- Mark Stephens, a retired pilot, was hired by Delta Air Lines in 1989 and captained five aircraft.
- He said there were ups and downs, just like in any career, but the joy of flying trumped everything.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mark Stephens, a 67-year-old retired Delta Air Lines pilot who completed his career as an Airbus A350 captain in November 2021. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I was hired by Delta Air Lines in 1989 as a flight engineer on the Lockheed L-1011 — a plane Delta doesn't fly anymore — and went on to captain five different aircraft across my 20 years in the left seat.
But my aviation career has two parts. I didn't go the regional route like many young aviators are today, flying smaller planes before jumping to the majors by the time they're 26.
Instead, the best route for me as a young person living in lower Alabama in the 1970s was to join the military. I handled $30-to-$40 million jets, which was a significant part of my experience and growth as a pilot.
Moving from the military to commercial aviation was an amazing leap forward for me.
When I captained the Boeing 727 for Delta, I could hand-fly the aircraft down to 100 feet during a CAT II approach, which means landing in very low-visibility conditions. That was lower than anything I ever did in the military.
Plus, I was moving people worldwide, helping them get where they wanted to go. Interacting with passengers and letting kids sit in the cockpit were some of the best moments of my career.
There were some new things I had to learn, such as pushing an aircraft back from the gate, knowing who to call, and adjusting to a cockpit that was much higher off the ground compared to the fighter jets I'd flown.
I had to learn and adapt, and I valued my time as a first officer because it helped me transition from one world to another. Once I got enough experience, I moved up to captain.
That was another big adjustment. When you upgrade to captain, you think you have all this experience, but you will still make mistakes, whether it be a wrong taxi instruction or a misunderstood radio call.
I started seeing aviation as always correcting my last mistake. It was something a friend told me when I first started at Delta, and it's a mentality I kept my entire career.
Aside from the 727, I also captained the MD-88, the Boeing 717, the Boeing 737, and the Airbus A350 before retiring in November 2021.
Overall, I spent two decades as a captain for Delta, but pilots can rise through the ranks much younger these days. They could fly as a captain for 35 or even 40 years by the time they have to retire at 65, which was almost unheard of in my time.
The industry has changed significantly since I started. Before 9/11, the cockpit doors weren't reinforced, and no TSA existed.
I was also hired before strong fatigue regulations, so I would spend 12 hours in the plane flying seven takeoffs and landings in one day.
And the technology on aircraft wasn't nearly as advanced. As a captain on the Boeing 727, I used charts to get us across the country.
On the MD-11, we'd manually program each leg of a flight between, say, Los Angeles and Tokyo. We'd also have to input the winds and altitude at each waypoint. It was difficult and tedious, but it was a different time.
Now, technology has improved so much that on the Airbus A350, I simply downloaded the flight plan and verified it. The human error of manually programming everything was gone.
But I still warn pilots today that things being more automated does not relieve their responsibility in the cockpit.
My years as a captain prepared me for emergencies
As an airline pilot, I faced some emergencies.
On one flight, when I was a captain on the MD-88, my engine went out at 5,000 feet during takeoff.
With fire coming from the engine, passengers on board knew something was wrong.
So, I went on the intercom to explain what happened and the plan to land safely, just trying to keep everyone calm while simultaneously going through emergency checklists and turning the engine off.
As pilots, this is something my first officer and I trained for, and we landed without any injuries or further issues.
There were other times I managed to catch potential failures before takeoff in relation to brakes and hydraulics.
Some of the issues could have turned into bigger ones had we taken off, and they are good examples of what experience and training do for you.
I started out making little money but retired with a $500,000 salary
When I was hired as a flight engineer on the L-1011, I made little money and had to use up all my savings in the first year to get by. Some of my colleagues were on food stamps.
As I moved up to the first-officer position, the pay got better. Once I became captain in 2000, I got a 30% hourly raise and started making over $100,000.
I also gained seniority, which made being a single parent easier because I could be home more nights and attend more of my kids' events.
This was nice because I could combine a high salary with a good work-life balance — you can have both as an airline pilot.
This is especially true now with the pay increases across the industry. I was making $500,000 in my last year with Delta. As an international captain, I got to fly worldwide to places such as Amsterdam, Sydney, and Seoul.
I typically had at least 24 hours in each place, so I loved embracing new cultures and seeing some sights before turning around and flying home.
I did have to get used to being alone often — but that's part of the gig, and there were the ups and downs of any job.
But, overall, flying is who I am, and I don't regret one second of my career. It was a truly enjoyable life.