Deviation Approved Ep. 003 - Combat Learjet
“I have yet to have that perfect flight. I’m striving for it, but I’ve never had an absolutely perfect flight,” says Combat Learjet, a retired pilot for the Air Force and Air National Guard. Despite having almost 30 combined years of flying experience in addition to running an aviation Instagram account (@combat_learjet) with almost 1 million followers, Combat Learjet still speaks to the importance of never becoming complacent and always working to learn more about his craft.
Combat Learjet first learned to fly in a Cessna 152 in Albuquerque, which he describes as an incredible locale for initial flights. In college, he began flying more frequently and realized he wanted to pursue this activity as more than just a hobby. He began his pilot training in 1991 in Vance, Oklahoma, and has been flying ever since. After retiring from the Air Force and Air National Guard, Combat Learjet became a commercial pilot. From a T-38 to a KC-135 to a Learjet to commercial planes, Combat Learjet has flown an incredibly wide range of aircraft. However, despite his many years of diverse flying experience, Combat Learjet still admits that the transition from military to civilian flying was a difficult one, which required some relearning and repetition of new aviation habits.
Since retiring from the Air National Guard, Combat Learjet has also started an Instagram page, which quickly shifted from a fun and lighthearted hobby to a part-time job. Combat Learjet explains that as his following has continued to exponentially grow, he has become increasingly mindful about the impact his posts may be having on his viewers. He has begun to stray away from overly political or divisive content, instead tending to favor solid aviation content that will entertain his viewership. However, he maintains the page’s lighthearted spirit as much as he can; for example, his “Flat Earth Friday” posts gently call out the many flat earthers who follow the account.
With his many years of experience and impressive social media following, Combat Learjet is an aviation inspiration and resource for flight enthusiasts across the country. Tune into this week’s episode of Deviation Approved for a conversation about military aircraft, remaining calm under pressure, and leadership in aviation.
Quotes
“Somewhere along the way I realized that wow, there’s a lot of people looking at and reading [my page] and you do have an impact.” (15:52-15:56)
“That ‘I have to land’ mentality – I learned a lot from that. You don’t have to land and quite honestly a lot of the times when you force a bad situation it really turns into [a moment of panic]. So I took away from that going you know what we can always go around. Go around, and if we’ve got to divert, we divert, but we don’t have to get this right on the ground right now (24:40-25:02).
“I remember sitting in the front [of the T-38] watching the take off and it was exceedingly fast. It just happened so fast that I couldn’t even comprehend it. I was just looking out the side thinking the speed of this aircraft is unbelievable. Because you fly around the pattern at 300 knots, and I remember thinking, ‘I’m never going to learn this.’” (38:50-39:18)
“[‘Unaware and unafraid’] is a tongue and cheek saying because we flew the Learjet in Afghanistan and Iraq and all over in some of these not-so-nice places and we didn’t have any defense systems at all. So we went in and out of places that were hostile with any defense systems on the airplane. So that became the tongue and cheek – we’re unaware and we’re unafraid. We didn’t really know what was out there, and we went anyway.” (54:32-55:06)
“I have spent hours in front of cockpit posters sitting in my chair with my checklist on my legs going through all of the things, thinking through every aspect of the mission. And I really credit that as helping me because I’m below average on your pilot abilities, and I felt like that was what helped me to get through and stay on top of all of that stuff” (1:03:02-1:03:25)
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