Eyes to the Sky: The Mission of Timothy Wilkins

Clink! Szzweeeww. Thud thud thud thud thud.

“Johnathan Roe, please report to the security checkpoint to claim your forgotten item.”

Szzweeeww. Thud thud thud thud thud.

“This is the final boarding call for Delta flight 3486 to Paris”

Szzweeeww, Szzweeeww. Thud thud thud thud. Click clack click clak.

Clink! Schercklak.

“Whew!” He said under his breath. “That was a heck of a run.”

“Are you one of the flight attendants for our crew today?”

“Yes, sir I am.”

“Great, looking forward to working as a team.”

These sounds and conversations are cornerstones of the “strange but rewarding life” and mission of my dad, Tim Wilkins, a Delta Airlines Airbus 350 Captain and Instructor. In my dad’s mind the wheels are constantly turning, the jet fuel is always burning, and greatness is forever churning.

My dad was raised on the lower north side of Great Falls, Montana. He and his five brothers grew up in a tiny home chalked full of intelligence, wit, great meals and a fair amount of chaos. Did I mention his five siblings were all boys? He walked to the church in the mornings to serve the Mass and when he got home, he watched his brother chase their threatening, up-to-no-good neighbor kid with his dad’s Knights of Columbus sword, only to see it break and along with it his brother’s ego.

When asked about his career and if he ever felt he would be where he is now, he said,

“As a little kid, my eye was to the sky constantly. I loved airplanes. I loved watching them. I used to see Delta come into Great Falls and I would think, ‘well that's really crazy, really cool,’ but I never thought at that time that I’d ever be doing this.”

His upward gaze during childhood was only the beginning of what would be truly, the adventure of a lifetime.

“Was there any moment that you can remember where you felt your path was illuminated? Like there was no doubt that this is what you are supposed to be doing?” I asked.

“One day it dawned on me. When I was 18 or 19 [years old] I went up in a plane of a friend of ours, and my dad was a private pilot at the time and had got back into flying after the Navy, and we went up. We did some aerobatic spins and of course I was hooked...I was young. The guy said, ‘you know you could do this for a living.’ No one ever really told me that. It's also not where I came from, you know? We weren't rich or anything like that so it's like: people like me don't go do that kind of thing, but then I started to say, ‘you know, why can't I do this?’ Then, I went and started taking lessons and I worked very hard to get all my licenses and move on from there.”

It was a 19-year-old Tim that told himself, this airline business is no funny-business. It was no longer just a job; this was his mission.

            My dad continues to live this mission through his work at Delta airlines through an intensely disciplined life. He seeks to not only provide for our family, but also to provide safety for all the passengers on his planes.

“I enjoy being disciplined and this job requires a great deal of discipline. My main focus is to be the most be safe and the most prudent and to always get the people where they're going,” he said. He continued speaking about the importance of safety and said,

“It’s what is first and foremost on our minds and my mind. Whether that be me teaching in the simulator or flying people in the aircraft, the whole idea and the whole goal is to be safe, confident, and competent aviators so that we can get everyone, entrusting their lives to us, to their destination safely.”

“It doesn't matter who that is,” he added. “It doesn't matter if we’re flying a grandmother of 90 years old who has to get wheeled down in a wheelchair or if we're flying NBA or NFL or college football guys who have big names and status. Those people are all the same in our minds.”

            Aviation is an interesting job. My dad explained that it is unlike the way we are taught to learn in school. In classes, the lesson comes first and then the test, but in aviation he said, “the test comes first and then the lesson.” By this, he meant that pilots learn through flying and doing. They then take the lessons they learned while flying and then go to the books to refine their skills.

            My dad has learned many lessons in his life, but amid the 20-hour or more cross-pacific workdays, the stressful, sleepless nights travelling, and his vocation as a husband and father, he said the greatest life lesson he has learned is to remain humble. In classic aviator fashion, he like all of us, learns life lessons from his successes or failures. 

“Humility is huge,” he said. “There are those who have been humbled and those who will be. You know we're all out there just trying to do the best we can, and as human beings everybody has a struggle.”

He said that his goal is to always treat everyone with dignity and respect, no matter who they may be. “Maybe we don't have the same beliefs, but that's not relevant to what we're going to do in the airplane. We try to do the best job we can and know that we all need each other's prayers. We are all just here for a short time. Someday this will all be over with and our goal is to do the best we can where we are at and to get to heaven.” His eyes are truly to the sky, both literally and spiritually.

I am inspired by my dad’s work ethic and profound dedication to mission. He put it best,

“The older I get, the less worldly I have gotten and now I see, the mission is more important than the money.”