Outside politics: Senior Delta pilot retires after grasping dream
The sky has had a hold on Cal Flanigan ever since he was a boy growing up in Conyers.
In 1968 he took a job as a mechanic for Delta Air Lines. But he kept his focus skyward.
“I knew I wanted to fly,” Flanigan said.
After being drafted into the Army in 1969 for two years, he used the GI Bill and extra cash from his Delta wages to pay for pilot training at a time few other African-American pilots were flying airliners. By 1976, he grasped his piece of the sky when he became a first officer flying the DC-9 for Delta.
After 45 years at Atlanta-based Delta, including 37 as a pilot, Flanigan is finally returning to the ground to retire. He is turning 65 — the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots.
It caps off a flying career that included 25 years as a captain and a record eight years as the company’s most senior pilot.
The last act of his career was flying a Delta 777 widebody from Los Angeles to Atlanta on Friday. He was greeted with a water cannon salute for the plane and a celebration at the gate on Concourse E at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Pilots in uniform gathered to salute Flanigan from the ground as he sat in the cockpit, and a special ceremony at the gate commemorated his retirement.
http://www.ajc.com/news/business/senior-delta-pilot-retires-after-grasping-dream/nWmZn/