We're excited to start a new chapter in the #LogTenLife campaign. Our resident #LogTenLife reporter, Raya Lieberman interviewed airline pilot Paul Hambleton for our new series of written #LogTenLife - My Pilot Life articles. Check out below and if you’d like to share your #LogTenLife, send Raya a note through our help site at help.staging.coradine.com!
Blue Skies
Team Coradine
That's My Entire Life!
By Raya Lieberman
Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Hambleton for our #LogTenLife series. Early in our conversation, it was very clear to me that while many of dream of flying, not everyone gets to experience it in as many ways as Paul.
Raised by a father who was a military pilot, Paul grew up around planes and knew from a young age that the sky was where he wanted to be. He joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps, and began taking flight lessons just outside of Tampa, Florida, in the small town of Plant City. His plan was always to follow in his Dad’s footsteps and fly for the Air Force. Paul qualified for his private pilot’s license while studying at University of Florida, and even got his glider rating before making the jump to flying fighters.
When asked about his greatest accomplishments as a pilot, Paul did not hesitate a moment before recounting his flights in an F-15. Though he absolutely loves glider flying and is glad he had his beginnings in general aviation, Paul struggled momentarily to find just the right way to describe what the experience of flying a fighter jet meant to him. Finally he settled with, “That’s...my entire life!”
As Paul went on, it wasn’t hard at all to tell that flying really is his entire life. The quiet awe in his voice as he explained the feeling of being like a giant walking across a tiny model earth, was almost palpable. To him, flying has never been a job, but a calling. He explained that while reading a book on meditation and mindfulness he realized that he has made his cockpit into a spiritual place of sorts, where he can truly be in the moment.
Today, Paul is an airline pilot who uses LogTen Pro not only to keep track of his flights, limits, and duty periods, but also to document his story. He explained that even when his fellow Air Force pilots let the military keep track of their flying, he made sure to keep his logbook up to date. He liked to note down anything interesting that happened on each flight, as well as which other pilots he flew in formation with. After many years of spending hours cramming notes in tiny print in the restricting columns of a paper logbook and going back with whiteout to correct mistakes, Paul is more than happy with his switch to the world of electronic logbooks. “I use [LogTen Pro] as a diary, quite frankly.”
Paul loves people and loves to reminisce almost as much as he loves to fly, and he has filled LogTen Pro with memories, photos, crew, and the many details that make up his pilot life. Laughing, he explained that his favorite feature in the app is actually the search bar, where he can look up a familiar aircraft ID he hears over the radio, or another pilot he’s flown with in the past.
It was a real pleasure to hear how Paul’s whole life has been shaped around flight, from the airshows he watched as a child to the passenger jets he flies now, his pilot life is full of the sky.