Retiring Pilot Fuels Controller’s Memories of Her Grandfather
When Ashleigh Goldberg was on position at Boston Center for a retiring pilot’s final flight, she had no idea she would be speaking to a man her grandfather hired 40 years earlier.
By Jim Tise, FAA Office of Communications
Newton’s third law of physics certainly applies to aviation: What goes up must come down. But are there laws of serendipity? Maybe, “What goes round comes round?” That seems to be the case for Ashleigh Goldberg and her family.
The event played out on Aug. 19 when Goldberg, née Hochbrunn, a controller at the Boston Center, was working a shift just after noon. As occasionally happens at air traffic control facilities, she’d been notified that a pilot flying Delta Flight 8956 from Europe to the United States was on the final flight of his commercial airline career. Her supervisor gave Goldberg a brief blurb about the pilot’s career.
of his commercial aviation career.
One of Goldberg’s colleagues, Michael Hamilton, was the first to congratulate the pilot, Capt. Paul Holmes, on 40 years of safe flying. Holmes replied, “You guys who have been control[ling] us for the last 40 years do a great job and I have total respect for you.” Holmes noted that he was retiring to a community where a number of retired controllers from the Miami Center live. “They’re best friends of mine,” said Holmes. “I really appreciate you. Thank you.”
As the plane entered her airspace, Goldberg made contact with Holmes and congratulated him as well. Over the next 20 minutes, as Goldberg handled flights in and out of her airspace, they briefly chatted, and the worlds of controller and pilot began to grow smaller.
First, a little back story.
Goldberg joined the FAA six years ago. She’d always been interested in aviation, influenced greatly by her grandfather, William Hochbrunn, a pilot for the now-defunct Northwest Airlines.
“He had an office in his home with his model airplanes all over,” she recalled. She rues never having the chance to fly with her grandfather, who she described as “a kind, very gentle, giving, compassionate man.” But also a man with high expectations when it came to work.
“My grandfather was a really good pilot because he tried to do the right things,” said Goldberg. Safety was paramount. He was a stickler for following the checklist and doing things the right way. He believed in hard work. Education was very important to him. He really believed in being a hard worker, a good worker,” Goldberg said.
“He loved his job. He loved flying airplanes. He loved Northwest Airlines,” she added.
So when Holmes entered her airspace, Goldberg noted that his aviation stint began with Northwest Airlines and continued with Delta after the two air carriers merged. She asked where he’d been stationed. He mentioned Hawaii and Detroit, but mainly he flew out of Minneapolis.
Goldberg mentioned her grandfather and grandmother, who were based in Minneapolis, had worked for Northwest. Holmes asked her grandfather’s name. “William Hochbrunn,” she replied.
Pause. “Bill Hochbrunn was your grandfather?” radioed Holmes.
“Affirmative,” replied Goldberg.
What shocked her was Holmes’ next transmission: William “Bill” Hochbrunn had hired him for Northwest Airlines 40 years ago. Holmes even remembered Hochbrunn addressing his class just before retiring.
“That’s when I knew this was going to be a special moment,” said Goldberg.
Holmes proceeded to share his memories of her grandfather. “He’s famous. About a hundred guys he hired, all the pilots he hired, they called them ‘Hochbrunn’s clones.’ He hired them in his own image,” he said.
That fits with Goldberg’s memory of her grandfather and the stories she was told about him.
“That’s why he hired the guys he hired,” she said later. “I think he tried to find traits in them that he valued in himself. They were a representation of who he was.”
“We loved your grandfather because he gave us our careers at Northwest Airlines,” Holmes told her.
Learning that her grandfather — who passed away three years prior — was still remembered so fondly touched her deeply. What would her grandfather tell Capt. Holmes, if he had a chance?
“I think he would feel honored,” said his granddaughter. “I think he would say that’s exactly why I hired you. I saw something in you that would make a good pilot and a good representative of Northwest Airlines.”
As Capt. Holmes signed off, he provided Goldberg with a fitting close: “What a great bookend. I was welcomed to Northwest Airlines 40 years ago by a Hochbrunn and I’m saying goodbye to my career with you. I can’t believe the Hochbrunn family has so much to do with my career. Thank you very much.”
his last plane as a commercial pilot.
“It was one of those moments, just another validation of my grandfather’s life,” said Goldberg. “Another testament to what an amazing man he really was.”
She admits that while her controller phraseology with other pilots on the channel remained textbook, it might have slipped a little when she conversed with Holmes. Goldberg noted that “while in Air Traffic we use concise, clear phraseology to reduce the risk of misinterpretation, we are also trained that sometimes plain language is required and is the best way to communicate. This just happened to be one of those instances.”
Once Goldberg was off position she was able to reflect on their interaction, “I felt like a kid in a candy store. ‘Did that just happen?’ I couldn’t wait to call my husband and my siblings. I couldn’t wait to tell everybody about it.”
Holmes later got in touch with Goldberg, and they shared more information and memories. “He just wanted to know about who I was, how I got into aviation,” she explained. They discovered they lived just a few miles from each other in Eden Prairie, Minn., when Goldberg was a little girl.
Even with 20 years remaining in her career, Goldberg says, “I knew it was the best air traffic control experience I would ever have. I would have a hard time seeing anything that would top it. At least from a sentimental standpoint, I don’t think it can get any better for me.”
