Orville & Wilber were working on it. Actually, I drove a Courier Van for a few weeks (Peak of '75) before being hired on the line. It was powered by mules.

After paying the $10,000 for the DA-20 Type, I went home, quit the Broker's job, traded my leased MBZ 450 to a lady in the office for her free-and-clear El Camino pick-up and begged Billy Burns, the SAN manager to hire me on as a Courier. I was #5 employee in all of SAN County in 1975.

Figuring they hadn't hired pilots in over a year and there were a couple thousand suckers who had paid their $10K, who were all, ostensibly promised a flying job when the hiring started up again, having an Emp. # was a good move.

Turns out, everyone in the class, with the exception of Chat Wetherill (who was the cousin of one of Fred’s close friends and ‘Dirty 30’ guy) and the fake Israeli AF guy, most of whose time was ‘P-51’. . . independently had the same idea. One guy stuck around MEM after getting Typed and drove the crew bus. Four of us had Courier jobs and I think another was in the Hub, throwing boxes.

So, I would guess, in the absence of good references from someone already on the Line, being an “Internal” might be as good, or almost as good.