My Pursuit of Excellence

"Every page proves there's always a way-if you prepare, commit, and adjust. Mario shows exactly how: convert standards into habits, habits into judgment, and judgment into results you can repeat. The cockpit lessons are specific, and he carries them straight into hiring, training, risk management, and customer trust. Though containing plenty of intriguing personal narrative, this book is a working system for turning technical skill into durable enterprise value."

--Alan Way, Executive Director, Private Clients, LOUIS XIII Americas, Remy Cointreau Group

In the cockpit, there's no room for excuses-only inputs, outcomes, and the next decision. In My Pursuit of Excellence: Life and Leadership in the Air, pilot and instructor Mario McGee invites readers into the rare perspective of flight, where confidence is earned one correction at a time and humility is part of the checklist. With the steady presence of a teacher who refuses to waste a student's time, Mario shows what excellence actually looks like: how you breathe when you're tense, how you decide when the picture isn't right, and how you course-correct before small errors become big ones. From military aviation to general aviation, he carries the same standard: build judgment, not ego; build skill, not luck.

This story doesn't stay in the sky. Mario takes what aviation taught him-discipline, clear communication, and safety-first leadership-and turns it into a way of running a life and a business. As he builds Bario Aviation, he doesn't just train pilots; he trains decision-makers. He teaches people to speak the step before they take it-power, pitch, trim-so their words train their hands, and their hands train their confidence. The result is both inspiring and practical: a memoir that reads like a flight lesson for the rest of your life, reminding you that lift is available to anyone willing to learn, align, and rise.