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For the last four or five years, I had been in the position where I didn't have to take a pilot. I took this one because the script and the people were terrific. It never frightened me. As we were doing the pilot, I could tell that it was working.

I wasn't a Pan Am pilot or any other kind of pilot.

I used to fly airplanes myself, so being above the ground doesn't worry me too much.

I always wanted to be a pilot.

I was a naval officer and aviator. I tested airplanes and got selected to be an astronaut later on.

But when I was selected, after my very first tour of squadron duty, to become one of the youngest candidates for the test pilot school, I began to realize, maybe you are a little bit better.

And so, I was not a military test pilot, but as soon as NASA expressed an interest in flying scientists and people who were not military test pilots, that was an epiphany that just came like a stroke of lightning.

I've done a lot of pilots. A lot of shows. You're young and you do a job just because you know someone gave you a job.

I didn't get my first pilot that I screen-tested for, and I really thought it was the end of the world. But it's fine, you know, you move on to something else.

I was a big aviation buff as a boy.