Flying with your friend: This father-son pilot duo share what it's like working together

It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Capt. Luis “Louie” Castillo when he got to call his son, Luis Castillo Jr., offering him the job as a commercial airline pilot for United Airlines last October.

Louie Castillo started working at the airline in 1997 as a pilot.

“I’m on the verge of tears,” Louie Castillo, who is based out of Las Vegas, said of that moment. “You call him, you offer him the job. Who gets to do that?”

This is one of the many rare moments that Luis Castillo and Louie Castillo have gotten to experience as a father-son pilot duo for United Airlines. They never expected to both become pilots, much less work together, but it’s brought them closer together.

“What other job allows you to do this and fly with your best friend and get paid for it?” Luis Castillo, a first officer who is based out of Detroit, added.

A father, a mentor

Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Louie Castillo found himself “getting in a lot of trouble” and enlisted in the military for a change in environment. Originally, he set out to be a Marine but found himself as a jet mechanic on Vietnam-era fighter jets for the Air Force.

As he moved up the ranks, he became exposed to pilots and started to fly small airplanes himself. He started getting his licenses and degrees, and when he failed a test for the Air Force, became a commercial airplane pilot. Now as a captain, he hasn’t looked back.

“It’s not a 9-to-5 gig where I’m in the same office and see the same people. Every day is always different,” Louie Castillo said. “My office comes with a view, probably the best view there is.”

Luis Castillo didn’t particularly want to follow in his dad’s footsteps.

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“I wanted to do something different,” he said. Luis Castillo tried out different jobs, like working as a ski patroller, but each role always had some sort of aviation component. “It always led back to aviation.”

One day Luis Castillo called his dad to tell him he wanted to pursue being a pilot, and it didn’t take long before the dad was his son’s mentor.

Having a mentor is imperative to understand what a pilot’s life is like. The fact that it was his own father was the icing on the cake.

“It’s intimidating. There’s so much complexity (compared to other industries),” he said, noting seniority and building hours. “Pilots are just stoked to help out the next generation, especially in terms of diversity. We need more diverse pilots.”

Exposure to the field and mentorship play a key role in getting people, especially those from underrepresented groups, into the cockpit.

More:Wings of change: Long before United, Black pilots flew freely in American skies

Louie Castillo was there with Luis Castillo when he was clocking in his flying hours, a requirement to get his pilot’s license. Luis Castillo had purchased a small airplane, and the two once flew from Chicago down to Prescott, Arizona. The journey took two-and-a-half days, and they stopped in Arkansas and New Mexico.

“It was a blast,” Luis Castillo said.

Luis Castillo flew for Hawaii-based airline Mokulele Airlines before flying for SkyJet and then United Airlines. “United was always the destination,” he added.

A love for adventure

Traveling is one thing the two Castillos have in common.

When Luis Castillo was growing up, his dad’s schedule allowed for flexibility, so the family would take weekslong road trips in an RV to different national parks. When it was time to work, Louie Castillo would choose the closest airport they were near and fly out for four or five days and then meet the rest of the family wherever they were at. “It was kind of the perfect amount of schedule flexibility,” Luis Castillo said.

They’ve flown together from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., exploring the mall together on a layover. The next night, they flew to Los Angeles and went out to dinner.