- Kent Davis, a retired pilot, shared his 40-year aviation career journey.
- Davis started flying at 12, inspired by his pilot father and uncle.
- He flew for Air Canada, a Saudi prince, and the Republic of Georgia's president.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kent Davis, a retired Air Canada pilot with more than 40 years of experience. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I started flying when I was 12.
My parents had a little cabin northwest of Montreal that we'd go to in the summer. A nearby air service company had four or five airplanes. I talked my dad into going and seeing if I could get a job.
They said: "Yeah, sure. We can't pay you though, because you're underage."
My job was fueling the airplanes, loading baggage, and whatever else. In return, the pilots taught me how to fly. I spent three summers working there and accumulated about 30 hours of flying time.
My father was my idol. He and my uncle were both pilots during World War II. My brother and sister were also pilots. Aviation is in the family.
When I finished school, I went into the Royal Canadian Navy and did a tour there. Not as a pilot, though — I was in naval intelligence.
When I got out of the Navy, I finished my pilot's license, and I flew for various companies. Most of them were small and underfunded, so they came and went.
A prime minister, movie stars, and royalty
In 1972, I joined Air Canada and spent 33 years flying for them. During that time, I flew anybody and everybody. We had movie stars and royalty. I flew the Prime Minister of Canada a number of times during election campaigns.
In 2005, I retired from Air Canada and was hired by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a Saudi prince based in Riyadh.
He was a self-made billionaire. When I was there, he was the fourth-richest man in the world.
If you have never lived and worked with somebody who is that wealthy, you have no idea about how they spend their money. It was unbelievable.
He owned a bunch of his own airplanes, including an Airbus A340 and a Boeing 767.
When I got to Riyadh and took my first flight on the A340, the prince insisted that the other airplane fly empty in case we had a mechanical problem. This would happen regularly.
It was mind-boggling to see how much money could buy.
When the prince's daughter got married, he said to her, "Okay, I'm going to give you one of my airplanes and the crew, and I want you to take it for as long as you want and have a honeymoon."
They took the Boeing 767, an airplane that carried more than 200 passengers. With a crew of 12, his daughter and her husband spent more than a month flying all over the world.
The crew very seldom dealt with the prince directly; there would usually be an intermediary. This changed during a flight to New York for a meeting he had with George W. Bush.
The prince walked into the cockpit and gave everybody $5,000. He said: "Have a nice time while you're in New York."
It was peanuts to him, but for us, it was a lot of money.
After leaving Riyadh in 2006, I worked for a few different companies, including a two-year stint with Air India.
In 2013, I was offered a job in the Republic of Georgia, flying a Twin Otter aircraft. It was a very versatile and excellent airplane for what we used it for.
We flew the country's president, his family, and other government personnel into and out of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. There were very few strips, so we used fields and roads to land and take off.
I'm mostly retired now, except for some consulting work with my company, Trans Global Aviation Solutions.
The best thing about the career is the career itself. It was very rewarding — and there was never a dull moment.