By Bill Hardesty | [email protected]

It is not uncommon for police officers to have second jobs, mostly security-related. However, Sgt. Bill Hogan, a community resource sergeant for South Salt Lake Police Department, found a second job that helped fuel his passion.

“I have a wandering heart,” Hogan said.

As a child, he told his mother he would be a drifter or hitchhiker. He said he would live on a boat and never get married. In Memphis, he attended a job fair for the cruise industry. He came home to tell his mother he had found the perfect job. Mom had different ideas.

Second job

Hogan got married, had kids, and now has grandkids. He lives far from open water. But he still wanted to go places, experiences new things and see the world. Seventeen years ago, he found the perfect job—working the ramp for SkyWest Airlines at the Salt Lake International Airport. Loading bags, unloading bags and helping to park planes helped him fulfill his love of travel and develop his passion for aviation.

“The reason I went there is because I’d heard from a friend of a friend who worked there that you get free flying for working 12 hours a week. I have got to do this,” Hogan said. “I made less money. But that wasn’t my goal. My goal was to have free flight benefits.”

Over the years, Hogan and his family have flown all over the world. But, working the ramp takes a toll on the body. Hogan started to experience some pain because of the repetitive motion involved in the job, which made him wonder how he could work and continue to travel. His answer was to become a commercial airline pilot or something similar. Police officers have the opportunity to retire after 20 or 25 years of service, which means a second career is possible.

“I started thinking about my dad. He was a pilot when I was young,” Hogan said. “Because of his, our lifestyle and, and providing for us as kids and as a husband and his work, I don’t think my dad was able to fulfill everything you want to do with flying. And he gave it up. And I would ask him over the years, why don’t you fly anymore, and he would say, ‘It’s too expensive.’”

For Hogan, the next problem was how to fly and get paid. The solution was to become a flight instructor.

On the path to flight instruction 

“I’ve only had the job probably six months now. But I’ve been working toward that for several years,” Hogan said.

Hogan started flight school in March 2008. He first obtained his private pilot license. Next, he got his instrument rating. This allows him to fly in any weather using the plane’s instruments. He then earned a commercial license and, finally, his flight instructor rating. He is now increasing his flight hours and working to build a good reputation in the industry.

“It is nice that as flight instructor that for every hour I am flying with a student, I get to count it as flight time too,” Hogan said.

Hogan works for Ascend Aviation at the Bountiful Sky Park airport.

How does flying help being a cop?

For Hogan, his ability to multitask has increased being a pilot. 

A second ability comes from an aviation phrase.

“There’s a phrase in aviation—staying ahead of the plane. Because if you ever get behind the plane, that’s when you’re in trouble,” Hogan said. “So if the plane is going so fast, and you’re not thinking of what’s happening next, when that plane gets to that point, that’s a problem.”

Hogan continued, “The same idea applies to law enforcement. How do I stay ahead of the game a little bit? How do I stay ahead in this call that I’m on? What’s about to happen? How can I anticipate some of these things and be prepared for them? And so, both multitasking and staying ahead of the plane are two things that I think have helped me tremendously.”

How does being a cop help with flying?

One way being a police officer helped was the experience of talking on the radio. Hogan already knew about different frequencies and how to switch between them. However, this was both a good thing and a bad thing. Police officers always begin a radio transmission telling their call sign. In aviation, pilots and air traffic control (ATC) say their call sign at the end.

“So, that’s where I would screw up. I would always start, and they would look at me like what are you doing? Like, oh, sorry, law enforcement,” Hogan said.

Another advantage Hogan brought to the training was making Go/No Go decisions. Most aviation students are 18-30 with little work experience and deciding to fly or not was a struggle. 

“Some of those younger student pilots that were at my school had virtually no life experience. And they would struggle making these decisions on whether they should do a go or no go decision that day to fly,” Hogan said. “To them it may seem like perfectly well, why can’t we fly today? But I would tell them no, we’re not going to fly, this weather is obviously terrible, or this happened or this or whatever.”

Future plans

Hogan thinks that once he has enough hours, his goal is to be a commercial pilot or perhaps fly corporate jets.

“I don’t want to discount any opportunities,” Hogan said.

Hogan now has 24 years of law enforcement experience. 

“I’m looking at somewhere around the 25-year mark. I should have all my flight hours,” Hogan said.