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:

The author, an airline captain, attributes his ability to handle critical in-flight emergencies—such as an engine explosion, severe icing with a bleed leak, and navigating turbulent weather—to foundational lessons from his first flight instructor, Mario Feola.
Mario's key advice, like "Remain calm, slow down, think" and "It's only water," helped the author maintain composure and make sound decisions in high-stakes situations.
Beyond technical piloting skills, Mario imparted invaluable life lessons, including the importance of grace, patience, faith in others, and a commitment to excellence, ultimately shaping the author into a better man and leader.

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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.