Beloved Flight Instructor’s Lessons Continue to Replay in Airline Captain’s Head

CFI Mario Feola taught a pilot how to push himself to excellence, even if that push felt like a kick in the butt.

Friday, March 29, 2024 at 08:37 AM ET

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Down below us, on a bubbly set of cotton-white clouds, was a perfectly round rainbow, and in its center, the shadow of our airplane. “It’s a pilot’s cross,” Mario Feola said. [Illustration: Joel Kimmel]

Key Takeaways:

A seasoned airline captain reflects on how fundamental flight lessons from his first instructor, Mario Feola, profoundly influenced his career and approach to critical in-flight situations.
He recounts specific high-stakes incidents—an anti-ice system failure in icy conditions and a severe engine failure after takeoff—where Mario's foundational advice (e.g., "Remain calm, slow down, think," "You fly the airplane") enabled him to maintain control and land safely.
Beyond technical skills, Mario's mentorship imparted invaluable life lessons, including generosity, patience, faith, and the pursuit of excellence, which the author credits with shaping him into a better man.

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“So, do you ever get to use any of those little things I taught you in the big leagues?”

My first flight instructor, Mario Feola, always loves to ask me questions like that one. He is perpetually curious about how my job is going and how it relates to the tips he passed on to me. He likes to see the ripple effect his teaching had on the making of a learner pilot, especially one like myself, now a new captain on a 45-ton airliner. Instructors are like that, especially wise, gray-haired ones. Mario has as much experience, and gray hair for that matter, as any airman I ever met. He has a big belly, a white beard, and a dominating presence in any room. He’s pretty much a jolly Italian Santa, only happier and more generous if that’s possible. This Santa, however, doesn’t have any reindeer—just a small, single-engine Cessna.