Stories About Flying

While aviation certainly has its ups and downs, it's an industry chock full of exciting adventures at every turn. In this podcast, award-winning aviation journalist Rob Mark shares stories about the people who make the industry work, as well as the safety lessons each flight can teach us. He'll pull stories from the archives of his 50+ years of flying for the airlines, corporate, charter, and as a flight instructor, as well as his previous life as a tower and radar air traffic controller for the FAA and while in the US Air Force. He'll also share some of the terrific tales he's gleaned from other respected podcasters.

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Jan. 3, 2026

Being a Co-Pilot in the Early Days of the Airlines

Show Notes

In the early days of the airlines, there were no Captains or First Officers ... only First Pilots and Co-Pilots. This episode describes an early memo from American Airways about how new male pilots were expected to behave on the line. There were, of course, no female pilots, nor any pilots of color.