Iron Maiden Singer Might Be Flying Your 737

It's not too often that we find a positive aviation story -- any aviation story -- in Billboard Magazine; but Wes Orshoski wrote one, called, "Iron Maiden Frontman Flyin' High."

It's about Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, the group's singer, who is also a 737 captain for London-based Astraeus Airlines.

Orshoski notes that Dickenson, who made money flying nearly 700 hours last year, often feels the heat when he gets home. Touring with the band is one thing, but airplanes are particularly seductive. Billboard said, "Dickinson, whose first commercial job was with British World (an independent airline that folded after Sept. 11, 2001), equates discovering his love for flying to finding another woman. When he's flying, his wife often remarks, 'Oh, he's off sleeping with the tin bitch again,' he relays with a laugh."

There's a different world up there, though.

It's a world that doesn't care if you're famous, or rich, or good-looking -- or not. It's a world of physics, of metallurgy, and mechanics... and unworldly beauty. "When you're up at 41,000 feet at night, flying in the middle of Europe and you look down and you can see all these lights, and then you look up and you see more stars than you've ever seen before in your life, it's just amazing," he told Orshoski. "You see the weather, you see thunder storms from hundreds of miles away. I get to see the best light show in the world."

Orshoski also tells of Dickenson's links to flight: "As a child, Dickinson was often taken to air shows by a relative who had served as an electrician on World War II bombers, and his uncle served in England's Royal Air Force. "I toyed with the idea of joining the air cadets at school," he says. "But I thought, 'Ah, they'd never let me fly,' because I was terrible at math and physics. 'Too stupid; they wouldn't be interested.'"

Possibly to blow that myth to shards, the story notes that the band's drummer, Nicko McBrain (bottom), got his airman's certificate in the mid-80s. That was a start; but it was a family vacation in Florida in 1992 that hooked him into giving flying a serious look. He saw a "Fly for $35" sign at a Florida flight school.

That was the beginning of a multi-year solo career.

"In '93, when I left Iron Maiden for six years and embarked on a solo career, it did strike me that if the solo career didn't work out, I was going to be jobless," he said in the Billboard interview. "So I decided that I would go and do the airline pilot exams in Europe."

One last line caught our attention: "'When it gets to when Iron Maiden stops -- which it will do eventually -- I'm gonna have to do something until I'm 65,' he muses." It's 60, dude.

FMI: www.ironmaiden.com; www.billboard.com