October 19, 2024 • 8 mins
In this episode, Adam provides an overview of reserve life at the airport. He shares personal experiences and activities that pilots can engage in during these periods, including company training, side-hustle work, and more. Adam also discusses maintaining family connections and entertainment options to stay sane. The episode offers practical tips on how to make these RAPs productive highlighting useful resources and ways to make the time fly (pun intended). Adam wraps up by inviting listener feedback and ideas for future episodes, encouraging engagement and community input.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
What's up, network?
It's me.
I'm here alone in the booth.
Figured I'd give you a quick shoutout.
I wanted to talk about something.
I just finished a podcast with Mike Moorman.
He'll be coming on hopefully soon, and you guyswill hear a lot more from him as a podcast
correspondent.
But we were talking about a lot of stuff, andsomething clicked with me, and I wanted to chat
(00:38):
about it.
It's called, or the idea was Surviving ShortCalls.
And I think I've done something about thisbefore, but I've had kind of a recent epiphany
on this.
Nobody really told me when I was getting myfirst short calls.
And for those of you who don't know what thatis, you have different kinds of reserve
availability periods.
(00:58):
There's a lot of different ones in theindustry.
I'm just calling this one short call because Ireally don't know what else to kind of bring it
in as.
But this is basically instead of sitting longcall like 12 hours or 18 hours out from your
call, which normally you can sit at home ifyou're in a certain location, this is when you
have to be close to the airport or for some ofyou, airport standby, something like that.
(01:20):
I was thinking about what do we do when we'rein these situations.
When I first started, I didn't appropriate mytime wisely.
I remember sitting in New York, and I would getshort call, and I would watch a movie.
Cool.
It's fun.
Sometimes I would go run around the block, so Iwas nearby the crash pad, and I'd have my phone
(01:43):
with me in case I got called.
And then I could go and take a quick shower atthe airport because we had about a two-hour
call out range or somewhere around there.
As I got older, I realized that I was kind ofburning a lot of time sitting at these short
call events and not getting anything done.
Well, you know, I've got The Pilot Network andI've invested in some real estate and whatever.
(02:04):
I thought to myself, was there more that Icould be doing with my time?
Well, it turns out that not just working onyour side hustle, those are good.
Sometimes that gets a little old too.
You're sitting down in the pilot lounge orwherever you might be in the airport or in your
car and you don't necessarily want to drag yourlaptop out or do any of those kinds of things.
So a couple ideas for those of you who are outthere who have the fun and lovely time sitting
(02:30):
short call or airport reserve or whatever it'scalled at your company.
One of the things that we can do is get yourCBTs done, get your LMS done, get your
computer-based training for your company done.
I think that's pretty obvious, right?
So I won't belabor that point too much becausewe all know that is something that any of us
can do when we're sitting in a short callsituation.
(02:54):
Second one.
For those of you who have the option to go tothe gym, this is a perfect time to hit the gym
at the airport.
There are gyms at the airport for those of youwho don't know.
Especially military guys who don't necessarilyhave that option to go and see these things,
military guys, gals.
There's also chances if you can get outside ofthe airport.
(03:16):
Go for a run.
There's probably a shower in your pilot lounge.
They're not the nicest, but if you've got atowel, it's a great way to get a workout in.
Again, that's kind of an obvious one too.
So I started to think, well, what more can wedo with our time?
And I started to put some pieces in my headthat I think I'm gonna start changing my
perspective, at least I did this last time, wasI would go and make short call a little bit
(03:41):
about how can I connect with my family a littlebit better?
I'm gone a lot for work and sometimes theydon't necessarily get the love that they feel
that they need.
I have two girls and a beautiful wife.
So I thought maybe it was time to start writinghandwritten notes, letters even, just to bring
them home and drop them in their lunch, thekids that is.
(04:02):
Not necessarily my wife's lunch, but just tolet them know that I'm thinking about them when
I'm on the road.
Take some pictures of where I am and show them,send them via text to my wife so she can show
the kids.
Just something that they feel like they'realong the journey with me.
Again, this is something probably a lot of youdo already.
These are just ideas for you to get out thereand maybe put them forth in what you're doing,
(04:23):
especially when you're sitting in the airportor sitting wherever you are, not really having
a lot to do with your time.
So another thing is catching up on movies.
Right?
Like, that's kind of a big time waster.
But the way I thought about it was, okay, whenI go and I travel to a destination, I actually
want to see some of the stuff around thedestination if I haven't been there before.
(04:47):
Or, like, if I've got a long layover in Paris,I'd love to go up to Normandy.
That'd be pretty cool.
So I don't want to waste my time sitting in myhotel room, watching a movie or doing whatever.
So maybe catching up on some of that stuff.
But instead of catching up on the stuff that isjust pure brain candy, mind you, there's times
for that 100%.
But catching up on some of the stuff that mightbe able to help me at home.
(05:10):
For instance, I am, and this is a shamelessplug for the BiggerPockets.com blog and
website.
Since I do some real estate stuff, it gives mean opportunity to really read and kind of
digest and get into further depth on what I'mtrying to accomplish in my real estate
investing journey as well.
(05:30):
For those of you who know Turbine Capital andTate Duryea, hit him up, take a look at his
stuff, and you can go and get deeper in theweeds on that because you're going to have to
find somewhere to put all that great airlinemoney that you make.
Right?
So these are a couple of just littleadvantageous times that you can take to get in
the weeds on things that you find veryinteresting that you follow your talent, which
(05:54):
Mike and I talk a lot about in our podcast, togo out and make sure that you're supplementing
your airline future in case something untold orunforeseen happens to you.
So these are ways that you can kind of do that.
A couple other little things that just may makeyou feel a little bit better, and this is kind
(06:15):
of a silly one, but it works.
A friend of mine used to do this, he used tojust walk the airport.
He wasn't a big gym guy, but he liked to walk alot.
So he'd pop in a podcast and he would just walkfor a couple of hours and get his steps in and
feel a lot better about himself.
That way, when the time was where he got calledand he had to go sit on the flight deck for a
(06:37):
couple of hours, he already got his exercise infor the day.
It's not necessarily leaving the airport andyou have that opportunity.
Again, this is something that probably most ofyou do anyways, but it's an opportunity for you
to think about what you're doing and make itintentional instead of just, oh, well, what am
I gonna do this time?
Almost making a plan.
Speaking of a plan, it's kind of the last thingI wanted to hit up on this little short take on
(07:03):
what to do during your short call or yourairport wraps.
Have a plan when you go in.
So that way you can maximize your time, andthen you can go watch that brain candy movie or
listen to a horror podcast or whatever youwanna do for your fun time is you can actually
maximize your time by having a plan saying ifyou have I've got six hours where I'm sitting
here.
In the first two hours, I'm gonna do this.
(07:24):
In the next two hours, I'm gonna do that.
And in the last two hours, I'm gonna go andenjoy myself watching a movie.
Again, most of you are probably already doingthis out there, but this gives you a chance to
be more intentional about it.
Write that plan out or have that plan at leastin your head.
You'll be shocked at how much further it cantake you.
I'm always surprised that when I write a planout, how even if I don't hit all the milestones
(07:46):
that I want, I have a lot better feeling at theend of it, like I've accomplished something.
Anyways, take it for what it's worth.
I hope that helps.
And if you have more stuff that you wanna hearlike this or you have ideas that I'm missing,
send them to me at hey guys at the pilotnetwork dot com.
I will make sure that we get the word out toall the pilots of the pilot network.
(08:09):
Keep the shiny side up, greasy side down, flysafe, everybody.
What's up, network?
It's me.
I'm here alone in the booth.
Figured I'd give you a quick shoutout.
I wanted to talk about something.
I just finished a podcast with Mike Moorman.
He'll be coming on hopefully soon, and you guyswill hear a lot more from him as a podcast
correspondent.
But we were talking about a lot of stuff, andsomething clicked with me, and I wanted to chat
(00:38):
about it.
It's called, or the idea was Surviving ShortCalls.
And I think I've done something about thisbefore, but I've had kind of a recent epiphany
on this.
Nobody really told me when I was getting myfirst short calls.
And for those of you who don't know what thatis, you have different kinds of reserve
availability periods.
(00:58):
There's a lot of different ones in theindustry.
I'm just calling this one short call because Ireally don't know what else to kind of bring it
in as.
But this is basically instead of sitting longcall like 12 hours or 18 hours out from your
call, which normally you can sit at home ifyou're in a certain location, this is when you
have to be close to the airport or for some ofyou, airport standby, something like that.
(01:20):
I was thinking about what do we do when we'rein these situations.
When I first started, I didn't appropriate mytime wisely.
I remember sitting in New York, and I would getshort call, and I would watch a movie.
Cool.
It's fun.
Sometimes I would go run around the block, so Iwas nearby the crash pad, and I'd have my phone
(01:43):
with me in case I got called.
And then I could go and take a quick shower atthe airport because we had about a two-hour
call out range or somewhere around there.
As I got older, I realized that I was kind ofburning a lot of time sitting at these short
call events and not getting anything done.
Well, you know, I've got The Pilot Network andI've invested in some real estate and whatever.
(02:04):
I thought to myself, was there more that Icould be doing with my time?
Well, it turns out that not just working onyour side hustle, those are good.
Sometimes that gets a little old too.
You're sitting down in the pilot lounge orwherever you might be in the airport or in your
car and you don't necessarily want to drag yourlaptop out or do any of those kinds of things.
So a couple ideas for those of you who are outthere who have the fun and lovely time sitting
(02:30):
short call or airport reserve or whatever it'scalled at your company.
One of the things that we can do is get yourCBTs done, get your LMS done, get your
computer-based training for your company done.
I think that's pretty obvious, right?
So I won't belabor that point too much becausewe all know that is something that any of us
can do when we're sitting in a short callsituation.
(02:54):
Second one.
For those of you who have the option to go tothe gym, this is a perfect time to hit the gym
at the airport.
There are gyms at the airport for those of youwho don't know.
Especially military guys who don't necessarilyhave that option to go and see these things,
military guys, gals.
There's also chances if you can get outside ofthe airport.
(03:16):
Go for a run.
There's probably a shower in your pilot lounge.
They're not the nicest, but if you've got atowel, it's a great way to get a workout in.
Again, that's kind of an obvious one too.
So I started to think, well, what more can wedo with our time?
And I started to put some pieces in my headthat I think I'm gonna start changing my
perspective, at least I did this last time, wasI would go and make short call a little bit
(03:41):
about how can I connect with my family a littlebit better?
I'm gone a lot for work and sometimes theydon't necessarily get the love that they feel
that they need.
I have two girls and a beautiful wife.
So I thought maybe it was time to start writinghandwritten notes, letters even, just to bring
them home and drop them in their lunch, thekids that is.
(04:02):
Not necessarily my wife's lunch, but just tolet them know that I'm thinking about them when
I'm on the road.
Take some pictures of where I am and show them,send them via text to my wife so she can show
the kids.
Just something that they feel like they'realong the journey with me.
Again, this is something probably a lot of youdo already.
These are just ideas for you to get out thereand maybe put them forth in what you're doing,
(04:23):
especially when you're sitting in the airportor sitting wherever you are, not really having
a lot to do with your time.
So another thing is catching up on movies.
Right?
Like, that's kind of a big time waster.
But the way I thought about it was, okay, whenI go and I travel to a destination, I actually
want to see some of the stuff around thedestination if I haven't been there before.
(04:47):
Or, like, if I've got a long layover in Paris,I'd love to go up to Normandy.
That'd be pretty cool.
So I don't want to waste my time sitting in myhotel room, watching a movie or doing whatever.
So maybe catching up on some of that stuff.
But instead of catching up on the stuff that isjust pure brain candy, mind you, there's times
for that 100%.
But catching up on some of the stuff that mightbe able to help me at home.
(05:10):
For instance, I am, and this is a shamelessplug for the BiggerPockets.com blog and
website.
Since I do some real estate stuff, it gives mean opportunity to really read and kind of
digest and get into further depth on what I'mtrying to accomplish in my real estate
investing journey as well.
(05:30):
For those of you who know Turbine Capital andTate Duryea, hit him up, take a look at his
stuff, and you can go and get deeper in theweeds on that because you're going to have to
find somewhere to put all that great airlinemoney that you make.
Right?
So these are a couple of just littleadvantageous times that you can take to get in
the weeds on things that you find veryinteresting that you follow your talent, which
(05:54):
Mike and I talk a lot about in our podcast, togo out and make sure that you're supplementing
your airline future in case something untold orunforeseen happens to you.
So these are ways that you can kind of do that.
A couple other little things that just may makeyou feel a little bit better, and this is kind
(06:15):
of a silly one, but it works.
A friend of mine used to do this, he used tojust walk the airport.
He wasn't a big gym guy, but he liked to walk alot.
So he'd pop in a podcast and he would just walkfor a couple of hours and get his steps in and
feel a lot better about himself.
That way, when the time was where he got calledand he had to go sit on the flight deck for a
(06:37):
couple of hours, he already got his exercise infor the day.
It's not necessarily leaving the airport andyou have that opportunity.
Again, this is something that probably most ofyou do anyways, but it's an opportunity for you
to think about what you're doing and make itintentional instead of just, oh, well, what am
I gonna do this time?
Almost making a plan.
Speaking of a plan, it's kind of the last thingI wanted to hit up on this little short take on
(07:03):
what to do during your short call or yourairport wraps.
Have a plan when you go in.
So that way you can maximize your time, andthen you can go watch that brain candy movie or
listen to a horror podcast or whatever youwanna do for your fun time is you can actually
maximize your time by having a plan saying ifyou have I've got six hours where I'm sitting
here.
In the first two hours, I'm gonna do this.
(07:24):
In the next two hours, I'm gonna do that.
And in the last two hours, I'm gonna go andenjoy myself watching a movie.
Again, most of you are probably already doingthis out there, but this gives you a chance to
be more intentional about it.
Write that plan out or have that plan at leastin your head.
You'll be shocked at how much further it cantake you.
I'm always surprised that when I write a planout, how even if I don't hit all the milestones
(07:46):
that I want, I have a lot better feeling at theend of it, like I've accomplished something.
Anyways, take it for what it's worth.
I hope that helps.
And if you have more stuff that you wanna hearlike this or you have ideas that I'm missing,
send them to me at hey guys at the pilotnetwork dot com.
I will make sure that we get the word out toall the pilots of the pilot network.
(08:09):
Keep the shiny side up, greasy side down, flysafe, everybody.
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