Meet Chris - Pilot/ Crew

I've had a long and fairly diverse career.

In the 1990's I worked as a physicist, studying the properties of antimatter at a particle accelerator in Japan.  This was extremely interesting to say the least.  Essentially, we used a high energy proton beam to create antimatter in the lab.  We were then able compare the behavior of antimatter against the "regular" matter that makes up the world around us!

Toward the end of the 1990's, I met my wife Jill and decided to switch to a field that required less travel (and where I could make more money), so I joined a NYC based hedge fund called Spark Investment Management.  This was challenging in its own right - over the years I was active in trading, R&D, computer programming, accounting - essentially most areas of the business.

In 2011, Jill and I moved from New York City to NJ and I switched to part time, mostly so that I could spend more time with my aging parents.  When I was a physicist, I knew a number of people who had their PPLs, and I always wanted to learn to fly, so in 2018 I finally decided to go for it. 

I hadn't really intended to do much more than get my PPL, but I found that I really loved to fly.  I think for me that the attraction was a combination of the massive freedom that flying provides and also the fact that you are always learning something new.

I met Pierre in 2020, back when he was doing Cirrus rentals and operating a single PC12 (N777JZ) part 135 out of a really small office at Signature West.  I thought the operation was really promising so I joined up - and here we are.

Staying calm when problems come up.

Cessna 172, Piper Seminole, Cirrus SR20/SR22, Pilatus PC12, Phenom 100.

I don't really have a lot of stories about flying, but I do remember one about airport security.  

Back when I was in physics, I was traveling from Newark to Narita.  At the time, I was pretty scruffy - long hair, leather jacket, definitely what most people in Japan would call a "yankee" meaning "a delinquent".  I was also carrying some particle detection equipment in my luggage - in the 1990's, shipping overseas was much more expensive than it is today, so we often tried to bring equipment that needed with us when we flew.  The details aren't that important, but these detectors were essentially long tubes with wires running down the center and electronics hanging off one end.  You can only imagine what they must have looked like on x-ray.

At the time, I was traveling with a guy names Elliot, who was the completely the opposite of me -  an older, very dignified gentleman wearing a tweed suit and a bow-tie.  Pretty much the stereotypical image that you probably have of a college professor.

A few hours out from Narita, the flight crew informed the passengers that there were massive delays going through customs related to Bill Clinton's upcoming visit to Tokyo.  I was somewhat concerned...

And they were right, when we arrived at Narita, there were a bunch of 3-man teams going through each passenger's luggage and asking a lot of questions.  I was getting more and more concerned.

Thanks to Japanese efficiency, I was only in line about 25 minutes before it was my turn.  The officer scanning my luggage called over another security guy, and then a third.  I was getting more and more nervous.  The security team kept glancing between the x-ray machine and me and then...  they waived me through!! - they didn't even ask any questions!!

As I was leaving the airport, I glanced back at the customs line and saw that Elliot had been detained!  Two guys had him up against a wall and were frisking him down, while another guy was completely unpacking his luggage!  I never found out why, but he later told me that it took him 4 hours to get out of the airport...