Over the last 20 years that I’ve been a private pilot, I have had the opportunity fly on 3 continents.  I’ve flown across the Bering Sea to Russia, down through the Caribbean Islands to the interior of Venezuela and back up Central America returning to Seattle.  This gave me more than a passing familiarity with the blizzard of paperwork that aviation often entails. 

On trips like these, probably the most time consuming and confusing activity is processing paperwork to get in and out of airports. Manifests, customs forms, immigration, flight plans, and country entry or over flight applications are just some of the documents (and their attendant “tips”) that need to be processed when traveling from country to country. 

Needless to say, I had to smile when I hear that Aloha Airlines has begun the process of moving their paperwork processing online using DocuSign.  It’s gratifying to see that my daily passion (CTO of DocuSign) is beginning to benefit the passion I pursue in off hours.

Arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica they didn’t quite know what to do with us.  So they gave us our own jet way at gate 1.


Oil change in Maracaibo, Venezuela.  A relaxing moment under the wing while the mechanics change the oil.