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bank and make me sign the loan papers. She’d make payments for me as long as I worked there. If I quit, I had to pay back the loan myself. Training at Flight Safety was expensive, so the loans were worth several thousand dollars, which meant I’d have to pay thousands of dollars to quit. I’ll let that sink in for a moment.
    After six years at the Evil Empire, I did finally get an offer that was worth paying to quit. There was a company at the St. Paul Downtown Airport, Jetways, Inc., that was entering into the new idea of quarter share ownership of corporate jets. They had a hulky old Falcon 20 that needed a crew. They also had a Citation, which I was captain qualified for, so that was my foot in the door, and the Falcon 20 was my bonus. The best part: this time, I didn’t have to spend time in the office.
    The Falcon 20 is a French business jet built by Dassault, and a beast. The French have a different perspective on engineering designs, so this aircraft was a definite challenge to learn. It’s loud, comfortable, and as maneuverable as a camel. But oh, it was gorgeous, and I was going to fly it. I bounced between logging time in the Falcon and the Citation, from seat to seat, and my logbook grew with valuable hours.
    However, after a year had passed, I heeded that the time between scheduled flights was getting longer. I also began to notice that maintenance items weren’t getting fixed, new business was slowing down, and the business travelers we had were checking out new flight departments. A general desperation of the owners was seeping into the office staff, and it trickled down to the flight line. They were asking the pilots to come in when they weren’t flying and clean the aircraft, and do some office duties. That was fine with me, but those requests spoke volumes about the condition of the company. Competition was tough, and we were up against other flight departments with newer, more efficient aircraft that passengers preferred. The death knell of the company had been rung.
    At the same time I felt my job slipping away, I had been following the local news that Northwest Airlines had launched a side arm to their company called Main Line Travel (MLT). It was a separate entity from its own aircraft and travel services, but it was quietly owned by Northwest Airlines, and the rumor was they were hiring. They had a non-union division of pilots who flew sports teams, Department of Defense contracts, vacation package flights, and any other executive charter you can think of. It was contract flying, which would be a roller coaster ride on the schedule, but they had a growing fleet of Boeing 727-200s, and every big flight department that has government contracts needs a token female. I could complete that company’s Before Taxi Checklist by being their “Token Female.” Since they bid for government contracts, they had to have a minimum of diversity to win them. By hiring me, they could check off the minority box to fulfill a quota. If they would let me fly a three-engine jet, I didn’t care what they called me. Being the token female worked for me.

7 Taxi Into Position and Hold
    1. Runway – clear
    2. Instruments – green
    3. Remember that runway behind you is useless
    4. Hurry up and wait
    5. Be ready to go immediately
    At airports with an operating control tower, the instructions “Taxi into position and hold” or “line up and wait” are common. The translation is to get your aircraft lined up on the runway and be ready to go, but stay there until the tower says you are cleared for takeoff. It is often assigned because a heavy or jet aircraft just departed off the same runway you are departing from and you don’t want to hit their wake turbulence. The other common possibility is that there is traffic crossing your runway or flight path ahead.
    â€œCleared into position and hold” was always a sublime moment for me. I relished having a few