I fly a lot. An awful lot. A big part of my job is to visit our Great Harvest bakeries all across the country and help with whatever support they may need. Since I’m in Montana and we have stores in almost every state that means flying…lots and lots of flying.
When I tell people what I do the first comment I usually get is something like “Oh, wow. It must be nice to get to get to travel all the time.” Followed by “Don’t you just love it?”
The truth? No. No, I really don’t.
I don’t love getting to the Helena airport before daylight and making connections that are either so tight I have to run or so long that I arrive on the east coast after dark. There’s not much excitement in trudging through the rental car lot or trying to navigate through large cities –where sometimes I would swear the streets are laid out based on the original trails cut by cows grazing across the land. Hotels are presented as luxurious getaways for the weary business traveler, but just try to relax while the teenage basketball players in town for the big tournament are running drills in the hallways above your head. Yes, that happened.
So why do it? Because I absolutely love what I do when I get there. Spending time at the bakeries with the local owners to help them be successful, catching up with bakery employees that I’ve known for years and seeing the expression on a customer’s face the first time they receive a slice of hot, whole wheat bread from the breadboard are all experiences I can’t get if you just sit behind my desk every day. So, I keep going.
Flying is probably the most difficult part of the trip for me. Not because I’m afraid to fly but because I have to let go and realize that someone else is in control. There has always been something a bit unnerving about never having met the people who are about to take me 35,000 feet above the earth. At least until I got on Pete Graf’s flight.
Skywest Airlines is my Delta connection out of Helena and to several cities out of Salt Lake. Several trips ago I was settled in waiting for the boarding door to be closed when the pilot came out of the cockpit to make an announcement. My heart sunk. In thirteen years of flying, the only time I’ve ever seen the pilot come out to speak to passengers was when there was bad news like a maintenance or weather issue, which translates into “we’re not going anywhere for a while.” Imagine my surprise when he simply introduced himself as Pete Graf, our captain, told us about our flight plan and then thanked us for flying with him. I kept waiting for the hammer to drop, but it didn’t. He climbed into the cockpit, the door was secured and away we went.
As impressed as I was, I don’t think all pilots should do this. It works for Pete because it is authentic for him… something he obviously wants to do…not something dictated by a corporate policy.
Since then I’ve had the pleasure of flying with Pete on two other occasions. Both times, he came out of the cockpit again and both times I smiled. When I see him, I relax thinking “Yeah, I know this guy… I’m in good hands.”
Thanks for the ride Pete.
