To my friends and family, whether or not you knew Ned Snyder ...I wanted to pass along these pictures taken May '07 of Ned in the jet at SkyWest. When I submitted my letter of resignation to SkyWest, I extended it by another week because I saw that I had a trip scheduled with Ned at the end of the month. I couldn't think of a better way to finish my airline career than to fly one last four-day trip with Ned.
Things don't always go as planned -- I had a terrible week of flying, two anomalous events in my personal life punctuated that space of time I had hoped to devote to "finishing" my career with gusto. Ned had something fun on the agenda each day of the trip -- discovering the caves in Redmond, rafting in Boise (too cold, we walked the river trail instead), pizza and margaritas. Most of the time, he simply listened to all the loose ends on my heart and rattling through my head, encouraging me through every nautical mile of that last trip.
On my final flight, San Fran to Sac, he put together a big surprise -- party hats and whistles for all the passengers, along with thank-you notecards and pens tucked in every seatback pocket for the passengers to sign for my send-off.
Wow.
In the pictures I've sent, you'll notice a tassel of shredded flight deck paper affixed to Ned's yoke with yellow "inop" stickers. To keep me laughing, he made that tassel, and would hit it and say, "Ring, ring! Ring, ring!" Heh. Like a kid with a new bicycle, complete with fringed tassel dangling from the handlebars, and a bell. He must have hit that tassel fifty times in four days. I nearly fell out of the flight deck, laughing so much.
What a fantastic guy.~Alisa Hager
p/s Several months after I quit SkyWest, he did, too, to run a floatplane operation up near where I used to instruct. It's admittedly tough to watch the video, but worthwhile, with a waving, smiling Ned at the conclusion:http://www.norcalaviation.com/
Things don't always go as planned -- I had a terrible week of flying, two anomalous events in my personal life punctuated that space of time I had hoped to devote to "finishing" my career with gusto. Ned had something fun on the agenda each day of the trip -- discovering the caves in Redmond, rafting in Boise (too cold, we walked the river trail instead), pizza and margaritas. Most of the time, he simply listened to all the loose ends on my heart and rattling through my head, encouraging me through every nautical mile of that last trip.
On my final flight, San Fran to Sac, he put together a big surprise -- party hats and whistles for all the passengers, along with thank-you notecards and pens tucked in every seatback pocket for the passengers to sign for my send-off.
Wow.
In the pictures I've sent, you'll notice a tassel of shredded flight deck paper affixed to Ned's yoke with yellow "inop" stickers. To keep me laughing, he made that tassel, and would hit it and say, "Ring, ring! Ring, ring!" Heh. Like a kid with a new bicycle, complete with fringed tassel dangling from the handlebars, and a bell. He must have hit that tassel fifty times in four days. I nearly fell out of the flight deck, laughing so much.
What a fantastic guy.~Alisa Hager
p/s Several months after I quit SkyWest, he did, too, to run a floatplane operation up near where I used to instruct. It's admittedly tough to watch the video, but worthwhile, with a waving, smiling Ned at the conclusion:http://www.norcalaviation.com/
