Persistence
April 13, 2007 at 2:15 pm by Dennis Linnell
In today’s Wall Street Journal, a front page piece tells amazing stories of Alaska Airlines pilots flying up north. In beat-up Boeing 737-200s affectionately called “mud hens,” they flew into the world’s toughest airports. What got my attention was this snippet:
Capt. Malcolm af Uhr, 45, co-piloted a flight headed for Juneau in a snow storm. He and his pilot aborted four attempts to land because they couldn’t see the runway at the critical moment. After refueling back in Sitka, 95 miles away, they returned to Juneau and tried to land five more times without success. As local fliers dozed or read the paper, a passenger from California stood and demanded, “What’s wrong with you people?” The plane finally landed on the 10th try.
I have to admire that kind of patience, persistence, and derring-do. Seldom have I experienced similar effort in the computer industry. Capt. af Uhr’s everyday heroism makes me feel jealous of his passion.