Risk Management Magazine

We’ve all told stories that start with, “There I was …” This story, however, doesn’t begin like that. Whether you were right or left seat with 3,000 hours of experience or fresh out of Mother Rucker, most of us have been in this situation. At the very least, all of us have witnessed it. This time, the story starts with, “There you were ...”

I always considered myself a good swimmer. Growing up in Michigan, I began swimming in Lake Superior at an early age and swam in pools, lakes and oceans all my life. One fine day on a beach in Hawaii, however, changed my view on my swimming abilities.

The B-17 bomber was closing fast as I made a swift right turn to evade the heavy iron climbing toward my airplane. It happened when I was on a very routine mission flying a Cessna 182 as a law enforcement pilot.