Gary Bridgestock:  

Life! To sum it up? "WOO HOO! " Flying and adventure have always been my passion, while fortune and luck have been as close and favored companions as the friends I've enjoyed my adventures with. A summary of my life would include the following: Soloed at age 14 in gliders. Bought and flew a hang glider at age 15. Skydived at 16. Air traffic controller and instructor at age18 (Travis Radar Approach Control). Learned to rock and ice climb during my time in the USAF. Luckily, I survived one snow avalance, and then one rock avalanche (the latter on El Cap, in Yosemite), a 65+' fall on Fairview Dome, Yosemite, in addition to a large number of other falls while climbing (x-rays of dislocations and scars are available to show for it). I've been able to enjoy over 30 years of climbing and adventure, and though the accidents have been limited in relation to the number of adventures I've enjoyed, they have been monumentally memorable (read that; painful). In college, I began Kayaking, and ran some phenomenal class 4's in Oregon, including numerous outings down the Wild and Scenic Section of the Rogue River. One of my favorite spots in the middle of this wilderness is a place called Paradise Bar, which has a cabin that belonged to one of my favorite writers, Zane Grey, and an old, wooden boat with which he used to run the Rogue's wild rapids. In May 2006, I went on one of the most unique and extraordinary adventures of my life, during which I explored Blue John Canyon, site where a young man named Aron Ralston was pinned by a boulder for 6 days, and had to amputate his arm to escape. (Addendum: This has recently been chronicled in the movie; "127 hours", and I've been back two times since.) I recently enjoyed the great pleasure of meeting Aron in Golden, Colorado. This young man is one of the most humble and impressive celebrities I've had the chance to meet...right up there with Chuck Yeager's wingman, Bob Hoover, who is another, "Gentleman's gentleman!" I've found that, out of all the adventuring and good (as well as bad) times I've had, the best part has been meeting such a wide mix of people, and making incredibly close friends through it all. Other short careers: One season as a Fire fighter for the USFS (During which I experienced an interesting adventure when a crownover event occurred; trees were exploding on the mountain, and going up in flames all around us as we ran for our lives), Sawmill slave (Before I did it, I thought it a romatic avocation), College Outdoor Program Director, Student Body President (Oregon Institute of Technology), Flight Instructor, Jump Pilot (Yeah, nearly bought it after a skydiver threw a chute over my tail and he went underneath), Charter Pilot, & Freight Dog, which involved flying freight over the Cascades (I got my job as a result of the death of another freight dog - which was the only way to get a pilot slot at that company at the time); each of the last couple job's offered it's own unique set of hazards and adventures, and looking back, while I don't regret those days, I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore. Today I'm a proud father of three girls, and I'm married to my best friend (whom I proposed to while upside down in an aerobatic airplane - heh heh, quite fun, but I had to propose to her again once we were on the ground because she wasn't sure what had just happened). I'm now flying jets for a living. High points in my life: Marriage and the birth of my girls, doing lom-che-vaks and inverted flat spins in an Extra 300 with my aerobatics hero Wayne Handley as I passed 10,000 hours flight time, all of those great times with close friends, and, well...just surviving this long and arriving at this point in my life. I'm now looking forward to checking off some of the last To-Do's on my list, which include running the louge, climbing Devil's Tower, navigating the inside passage up to Alaska in my sailboat, seeing my girls through college, and entertaining old buds (along with doing a little writing) on the water in the San Juans. Cheers! School The person who had, perhaps the greatest influence on my life was Darryl McKibben, because he sat me down one day in his office and said, "Gary, you've got to be more realistic about your career aspirations. "You cannot be an Airline Pilot." (I now have over 16000 hours as an airline pilot!) I still cannot believe an educator, who is expected to encourage and inspire students to follow their dreams, would say such a thing. Thank God I'm an airline pilot today, despite Darryl's discouragement! I called and talked to Darryl a couple years ago, and asked, "How, as an educator, who's covenant is to encourage and promote the dr...Expand for more