11. Connecting the World with Brian Lee, Commercial Pilot

Brian Lee is currently a pilot for American Airlines, currently assigned to the Embraer 190 fleet of aircraft. He is soon to transfer to either the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 in the very near future. The journey to this point in his career however, was a long and sometimes stressful one. Brian was born in the Bronx, NY raised by his mother who had major aspirations for her son. While deplaning after a flight to Jamaica while he was a child, he peered into the flight deck of the airplane he was riding on. The flight crew saw this and invited him up, sat him down in the Captain’s seat, and had him enjoy the view. From that day forward Brian knew what he wanted to become a pilot. He attended A Philip Randolph Campus High School in Harlem and after graduating in 2009, went straight to the University of North Dakota to begin his quest in Commercial Aviation. During his junior year of studies, the same school employed Brian as a Flight Instructor to help bring up and teach the students coming after him, and to also build his own flight hours for his long term goals. In the second year of employment as a Flight Instructor, he accepted an internal position of a Check Instructor in the UND Aerospace Standards Department. This small group was tasked with administering checkrides, or flight examinations, to the students under Examining Authority granted by the FAA. In 2014, Brian finally gained momentum toward his main goal by getting hired by his first airline, Envoy Air (formerly known as American Eagle Airlines). He spent five years at Envoy, with his final year serving as the Assistant Chief Pilot helping to supervise the hundreds of pilots based both in the New York and Miami domiciles. Most recently in November 2019, Brian finally started at his dream airline, American Airlines where he currently serves. Brian will be the first to say that his almost 17 year long journey definitely had its bumps in the road. Whether those bumps be financial, failures or naysayers, he is a living testament that you can achieve whatever you want to regardless of the background you come from or the environment that you are in. At first, his goal was just to be able to fly and see the world, but after a few years, he learned that he helps to not only see the world, but connect the world; especially when it needs it most. Social Media: Instagram @blee0824 Closing Word: Follow Your Heart featuring Soren Kierkegaard;Steve Jobs; Alan Watts