Don't be a Moron! Let's discuss how I messed up...and other, more important, stuff from the Network

In this episode, Adam starts with an introduction and shares updates from The Pilot Network, followed by a discussion on media influences in the aviation sector. He dives into the often complex world of disability paperwork, sharing his personal experiences. Upcoming TPN events and the importance of community interaction are highlighted. Adam offers career advice and mentorship insights, addressing common challenges faced.

Episode Transcript

(00:18):
TPN, what is up?
It's Adam again coming live from my basementstudio.
Had a couple bonus episodes that we put outthere with TPNx.
Got another one coming out on this Saturday.
Whatever date that is, doesn't really matter.
Just doing a quick update on things goingaround here.
Nothing really new to report.

(00:38):
I mean, obviously, we got a lot going on in theaviation industry.
Of course, with some of the the recent tragedyof Air India, is, you know, deeply upsetting
for a lot of us.
And when we get the final details of that,Anthony Felix wrote a great article on TPN Pro
about how we can handle this in discussing withthe media or friends, people like that, family,

(01:01):
whoever has questions.
You know, we kinda, as pilots, would want to bethe, I don't know, the final say on stuff
aviation because we are experts in our jobs,supposedly.
Well, most of us are.
I don't I don't know about myself, but sure.
I'll I'll take that that helm.
But Anthony wrote a great article on how we canhandle those kind of questions.

(01:23):
It's one that I I'm glad that I got to editbecause I got to read it through really
detailed and carefully a couple differenttimes.
So encourage you to go read stuff like that andand take on a different a different principle
in your life and how you're gonna handle thosekind of things.
Other than that, it's been a lot of thingsgoing on personally for me.

(01:44):
So I wanted to update you, on my disability,fun because I am not very smart sometimes.
And as much as I believe in the checklistdiscipline ethos that we have in aviation, and
I believe in doing checklist stuff in my ownlife, sometimes I read through it too quickly

(02:05):
or don't read it close enough, and it bites me.
So this is one of those examples.
And I debated on even recording this because Ifelt like I am embarrassed and I'm a moron.
And I don't like necessarily always sharing mydeepest, darkest, transparent details of what I
did wrong.
But in this case, I think it's very, veryimportant to share with people, especially

(02:31):
newer pilots or or or folks who've been in theairline world for a very long time who this is
their first time going through something likethis.
So at my company, we have a disabilityhandbook.
And I read through it, and I kind of glossedover the part about how I'm supposed to file
for disability.
I had heard, hey, you don't have to do much.

(02:52):
Well, you do have to do something.
And one of those things was to compile somepaperwork, send it off to the doctor, and the
doctor basically writes up this questionnairewith some of your imaging and stuff from
surgery or whatever and off it goes.
Okay.
So as you can see, if you're on YouTube, I canmove my arm a little bit now.
I can't really lift any weight.

(03:13):
I can't really move my shoulder up too high,but I can do this.
So that's pretty exciting.
But with that said, the recovery process is isa long time or the build back better process is
is is fairly long.
So the disability piece, although not superchallenging, I missed a spot.
I forgot to send the paperwork in.

(03:34):
So what happened and how I noticed this waswhen we got our paychecks, I noticed that my
paycheck extremely small.
And I realized that I missed a step in theprocess of filing paperwork.
The insurance company that our airline workswith notified me that they didn't have the
paperwork, and I'm like, oh my goodness.

(03:55):
I screwed up.
Now thank goodness I've put myself in asituation financially because I've saved a lot
of cash on hand just so we could weather anybig storms that would come up.
Didn't have to have loan money or do anythingsilly like that.
So that was that was a good thing.
I'm glad I I was smart enough to do that, butin this case, I was not, and I made that

(04:16):
mistake.
So one thing I will say is you're going throughthis process and you know you're coming up on
disability, if you know that you're sick andyou're going to be out for an extended period
of time, whatever that timeline is, go and readthe disability handbook cover to cover, and
then read it again.
At least skim the highlights so you can makesure that you hit your checklist pieces right

(04:38):
now.
I know I'm probably speaking to 98% of you whowould do that anyways, but it's just a
reminder, and it's to really help those twopercent of us who maybe like me were not very
bright and missed a big piece of the puzzlethere.
With that said, I think I've learned my lesson.
I am not going to be expecting things like thisin the future, I will go ahead and read

(05:05):
everything cover to cover right off the bat andlearn a little something.
While while I'm sitting here talking, wannagrab something from my email that I thought
would be interesting to everybody out there iswe had a some interesting posts throughout the
ecosystem that I think might I understand.

(05:26):
Might spur some conversation at Hangerfliesthat we had on June 11.
I had one in Milwaukee.
We had San Diego Corpus Christi in Phoenix.
There's some decent attendance around the theglobe as it were.
We're looking to do more in July.
I believe July 17 right now might be the date,but don't quote me on that.
That'll come out in the email.
So if you want more information about thatstuff, sign up for our newsletter, the biweekly

(05:50):
brief on, the pilotnetwork.com.
It'll direct you right there.
So there's some really, there's some reallygreat conversation that happens there about
stuff that's on the flight deck and probablymore importantly off the flight deck as well.
It's just a good chance to meet up and get thatanalog, feeling, that physical interaction with
somebody.
Yeah.
You know, like actually talking with somebodyinstead of having the digital back and forth.

(06:14):
And then also, come join us on our AMAs onevery other Wednesday.
I'll be having one tomorrow night at 06:30central.
If you're not involved in pro, you can go thereand sign up for pro, you can join the AMA
there.
Let's see.
A couple things.
Some so it's really interesting.
Facebook has now been doing like the AIproduced that kind of scour your your your

(06:39):
groups and they give you some highlighted stuffthat's out there.
And there's some military there's a the onesI'm looking at here is military to majors that
the hours matter and the flight schoolfrustration, finding the right CFI, Amy
anxiety, class one medical, a lot ofalliteration with the words there.
But one that I wanted to jump on is KC-onehundred thirty five unit advice needed.

(07:04):
A community member sought guidance on joiningthe KC-one hundred thirty five unit in Tampa as
a civilian applicant.
Helpful tips poured in.
Rust the unit during UTA weekends.
Contact the [e-mail] or thephone number and be prepared with your PPL,
AVL, QT, and pick some scores, and the nextapplication window opens this fall, whatever.
Interesting that I was able to grab that, and Ijust finished up doing a podcast with John

(07:29):
McFarlane from Bovie Dope that'll come out in aguard and reserve series next month.
And I wanted to just jump on that a little bit.
When you're doing any of this stuff inaviation, the sooner that you can start off,
the better.
You just de stress a lot of the things that canhappen throughout your career if you do do it a
little bit earlier.
And you build those foundational buildingblocks going forward, whether it's flying

(07:52):
airplanes or building your career up, those arereally important.
It also gives you time to do a lot of researchand look at the alternatives and open your
aperture, which is something I talk a lot aboutbecause there's other opportunities that you
may not see that are out there.
I didn't know a lot of these as I've grownthroughout my career.
I have started to have my eyes open to thingslike different corporate operations and

(08:15):
opportunities, as well as things like contractwork and stuff like flying.
I don't know.
I've brought it up many times in this podcast,but like aerial firefighting, things like that.
So there's a lot of cool stuff that's out therethat if you don't spend your time on the front
end looking at and kinda opening that thataperture up, you might miss.
A couple other things.

(08:35):
So there's some really great things that arehappening within the TPN ecosystem.
One of my favorites was a group of pilotsrallied around a new pilot who is struggling in
the navigation phase of his career, I guess youcould say, and actually gave no kidding flying

(08:57):
tips within the group, which was something thatwas awesome, and some really awesome techniques
that they've learned both civilian and militarywise that can help these this this young pilot
out, which is awesome.
I wanna shout out the whole community for doingthat because that is what makes us better as a
group.
It makes us safer as pilots and allows us toget through some of the hiccups that we can
have throughout our career a little bit easierand move on to the next thing so we can really

(09:19):
become experts in our craft and our field.
We had somebody asking for advice on waysforward whether struggling in their PBL
training, man, some of us can't even go backthat far in our brains.
But those are the kind of things when we cangive that good advice and help people, whether
it's in person, which is always preferable, orif it's digitally through Facebook medium or on

(09:42):
pro or an email, whatever mentorship that wayonline is really helpful as well.
Let's see.
Oh, here's one that's fun.
Active duty air force issues getting line byline flight records due to system changes.
Alright.
This for all the air force folks out there isright now a very epic pain.

(10:05):
I do not have an answer.
If you do want some information for stuff likethat, I would have head over to milkkeep.com.
The least that you can get from that is just asome inputs on how those data points can be
captured if they're not already.
I think there's solutions on the horizon asidefrom just filling out your own logbook.

(10:29):
But if push comes to shove, if you're notkeeping a logbook right now, I I would
definitely think about doing that because youwanna make sure that you don't lose any of
those hours.
The competition is ramping up for airline andjobs outside of the airlines.
You want to capture as much of that data aspossible, all of it if you can, so you have the

(10:49):
correct numbers as you go in for interviews orany of that stuff.
There's another interesting one about type onediabetes and FAA class one outlook with some
really good discussion and there was notension.
It was a really good discussion of what some ofthose factors can be.
And I'll tell you what, going through what I'vebeen through with the surgery, which obviously

(11:13):
is nothing compared to what other folks havehad to deal with, I'm not trying to sound like
it is.
It's just opened my eyes to what some of thesereally grave or challenging medical experiences
that some of these pilots face and what they'vehad to deal with to get their medicals back.
I'm not to that point yet.
I will have to reapply because my medical hadto lapse because I was unable to complete a

(11:36):
medical flying class one because of thesurgery.
But when I have to go back, I'll share thatexperience with you.
And knowing that there's a group there to helpyou out is something that's very value add.
A couple things on my own that I have kindawanted to share is lately, have I've been out

(11:59):
of the I've been off off flying for I'm comingup on three months here.
And I will tell you, I I miss it more than Ithought I would, quite a bit more than I
thought I would.
I thought I'd be okay with not not flying allthat much, but I'm not.
I I do enjoy my job quite a bit.
You know, I caught myself looking up and seeingan airplane.

(12:21):
Had to go see the doctor today and watch anairplane take off by the airport.
I was like, oh, yeah, I kind of missed that.
So, it does happen.
Miss being in the air a little bit.
I've kind of supplemented the camaraderie ofseeing people, by trying to hook up and talk to
and connect with old friends through what wehad, the hanger fly, or just, you know, phone

(12:44):
calls, getting getting to talk to and seepeople when I can.
It's tough with little kids.
We you know, for those of you who have kids,you get it.
But that has kinda softened the blow a littlebit, and being able to talk about just, you
know, how it's going.
You know?
Hey.
It's doing a little bit better.
PT's working.
You know, it's slow slog, yada yada, all thesame stuff.
But also the ability just to kinda get out ofmy own head and think outside of and not not

(13:08):
working on TPN or as I do for working with mybuddy at ProFlight to help him out with some
stuff, with some networking pieces and andbusiness development.
But just realizing that, like, sometimes yougotta get out of your own head and and get out
of the space that you feel somewhat confined tobecause you can't really do the things that you

(13:29):
used to do.
Can't recommend that enough.
Finding time.
I mean, even if you're like a big gym guy,like, I know, maybe I don't look look like a
big gym guy, but I love going.
And, just I can't do the things that I didbefore, and and I won't for a while.
But getting on the bike and being able to rideit and, you know, setting myself a goal of,

(13:49):
like, I'm gonna do this zone two workout hasbeen very beneficial, very helpful.
So these are things that I'm trying to workthrough.
And I want all of you to work through thosethings too when you have these issues because
it will keep you mentally in the game andemotionally a little bit less, on edge or
stressed.
So that's kind of a quick wrap up a summary ofwhat's been going on in the network, what I've

(14:13):
been going through with all this, how Iabsolutely bombed out incorrectly my disability
paperwork and how you don't have to do that.
Make sure you read all the stuff that's givento you and go look it up if you can't.
If it's not given to you, find it, read it, andand and do that checklist exactly as it says.

(14:36):
If you guys have any questions, anything comesup that you wanna talk about, you have a
subject that you'd like to hear, me do becauseI do have some time in my hands to do some more
podcasting.
Hit us up at hey guys @thepilotnetwork.com.
We're always so happy to hear from the the thenot the fans, but just the network.
The people who make TPN what it is.

(14:58):
That's all of you out there.
And as always, keep that shiny side up, thegreasy side down.
Fly safe, everybody.