Never Give Up Your Dreams by Captain David F. Specht United Airlines, B747-400, retired
According to my parents, I first showed an interest in airplanes at the age of three. I had dreamed of becoming a pilot as far back as I can remember. It took me a long time and a lot of hard work to make this dream a reality. I feel blessed that I was able to achieve my goal and fly for United Airlines for almost 35 years. The purpose of my submission is to tell you my story, how I achieved my dream to be a pilot, and to encourage those of you reading to never give up your dreams. And so the story begins
I was born on September 28, 1938. As I mentioned above, I showed my first interest in airplanes at age three. When I was seven I asked for my first book on aviation, "The Story of the U.S. Army Air Forces," by Jim Ray. I still have this book, the book that began my education in aviation. It was during this time of my childhood that my father serviced Grumman Aviation's picnics with keg beer and soda. I remember begging my dad to bring home some models of their aircraft for me. I still have all eight models in my office at home.
My love of airplanes continued on into high school where I graduated from East New York Vocational High School with a Technical Aviation Diploma in June of 1956. This course of instruction gave me all of the academic and regents credits I needed to go on to college. It also gave my classmates and me one year of aircraft sheet metal, aircraft engine, and aircraft final assembly shop work. In my senior year we worked on a Sperry Auto Pilot, an O-47, and a J-3 Cub. We even got to run the aircraft up in the school yard just outside of the shop area! Graduation and working on those aircraft were the highlights of my senior year.
I had already begun taking flying lessons the year before I graduated at Flushing Airport in a J-3 Cub. I paid for the flying lessons with money I made as a paper boy and saved from my lunch money. It took me seven months to log 10 hours of flight time! Unfortunately, I had to stop the lessons when I ran out of money. I continued to work, saving everything I made, and vowed that when I resumed my flying lessons I would have enough money to take them full time and obtain my private pilot's license.
I did not resume my flying lessons until after graduation from high school. When I began flying lessons in March of 1957, I was able to go full time at Zahns Airport in Long Island. I received my private pilot's license in June of that year. I had conquered my first major milestone on my path to becoming a professional pilot!
My next move was to join the United States Air Force in 1958. I thought this would be a great way to surround myself with airplanes and continue my education in aviation. Unfortunately, my vision was not 20/20 uncorrected, therefore I was unable to attend pilot training. When I went to the Career Guidance and Counseling building to get my career field assignment, I explained to the interviewing Sergeant that I had my private pilot's license, four years of technical aviation in high school, and would be happy to be assigned to any career field that would put me in contact with airplanes. I was very disappointed when I was assigned to On the Job Training (OJT) in finance as a clerk.
Upon my arrival at Lake Charles AFB, my first assignment after my graduation from basic training, I was assigned to ninety days of KP (that is where everyone went who was assigned to OJT as an Airman). This assignment was hell for the first couple of weeks. We worked eight hours a day, six days a week. I was assigned to the night shift after my second week. This shift had us working from 6 PM to 6 AM two nights in a row, with the following sixty hours off. This was a godsend! I immediately joined the base Aero Club and started flying to increase my number of flight hours and obtain my commercial pilot's license, the next major milestone in my path to become a professional pilot.
I had originally joined the Air Force to get as much exposure to aircraft and flying as possible. I was not satisfied with my assignment to finance. Once I'd finished my 90 days of KP duty I tried as hard as I could to get out of my current career field. I reported to the base personnel office every week to see if I could be reassigned to an aviation career field. The answer was always the same, "finance is undermanned Strategic Air Command (SAC) wide and it would have to be 101% manned before you could be released." Discouraged, but refusing to give up, I managed to fly an additional 127 hours, outside of my current duties. In less than a year, I took, and passed, my Commercial Pilot Flight test in March of 1959!
Unbeknownst to me, my good buddy A/2C Ron Hansen [Ron later flew for TWA and retired as an L-1011 captain] had told the editor of the base paper about my background and that I had just received my commercial pilot's license. The editor then wrote an article about me titled, "Clerk Pilot Appellation of A/3C David Specht," that was published in the base newspaper. It was in this edition of the paper that I read about a Lieutenant Colonel who was going to be the on base acting Inspector General for the month. In this article he invited any individual who had a problem that had not been addressed or rectified through the appropriate channels to schedule an appointment with him. I saw this as my golden opportunity to get my re-assignment and made an appointment immediately!
When I met with the Inspector General I told him that I felt I'd been misassigned to finance and explained my background in aviation. Once he learned that I was the Airman that had been written about in the base paper, he immediately called the Personnel Office and instructed them to cut orders on me. Within 24 hours the folks I'd been speaking to in Personnel for over a year, had re-assigned me to an aviation career field! Finally, I'd get to be around airplanes every day!
There were only two aviation career fields I could choose from: Aircraft Sheet Metal or Base Operations - Aircraft Dispatcher. I chose the latter because I'd be accessible to the pilots and would have an unending source of knowledgeable individuals to answer any question I had about flying. I was thrilled with my new assignment! Even more exciting was learning that my new NCOIC TSgt Brack Diamond, had been a P-51 pilot in WWII. It was not long after my re-assignment that the base operations officer, Maj Thomas, let me fly the base DC-3 (a flight I was originally a passenger on) in cruise as he was the pilot-in-command (PIC) from Lake Charles to Los Angeles. My time with these gentleman and as an aircraft dispatcher was the highlight of my career thus far, next to obtaining my commercial pilot's license.
I was honorably discharged as an A1C from the USAF in January 1962. I only had 300 hours of flight time, which was too low to find a flying job. I ended up accepting a position with the State Department in Washington, DC as a crypto clerk in the Foreign Service. Since I couldn't fly around the world myself, at least I'd have a job where I'd get a chance to see it! During my first few months at the State Department I heard about a patronage job in Congressman Dan Rostenkowski's district from a friend, Venida Herdman. The job was already filled, but the requirements were perfect for me. The job called for 25 hours of work per week [20 hrs in the house post office 4am-8am and 5 hours in the Congressman's office], and a big boost in pay from my current position at the State Department. All I could think about was how much more time I'd have for flying, the college courses I'd begun taking at George Washington University (GW), and the increase in salary to fund my dream! I asked Miss Herdman to let me know as soon as she heard of any other openings like this.
It took a while for the State Department to finish processing my security clearance and things were slow at work. During this time, I'd been spending a lot of time at Rose Valley Airport in Maryland to continue my education in aviation. I met an incredible individual there named Larry De Angeles. Larry was an Eastern Airlines Captain who ran the flight school at Rose Valley. Larry threw a raffle for 40 hours of flight time to be used towards a private pilot's license. I won the raffle, and since I already had my commercial pilots license, Larry was kind enough to allow me to use these hours towards my multi-engine rating and flight instructor rating both of which I obtained in the fall of 1963. Thank you Larry, for helping me to conquer two more milestones on my path to become a professional pilot!
My friend Venida contacted me a few months later to tell me that the man who had the patronage position with Congressman Rostenkowski wanted to quit. She asked if I was still interested. I said, "YES!" I started working for Congressman Rostenkowski in January of 1963. My flying also began to pick up during this month as I was hired on weekends by United Airlines Captain Bud Shoup to fly his Cessna 182 for the Pelican Sky Diving Club out of Croom Airport in Maryland. I flew Captain Shoup's 182 for the next 14 months taking the members of the Pelican Club up for their jumps every weekend.
It seemed that things were finally falling into place. I was now flying skydivers, working for the Congressman, taking courses at GW, and using my flight instructor rating to instruct ROTC cadets from GW, Howard, American, and Georgetown Universities to obtain their private pilots licenses. And, I'd pushed my total hours of flight time up towards 800 hours in the last fifteen months!
I'd gotten into the habit of checking the "Want Ads" in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post every week. In early 1964 I came across an ad placed by United Airlines. They were looking for pilot applicants who met the following qualifications: vision requirements of 20/50 each eye correctable to 20/20 with glasses, commercial license, instrument rating not required. I was stunned. I'd just found my dream job!! I met all of the requirements and was at their employment office at Reagan Washington National Airport at 9:00 AM the very next day!
I was hired by United on April 20, 1964. I arrived at UAL's training center in Denver with a total of 797 flight hours and began my 20 weeks of training to be a United Airlines Pilot. The training included four weeks of instrument training [to get my instrument rating], 12 weeks of basic second officer training, four weeks of basic first officer training, graduation, and then assignment to the line. I'D FINALLY MADE IT! I WAS A PROFESSIONAL PILOT!
My first assignment with United was as a DC - 6 Second Officer (S/O) at JF Kennedy International Airport (JFK). I transferred to Washington National (DCA) in May of 1965. I flew the DC-6 as a S/O for two years and was then promoted to First Officer (F/O) where I spent another two years on this aircraft. I continued to change aircraft throughout my career and my assignments were as follows:
- DC-8 F/O -- June 1968 - December 1978
- B-737 Captain - January 1979 - March 1985
- DC-8 Captain - March 1985 - August 1989
- DC -10 Captain - August 1989 - July 1991
In August of 1991 I moved to the Boeing 747 and thought my dream was complete. At the end of three months of training I was a Captain on the B-747-100, 200, 238, and SP. Three years later just when I thought it couldn't get any better than this, I made Captain on the B-747-400 in August of 1994. It was wonderful knowing how far I'd come, and how great it was to be living my dream. I really had made it a reality and I was flying the largest commercial jet out there.
While flying the Boeing 747-400 for United Airlines from 1995 to 1998 I was able to establish a number of records recognized by the “National Aeronautic Association (NAA)” and the “Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI)” receiving a “Diplomate de Records” for each. All flights are in record class C-1 Group III.

9 March 1995, Los Angeles to Osaka: 11:03 hrs

28 July 1995, Tokyo to Hong Kong: 3:48 hrs

18 July 1996, Chicago to Hong Kong: 14:55 hrs

23 February 1997, Beijing to Tokyo: 2:27 hrs

31 May 1997, Tokyo to Beijing: 3:09 hrs

28 August 1997, Chicago to Tokyo: 11:40 hrs

25 October 1997, Chicago to San Francisco: 3:37 hrs

26 November 1997, Seoul to Manila: 3:36 hrs

27 November 1997, Manila to Seoul: 3:15 hrs

28 November 1997, Seoul to Osaka: 1:13 hrs

28 November 1997, Osaka to Seoul: 1:18 hrs

14 September 1998, Chicago to Taipei: 14:56 hrs

14 September 1998, Taipei to Hong Kong: 1:21 hrs
The experience was absolutely amazing! I flew the 400 for four wonderful years. My last flight before my mandatory age sixty retirement was Chicago to Hong Kong to Chicago. I retired as a B-747-400 Captain on October 1, 1998. I had been blessed by my father in heaven with a flying career of 34 years, 5 months, and 10 days with United Airlines.
In closing, there were two men who gave me the inspiration to continue to pursue my dream of becoming a pilot when it looked as if it was never going to happen. The first man, Lockheed Test Pilot Tony LeVier, had eye sight so poor without corrective lenses that he had to get a medical waiver before he could receive his commercial license. The US Army Air Corps would not take him as a pilot but he managed to become a test pilot for Lockheed. Mr. LeVier was eventually sent to England during World War II (WWII) to show Army pilots how to get the most out of their P-38 aircraft. He did things with the P-38 that the Army pilots could only dream of. I read his book, "Pilot," while in high school. His story stayed with me throughout my career.
The second man, Captain Joseph McConnell, was our first Triple Jet Ace. Captain McConnell washed out of pilot training during WWII. He ended up as a B-17 Navigator. After the war ended, he reapplied for pilot training. He was accepted and the rest is history.
My dream to become a pilot began at a very early age. It took a lot of time, dedication, disappointments, and perseverance to make my dream a reality. At times it seemed as if there was no light at the end of the tunnel, but I couldn't give up my dream. No one should. You can make them a reality if you keep at it. It might not happen overnight, but it will happen if you want it bad enough. For those of you who took the time to read my story, I thank you and hope that you never give up on your dreams, and that they also come true.
Best wishes always, Captain David F. Specht