As Pilot, Johnson Morgan's Career Takes Flight
By Alex Graham
Lemke Ledger Staff
A 1989 journalism graduate is flying high – literally, at 36,000 feet – after being hired as a pilot for FedEx Express, an international air cargo company and one of the largest airlines in the world.
Ellen Johnson Morgan never intended to make a career of flying, although her love for airplanes began at a young age.
Growing up on a farm in the south Arkansas delta, her father worked as a general aviation pilot with his own airplane, airstrip and hangar in front of the family home. Morgan has two brothers who also have their pilot licenses.
Becoming a pilot has allowed 1989 UA graduate Ellen Johnson Morgan to
make acquaintances with many well-known people, including Hillary
Rodham Clinton. — Photo provided
After graduating from the UA with an advertising emphasis, Morgan thought she would eventually pursue a career that was more typical of her degree. But she admits she was “not extremely career oriented … but more family oriented” at the time.
After college, Morgan moved to Little Rock, married in 1990 and had a daughter, Lauren, in 1992. After a few years of being a full-time mom, she said she began to focus on getting out of the house and starting a career.
Morgan professionally developed photographs and worked as a travel agent before beginning flying lessons as a hobby in 1994.
“My brothers got their licenses as a hobby, and that’s what I wanted to do because, in my mind, every family had a little airplane. I just grew up like that."
Morgan continued flying lessons until she completed her Private Pilot Rating.
“Once I got my PP certificate, I was not completely satisfied,” Morgan said. “I became so passionate about flying. I loved it. And I asked my instructor if I could work my way up to an instructor position.”
Morgan completed her instrument, commercial and multi-engine ratings to become a certified flight instructor and then finished each of the required all-instructor ratings.
She started her first flying job in 1997 as a certified flight instructor for Central Flying Service, Arkansas’ oldest general aviation business, and continued to get the ratings to instruct advanced flight students.
As soon as Morgan met the minimum requirements for charter planes, she began flying Beechcraft Barons and King Airs on single-pilot charter flights for Central.
In 1999, she was hired by Buddy Black, chief pilot for Pulaski Bank, for her first corporate jet job.
“I am forever indebted to Buddy because he was the one who allowed me to get my foot in the door to make this my career,” Morgan said. “It’s a big deal getting a corporate jet job because you have to have the job to get the experience and the experience to get the job.”
Morgan had only a brief stint at Pulaski Bank because the company sold its only airplane – a Falcon 10 – but said she was fortunate during that time to start contract work with Acxiom Corporation, just across the airfield in Little Rock, flying the same type of jet.
Morgan continued her work for Acxiom through 2006, training annually in Dallas and becoming captain on three types of Falcon jets. During her seven years there, she flew executives and sales personnel around the United States and even to Europe.
She has also had the honor of flying celebrities and political figures. Among them are Julie Andrews, former President Bill Clinton and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President George Bush and Barbara Bush from Houston to Little Rock for the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library.
“That was my most fun job,” Morgan said. “I thought it was fascinating to take off in Little Rock, fly executives to Chicago for a meeting and be back home by lunch.”
Morgan began an extensive and grueling interview process at FedEx in October 2005.
“It is the job to have in the airline industry,” Morgan said. “It’s extremely competitive.”
In order to be eligible for an interview, Morgan had to be sponsored by three current FedEx pilots and then prepare for weeks in advance — mostly by studying military aviation flight manuals and by taking DC-10 flight simulator lessons — for two days of formal interviews.
Morgan was hired in January 2006 and went to ground school to learn her position and the airplane she would fly. After three months of training in Memphis, she passed an oral exam and a check ride to complete her qualifications.
In three years she has worked her way up from Flight Engineer to First Officer flying Boeing 727s.
“I fly mostly on the ‘backside of the clock,’ so I typically go to work at 9 p.m., fly all night and get to the hotel around 9 a.m.,” Morgan said.
Flying consumes all aspects of this pilot's life. Even during her spare time, Morgan said, she loves to fly her four-passenger Cessna 182, which she purchased in 1998 and had painstakingly restored with a new engine, a new interior and a shiny red and white exterior paint job.
Morgan said she and daughter Lauren take many trips together in the Cessna to her favorite destination: Johnson Memorial, the family airstrip in Wilmot, Ark.
And it is of little surprise that Morgan's boyfriend, John Ferrari, works as a corporate pilot for FL Aircraft.
“This process was a lot of hard work, but the rewards are greater than I ever imagined,” Morgan said. “This has been a surprising adventure and something I am very proud to have achieved.”