Jennifer Bewes: A Real Live Iron Woman!

Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:02):
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast
Hello, hello. Hello and welcomeback to the forever on the fire
podcast season two of your biweekly dose of aviation
inspiration, education andentertainment. My name is Diane

(00:22):
dollar.
And I am Jose. And yes,you guessed it. We're here to
get you guys hooked on aviation.
Wow Season Two. Thank you guysso much for sticking around with
us for season numero dos. We'reso thrilled to keep this show
going and to showcase someamazing and inspirational guests
and to teach you guys somethingalong the way.

(00:44):
So seniors, yeah, you have a newgig.
I do. Yeah, I'm gonna be flyingfor a friend of mine is doing
some corporate stuff and gettinginto an SSR 22 this week. Sexy.
Yeah, doing a little fixed wingflying. And guess what's coming?
What's coming?

(01:05):
Is 350 A B three. My favoritehelicopter of all times. So I'm
really excited for that to getexcited for you. And I'm a
little jealous. I want to beflying to be three as well.
Yeah, no, it's gonna be so greatbecause now I have some time to
focus more on the nonprofit andthe event that's coming up.

(01:29):
Yes, please do tell. Yes. Thedare to
dream. aviation career day,August 22 hangar 21. In
Fullerton, California. Space islimited. So go ahead to www dot
forever on the fly.com under ayouth outreach, dare to dream
event tickets, and of coursethey're free of charge. Thanks

(01:50):
to our sponsors United StatesAir Force youth inspiration
nation us vertical magazine tosix l construction. And young
eagles is going to be holding anevent in conjunction with ours
at the same location hangar 21Fullerton California, you can
register your kids for fixedwing flights. They're either
first come first serve, or youcan check into young eagles

(02:13):
de.org Young Eagles de.org. Idon't think they have the event
posted quite yet. But continueto check in when we get closer
to the date and you'll be ableto sign your kids up for the
fixed wing flight. helicopterflights at the event are first
come first serve. So when youcome to the event, there's going
to be a registration table foryour kid to get a discovery

(02:35):
flight and a helicopter. Superexciting. On top of the flights.
We are also going to have anentire simulator corner with the
full motion simulator stemsimulator. The US Air Force is
bringing a virtual realityexperience which should be
really cool. I'm excited forthat one. And we're also going
to have an entire career seminarthat will be all day long with

(02:56):
some amazing guest speakers withsomeone from pretty much every
profession. Yeah, we most ofthem. Yeah, we got air traffic
controllers. We got flightattendants, airline pilots,
helicopter pilots, and airaeronautical engineers, military
pilot military pilots. Yeah, soit's gonna be a really fun day.

(03:19):
So come on out and bring thekiddos for a whole day of
aviation inspiration andeducation and entertainment. We
invited Morgan Freeman but Idon't know if it'd be pretty
dope though. It'd be pretty coolif he decided to come along. I
would have him like record myvoicemail like for like Morgan

(03:42):
Freeman, can you just say myname one time?
Just one time one time, Jose.
I'm terrible. I'm sorry Mr.
Freeman, please come to ourevent. If you're
alright guys, our season openerstarts off strong with our next
guest who joins us all the wayfrom Australia. She's a leader

(04:05):
in aerospace innovation holdingthe title ce o of AI jetpack
this real live iron woman willhave you believing that
literally anything is possible.
She's here to share her lifejourney from building her career
in the digital innovation in thecorporate space or helicopter
experience to then starting yourown jet to company and the Mr.
COVID-19 Wowza. It's prettyimpressive. She's currently

(04:28):
training to set the GuinnessWorld Record for jet flight
distance by setting off on a2112 mile journey across the
continent of Australia. Theywere so insane the mental and
physical stamina that she'sgoing to have to have in order
to make it across the continenton a jet suit.

(04:50):
That's pretty unreal. Yeah. Andwe're gonna learn all about what
that journey is going to entailand what type of training she's
gonna have to undergo and thelogistics of something like that
is just absolutely insane. Soshe's here to chat about that as
well. And let's bring around,bring him out, bring him out,
bring him out, bring him out.

(05:11):
Miss Jennifer views.
And I said, Well, I wouldcircumnavigate Australia, my
jetpack. And they're like, oh,okay, that's cool. Why don't you
do it? I'm halogen and I'mforever on the fly Are you

(05:35):
crazy? Are you?
I saw that on your website. Whatdo you say to those people when
they ask you that?
Mmm, hmm. Everything's a matterof perspective, isn't it? How am
I crazy? According to somepeople? Yeah. I don't feel I
actually feel like I don't takerisks. And no, I don't feel I

(05:59):
don't feel crazy. But perhapsthat's what crazy is, like, you
don't know it. Right? No,definitely not crazy.
Let's just start from thebeginning. I want to know
everything. You've had such afascinating life with everything
that I've read through thearticles and on your website.
And I just want to shareeverything with our listeners.
Who are you? Where did you growup? What was your childhood?

(06:20):
Like? What were you like, as achild? Did you have family in
aviation? And yeah, let's justgo from there.
Sure. So I grew up in Sidmouth,a little coastal town in Devon
population about 10 to 12,000.
So very small place. It was avery humble kind of upbringing,
both working class parents andyou know, living in the country

(06:44):
and growing up in farmlands andplaying with horses and stray
cats and running around andhaving having a great freedom
that I think many folk in thiscity kind of upbringing don't
get to have. And and thatfreedom definitely allowed my
creativity and my curiosity justto go wild. So I think that was

(07:07):
kind of set from a very youngage to kind of just allow
curiosity to, to go wild andfollow it and keep playing with
things. Yeah, so I had I had areally good upbringing. There no
airs and graces, and everybodywas really down to earth. And,

(07:28):
you know, I remember seeingsomebody come down into Devon
from London, and it was like,Oh, my God, these people
and yeah, and then then lateron, you know, I ended up moving

(07:50):
up in that direction and, andgoing into corporate life and,
and completely changing fromfrom my, my country roots. But
yeah, that was kind of myupbringing and got a got a
sister, who's three years olderthan me. And we used to fight
like cats and dogs that wereyounger, I think my siblings do.

(08:13):
But love each other to bits andkeep in contact now. They're all
still back in the UK. So I'm theonly one over here in Australia.
And what capacity were youworking on like in the corporate
world as far as like, what fieldwere you in?
Yeah, well, my career was reallyvaried. And I think it really
talks to the fact that I justtend to follow this curiosity.

(08:37):
So I am not a learner. Thatworks well, with theory and
books, and all that kind ofstuff. I'm, I question
everything, and I researcheverything. And I rely much more
on the consistency ofobservation, then I do on just

(08:58):
reading things and listening topeople's perspective. I think
these are important ingredients,but they don't, they're not
always accurate, I find thatobservation tends to an
observation of behavior tends tolead to more accuracy, then then
people's interpretations and howthey might express things. So
I've kind of always questionedthat and and so this

(09:20):
experimental approach startedwhen I was young, I worked in
hospitality, and no, I lied whenI was 11 and said that I was 13.
So I could get a job at a hotelwhen I was 15. And, and said,
Yeah, it's my 30th birthday thatway. Oh, no. I'm not very good

(09:42):
liar. Barely learning. So Iwatched through the hotel
industry, and by the time I was18, I was running a hotel
restaurant bar in the seafront.
And then I realized that Ididn't lie customer's very much,
and that I probably needed totry something else. And I

(10:03):
thought I, you know what, Ithink I want to be a lawyer as
you do. And of course, because Ileft school at 16 and had no
interest in reading books andacademic studies and all of
that. It's like, okay, how do Iget into that? So I managed to
talk my way into a law firm andwork for a partner and tried out
that industry realized that Ididn't like it very much. But

(10:27):
what I what I did learn was thatI had created a program, I saw
that there was some repetitionof the way that they were, the
secretaries were writing outthese that everything seemed
really consistent, they werejust changing names in it. These
were back in the days this isshow my agent, back in the days
where macros on on typewriterswere like their new technology.

(10:51):
And not many people knew aboutit. So worked out a way to
program macro in there, thatjust meant they all they had to
do was type the customer's name,it saves them a shitload of
work. And so that was lookingback on reflection that was kind
of that was an indicator ofwhere I would end up going. And
I then worked, I tried outretail. And in the background, I

(11:15):
taught myself to code, I'dactually learned to code when I
was back. Eight years old, mydad was into computer
programming, and had all thesePC books and I learned how to
code this game called Pong. Idon't know whether you it's just
a really simple thing, becauseagain, that's my age showing.

(11:36):
But I was like, Oh, wow, this isamazing. I can I can spend three
weeks finger single fingertyping this code and I'm going
to be able to create a gameisn't this amazing? So I did
that and and I got to the end ofthe three weeks that it took me
and it came up on it all it'sblack and white glory, and said,

(11:58):
press spacebar to continue aslike, Oh my God, I've actually
done it. I know what those wordsman. And I press the spacebar
and it says syntax error line1148. I was like, Oh my God,
I've got to count. All of thoselines work out where I've gone
wrong. So from that day, Idecided that I would, I needed

(12:18):
to decipher what what that codemeant. It's a language of some
sort. And I needed to work itout. And that was really my
introduction to coding and thenthe internet. It kind of the
wild west of internet beforeGoogle happened. And I taught
myself how to HTML code. I had astent in modeling. And, and I, I
saw how many people were beingstung by people trying to take

(12:44):
money off them to say that theywere going to be models, but
they're not problem modelagencies. So I wrote a guide to
modeling to help help thosepeople. And I set up a forum,
which was, you know, again, WildWest, this was really early days
with animated GIFs of, Iremember, I had one with Homer
Simpson popping up out of wholethat was really like out there

(13:10):
back then. And so I done this,and I did some temping work and
moved up to Redding. And and mymarketing director there saw
what I was doing in my sparetime, and, and that I created
this global community ofphotographers and model agents,
and, you know, from overseas,which again, you know, with the

(13:34):
internet being so new was kindof like, Wow, that's amazing.
You can connect with all thesepeople. And so then she said,
right, I want you to run thelaunch of mobile, not mobile, or
an internet site. And so thenthat started my career in, in
innovation and digitalinnovation within the corporate

(13:55):
space that was CompuServe, whichwas then bought by AOL. Then I
worked in visa V, which thenbecame Vodafone and Vodafone
then, was what got me toAustralia. So don't just 3g
mobile phones. So yeah, so it'skind of been a little bit of

(14:16):
like, whoa, explore your wayaround. And and I think the
common theme is just following.
Following something inside thatjust keeps directing me going.
Yeah, that feels good. And goand let's let's follow that path
until it no longer feels good.
And when it no longer feelsgood. You go off and explore
something else until that feelsgood.

(14:37):
Yeah, following the curiosity.
That's so funny. I have one ofthose my intent bracelets and
wearing it right now. And I hadit engraved Stay curious. Yeah.
So important. Yeah. So yeah. Sothis is my daily reminder to
stay curious and to followthose. Those instincts. Yeah.
No, I was like, I think she'sgonna like this bracelet.

(15:04):
For a while good show, I thinkit can really annoy other people
too, though it's like hard, youreally have to be curious about
everything.
Yes, and that's how I've gottento where I am today. Miss
holiday. Right? And so whatinspired you to get into
aviation? What inspired youabout helicopters,

(15:26):
it's kind of just thecontinuation of that story
really. So I, I managed to workmy way up the corporate ladder,
and, and, you know, got to the,the two percenters and and
realize that I had lost, I hadlost the passion, and for quite
some time, but I hadn't realizedbecause you get so busy, and you

(15:49):
just end up like churning overwhat you're doing on a daily
basis and trying to keep up. AndI realized that, oh, hang on a
second, this, I'm just notfeeling it anymore. And I, when
I took some time out to reflecton that, I realized that the,
the, the key thing with me islearning, I have an absolute

(16:13):
addiction to learning. And it'scommon throughout my entire
life. And what I, what I kind ofrealized happened was, as you
climb the ladder, and you'vebeen there for 20 years, you
start, you know, so you startknowing more and, and learning
less, and you start scrapingaround. So you get to the kind

(16:34):
of 80% of learning and then justkind of scratching the surface
going, okay, what can I, whatelse can I get out of this. And
of course, you turn your youturn your focus to other great
things, which is for me, youknow, helping other people move
up in their careers and doingall of that, but it still just,
it just wasn't enough. I alsobecame really tired and

(16:55):
frustrated of constantly havingto, because in innovation, you
know, you're constantly havingto pitch in to executives, and
trying to get them to buy intoyour ideas. And, and I was just,
it was just always very dreamharder work than I felt
necessary. And so I grew tiredof that. And one of the things

(17:20):
that happened, I startedspeaking more, and I wrote a
column for Australian FinancialReview. And people kept saying
to me, oh, you should write abook, you should read book. And
I'm like, oh, yeah, thanks. It'sreally nice, blah, blah, blah.
And then more people kept sayingit was like, Okay, I'm just
gonna have to write a bookbecause it will keep people
quiet. So I go off to Hawaii,and I take a helicopter tour and

(17:44):
land on the top of this mountainin Maui with 360 views and had
it might have had a glass ofchampagne. And it was at a
really, really hectic time in mycorporate career when my mind is
like running at 5 million milesan hour and, and I've just got

(18:04):
to the top of that mountain.
First of all, I love thebeautiful grace of the air was
easy, 130 and just the way thatit flew. It was just like a
ballet. It's beautiful. So Ilove that bit. And then when I
stood on top of this mountain,and realize there's nobody else
here for you, nobody else canget here. There's no way to get
here by road. And I got thefeeling of feeling centered. And

(18:27):
it was the first time I'dactually connected what that
meant. So I know clearly what itmeans when you read it on paper,
but to feel it is somethingcompletely different. And it was
like it was like somethingsliced through this chaos in my
head and just created thispiece. And, and it was what
absolutely what I needed rightthen so I was like, oh shit, how

(18:50):
do I get this? And I thought,Okay, well, I need to be writing
a blog. And I really like thisfeeling. So what if I wrote a
book on top of a mountain that'saccessible only by helicopter?
And then I can get this feelingand it would be perfect for a
place to write a book when youfeeling so at peace. And so I
got back from Hawaii, and I tookmy first helicopter lesson. And

(19:15):
then I fell in love withhelicopters like crazy. Oh my
god, we quit my Korea and it waslike, right, that's it. I have
no time for that. I'm focusingon on flying. So yeah, that's
how it started.

(19:36):
Wow. I know. I can remember. Iremember like my first time
flying and it was just like thehook. I got like this. I was
addicted. It was just where itwas. Yeah, it was in San Diego.
Like and what were you doingbefore that like how well I took
some time off. I went travelingwhen I got out of the military.

(19:57):
And then essentially I wasworking as an armored guard
transporting money for thebanks, you know, like those guys
in the armored cars and theypick up money, you know, that
kind of stuff. I knew I didn'twant to do that for the rest of
my life, I got a demo flight.
And it was just it was a gamechanger. after that. I was like,
Well, I know what Ineed is somebody say to you, you
should you should flyout, do something I always

(20:19):
wanted to do in the military.
But at the time, the war wasgoing on for so long, that my
parents wanted me to get out andgo to school. So I ended up
getting out. And one day I justkind of like I was like, you
know, I really want to just gocheck this out. And let me see
if I can figure it out. I didn'tknow that the GI Bill could pay

(20:41):
for it or not, or the benefitsthat we had could pay for it.
And at the time, they didn't. Itwas like 5050 that they would
pay. And yeah, you know, I justI just remember getting up one
day and just like really fallingin love with it. And then I just
got addicted. And that was theend of that you know just robbed
a couple armored cars andwe did meet back then I was

(21:10):
wearing a ski mask you were youwere driving a car. I was like,
opportunity to meet you. Ididn't even know you drove an
armored car. See, I feel likeevery single time we do
interviews, I learned somethingnew about this guy that I didn't

(21:31):
know before. So it's always fun.
Yeah, armored cars, mystery.
Very cool. Might needone in fitness by the sounds of
it. Yeah.
Just get around in. So that's,you know, it's really
interesting, John, because Ifeel like this day and age when

(21:52):
everybody is like so stuck intheir phones, and not looking
around and not being anobserver. And that's where
innovation comes from. Right islooking around you and really
observing and watchingeverything that's going on
around you to see what'smissing, or new i That's how new
ideas come about. And I feellike that's a very rare quality

(22:15):
in people these days. So it wasreally cool to hear that. I
mean, that's, you know,inspiring. Yeah, it's inspiring.
Ithink the other thing that is a
challenge today is that theother part of innovation is the
diversity of thought. And withthe digital age that I feel
partly responsible for, there'san personalization and all this

(22:37):
all it does is serve to fuel uswith even more bias. And the
more that we start hearing ourown bias, the more that we
believe it, the less that welisten to others, and
particularly others that arecompletely on the other extreme.
I mean, you only have to look atpolitics and see how how people
are just throwing, you know,there's no curiosity there. It's

(22:59):
just like, we don't want to hearyou How dare you say those kinds
of things. And this is, this iskind of the last opportunity for
growth and innovation. It's kindof, if we could just turn that
narrative round to go, that'sreally interesting. Can you help
me understand why you thinkthat? What if I were to stand on
your side for a while andimmerse myself in that? Could I

(23:21):
at least understand it? And thenis there some kind of middle
ground that we can get to tocreate something better that
works for us both? And I thinkwe we are at risk with this
digital innovation, it's wherethis digital world is no longer
innovation, it is our world nowthat that we just are serving
ourselves to become lessinnovative in some fields, but

(23:44):
of course there's there's somuch diversity in the world that
there are also a lot of peoplethat that don't fall prey to
that kind of view. Right? Yeah.
So you got your license Did youever write that book on top of
the mount? Nono, I didn't want to do that

(24:10):
anymore. I actually had starteda criminology degree as well and
I decided that you know, I'mgoing to put all my focus into
to flying but that was thecriminology thing was another I
realized another nother way thatI was trying to fill that gap of
new learning. And I've still Istill got there's still

(24:30):
something in that criminal juicespace that I feel I need to do
something with like I'm totallycurious around the power of the
human mind and and how it isthat some people's
interpretations of the thingsthat are happening to them and
result in behaviors that areless accepted in society? Or are

(24:53):
very conformist. I kind of lovethese extremes. Dreams of things
and, and the fact that thethere's the senses are are in
many cases taking the sameinformation in and yet
processing it so wildlydifferent. And that for me is is
what absolutely fascinates me.

(25:16):
Well what drove me to become anarmored car robber? Maybe that's
a story for another time. Soonce you got your license, what
was the next step in yourhelicopter journey? What did you
do next?
Well, I started off with a guydown there, private license red.

(25:39):
And then and then I thought, oh,you know what, I just want to
learn as much as I can aboutthis. And so then I went down
the commercial path, but I kindof knew in my heart of hearts
that it wasn't it wasn'tsomething that I wanted to do as
a career. So my, my, mychallenge is that I get bored

(26:00):
very quickly with anythingthat's routine. And And whilst
whilst flying helicopters is notroutine, because there are so
many things. And that's why Ilove it so much. I don't think I
could ever get bored of it inthat sense. But I know that
starting out in your career toplay you have to go through and
you do the charter flights, oryou do instruction and, and
that's me as they go, how do Ishortcut all of that? I just

(26:21):
want to do the cool stuff. Whenyou when you figure that out?
Let's hearthe secret book, you should
write about it.
Yeah, to cut that bit out? Well,I did manage to find a way to do
that. And I said, Okay, well,what can I do? What? What are

(26:42):
some of the strengths that Ihave? And where are some of the
gaps in the industry? And howcan I then put myself into those
gaps and do some exchanges sothat I can get to do the cool
stuff. And that's when I metDavid Adamson, from specialist
helicopters. And I said to him,hey, you know, I could look
after some of the your brand andyour digital side of things, if

(27:07):
you can teach me some of theflying for, you know, film pilot
stuff as they that's reallycool. Because I used to have a
dark room when I was in myteens, and you know, love
photography. And, and so thiswas kind of the perfect mix
doing something that's creativeand, and with moving images at

(27:27):
the same time is flying and, andso he was like, Yeah, okay,
cool, we can do that. And I'mlike, never know, unless you
ask. I'm like, wow, okay, thisis really cool. So, so then I
started doing, going along onflights with him and doing extra

(27:48):
training with him. And I mean,he's, he, he has shown me,
again, through, He's not one totell you, but he will do the
scenario based training whereyou get to experience your own
deficiencies. And boy did I havea lot. I still do, by the way, I

(28:10):
still do. But, um, but that was,you know, this, this really
works for a learning mindsetlike mine, as well, where you
kind of go, that's great. Now, Ireally know what I need to work
on. But at the same time, wasgetting to go and fly around the
country. And, and even toobserve, you know, how, how that

(28:34):
works, how a professional workswith, with the camera in, in
film, piloting. And the one theone thing that I really had
underestimated was just how muchwork goes on for the pilot in
coordinating all of that. Sobefore you kind of go, Ah, it's
really cool, you get to flyaround, but But no, I mean, when
you're when you're filming withcars, or boats or air to where,

(28:58):
you know, the pilot is doing allof the communications and
selling you know, what's thebanking angle that you need to
be going into thinking aboutwhere the sun is thinking about
the frame, looking at themonitor and just knowing what it
takes to get that great picturebut also all of the dynamics of
the weather and you know,everything about the helicopter

(29:19):
at the same time and thengetting communications in your
air from the director the youknow, the the the camera guy and
and and everybody else who's onthe ground it's just like this
massive chaos and and yet hedoes it with such calm, just

(29:39):
ease. Ease. Yeah. And I'm justlike, Whoa, that is awesome. I
just really want to do thatstuff. But there's a reason why
it takes 1000s of hours to beable to get to that space. But
yeah, I mean, that that's theultimate I think,
where you guys are flying in anA star or any See what yeah,

(30:00):
what what are you guys finding?
Yeah, and I saw Yeah, the beatsthree. Beautiful. Oh my god, I
just love that. A B three hedoesn't know it'd be three plus
B three plus. Yeah, stillthough.
That's super nice. I'm superbiased. I love a stars.
Yeah, me too.
Yeah, they're just so good. Iremember as learning you're

(30:22):
getting in for the first timeand learning to fly that thing
and thinking, oh my god, it'slike getting in a racehorse just
wants to go and feeling totallyout of control. You know, it was
like, how am I ever going to beable to work with this baby? And
of course you do. Right? Andyeah, just flying with her is
just a dream. Absolutely.

(30:43):
When you're doing your training,was it in a 22? Or was it in a
Robinson22 I'd actually really love to
go back to flying and I haven'tflown one for years now. And
it's kind of I kind of liken itto you know, you, you drive a
Ferrari and then you go into ago kart Not that I've ever
driven a Ferrari by the way inmy head that I have driven a

(31:05):
Ferrari and but but there are 22is like getting in the go kart,
you know, it's really fun. Andand you got to do it every once
in a while. So I'd love to getback into that at some point. I
had a go at mustering up in thenorthern territories, number of

(31:28):
years back and that was reallygreat fun as well. You should
have somebody record that foryou. Your first pickup back in
22. You know, somebody likerecord it, you know, that?
We've met we've mentioned beforeJose's his experience getting
back into a 44. Yeah, is aninteresting pickup. Apparently,

(31:51):
I was. I started instructingagain, I haven't checked it in
about five years ish. And Istarted getting back into it
about a month ago. You know, ofcourse, I got to get trained
back up to standards and learnthe aircraft. So when I picked
up the Robinson 44, I swear toGod, he thought I was like,
brand new student. I was like,Whoa, what is happening? And

(32:15):
like, my, my instructor who's agood friend of mine, he's a
chief pilot now at a flightschool down in Orange County.
And he would start laughing atme. All right, Jose, the basics.
Just work on the base. And I waslike, and then I started
thinking, Alright, I wasoutside, you know, doing my
thing. And next thing you know,it just comes like clockwork
naturally.
But yeah. I told him I was justpretending to be a student.

(32:40):
Just, you know, yeah. Keepingyou on your
toes. Yeah, see how you do?
Yeah, that's awesome. Well,let's talk jetpacks crazy, so
crazy to me, that we're sittinghere talking about jet packs. So
cool, real life iron woman overhere. What got you into that?

(33:04):
What What was your inspirationto start a jet pack?
Oh, well, I had like I said, Ikind of with the helicopters,
because I knew that I lovedflight and needed to carry on
flying and and helicopters willalways be my my deep passion.

(33:25):
But I didn't want to make acareer of that. So I was
thinking, Oh, how else do Ibring in flight? But take again,
so what were my strengths, mystrengths, being in innovation,
and I started looking around inI had my head in stats around
accident stats and, and came upwith a couple of concepts. But

(33:46):
that that felt that that wasn'tquite right. For now. I'll
revisit that when I make mymillions. Well, baby and, and so
I thought, Okay, well, what elseis there and I it was a pretty
tough time in my life, really,because I quit my career and I'd

(34:11):
separated with my husband andsold the house and, and got rid
of everything. And I sat insilence for six months just to
start to try to question Who amI and and start to really get to
know myself I felt like Icreated this personality of the
years that I had actually lostwho I was and then I realized

(34:31):
I'd never actually met who I wasand and so there was there was a
really kind of tough timeconfronting to kind of realize
that you you don't know yourselfand and so at the same time, you
know, not having any that's thatfamiliar stability and and to
have quit your career at thesame time and to not have any

(34:54):
income and, you know, kind ofkind of just threw everything
out At the same time, and so I'mthinking, Okay, well, what were
my strengths while they were ininnovation? And, and I went out
with a friend of mine and overover beers, I said to the two of
them, what would you do if youcould do anything in the world?

(35:16):
And Money's no object? Whatwould you do? Like what would
your passion be? What would youexplore? And they both came back
with astronauts. And I was like,Dell. Sorry, no, no.
No, the astronauts, you'relistening right now.

(35:37):
I can't imagine sitting still inthe same in a spaceship for so
long. I would be bored ofmindless. I mean, it would be
fun, fun for the first 10minutes. Okay, what do we do
now? There's nowhere to go. Soyeah, for me, okay. I think I've
dug my hole. So and so theysaid, Well, what would you do

(36:01):
then? And I said, Well, I wouldcircumnavigate Australia by
jetpack. And they were like, oh,okay, that's cool. Well, why
don't you do it? I thought, Ah,well, why don't I? And so that
started a year of research andreally understanding how
feasible is this? What would ittake? What would it cost? And,

(36:25):
and, and also going through theself narrative guy, you know,
one of the things I found reallyinteresting was, I would get
frustrated in the corporateworld with pitching in ideas
that I've, I really stronglybelieved were gonna be the next
big game changer. And anatomy,like, why is the CEO not, you

(36:46):
know, not seeing what I can see.
And then it came to my owndecision. So I was like, ah, but
now you're not backing yourself.
So why is that? What are whatare the things holding you back?
So if you're so convinced, and Irealized, you know, money has a
big thing to play in this andbut there were a lot of excuses

(37:08):
that I was giving myself thatthen I just had to self coach
myself out of and I was like,You know what, I'm going to do
it. I'm going to do it. And andthe way that I got my head
around that was, I thought tomyself, what's the real worst
that could happen? The worstthat could happen is I have no
money. And I ended up on thestreets. And you know what, I've

(37:28):
been very close to that before.
And I was able to get out. Soreally, is that something you
need to be fearful of? Well,mostly, I think it's pride that
gets in the way had that if thathappens, you know, the pride
gets hurt. But fundamentally, ifyou've been able to get through
it once before, then you've gotto be able to get through it
again. And so I thought, okay,all right. Well, let's do it all
in. That's let's go for this.

(37:52):
And it has been an emotionalroller coaster. One minute
feeling like yeah, I'm on top ofthe world. This is awesome. And
then let it go. What am I doing?
You know, why am I doing? And amI am I just making this all up
in my head? Am I crazy? Am Icrazy, right? By myself, Coach
says no, you're not crazy, Jen,that you, you know why you want

(38:15):
to do this, you know, I decidedthat I wanted to this life is
really, really short. And andfinance is people talk and
budget with money as if it's theonly finite resource in the
world. And it's not time is ouronly finite resource in the
world. And yet, we don't budgetit properly. We make excuses and

(38:38):
we don't get on and do things.
And I just think our life onthis planet is really short. So
I want to be able to kind ofcreate my life in the way that
I'd want it written. And and sothat kind of gave me permission
to go okay, well, what would thenext chapter look like and shit?
Yeah, I'd want to go and jetpackacross Australia. Of course, I

(39:01):
would want to do that in a book.
Yeah. So let's do it. And yeah,so I took the 12 months of
planning, and then I met DavidMayman from jetpack aviation.
Who's an Ozzy, and he happenedto be over here. And he he sat
down over lunch with me verygenerous with his time great
guy. And he, he's looked throughthe plans, he made a few minor

(39:25):
changes and said, Yeah, it'stotally possible. I'm like, oh
my god, it's barely possible.
I'm gonna do this training withhim. Did you just cold call him?
Yeah, yeah. I yeah,I'm Jan I want to fly a jet pack
across Australia. Can you helpme? Yeah,
it was very much yeah. Wow,that's one of the other things

(39:50):
that was a challenge. At first Iwas thinking how am I going to
get into this this world? Youknow, I don't have I don't have
the network in the abs. industryat all. And, you know, how do I
how do I very quickly build thatnetwork? And at first, my
narrative was like, oh, no, youcan't just go out and ask
people. And so then my selfcoaching would come in and go,

(40:12):
Well, why not? And like, oh,yeah, good idea. Why not?
Can Happen. Just say, yeah,what's the worst that could
happen?
Yeah. And and, and so yeah, andhe is, he's such an awesome guy,
you know, and I think him andRichard Browning as well from
from gravity, they're both sodown to earth and doing

(40:34):
something that is their passion.
And it kind of just wasreassuring to me to kind of go
Yeah, I get it. And I like, Ilike these people. And I like
this kind of vibe going on. Andthat's so important to be in
amongst an environment that isfull of, you know, supportive,
people that are just doing whatthey love and wanting to make

(40:55):
progress in the world. Soyeah, that's inspiring. Yeah,
that is inspiring. While seniorto got a lot of respect for you.
That's awesome.
All right, go getter. You know,I am, I've chatted with Richard
Browning a couple times viaemail. And, you know, I
literally just wrote in aninquiry onto the website, and
he's the one who answered me. Iwas shocked. I was like, wow, I

(41:18):
got the guy. I got the guy gotthe main guy. That's cool. You
know, and we exchanged a coupleemails. I was like, I'm gonna be
a jetpack pilot someday I'mgonna do it. And he was like,
Yeah, you should do it. I'mlike, Yeah, I will do it. But
like, I don't know how I'm gonnado it. Like, can I come over
there? And then they're like,Well, yeah, you can give us like
a, you know, whole bunch ofmoney and come over here and do
it. I'm like, I don't have awhole bunch of money. But you

(41:38):
know what, I'm gonna get someoneelse to pay for it someday. He's
like, Well, let me No, no, but Ihad invited him on to the
podcast and originally he wasyou know, all about and he got
really busy and it just ended upnot being able to happen at
least not not yet. We'll get himon here eventually. But yeah,
so I've flown I originally wentwith the David moments jetpack

(42:02):
and started my training overthere and you know, it's it's a
real beast of machine and I waswearing my Fitbit at the time
and just before my very firstflight, I thought oh, just check
this heart rate because I canfeel it through my clothes at
the moment. And I learned and Iwas like 135 or my heart rate
before I'd actually flown it andI'm like, Wow, this beats
exercise for sure pelotonYo, I try to tell you about that

(42:34):
in a minute. But the so so thenI flew that flew that jet pack
and it is it's, it requires alot of stability and it's it it
is a proper aircraft because youdo have hand controls to your
suit your you've got yourthrottle then you've got your

(42:57):
your and your other hand.
Because because you're kind ofall in a single line with your
body in the middle and thenyou've got the two engines
either side, any very slightmovement changes you see of g
and then actually moves youalong with it. So you have to be
really careful not to move yourlegs or and that's really

(43:19):
difficult. So if you suddenlyfeel propulsion, you know your
legs kind of want to move backand it's hard to keep them
together so you can see in mytraining videos where I'm trying
to cross my legs to stop one ofthem flailing out and then to
take take me along with it andwhat would without the tether
would be would be a seriouscrash. And so it was I knew with

(43:41):
that one that I was going torequire a lot of training to be
able to fly that off tether andconfidently and and feel safe
doing so and I kind of discountI'd seen the jet suit but I kind
of discounted it because I knowRichards you know former not
marine but you know formermilitary and and he's super fit

(44:06):
like he does that calisthenicsstuff and can hold himself
sideways on a bar whereas, youknow, I can hold on hold a plank
for about two seconds. And I waslike no, you know what, I am
never gonna be able to fly thatthing. And then my curiosity was
like kicking in and going wellthat's bit judgey of you Jen

(44:28):
like you should go and try itand test out your theory. And so
that's when I went over thereand and I flew it and the first
time flying that thing it Inever really thought that my
childhood had anything to dowith aviation or flying but the
minute that I flew that I reallyI recalled a very vivid

(44:51):
childhood dream where I wouldlift up my arms to fly and that
would have to push down reallyhard to take off. And it was one
of those frustrating recurringSometimes you take off and other
times you wouldn't. And ithappens to be like real life on
a jet suit. You take off,sometimes you don't. And, but
but the whole, the wholephysiology of pushing down to

(45:14):
lift off was exactly the same asthis dream. And it was just this
is it, I just knew then I had tomake this thing. It was always
like, what that dream was apremonition. And that's what I
chose to believe. And, and so Iknew I needed to actually fly
that one, rather than thejetpack, the difference being

(45:37):
that there are no controls on iton a jet suit, it's it's body
control, rather than a triggerfor your, for your throttle,
there's your the rest of it isall controlled by body movement.
And because you've got now atripod effect of all of your,
your thrust factors, it's like atricycle versus a unicycle. And

(45:58):
so you know, your stability ismuch harder to get wrong. And so
it feels just more intuitive andsafe. And from a controlling
perspective, it is an extensionof your own abilities, things
that you're more familiar with.
So for example, if you're in thewater, and you're swimming
along, and you want to turn tothe right, you, you would take
your left arm and you push itback, and you would and you

(46:20):
would turn to the right, well,that's exactly the same as what
you do with the thrust that youhave with the Jetsons. So
everything and then if you'refalling and you're falling to
the right, you would normallyextend your hand to push to stop
yourself from falling. And youdo that with the jet, certain
thrust will push you back. Soit's very, very natural, and
therefore makes it much easierto to learn but also much more

(46:42):
stable to fly. So I knew it hadto be that.
Yeah, so your throttle, is it asqueeze type of thing or is a
roll like, because you can'treally see your hand, it's a
trigger.
It's a trigger. Yeah. And andyou just keep it in all the

(47:02):
time. So in your in your leftarm sleeve, you, you you've got
a trim switch, and the trim wasset to the maximum power for for
when you pull the throttle rightin. So you can set that
according to your body weight,so that you get about the right
type of height. Now if you weregoing to do some really strong

(47:22):
banking angles, you would beable to trim up in flight, but
typically you're justcontrolling the thrust by moving
your arms. So the more that youmove your arms vector down, the
more lift, you're going to getup and and so if you want to
just reduce your, your altitudea little bit, then you're just
going to raise your arms up alittle bit rather than messing

(47:43):
around with the wheel throttleand trim. Yeah, and they just
makes it much smoother. Andagain, you feel much more in
control.
Is it the same on the other sidewith the yaw? Hand? You said you
have?
Your is is there's there's noyour controls? No no mechanical
linkages whatsoever. So it's,it's, like I say it's like the
swimming thing. So you're justmoving your arm back and you're

(48:06):
stuck. So there's two differentthings. You've got the jet pack
and then you have the jet suit.
Correct. So the jet pack is theone like the trim on it. Or what
the yaw on it? Yeah,it's got mechanical controls,
whereas the jet suit has nomechanical controls. So jet jet
soon it's it's like it's likesuper powered limbs. Really?

(48:27):
Whereas the aircraftYeah. How many hours do you have
flying your jet suit?
So following that? We talk inminutes minutes have you logged?

(48:50):
Well, so I actually haveprobably already about under two
hours, okay. Oh, yeah. Oh,yeah. How so to get really solo.
So I haven't I haven't done thatyet. So that's, that's what

(49:13):
we're building at the moment. Sothere's the I had done the
training, my intent was never tobuild my own. My intent was just
a fly across Australia with oneof their machines. And and I
went I was at Richard's place onand, and we will look at where

(49:33):
we're in his workshop. And Isaid to him, you know, so what
do you think like when somebodyelse like creates another one of
these and at the time, I didn'trealize it was going to be me.
He was like, he was like, oh,no, that's totally cool. Because
you know, this competition is agood thing. And I'm quite

(49:53):
confident that we can movequicker than anyone else. And,
and so it's like, oh, that's areally cool attitude. To Have
and when I flew back, I actuallylanded. And that was I was
supposed to be going back overto LA to do the jet pack
continue on the training there.
But COVID Then hit and theinternational travel bans kicked
in. And so that trip gotcanceled. And my prediction was

(50:16):
that that was going to be atleast a year, which turned out
to be true, it's probably goingto be another year from now even
for Australia, we're still notallowed to do international
travel. And, and so I thought,Okay, well, I can't afford to
not do too to wait that long.

(50:39):
And also, I just want to gettraining and do this. So what
are my options? Well, my onlyoption is to build my own. And
because I can't afford to buyone of theirs, and they don't
have them for sale anyway. So Igot to build my own. And that
was decided that in about Marchlast year, I think, yeah, March

(51:01):
last year. And so it took me agood six months to then find
somebody that could actuallybuild it. I knew what I wanted.
But, you know, can I actuallyput those parts together? No,
could I go and study it? It didcross my mind was like, Oh,
maybe I could just become anengineer. And

(51:22):
possible, there's alwayslearning.
Yeah, but I thought, Okay, well,two things wrong with that one
is time to get there. And if Idon't take the time, then the
risk of me getting it wrong and,and killing myself would kind of
defeat the purpose. So. So Idecided to find somebody and it

(51:43):
took me six months to find myengineer, but I did find him.
And he's the only person tosingle handedly build a rocket
rocket fuel jet pack. So theones that you see in there, like
the James Bond, movies from the60s, one of the very first ones
that you see lasts for about 23seconds in the air. But it's

(52:07):
like a crazy basic machine,there's there's very, there's
very little control when ittakes off. It's kind of from
nothing to you, right, you'rethere. So there's no gentle
progression forward. And so hebuilt he built that single
handedly and Bill Souteractually sent him an email to
congratulate him saying, I don'tknow how you managed to do that,

(52:29):
you know, this is it took him alot of people to to build their
version, the bell version. Soand so I was like, Okay, I
phoned him up, and I said, Hey,you know, I am doing this thing
with an I want to build a jetsuit. And he was like, I was

(52:53):
hoping you're gonna ask me that.
Like, Oh, really? And so yeah,so then we worked together for
nine months. That was inSeptember last year, and it's
taken us nine months to get themachine built. But all of that
time, we've only ever spokenover the phone. And so I'm
sending him up, you know, jetengines and and new computers

(53:17):
and all of this stuff. And I'venever actually met the guy until
about three weeks ago, so Oh,wow. Yeah, I'm like I said to
him, I'm like EA you're not ascammer.
I'm like, Fischer, engineer thatyou've just been sending. parts

(53:44):
to imagineyou can imagine the new story
like What idiot does thatI think he might have killed
Oh my god. I love yourconscience voice like earlier.

(54:08):
I love to hear the innerthoughts.
Like as like very judgy of you,Jen, you know early and now and
now you're like, Oh my God. I'mGod. He lives in a scam
I shouldn't say that. Actually.
They should I do have thesevoices in my head. I

(54:29):
don't we all we all do.
Yeah, but I have what I call myhousemate and my housemate is
like the real rational one. AndI feel like I'm I'm actually the
kind of the five year old kidthat never wants to grow up and
is just there. Yeah, we could doanything and then the house mate
comes in and get her Jen. Right.
We really need to think thisthrough and I'm like, Oh, God, I

(54:50):
roll. Do we have to? Yeah, yeah,things you shouldn't say
publicly.
Yeah, no, that's going in. Yeah,it's definitely going in. Damn.
Dang. Gotta do the first day.
Got to do the first day of theshow. Season two, episode one.

(55:14):
Dang, yeah.
I actually spelled spell it da,M N No. So sorry. In English
Australia. Like, dang, I couldtry that.

(55:35):
So what's your timeline? Soyou've, we've talked about a
little bit, but for ourlisteners, so you've built the
pack, or the suit, and you'restarting to now build the
training facility with thetether and everything so that
you can start practicing.
Yeah, so actually, it's the FallProtection System arrived this

(55:57):
morning at Sydney MotorsportPark, who are fantastic folks
who just loved loved the idea ofwhat I'm doing and just said,
Yeah, you know, we want topartner with you. They've got
the there's a new Australianmotorsport innovation precinct
opening next year and they'veasked me to be the founding one

(56:19):
of the founding partners withthem for innovation and
technology. And so they've givenme like fantastic space above
turn five, that there's kind ofelevated area that overlooks the
the hole of the circuit and soI'm building a flight stage
there that will have this fullprotection system or engineered

(56:41):
in with it to make it totallysafe and putting a briefing
Lounge on there as well withlike a spectator area. And so
that should be finished in withthe rest of the stuff arrives at
the end of this month. So apartfrom the brick and lads, roofing
loads will come in aroundAugust, but the training at
least the training thing, so wecan get flying, we'll be in a

(57:03):
matter of weeks now. So the wedid our first test slider the
beginning of June, that's when Ifirst met Dhaka face to face.
And yeah, it went exceptionallywell, you know, I after years of
working in innovation, myexpectations are always there's
going to be a lot of big thingsthat you're going to need to

(57:25):
change and over iteration, theybecome smaller, and you get to a
point where you go, Okay, that'senough for us to actually roll
with. But actually, there was noreally significant engineering
challenges with it at all, itwas exceptionally stable. And to
actually just lift off your neckmachine was just oh my god so

(57:47):
cool. He was so awesome. Yeah.
And, and to Yeah, it's kind ofsurreal, though, as well,
because you've been working onit for so long. And and it made
me realize how accustomed towhatever you start doing when
you when you do it enough, youjust it no longer becomes that
thing. That's kind of amazing.

(58:09):
It's just It's just what you'redoing, you know, and it's but
but actually flying it was wassensational. So there are some
things that we need to change onit, we're we're currently going
to look at reducing the weightin there. So we kind of knew
that we would need to do that.
And we're going to change someof the trim settings in the
electronics. And then we'll takeit down to the training center

(58:34):
and be able to do some properflights. So the so the test
flights were all run on a singlepoint tether, which was was bit
frustrating because it was sostable as they don't want to fly
this now. And I can't becauseI'm stuck on a single point.
Yeah, so So I can't wait to getthat down and

(58:57):
then and then your housematestarted speaking up and was
like, andI did have a Rao with her like,
on the last flight of the day.
And Dhaka the my engineer said,so you want to do one more fly?
And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then my housemate was goingJan just leave it here. You're
kind of getting to the pointwhere you get to get tired,

(59:18):
you're gonna make mistakes,you're gonna be pissed off if
you don't do this properly. Andreally, the way you're How am I
felt like the five year old inthe back of the car soaking. So
we should have done it. Isuppose I should have just
you'llhave plenty of time. I sounds
like it sounds like you're gonnahave an entire continent to

(59:38):
cross.
Yeah, I mean, it's further thanthe distance of the diameter
Moon, which was kind of like,whoa, whoa, I didn't know.
that's mind blowing.
So yeah, so you're gonna buildthe training facility and how
long is it going to take you Doyou think before you're going to
feel ready and safe I mean, Iguess you're not going to know

(01:00:01):
until you start training. Butyeah, that's right. I mean,
based on my experience withflying, gravity's jet solos, it
takes like a couple of days, andyou feel pretty confident to do
that. One of the other bigchallenges for me is that
exercise thing I've just, I justcan't, you know, I, I, on the

(01:00:23):
one hand, I believe in the powerof the mind, and that you can
overcome anything that you want.
And then I've got exercise, andit's like, That one doesn't fit
into that. Just don't like it.
And I keep trying it. And I keeptrying to convince myself yeah,
you'd love it. You love it, youlove it, and it just doesn't
work. So there is always a waythough, right? So I thought,

(01:00:46):
Okay, well, how do I overcomethis challenge of the
physicality because I'm gonnareally need it to do you know,
what is going to be around 16flights a day, every day, for at
least 60 days. So that's, youknow, it's, it's a lot. So
that's like doing seven minutesof planking 16 times a day,

(01:01:06):
everyday for 60 days. And thisis for somebody who can last
about two seconds on a on ablanket at the moment. So so it
was a problem that, you know, ininnovation, they say, you know,
you've got to pick, you got topick a big enough problem we're
solving. So this was my bigenough problem was solving. So I
started researching, okay, howdo we overcome this thing, I'm

(01:01:28):
looking at rehabilitationcapabilities. And I came across
exosuits. And I had been over tothe University of California,
and had seen some of the hardexosuits. But they're all really
bulky, they do the job, they cansupport your limbs really well,
but they're all bulky and weighton on the jet suit is, is not

(01:01:51):
something you want. So then Iwas researching it more, and I
came across this guy who hadinvented the first soft exosuit.
So pretty much like material andlook like a normal code. And so
I contacted him. I was like,Okay, this is a theme. And if
you if you see something, justcontact them. And I didn't hear
from him for about a month. AndI was like, ah, yeah, fair

(01:02:16):
enough. And I didn't want to bethat hounding person even though
many entrepreneurs go Oh, yeah,just keep hounding people. I
don't know. It's just not in myway of doing things. So I
didn't, I didn't follow up. AndI just thought, Okay, we'll
leave that we'll keepresearching other ways. And then
he just contacted me otherblues, like, Oh, I just came
across this. And it was in adifferent folder, blah, blah,

(01:02:38):
blah. And I would love to help.
And I'm like, Wow, that'sawesome. And so within 24 hours,
he put together a propositionand, and got a team together.
He's now got about six peopleworking on it. I think he's
Italian guy, Lorenzo Marzia. Heis a professor at Heidelberg

(01:03:00):
University. And he and his teamhave their own inventing the
world's first bionic fly suit.
And so this will this will take,he said to me, Look, we can take
100% off of your shoulders firedby this thing. And I was like,
Okay, well, maybe not 100%.
Maybe we could just go to 80.
Because if something like a flylands on my face, and I'm not

(01:03:23):
feeling anything, I'm quitelikely to just put my hand up.
80,000you're likely to encounter some

(01:03:45):
flies across the desert, I'msure.
Yeah, exactly. Building that.
And we should get to test thatpretty soon as well. So you've
made really good progress. Andwe've got dan de uneasy who are
the they do a lot of dynamicsports, protective gear, so
mostly like Moto GP and all ofthat kind of stuff. And when you

(01:04:08):
think about the jet suit and howI'll be flying it, it's actually
very similar profile to Moto GP,in that I'm not going to be
flying very high off the ground,because you want as much forward
motion and with the lack ofendurance on these things. You
don't want to waste time goingup. So it's very much a forward
motion. And so it made sense tohave these kind of Moto GP

(01:04:31):
equipment. And those guys said,yeah, we'd love to support you
on this journey. And so we'vebeen testing out flying with
their jackets, which will beintegrated with the bionic fly
suit. And yeah, it's all comingtogether. It's like kind of
surreal. Cool.
You made it happen.

(01:04:53):
Yeah, well, I think so. I don'tknow. He
made the he made the calls. Hegot really smart people working
with you. Got it. Like it'sgonna,
you know, I think the beauty ofit is when you find something
you're passionate about, it'svery hard to hide that passion.
And and people want to beinvolved with other people that
are passionate about things. Imean, like I said, Life is so

(01:05:14):
short, why would you want tospend it like moping around,
like, get out there and have funand be amongst people that are
like minded in that sense aswell. So I've been very lucky,
but I haven't met Lorenzo. Somaybe he's the scammer.

(01:05:34):
exoskeleton suit on Amazon?
Oh, my God. Yeah, then you gottafall back on all of your
criminal mind studies and figureout what made Lorenzo do this.
What's meant to happen? Yeah. Sopretty good. I got a number of

(01:05:55):
people like, you know,supporting, supporting this.
And, yeah, it's just going to begoing through the training, I've
actually flown the same route byhelicopter. And the, it's, you
know, as long as the terrainstays interesting, it's okay.
But there's part of WesternAustralia, which is just plain

(01:06:18):
desert, and it's like nothing tosee four hours in the
helicopter. And it will take metwo weeks to get across that
part alone. By jet soon, andit's going to be the most boring
thing ever. I mean, even flyingin the helicopter and
doing a little five minutestints. So logistically, how

(01:06:41):
many vehicles are you going tohave following you are you going
to have a helicopter followingyou as well, just in case you
get injured, and you have to bemedivac. Or
to tell about it, it's nothing,nothing firm in terms of the
helicopter, they will though,the minimum viable solution is
to have the support vehicle,which we're going to need to

(01:07:01):
have to carry the fuel drums aswell. And to do the refill. So
the idea is that we'll we'll beI'll be flying along and a light
will go off on my shoulder whenI'm down to 30 seconds of fuel
and we will converge and do ahot refuel and then keep going
on to try and get the you know,the endurance going and also to

(01:07:25):
not keep stop starting theengines isn't great for the
engines, so so that that's theplan, that's the theory. And to
have to make sure that we've gotsomebody who knows the basics of
first aid the engineer to, tomake sure those fixing, fixing
things as we go, because it willneed to maintenance overhauls

(01:07:49):
whilst and through that journeyas well, the engines will so six
engines that we need need to gothrough so there's there's a lot
of stuff that needs to happen inthat. But I also I don't know
whether this is just me, youknow, my five year old child
again is kind of going Oh, but Ialso want to do two other really
cool stuff whilst I'm doing thisjourney and do some other you

(01:08:13):
know, like fun stuff, chasingChasing Cars and doing little
races and, and things like that.
But I should probably conservemy energy as I'm going across
and we'll see how we go. I don'tI don't expect this to be
anything in any remote form ofenjoyment whatsoever. This is
going to be for me about thechallenge the power of the mind.

(01:08:36):
You know, like I say I have thistheory that you can adjust your
and reframe your way of thinkingto overcome any form of
adversity. And this is meputting it to the ultimate test
because I really hate exercise.
And this is something thatrequires fitness. I mean,
there's a couple of people goingoh, yeah, so you're an athlete.

(01:08:57):
And I'm like if that ever getsput in the media with me and the
word athlete, yeah. Smokingsomething. Yeah, I've just
absolutely the opposite end ofathlete and so this is about me
going okay, can I actually overhow much of this can I overcome?

(01:09:21):
And I'm okay with the pain inthe challenge of things. But am
I when it's really put to theextreme like this? This is this
is all about self learning,again, I guess and the curiosity
and hopefully I'll be able tohelp others kind of look within
themselves and kind of go okay,well, how can I challenge some

(01:09:42):
of my own restrictive orlimiting theories that I have
the things that are reallypreventing me I really do
believe it's just a mindset andthat we can release. So much of
that just if we if we care toattempt to take the attention to
itYeah, so obviously you're gonna
be camping along the way. Yeah.

(01:10:05):
Wow yeah that's insane that'swhat I yeah, I'll be I'll be
right there with you Jen if Ican get my travel exemption
I need some other gonna bethere. Oh I made the more other
energy that I get there and indistraction from the pain of
doing it myself like the better.
Yeah I don't know how thesepeople who the girl who the 16

(01:10:29):
year old that went across theocean on our own I'm like wow
that's like serious. Wow. Yeahthat's strength
but if you put like rollerbladeson and you know just got on the
road with the Jetpack is thereis there
it would be useless with balanceon things like, you know, I

(01:10:54):
think it was before like, what?
Why not the hoverboard and andthings like that. Well, I'm
useless like my mates used toskateboard. When I was a teen
and I've like a Nah, that's notgoing to happen. Like my, my
balance on my feet. I don't knowwhether it's like I've got big
feet. And I just think thatthat's an impediment. Well, my
sister tells me that it shouldmake me swim better. Because I

(01:11:17):
have my own inbuilt flippers.
I feel you Jen. Right. Right.
They were the size nines, right?
Maybe it's the pilot thing.
Yeah,maybe maybe we can reach the
pedals better. Yeah, exactly.

(01:11:39):
Crazy. Yeah.
But um, yeah. So so thehoverboard and anything that
involves feet and balance now?
I'm better with arm controls.
Andyeah, but he should get some get
some yoga. And beforethat he word again.

(01:12:00):
You can get some balancingtechniques.
Yeah, you know, I know I coulddo it. But I just yeah, the
desire factor for it. Yeah,yeah, you'll
have your you'll have your suit.
It's gonna help a lot.
Exactly, exactly. And I knowthat the minute that I'm out

(01:12:23):
there doing this, and I thinkthat the trigger point for the
exercise is likely to come. WhenI'm doing the training, when
I've got the flight center upand running properly, and I can
actually do more training on it.
I'm going to start feelingfrustrated like I did when I was
flying gravity's because I liketo get myself to a point where

(01:12:44):
I'm mentally fatigued, where Ikind of go, I can't learn
anymore, I'm at capacity. Andand getting frustrated with that
is, is I'm good with that. Butwhat I found was that I was I
was still had the mentalcapacity to learn so much more
with the flying on the jet suit.
But my physical capability couldnot allow me to go further. And

(01:13:08):
that really gave me the shit. SoI was like, Okay, I think this
is going to be the point where Igo, I now have a, I now have a
need and a desire that's greaterthan my frustration for
exercise. So that's my theory isthat that will happen. And then
I'm going to start at leasttraining my shoulders to do it's

(01:13:28):
there. The hardest part is thelateral arm raise that you have
to do. Both you do that one onlanding. But when you're when
the engines are spooling up andyou're putting up the throttle
just to make sure that they theybalance you hold your arms out
to the sides with the lateralarm raise and and so you've got

(01:13:48):
like over five kilos per arm,that you're holding up in that
position until they've spooledup properly and they're balanced
and then you then you go down.
And it doesn't sound a lot butdoing doing that repetitively,
definitely extra shoulders andthen what happens is your
shoulder well for me, whathappened is my shoulder got
weak, and that actually impactedmy ability to keep my arms

(01:14:11):
straight with thrust. So asyou're leaning into the thrust,
I felt my elbow would move justa fraction like a millimeter or
so. But that changed thedirection of the thrust to
follow up through my arm,forearm and out with not up to
my shoulder, which makes you dothis wonderful Wonder Woman
looking thing, but not so goodif you're not on a tether, so I

(01:14:34):
will need to do some exercisebut I need to have that that
that crushed point that says youknow what? Your desire to do
this flight now gives you thepermission to go off and and
fight that aversion to exercisetheory and theory. So on a scale
from one to 10 How do Dress isjet suit flying.

(01:15:03):
I think it's like any kind ofmachinery or any vehicle that it
depends on how you use themachine as to what the danger
level is within it, I don't seemyself as a risk taker at all, I
do a lot of research aroundeverything that I choose to do,

(01:15:25):
and understand as much about itas as possible. And if I feel
that there's a significant risk,then I won't take it. So
managing the risk in this isaround maintaining a low height
off of the ground. So I kind ofthink it through in terms of
would I be happy falling off theplatform with the weight of the

(01:15:51):
fuel and the jet suit andfalling on my face. So I'm not
going to be flying at 50 feet,I'm going to be flying like
inches above the ground, andpartially because of, of wanting
to get as much forward movementas possible, efficiently without
using the time to go upwards,but also from a safety

(01:16:13):
perspective. So if you thinkabout that, compared to
something like a motorcycle, andwhy you're, you know, you're
you're up a little bit furtherand and you're kind of getting
similar speeds. Is it muchdifferent than that? I don't
think so. Yeah, we've got we'vegot systems, we've got engines,
and you put through a number offilters on there to make sure

(01:16:36):
that we're protected from thingswhen we're going across the
desert for the air intakes andmaking sure that that's, that's
all protected. But of course,things can go wrong with that.
And this is a new technology.
But if you're flying low to theground, and you've got safety
gear on and you know, I will bewearing a helmet, I will be
wearing the protective clothingfrom day uneasy, and I'm not

(01:16:59):
going to cut corners in safety.
And one of the things throughthe designers we were looking
at, okay, well, what what othersafety mechanisms can we build
in? And so we've been looking athow we build engine redundancy.
And one of the things that we'llbe testing on the flight

(01:17:20):
training center is what? How canhow can we try to get this so
that if one engine goes, theothers cut out at the same time,
that because we've got sixengines on ours, and so that
you've you've still got threeengines running? What is the
effect of that? Is there any wayto cushion it, even if it can't

(01:17:41):
withhold the total weight, soyou might drop a little bit,
cushioning it rather than justcompletely throwing you off
kilter? Because one of the oneof the tripod legs is gone
versus the others. So thingslike that, where we're testing
through and, and, and everythingas we've been going through is
okay, great. Well, if we cut outon X, Y, Zed, what is the impact

(01:18:02):
of safety? What is the the newlevel of risk, and I've set up
safe, safe work managementsystem and done all the risk
assessments in there as welland, and been really thorough
around that that safety side ofthings. And so it just, it
doesn't eliminate the risk. Butit certainly makes you

(01:18:23):
understand exactly what you'redoing and makes you think about
in those circumstances, what arethe multiple ways that I might
be able to to minimize theimpact or the effect of things
going wrong, but there is theinevitable, you know, engine
failure, you're going to hit theground. And and being at low
height, it's going to hurt. Butare you going to die? Unlikely,

(01:18:47):
I would sayyeah, I wonder how you know,
strong winds are going to affectyou if you can only go 30 miles
an hour and you have a 30 knotwind,
huh? Yeah, not not a lot. Andyou know, it's not the, because
you're wearing it and the humanis the fuselage. There's not a

(01:19:09):
lot of aerodynamics forces yourown or platforms on there to
help you give you lift oranything like that. I guess
there's a there's a case forsaying well actually because
it's not aerodynamic then youmight be more impacted by by the
force of wind going against you.
But the thrust on this thing andthe stability because you've got

(01:19:29):
the triangle effect. And becauseyou're low to the ground is is
is going to it's not going to bethe same as again, this is this
is what I believe to be the casemay end up being different.
We're certainly trialing all ofthese different things so, but
not not the same as what youmight feel with a larger

(01:19:50):
aircraft like a like ahelicopter or plane has a bigger
fuselage Let's see was theimpact of of that wind force
telling more of that form? Drag?
Exactly.
Yeah, that was far more eloquentweights.

(01:20:14):
Profile. Then you'll you'll havelegitimate skin drags skin
friction, actual skin frictionnow, recovering. Luckily,
hopefully that suit that you'rewearing is going to have a lot
of fire protection. I'm sureshe'll be built into it. So, you
know, what are the chances oflike, I'm sure you've got,

(01:20:37):
you've got hot air coming out ofthe bottom of those engines
where you're producing thethrust. How hot does that
actually get? Can you burn yourlegs on that or like on a
muffler?
Well, you could so if you had anaccident, and you pointed the
the engines directly at yourlegs, and you didn't let go with
the throttle, then yes, but Imean, the chances that your

(01:20:59):
natural instinct is to let gothe throttle when you let go the
throttle that goes to idle,there's a kill switch as well.
And at idle, you can run yourhand underneath the engines and
yeah, it's warm, but it's notgonna you know, it's it's not
gonna burn you. Not what youmight expect, right? Yeah.
flammability while it uses jetfuel. So jet fuel is way less
flammable than diesel. And andso you know, that's, Is that

(01:21:24):
likely to blow up into flames?
No, not really. So yes, the heatif you land on, like the
exhaust, well, that's going tobe hot. But we've got exhaust
protections on there. And we'vegot materials that also reduce
the amount of heat that getsexposed fire, those heat
shields. So that's all kind ofbeen looked at and minimized as

(01:21:48):
well. Yeah, so I have to do Ifeel that it's it's a risky
thing. No, not at all. Actually,I don't, I feel pretty safe. I
think it's people'sunfamiliarity with Acacia
capability. And because I'm soclose, and I know what's gone
into it from a safetyperspective. Yeah, it's just a

(01:22:08):
lot of people feel that this newand unfamiliar thing is going to
be right, really scary. And it'skind of like, well, I should
probably allow that marketinghype. Right,
right. Yeah. Yeah, this isreally dangerous. No, yeah. Do
it, but I'm not. And I know foreverything that is anti anti

(01:22:37):
risk, where possible,what, um, what does your family
think of the mission? As far asyou undertaking this mission?
Um, my mum kind of closes hereyes and doesn't doesn't like to
think about it too much. And soshe, she hears what I'm doing.
And it's like, oh, yeah, that'sreally good. Just don't tell me
any details. Yeah, they're,they're all. They're all kind of

(01:23:04):
like, it's Jen. You know, it'sJen doing her thing. It's not
really a surprise to any ofthem. I don't think, you know,
my kids really like blase about?
Can you just do that? Yeah.
That's cool. That's pretty cool.
No thoughts, kids. Which isreally good. Because, you know,

(01:23:26):
I don't want it to be hyped uparound this really big thing.
It's not, it's not about thespectacle, it, it's, it's for
me, it's, for me, a test of thehuman mind. And that's really
what it's all about. And, and II just want to learn through
that I want to test my theoriesand learn through that and, and

(01:23:49):
share my learnings with peoplein the hope that maybe somebody
else will be inspired to dosomething different for
themselves. I mean, my myultimate would be to see other
people fighting into their ownadversity. You know, that's the
thing that really inspires me asis. It's not it's not people,

(01:24:10):
it's behavior that that inspiresme and seeing, seeing people
using the power of the mind toreframe things and overcome
significant adversity thatalways just, I'm always in tears
when I see anything. Oh.
So inspiring.

(01:24:30):
Absolutely. Firing, you know,and it's just, it's just
amazing. It amazes me how muchof our mind is how much control
we have over how we feel andperceive things and how that
affects everything about us. Andit's all just a matter of our
choice of interpretation. And I,I believe that many people don't

(01:24:56):
see it as a choice. They thinkthings are happening to them or
they other people are doingthings. And it's, it's when you
learn to take the responsibilitythat this is a choice and you
have chosen to do, you know, tofeel that way or to perceive
that somebody is attacking you,or you can turn it around. And
you can say, well, actually, no,they're not. And, and that

(01:25:16):
changes everything. It makeslife so much more, you know,
approachable and makes you feelso much more empowered. When you
take responsibility for how youchoose to see, perceive, behave
and feel about things. And it'syeah, it's, it opens up so many
doors that in fact, at times,it's kind of like, ah, it was an

(01:25:39):
easier life when you realizewhen, when you didn't believe
that you had so many choices.
Now, it's like, oh, there's somuch choice, like, how am I
going to get it all done?
Yeah, I mean, that's justletting go of the victim
mentality. And like you said,realizing that you're
responsible, response able,you're able to respond to
situations and things that arehappening in and around you that

(01:26:02):
you can choose, like you said,as a choice to either look at it
one way, or look at it in asuper negative way and feel like
the victim. And yeah, I've heardthat from a lot of very
successful people, is justletting go of victim mentality
when things are going wrong. Andmoving forward and pursuing your
dreams and just going at it.

(01:26:22):
Just that's one thing I've gotin similarity to those guys. And
yes,no, you're kidding. Similar to
what guys, you are the guys, youare the success story. And,
yeah, I just met you, but I'm soproud of you.

(01:26:44):
I am a truly a big fan senoritathat you have an amazing story.
And I wish you nothing but thebest. I mean, I'm just blown
away by man, everything that youwere talking about today, but a
journey. To say the least to saynow that's a book you should
write. However, yeah, anyway.
Yeah, just your story. BiographyNo,

(01:27:05):
there's that there was the onlybook that I really enjoyed
reading when I was young was onecalled choose your own
adventure. And I really feellike life is exactly that you go
through and you have to, like,strength and my and then you
choose which page you want toturn to, to carry on the
journey, and it just feels likelife is is this, you can choose

(01:27:29):
your own adventure. And you canchoose to turn the page whenever
you want to. And I just thinkthat's beautiful. You know, just
I love those.
That feeling stuck. And one ofthe other most important
learnings through all of this isthat the feeling of being stuck

(01:27:49):
is just an opportunity forgrowth. And it's not a failure.
And I think that the negativitythat that people put around
feeling of failure, it hasmassive consequence to you
personally, and it's a reallyhard thing to get out of. I
mean, I've seen some really darkdays through this through this
process and have had to have alot of self coaching to get out

(01:28:10):
of some of those, some of thosepoints. But yeah, I mean, you
have to know that you have thepower within to reframe anything
and, and cheap to get yourselfup and out. And to have somebody
there to support you and rallyyou in the background as well as

(01:28:30):
incredibly has has beenincredibly important to me to
get through those stages. Butfor those out there, you're not
a failure. If you're feelingthose things. You're feeling
human. That's what makes ushuman, because that's what makes
us not robots, you know, we havethese feelings, we have these
emotions, they will bring youdown, but they bring you down so
that you can feel the up evenhigher. And I know that possibly

(01:28:53):
sounds a little bit wonky. It'snot meant to not be at all,
but you know that you will getthrough it and you will learn
something so much more. I'd muchprefer the highs and the lows
than then the consistent line ofmediocrity.
Well said, beautifully spokenthis whole thing is just this

(01:29:16):
has been a very probably one ofmy favorite interviews actually
so far. No offense to any of ourprevious guests. We love ya
know, this is gonna be a greatseason opener really excited and
thank you so much for taking thetime and I'm glad that we were
able to figure out the time.
Yeah.
That was That was so funny. AndI didn't even I didn't catch it

(01:29:39):
either. Good luck witheverything we're rooting for you
on this side of the pond. Andyeah, well, I'll be they'll be
in touch we'll be chatting soon.
Thanks, guys wow, what DoriDaniel, I feel really bad about

(01:30:02):
myself right now hearingeverything that she's
accomplished in her whole life.
I mean, obviously, no, I don'tfeel bad about myself. But what
an inspiring story, like growingup in the country in Australia
teaching herself code.
Who does that? Who does that?
Who does a genius? Does? Ihave? A super motivated?

(01:30:24):
What's up? Miss Elon? Musk?
Vilonia? Musk?
No, like, yeah, no, she, she's ago getter for sure. Yeah. And
then having a go througheverything she went through, and
having the desire and the willto change, essentially her
image, you know, and get intoflying?

(01:30:44):
Yeah, I think that, you know,one of the biggest takeaways
from her story is that it'snever too late to pursue a new
dream. You know, she has workedin innovation her entire life.
And in a sense, we're talkingabout self innovation as well,
you know, continuing to grow andlearning new things and keeping

(01:31:06):
that observing eye open allaround you and finding new
things in life to aspire to andto learn. I think everybody at
some point should ask themselvesexactly what she asked all of
her friends that one day whenthey were having lunch, like if
you could do anything in theworld, if money wasn't even an
issue, what would you do? Andthen whatever comes to mind,

(01:31:30):
just figure out a way to do it.
And that's kind of what she did.
She you know, we talked aboutthis all the time with finding
the right people and finding theright mentors. And, you know,
being willing to make that phonecall to make that cold call and
just say, Hey, this is me. Andthis is what I want to do. Can
you help me? And you know, inthis instance, wala found the
right people what would you do?
If I could do anything in theworld? Definitely not fly a jet

(01:31:53):
pack across a jet pack? Don'tget me wrong. But man that's
that's gonna be quite the trek.
You know, she can only go andfive minute hops. That's
redonkulous for over 2000 miles.
That's it's gonna takea while. That's what I told her

(01:32:14):
man. Get on. Get thoserollerblades on.
I think that that's actually agenius idea. I think that would
make her go a lot faster. Timeand a half but needs to be like
those big, like big has to bepretty big blades that are just
going across the desert. Youknow? Oh, yeah. Like,
down like the I thought she'sstaying on like, the road. She's

(01:32:35):
cutting crops?
She I don't know. Is there aroad that goes all the way
across? I don't know. I don'tknow, either. I think so. I
mean,yeah, you're right. Because all
the supply. Yeah, Imean, you'd have to have all the
trucks and you know,if you're staying on a highway.
Yeah. Why not? You know, justget your rollerblades on and
cook. True. True. Go get thosenos boosters.

(01:33:01):
I mean, uh, yeah, I can't evenimagine she's gonna have to
learn how to exercise man,because there's no way she's
gonna be able to do that. Shecan't even hold a plank.
Jennifer, get up your butt tothe gym. No, you know what, and
that's the beauty of what what?
You know what she was saying?
She's like, find a problem bigenough to solve it. And her

(01:33:23):
hatred for exercise is bigenough to have to figure out a
way around it. And she got theright team to build her a flight
suit that will take all thatweight off her shoulders.
Yeah, the exoskeleton. I meanwas x x x Oh, skeleton shell X,
Alex. Oh.

(01:33:43):
Yeah, man. Well, you know what,we are totally rooting for her.
We've learned so much from thestory about just believing in
yourself and going after thethings that you want in life and
always learning always changingand staying curious. That's man,
stay curious. Stay curious. Staycurious, my friends. We'll catch
you next time on The forever onthe fly podcast. Don't forget,

(01:34:05):
like, subscribe, you know, leaveus a little message. We'd love
to hear from you guys. I mean,it's like, you know, that's
everything. That's what keeps usgoing. And anytime we get a
positive comment or review onour, on our apple podcasts, it
always brings a big smile to ourface, and it brightens up our
day. So even just a privatemessage of letting us know that

(01:34:26):
you guys are enjoying the show.
We always love to hear from you.
Like yeah, well thank youeverybody and have a wonderful
day.

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