Once a policeman, always a policeman, they used to say.

The same applies to Merv Trott, whose love of flying is still in his blood even though he was `grounded' for two years with a temporary sleep disorder, and officially retired as a commercial pilot with Continental Airlines when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 last weekend.

When he sat down with the Royal Gazette earlier this week to talk about his career, the Bermudian still says `we' when referring to the flying industry, an industry that has been in the news constantly since the events of 911.

Certainly it is in his system...always has been since the days when, as a young boy growing up in a house on the Edness property on Dunscombe Road in Warwick, he used to fly model airplanes outside his house and then witness the real thing as he watched the seaplanes flying into the Great Sound - dreaming of one day being in the cockpit himself.

"There was a drop off of about 70 feet and when we walked out of our front door there was a concrete retaining wall and I used to lean over that wall and throw model airplanes that would fly forever," he remembered.

"When the planes came in to land in the Great Sound at NOB, they would fly right over the house and you could look up and see the pilots in them, they were that close. At night you could see the exhaust stacks and the blue flame and I said `this is so cool'."

He was hooked!

The former Berkeley student went on to pursue his dream after graduating from secondary school in 1959 and for the last 25 years was a pilot with Continental Airlines. He was a qualified captain of the 737, 757 and 767 aircrafts and 727 first officer and flight engineer qualified.

For the past two years he hasn't been flying at all because of a sleep disorder, but like everyone else associated with the industry, he has followed very closely the developments since the terrorists acts last September.

"Because of the sleep apnea, the FAA made me go through an extensive reevaluation and when that was happening, nine-eleven was happening and I was just finishing that up, so I didn't have my medical certificate at the time," explained Mr. Trott, who has since been given a clean bill of health.

"But I stayed in contact with the fellows and basically we still feel just as safe. There is a pilot trait where we feel if something comes up we can handle it.

"Unfortunately, our training in the past has been to comply with hijackers and now it is a different ball game. There is a period of transition taking place where the guys are trying to figure out `how much do we comply with their requests'. The big thing now is to keep them out of the cockpit at all cost!"

The issue of security at airports and on aircrafts has come under intense scrutiny with further breaches occurring since the terrorists acts in the US last fall.

Bermuda, too, has tightened up and this week the Custom Department rejected a request from the Royal Gazette to photograph Mr Trott and his grandson in the cockpit of a Continental aircraft, something which had previously been allowed.

"United is now training its pilots with stun guns and they will be carrying those just in case somebody gets into the cockpit," revealed the retired pilot.

"I do remember the old days when airport security was very lax and the airline pilots were carrying guns. Many of them had come out of the military so a firearm in their flight bag was not an uncommon thing. It was not a company policy thing, but there were a few hijackings in the 1970s, but some individuals just felt a little safer.

"Of course now to bring a firearm anywhere near an airport is like yelling `fire' in a crowded theatre...you're going to have some problems."

There are many uncertainties within the industry, with airlines reporting losses even before last September, rumours of mergers and layoffs, not to mention the safety aspect and the threat of terrorism.

"The uncertainty of furloughs because of low load factors is the big concern," said Mr. Trott.

"For the junior people furloughs is a nasty word. That is something I never had to contend with, I was never laid off but I did walk the picket line for two-and-a-half years because of Frank Lorenzo taking the airline into bankrupcy back in 1983.

"The pilots flying for the other carriers knew that if Frank Lorenzo was to have his way there would be no collective bargaining in the airline industry, so they supported us walking the picket line.

"Frank Lorenzo was the chairman of Texas Air, which was the parent company for Texas Airlines and Texas Air merged into Continental. There was a hostile takeover and Continental was merged with Texas Air, and then an airline called New York Air, they made us all non-union.

"That was finally resolved when he was forced to step down and Continental went through ten CEOs until they finally got a man who really knows what he is doing, Gordon Bethune.

"He is still a pilot, a man of 60 or 61, and came to us from Boeing and has added a tremendous amount of stability to Continental Airlines. In fact, for the last two years running, Continental has been voted among the top 100 companies in the United States to work for."

With the luxury of time on his hands, and a good pension from the airline, Mr. Trott has been weighing some options.

"I'm down here looking around at what the Government has to offer and also talking to some individuals who own private jets," he revealed.

"Flying is in the blood and that's what I would like to continue doing in some capacity. I still have good health and for the first time ever I had to have prescription glasses after my physical in November."

The father and the grandfather hasn't ruled out selling his home just outside Houston, Texas and moving back to Bermuda for the first time in 40 years. "It (returning to Bermuda) was one of my goals all of my whole flying career, since I have family here and have such a great time when I come back. The one thing is we just found a beautiful house on a lake north of Houston, and my wife (Kaye) has fallen in love with this house right on the water so it's going to be hard to leave it.

"One of the things that is weighing on the decision is we have three children and 12 grandchildren and of the 12 grandkids, seven are right in the area where we are and it's nice having the grandchildren around. The remaining grandchildren are in Louisiana, which is about a five-hour drive from our house.

"With all of them in the vicinity, I'm doing things with my grandchildren that I didn't have time to do with my own kids when they were small, so it's a nice thing. I was always gone weekends. As you get older family becomes more important and when I come home here (Bermuda) it's family."

He enjoys spending time with pals too, especially Bryant Richards, a long time friend.

"Bryant's got that boat up at Dockyard and we tear that up."

Mr. Trott graduated from St. Louis University with a BSc in Aeronautical Engineering. He worked for Osark Airlines as an airframe and powerplant mechanic and then as an airline maintenance planner, responsible for routing aircraft to insure their arrival for inspection at right times and places.

In the early 1970s the Bermudian joined Buckeye Air in Cleveland, Ohio and then Semo Airlines in St. Louis, where he was a captain/mechanic for Beech-18 and C-46 aircrafts. Mr. Trott worked as a flight engineer/co-pilot and authorised maintenance inspector for Dc-6 aircraft in Michigan. He was a contract US Postal service captain at night and a mechanic by day. Mr. Trott also spent about a year living in St. Lucia, while working for St. Lucia Airways as a flight engineer and chief of maintenance of the DC-6, prior to joining Continental in 1977. He visited many locations during his time as a pilot, but Bermuda wasn't one of them, he says with some regret. "When the (Continental) service started it was not the same equipment that was being flown in Bermuda," he pointed out.

"The 737, which is now the main workhorse between Newark and here, is an aircraft that I eventually started flying, but it was not the aircraft I was flying when Continental started service to Bermuda. My chief pilot said `we have a request that you be on that inaugural flight to Bermuda', but I had to tell them that's not the (type of) plane you're flying.

"The 757 is long haul stuff and I flew primarily cross-country from Newark to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and back to Houston and then down to Lima, Peru. I have been to Frankfurt and all through South America. Outside of Frankfurt (Germany), I have never been to any other country in Europe."

Pilots these days taken on tremendous responsibility when flying and the threat of terrorism has added to their list of concerns. "As a captain you are really a manager in the modern cockpit, you are managing people, computers and the machine itself for a successful outcome to the flight.

"The exciting part is on the six months proficiency checks when everything breaks, the engines fail, fires take place and you have a truck on the runway and you have to reject take-off. Practising flying the aircraft without all of the automated systems and taking care of emergencies...that's where your skills are honed and you are ready to face any emergency.

He added: "911 just kind of hit us, the airline industry was pre-occupied with the downturn in the economy and so guys were dealing with the fact that there were furloughs coming as a result of the slow market. Then, of course, after 911 their pre-occupation became very serious and the airlines saw that as an opportunity to restructure routes.

"Overnight, which would have been politically incorrect prior to 911, they dropped a lot of unprofitable routes and there furloughed pilots, parked aircraft and had an infusion of cash from the government."

Mr. Trott has seen tremendous changes in the industry in the more than 30 years he has worked in it. "When I started there was a lot of confusion as to what it took to be an airline pilot.

"I found myself in trade school at first, getting an airframe and engine mechanic's licence, because we had to start off as flight engineers on old equipment like the 727 and aircraft that had a three-man crew. I had a (lunch) meeting yesterday with some local pilots, men going for instrument and commercial licences and they are real excited. There is a fella whose name I just got yesterday, James Rollins, who is a Bermudian flying for Continental Express, and I didn't know he existed. So young people coming up now are coming through a kind of farm system, rather than get on with a major carrier which is what I did. They are coming on with the commuter airlines, in our case Continental Express. They fly on short range trips. A young man will have the opportunity to transition from the Express on to the main carrier after a period of four to six years."

Mr. Trott is more than happy to speak to young people about aviation, telling them of both the benefits and the many challenges. "To become an airline pilot you are part of a very small handful of pilots that make it.

"The bar is very high and if I were to tell a person how high the bar is they might feel a little bit intimidated. It is a lot easier if you go the military route. If you go into the air force or marines, and make pilot training and come out as a captain with millions of dollars worth of training, your chances of getting on with the airlines are great.

"Barring that, it helps if you get a college degree, with a bias towards some technical subject like engineering and get all the ratings of commercial instrument and flight instructor. In my case my resume showed I went to Detroit, and the Caribbean and flew Dc-6s.

"I flew C-45s, that's flying US mail around the midwest, and so when I got hired with Continental I had almost 5,000 hours of flying time. A college degree is mandatory, but only because of supply and demand.

"The person really has to want it. Once you get your foot in the door, keep the desire up and have the proper work habits, it's going to be a lifetime career."

He added: "My mom (the former Eunice Ratteray) was a big influence. She said `you want to be a pilot, I want you to be a doctor, but whichever way you go I'm going to support you and you're going to get the best education you can'. I always knew what I wanted to do. I would tell any young child if you get a desire and this desire is what your life is to be about, especially if you understand that a fear and a love of God is the beginning of wisdom, then he starts to develop that thought in your heart and you just can't lay it down."

As he watched his grandson holding a model airplane, he saw the same passion in his eyes that others saw in his at almost the same age all those years ago. A legacy has been left.