Brian Roman is the newest member of the ReviewBeforeFlight team! Brian is a welcome addition to our group and will provide an extremely unique point of view and experience base that we can all learn from. As a United States Air Force MC-130J pilot, Brian gets to do some of the flying that most of us can only dream about each night.

I have known Brian since we were both aviation students at Bridgewater State College (now University). Back then Brian was a dedicated flight student taking lessons with me through Delta Connection Academy. Brian was a good student and always one for a good aviation conversation or debate.

As a dedicated reader of ReviewBeforeFlight, Brian worked through his flight training with the Air Force. I’m not saying his Air Force flight training success was because of ReviewBeforeFlight, but I’m not, not saying it either. 🙂

A few months back I got a message from Brian (who I commonly refer to as Roman) saying that he was in the Massachusetts area visiting with his new bride. It just so happened they were visiting the New Bedford Whaling Museum, just a few miles from the New Bedford Regional Airport, where at the time I was working as the Assistant Airport Manager. I invited Roman and his wife for an airport tour. Roman wanted his wife to see where is flying started and I of course was excited to see an old friend I had not seen for a few years.

Brian had recently completed initial Air Force flight training and was getting back into civilian flying after a few years away. I gave Brian and Heather a tour of the terminal and brought them up to the control tower to meet one of the controllers who had actually been there since we were students. All these years later we stood in the tower talking, a place where the controller had stood on many occasions and talked to both of us at the same time, while we flew separate Delta Connection Academy aircraft. It was great to catch up with an old friend and when I mentioned I’d be interested in having him write for ReviewBeforeFlight, you can imagine my excitement when Roman said he was very interested and had wanted to do so for some time!

That was that and now I’m happy to say he is a part of the team. I’ve already read his first post, which is scheduled for next Wednesday, January 20th, as you can imagine it is excellent. Stay tuned for a really cool post & some really cool pictures! Plus, many more post from Brian over the coming months.

-Fly Safe, @MTElia1B9