We became the first mother-daughter duo to copilot an international flight — here's how the FedEx trip happened and what it was like

• Teri Eidson and Nicole McCallister are the first mom-daughter co-pilots of an international flight.
• They flew from Tennessee to South Korea after Eidson asked if McCallister could join her.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Teri Eidson and Nicole McCallister, FedEx pilots who became the first mother-daughter duo to copilot an international flight. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Teri: I remember growing up as a girl in Australia and seeing planes flying overhead. I thought that would be really cool.

Back in the 60s, a girl's path was if you want to get in an airline, you're gonna be a flight attendant. But as I got older I started realizing that flying the airplane could be an option as well. So I chose that path, and I never did become a flight attendant.

Before I started actually flying, I did a little bit of skydiving. But after about the third jump and busting at my ankle, I said okay, maybe I'll fly the airplane instead.

I met my husband at college, and he got his private pilot license. Then he went to FedEx and told me it was a great job. I worked on the ramp handling boxes for four years before I got on the pilot line. So it was kind of cool that we actually got to land the same job at the same company.

Nicole: When I was young, my parents took me to Christmas parties at the Falcon building at FedEx. So I remember growing up and associating FedEx with Christmas.

I remember I was 13 or 14 and knew I wanted to become a pilot. So I talked to my parents about it since they're in the industry, and they asked me if I wanted to be a lawyer instead. But I told them no, I want to be a pilot.

As I got older and I was in college working through some of my flight training, my mom said FedEx was a really good opportunity, and they'd help pay for some of my flight training.

So I started working with FedEx as a box handler and FedEx helped pay for part of my instruments. I worked with the regional airline Ravn Alaska before I got hired again by FedEx, which was my dream job.

How it happened

Teri: So about two weeks before I was scheduled to do this trip from Memphis International Airport to Incheon, South Korea, I talked to the chief pilot and asked, "Would you mind getting Nicole in. Because that would be kind of cool to fly with my daughter?" And they were able to get her to swap with another copilot.

Anything over 12 hours, you need two relief pilots to come in and let you take a break. My husband bumped one of the relief pilots, so it was actually the three of us flying together, and that was really cool.

Nicole: There was a little turbulence climbing coming out of Memphis but other than that it was pretty smooth.

Teri: We did the flight and it didn't seem as odd as I thought it would be. When we're flying together, she responds to checklist items and I respond to call-outs just like normal. We got to cruise, you get to kick back a little bit and put the autopilot on and talk and stuff.

But for the most part, she was my copilot. Then we get on the ground and we had a good time. We got to eat dinner and hang together so on the layovers, it was fun.

What's next?

Nicole: I'm based in Anchorage, Alaska, on a Boeing 777 and my mom's based in Memphis on the 777.

So for the future, I don't know if we'd be able to accommodate a lot of trips together. It'd be nice, but they were able to make this trip happen.

Teri: We have like 900 copilots and 700 captains between the two bases. So getting paired up is going to be a little bit difficult.