Our guest for this episode is Chris Walton, one of the first Eagles to experience the Prescott campus in the 70s and 80s. He shares some great memories of how different things were back then, along with highlights from his more than 30 years working in aviation. We might think pilots don't do much writing, but communication is still key to keeping a flight crew on the same page, documenting any incidents--big or small—and of course for sharing your expertise with the next generation of pilots. Chris currently teaches in the College of Aviation at ERAU-Prescottn and his advice for current Eagles (pilots especially!), is to take very good care of your physical body and remember to save for a secure financial future.
Episode Transcript:
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Abigail:
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of What's the word Eagle alumni spotlights podcast. I'm your host Abby and today we have a very special guest for you. Today we're joined with Professor Chris Walton, and Professor Chris, why don't you give us a little bit of background about yourself.
Chris Walton:
I grew up in an airline family. My father was a United Airlines pilot for many, many years. And I saw what his lifestyle was like where he would work for a few days and have a few days off and I kind of want to do that. But what's interesting is I was such a busy teenager I'd never flew an airplane. never flew an airplane until I came to Embry Riddle. And I didn't even know I wanted to come to me riddle I wanted to go on the Air Force. And my eyes weren't good enough. And the recruiter said, no, I don't think we'll take you in the Air Force. You can go but you won't fly an airplane and I say, I'm not gonna go if I can't fly an airplane. But he's the one that gave me the information about Embry Riddle. I've never heard of it before. So, we took a trip a family trip to Florida to Daytona Beach, looked at the campus and said This is wonderful. I'm gonna go here. And as we're leaving the recruiter for Embry Riddle, say, you know, we are opening a campus in Prescott, Arizona, in September of 1978. And since I lived in California, I thought, That's closer. Let's go to Prescott. So, we took a family trip to Prescott and the campus. I think it was called Prescott college. But they went out of business. And they still had the buildings here, the old brick buildings that you still see around it ace and the DLC, nothing was in them. It was still being refurbished. And we drove in the entrance. And we came over the hill. And my mom said, do you really want to go here? Because all we could see was a house up on the hill and the DLC, there was nothing else. And I said, well, let's look around for a little bit. And we decided, yes, this is a good place to go. So, I started school in September of 1978. And there were only 250 students. And there was only at the most maybe 20 professors, a couple of teaching English a couple of teaching math and air science courses. And that was it. There was no engineering. It was just for pilots that wanted to fly airplanes.
Abigail:
Oh, wow. That's not very many at all. And now switching to flying what kind of airplanes Did y'all have at the airport?
Chris Walton:
We had maybe 15 to 20 Grumman tigers, and maybe four or five Seminoles. And that was it. And we were on the north side of the airport instead of the south side. So, we did our classes, kind of the same thing. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, fly on Tuesday and Thursday, things like that. And I had a wonderful time. It was at a such a small school. You knew everybody, the students you knew all the professor's I loved my four years here. But it was Prescott back in the 70s and early 80s. Probably half the size it is now with nothing to do. But we went on many road trips, and we went to Phoenix many times. And we would sit on the couch and just say, hey, road trip, and we just jumped in the car in 10 minutes, we're on the road. And it was just a spur of the moment thing that we would do back in the day because there was nothing else to do here. Except maybe go hike, go to a lake. But on campus, there was nothing they didn't have entertainers coming. They didn't have movies playing for us. It was just that study guide. See you tomorrow. And then we had nothing to do mediation and I graduated in 1982 and then went to Florida to get a master's degree because they didn't offer it in Prescott. Spent my two years in Daytona Beach, loved it, learned a lot. And then came back to Prescott and went to the chief pilot and said I'm now a flight instructor will you hire me? The chief pilot said nope. So, I drove home a week later he called up and goes Yep, we'll hire you and taught here for two years as a flight instructor 1984 and 85 taught in the classroom as well because I had a master's degree you have to have a master's to teach at Embry Riddle. Anyway, after my two years of teaching here. I went to a computer called Comair. It's not around anymore. It was located in Cincinnati. Didn't like it. Like I actually quit. I drove cross country to wings West in California. They hired me on the spot. And I flew the same airplane Metro Liner for wings West for three and a half years I flew as a captain and copilot and then as a flight instructor for wings was teaching in the airplane and in the simulator, and then finally got my job at the major airlines in 1989. I was 28 years old. I was on top of the world. It was the best thing ever. I had a choice of Panem America West or northwest all within a week, they all called and said You're hired. And I choose Northwest. I went to Northwest past their interview stuff got hired and started off as an engineer and a 727 for only about three months then I went to an engineer was 747 because I wanted to fly international for so long. So, I flew the 747 for a good 12 years as an engineer and not as a pilot and went to so many amazing Places Singapore, Bangkok, Japan, London, Amsterdam. And it was really good pay, and I only worked 12 days a month. So, I did that for a few years and then decided I need to learn to fly hadn't been flying in Northwest because I was the engineer doing all the buttons and figuring out the performance and things like that. So, I upgraded to copilot on a DC 10 based in Minneapolis and a little bit in Honolulu, love the DC 10 Most Amazing airplane made very easy to fly very fun to fly. And then we were the first airline Northwest Airlines to get Airbus A 330s. So, I was in the first class to fly through 30s At Northwest as a copilot and love the airplane. It's totally different than any other airplane you will fly Boeing's or whatever else is out there became a captain maybe six years ago on that in Seattle airplane and now northwest of course is merged into delta. So, I consider myself a Delta pilot even though I was not hired by Delta I was merged into Delta.
Abigail:
That's awesome. Sounds like quite the journey to get where you are today.
Chris Walton:
Yes, very good journey.
Abigail:
During your time at Embry Riddle, either as a student or a teacher, do you have a favorite memory you'd like to share?
Chris Walton:
You know, starting out at Embry Riddle with only 250 students, it was such a fun time. And we got to know the professor's very well. And it wasn't uncommon for a professor to say, hey, I'm having dinner, my house dry, come on over. And there'd be three or four students there talking to the professor at his house or her house, having dinner with the professor. It was amazing. But we had each other. We had intermural. And we made our own fun. So that's just the huge memory I have of just those friendships that you make.
Abigail:
Oh, that's awesome. That's a very good memory to have very special and not a lot of people can say they have that. And do you have a favorite place that you've flown to switching back to your flying career?
Chris Walton:
You know, my home away from home or two places, because I've been there probably over 300 times each. Maybe more is Tokyo. And then the other place it's a home away from home is Amsterdam. I've been to Amsterdam so many times. And we are downtown, and we know all the places to go or to get to get food where to get the good beer.
Abigail:
So, when you visit a new place, the pilots are the ones to ask about the food.
Chris Walton:
Oh, yeah. And the flight attendants too. And the flight attendants usually seem to know the better places to go. They're much more worldly, sometimes I'm where to go. Pilots are kind of set in their way. Flight attendants are much more adventurous sometimes. And they'll take us to places.
Abigail:
Right, right. Okay. And now. So, what does a typical day look like either when you're flying or when you're on campus?
Chris Walton:
My day on campus is really easy. I guess I'm a full-time professor now, which is amazing to me. But I only teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And this semester, I have four classes three of as 350. And one of as 435. Wednesdays, I just stay up here I live in Phoenix. So, I come up to Prescott on say Tuesday morning or Monday night and I leave on Thursday night. Wednesdays, I have office hours all day. And that's about it as a pilot, though it was totally different. I prefer international fine, because you can fly, we used to be able to fly 12 days in a row, which sounds horrible, especially when you have a family. But after those 12 days, you usually have about three weeks off. And I love that there's so many things that you can do. And actually, I found that I had so much free time, I was getting bored. So, I've been volunteering for at least 25 years for cancer camps. And then also an explorer post down in Phoenix, we have teenagers ages 14 through 20 that come to our Explorer pose. We have two airplanes, and I teach ground school I teach flying as a CFI. And these kids are amazing. So, I spent a lot of time volunteering and doing that.
Abigail:
Right and that sounds very rewarding.
Chris Walton:
Absolutely. Everybody should do that. It's so rewarding. You meet so many awesome people.
Abigail:
And now, how would you incorporate writing into your everyday life?
Chris Walton:
So as a pilot, we don't really write that much. I might write some notes down for the flight attendant, you know, as a captain saying, you know, here's the notes, here's our names, and we're gonna have turbulence at this point. And if you have an issue, this is what I want you to do. And I might write that down for the flight attendant but keeping a journal writing down notes, things like that. I don't really do much as a pilot, we don't do that. We might have to write a report. If something happens and issue happens and emergency or something goes on in the back where you have to do an incident report. You know, thinking about that I have done some stuff as a flight instructor. I've noticed that students have a hard time coming up with I'll ask them a question as simple as how do I get the airport weather? And I want an answer like Atis and then I'll say well, how do you do that? And they have a hard time answering that. So, I have written a little bit in the past little pamphlet for students written by Chris that says okay, this is how we get the weather and I'll have like a 10-page thing. This is a this this is what it means this is how you do it. There's you can do it on your phone. You could do it in the airplane on the radio, here's an A sauce and here's an awas what is the difference between the two? What do they mean? And when you get that information, what is it I'm doing? don't really write that much I'll maybe make a quiz or make some notes, I did write a few things for As for 35, on how to program, the FMS, and a step by step process that I kind of use delta procedures, with my own procedures to kind of make a guide on what you should do step by step. But that's the only writing that I really do. I've never published anything. I have never written a technical report of any type.
Abigail:
So, your writing, you'd say probably more on the communication side trying to get a message out to like flight attendants and stuff like yeah, and information.
Chris Walton:
So, things on making it easier instead of looking through an entire book that the FAA publishes, maybe making a small little pamphlet on one specific subject, right, like finding the weather, right?
Abigail:
So just trying to give a straightforward kind of pamphlet help for your students.
Chris Walton:
I've done another one too on weight and balance. Awesome. What's a moment? What's a Wait, how do you do a weight and balance? How do you figure it out? What do all the different numbers mean? So that was another 10 to 15 page or just a little pamphlet on how to actually do it? And what does it mean?
Abigail?
Right, right. And have you ever had to write an incident before?
Chris Walton:
You know, I've had a really easy aviation career, I haven't had a lot happen. A few things happened when I was a copilot, and I didn't really have to the captain does it. I have had to do a couple of NASA reports, because we made a mistake. And the entire crew should actually write up the NASA report, not just the captain. But as a captain, no, I really haven't had to do an incident report. We've had very easy flights. And I've had a very easy career in that respect. I've had a few engine fires or failures, few diversions, but not a lot, just due to weather and not enough fuel onboard to continue holding. And then the incident reports usually on the ground, things happen. And it has to do with alcohol, usually, people getting on that probably shouldn't. And they start harassing the flight attendants. And we have to call the cops kind of an incident report of that respect.
Abigail:
Ok right, right. Okay. And I'm sure you're very happy that you've never had to actually formally write one of those reports.
Chris Walton:
Right. I don't want to talk to the chief pilot. talks with the chief pilot would not be good.
Abigail:
Yes, yes. Something to avoid
Chris Walton:
Or the FAA, for that matter.
Abigail:
Yes. Yes. No talks with the FAA. And now I want to circle back. You mentioned in NASA report for people who aren't in the aviation community. What is that?
Chris Walton:
Well, NASA has a program that if you feel that you've broken an F AR, or you've done something unintentionally, and you get on the ground, and you remember it or notice it, or somebody told you about it. And they say it's not really a violation yet, you can go online, and there's a form you could fill out that is anonymous, and you fill out the incident what happened, you will have your name attached to it. But the actual part that goes to NASA is supposed to be anonymous. And then if you are violated, or they come back to you and say we need to talk to you, you've done this NASA report, so they cannot violate you, it's just a talk about how to make flying safer, and that what you could do better next time. So, you get a copy of it, you get a copy in the mail. But that actual NASA report has a number on it, the incident, all that happened, without your name on it. I think I've done one once in the Phoenix area, I was fine with a student, and I was probably talking and we accidentally went into the class B for a minute. So, we came out of the class B and when as soon as we got on the ground, I said you know, I'm not sure we'll be violated about this. We didn't have permission, let's fill out a NASA report. Just to be safe. You know, nothing may happen. But we have it on file just in case they come back to us. Right? Easy. Is that?
Abigail:
Perfect? Yeah. Always a good thing to do.
Chris Walton:
Absolutely. cover all your bases. Absolutely. If you think you've done something or violated something, please fill out a nice report.
Abigail:
Perfect. All right. And so, I have one last question for you today. Okay, do you have any advice for current eagles?
Chris Walton:
I have lots of advice for current eagles. One of the first thing wear sunscreen. This sounds so silly. When you're up in the flight deck of an airplane, there is no container on the windows, you get the sun beating down on you all the time, all the time. And so many pilots get cancerous things on their face on their arms on their hands. So, where's your sunscreen on your hands on your arms on your face especially, I've had at least 75% of my friends that are pilots get cancerous things on their face and neck from the sun coming in. So, it sounds really basic or stupid, but it's not. And it could be a life-threatening thing because some of those are really could be malignant. The other thing is that we have such a what's the word sedentary sitting job that you need to take care of your body. And when you're flying along flight, get up every hour, or you're going to have back problems later in life and keep in shape, run, walk whatever you can do To keep in shape and eat well, because this job does wear on your body, you're flying through time zones, you're in dry air that's really hard on your body, breathing, dry, dry air for many hours. It's just very, very fatiguing, and very hard on your body, if you're not in shape. So, I say, please stay in shape and start now and make it a habit. And then my last piece of advice is that once you have an opportunity to contribute money to a 401k of any type, most airlines match that or put some amount in, please do that, because then you will have no money issues at all later in life when you're ready to retire. So, three simple things that have really nothing to do about aviation, but just take care of your body because this job is fatiguing hard in your body. A lot of people have to retire early or medical out because they didn't take care of their body and then saving some money or at least contributing what you can to a 401k.
Abigail:
Awesome, that's great advice, and it can be applied to everybody. And that is great advice. Thank you, Professor Walton. And that wraps up this week's episode of What's the word Eagle alumni spotlights podcast. You can find us on YouTube or on Spotify, and we're now on Apple podcasts. So, if you've missed a few of our previous episodes, be sure to go check us out.
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Amelia Chesley:
This podcast is supported by the Department of Humanities and communication at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. Abigail Bradberry is our host Matthew Haslam is our department chair. And I'm Amelia Chesley, Assistant Professor of professional writing the intro and outro music is Wander by Aylex Find us on Spotify or on YouTube and reach out if you are a Prescott campus alum. We'd love to feature you in a future episode.
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