Episode Description
He quit a $60,000-a-year job, moved his wife to Farmington, New Mexico, and started flying passengers with only 250 hours of flight time — making $20K a year. Fourteen years and three airlines later, Phil Green finally earned the left seat at Southwest Airlines.
In this episode of Above & Beyond: Where Excellence Meets Elevation, host Jän Simon sits down with Captain Phil Green — a Mesa, Arizona native, the oldest of six kids, and someone whose love of aviation started by watching planes fly over his house on approach to Sky Harbor Airport.
Phil shares his unconventional path: a two-year mission in St. Petersburg, Russia, a criminal justice degree from ASU, a career pivot from law school aspirations to flight training, and the 14-year grind through regional airlines to reach his dream job. He also opens up about growing up between two very different households, losing a sister, the mentor who told him "If I had to do it over, I'd be an airline pilot," and the culture that makes Southwest different.
Now Phil gives back through Destination 225 (Southwest's pilot pathway program), Flight Path Vectors, and the FPV Foundation — which helped relocate 50 Afghan Black Hawk helicopter pilots and their families to Arizona.
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