From the Flight Deck

“Everything that Shoreline gave me in the late ’80s and ’90s is the foundation of what I do today.”

During a childhood flight to Orlando with his family, Steve Craffey became fascinated with airplanes.  How such a large object took to the sky was a mystery. He certainly didn’t expect all those years ago that he’d be flying the Boeing 747 today.

Steve was living in Weymouth after college when he decided it was time to act on his dream in April 1989. He took an introductory flight with Shoreline Aviation that spring and knew Marshfield Airport was the right choice. It was the combination of the hometown feel and knowledgeable staff that still goes strong today.

“The intro flight was cool,” he said. “I did most of the takeoff – but not the landing.”

He began flight lessons in July that year and earned his private pilot’s license in December. He vividly recalls soloing in Shoreline’s Piper Warrior 2150F (’50 fox’ as he fondly recalls her). He took instrument training and joined the South Shore Flying Club. “With all the hours I was doing, it was cheaper,” he said.

Steve Craffey at Shoreline Aviation in 1993 with his first Cessna 310. Photo courtesy of Steve Craffey

As many private pilots do, Steve became a commercial pilot and certified flight instructor (CFI), earning that rating in spring 1992. He instructed at Shoreline from 1992 to 1996, where, as he said, “I taught a lot of students.”

Steve, who lives in south Florida now, relishes his instructing days. “Some young pilots want to skip the CFI thing,” he said, “but that was an incredible learning opportunity for me. I’ve stayed in touch with a few CFI’s from Shoreline.”  While the job market is favorable to young pilots, he cautions them to not bypass opportunities to develop their skills.  “I’m on the line with kids who are only in their 20s and flying this amazing aircraft.  I could have never imagined that.”

He also recalls the early days of flying charters to Nantucket in a twin-engine Cessna. “In the summer I found myself doing eight flights a day to Nantucket,” he said. “Best flying job I ever had.”  Steve flew the ILS approach (Instrument Landing System, a radio navigation aid) into ACK so often, he said, “I could draw the approach plate (instrument approach procedure chart) from memory.”

After a break, Steve’s reentry to aviation was flying the Beech King Air, which was like the turbo prop he last flew with Shoreline.  A job flying the Citation Sovereign followed and culminated this year with the opportunity to fly the “Queen of the Skies.”

“Operating on the 74’ is a once in a lifetime kind of job,” he said. “I get to circumnavigate the globe often twice each month. You could say I haven’t had a job for the last six years since returning to the industry, yet I still get a paycheck.”

Steve Caffrey and his son Sean pose with a Cessna Citation. Photo courtesy of Steve Craffey

Steve has also owned a few planes over the years. “I had a Cessna 310 (low wing, twin engine), a Cessna 210 (high wing, single engine), and recently had another 310 twin,” he said. “In my first marriage I jammed two kids and my wife into the 210. During my second marriage I stuffed the four kids and my wife into the 310.  We took it across the country.”

He gives credit to Shoreline President Keith Douglass for helping him find his first 310, #N10DB. And to Shoreline Director of Maintenance Ed Novak for maintaining it. “Eddie’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know about the mechanics of aviation.”

Steve, who is 59 and earned an MBA, isn’t married now. “My kids are grown, and my girlfriend doesn’t mind the two weeks apart when I’m on rotation,” he said. “It’s always special to return home and reconnect with each other.”

His latest flying gig – after 20 years marketing hip and knee implants to doctors with Johnson & Johnson – has him moving goods all over the world for cargo airline Kalitta Air.

Among his many domestic and global destinations in the past several years have been Mexico, throughout the Caribbean, the Turks and Caicos, Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Florida, Germany, Poland, Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. “I do the North Atlantic crossing at least once a month,” he said, “and I’ve crossed the Pacific a dozen times.”

May of 1991, when Steve Craffey got his commercial rating; his employer gets a plug for financing some of his flight training. Photo courtesy of Steve Craffey

What’s in store for this prop-to-turbine pilot?

“Kalitta will retire me at 65,” Steve said. “I’m in my best physical shape ever. I’ll fly with Kalitta till 65, maybe go back to flying the little jets. Who knows, maybe I’ll go back to Shoreline, make bookends on my flying career.”

If he did, it would feel like going home.

“It all started right there in Marshfield,” he said. “It doesn’t feel that far removed, going from ’50 fox’ to a 747. I’m grateful for what Shoreline did for me. Flying is my dream, and it all started there.”

Steve Craffey snaps a selfie from a 747 flight deck escape hatch. Photo courtesy of Steve Craffey