Retired pilot shares what it’s like to fly with wealthy clients, the Royals

They said, “Yeah, sure. However, we cannot pay you, because you are a minor”.

My job was to fuel the planes, load the luggage and everything else. Instead, the pilots taught me to fly. I spent three summers working there and accumulated about 30 hours of flight time.

My father was my idol. He and my uncle were both pilots during WWII. My brother and sister were also pilots. Aviation runs in the family.

When I finished school I joined the Royal Canadian Navy and did a tour there. Not as a pilot, though – I was in Naval Intelligence.

When I got out of the Navy, I completed my pilot’s license and flew for various companies. Most were small and underfunded, so they came and went.

A prime minister, movie stars and royalty

In 1972 I joined Air Canada and spent 33 years flying for them. During that time, I flew anyone and everyone. We’ve had movie stars and royalty. I flew with the Prime Minister of Canada several times during the election campaigns.

In 2005, I retired from Air Canada and was hired by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a Saudi prince based in Riyadh.

He was a self-made billionaire. When I was there, he was the fourth richest man in the world.

If you’ve never lived or worked with someone who is that rich, you have no idea how they spend their money. It was unbelievable.

He owned a bunch of his own planes, including an Airbus A340 and a Boeing 767.

When we arrived in Riyadh and took the first flight on the A340, the prince insisted that the other plane be flown empty in case we had a mechanical problem. This would happen regularly.

It was amazing to see how much money could buy.

When the prince’s daughter got married, he said to her, “Okay, I’m going to give you one of my planes and the crew, and I want you to take it as long as you want and have a honeymoon.”

They took the Boeing 767, a plane carrying more than 200 passengers. With a crew of 12, his daughter and her husband spent more than a month flying around the world.

The crew had very little direct contact with the prince; there would usually be an intermediary. That changed during a flight to New York for a meeting he had with George W. Bush.

The prince entered the cockpit and gave everyone $5,000. He said, “Have fun while you’re in New York.”

For him it was peanuts, but for us it was a lot of money.

After leaving Riyadh in 2006, I worked for a few different companies, including a two-year stint with Air India.

In 2013 I was offered a job in the Republic of Georgia piloting a Twin Otter aircraft. It was a very versatile airplane and excellent for what I used it for.

I flew the country’s president, his family and other members of the government in and out of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. There were very few strips so we used fields and roads to land and take off.

I am mostly retired now, except for some consulting work with my company, Trans Global Aviation Solutions.

The best thing about the career is the career itself. It was very rewarding – and there was never a dull moment.