later to check captain. I continued with this company until 1985, when I went with Air Atlanta, a small scheduled executive type carrier located in Atlanta, Ga. This was like dying and going to heaven, compared to the dark thirty, back alley cargo flying.
After Air Atlanta went tits up, I scooted over to Independent Air (The Atlanta Skylarks) where I finally saw my dreams reach fruition by flying the beautiful Boeing-707. This company was a primarily vacation charter carrier that also covered lots of the world, mostly the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, parts of Europe and many other places. We also did a around the world trip with the company. I was selected to be the chief pilot and check captain of this organization.
After that, I flew with Gulf Air, Emory Worldwide, Private Jet Expeditions and Nations Air. I was also one of the check captains for Nations Air.In 1991 it was back to the jungles of Africa with a company called Transafrik, flying cargo and whatever else into the war zone of Angola. This carried on until 1994. One would need to read my book to view the nature of this operation. (If you have viewed the movie “Air America”, you have an idea, except we were flying jets). I retired from the Airlines at the young age of 60 in 1996.
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Thanks so much Cecil for sharing your incredible career with us. It's an amazing thing to see the diverse range of careers you held flying around the world. It motivates me to work hard and think not just of the typical "airline jobs," but to see the range of opportunities there are around the world in places like Africa for pilots.
Cecil is an accomplished author that just released his second addition of "The African Bush Pilot." See and buy his fantastic novel here: The African Bush Pilot
Thanks again for writing in and participating in the Share Your Story section of the blog,
Swayne Martin
Martins Aviation / From Private to Professional Pilot
Twitter: @MartinsAviationYoutube: MartinsAviation1
