Chat Room

Name: Greg Beaty
Age: 58
Occupation: Corporate pilot flying Falcon jets with Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, for 16 years.
Marital status: Single
Children: A daughter, Tawny DeCann, 37, and a son, Todd Beaty, 34; two grandchildren, Kortnee Beneduci and Troy DeCann. Beaty says he also has one "Yankee" girlfriend, Therese Cleary.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
"While showing off my horseback riding abilities, I fell off my quarter horse. He cut, I didn’t. I went full-body face-first and slid 20 feet in the mud and manure. The driver stopped the high school bus to allow my classmates’ applause to be fully appreciated."

Why did you pursue the career you chose?
"I really didn’t choose it, it chose me. As one door closed, another opened. This is just where I ended up. My only real career planning was to find something I liked enough to do for free and get them to pay me to do it."

What is one word others often use to describe you and why?
"Generous, sometimes to a fault. In the past it has actually gotten me into trouble. I have been told its my character flaw, my weakness. If so, so be it."

When you were 5 years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
"I wanted to be a movie star cowboy like my hero, Roy Rogers."

What do you hate?
"I hate it when drivers refuse to use their turn signals. It’s not that difficult."

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
"I would make myself younger. My biggest regret in life right now is in knowing I don’t have 50 more years to keep on doing what I’m doing. Even taking the good with the bad, life has been a blast."

What is your passion?
"There is not much quite like watching a distant thunderstorm against the sunset from 39,000 feet. Being a pilot gives me that privilege. Flying is my passion."

With whom, living or dead, would you most like to have a long lunch?
Beaty says he would like to have a long lunch with either one of his deceased grandfathers.

What’s your favorite quote?
"You get what you negotiate, not what you deserve."

Would you travel in space?
"Absolutely. Can I drive?"

Did you ever get paddled in school and if so, why?
"Yes, usually for disrupting class."

What character in a book or movie would you most like to be?
Beaty says he would want to portray the character Jimmy Stewart played in the movie "How the West Was Won." "He was untamable like the Old West. After being lured into a cave by the vixen, he was mugged and robbed. He later explained losing everything to his girlfriend, played by Carol Baker. ‘I guess I’ll always have to go see the varmit,’ Stewart said."

What is the best book you’ve ever read?
Beaty said the best book he’s ever read was a non-fiction Christian book entitled "The Prodigal Father." by Col. Heath Bottomly, USAF.

If you could go back in time for a week, what time period or year would you visit?
Beaty says he would go back to 1965. "Those of us who were in high school then know how fortunate we were to have experienced those times."

Who has been the best United States president of the last 100 years and why?
Beaty says Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the best president in the last 100 years. "The Nazis were close to world-domination. The right person just happened to be in the right place at the exact moment in time."

What was your first paying job?
Beaty says during the summer as a teen he worked as a chicken catcher. His first adult job was as a USAF air traffic controller.

What is your favorite sport? Favorite sport’s team?
Beaty says his favorite sport is football, but his favorite sports team is the University of Tennessee Lady Vols.

What is the best present you ever received?
Beaty says the best Christmas present he ever received was a Daisy BB gun when he was 13.

What is the best advice your mother ever gave you?
"Don’t smoke! She smoked most of her adult life. She now has emphysema."

If you were stranded on an island, what one thing would you take?
"A satellite telephone with extra batteries."

What’s your favorite television or movie quote?
"When you’re in command - command," Robert Mitchum in "Midway."

What is your favorite material possession?
Beaty says his favorite material possession is his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide motorcycle.

Who has been the most influential person in the 20th century?
"Maybe not for most people, but for me it’s the Wright Brothers. Their invention sure influenced my life."