PAUL RODRIGUEZ

Please Keep Your Seat Belt Fastened. Herschel Has Changed the Schedule Again.

Paul Rodriguez spent decades flying large commercial jets between Florida and South America for Worldwide Airways before mandatory retirement finally separated him from the cockpit.

Briefly.

Now in his mid-60s, Paul pilots Herschel's Cessna Citation Latitude—which means retirement has somehow resulted in flying Herschel, Frank, Brendan, Ida and assorted members of the Seniority Gang around the country.

Commercial aviation may have been easier.

Paul is direct, professional and almost impossible to rattle. People trust him for the most important reason you can trust a pilot:

He gets them there safely.

But underneath the matter-of-fact exterior is a compassionate man. When Ida once became frantic after losing contact with Herschel during a ground stop, Paul knew exactly which mattered more at that moment—the airplane or the frightened woman sitting in it.

In Hello Chaos, Paul and copilot David Ferri become indispensable as Herschel's increasingly complicated operation sends the team ricocheting among Tampa, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles while the pilots carefully manage their allowable flight and rest time.

Paul is also the devoted father of two grown children and Papa to five grandchildren, all in the Tampa area.

He's friendly with his remarried former wife, with whom he shares a longstanding joke:

“You know we're divorced, right?”

The real other woman in their marriage was whichever jet Paul happened to be flying.

And just when Paul thought his romantic complications were safely behind him...

Mal Bessey gets on the airplane.

Good luck with that flight, Captain.