Two Endeavor Air pilots follow their dad’s footsteps into the skies – and into the Delta Air Lines family

Standing in front of the Delta Museum, all dressed in pilot uniforms, the Ketler family is the picture-perfect epitome of the phrase, ‘It runs in the family.’

Tim Ketler recently retired as a Delta pilot after 38 years in the aviation industry, and to celebrate his many years of flying, the Ketler family held a retirement party at the Delta Flight Museum. With his sons and grandchildren wearing their wings proudly, it’s clear that a love for aviation has been passed down from generation to generation.

“What I noticed with my dad is that he’s always loved his job,” said Caleb Ketler, an Endeavor Air Captain based in New York. “He’s already looking at other jobs to start flying again. He loves flying, and that’s something he’s passed down to me.”

Tim’s dad, Arnold, was a pilot in World War II and later worked as a corporate pilot for a lumber company as well as an AMT. Now, brothers Caleb and Noah, an Endeavor First Officer based in ATL, are continuing their family’s legacy in the skies. And if there’s one thing that Caleb and Noah have learned from their dad, it’s to love what you do.

“This is actually my third career,” Noah said. “I was in sales and engineering before this, and I saw Caleb and my dad enjoying their work. It’s a really nice perk that you can balance work and life, that you don’t have to worry about work at home. I needed to do that for my mental health.”

Caleb began with Endeavor Air in September 2017 while his older brother Noah started in October 2021. While Noah was finishing up his First Officer training, Caleb was upgrading to Captain. By major coincidence, the brothers were paired together in the simulators for their final days of training.

“I was thinking, I really can’t screw this up for him, because then Christmas is going to be awkward,” Caleb joked. “There was definitely extra pressure to make sure everything went smoothly.”

After passing their training and starting out on the line, Caleb and Noah were assigned a trip together for the first time out of New York. They knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity since their dad was retiring soon, so Tim leapt at the opportunity to witness them in action.

“He jump-seated every flight with us that whole trip,” said Noah. “We played some golf on our layovers and that was cool to do a whole trip together like that.”

“It was good to see them fly and to see them in the cockpit… And so I could judge their landings,” Tim joked.

“Well, it’s not like you’ve got a little more experience than us, by about forty years,” Noah added.

Then, in Tim’s last few months at Delta, Caleb and Noah were able to jump-seat on his trip from Detroit to Hawaii. During the 24-hour turn, the father and son trio hung out at the beach and swam with sea turtles.

“I was wondering if he was going to be different in the cockpit than he is in his normal life, but he’s the same in each area of his life,” Caleb said. “It was cool to see him in action.”

While Tim has influenced his sons to become pilots, his wife, Lisa, passed down a love for music to her children. The Ketler family loves to sing and perform when they’re all together.

Lisa sings and plays the piano and banjo, Caleb plays the cello, Noah plays the piano and their sister plays the harp. Caleb was First Chair at Middle Tennessee State University while Noah won a competition and played at Carnegie Hall.

“We’ve been singing in church for most of our lives, and now we have a few CDs and we sing every time we get together; we try to find a church or someplace to sing at,” Noah said.

As for Noah and Caleb’s little ones, they hope to pass their love for aviation down to the next generation.

“My daughter has shown some interest; she always wants to come to the airport with me when she sees me leaving in my uniform,” Caleb said.

“We have lots of kid books about flying. We’ll see if it happens, but it’s cute right now anyway.”