Addendum to Employed 15 Part 2

Addendum to Employed 15  Part2

For a while he operated a charter service in the western U.S., After he lost his  ATR (license to fly airliners) because he had an altercation with a passenger and was found to have alcohol on his breath.  He wasn't intoxicated,but he was fired. Despite his continued drinking, he did well. He once told me that if he didn't have a little Scotch on his breath, the plane might not recognize him and
might mis-understand his commands. Though he drank regularly, l never saw him drunk or even noticeably affected.  He did a great job getting the medicinal
benefit of the booze without suffering the impairment that a normal drinker might. Even the incident that got him a life-time suspension of any level of flying license, he had been drinking, but was below the legal limit. Flying back to SanJose from LA one evening, after a couple of days and nights without sleep.
He was flying a single engine, four-seat Cessna 172. Some where over the Central Valley he was having a hard time staying awake. Just before Sundown he decided to land somewhere and get about 88 winks. He landed on a service road, that ran thru the middle of a walnut orchard. ln the state he was in, a tree
trunk nearby looked like a recliner chair and it beckoned to him. He grabbed the bottle of Ballentine's, slid out of the plane and planted himself in the tree's embrace. He fell asleep before he got so much as a sip from the bottle.

The bottle was still lodged between his legs, when the CHP officer awakened him. At that time, he had slept about seven hours, and the breath-o-lizer pro-
nounced him sober. The cop was not happy; he knew what the dawning day would involve: lt was nearly dark in San Jose by the time the Cessna had been extracted from the Central Valley orchard and returned to it's hangar in 
Milpitas. John then  had both the FAA and DMV to deal with. Together, they saw to it that John could never (legally) pilot a plane again.