Episode 31: Mike Geyer - From Flight Instructor & C5 Load Master to Regional Airline Captain

Time in Flight

Mike Geyer

First was introduced to flying by his father, while he was stationed in Japan for the Navy. His father gave Mike his first discovery flight as a present for his 11th birthday and this was the ‘fish-hook’ moment for him for wanted to become an aviator. After high school he decided to attend an aviation university in Louisiana but after two years, he was notified that program was going to close down to ‘reorganize’ and he was given a decision to change his major and wait for the program to come back or leave the school.

He decided to leave that school and enrolled in a rapid certificate program, where you can get all of your ratings in 10 months. Once he achieved all of his ratings, he was still below 250 flight hours, which was the minimum time required by the regional airlines were looking for. Right as he approached that number is when the Colgan Crash happened in 2008 and Mike found himself need more time as the minimum flight hour requirement kept increasing. He did a multitude of flight instruction jobs from teaching Private Pilot skills to new Marine Corps pilots to moving to California and instructing international students. Mike then pursued his dream of joining the military and became an Air Force Load-Master on a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. He is now a captain at a regional airline