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Steve Gay
Steve Gay
US Airways Captain Steve Gay graciously hosted Keyword onsite at the US Airways hangar in Phoenix, home to the airlines headquarters, for an inside look at his life since PwC.
The direction always seemed clear for Steve Gay: He wanted to be a pilot. As a little boy, he had plenty of time to dream about flying while aboard Pan Americans 707 Clipper jets from Houston to São Paulo, where his dad was an audit partner, a member of the International Audit Standards Committee, and briefly, the office managing partner for Price Waterhouse. Gay and his siblings called São Paulo home until he came back to the US for college. In 1975, at age 18, Gay took a step closer to his boyhood dreams of taking flight, enrolling at the Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University, in a four-year aviation management program. He soon discovered that with the economy in the doldrums and so many Vietnam-era pilots working in the airline industry, the profession had reached a saturation point.
The word was that unless you had flown enough hours to reach the moon, you were most likely not going to get hired, says Gay. Discouraged, but not defeated, he finished his first year of flight school and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin to study accounting like his father. After graduating from UT in 1979, he took a position with Price Waterhouse in Houston. He made it through two busy seasons, one in tax and one in audit, but still felt the pull of his real passion, aviation. He left Price Waterhouse to work in the dealer finance department at Beechcraft. Beechcraft allowed Gay to take its small, single-engine aircraft on his dealer visits, giving him the chance to fly regularly. After two more years, he concluded that finance and accounting just werent for him. If you dont have the passion for something, you can never be truly great at it, he says.
Still not settled into the cockpit, Gay began a career in computer sales in Houston, while continuing to fly a few times a year for pleasure. One evening he had a chance conversation with a Continental Airlines pilot at a party. Gay started talking about how hed always wanted to be a pilot but felt that he couldnt command a commercial jet because of obstacles like his age and the fact that he wore glasses. Midway through, the Continental pilot stopped him. Gay recalls, He said, The rules have changed. Theres no age restriction, you no longer have to have uncorrected 20/20 vision, and theyre hiring lots of civilian- trained pilots. You can fly now.
I just thought to myself, if I wanted to make a go of this, I would have to give it 100%.
Steve Gay
Two days later Gay was enrolled at a local flight school in Houston to obtain the training to complete his FAA commercial and flight instructor certificates. Waving his hands for emphasis, Gay asserts, If the door is cracked, even in the slightest, you have to try to push it open. He used his lucrative computer sales job to pay for flying lessons and attended aviation school on nights and weekends. Any available time, I was in the air adding to my hours, he says. Eventually at a crossroads, Gay remembers, I just thought to myself, if I wanted to make a go of this, I would have to give it 100%. In 1989, he quit his sales job and became a full-time flight instructor at Houstons Hobby Airport. At the time, that was the best way for me to build hours and take the next step to become a regional airline pilot, says Gay. In April 1994, he landed a job with the regional carrier Mesa Air. I flew a Beechcraft 1900, a 19-passenger, twinengine turboprop airplane, with no flight attendant. Gay soon upgraded to another stepping-stone aircraft, flying the 30-passenger Embraer E-120 Brasilia, a transport-category turboprop with one flight attendant. In 1997, he was hired at America West Airlines. Gay moved to Phoenix permanently when he was promoted to captain in 2004. As it turned out, I was lucky to hit all the gates at the right time, I got hired at Mesa, quickly became a captain there and was hired at America West right when they were starting their expansion after bankruptcy. In 2005, America West bought US Airways Group and adopted the US Airways name.
Office with a view
Office with a view:
One of Gays photographs featuring the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains.
Moving to a major airline also meant moving up to the Airbus aircraft. Gay says, Between the regional airplanes and the commercial Airbusmy preference, and I can assure you, most every pilots goalis to fly a large jet like the Airbus. From a pilots perspective, the Airbus has a spacious cockpit with glass displays and other modern cockpit technology such as GPS and terrain avoidance systems, along with generous windows to take in the views. The Airbus has joysticks instead of the bulkier U-shaped yoke, and they free up a lot of space in front of the pilot. The system is called fly-by-wire, and the joysticks are basically computer interfaces that send signals to hydraulic surfaces to control the airplane, says Gay. The Airbus A319, A320 and A321 all have almost identical cockpits a real luxury for pilots. The airline saves on training and maintenance costs as well.
Gay is looking forward to a few things that bode well for the aviation industry. One is more fuel-efficient aircraft. Lighter airplanes with new materials such as carbon fiber will use less fuel and fly with fewer emissions. The Boeing 787 is a good example of an airplane using composite materials. Its expected to use about 20% less fuel than similar airplanes, says Gay. Also topping his list is quieter aircraft for passengers and people on the ground, a result of better cabin technology and increasingly sophisticated next-generation engines.
No matter which aircraft hes flying, Gay calls the Southern California trio, starting with Burbank and Orange County, his favorite airports to fly into. A lot of pilots love these airportstheir short runways give you the feeling you might have as a Navy pilot, because you need to plant the aircraft down firmly and really get on the brakes. There is a lot of radio traffic, and it can get intense. When they bring you in, they often slam dunk you down to the runway. That means air traffic control keeps airplanes high over the hills for terrain clearance. Once pilots have a clear visual on the airport, they use speed brakes and lower the flaps and gear in quick succession to get down fast. San Diego completes the trio. San Diego is special because just before landing you see downtown on your left. At that point during the approach, youre at eye level with the citys tall buildingsits just gorgeous.
Steve Gay
Captain Steve Gay discusses the unique journey that took him from audit to aviation.
In addition to these three airports, California boasts interesting landmarks such as the Sierra Nevada mountains and Yosemites Half Dome, but Gay says his favorite is undoubtedly the Grand Canyon.
Occasionally traffic is light so we can do a wide sweep over the canyon to give the passengers a really good view. Its a real treat for us up in the cockpit and for them, says Gay. Sunset is his ideal time to be up in the air, Flying west you get superb views of the sun as it sets among the clouds. Flying east with the sun setting behind the airplane, you can actually see the curvature of the airplane from the shadow the Earth throws. Gay stops his sentence short to clarify, Look, I love it all. I just love flying.
From capturing the blue haze over the hills of the LA Basin to the snowcovered top of Mt. Rainier, Gay has also combined his passion for flying with his passion for photography, which he honed during college when he attended a six-week summer intensive at the San Francisco Art Institute. Studying with some of the nations leading practitioners changed his photography forever. Gay uses digital cameras to capture the beautiful views. Hes quick to point out that any photos are taken at well above 10,000 feet. He explains pilots strict sterile cockpit rule that demands no non-essential conversation or activities in the cockpit during the critical phases of flight below 10,000 feet. I can attest that a pilots focus has to be laser-like during that period, which includes taxi, takeoff and landing. This is also why passengers are asked to turn off any electronic device that has an on/ off button. That request is only during the sterile phase of flight where we would never take the chance that someones electronic device would interfere with our instruments in the cockpit.
If the non-stop smile on Gays face is not enough proof, Keyword had to ask, Do you get the same thrill flying today as you did when you were 18 years old? Gay answers with a resounding, Ab-so-lute-ly. Truly, it never gets old. I love coming to work; I like greeting the passengers. I still relish showing that wide-eyed kid the cockpit before or after the flight to get a glimpse of the controls, because I was once that kid. I usually give them one of my cockpit photo greeting cards to remember the flight and maybe help fuel the engine for the next generation of pilots. I think its a fantastic career for anybody who loves to fly.
Keyword Vol. 6
Message from Bob Moritz
Ready for takeoff
Re-routed
Transportation and logistics on the move
A tale of two airlines
Getting from here to there
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