I was a pilot at Delta for 30 years — and captained everything from the Boeing 727 to the Airbus A350. These were the best and hardest moments of my career.

• Retired pilot Mark Stevens was hired by Delta Air Lines in 1989 and captained five aircraft by 2021.
• He said there were ups and downs, just like in any career, but the joy of flying trumped everything.
• By the time he retired from Delta, he was earning $500,000 a year as an international captain.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mark Stevens, a 67-year-old retired Delta Air Lines pilot who completed his career as an Airbus A350 captain in November 2021. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was hired by Delta Air Lines in 1989 as a flight engineer on the Lockheed L-1011 — a plane Delta doesn't fly anymore — and went on to captain five different aircraft across my 20 years in the left seat. 

But my aviation career has two parts. I didn't go the regional route like many young aviators are today, flying smaller planes before jumping to the majors by the time they're 26.

Instead, the best route for me as a young person living in lower Alabama in the 1970s was to join the military. I was responsible for $30-to-$40 million jets, and that was a significant part of my experience and growth as a pilot. 

Moving from the military to commercial aviation, though, was an amazing leap forward for me.

When I captained the Boeing 727 for Delta, I could hand-fly the aircraft down to 100 feet during a CAT II approach, which just meant landing in very low visibility conditions. That was lower than anything I ever did in the military.

Plus, I was actually moving people around the world, helping them get to where they wanted to go. Interacting with passengers and letting kids sit in the cockpit were some of the best moments of my career.

There were some new things, like pushing an aircraft back from the gate, knowing who to call, and sitting in a cockpit that was much higher off the ground compared to the fighter jets I once flew.

I had to learn and adapt, and I really valued my time as a first officer as it helped me with that transition from one world to another. Once I got enough experience, I was able to move up to captain.

That was another big adjustment. When you upgrade to captain, you think you have all this experience, but you will make mistakes, whether it be a wrong taxi instruction or a misunderstood radio call.

So, I started seeing aviation as just always correcting my last mistake. It was something told to me by a friend when I first started at Delta, and it's a mentality I kept throughout my entire career.

Aside from the 727, I also captained the MD-88, the Boeing 717, the Boeing 737, and the Airbus A350 before retiring in November 2021.

Overall, I spent two decades as a captain for Delta, but pilots can upgrade much younger these days. They could fly as a captain for 35 or even 40 years by the time they have to retire at 65. That was almost unheard of in my time. 

In fact, the industry has changed significantly since I started. Before 9/11, for example, the cockpit doors weren't reinforced like they are today and there was no TSA.

I was also hired before strong fatigue regulations, so I would spend 12 hours in the plane — flying seven takeoffs and landings in one day.

And the technology on aircraft wasn't nearly as advanced. As a captain on the 727 trijet, we were using charts to get us across the country.

On the MD-11, we'd have to manually program each leg of a flight between, say, Los Angeles and Tokyo. We'd also have to input the winds and altitude at each waypoint. It was difficult and tedious, but it was a different time.

Now, technology has improved so much that on the A350, I could simply download the flight plan and verify it. The human error of manually programming everything was taken out.

But I still warn pilots today that just because things are more automated does not relieve their responsibility in the cockpit.

My years as a captain prepared me for emergency situations

As an airline pilot, I faced some emergency situations. 

One flight when I was a captain on the MD-88, my engine went out during takeoff at 5,000 feet.

With fire coming from the engine, passengers onboard knew something was wrong.

So, I went on the intercom to explain what happened and the plan to land safely, just trying to keep everyone calm while simultaneously going through emergency checklists and turning the engine off. 

As pilots, this is something my first officer and I trained for, and we fortunately landed without any injuries or further issues. 

There were other times I managed to catch potential failures before takeoff in relation to things like brakes and hydraulics.

Some of the issues could have turned into bigger ones had we taken off, and are good examples of what experience and training does for you.

I started out making little money, but retired with a $500,000 salary

Back when I was hired as a flight engineer on the L-1011, I made little money and had to use up all of my savings in the first year to get by. 

Some of my colleagues were on food stamps.

As I moved up into the first officer position, the pay got better. Once I got to captain in 2000, I got a 30% raise per hour and started making over $100,000. 

I also gained seniority, which made being a single parent easier because I could be home more nights and attend more of my kids' events.

This was nice because I could combine a high salary with a good work-life balance. You can have both as an airline pilot.

This is especially true now with the pay increases across the industry. I was making $500,000 in my last year with Delta. And, as an international captain, I got to fly all over the world to places like Amsterdam, Sydney, and Seoul.

I typically had at least 24 hours in each place, so I loved embracing new cultures and seeing some sites before having to turn around and fly home.

I did have to get used to being alone a lot of the time, that's part of the gig. And there were the ups and downs of any job.

But, overall, flying is who I am, and I don't regret one second of my career. It was a truly enjoyable life.