"For me the main concern is weather - a flight across the Atlantic may start out beautiful but it can change pretty dramatically very quickly."
Bob Raskey has spent a lifetime in the air, flying every kind of plane for every kind of outfit, from commercial to military.
Bob joined the National Guard at 17 years old and fresh out of High School. He was in search of direction and the army gave it to him. His first posting was in Alabama. Bob took helicopter mechanic courses by day and in the evening, he learned to fly. Two months later, he had his pilot's licence in hand and had found his direction.
Bob spent 25 years flying for the military. He worked as an instructor pilot, an F16 flight lead and as a Combat Search and Rescue pilot. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2002.
Since 1998, Bob has flown for a major American airline but he continues to log hours on the smaller aircraft. Bob owns a single-engine and a twin-engine plane and even has his own private runway outside of his home.
"I've flown just about every plane you could imagine. In the whole general aviation community, if it's out there I've flown it . I stopped counting my hours at 25,000. It just got to the point that I was just flying so often that I didn't have time to log the hours."
