Tony D. | Wake County 100

Narrative, Continued:

While in a helicopter you fly at an average altitude of 2,000 feet, which is much more exciting. One thing that he says he doesn’t like about helicopters is that it can be very scary and dangerous at night, because you are flying so low. Even though Tony does enjoy flying and is proud that he can fly, he still says that his happiest moments are being a husband and a father.

Tony says that Wake County is a great business community. He says that the main problem is overcrowding. “There are too many houses on too small of lots and developers build and develop until they can’t anymore and then they make us deal with traffic and other problems.” Tony says that we should charge a large permit fee for new construction for builders/developers. He says this may slow down the developers.

Written by: Laura

Tony D.

Gender: Male

Age: 25-64

Race: White

Nativity: Born in US but not NC

Educational Attainment:

Bachelor’s Degree

Occupation:

Financial Planner, Pilot for the Reserves

Travel Time to Work: 30 minutes

Internet Access in Home: Yes

Religion: Catholic

City: Raleigh

Narrative:

Not every husband and father of three children can fly a helicopter and a plane. This is one reason why Tony is unique. After earning a bachelors degree at the University of Connecticut, Tony went to flight school for a year. When asked why he wanted to be a pilot he said, “I liked the idea of flying and being out of the office. I also liked mechanical things, but I only liked using them.” Tony soon got a job as a pilot in New York City as a pilot for famous people who needed to go to nearby cities. He also flew for people who wanted to go sightseeing around New York City. Soon after he resigned from this job his wife, was transferred with IBM to Raleigh, North Carolina. Tony soon took up flying helicopters for the National Guard part time, which he did for about 14 years. The long commute and time away from his family forced Tony to resign from his job. The war in Iraq was a worry to Tony and in order to get away from being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, Tony went to a Fixed Wing Course for three months to learn how to fly all types of planes. Tony said that this was very hard on him and his family to be away for three months. Now, Tony flies a King Air for the reserves and has been flying these for about 3 years. He said that he does not enjoy flying planes as much as helicopters because they are so much higher and it can become very boring.

The Doon School