![](https://paw.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/styles/feature_image/public/images/content/OTC-BandOnPlane.jpg?itok=G0BLL2jb)
Courtesy Carolyn Havens Niemann ’89
![](https://paw.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/styles/feature_image/public/images/content/OTC-BandOnPlane.jpg?itok=G0BLL2jb)
Courtesy Carolyn Havens Niemann ’89
When the Princeton University Band flew home from the football team’s opening game in San Diego Sept. 20, the men and women in plaid found a friendly face in the cockpit: United Airlines pilot Michael Niemann ’90, a former band member. He’s pictured above next to drum major Mary Gilstad ’15. The flight assignment was a happy coincidence for Niemann, who met his wife, Carolyn Havens Niemann ’89, when the two were in the band’s trash-percussion section in 1986.