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From the first time I took relatives to New York’s JFK TWA terminal back in 1968 at the age of 11, I fell in love with the airline industry and knew I wanted to be a FA. You must remember that back then pilots and flight attendants were like gods and goddesses and were looked up to and idolized by the traveling public. The big advertising campaign back then was for National Airline’s wildly successful “I’m Suzanne-----Fly Me!” Some FA uniforms consisted of mini skirts and hot pants and white leather boots. Other airlines, such as Pan Am, were more formal and were accessorized with pillbox hats and white gloves. To become a FA back then required near-perfection. Women had to be height/weight proportionate (weigh-ins were done regularly!) , perfect vision and teeth were required and marriage was frowned upon (pregnancy was not looked upon favorably!) I was quite shy back then and knew the chances of me ever becoming a FA were slim to none—especially if my mom had a say in the matter. Even back then, airline crews were notorious for being a bit on the wild side, which is probably another reason why my family was not particularly enamored of the idea.

I took a more traditional route and got my Associates degree in Business and became an Executive Secretary for a major NYC corporation. That position gave me the opportunity to travel several times a year and eventually I became the Assistant to the Director of Aviation and Travel Services. That rekindled my love of aviation and who had it better than me to be able to travel on G-III’s and IV’s?!

I put a hold on my career to have children and be a stay-at-home mom. I re-entered the workforce as a pre-school teacher’s assistant but got bored with that after a couple of years.

I joined JetCareers in February of 2007 and quickly felt like a member of a close-knit family.

After reading member’s experiences/stories (both good AND bad), I got the aviation “itch” yet again. This time, I knew I wouldn’t be happy until I realized my goal. I scoured airline websites looking for career opportunities. After applying to, interviewing for and being rejected for a FA position at both Continental and United Airlines, I was disappointed. Continental did have openings for Airport Service Agent (gate agent/ticket counter). I decided to give that a shot figuring working at an airport would satisfy my aviation desire. While I liked working with pax (go figure!) and crews, I just couldn’t “get” some of the computer skills. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and if I can’t do a job well, I won’t do it at all. I have too much pride and always want to excel at whatever I do.

Enter my new-found friends at JC. Two Colgan-ites, Seggy and Cruise mentioned that Colgan was opening a new Q-400 base at EWR early in 2008 and that they’d be hiring FA’s. I questioned whether I’d be too old for the job. They said the company welcomed older FA’s since they prove to be more reliable and serious about the job. With their encouragement and the words of wisdom from two other close friends, senior airline Captains and former Navy aviators, Calcapt and Velocipede (who came over from another aviation website with me), I figured why not at least give it a shot!

I attended an open house in EWR, where I met none other than Chuck Colgan himself and received an invitation a couple of days later to fly to Manassas, VA for a formal interview. While there, I took a drug test at the local hospital and was fingerprinted. I received a phone call the very next day offering me a spot in a training class, pending the results of both the drug test/fingerprinting! To say I was excited was putting it mildly! I know it sounds silly, but at age 50, I had finally realized my dream. I felt bad leaving my job at a preschool, since I loved my boss and coworkers, and of course the kids, but they fully understood and supported my decision to “go for it.”

I celebrated Thanksgiving and my 50th birthday and was off to almost 3 weeks of training! We received training on the Saab, since Q training classes weren’t available yet. Most of training was pretty easy for me since I had a bit of airline experience and have been around aviation in a former career and have friends in the business. Of course changing careers at any point in your life is a bit daunting, but at my age was a bit terrifying as well! I met some great people and most of us bonded and wanted to see each other succeed. We’d study together as well as socialize and it was one of the best experiences I’d had in a long time.

Even though I wasn’t the smartest student in the class, I was up there! I’m not going to lie about it, but towards the end of the training, things got a bit tense. Living with 18 people for almost 3 weeks takes a toll, I guess and most of us couldn’t wait until we were done. The emergency drills were probably the hardest and most nerve-wracking. If you made even the slightest mistake, you had to re-do the whole drill over until you got it perfect. By some miracle, I aced all the drills and was spared having to do it again and again. The final exam couldn’t come soon enough and we were all on pins and needles until we were called in to be told our final score. We have a ridiculously quick “graduation” ceremony since we were all headed back to the airport to go home. Of course, I got a really quick introduction into the airline industry as our departing flight from IAD was cancelled due to wx in the NY/NJ area and we were told CO couldn’t get us back to EWR for 2 days! Colgan returned to the airport and drove us to DCA to catch a USAirways shuttle back to LGA, but that was cxd as well. We got to spend a lovely evening in a less than perfect hotel awaiting the first flight back to LGA. I worked some Saab flights from LGA and PIT during January and had to return to Manassas for 4 days of Q training, which went well (except for the fact that on the morning I was supposed to return home, Crew Scheduling got a hold of me and had me do a round trip from IAD-Altoona, PA!

Fast forward to the first day of Q flying out of EWR. I was scheduled to be on the inaugural flight between EWR-ALB, but thankfully, that was changed and I was put on RES instead. I got a call in the morning to report to EWR to work the EWR-ALB night flight with an overnight in ALB. It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to obsess about it . It was all a big blur, but I survived and that’s the important thing! The crews I worked with were awesome and very supportive and helpful.