Michael 'Doc' Dougherty

Dougherty started out studying engineering at the University of Akron with the aim of following in his father’s footsteps in the construction business. But somehow, he wasn’t very excited about the prospect, so when a friend told him about an aviation program at Kent State University, he decided to give it a try and fell in love with flying. He earned his private pilot certificate in August 2001, and despite the events of 9/11 impacting the industry, decided to stick with it and received the ratings that would qualify him to fly for the airlines. In the process, he helped shape Kent State’s professional pilot program and when the industry picked up again in 2004, he landed the coveted job as a pilot for an airline, quickly gained seniority, and enjoyed commercial flying for several years.

At the same time Dougherty had a side business running a lawn company and found himself cutting grass around Goodyear’s hangar at Wingfoot Lake. He got to know the pilots and before long he left the airlines, trained to fly the GZ-20, and started to fly for Goodyear Airship Operations.

When maintaining the original blimps became more and more inefficient, Goodyear switched from the nonrigid airships to semi-rigid airships manufactured by Zeppelin NT in Friedrichshafen, Germany. “The only thing those two types have in common is the helium inside,” Dougherty said. He spent one year in Friedrichshafen, learning to fly the semi-rigid airship and to train other pilots in it.

Dougherty’s longest cross-country trip took him from New York to Los Angeles, and he enjoys the country going by at a slow pace. “Flying the blimp is unique, people are excited to see us, and we get to do a lot of cool stuff,” he said. “But what most people don’t realize is the fact that it doesn’t take just the pilot to make that happen. We have up to 20 people on every team, from DOT truck drivers, to broadcast technicians [for game coverage], maintenance crews. You’re on the road for weeks or months at a time, you become family.”

Circling over stadiums, covering ball and golf games all over the country is a different kind of flying and far from boring. “We actually rotate crews and pilots by what they enjoy watching. Some are baseball fans, some like golf and we schedule them accordingly.” On the fourth of July, Dougherty was hovering 500 feet over the Hudson River, watching the fireworks. Cool job.

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