December 27, 2024 • 65 mins
Adam and Matt retrace TPN's 2024 path. They delve into the intricacies of scheduling, planning, and operating The Pilot Network, especially TPNx. The guys share new directions they took in 2024, excitement of what is to come, and the heartbreak of losing Jason Depew, a rock for TPN, as well as Matt and Adam. They get into all the new ideas coming in 2025; Jason's Scholarship fun, TPN Go (download the beta tester below), and TPN Talent. It's a little trip down memory lane and look past the storm clouds that developed in late 2024. Thanks for making The Pilot Network so absolutely amazing!!
Join us and beta test TPN Go! You can download the app using Apple TestFlight:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/jTBi0klS
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
What's up, TPN?
It's Adam back with you for this end of theyear closeout, and I have a very special guest
who's not really a guest.
Go ahead.
You introduce yourself.
I don't wanna do it.
Hey, guys.
Matt here back from the the trenches, and gladto be back on the podcast.
I guess, well, call me a guest.
Adam, thanks for having me on the show.
(00:40):
Yeah.
It's been a minute or 2.
So this Matt and I were talking.
We've been trying to get this together, like,literally trying to get this together for,
what, 3 weeks, I guess.
Working the schedule.
I mean, both of us are going a 1000000different directions like always.
So it I I think we need, I guess we're hiringfor assistance, assistance, so we'll just put
that put that out there.
We need some executive assistance.
(01:01):
Yeah.
Right.
That that's for, it's funny when you so whenyou have a primary job and then you have a
secondary job that feels more like your primarybecause you care about it so much, You wanna do
the right thing at the right time, and then yourealize, you don't necessarily have that time
built in your schedule.
It's something we'll get into later here.
So Matt and I were talking like how we're gonnado this podcast.
(01:23):
And the thing that we came up with was a kindof a year end review of what the pilot network
is, and we kind of jotted down some stuff.
My guess is the notes are gonna take us in adirection we're not quite ready to go because
that's just the way these conversations happen.
And Matt and I have a lot of things
we do.
It's unscripted, and we're we're just Yeah.
(01:44):
Pulling out of our butt as we go here.
Yeah.
I believe the, pun intended, we're winging it.
Yeah.
The the thing is is a lot of stuff hashappened, over this year.
This has probably been the biggest year in TPN,history for a lot of different reasons.
Some good, some not good.
The other thing, though, is Matt and I arestarting to we've always looked at TPN as it
(02:08):
was this great network.
It was a lot of fun to do.
And the problem was is we we just didn't know.
We wanted to create more value for the memberof the pilot network, and we've been working
really hard on how to do that.
And finally, we have a couple ideas.
So we're gonna tease that, and there's gonna bemore teasers.
Probably not gonna get the full, kimono,opening for y'all.
(02:30):
But as we go through this, I hope that thiswill, shed some light on what's happened,
what's kinda goes on behind the scenes andwhat's happened behind the scenes, and then
what's gonna go on going forward and how we'vehandled some of these, these changes throughout
the, 2024 calendar year.
So, best place to start is January 1, 2024.
(02:53):
This so we could call these the slow months.
Wouldn't you say, Matt, January through March?
Or are they no.
Those are any slow months?
The those were the easy ones where all we weredoing is preparing for TPNX.
Hair on fire, getting tickets, getting thevenue prepped, traveling back and forth,
working out, you know, what airlines are gonnabe there and what they need to set up and the
(03:16):
vendors and and all that sort of stuff.
So those those were the easy months.
You're right.
Hardly anything going on.
I think the funny part about, going so evenbefore that, one thing is is so, Matt, if you
remember, and this is in 2022, I went and did,site surveys.
And remember, I took, like, 2 days, and I flewto Minneapolis and then Denver and then, where
(03:41):
was the other one?
I don't even remember.
Did we do another?
I thought I thought I did another one.
Or was it Minneapolis, Denver, and then you andthen we did Tampa.
I think Shannon and I were down to Tampa forsomething that we we figured.
We we settled on Minneapolis, which, by theway, we're be we're there again in April this
year, or in 2025.
(04:01):
I have heard people who say they they, theywould they would like to change the venue,
which, I don't know if you wanna shed somelight on why we do the venue selection the way
we have and what's gonna happen in the future.
So it's actually kind of a timely question.
I was just at the Orlando airport yesterday.
I had to get my new airline ID, and so I had togo out there.
(04:22):
And I just for nostalgia's sake, I walkedaround the c terminal, the TPNX venue, and I
got it and I went up to Hemisphere and lookedat kind of where TPNX, specifically, where the
conference had come from and and how far we'vecome from, buying out the Hemisphere Lounge, up
(04:44):
on the 9th floor of the Hyatt there at the theOrlando terminal and then all the way out to
the c terminal where we would requisition anentire terminal for for TPN accident.
It just it was a very nostalgic opportunity tolook at what TPNX has morphed into and then
think through what we're going to build it toin the future.
(05:05):
But to answer your question, essentially, wegrew out of it.
We we maxed out that space, and there were somechanges to the Orlando airport and what they
would allow with the the new Breitbart trainand all that sort of stuff.
And so we needed to use that as an opportunityto either double down on Orlando or, try to
(05:28):
plan for being able to move TPNX around thecountry a little bit.
And so that's when we started do a search for2024.
And like you were saying, we we went out andtoured a couple of venues, and Denver was high
on the list, and Tampa has a really goodfacility at the Tampa airport that, I think
we'll use at some point in the future.
(05:48):
But it was one of those things where if we wereever going to be able to move TPNX around on a
pretty regular basis, that was gonna be it.
And so, ultimately, you had been based inMinneapolis for a cup a couple years ago.
And so you knew that space that they had, itwas gorgeous overlooking the runways and all
(06:09):
those sorts of things.
And so they gave us a great deal, and it it wasa it was a perfect home for last year, and we
decided to keep it for this year as well, 2025,this coming year.
But we're we're already starting to lookforward to what other opportunities there are.
Maybe Dallas, maybe Tampa, maybe Denver, butwe're open to suggestions.
(06:29):
So for for TPN out there, if if you know of agood venue that's pilot centric, easy to get
to, something like that, let us know.
We'll go take a tour.
We'll check it out, and we'll we'll see if itworks.
Yeah.
To add on to that, one of the things that TPNXwas kind of noted for was how we're airport
attached, which made sense when we were small.
(06:53):
Unfortunately, the problem with airportattached venues is almost all of them are
space.
There's one of 2 problems.
Either there's space, actually physical spacelimited on how many vendors and people that you
can have attend or they're limited on what youhave, your optionality for things to do or
(07:17):
social event organizations.
So for instance, Minneapolis, it's an awesomevenue for what we currently have set up right
now.
However, it runs out of space really fast forsocializing, which we have realized is a large
draw to TPNX.
So much so that there's people who come justfor that just for that aspect of TPNX, that
(07:40):
there's, Matt and I have always said, you know,it's part job fair, part trade show, part
party.
There's people who are now returning aftergetting the job to either volunteer or just to
hang out with their friends.
And, we'll talk about that too because we'vegot a way for you to enjoy that for a much
lower price than what the normal tickets get inall of this.
(08:03):
Or Anyways, the party pass.
Or The party pass.
So so okay.
Cool.
That it's a cool light.
It's it's cool to have it right on the airport.
However, if we can set something up that's notfar from airport property, where we can have
some sort of transportation operation where weactually can control that, then that's a good
(08:25):
deal for the network, and it's easy for us to,kinda get behind that.
But that was, like, one of the big things thatwe wanted to go away from.
We've just after having lots of conversationswith lots of different people, we've realized
that this is why most people most of these,spaces aren't used for some of these bigger
conferences.
(08:45):
And we'll get into other conferences that weattended and what we saw and how we're bringing
stuff in there.
So, anyways, January through March was a bigthat's that's like the, kind of the last minute
catch up time you're you're you're finalizingcontracts with airlines and vendors.
You're making sure the space is correct.
You're getting all the support staff intoplace.
It's really big.
Imagine it's kind of like a super, steroidwedding with, a lot of bridezillas.
(09:13):
Yeah.
And, and almost none of them are within yourcontrol.
And they're all very polite, but they're stillthey have certain demands, and you just have to
work within that, that space.
And then you have, airlines who change, staffor change strategies, and they either drop out,
(09:34):
with notice and some don't.
And we went through some of that last year forthe first time.
That was very, an interesting thing to dealwith.
A lot of questions.
And then you have the attendees, And weencourage questions.
We want you to keep, keep reaching out to TPNso we can answer questions that you may have.
(09:55):
That also does take it's probably the mosteffort intensive piece, so much so that we put
my wife on staff to answer emails at one point.
Customer service.
I don't know.
Customer service.
She's like, I don't know the answers to thesequestions.
We said, just write them back and say, well,we'll we'll get back to you shortly in in but
not in an AI voice.
(10:15):
So that was the thing I
do wanna I do wanna do a a shout out to toBritney and the whole team at Serendipity.
Ali, Megan, Sophia, absolutely incredible tohave those gals helping us out.
We could.
TBNX has grown into something that that you andI just can't manage on our own anymore.
And so having them has, for the last couple ofyears, helping us out with that has been
(10:39):
absolutely invaluable.
So
Yeah.
It yeah.
Matt, a 100%, on them.
And then, I'll throw out the other shout out tothe volunteer group at TP and X, which we'll
talk about in a minute.
But they have moved on to, some of them havemoved into much more critical roles to keep
this wagon train rolling down the, the dustytrail.
(11:00):
So so January through March, that's kind of thewhat goes on there, and then there's some
there's kind of a there's a steady, on ramp ora steady up ramp up as we get to tp and x.
And then, about a week before in April,everything it's like there's a complete calm.
Everything goes dead quiet.
(11:21):
Like, there's a couple questions fromattendees, but everybody is pretty much put in
place on the vendor, on the recruiter side,all, like, some volunteers still have a couple
of questions.
But as far as Matt and I being able to doanything, make any parts move, there ain't much
left to do except show up.
(11:42):
And that's what we did.
We showed up.
It was the 3rd week in April, and, I think Iwas the first one in town in Minneapolis on,
Tuesday, and then everybody else showed uplater.
I I got there right around the time that youthe oh, the girls were the first ones there, I
think.
Yeah.
I think so.
And then we we got the TPNX in Minneapolis.
(12:03):
And, I I And we have
year 5th 50 volunteers this past year.
It Yeah.
I think I think it ended up being 55 or 50something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And 20 airlines, I believe, was the finalcount.
A handful of vendors have lost track of that.
And then about 1500 pilots showed up as well,which is kind of the target that we shoot for.
(12:27):
We, you know, as everyone knows by now, we wekeep TPNX small, intimate gathering because we
we want the quality to be high.
We we don't want you to be standing in big longlines for hours at a time.
It it it's gotta be fun.
It's gotta be approachable.
And, so while we could put 5,000 pilots in aroom, that's not our goal.
(12:50):
So it No.
1500 of our closest friends was was kinda fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's cool because the turnover is, unlikeother conferences where you'll see 2 to 300,
maybe even 400 show up day 1, moment 1.
By the afternoon, 75% of those pilots havechanged out, and there's a new new total in
(13:16):
there.
It's a little bit less, than when we started,but it's all new faces.
And then in the evening, you're hoping to seeeverybody, which is just not the case.
It's it's it's not the way it works, but itthere's it's so fun to have that reunion,
especially with the volunteers because theycome back and then running into people.
For instance, I'll tell a story about a guynamed Ben who, I played softball with when I
(13:42):
was at Mcdill in the reserves for, like, 1 yearintramural.
He was in the, in in another squadron.
So we're, shooting the breeze, and I see him.
I'm like, Ben, how how the hell are you, dude?
I haven't seen you in forever.
I go, this is great.
And he goes, yeah, man.
You know what?
I'm looking for a job, all this kind of stuff.
He had no idea what TPN was.
(14:02):
He didn't know that you or I, were involved inthis.
And he had just heard about TPNX through eitherthe grapevine or on an ad or something like
that or Facebook or something suggested it tohim.
So he bought a ticket and came up and, waslooking to go I forget which airline he wanted
to go to.
(14:23):
And sure enough, we sat.
We just ran into each other while we're havinga beer.
And that world kinda came together in onitself, on the fun front.
But on the professional front, this this t p nx, more so than any other one, had started to
open new doors and avenues for Matt and I tolook at expanding how much value we can add to
(14:48):
the network member and then some of the I don'twanna call them end users, but the, the actual
companies that are out there that arerecruiting pilots to come fly for them.
So that's that's kind of what this t p nextmeant to me.
And then just some of the cool experientialstuff.
I mean, we had massages there.
We had that big circle water thing, which I'veseen, some of our bottles floating around.
(15:14):
We had, the VTR folks who were showing off thevirtual reality stuff, with training.
And hopefully, we're gonna get a lot more ofthat this year.
We're gonna have more speakers that aren'tairline centric because we've talked to the
airlines.
They don't necessarily want to present anymore,some of them.
They just want people to come talk to them.
They wanna spend their time face to face.
(15:34):
But we've talked to other folks who really dowanna present to you and have some really
interesting stuff that they wanna present.
So we're changing a few things, but nothingcrazy.
So that's the exciting part about looking backat last year and then moving into this year.
What what did you take away from this year,Matt, that you really liked?
And then some things that you, you know, thingsthat you wanna change or not do the same.
(15:55):
Right.
So I think the biggest thing is we've we've hita stride.
And I don't wanna get stale, but I also want toreally double down on what TPNX has become.
And instead of growing it and making it biggerand more complex and fancier, what I really
wanna do is make it better.
(16:18):
Like, expand on what we've built and what theteam has built and what it's become for pilots
and just really add value in as much as muchvalue as we can and make it worth people's
time.
I think the party pass is gonna be fun forpeople because they can come out and, they
don't necessarily maybe they already have theirtheir last job, and they wanna come out and and
(16:41):
just socialize and and do the networking partof it.
The socials were incredibly well attended.
That was a lot of fun.
It it there was it was shoulder to shoulder inthere.
So it we're already at a point where we need toconsider a larger venue maybe, at least just
from the social perspective, the happy hours.
But we'll we'll get into that.
I think 2026, we're going to look forsomething.
(17:06):
We're gonna start looking for another menu justnot because we don't love Minneapolis, but
because, we need to look for the next place andthe next home.
But the my biggest takeaway is how gratefuleveryone was for the opportunity and for the
the way that TPNX is structured.
It's it's very personable.
(17:29):
Everyone got to talk to every airline theywanted.
And and the way we do it, our sign ups, theairlines are great because they they make as
much room for people as possible, and we avoidthe lines.
As we talked about it before, we don't allowlines to form at TPNX, and I think that just
really elevates the experience.
And then TPN Talent, which I know we'll talkabout, that that's a big takeaway and and
(17:55):
really provides a directional shift for whatthe pilot network in general is gonna be.
And that's just kind of a little foreshadowingor something we'll talk about later.
But suffice it to say, TPNX 2024, incredible asalways.
We're grateful for everyone that helped andbuilt it into what it is over the last couple
of years.
And, taking the tour of the Orlando facility,it provided some nostalgic context, and we're
(18:21):
looking forward to what this next year is gonnabe, and already looking to over the horizon to
2026, 2027.
So, really excited about that.
Yeah.
That I I'm excited too about some of the stuffthat we're doing internally.
And then just being able for you and I to takea a back seat in the planning, of such a major
(18:45):
event realizing that, hey.
We put this together once, but and we we pulledsome correct levers, and we we networked with
the right people to make things happen.
And we got lucky.
And knowing that that luck probably wasn'tgonna keep going, that, we've made jokes about
becoming a event coordination and planningcompany and, just ditching this whole pile of
(19:08):
network thing and just becoming a event.
And then realize that neither of us ever wannado that because it's a lot.
It's it's an insane amount of work.
I don't recommend it to anybody.
It's, it it the first the first year was funbecause we didn't know what we were doing.
The 3rd time when it got big was verystressful, and draining.
(19:31):
And then now it's a nice rhythm where, we'rewe're just able to say more yeses and noes and
watch people who know what they're doing, putsomething together and grow it to something
that we didn't even really have a vision.
I mean, we had our own vision, but now to seesomebody else's vision kind of populate that
space and it changes the direction of whatwe're thinking is really cool.
(19:51):
So, I guess this is a lesson to all of you,commander types, which we'll talk about in a
second, is, give your people, some room to runand grow, and you'll be shocked at what they
can deliver for you in the long run.
Speaking of that, let's move into the nextsegment of that year.
So TPN ends.
It's all over with, and this is kind of thesummer months, May through August, September,
(20:14):
somewhere around there.
Right around then, maybe a little bit beforeyou you had a big change in your life, Matt,
and that caused some, not friction, butdefinitely new challenges.
Scheduling scheduling challenges.
Right?
So life happens when you least expect it.
And so, that's gonna be a theme for this thisentire show today.
(20:37):
But, yeah.
So I I was asked to assume command of my airfueling squadron, the 63rd at MacDill.
And when someone asks you to step up and takecommand, you you do it.
You know?
And so that was I was incredibly honored to beoffered that opportunity and to hopefully be
(20:58):
there for all my brothers and sisters in in the63rd, and hopefully do a good job.
We're we're about 10 months into that journeyalready, and it's a lot, I gotta say.
It, it with all the plates spinning andresponsibilities at TPN, at the airline and and
just maintaining my own personal currency inthe airplane is, you know, when you're
(21:22):
balancing all that and trying to care for thecareers and the life events that are happening
for for those in the squadron.
There there's a lot of stuff.
So, yeah, I I I stepped up and, took command ofthe 63rd, and I'm I'm so incredibly honored and
humbled by by that.
And it it has meant that scheduling and time isat a premium all all the time.
(21:47):
So, hopefully, we're we're hitting our stridethere and, doing good work.
Yeah.
It's something that you have no matter what youhave in life.
Right?
Like, it's funny.
I these younger people in the industry, now isnot a great time, you know, to do whatever it
(22:08):
is.
And I tell them, I go, you know what?
There's only one time that is good, and that'sright now.
If you wait a day, it's going to get worse.
It's always going to get worse.
It's always going to get harder.
Perfect example is PME.
Now, I didn't do it and I still got promoted,so that was cool.
But that's not really a a thing too muchanymore.
So if you're gonna wait to do something, it'snever gets easier, especially when you start to
(22:31):
include family.
That really, really takes on a new a whole newaspect.
So just get it done now, and, you'll besurprised.
So I wanted to throw in, for everybody outthere.
My wife and I are doing something differentthis next year.
There's a, a show that, I listen to.
I've sent it to Matt many times called, and wehave no relationship.
(22:53):
I wish we did with these guys maybe someday.
It's called my first million.
Excellent excellent entrepreneurial podcast.
Even if you're not an entrepreneur, they havesome really great guests on there just to give
you insight on how to kinda best manage thingsin your life, whatever.
And, frankly, they're just funny, and they tellsome really interesting stories.
They had a guy named Jesse Itzler on there.
(23:14):
Some of you may have heard of him.
Some of you haven't.
He's a fascinating entrepreneur who went from,like, nothing broke to worth a ton of money.
But the thing is is he kinda did it a littleolder in life, which is interesting.
He's in his mid fifties now, and he talks abouthow to schedule and, something that, instead of
setting goals for the year, and I think this iswhat Matt and I are doing.
(23:36):
We've kinda tossed the TPN goals to the sidebecause, frankly, you you can set a goal, and
you don't know if it's it's in business, youhave no idea if it's realistic or not.
Like, you can say, I wanna have 5,000 people ata conference, or I wanna have 500 you or I
wanna get all these airlines, or I wanna getnone of these or whatever the case is.
And it's kind of like, you know what?
(23:58):
Let's just put it on the calendar, and let'scontinue to refine our process and see what
happens.
And that's kinda like how the pilot networkstarted.
That's kinda how TPNX, version 2.0, what youcurrently see started is we dropped some of the
goals out and just said, okay, let's set it onthe calendar and then run with it and see what
(24:19):
happens.
And so we're doing that in our family.
And I said, that's kind of what we're doingthis year, and we're gonna we're gonna get into
kind of the one Matt already mentioned calledTPN Talent, which we're not gonna give away too
much of it.
But, think of it as we're using the resourcesof the network to get to get out there and do,
(24:40):
to represent ourselves.
So I'll leave it at that right now.
And if you want more information, you can comeout and reach reach us at, hey, guys, the pilot
network.com.
I don't know if you wanna tag along on that onthat talent front.
How many how much thread you wanna pull onthat?
Because we have a 5050 share in this one andhow the work is split on this.
(25:02):
Yeah.
And it's very unique.
It's it's kinda how it always has been, the yinand yang.
But I'll let you add your 2 pieces there, Matt.
Well, we've we've already put out one blastemail.
So we we get contacted from recruiters, notjust airlines, but headhunters and recruiters
that are looking for pilots to do all sorts ofthings.
Everything from, onset, supervisors and andconsultants for movies that that have pilot or
(25:27):
aviation aspects to them, all the way to, youknow, headhunters that are are recruiting for
an overseas c one thirty operation kind ofthing.
And so, up into this point, we really haven'thad the infrastructure and the mechanism by
which to do a whole lot with that.
And so what we're trying to do now is developTPN Talent into whenever we get contacted by
(25:53):
whoever needs pilots for in any capacity, to beable to respond to that, reach out to the the
pilot network and just take advantage of thetalent that's inherent in the membership.
And whether that is helping you get to anairline job, or a corporate flying gig or be an
(26:13):
onset consultant at a movie.
I mean, we we've done kind of little bits ofeverything, dipping our toe in the water, and
as we build out bandwidth and and bring on someextra staff to help us manage that.
And, you know, I'm I'm a developer building thesoftware myself, but we're already searching
out some help in that department too because wewe just I have to learn how to delegate better,
(26:37):
and we we can't do everything.
So, we're all growing.
And but TPN Talent, ultimately, I think, isgonna be a great opportunity for everyone.
And then I'll I'll just throw this out becauseit's adjacent to TPN Talent.
But, really, what it is is it illustrates howwe're trying to think about the bigger picture
(26:57):
for the pilot network and how it can benefitour members.
And TPN Go is something that we've talked aboutfor quite some time, but it's now in public
beta.
And TPN Go is really something to provide anopportunity for TPN members to see who happens
to be in that overnight city, that layovercity, wherever they are, whether it's
(27:20):
Amsterdam, Paris, or Detroit.
We want you to be able to log in, see see whatyour buds or or TPN members are there and and
hang out and and get together and really poursome fire on that that networking aspect of
what we do.
So it all kind of cooks together, and Yeah.
Yeah.
We're we're bringing on a development team.
(27:41):
But that's in that's in public beta now too.
So anyone who wants to try it and log on, emailus at heyguys@thepotnetwork.com, and I'll I'll
add you to the beta.
Yeah.
So one of the things I I wanted to add on withthat too is this is the analog.
This is the thing that we've been trying topush for for so long and move into these more
analog meetups, stuff like that.
(28:02):
There's more coming with that.
We've gotta finalize a couple things withhaving chapters across the country and getting
people to, take ownership of not TPN becauseit's already theirs.
TPN is already all everybody listens to thisshow and beyond.
But the the the TPN model of, taking theownership of the people around you and
(28:27):
mentoring and and paying it forward so you canmake yourself your own little autonomous group
to to build your space in your place.
And then the add the the whole big enchilada ofTPN can come and help you with the resources
and the power behind everybody who's in thegroup.
(28:49):
So that's why we're doing this because, we'retrying to move to that value add to the pilot
at the end of the at the end of the day.
And as we grow, you'll see you'll see why, someof this stuff is going to help the pilot and
how it will benefit you as opposed to, some ofthe other stuff that we could get into that
we've tried that has not gone the way we wantedit to.
(29:11):
And by the way, for those of you out there whoare gonna go and start your own business or
hang up your own shingle, you'll see how manytimes that you try and you throw something at
the wall and it's an epic failure, or it's notan epic failure, but it's a slow burn and you
don't realize it's failing until it's too late.
Or you just realize this is dumb.
Let's stop this.
And then sometimes you'll have a hit and someand and you won't even know why it hit.
(29:35):
You just gotta kinda reverse engineer it andsee what happens.
But, anyways, and and
you learn more from failure than you do fromsometimes, and it informs decisions that you do
moving forward.
And then and, ultimately, that that's how yougrow.
Yep.
The pilot network dot org.
That's, that that there's a lot behind that.
(29:56):
You can still go there.
And we'll we'll circle back to that in aminute.
Yeah.
We will.
We will.
So
While I've been distracted with everythinggoing on in in my world, you've been keeping
the podcast live and really growing thisaudience of this part of TPN.
So we always call the t the pod network, spokeson a wagon wheel.
Right?
And so the podcast is one of those.
(30:18):
And this has been your area and what you'vebeen working on.
Tell us a little bit about what you'vedeveloped the podcast into and and what the
goals are in 2024 and looking forward to 2025.
Awesome.
Thank you, for, pointing that out.
And this so the summer was the big first push.
(30:40):
I don't particularly like working inside in thesummer, because I live in Wisconsin.
It's nice.
So I try to pop in, for a few recordings hereand there, and I only go with, at that point is
if there's, if there's some guests who I findfascinating or I stumble upon something.
So the summer is sparse.
Let's put it that way.
(31:02):
But this summer, I kinda rewrote how I wasgonna do things, and 2 things happened.
1 was I took over, as the editor in chief onthe creative side for our, our writers, which
is an easy job.
I I'll be right up front.
Give them direction.
Let them run, and, don't collar them too hardon what they can and cannot write.
(31:27):
Because by the way, for editors, for those ofyou out there who think editing is reading and
changing, the ands to ahs, and that's like asmall piece of it.
And by the way, basically, any AI built into adoc now does that better than I can in most
cases, but giving them direction and lettingthem run.
(31:49):
Matt and I are trying to do that in the podcasttoo.
So we're we've we've got a couple ofcorrespondents on the hook seeing how we can
develop that out, because I think people don'twant to necessarily hear one voice.
You know, it's nice to have an anchor point,but it would be nice to have other people to
give their opinions and bring their side andtheir perspective of aviation into the, the TPN
(32:12):
podcast because I believe that's important.
That's part of the network.
It also frees Matt and I up to do some otherthings, which is develop some of the stuff out
that we think is gonna create some real valuefor the network.
Anyways, I I went out and I reached out to someguests who I found intriguing, and fascinating
in aviation, and landed them.
(32:35):
And I just released a podcast that I recordedback shortly after TPRX, with Emmett Furek.
He is, from Green Dot Aviation, has 500,000YouTube subscribers.
Not in training right now to be a pilot, buthad a different perspective.
Psych a lot.
Psych a psychology background and looking fromyoung new eyes, not old jaded, old Air Force
(32:59):
safety guy eyes.
It was it was fascinating.
And I said, that's what I wanna do.
I'm no longer getting guests or doing pods thatI think other people are interested in.
I'm doing stuff that I'm interested in, becauseit keeps me kinda chugging along and wanting to
to reach out and find these new guests.
(33:20):
If somebody wants has an idea and they send itto us and I find it fascinating, I'm gonna I'm
gonna run with it.
But I don't wanna give people, an a nongenuine, unauthentic viewpoint.
Like, if I'm not interested, I'm not gonna do agood job.
So, I've shifted the mentality there.
I've started to work on stuff that I never donebefore.
I know how to audio engineer and edit, but Inever know how to do video.
(33:43):
And now I'm learning how to do that so we canput it on YouTube.
So another medium for people to see and digest,what's set on the pod and, and hopefully do
some good work with that, even though I have noidea what I'm doing, but I'm gonna learn it,
because that's what you gotta do.
So that was kind of the the summer leading intothe fall.
(34:03):
The other thing we did this summer, Matt and Igot to attend our first as TPN representatives,
conferences.
I went to Papa, Professional Asian PilotsAssociation.
Matt went to LPA, Latino Pilots Association.
My wife came with me to Papa, and we had ablast.
Like, in Vegas, couldn't have asked for abetter time, even though I'm not a huge fan of
(34:28):
Vegas anymore.
We still had we made the best of it, and thepeople there were just fantastic.
We love working with these conferences.
So, Matt, you went to LPA in or land it was inOrlando.
Right?
This year?
Yeah.
LPA was in Orlando.
And, so we we had a booth at Papa and LPA, likeany And OBAP.
(34:49):
Oh, and OBAP as well.
Yeah.
You just didn't you didn't go to
OBAP.
Right.
I didn't make it to that one.
But and then we had a booth at ATA, AirliftTanker Association, in Grapevine, Texas as
well.
That was a little bit later in the year.
But that's one one of the things that we'regonna try to do, and our volunteers.
So it it's too much for you and I to go tothese things go to all of them.
(35:11):
Our schedules are just too crazy, and it's toomuch travel.
But, what we're gonna try to do for 2025 is,have a presence at all the other conferences
because we we're so honored to have all theaffinity groups come and and set up a a table
and a booth and and do their own recruiting andand talking to folks at TPNX.
(35:33):
And so we always wanna go and have a presenceat at their event too.
It it really fosters that relationship and thatcommunity that we're trying to build because,
at the end of the day, we're not competitors.
We're we're all working together for the samegoal, and that's to help pilots.
And if we can develop that relationship and andhave a great working, system in order to help
(35:59):
pilots, it's all the better.
And so our we've developed an awesome group ofvolunteers that are are helping us set up
booths, and then you and I can pop in and anddo the networking thing and and help out where
we can.
But, I'm looking forward to having a presenceat everyone's conference this coming year, and,
(36:20):
of course, inviting them into TPNX to be a partof what we're building as well.
Yeah.
It you know, and the thing you'd say that it'sgreat too because with all these volunteers
being all across country, a lot of them arelocals.
So they can go in.
They don't have to spend, extra time away fromhome.
If they just wanna drop in for a little bit,have a good time, maybe grab a beer or hang out
(36:43):
afterwards, whatever they wanna do, or justthey wanna come in, do the booth for a couple
of hours, and then head home.
That's awesome.
You know, and then we we try we try to make itas pain free as possible.
I mean, there's still pain.
Right?
There's still pain.
But we're we're and if you wanna get involvedin that stuff like that, reach out to us.
(37:04):
Hey, guys.
Spot network.com, and, we'll we'll put you intouch with the the employee who runs that whole
show and and see where we can stack rack andsag in the ladder.
Because one of the coolest parts about thevolunteers is the you know, you're doing
something maybe right when the, recidivism rateis so high in TPN.
(37:27):
They all come back to prison.
They're all almost all involved said they allwant to come back for TPNX, and they all wanna
participate in these conferences if they canmake it.
I mean, the amount of volunteers we had to goto, Papa, LPA, OBAP.
Women in Aviation was too early in the year.
We couldn't couldn't do that one.
(37:48):
We weren't quite ready for that.
ATA, and then all the ones pre t p and x andthen right after t p and x were kinda out.
But, after that, the amount of people whovolunteered to show up and wanted to be part of
that was ridiculous.
And then they said, oh, you know, I can't makeit.
I really wanna go, though.
(38:08):
That doesn't work for my time off.
Let me see if I can swap days on my reserveline or whatever.
It was it was crazy.
We had help at Papa.
We had help at LPA.
We had help OBAP was run by others.
ATA, we had a local who came and set up andtore down and sent everything back to me.
And we're gonna get into ATX.
That's that's when things shifted immensely forTPN.
(38:32):
And so we we're we've got this new movement ofpeople who really, it's like the 1,000 true
fans.
They wanna get out there and spread the goodword.
And with the, the other things that we're gonnabe doing, it's gonna be more unique and more
critical to go to these conferences so peoplecan see how they can participate in the network
and how the network is giving back to them andand adding value to their life.
(38:55):
Let's get into that.
Let's get into the the the the dark ages ofTPN.
September October hit, and, lots of people, hadlots of things happen to them.
You had a personal you you had your personalissues.
Why don't you run with all the fun that Floridaoffers that time of year?
(39:17):
Good.
So for anyone who lives in Florida, we have ahurricane problem down here.
I don't know if you know if you heard of it,but, hurricane Helene hit, right at the end of
September.
And then Milton hurricane Milton literally thefollowing week, maybe maybe even 2 weeks after.
I don't know.
But it was basically back to back hurricanes.
(39:39):
And so, I I live in Tampa, and my house was 3feet underwater as were a lot of our friends
who live here in Tampa as well.
So that was that was a challenging timebecause, you know, losing your home and all
your belongings, is so destabilizing.
(40:02):
And I feel for anyone who's had a house fire ora natural disaster or, you know, the Midwest
has tornadoes and California, Colorado has haswildfires and Florida has hurricanes.
And it's always a thing, but what I'm struck byin that opportunity is how many people step up
(40:24):
and help you.
After hurricane Helene, the house was was 3something feet underwater, and and, I wasn't
the only one.
We had a a lot of friends who were experiencingthat same thing.
But I remember standing in the living room, andeverything is still there just the way I left
it the day before except strewn about.
(40:44):
It it's all it it's amazing how much power thatmuch water has once it gets into your home.
And I was just standing in the living room kindof frozen, and and spinning in circles, just
kind of completely overwhelmed and stunned.
And quite honestly, just, numb at that point.
(41:06):
It was it's just you there's nothing you cando.
It's beyond your control.
And so you kind of work through those 5 stagesof grief and and hopefully at one point get to
acceptance.
But, I was squarely in denial at that point,and a a good friend of mine from the squadron.
So this is where I will absolutely say forthose of us out there in TPN world, the
(41:31):
military family is something that's incredible.
And my airline family reached out as well, butthe support from the squadron and the military
family is just stunning because I got 6 callsthat day, and everyone was asking if I was
affected.
I was standing there.
(41:51):
I'm I'm fine.
It's alright.
I'll figure it out.
And they said, send me your address.
We'll be there in 10 minutes.
And in literally by 30 minutes into that nextday, I had 9 folks, like, in my house helping
to tear out drywall and and and clean up andall that sort of stuff.
(42:11):
So, while that was not the most fun opportunityto have everyone step up and and help, and it
was humbling, and I'm so grateful for the helpthere.
And then being able to help other people toowho were struggling during that time as well.
So, right now, I'm I'm air bouncing around theAirbnb in in the probably 3rd, almost 4th month
(42:35):
of of being a homeless guy.
But, we're we're gonna rebuild, and it's gonnabe fine.
We're gonna work it out.
But what I will say, and I've been sharing thiswith as many people as I can, developing a
sense of a community, whether that's guard andreserve after you leave active duty, and or
your airline.
(42:56):
The union reached out.
My chief pilot reached out.
The squadron was there to help, and shout outto SWAPA and Southwest Airlines just in general
for just being incredible through this wholething.
So, I'm grateful, and really wanna pay itforward.
And so there's there's some things that we'regonna try to build into TPN.
(43:20):
And we'll talk about the the nonprofit and whatthat looks like.
But one of the things that we wanna do is issome sort of pilot assistance fund.
Because even though as, you know, pilots, we wemake a good living and and we're not
necessarily in the same situation that, a lotof people more unfortunate than us are.
(43:40):
When you lose everything all at once, you know,out of nowhere, that is so destabilizing and
you need help.
And so we want TPN to be there for people aswell.
So that that's all I'll say about that.
It's not about me, but, it it's something thatput life into perspective.
And I think if we can incorporate the TPN pilotassistance fund into something that we offer to
(44:04):
our members, not only adds value, but I thinkit's something that will help us pay it
forward, especially in scenarios like this.
Yeah.
And if you think about it too, it's that goingback to that analog idea of having people
around you to support you when times get tough.
Everybody has a tough time in life.
(44:25):
And here the the thing is is, you know, Mattand I have talked about this, and I've talked
about it with people that I've flown with.
Matt and I were, fortunate enough to becomepilots for the military and get a, get a sense
of the squadron bar, the squadron belonging.
And, me being retired, Matt, not yet.
(44:45):
When you when you retire, you do lose a littlebit of it.
But in in a garden reserve case, if you'relocal, you don't lose it at all.
I mean, I can reach out to those guys tomorrow,and it's I, yeah, I was supposed to see them
last night.
It just didn't work out due to family illnessthat Matt and I talked about before the show.
With that said, though, I have a lot of,civilian friends who never got that experience.
(45:09):
And, yeah, they have onesie twosie friends thatthey've met or, you know, small groups that
they've met throughout in training.
It's been many years since they've been able tokeep in touch with them.
And if they weren't part of a fraternity orsomething like that, they they don't really
have any of that.
And if they do, the fraternity is not local towhere they live unless they live where they
went to college.
And and that's the thing about the chapters inTPN that we wanna promote is that squad and bar
(45:34):
mentality is, hey.
You can go out.
You can you can blow off a little steam withthese folks.
You can tell them what's going on in your life.
And if if they can see you for who you are, andif you need help, they may swoop in before you
ever even say.
Because a lot of us don't ask for it until it'salready past the point where other people can
see that we need it.
So that's another reason this analog meetupthings are are are so important, because when
(45:59):
you do have issues and you have loss, it'sgreat to have shoulders to lean on, and that's,
kinda leads us into the next thing I mentionedat ATA.
I'm at ATA this year, and, Matt calls me, withan emergency, which he's he's never done
before.
And I was like, I I don't know what it wasabout.
(46:22):
And the next thing I know is, Matt tells methat Jason Depew is in a coma.
And I I didn't know how to react.
I still don't necessarily know how to react,because a few days after that, Jason, through
complications with, him being in a coma, hepassed away and kinda left a giant hole in, the
(46:46):
heart of aviation, definitely in mine,personally.
And we we've talked about it before.
I I had a podcast where I, just brieflydescribed a lot of what Jason meant to me
personally, the the network.
We went we Matt helped out, to a level that Ican't really describe with organizing a lot of
(47:11):
stuff down in Tampa.
I tried to bring up some of the rear on gettingmessaging out from the pilot network
perspective and talking to a few people, at,Delta Airlines where Jason worked.
And, it was rough and it still is becausethere's times where I picked up the phone and
wanted to call him and talk to him aboutsomething, and realized that I can't do that
(47:34):
anymore.
So, I don't wanna beat the, the the topic uptoo much.
But when, when Jason passed, it was really goodto have a bunch of people to lean on and a
bunch of people reach out to ask how we weredoing, even though it wasn't about us, and ask
how they can help the family and ask how, theycould support all the stuff that Jason did.
(47:59):
And for those of you who knew Jason, you knowhow much he meant to aviation, past, present,
and future.
And for those of you didn't know Jason, all youhave to do is go read anything on his old blog
site, Aviation Bowl, his book, his, the stuffthat we've published for him.
All you gotta do is type in Jason DePew, authorAviation and Google, and you will see, how much
(48:23):
he meant to aviation, writ at large.
So we lost Jason in, the end of October,beginning of November.
And, that was, that was a monumental shift forTPN.
And, Matt, I've said it to you before, but Iwanted to kinda take this moment to point out
what you did for Jason and his family wasexactly what paying it forward is all about.
(48:48):
You were kind and gracious with your time.
You basically paused everything else, all thestuff that was going on in your life to step
forward and help out, people who are in need.
And to me, that says volumes about the man youare, and it says volumes about the example you
set.
And it gave me solace in knowing that somebodywas there to take care of Jason's family, the
(49:13):
ties that needed to be tied up or the the thethings that need to be tied up.
And then also gave me a lot of, comfort knowingthat I have somebody like you to support me and
my family in my life.
So, that I wanted to say that as a public thankyou to what you did and, also, to Jason.
(49:34):
Talon's buddy, we miss you so much, and I wishyou should you had been on here.
You probably wouldn't have been talking,though.
You would have just been on the side watchingand making awful comments about how we're
screwing up.
So, but, Matt, I wanna give you the floor.
You kinda touch on, on everything that happenedfrom that point till now.
Yeah.
I know.
It's still a sense sensitive topic.
So I won't talk about kind of the how difficultthat was.
(49:57):
I I do feel very fortunate to have gotten tospend a couple of days there at the hospital
with Jason and his family.
The the party and the flyover and the missingman formation that we were able to put together
with with the commemorative air force and andsome of the airplanes at the airport where he
(50:18):
where he loved to spend time, That was that wasa ton of fun, and that was a good day, to be
able to put that together.
So I'm I'm grateful that we were able to dothat.
What is going to come out of this, though, ispart of the nonprofit that that we're
developing.
So the the the pilot network dot org, existedbefore the pilot network dot com.
(50:42):
And so it was purely because we couldn't getthe dot com domain name, and, eventually, we
were able to make that happen.
But the pilot network dot org still exists.
In through this whole time, we really the lastcouple of years, we really haven't known what
we wanted to do with that.
(51:03):
It was just kind of something sitting in thebackground, that we haven't been using.
And then it became became absolutely crystalclear while over the over those couple of days
that weekend that we were that I was there atthe hospital, that the dot org needs to be a
nonprofit, run by the pilot network for variousthings.
(51:24):
And we really didn't know what that was gonnalook like.
But over the last couple of months, that has,materialized into something that I think we're
going to be really proud.
You know, part of that is the pilot assistancefund.
And then we're gonna start a pilot trainingscholarship fund, in Jason's name, and it's
gonna be the the Jason Depew, scholarship fundfor pilot training.
(51:47):
And and he was so giving of his time oftendoing flight training for free, for individuals
that, wouldn't have otherwise had an license ormost start them on that path.
And so, while neither you or I we both haveCFIs, but we're we don't go and do CFI stuff on
(52:12):
a regular basis.
We
Non exercise.
Yeah.
Non practicing CFIs.
But Jason loved to do that as a master, CFI.
And so we're gonna try to support that from thethe flight training scholarship fund, and I
think carry on his work and and hopefullyexpand that.
(52:32):
So more to come on that.
It it's still in progress, and we just haven'thad the bandwidth to really get that over the
finish line yet, but that's gonna happen in2025.
And and we're really excited about what thenonprofit arm of the pilot network is gonna
look like, and carry on the mission that thatJason started, and it was really, really
(52:53):
important to him.
So while that, was a terrible time, I thinkthere's gonna be some some really positive good
that can come out of that in the long term.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the only thing we can do.
Right?
It it there their loss and hurt, will alwaysstay.
(53:14):
So the best thing we can do is try to, youknow, make some lemonades or lemonade out of a
situation fraught with a lot of lemons.
I know that's a terrible analogy, but, frankly,when you you don't know how to speak about the
loss of a a dear friend and a a such a greatman, you you kinda just figure it out.
(53:34):
And and the thing is is, for those of youdealing with loss and for those of you dealing
with issues that are are feel greater thanyourself, this is please take this as a note to
to reach out to somebody who can Matt and Iwill take your call.
But if you are part of a union or you're partof the military or or or you have dear friends
(53:58):
or somebody who has you can tell that somethingis not right, please reach out.
No.
No.
I'm Jason, this is not why this is not anythingto do with Jason's passing.
It's to do with the reaction to it because ithurt a lot for a long time, and it will
continue to hurt.
(54:19):
And some people react much more differentlythan others, and loss can make people do very,
crazy things.
So we wanna take care of each other and lifteverybody up.
And especially, you know, and I dude, I live upin the north.
It's starting to get gray.
And last year, there was, like, a 3 week periodwhere the sun never came out, and I was not
(54:42):
flying regularly.
So, man, that seasonal affected, disorder,whatever it's called, sad, that stuff is real.
So watch out for people, because, we want TPNis supposed to be this analog play or or is
supposed to be this place for good and buildpeople back up.
When we have loss, we wanna support them, andwe wanna bring people, as much as much support
(55:06):
as we can get you.
So reach out to whether it's us, or or somebodyelse in your life.
Please do so.
If you need any help at all for any reason,emotional, mental, physical, whatever the case
is, that's what we're here about.
Enough, with the that was kind of a a darktime, and it's still we're we're still pulling
ourselves up into the daylight from all of thestuff that's happened over the last couple
(55:27):
months.
And that brings change and newness in 2025.
You know, I guess this is the cliche.
It's cliche for a reason.
The new year turns over, new changes, whatever.
Some cool stuff that we're doing, is I'll letMatt jump in.
We've got some new employees that are under theunder the belt of TPN and that we're gonna
we're bringing some other people on.
(55:48):
And, how did that come about?
I think, to me, I never saw us able to hireanybody.
And here we are with people that actually workfor TPN.
So how how did that all come about, dude?
Well, so as Is
your question?
You knew you knew we needed to do it.
(56:11):
This is self reflection,
as as I get busier and and I'm trying to growpersonally, mostly because you tell me that I
have to, is I I am that kind of guy.
I don't like to ask for help.
I I'm very capable.
I can handle a lot.
I work really, really hard, but sometimes it'sjust too much.
(56:32):
And so managing all of the other things that Ihave going on, in the peripheral in parallel
with the pilot network, I it just at a matterof necessity, we had to look at how can we
bring on other people to help carry thismission forward and and not not grow TPN in
(56:55):
numbers, but, really fill in the white space ofof what we've built right now.
And so one of those things is managing thevolunteers for TPNX, managing events over the
course of the year.
And, and then even some some admin support, inthe management of the business entity part of
(57:17):
it because there's a lot of moving parts.
There's a a lot of money floating around, andand we've talked about it before.
You and I don't take any money out of the pilotnetwork.
And while it's it's structured as a for profitwith a a nonprofit arm that we're working on,
all that takes time and energy and resources.
And so, what we're trying to do is, pay thatforward.
(57:42):
And so the the revenues and and the theresources that TPN generates, we're we're
pouring that back into bringing on staff anddeveloping opportunities, all in order to
create that community and that that sense oftrust because we truly believe it is to the
(58:02):
benefit of the pilot.
And that's that's our raison d'etre why we'rehere.
So, we're we're excited to bring on, Kevin,Brandon, and Shaz, and and, hopefully, you
know, some new names to be announced shortly.
But, they're gonna help us with events andvolunteers, and you're gonna you're gonna see
them here.
And then, also, we've brought on a few newwriters and correspondents.
(58:26):
And so the TPN family is is growing rapidly,and we're really excited to have everyone
involved.
And, I keep saying it, but just completelyhumbled by the support and the intense interest
in what we're building here at the pilotnetwork.
So
Yeah.
I think, when you see changes in direction,shifts, you need to, you kinda gotta roll with
(58:55):
it at times when you're when you're in the inthe boat that Matt and I have put ourselves in.
And one of the things is is getting people tohelp you out.
Now mind you that we're we always wanna staynimble.
We don't wanna have a giant, bloated staff, oranything like that.
And believe me, Matt and I have plenty ofimposter syndrome where we we go.
(59:15):
I can't believe we're actually, bringing peopleon.
But the cool part is is, a lot of the peoplethat are part of the TPN family and staff now
were volunteers who really wanted to do theirbest for the network.
Now mind you, it helped them too.
Some of them got jobs at airlines that theywanted to go to or whatever, but they they were
(59:38):
so gung ho and mission driven on the on whatthe pilot network stood for that they just gave
up their own time.
And this is kind of that paying it forward forus to give it give back to them for putting so
much effort into what, we have envisioned forall these years.
And that's one of the most exciting thingsabout the direction that we're going in is this
(01:00:02):
ability to shift out of doing, being thepodcast guy or or doing some of the stuff that
I've done for the year for the last coupleyears is actually getting behind some of the
business moving parts and seeing if I can buildout, this other piece of TPN and TPN talent and
(01:00:23):
seeing where that goes and and giving a whackat it.
And if it sucks, then you know what?
We go back to our speaking to the microphonehere, and seeing how we can give back to the
community and grow and change things becausethere's some stuff that Matt and I have
witnessed over the years in aviation that we'vealways wondered, well, why?
(01:00:44):
Why are people doing it this way?
It seems dumber.
I don't I don't get it.
Like, this is this is a a red tape bureaucraticnightmare.
Let's change some stuff.
And now we feel like we have the capability toactually do that.
Maybe we were not confident enough in ourselvesto take on that challenge, but now we both feel
like we can.
And I guess we also feel like what's the worstthat can happen?
(01:01:06):
You know?
Like, what what if it doesn't work, what's theworst?
And the worst is we go back to being with areally cool group of people called the pilot
network that gets together at least once ayear, hopefully more, and sees what the beauty
of meeting up in person and getting to see thatsmile on somebody's face when they talk about
(01:01:29):
their new job or what they're doing in theircareer.
And I think that's where the if that's theworst case scenario, it's pretty good scenario
to me.
So that that kind of wraps up my 2024.
Well, I have one one last thing to say aboutthat is is the pilot network was never about
you and me.
And so what bringing on new folks means to allyou out there is you you're gonna start to see
(01:01:55):
new faces, and hear new voices.
And I think that is really cool because we'regonna have a lot of diversity in terms of
thought and experience and background, muchmore so than than just you and I.
I mean, you and I have almost identical, careertrajectories and and backgrounds.
(01:02:15):
And so what we're really looking to do isenrich that by bringing on other people who
have had other experiences and taking differentpaths, and ultimately, build the pilot network
has has exceeded just what you and I originallyset out to build.
And we're we're just the stewards of of thisYep.
(01:02:36):
Community.
And so it it really is about everyone else.
So we're we're excited to to bring you allthese new faces and and always looking for
more, to grow responsibly, but to reallycontinue to build and then enrich the lives of
the community and and everything that we aretrying to do here.
So
(01:02:57):
for certain for certain for sure, we know wehope, Jason would be pretty proud of what we're
doing because he was kind of the 3rd founder,and he always will be in our hearts and our
thoughts.
And for all of those of you out there who wannaget involved or who don't like what we're doing
(01:03:19):
or who want to throw an idea at us that nobodyelse would ever listen to, hit us up at
heyguys@pilotnetwork.com.
We will be sure to, if not answer immediately,answer it as soon as we get it.
If not there, go on the socials.
We're all over the place.
Just find one of the socials and write us amessage, and we'll get back to you.
(01:03:40):
If you're interested in tp and x, andattending, volunteering, I'm I'm pretty sure
it's kinda closed.
Like, I think we're at a pretty good number.
Those numbers might open up so you can join thewait list, but I'm right now, I I don't think
that Kevin, is in the mode to put any put putanybody else with a guaranteed slot.
(01:04:01):
So you gotta join the wait list.
That's how much interest there is.
It's that to me still blows my mind.
But you can go to the pilot network.com and goto the tpnext link, and all the information's
there.
You can see who's attending and get yourtickets if you want to, for now.
Other than that, I'm gonna leave Matt
with the for the party pass.
Oh, yeah.
The party pass.
Yeah.
(01:04:21):
Of course.
Party pass.
So you'll see that coming up.
But I'll leave Matt.
I always get to do the final shout out, so I'mgonna give it to Matt, for 20 24.
Take us into 2025.
Take it away.
That's awesome.
We're we're grateful for everything that thecommunity has provided for us, and and we love
you all.
Keep us trying to side up and the dirty sidedown.
(01:04:42):
Fly safe, everybody.
What's up, TPN?
It's Adam back with you for this end of theyear closeout, and I have a very special guest
who's not really a guest.
Go ahead.
You introduce yourself.
I don't wanna do it.
Hey, guys.
Matt here back from the the trenches, and gladto be back on the podcast.
I guess, well, call me a guest.
Adam, thanks for having me on the show.
(00:40):
Yeah.
It's been a minute or 2.
So this Matt and I were talking.
We've been trying to get this together, like,literally trying to get this together for,
what, 3 weeks, I guess.
Working the schedule.
I mean, both of us are going a 1000000different directions like always.
So it I I think we need, I guess we're hiringfor assistance, assistance, so we'll just put
that put that out there.
We need some executive assistance.
(01:01):
Yeah.
Right.
That that's for, it's funny when you so whenyou have a primary job and then you have a
secondary job that feels more like your primarybecause you care about it so much, You wanna do
the right thing at the right time, and then yourealize, you don't necessarily have that time
built in your schedule.
It's something we'll get into later here.
So Matt and I were talking like how we're gonnado this podcast.
(01:23):
And the thing that we came up with was a kindof a year end review of what the pilot network
is, and we kind of jotted down some stuff.
My guess is the notes are gonna take us in adirection we're not quite ready to go because
that's just the way these conversations happen.
And Matt and I have a lot of things
we do.
It's unscripted, and we're we're just Yeah.
(01:44):
Pulling out of our butt as we go here.
Yeah.
I believe the, pun intended, we're winging it.
Yeah.
The the thing is is a lot of stuff hashappened, over this year.
This has probably been the biggest year in TPN,history for a lot of different reasons.
Some good, some not good.
The other thing, though, is Matt and I arestarting to we've always looked at TPN as it
(02:08):
was this great network.
It was a lot of fun to do.
And the problem was is we we just didn't know.
We wanted to create more value for the memberof the pilot network, and we've been working
really hard on how to do that.
And finally, we have a couple ideas.
So we're gonna tease that, and there's gonna bemore teasers.
Probably not gonna get the full, kimono,opening for y'all.
(02:30):
But as we go through this, I hope that thiswill, shed some light on what's happened,
what's kinda goes on behind the scenes andwhat's happened behind the scenes, and then
what's gonna go on going forward and how we'vehandled some of these, these changes throughout
the, 2024 calendar year.
So, best place to start is January 1, 2024.
(02:53):
This so we could call these the slow months.
Wouldn't you say, Matt, January through March?
Or are they no.
Those are any slow months?
The those were the easy ones where all we weredoing is preparing for TPNX.
Hair on fire, getting tickets, getting thevenue prepped, traveling back and forth,
working out, you know, what airlines are gonnabe there and what they need to set up and the
(03:16):
vendors and and all that sort of stuff.
So those those were the easy months.
You're right.
Hardly anything going on.
I think the funny part about, going so evenbefore that, one thing is is so, Matt, if you
remember, and this is in 2022, I went and did,site surveys.
And remember, I took, like, 2 days, and I flewto Minneapolis and then Denver and then, where
(03:41):
was the other one?
I don't even remember.
Did we do another?
I thought I thought I did another one.
Or was it Minneapolis, Denver, and then you andthen we did Tampa.
I think Shannon and I were down to Tampa forsomething that we we figured.
We we settled on Minneapolis, which, by theway, we're be we're there again in April this
year, or in 2025.
(04:01):
I have heard people who say they they, theywould they would like to change the venue,
which, I don't know if you wanna shed somelight on why we do the venue selection the way
we have and what's gonna happen in the future.
So it's actually kind of a timely question.
I was just at the Orlando airport yesterday.
I had to get my new airline ID, and so I had togo out there.
(04:22):
And I just for nostalgia's sake, I walkedaround the c terminal, the TPNX venue, and I
got it and I went up to Hemisphere and lookedat kind of where TPNX, specifically, where the
conference had come from and and how far we'vecome from, buying out the Hemisphere Lounge, up
(04:44):
on the 9th floor of the Hyatt there at the theOrlando terminal and then all the way out to
the c terminal where we would requisition anentire terminal for for TPN accident.
It just it was a very nostalgic opportunity tolook at what TPNX has morphed into and then
think through what we're going to build it toin the future.
(05:05):
But to answer your question, essentially, wegrew out of it.
We we maxed out that space, and there were somechanges to the Orlando airport and what they
would allow with the the new Breitbart trainand all that sort of stuff.
And so we needed to use that as an opportunityto either double down on Orlando or, try to
(05:28):
plan for being able to move TPNX around thecountry a little bit.
And so that's when we started do a search for2024.
And like you were saying, we we went out andtoured a couple of venues, and Denver was high
on the list, and Tampa has a really goodfacility at the Tampa airport that, I think
we'll use at some point in the future.
(05:48):
But it was one of those things where if we wereever going to be able to move TPNX around on a
pretty regular basis, that was gonna be it.
And so, ultimately, you had been based inMinneapolis for a cup a couple years ago.
And so you knew that space that they had, itwas gorgeous overlooking the runways and all
(06:09):
those sorts of things.
And so they gave us a great deal, and it it wasa it was a perfect home for last year, and we
decided to keep it for this year as well, 2025,this coming year.
But we're we're already starting to lookforward to what other opportunities there are.
Maybe Dallas, maybe Tampa, maybe Denver, butwe're open to suggestions.
(06:29):
So for for TPN out there, if if you know of agood venue that's pilot centric, easy to get
to, something like that, let us know.
We'll go take a tour.
We'll check it out, and we'll we'll see if itworks.
Yeah.
To add on to that, one of the things that TPNXwas kind of noted for was how we're airport
attached, which made sense when we were small.
(06:53):
Unfortunately, the problem with airportattached venues is almost all of them are
space.
There's one of 2 problems.
Either there's space, actually physical spacelimited on how many vendors and people that you
can have attend or they're limited on what youhave, your optionality for things to do or
(07:17):
social event organizations.
So for instance, Minneapolis, it's an awesomevenue for what we currently have set up right
now.
However, it runs out of space really fast forsocializing, which we have realized is a large
draw to TPNX.
So much so that there's people who come justfor that just for that aspect of TPNX, that
(07:40):
there's, Matt and I have always said, you know,it's part job fair, part trade show, part
party.
There's people who are now returning aftergetting the job to either volunteer or just to
hang out with their friends.
And, we'll talk about that too because we'vegot a way for you to enjoy that for a much
lower price than what the normal tickets get inall of this.
(08:03):
Or Anyways, the party pass.
Or The party pass.
So so okay.
Cool.
That it's a cool light.
It's it's cool to have it right on the airport.
However, if we can set something up that's notfar from airport property, where we can have
some sort of transportation operation where weactually can control that, then that's a good
(08:25):
deal for the network, and it's easy for us to,kinda get behind that.
But that was, like, one of the big things thatwe wanted to go away from.
We've just after having lots of conversationswith lots of different people, we've realized
that this is why most people most of these,spaces aren't used for some of these bigger
conferences.
(08:45):
And we'll get into other conferences that weattended and what we saw and how we're bringing
stuff in there.
So, anyways, January through March was a bigthat's that's like the, kind of the last minute
catch up time you're you're you're finalizingcontracts with airlines and vendors.
You're making sure the space is correct.
You're getting all the support staff intoplace.
It's really big.
Imagine it's kind of like a super, steroidwedding with, a lot of bridezillas.
(09:13):
Yeah.
And, and almost none of them are within yourcontrol.
And they're all very polite, but they're stillthey have certain demands, and you just have to
work within that, that space.
And then you have, airlines who change, staffor change strategies, and they either drop out,
(09:34):
with notice and some don't.
And we went through some of that last year forthe first time.
That was very, an interesting thing to dealwith.
A lot of questions.
And then you have the attendees, And weencourage questions.
We want you to keep, keep reaching out to TPNso we can answer questions that you may have.
(09:55):
That also does take it's probably the mosteffort intensive piece, so much so that we put
my wife on staff to answer emails at one point.
Customer service.
I don't know.
Customer service.
She's like, I don't know the answers to thesequestions.
We said, just write them back and say, well,we'll we'll get back to you shortly in in but
not in an AI voice.
(10:15):
So that was the thing I
do wanna I do wanna do a a shout out to toBritney and the whole team at Serendipity.
Ali, Megan, Sophia, absolutely incredible tohave those gals helping us out.
We could.
TBNX has grown into something that that you andI just can't manage on our own anymore.
And so having them has, for the last couple ofyears, helping us out with that has been
(10:39):
absolutely invaluable.
So
Yeah.
It yeah.
Matt, a 100%, on them.
And then, I'll throw out the other shout out tothe volunteer group at TP and X, which we'll
talk about in a minute.
But they have moved on to, some of them havemoved into much more critical roles to keep
this wagon train rolling down the, the dustytrail.
(11:00):
So so January through March, that's kind of thewhat goes on there, and then there's some
there's kind of a there's a steady, on ramp ora steady up ramp up as we get to tp and x.
And then, about a week before in April,everything it's like there's a complete calm.
Everything goes dead quiet.
(11:21):
Like, there's a couple questions fromattendees, but everybody is pretty much put in
place on the vendor, on the recruiter side,all, like, some volunteers still have a couple
of questions.
But as far as Matt and I being able to doanything, make any parts move, there ain't much
left to do except show up.
(11:42):
And that's what we did.
We showed up.
It was the 3rd week in April, and, I think Iwas the first one in town in Minneapolis on,
Tuesday, and then everybody else showed uplater.
I I got there right around the time that youthe oh, the girls were the first ones there, I
think.
Yeah.
I think so.
And then we we got the TPNX in Minneapolis.
(12:03):
And, I I And we have
year 5th 50 volunteers this past year.
It Yeah.
I think I think it ended up being 55 or 50something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And 20 airlines, I believe, was the finalcount.
A handful of vendors have lost track of that.
And then about 1500 pilots showed up as well,which is kind of the target that we shoot for.
(12:27):
We, you know, as everyone knows by now, we wekeep TPNX small, intimate gathering because we
we want the quality to be high.
We we don't want you to be standing in big longlines for hours at a time.
It it it's gotta be fun.
It's gotta be approachable.
And, so while we could put 5,000 pilots in aroom, that's not our goal.
(12:50):
So it No.
1500 of our closest friends was was kinda fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's cool because the turnover is, unlikeother conferences where you'll see 2 to 300,
maybe even 400 show up day 1, moment 1.
By the afternoon, 75% of those pilots havechanged out, and there's a new new total in
(13:16):
there.
It's a little bit less, than when we started,but it's all new faces.
And then in the evening, you're hoping to seeeverybody, which is just not the case.
It's it's it's not the way it works, but itthere's it's so fun to have that reunion,
especially with the volunteers because theycome back and then running into people.
For instance, I'll tell a story about a guynamed Ben who, I played softball with when I
(13:42):
was at Mcdill in the reserves for, like, 1 yearintramural.
He was in the, in in another squadron.
So we're, shooting the breeze, and I see him.
I'm like, Ben, how how the hell are you, dude?
I haven't seen you in forever.
I go, this is great.
And he goes, yeah, man.
You know what?
I'm looking for a job, all this kind of stuff.
He had no idea what TPN was.
(14:02):
He didn't know that you or I, were involved inthis.
And he had just heard about TPNX through eitherthe grapevine or on an ad or something like
that or Facebook or something suggested it tohim.
So he bought a ticket and came up and, waslooking to go I forget which airline he wanted
to go to.
(14:23):
And sure enough, we sat.
We just ran into each other while we're havinga beer.
And that world kinda came together in onitself, on the fun front.
But on the professional front, this this t p nx, more so than any other one, had started to
open new doors and avenues for Matt and I tolook at expanding how much value we can add to
(14:48):
the network member and then some of the I don'twanna call them end users, but the, the actual
companies that are out there that arerecruiting pilots to come fly for them.
So that's that's kind of what this t p nextmeant to me.
And then just some of the cool experientialstuff.
I mean, we had massages there.
We had that big circle water thing, which I'veseen, some of our bottles floating around.
(15:14):
We had, the VTR folks who were showing off thevirtual reality stuff, with training.
And hopefully, we're gonna get a lot more ofthat this year.
We're gonna have more speakers that aren'tairline centric because we've talked to the
airlines.
They don't necessarily want to present anymore,some of them.
They just want people to come talk to them.
They wanna spend their time face to face.
(15:34):
But we've talked to other folks who really dowanna present to you and have some really
interesting stuff that they wanna present.
So we're changing a few things, but nothingcrazy.
So that's the exciting part about looking backat last year and then moving into this year.
What what did you take away from this year,Matt, that you really liked?
And then some things that you, you know, thingsthat you wanna change or not do the same.
(15:55):
Right.
So I think the biggest thing is we've we've hita stride.
And I don't wanna get stale, but I also want toreally double down on what TPNX has become.
And instead of growing it and making it biggerand more complex and fancier, what I really
wanna do is make it better.
(16:18):
Like, expand on what we've built and what theteam has built and what it's become for pilots
and just really add value in as much as muchvalue as we can and make it worth people's
time.
I think the party pass is gonna be fun forpeople because they can come out and, they
don't necessarily maybe they already have theirtheir last job, and they wanna come out and and
(16:41):
just socialize and and do the networking partof it.
The socials were incredibly well attended.
That was a lot of fun.
It it there was it was shoulder to shoulder inthere.
So it we're already at a point where we need toconsider a larger venue maybe, at least just
from the social perspective, the happy hours.
But we'll we'll get into that.
I think 2026, we're going to look forsomething.
(17:06):
We're gonna start looking for another menu justnot because we don't love Minneapolis, but
because, we need to look for the next place andthe next home.
But the my biggest takeaway is how gratefuleveryone was for the opportunity and for the
the way that TPNX is structured.
It's it's very personable.
(17:29):
Everyone got to talk to every airline theywanted.
And and the way we do it, our sign ups, theairlines are great because they they make as
much room for people as possible, and we avoidthe lines.
As we talked about it before, we don't allowlines to form at TPNX, and I think that just
really elevates the experience.
And then TPN Talent, which I know we'll talkabout, that that's a big takeaway and and
(17:55):
really provides a directional shift for whatthe pilot network in general is gonna be.
And that's just kind of a little foreshadowingor something we'll talk about later.
But suffice it to say, TPNX 2024, incredible asalways.
We're grateful for everyone that helped andbuilt it into what it is over the last couple
of years.
And, taking the tour of the Orlando facility,it provided some nostalgic context, and we're
(18:21):
looking forward to what this next year is gonnabe, and already looking to over the horizon to
2026, 2027.
So, really excited about that.
Yeah.
That I I'm excited too about some of the stuffthat we're doing internally.
And then just being able for you and I to takea a back seat in the planning, of such a major
(18:45):
event realizing that, hey.
We put this together once, but and we we pulledsome correct levers, and we we networked with
the right people to make things happen.
And we got lucky.
And knowing that that luck probably wasn'tgonna keep going, that, we've made jokes about
becoming a event coordination and planningcompany and, just ditching this whole pile of
(19:08):
network thing and just becoming a event.
And then realize that neither of us ever wannado that because it's a lot.
It's it's an insane amount of work.
I don't recommend it to anybody.
It's, it it the first the first year was funbecause we didn't know what we were doing.
The 3rd time when it got big was verystressful, and draining.
(19:31):
And then now it's a nice rhythm where, we'rewe're just able to say more yeses and noes and
watch people who know what they're doing, putsomething together and grow it to something
that we didn't even really have a vision.
I mean, we had our own vision, but now to seesomebody else's vision kind of populate that
space and it changes the direction of whatwe're thinking is really cool.
(19:51):
So, I guess this is a lesson to all of you,commander types, which we'll talk about in a
second, is, give your people, some room to runand grow, and you'll be shocked at what they
can deliver for you in the long run.
Speaking of that, let's move into the nextsegment of that year.
So TPN ends.
It's all over with, and this is kind of thesummer months, May through August, September,
(20:14):
somewhere around there.
Right around then, maybe a little bit beforeyou you had a big change in your life, Matt,
and that caused some, not friction, butdefinitely new challenges.
Scheduling scheduling challenges.
Right?
So life happens when you least expect it.
And so, that's gonna be a theme for this thisentire show today.
(20:37):
But, yeah.
So I I was asked to assume command of my airfueling squadron, the 63rd at MacDill.
And when someone asks you to step up and takecommand, you you do it.
You know?
And so that was I was incredibly honored to beoffered that opportunity and to hopefully be
(20:58):
there for all my brothers and sisters in in the63rd, and hopefully do a good job.
We're we're about 10 months into that journeyalready, and it's a lot, I gotta say.
It, it with all the plates spinning andresponsibilities at TPN, at the airline and and
just maintaining my own personal currency inthe airplane is, you know, when you're
(21:22):
balancing all that and trying to care for thecareers and the life events that are happening
for for those in the squadron.
There there's a lot of stuff.
So, yeah, I I I stepped up and, took command ofthe 63rd, and I'm I'm so incredibly honored and
humbled by by that.
And it it has meant that scheduling and time isat a premium all all the time.
(21:47):
So, hopefully, we're we're hitting our stridethere and, doing good work.
Yeah.
It's something that you have no matter what youhave in life.
Right?
Like, it's funny.
I these younger people in the industry, now isnot a great time, you know, to do whatever it
(22:08):
is.
And I tell them, I go, you know what?
There's only one time that is good, and that'sright now.
If you wait a day, it's going to get worse.
It's always going to get worse.
It's always going to get harder.
Perfect example is PME.
Now, I didn't do it and I still got promoted,so that was cool.
But that's not really a a thing too muchanymore.
So if you're gonna wait to do something, it'snever gets easier, especially when you start to
(22:31):
include family.
That really, really takes on a new a whole newaspect.
So just get it done now, and, you'll besurprised.
So I wanted to throw in, for everybody outthere.
My wife and I are doing something differentthis next year.
There's a, a show that, I listen to.
I've sent it to Matt many times called, and wehave no relationship.
(22:53):
I wish we did with these guys maybe someday.
It's called my first million.
Excellent excellent entrepreneurial podcast.
Even if you're not an entrepreneur, they havesome really great guests on there just to give
you insight on how to kinda best manage thingsin your life, whatever.
And, frankly, they're just funny, and they tellsome really interesting stories.
They had a guy named Jesse Itzler on there.
(23:14):
Some of you may have heard of him.
Some of you haven't.
He's a fascinating entrepreneur who went from,like, nothing broke to worth a ton of money.
But the thing is is he kinda did it a littleolder in life, which is interesting.
He's in his mid fifties now, and he talks abouthow to schedule and, something that, instead of
setting goals for the year, and I think this iswhat Matt and I are doing.
(23:36):
We've kinda tossed the TPN goals to the sidebecause, frankly, you you can set a goal, and
you don't know if it's it's in business, youhave no idea if it's realistic or not.
Like, you can say, I wanna have 5,000 people ata conference, or I wanna have 500 you or I
wanna get all these airlines, or I wanna getnone of these or whatever the case is.
And it's kind of like, you know what?
(23:58):
Let's just put it on the calendar, and let'scontinue to refine our process and see what
happens.
And that's kinda like how the pilot networkstarted.
That's kinda how TPNX, version 2.0, what youcurrently see started is we dropped some of the
goals out and just said, okay, let's set it onthe calendar and then run with it and see what
(24:19):
happens.
And so we're doing that in our family.
And I said, that's kind of what we're doingthis year, and we're gonna we're gonna get into
kind of the one Matt already mentioned calledTPN Talent, which we're not gonna give away too
much of it.
But, think of it as we're using the resourcesof the network to get to get out there and do,
(24:40):
to represent ourselves.
So I'll leave it at that right now.
And if you want more information, you can comeout and reach reach us at, hey, guys, the pilot
network.com.
I don't know if you wanna tag along on that onthat talent front.
How many how much thread you wanna pull onthat?
Because we have a 5050 share in this one andhow the work is split on this.
(25:02):
Yeah.
And it's very unique.
It's it's kinda how it always has been, the yinand yang.
But I'll let you add your 2 pieces there, Matt.
Well, we've we've already put out one blastemail.
So we we get contacted from recruiters, notjust airlines, but headhunters and recruiters
that are looking for pilots to do all sorts ofthings.
Everything from, onset, supervisors and andconsultants for movies that that have pilot or
(25:27):
aviation aspects to them, all the way to, youknow, headhunters that are are recruiting for
an overseas c one thirty operation kind ofthing.
And so, up into this point, we really haven'thad the infrastructure and the mechanism by
which to do a whole lot with that.
And so what we're trying to do now is developTPN Talent into whenever we get contacted by
(25:53):
whoever needs pilots for in any capacity, to beable to respond to that, reach out to the the
pilot network and just take advantage of thetalent that's inherent in the membership.
And whether that is helping you get to anairline job, or a corporate flying gig or be an
(26:13):
onset consultant at a movie.
I mean, we we've done kind of little bits ofeverything, dipping our toe in the water, and
as we build out bandwidth and and bring on someextra staff to help us manage that.
And, you know, I'm I'm a developer building thesoftware myself, but we're already searching
out some help in that department too because wewe just I have to learn how to delegate better,
(26:37):
and we we can't do everything.
So, we're all growing.
And but TPN Talent, ultimately, I think, isgonna be a great opportunity for everyone.
And then I'll I'll just throw this out becauseit's adjacent to TPN Talent.
But, really, what it is is it illustrates howwe're trying to think about the bigger picture
(26:57):
for the pilot network and how it can benefitour members.
And TPN Go is something that we've talked aboutfor quite some time, but it's now in public
beta.
And TPN Go is really something to provide anopportunity for TPN members to see who happens
to be in that overnight city, that layovercity, wherever they are, whether it's
(27:20):
Amsterdam, Paris, or Detroit.
We want you to be able to log in, see see whatyour buds or or TPN members are there and and
hang out and and get together and really poursome fire on that that networking aspect of
what we do.
So it all kind of cooks together, and Yeah.
Yeah.
We're we're bringing on a development team.
(27:41):
But that's in that's in public beta now too.
So anyone who wants to try it and log on, emailus at heyguys@thepotnetwork.com, and I'll I'll
add you to the beta.
Yeah.
So one of the things I I wanted to add on withthat too is this is the analog.
This is the thing that we've been trying topush for for so long and move into these more
analog meetups, stuff like that.
(28:02):
There's more coming with that.
We've gotta finalize a couple things withhaving chapters across the country and getting
people to, take ownership of not TPN becauseit's already theirs.
TPN is already all everybody listens to thisshow and beyond.
But the the the TPN model of, taking theownership of the people around you and
(28:27):
mentoring and and paying it forward so you canmake yourself your own little autonomous group
to to build your space in your place.
And then the add the the whole big enchilada ofTPN can come and help you with the resources
and the power behind everybody who's in thegroup.
(28:49):
So that's why we're doing this because, we'retrying to move to that value add to the pilot
at the end of the at the end of the day.
And as we grow, you'll see you'll see why, someof this stuff is going to help the pilot and
how it will benefit you as opposed to, some ofthe other stuff that we could get into that
we've tried that has not gone the way we wantedit to.
(29:11):
And by the way, for those of you out there whoare gonna go and start your own business or
hang up your own shingle, you'll see how manytimes that you try and you throw something at
the wall and it's an epic failure, or it's notan epic failure, but it's a slow burn and you
don't realize it's failing until it's too late.
Or you just realize this is dumb.
Let's stop this.
And then sometimes you'll have a hit and someand and you won't even know why it hit.
(29:35):
You just gotta kinda reverse engineer it andsee what happens.
But, anyways, and and
you learn more from failure than you do fromsometimes, and it informs decisions that you do
moving forward.
And then and, ultimately, that that's how yougrow.
Yep.
The pilot network dot org.
That's, that that there's a lot behind that.
(29:56):
You can still go there.
And we'll we'll circle back to that in aminute.
Yeah.
We will.
We will.
So
While I've been distracted with everythinggoing on in in my world, you've been keeping
the podcast live and really growing thisaudience of this part of TPN.
So we always call the t the pod network, spokeson a wagon wheel.
Right?
And so the podcast is one of those.
(30:18):
And this has been your area and what you'vebeen working on.
Tell us a little bit about what you'vedeveloped the podcast into and and what the
goals are in 2024 and looking forward to 2025.
Awesome.
Thank you, for, pointing that out.
And this so the summer was the big first push.
(30:40):
I don't particularly like working inside in thesummer, because I live in Wisconsin.
It's nice.
So I try to pop in, for a few recordings hereand there, and I only go with, at that point is
if there's, if there's some guests who I findfascinating or I stumble upon something.
So the summer is sparse.
Let's put it that way.
(31:02):
But this summer, I kinda rewrote how I wasgonna do things, and 2 things happened.
1 was I took over, as the editor in chief onthe creative side for our, our writers, which
is an easy job.
I I'll be right up front.
Give them direction.
Let them run, and, don't collar them too hardon what they can and cannot write.
(31:27):
Because by the way, for editors, for those ofyou out there who think editing is reading and
changing, the ands to ahs, and that's like asmall piece of it.
And by the way, basically, any AI built into adoc now does that better than I can in most
cases, but giving them direction and lettingthem run.
(31:49):
Matt and I are trying to do that in the podcasttoo.
So we're we've we've got a couple ofcorrespondents on the hook seeing how we can
develop that out, because I think people don'twant to necessarily hear one voice.
You know, it's nice to have an anchor point,but it would be nice to have other people to
give their opinions and bring their side andtheir perspective of aviation into the, the TPN
(32:12):
podcast because I believe that's important.
That's part of the network.
It also frees Matt and I up to do some otherthings, which is develop some of the stuff out
that we think is gonna create some real valuefor the network.
Anyways, I I went out and I reached out to someguests who I found intriguing, and fascinating
in aviation, and landed them.
(32:35):
And I just released a podcast that I recordedback shortly after TPRX, with Emmett Furek.
He is, from Green Dot Aviation, has 500,000YouTube subscribers.
Not in training right now to be a pilot, buthad a different perspective.
Psych a lot.
Psych a psychology background and looking fromyoung new eyes, not old jaded, old Air Force
(32:59):
safety guy eyes.
It was it was fascinating.
And I said, that's what I wanna do.
I'm no longer getting guests or doing pods thatI think other people are interested in.
I'm doing stuff that I'm interested in, becauseit keeps me kinda chugging along and wanting to
to reach out and find these new guests.
(33:20):
If somebody wants has an idea and they send itto us and I find it fascinating, I'm gonna I'm
gonna run with it.
But I don't wanna give people, an a nongenuine, unauthentic viewpoint.
Like, if I'm not interested, I'm not gonna do agood job.
So, I've shifted the mentality there.
I've started to work on stuff that I never donebefore.
I know how to audio engineer and edit, but Inever know how to do video.
(33:43):
And now I'm learning how to do that so we canput it on YouTube.
So another medium for people to see and digest,what's set on the pod and, and hopefully do
some good work with that, even though I have noidea what I'm doing, but I'm gonna learn it,
because that's what you gotta do.
So that was kind of the the summer leading intothe fall.
(34:03):
The other thing we did this summer, Matt and Igot to attend our first as TPN representatives,
conferences.
I went to Papa, Professional Asian PilotsAssociation.
Matt went to LPA, Latino Pilots Association.
My wife came with me to Papa, and we had ablast.
Like, in Vegas, couldn't have asked for abetter time, even though I'm not a huge fan of
(34:28):
Vegas anymore.
We still had we made the best of it, and thepeople there were just fantastic.
We love working with these conferences.
So, Matt, you went to LPA in or land it was inOrlando.
Right?
This year?
Yeah.
LPA was in Orlando.
And, so we we had a booth at Papa and LPA, likeany And OBAP.
(34:49):
Oh, and OBAP as well.
Yeah.
You just didn't you didn't go to
OBAP.
Right.
I didn't make it to that one.
But and then we had a booth at ATA, AirliftTanker Association, in Grapevine, Texas as
well.
That was a little bit later in the year.
But that's one one of the things that we'regonna try to do, and our volunteers.
So it it's too much for you and I to go tothese things go to all of them.
(35:11):
Our schedules are just too crazy, and it's toomuch travel.
But, what we're gonna try to do for 2025 is,have a presence at all the other conferences
because we we're so honored to have all theaffinity groups come and and set up a a table
and a booth and and do their own recruiting andand talking to folks at TPNX.
(35:33):
And so we always wanna go and have a presenceat at their event too.
It it really fosters that relationship and thatcommunity that we're trying to build because,
at the end of the day, we're not competitors.
We're we're all working together for the samegoal, and that's to help pilots.
And if we can develop that relationship and andhave a great working, system in order to help
(35:59):
pilots, it's all the better.
And so our we've developed an awesome group ofvolunteers that are are helping us set up
booths, and then you and I can pop in and anddo the networking thing and and help out where
we can.
But, I'm looking forward to having a presenceat everyone's conference this coming year, and,
(36:20):
of course, inviting them into TPNX to be a partof what we're building as well.
Yeah.
It you know, and the thing you'd say that it'sgreat too because with all these volunteers
being all across country, a lot of them arelocals.
So they can go in.
They don't have to spend, extra time away fromhome.
If they just wanna drop in for a little bit,have a good time, maybe grab a beer or hang out
(36:43):
afterwards, whatever they wanna do, or justthey wanna come in, do the booth for a couple
of hours, and then head home.
That's awesome.
You know, and then we we try we try to make itas pain free as possible.
I mean, there's still pain.
Right?
There's still pain.
But we're we're and if you wanna get involvedin that stuff like that, reach out to us.
(37:04):
Hey, guys.
Spot network.com, and, we'll we'll put you intouch with the the employee who runs that whole
show and and see where we can stack rack andsag in the ladder.
Because one of the coolest parts about thevolunteers is the you know, you're doing
something maybe right when the, recidivism rateis so high in TPN.
(37:27):
They all come back to prison.
They're all almost all involved said they allwant to come back for TPNX, and they all wanna
participate in these conferences if they canmake it.
I mean, the amount of volunteers we had to goto, Papa, LPA, OBAP.
Women in Aviation was too early in the year.
We couldn't couldn't do that one.
(37:48):
We weren't quite ready for that.
ATA, and then all the ones pre t p and x andthen right after t p and x were kinda out.
But, after that, the amount of people whovolunteered to show up and wanted to be part of
that was ridiculous.
And then they said, oh, you know, I can't makeit.
I really wanna go, though.
(38:08):
That doesn't work for my time off.
Let me see if I can swap days on my reserveline or whatever.
It was it was crazy.
We had help at Papa.
We had help at LPA.
We had help OBAP was run by others.
ATA, we had a local who came and set up andtore down and sent everything back to me.
And we're gonna get into ATX.
That's that's when things shifted immensely forTPN.
(38:32):
And so we we're we've got this new movement ofpeople who really, it's like the 1,000 true
fans.
They wanna get out there and spread the goodword.
And with the, the other things that we're gonnabe doing, it's gonna be more unique and more
critical to go to these conferences so peoplecan see how they can participate in the network
and how the network is giving back to them andand adding value to their life.
(38:55):
Let's get into that.
Let's get into the the the the dark ages ofTPN.
September October hit, and, lots of people, hadlots of things happen to them.
You had a personal you you had your personalissues.
Why don't you run with all the fun that Floridaoffers that time of year?
(39:17):
Good.
So for anyone who lives in Florida, we have ahurricane problem down here.
I don't know if you know if you heard of it,but, hurricane Helene hit, right at the end of
September.
And then Milton hurricane Milton literally thefollowing week, maybe maybe even 2 weeks after.
I don't know.
But it was basically back to back hurricanes.
(39:39):
And so, I I live in Tampa, and my house was 3feet underwater as were a lot of our friends
who live here in Tampa as well.
So that was that was a challenging timebecause, you know, losing your home and all
your belongings, is so destabilizing.
(40:02):
And I feel for anyone who's had a house fire ora natural disaster or, you know, the Midwest
has tornadoes and California, Colorado has haswildfires and Florida has hurricanes.
And it's always a thing, but what I'm struck byin that opportunity is how many people step up
(40:24):
and help you.
After hurricane Helene, the house was was 3something feet underwater, and and, I wasn't
the only one.
We had a a lot of friends who were experiencingthat same thing.
But I remember standing in the living room, andeverything is still there just the way I left
it the day before except strewn about.
(40:44):
It it's all it it's amazing how much power thatmuch water has once it gets into your home.
And I was just standing in the living room kindof frozen, and and spinning in circles, just
kind of completely overwhelmed and stunned.
And quite honestly, just, numb at that point.
(41:06):
It was it's just you there's nothing you cando.
It's beyond your control.
And so you kind of work through those 5 stagesof grief and and hopefully at one point get to
acceptance.
But, I was squarely in denial at that point,and a a good friend of mine from the squadron.
So this is where I will absolutely say forthose of us out there in TPN world, the
(41:31):
military family is something that's incredible.
And my airline family reached out as well, butthe support from the squadron and the military
family is just stunning because I got 6 callsthat day, and everyone was asking if I was
affected.
I was standing there.
(41:51):
I'm I'm fine.
It's alright.
I'll figure it out.
And they said, send me your address.
We'll be there in 10 minutes.
And in literally by 30 minutes into that nextday, I had 9 folks, like, in my house helping
to tear out drywall and and and clean up andall that sort of stuff.
(42:11):
So, while that was not the most fun opportunityto have everyone step up and and help, and it
was humbling, and I'm so grateful for the helpthere.
And then being able to help other people toowho were struggling during that time as well.
So, right now, I'm I'm air bouncing around theAirbnb in in the probably 3rd, almost 4th month
(42:35):
of of being a homeless guy.
But, we're we're gonna rebuild, and it's gonnabe fine.
We're gonna work it out.
But what I will say, and I've been sharing thiswith as many people as I can, developing a
sense of a community, whether that's guard andreserve after you leave active duty, and or
your airline.
(42:56):
The union reached out.
My chief pilot reached out.
The squadron was there to help, and shout outto SWAPA and Southwest Airlines just in general
for just being incredible through this wholething.
So, I'm grateful, and really wanna pay itforward.
And so there's there's some things that we'regonna try to build into TPN.
(43:20):
And we'll talk about the the nonprofit and whatthat looks like.
But one of the things that we wanna do is issome sort of pilot assistance fund.
Because even though as, you know, pilots, we wemake a good living and and we're not
necessarily in the same situation that, a lotof people more unfortunate than us are.
(43:40):
When you lose everything all at once, you know,out of nowhere, that is so destabilizing and
you need help.
And so we want TPN to be there for people aswell.
So that that's all I'll say about that.
It's not about me, but, it it's something thatput life into perspective.
And I think if we can incorporate the TPN pilotassistance fund into something that we offer to
(44:04):
our members, not only adds value, but I thinkit's something that will help us pay it
forward, especially in scenarios like this.
Yeah.
And if you think about it too, it's that goingback to that analog idea of having people
around you to support you when times get tough.
Everybody has a tough time in life.
(44:25):
And here the the thing is is, you know, Mattand I have talked about this, and I've talked
about it with people that I've flown with.
Matt and I were, fortunate enough to becomepilots for the military and get a, get a sense
of the squadron bar, the squadron belonging.
And, me being retired, Matt, not yet.
(44:45):
When you when you retire, you do lose a littlebit of it.
But in in a garden reserve case, if you'relocal, you don't lose it at all.
I mean, I can reach out to those guys tomorrow,and it's I, yeah, I was supposed to see them
last night.
It just didn't work out due to family illnessthat Matt and I talked about before the show.
With that said, though, I have a lot of,civilian friends who never got that experience.
(45:09):
And, yeah, they have onesie twosie friends thatthey've met or, you know, small groups that
they've met throughout in training.
It's been many years since they've been able tokeep in touch with them.
And if they weren't part of a fraternity orsomething like that, they they don't really
have any of that.
And if they do, the fraternity is not local towhere they live unless they live where they
went to college.
And and that's the thing about the chapters inTPN that we wanna promote is that squad and bar
(45:34):
mentality is, hey.
You can go out.
You can you can blow off a little steam withthese folks.
You can tell them what's going on in your life.
And if if they can see you for who you are, andif you need help, they may swoop in before you
ever even say.
Because a lot of us don't ask for it until it'salready past the point where other people can
see that we need it.
So that's another reason this analog meetupthings are are are so important, because when
(45:59):
you do have issues and you have loss, it'sgreat to have shoulders to lean on, and that's,
kinda leads us into the next thing I mentionedat ATA.
I'm at ATA this year, and, Matt calls me, withan emergency, which he's he's never done
before.
And I was like, I I don't know what it wasabout.
(46:22):
And the next thing I know is, Matt tells methat Jason Depew is in a coma.
And I I didn't know how to react.
I still don't necessarily know how to react,because a few days after that, Jason, through
complications with, him being in a coma, hepassed away and kinda left a giant hole in, the
(46:46):
heart of aviation, definitely in mine,personally.
And we we've talked about it before.
I I had a podcast where I, just brieflydescribed a lot of what Jason meant to me
personally, the the network.
We went we Matt helped out, to a level that Ican't really describe with organizing a lot of
(47:11):
stuff down in Tampa.
I tried to bring up some of the rear on gettingmessaging out from the pilot network
perspective and talking to a few people, at,Delta Airlines where Jason worked.
And, it was rough and it still is becausethere's times where I picked up the phone and
wanted to call him and talk to him aboutsomething, and realized that I can't do that
(47:34):
anymore.
So, I don't wanna beat the, the the topic uptoo much.
But when, when Jason passed, it was really goodto have a bunch of people to lean on and a
bunch of people reach out to ask how we weredoing, even though it wasn't about us, and ask
how they can help the family and ask how, theycould support all the stuff that Jason did.
(47:59):
And for those of you who knew Jason, you knowhow much he meant to aviation, past, present,
and future.
And for those of you didn't know Jason, all youhave to do is go read anything on his old blog
site, Aviation Bowl, his book, his, the stuffthat we've published for him.
All you gotta do is type in Jason DePew, authorAviation and Google, and you will see, how much
(48:23):
he meant to aviation, writ at large.
So we lost Jason in, the end of October,beginning of November.
And, that was, that was a monumental shift forTPN.
And, Matt, I've said it to you before, but Iwanted to kinda take this moment to point out
what you did for Jason and his family wasexactly what paying it forward is all about.
(48:48):
You were kind and gracious with your time.
You basically paused everything else, all thestuff that was going on in your life to step
forward and help out, people who are in need.
And to me, that says volumes about the man youare, and it says volumes about the example you
set.
And it gave me solace in knowing that somebodywas there to take care of Jason's family, the
(49:13):
ties that needed to be tied up or the the thethings that need to be tied up.
And then also gave me a lot of, comfort knowingthat I have somebody like you to support me and
my family in my life.
So, that I wanted to say that as a public thankyou to what you did and, also, to Jason.
(49:34):
Talon's buddy, we miss you so much, and I wishyou should you had been on here.
You probably wouldn't have been talking,though.
You would have just been on the side watchingand making awful comments about how we're
screwing up.
So, but, Matt, I wanna give you the floor.
You kinda touch on, on everything that happenedfrom that point till now.
Yeah.
I know.
It's still a sense sensitive topic.
So I won't talk about kind of the how difficultthat was.
(49:57):
I I do feel very fortunate to have gotten tospend a couple of days there at the hospital
with Jason and his family.
The the party and the flyover and the missingman formation that we were able to put together
with with the commemorative air force and andsome of the airplanes at the airport where he
(50:18):
where he loved to spend time, That was that wasa ton of fun, and that was a good day, to be
able to put that together.
So I'm I'm grateful that we were able to dothat.
What is going to come out of this, though, ispart of the nonprofit that that we're
developing.
So the the the pilot network dot org, existedbefore the pilot network dot com.
(50:42):
And so it was purely because we couldn't getthe dot com domain name, and, eventually, we
were able to make that happen.
But the pilot network dot org still exists.
In through this whole time, we really the lastcouple of years, we really haven't known what
we wanted to do with that.
(51:03):
It was just kind of something sitting in thebackground, that we haven't been using.
And then it became became absolutely crystalclear while over the over those couple of days
that weekend that we were that I was there atthe hospital, that the dot org needs to be a
nonprofit, run by the pilot network for variousthings.
(51:24):
And we really didn't know what that was gonnalook like.
But over the last couple of months, that has,materialized into something that I think we're
going to be really proud.
You know, part of that is the pilot assistancefund.
And then we're gonna start a pilot trainingscholarship fund, in Jason's name, and it's
gonna be the the Jason Depew, scholarship fundfor pilot training.
(51:47):
And and he was so giving of his time oftendoing flight training for free, for individuals
that, wouldn't have otherwise had an license ormost start them on that path.
And so, while neither you or I we both haveCFIs, but we're we don't go and do CFI stuff on
(52:12):
a regular basis.
We
Non exercise.
Yeah.
Non practicing CFIs.
But Jason loved to do that as a master, CFI.
And so we're gonna try to support that from thethe flight training scholarship fund, and I
think carry on his work and and hopefullyexpand that.
(52:32):
So more to come on that.
It it's still in progress, and we just haven'thad the bandwidth to really get that over the
finish line yet, but that's gonna happen in2025.
And and we're really excited about what thenonprofit arm of the pilot network is gonna
look like, and carry on the mission that thatJason started, and it was really, really
(52:53):
important to him.
So while that, was a terrible time, I thinkthere's gonna be some some really positive good
that can come out of that in the long term.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the only thing we can do.
Right?
It it there their loss and hurt, will alwaysstay.
(53:14):
So the best thing we can do is try to, youknow, make some lemonades or lemonade out of a
situation fraught with a lot of lemons.
I know that's a terrible analogy, but, frankly,when you you don't know how to speak about the
loss of a a dear friend and a a such a greatman, you you kinda just figure it out.
(53:34):
And and the thing is is, for those of youdealing with loss and for those of you dealing
with issues that are are feel greater thanyourself, this is please take this as a note to
to reach out to somebody who can Matt and Iwill take your call.
But if you are part of a union or you're partof the military or or or you have dear friends
(53:58):
or somebody who has you can tell that somethingis not right, please reach out.
No.
No.
I'm Jason, this is not why this is not anythingto do with Jason's passing.
It's to do with the reaction to it because ithurt a lot for a long time, and it will
continue to hurt.
(54:19):
And some people react much more differentlythan others, and loss can make people do very,
crazy things.
So we wanna take care of each other and lifteverybody up.
And especially, you know, and I dude, I live upin the north.
It's starting to get gray.
And last year, there was, like, a 3 week periodwhere the sun never came out, and I was not
(54:42):
flying regularly.
So, man, that seasonal affected, disorder,whatever it's called, sad, that stuff is real.
So watch out for people, because, we want TPNis supposed to be this analog play or or is
supposed to be this place for good and buildpeople back up.
When we have loss, we wanna support them, andwe wanna bring people, as much as much support
(55:06):
as we can get you.
So reach out to whether it's us, or or somebodyelse in your life.
Please do so.
If you need any help at all for any reason,emotional, mental, physical, whatever the case
is, that's what we're here about.
Enough, with the that was kind of a a darktime, and it's still we're we're still pulling
ourselves up into the daylight from all of thestuff that's happened over the last couple
(55:27):
months.
And that brings change and newness in 2025.
You know, I guess this is the cliche.
It's cliche for a reason.
The new year turns over, new changes, whatever.
Some cool stuff that we're doing, is I'll letMatt jump in.
We've got some new employees that are under theunder the belt of TPN and that we're gonna
we're bringing some other people on.
(55:48):
And, how did that come about?
I think, to me, I never saw us able to hireanybody.
And here we are with people that actually workfor TPN.
So how how did that all come about, dude?
Well, so as Is
your question?
You knew you knew we needed to do it.
(56:11):
This is self reflection,
as as I get busier and and I'm trying to growpersonally, mostly because you tell me that I
have to, is I I am that kind of guy.
I don't like to ask for help.
I I'm very capable.
I can handle a lot.
I work really, really hard, but sometimes it'sjust too much.
(56:32):
And so managing all of the other things that Ihave going on, in the peripheral in parallel
with the pilot network, I it just at a matterof necessity, we had to look at how can we
bring on other people to help carry thismission forward and and not not grow TPN in
(56:55):
numbers, but, really fill in the white space ofof what we've built right now.
And so one of those things is managing thevolunteers for TPNX, managing events over the
course of the year.
And, and then even some some admin support, inthe management of the business entity part of
(57:17):
it because there's a lot of moving parts.
There's a a lot of money floating around, andand we've talked about it before.
You and I don't take any money out of the pilotnetwork.
And while it's it's structured as a for profitwith a a nonprofit arm that we're working on,
all that takes time and energy and resources.
And so, what we're trying to do is, pay thatforward.
(57:42):
And so the the revenues and and the theresources that TPN generates, we're we're
pouring that back into bringing on staff anddeveloping opportunities, all in order to
create that community and that that sense oftrust because we truly believe it is to the
(58:02):
benefit of the pilot.
And that's that's our raison d'etre why we'rehere.
So, we're we're excited to bring on, Kevin,Brandon, and Shaz, and and, hopefully, you
know, some new names to be announced shortly.
But, they're gonna help us with events andvolunteers, and you're gonna you're gonna see
them here.
And then, also, we've brought on a few newwriters and correspondents.
(58:26):
And so the TPN family is is growing rapidly,and we're really excited to have everyone
involved.
And, I keep saying it, but just completelyhumbled by the support and the intense interest
in what we're building here at the pilotnetwork.
So
Yeah.
I think, when you see changes in direction,shifts, you need to, you kinda gotta roll with
(58:55):
it at times when you're when you're in the inthe boat that Matt and I have put ourselves in.
And one of the things is is getting people tohelp you out.
Now mind you that we're we always wanna staynimble.
We don't wanna have a giant, bloated staff, oranything like that.
And believe me, Matt and I have plenty ofimposter syndrome where we we go.
(59:15):
I can't believe we're actually, bringing peopleon.
But the cool part is is, a lot of the peoplethat are part of the TPN family and staff now
were volunteers who really wanted to do theirbest for the network.
Now mind you, it helped them too.
Some of them got jobs at airlines that theywanted to go to or whatever, but they they were
(59:38):
so gung ho and mission driven on the on whatthe pilot network stood for that they just gave
up their own time.
And this is kind of that paying it forward forus to give it give back to them for putting so
much effort into what, we have envisioned forall these years.
And that's one of the most exciting thingsabout the direction that we're going in is this
(01:00:02):
ability to shift out of doing, being thepodcast guy or or doing some of the stuff that
I've done for the year for the last coupleyears is actually getting behind some of the
business moving parts and seeing if I can buildout, this other piece of TPN and TPN talent and
(01:00:23):
seeing where that goes and and giving a whackat it.
And if it sucks, then you know what?
We go back to our speaking to the microphonehere, and seeing how we can give back to the
community and grow and change things becausethere's some stuff that Matt and I have
witnessed over the years in aviation that we'vealways wondered, well, why?
(01:00:44):
Why are people doing it this way?
It seems dumber.
I don't I don't get it.
Like, this is this is a a red tape bureaucraticnightmare.
Let's change some stuff.
And now we feel like we have the capability toactually do that.
Maybe we were not confident enough in ourselvesto take on that challenge, but now we both feel
like we can.
And I guess we also feel like what's the worstthat can happen?
(01:01:06):
You know?
Like, what what if it doesn't work, what's theworst?
And the worst is we go back to being with areally cool group of people called the pilot
network that gets together at least once ayear, hopefully more, and sees what the beauty
of meeting up in person and getting to see thatsmile on somebody's face when they talk about
(01:01:29):
their new job or what they're doing in theircareer.
And I think that's where the if that's theworst case scenario, it's pretty good scenario
to me.
So that that kind of wraps up my 2024.
Well, I have one one last thing to say aboutthat is is the pilot network was never about
you and me.
And so what bringing on new folks means to allyou out there is you you're gonna start to see
(01:01:55):
new faces, and hear new voices.
And I think that is really cool because we'regonna have a lot of diversity in terms of
thought and experience and background, muchmore so than than just you and I.
I mean, you and I have almost identical, careertrajectories and and backgrounds.
(01:02:15):
And so what we're really looking to do isenrich that by bringing on other people who
have had other experiences and taking differentpaths, and ultimately, build the pilot network
has has exceeded just what you and I originallyset out to build.
And we're we're just the stewards of of thisYep.
(01:02:36):
Community.
And so it it really is about everyone else.
So we're we're excited to to bring you allthese new faces and and always looking for
more, to grow responsibly, but to reallycontinue to build and then enrich the lives of
the community and and everything that we aretrying to do here.
So
(01:02:57):
for certain for certain for sure, we know wehope, Jason would be pretty proud of what we're
doing because he was kind of the 3rd founder,and he always will be in our hearts and our
thoughts.
And for all of those of you out there who wannaget involved or who don't like what we're doing
(01:03:19):
or who want to throw an idea at us that nobodyelse would ever listen to, hit us up at
heyguys@pilotnetwork.com.
We will be sure to, if not answer immediately,answer it as soon as we get it.
If not there, go on the socials.
We're all over the place.
Just find one of the socials and write us amessage, and we'll get back to you.
(01:03:40):
If you're interested in tp and x, andattending, volunteering, I'm I'm pretty sure
it's kinda closed.
Like, I think we're at a pretty good number.
Those numbers might open up so you can join thewait list, but I'm right now, I I don't think
that Kevin, is in the mode to put any put putanybody else with a guaranteed slot.
(01:04:01):
So you gotta join the wait list.
That's how much interest there is.
It's that to me still blows my mind.
But you can go to the pilot network.com and goto the tpnext link, and all the information's
there.
You can see who's attending and get yourtickets if you want to, for now.
Other than that, I'm gonna leave Matt
with the for the party pass.
Oh, yeah.
The party pass.
Yeah.
(01:04:21):
Of course.
Party pass.
So you'll see that coming up.
But I'll leave Matt.
I always get to do the final shout out, so I'mgonna give it to Matt, for 20 24.
Take us into 2025.
Take it away.
That's awesome.
We're we're grateful for everything that thecommunity has provided for us, and and we love
you all.
Keep us trying to side up and the dirty sidedown.
(01:04:42):
Fly safe, everybody.
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