Capt. R.K. Smithley pauses as he searches for the appropriate word. He’s been asked to describe what it’s like flying a DC-10 just a few hundred feet above the ground, at 170 mph and carrying an 85,000-pound load, all while dealing with heavy winds, hilly terrain, other aircraft in the area and thick smoke billowing from the wildfires he’s helping to combat.
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What it takes is a special type of person, possessing specific qualifications. Smithley meets that standard.
“Some guys adapt to this, some don’t,” Smithley, father of NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Garrett Smithley, told The Athletic on Monday. “It takes kind of a little bit of a psycho, for lack
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