Buccaneer

The Provocative Odyssey of Jack Reed, Adventurer, Drug Smuggler and Pilot Extraordinaire

Non-Fiction - True Crime
220 Pages
Reviewed on 01/18/2015
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

MayCay Beeler is a spirited American aviatrix, record breaking pilot, award-winning television personality, multi-award-winning author, veteran TV host/producer/journalist, speaker, and FAA Certified Flight Instructor with a passion for all things flying.

Born in our Nation's Capitol, MayCay grew up in the Washington metro area. After a brief stint as a cowgirl working summer jobs in Wyoming, attending Montana State University, and graduating from the University of Kentucky, MayCay found her niche on the small screen and in the big sky. Her TV broadcasting career began as a co-host for the nationally syndicated TV show PM Magazine at WATE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her flying career took flight from these same roots.

MayCay has worked for every major TV network affiliate as on-camera talent in TV news and entertainment. She was voted "Favorite TV/Radio Personality" in a Charlotte area poll. Additionally, MayCay has worked as a TV news weather anchor for the ABC and NBC-TV stations in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

MayCay's knowledge of weather comes first hand from her flying career. She is a licensed Airline Transport Pilot and FAA Chief Flight Instructor. She set world aviation records in the experimental Questair Venture aircraft. MayCay was awarded 2015 Flight Instructor of the Year for the Greensboro FAA Flight Standards District. She is a former chapter chairman of The Kitty Hawk Ninety-Nines, the International Organization of Women Pilots. MayCay represents Greensboro, NC's Piedmont Triad International Airport as the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA) Airport Support Network volunteer. Additionally, she has served as an AOPA instructor pilot traveling the nation for the Air Safety Foundation. An avid proponent of learning to fly, MayCay is the creator of The Diva Flight Experience, empowering women through aviation. See divaflight.com.

MayCay has produced numerous TV features on aviation, including her personal accounts of flying with General Chuck Yeager, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. Her many adventures in television include initially learning to fly for a TV assignment; competing in the Air Race Classic- an all-women's transcontinental air race; and skydiving with the Navy Seals.

MayCay has been published in dozens of magazines. She has covered the Cross-Canada Centennial of Flight International Air Rally as a Pilot/Journalist. Other adventures entailed her personally piloting two crash survivors back to the Bahamian island that, decades ago, nearly claimed their lives. Her account of this compelling story, featuring the playground of a legendary drug lord, appeared in AOPA PILOT magazine, the world's most widely read flying publication. Her DVD documentary by the same name, "Return to Norman's Cay", is available on Amazon. Norman's Cay was portrayed in the movie BLOW, starring Johnny Depp. MayCay has co-authored a book about the island's former Medellin Cartel drug smuggling operation. "Buccaneer - The Provocative Odyssey of Jack Reed - Adventurer, Drug Smuggler, and Pilot Extraordinaire" is a multi award-winning true crime tale that details the life of a pilot/smuggler turned infamous prison inmate. Reed's story has never been given to any other journalist. See jackcarltonreed.com.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

Buccaneer: The Provocative Odyssey of Jack Reed, Adventurer, Drug Smuggler and Pilot Extraordinaire by MayCay Beeler is a true crime story about the life of Jack Reed. Jack Reed was a drug smuggler, working as a pilot for Carlos Lehder. Lehder’s partner in crime was Pablo Escobar, the infamous Colombian drug lord of the Medellin Cartel. For the first time, Reed opens up about his life as the pilot, flying from Norman’s Cay off the coast of Florida. He tells of how he ended up as co-defendant on one of the most publicized and longest-running drug trials ever, and of how he became a victim of a mistake in sentencing. Until now, Reed has refused to speak to the media, but now he opens up and what you are about to read will blow your mind.

Buccaneer: The Provocative Odyssey of Jack Reed, Adventurer, Drug Smuggler and Pilot Extraordinaire by MayCay Beeler was a bit of a wow for me. I like true crime stories anyway and this was something so completely different it has to be read to be believed. It’s an intriguing tale, full of mystery, twists and turns and one single surprise that turns everything around! An amazingly written and very honest account of Reed’s involvement in drug running and of life working for Escobar. Two stories are nicely woven together into one amazing read. I guarantee that anyone reading this will be eager to know the ending and won’t want to put the book down until it’s over.