The Captain on the LAN B777F that taxied by us was Ricky Ruiz, a Facebook friend of mine and a former intern in Airside Operations while he was in high school in the late 1990's. He and I used to toss a soft ball back and forth through the length of the office when on breaks. He went on to become a mechanic and then decided to get his flight training upstate. He pursued a lot of different type ratings to improve his qualifications and increase his odds of being hired as a pilot. He flew large corporate aircraft out of Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport and then was hired by LAN. He made Captain on the Boeing 777F in his early 30's and he still has 34 years to go before he has to retire at age 65.

Thank you to Vic "Pee Wee" Lopez for taking this photo, posting it on Facebook and allowing me to display it on my site.