Jim Ferrari has been a CFI for over 45 years. He fascination with flying started when he was nine years old, taking his first flight on a B-707 and getting an inflight tour of the cockpit. His father’s employment with NASA gave him the opportunity to see actual mission flight plans and activities.
Jim wanted to fly in the military, but bad eyes kept him out, so he worked throughout high school to earn money for flying lessons. He received his Private Pilot certificate while still in high school, and earned the rest of his certificates (CFI. Inst, MEI) in college.
After graduation he got a job flying in night single-pilot operations in the Beech-18, then moved up to twin Otters and Shorts 330 at Metro Airlines. Finally, he was hired by United Airlines.
In 1985, when he was hired, he became a member of the famous “Class of 570”, where the class was hired to be strike-breakers, but they refused to cross the picket line and were subsequently fired. They were finally re-hired after almost a year of unemployment. When he finally came back to United, he became a Flight Engineer on the DC-10. It took five years for the Class of 570 to obtain restored seniority.
Jim eventually became a B737-300 instructor at the United Airlines Flight Training Center, then worked his way up (through B767, Airbus, and B777) to B787 Captain.
Jim recently retired, and plans to continue as a CFI.
