My cousin: High school drop out. Stole his first plane. Hired on at PAA. Flew as co-pilot on the Clippers out of San Francisco to Hawaii, far east. As captain flew the Hump in WWII in C-46's and also Brazil-west Africa in the DC-4 (as Pan Am military contract), post war captain on DC6&7, Stratoliner, DC-8, 707 and 747. Retired off the 747 in 1974 (close to if not #1 seniority) He stopped flying about 4 years ago selling his Cessna 150. He's 99 and still drives and has his mind together. I remember him at our house in late 1969 telling us that he was getting a 30k a year raise from the 707 to the 747, my father's jaw just about dropped. We were a family of 5 doing rather well on about 30k a year.