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A Second Job That’s Above All The Others

Bankruptcy attorney takes to air as a part-time flight instructor

By DOUGLAS S. MALAN

As the leaves continue to change this autumn, Wallingford attorney Christopher Carrozzella will have one of the best views anywhere. He’s able to hop from state to state in a matter of minutes to take in the best foliage New England has to offer.

It’s one of the perks of being a licensed pilot and flight instructor.

“I really love it,” said Carrozzella, a solo practitioner. “The great thing is I get to fly, I don’t have to pay to do it, and I even make a little money.”

Since March 2008, Carrozzella has been teaching flying lessons at Meriden-Markham Airport on a part-time basis, but he’s been interested in flying even before he graduated from the Flight Safety International Academy in Vero Beach, Fla., in 1981.

Although he considered a career as a commercial pilot after college, he instead chose the law and quickly found that his career and his family obligations did not allow him much time to fly.

So he eventually forced the issue by getting his flight instructor certificate renewed and changing his work schedule to allow more time in the air. Rather than handling a lot of personal injury litigation, Carrozzella shifted the focus of his practice to bankruptcy matters, which do not require as much court time.

“I can work a half day here at the office and then spend the other half of the day over at the airport,” Carrozzella said. “[My practice] offers me a lot of flexibility.”

Carrozzella is providing private instruction in single-engine airplanes to three students through the airport’s flying school. The airport also offers chartered flights. Carrozzella recently took a young couple on a flight to see the Durham Fair, the Connecticut River and the shoreline. “They loved it, and I told them to come back when the leaves change color,” Carrozzella said. “It’s beautiful.”

Hands-On Flying

Carrozzella said people interested in flying can earn a license to operate a single-engine plane in about three months if they’re dedicated to training regularly. The cost is around $12,000, he said.

His current students include a businessman in his 50s, a 30-something IT director and a student who’s studying for his aviation sciences degree through Naugatuck Valley Community College.

But Carrozzella also has had commercial pilots and helicopter pilots who flew Blackhawks in Iraq come to him for instruction. Carrozzella said flying a single-engine plane is different from a jumbo jet or military aircraft with high-tech instruments.

“Flying these little planes is really hands-on,” Carrozzella said.

Once licensed, a pilot can really take advantage of the scenery and locations in New England. There’s no more traffic jams getting to Long Island, Cape Cod or Martha’s Vineyard in the summer when a flight takes only about 30 minutes. And flying conditions can be good year-round, Carrozzella said.

At the Meriden airport, planes can be rented for about $115 an hour, and pilots pay only for the time the plane is in the air. That makes nearby weekend getaways attractive, Carrozzella said, and it means he doesn’t have to invest his own plane and its maintenance costs.

Carrozzella said he has never found himself in a dangerous weather situation while flying, and noted that the vast majority of small-plane accidents are due to a pilot’s miscalculation of weather conditions. That’s where his part-time instructor job has helped him. “The more you teach, the better a pilot you become,” he said. “This makes me sharp and smart from a flying standpoint.”

And it’s also led to some legal work. Carrozzella is part of the lawyer referral network with the national Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and he mainly helps people with the contracts, title search, inspection and registration process that come with purchasing an airplane.

But the real advantage of his teaching position is simply more time to fly.

“It’s a great feeling when I leave my office and I’m going to teach someone,” he said. “It feels better than working out at the gym, and it’s a complete divorce from anything I do related to the law.” •