Melvin Williams-@melthetraveler

Here at the Forever on the Fly podcast we not only celebrate pilots, but the men and women behind the curtain. The ones turning wrenches, keeping our aircraft flying, and keeping us safe in the skies. Melvin Williams not only is a pilot, but an instructor B737 Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic (A&P ) for Delta. Mel is here to share his incredibly unique journey on his path to Delta, how he made his plan to finance his flight training, how to handle those checkride jitters, and his aerobatic dreams for the future. You guys might know him as @melthetraveler on Instagram, if you don't already go ahead and give him a follow! Stick around until the very end of the episode for Diane and Jose's top 10 ways to handle those checkride jitters!

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:02):
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast
what up AV nerd and welcome toforever on the fly podcast, your
bi weekly dose of aviationinspiration, education and
entertainment. My name is Jose.
And I'm Diane and we're here toget you guys hooked on aviation.
So senorita pretty much inspiredme the past two weeks to get

(00:30):
back in shape. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
So you know, from start to getthose gains, you know? Yeah,
like you're talking about youlook good. Flex.
Doing the dance. Yeah.
That's awesome. That's actuallygoing really well.

(00:52):
I see on your stories, you'rerunning your bike bike and
got a dietician a personaltrainer, do yoga in the morning.
It's amazing.
Start investing in your ownpersonal health and well being
and investing in you.
Oh, no, for sure. You know, Igot like, my confidence is like,
Yeah, I mean, you didn't reallyneed help with your confidence.
But I thought I muted this part.
Calibrate tell everybody yourmain pickup line.

(01:20):
Alright. For all you gentlemenout there, go ahead and write
this down. This works 50% of thetime, every time. So you walk up
to senorita no matter where orit could be a gentleman, you
know, depending on yourpreference. So you get up to
somebody and go Excuse me, MissThank you drop something. 99.9%

(01:44):
of the time, they're going to belike super serious. And they're
going to be like, Oh my God,what did I drop and they look
down. And then you like, yourstandards, my name. Your name is
x, whatever it is. And thenWell, typically the last like I
said, it's 50% of the time,every time
here on The forever on the flypodcast. We not only celebrate

(02:07):
pilots and theiraccomplishments, but we're also
here to celebrate the guysbehind the curtain. You know the
ones that are out there turningwrenches, keeping our aircraft
flying and keeping us safe inthe skies. Our next guest is not
only a pilot, but an instructor737 airframe and powerplant
mechanic or a NP mechanic forDelta.
He's here to share with us avery unique journey to Delta,

(02:29):
how he made a plan to financehis flying dreams his side
business aerobatic plans for thefuture, and how to handle those
checkride jittersyou guys might know him as Mel,
the traveler on Instagram. Stickaround for the end of the
episode, we're gonna have top 10ways you can help those
checkride jitters Eric Yeah. NowWilliams, I am a 737 Maintenance

(02:51):
instructor. Hey, I'm MelvinWilliams, and I'm ever on the
fly.
What's up? Welcome to the show,man. Thanks for coming. And
yeah, thanks for taking yourtime to come on the show and
chat with us about aviation andyour career and what you've been

(03:14):
up to and where you're flying tonext. Yeah, thanks
for having me. I appreciate youguys.
We are in the navy or Air Force,by the way, brother. No, no, I
gotcha. Yeah.
Air Force and Navy classes rightnow. Because we also have that
contract and delta so god, yeah.
Okay. Yeah, cuz we saw thepicture of you in front of the

(03:35):
Navy bird, so we weren't sure.
Oh, yeah. So that's, uh, sothat's Marsh Shetty. S 211. It's
an Italian trainer. And there'sa buddy of mine who I met on
Instagram. His name is ChrisHolmes. He's an instructor at
Victory aviation down in Denton,Texas. And they fly those

(03:58):
airplanes so you know, they dolike formation flight so you can
get type rated in it if you wantto if you have a shit ton of
money you can do it. And youknow he took me on a flight that
day just to kind of you know,show me what he was dealing with
down air and stuff like that. Sothat's that picture. Okay, got
it. Got it. They put the Navytag on it. I mean, it looks like

(04:18):
a T 45 Navy trainer but it's notit's a machete has to 11
Isn't that always the case? Aslong as you have a shit ton of
money you can do a lot of stuffin aviation. Everyone's like so
what do you what do I need to bea pilot and to get involved in
aviation? I'm like, money.

(04:41):
Exactly.
Got fun money. You got to findit from somewhere. It costs a
lot. It's an expensive hobbycareer to get into. Can you tell
us just a little bit aboutyourself where you from? Where
do you work now? Where'd yougrow up?
Okay, let's see. Where do Istart? There's a laundry list.

(05:02):
But no. So my name is Mel. Shortfor Melvin, if you don't know,
last name is Williams, buteverybody calls me mela mela
traveler per my Instagram. Bornand raised in Brooklyn, New
York. Brooklyn surprised thereit's a quiet night here so

(05:25):
hopefully somebody heard itdidn't get upset anyway. Born
and raised in Brooklyn, NewYork. I eventually moved to
Atlanta. And that's where I amnow. Oh, yes, right. Yeah, ATL

(05:46):
girl. Yeah, that's right. But uhthe in betweens, I am a pilot of
course working on aerobatics.
Recently a flight instructor asof September September.
Congratulation graduates that issuch a
appreciate it was the longestcheck ride of my life, but I

(06:08):
made it blood sweat and tears.
Amazing.
What pretty nervous in theground? Did you get pretty
nervous like it? Was theresomething that, you know, you
stumbled across when you'redoing the checkride that you're
like, Dang it?
Oh, you know, I always getcheckride jitters. So I have a
tendency to stumble upon, youknow, the stupidest things like

(06:31):
airspace or whatever it Yeah, assilly as it sounds, you know,
it's just you know, that. I'mnot a good checkride taker. You
know, it's hard to get settledin because, you know, in the
back of your mind, it's still atest, but you know, so you try
not to be on your P's and Q'sand stuff like that. But, but
But it worked out. You know, itworked out. Thank
God. Yeah, man. Congratulations.
That's huge accomplishment.

(06:54):
Yeah, I appreciate it. Whatelse? Uh, where was that? I own
two airplanes. There's mydecathlon behind me. And then I
also also have a musketeerBeechcraft musketeer. Very,
very, very old. It's built likea tank. So I like I do all my
time building like the Nokia.

(07:15):
Yeah, exactly. And then, youknow, day job stuff. I do work
for Delta Airlines. I am aaircraft technician, also
Aircraft Maintenance Technician.
So I do have my airframe andpowerplant licenses. And
currently my current positionis, I am a 737 Maintenance
instructor.

(07:37):
Oh, sweet, dude. Hey, yeah.
Yeah. But that is really,really cool. And how did you get
involved with aviation? How didyou get started? What sparked
the passion? Were you young wassomebody in your family in
aviation?

(07:58):
I, you know, grew up growing upin Brooklyn, born and raised,
JFK wasn't too far away from thehouse. And you know, I can hear
airplanes taking off everymorning when I was getting ready
to go to elementary school. And,you know, I've told the story
before. So, one morning, it waslike a really, really, really
loud airplane. What the hell isthat it sounds different from
all the others. And you know, Ilook out the back window and

(08:21):
it's like a dark flying throughthe sky. And what the hell is
that doesn't look like you know,the typical stuff I've been
seeing. Turned out it was theConcorde, as I got a little bit
older and did a little bit ofresearch. So that's Concorde,
making all that noise on itsway, whether it would be the Air
France or the British Airways ison its way to Europe. And I was
like, wow, it's pretty damncool. And then, you know, fast

(08:41):
forward to a couple of yearslater, my aunt used to take me
to JFK, and just sit there andwatch the airplanes taxi and
stuff like that. She had like,this little spot, I think it was
like terminal six, whereverBritish British Airways was at
JFK. We just used the park up.
Now, granted, these are the daysright before 911 where you can
just hang out.

(09:03):
Move along, move along.
Yeah, you know. So these are thedays where you can, you know,
park up and just hang out, youknow, and that that really
sparked my interest. I was like,Man, this is pretty cool. So,
you know, growing up, I wantedto be a pilot. Way, way, way
back when fast forward till itwas time to go to high school. I

(09:25):
saw Aviation High School, whichthe high school I went to in
Queens, New York, in the highschool book. So in New York, he
had to find that there was thishigh school book is a thick book
with all the high schools andall the five boroughs, all the
public high schools, I shouldsay. And when I got to Queens,
so aviation I just wasn't Oh,that looks cool. I guess I can
go to you know, and live out mydream is you know, becoming a

(09:47):
pilot and lo and behold, I gotthere and I see all these
airplanes taken apart. Engineseverywhere. I'm like, I don't
think anybody's flying them.
Airplanes are a beast. And Ifound that found that it was an
air Krav maintenance high schoolwas a vocational school, you
know, and they made mechanics.
Yeah, so I said, All right,well, I'm gonna go do that next

(10:09):
best thing, right? At least Iget to still be around
airplanes. So. So I did my timethere. I graduated. And I had an
a&p license in my back pocket at19 years old. And delta picked
me up a couple of months later,less than a year later, ah,
aircraft, as he as an aircraftmaintenance technician. So, here
I am 33 years old. And I'll havea 14 years with Delta next.

(10:38):
graduations. Yeah, that'sI didn't know high schools did
that. Vocational High Schoollike that?
You know, it's funny, you saythat, because as I get older,
when I tell people that that'sthe route that I that I went
through, they're like, man, yousay the same thing. I didn't
know they were high schools outthere. And you know, that, that,
and, you know, you don't reallyappreciate as a kid, as you're

(10:59):
going through it. Because, youknow, at school, you know, yeah,
I got to do this, I got to dothat. You really think about it?
You know, I've thought about it,you know, over and over,
especially when I get you know,certain opportunities and stuff.
You know, you look back andrealize how blessed you are.
Since it was a public school. Itwas in New York City public.
You didn't have to pay to gothere anything. Wow. You got a
free license out of it when yougraduated? Yeah.

(11:23):
Yeah. So I mean, the only thingI had to the only thing I had to
pay for, like the DME, soinstead of being you know,
having a DP, you know, you havea DMV designated maintenance
examiner. Yeah, that's the onlyfee I paid. And it was like 400
bucks or something like that?
Whatthe hell? That's badass. This
was the day. Wait, man, that isa lie. Yeah, it really is, you

(11:53):
know, so at 19 years old, here Iam working for, you know, a
major airline, not, you know, acommuter, or, you know, going
into GA or whatever. I mean, youknow, the big leagues, you know,
I don't know what the hell isgoing on, you know, I'm fresh
out of high school and stuff,making good money traveling the
world for free, at 19 years old.
So I mean, it's definitely ablessing.

(12:15):
I'm sure that they don't takeevery single student that
graduates straight into delta.
So that has to be sayingsomething about how No, you're
as a student. Yeah.
Here's another thing. I like tobe transparent about everything.
I hate school. As I was goingthrough it, I hated it. But you
know, I was, uh, you know, I wasvery realistic. What I mean by
that was, you know, I know,school if necessary, obviously,

(12:37):
because I gotta do somethingwith my life. But, you know, as
I went through the school, I'mlike, alright, this math,
science, English and socialstudies, all these other stuff,
you know? And I'm like, well,that's really not gonna do
anything for me in life in theschool. Does that make sense? So
I'm like, what makes sense to meis the vocational part of the

(12:58):
school where I'm fixing theseengines. He's a fuse, and, um,
you know, timing, mag nietos,and stuff like that, because
when I graduated, and I leavehere, that's the stuff that's
gonna progress. You know, and,you know, put me on that, that,
that, that launchpad to mycareer. Yeah, exactly. So the
other stuff I didn't really careabout, I did enough to pass, you
know, 65 was passing, I got to65 maybe 70. But in shop, you

(13:22):
know, shop classes where I'm,you know, welding and all this
other stuff. You know, I waslike, 8590 students, and I,
like, couldn't wait to go toshop class. You know, I'm
sitting there learning aboutthem, you know, American history
or whatever. And they're like,Wow, I can't wait to get the
hell out of here. So I can go,you know, lighter. I mean, think
about it. You know, at 15 yearsold. I was playing with blow

(13:42):
torches. Yeah. Nice. I waswelding stuff. I mean, think
about it. I mean, why the hellwould I want to sit down and
learn about a squared plus bsquared equals c squared? I
don't care about that. I want togo play with the damn fix
engine. You know, so, that's,that's really where my energy

(14:04):
went. And it worked out. But youknow, to go back to your
original statement, it's notjust delta that picked us up, a
lot of us went to Delta, some ofus went to JetBlue. Some of us
went to American all in New Yorkarea. So it's, you know, it's
like high school all over again.
But now everybody's aprofessional and, and, you know,
we're all making money andtraveling together. You know,
some of us are together likehey, man, yeah, I graduated high

(14:26):
school with you like, last year,you know, welcome you know, and
then you know, some you'd findout working for other companies
and stuff like that. So it'sreally cool. And then you know,
once we build up a little bit ofseniority, we all start to move
away. You know, because New Yorkis like crazy expensive to live.
So a lot of people went down toFlorida a lot of us came down to
Atlanta, you know, county. Well,California is not, you know,

(14:47):
better as far as finance wise,but, you know, people just
dispersed. So you can find thiseverywhere really is the point
I'm getting that. What wasthe name of your high school
Got Aviation High School?
Oh, Aviation High School? Dothey have it in multiple states?
Or is it just New York?
As far as I know, so I so, youknow, I hear like little

(15:11):
whispers if there's like aschool in Seattle, I think
there's a school in Seattle orsomething like that, that I
think either has the same namewith the same concept. But as
far as I know, and I haven'tdone recent research. My high
school is the only high schoolin the country that offers that,
you know, a&p license, that theright that program, as far as I

(15:33):
know, yeah,I don't get a ton of people
reaching out to me about wantingto be an a&p. Mostly, I just get
people who want to become pilotssomeday. But you know, I'm sure
I have people out there who arelistening, maybe they're about
to be or are in high school thatare wondering how they can
continue an education insomething aviation, and yeah,

(15:54):
hey, who knows? Maybe thatinformation will really help
somebody out there. So I hopeso. Yeah. I mean, that's, I
mean, that's, that was news tome, to me. So
my cousin he needs to changeschool did. My cousin was
thinking about becoming an a&p.
And I was like, Yeah, dude, gofor it. And he's like, yeah, I
gotta get money for college. Andnow that I know, you can do it

(16:15):
in high school, I'm like, youdie. You need to move. Yeah,
moved to New York, to Seattle,you can do it, man.
So yeah, that's something that Iwas kind of, you know, I came
out with this video, you know,hoping to maybe inspire people
to not necessarily put so muchemphasis on going to college, if

(16:39):
that's not going to help outtheir career, right. You know, I
never continued to go on with afour year degree, I ended up
using the remainder of my GIBill, to get my additional six
swing licenses instead offinishing a four year degree
because those were the thingsthat were going to help me in
the career that I wanted topursue aviation, I wanted to get
my flight ratings, I didn'treally feel like a degree was, I

(17:04):
mean, obviously, any education,is education is gonna help you
out in the long run in some formor fashion. But vocational
school is just as valuable. Anda lot of people waste a lot of
money, going to college notknowing what they want to do and
studying in the books. And thenthey realize later on, oh, I
want to be a pilot. It's like,Dude, you didn't have to spend

(17:26):
all that money on college, youshould have just saved that
money and gotten a flightschool. Instead, if you have
something that you want to dothat requires a vocational
technical program, freakin gofor it, like they, they pay
money eventually, you know,having a skill that no one can
take away from you, like peopleare always going to need. And
you know, hope Hopefully,they're going to need people to
turn wrenches for a while. Andit's not going to be totally

(17:47):
taken over by machines androbots.
So actually, to even add to thatstory further. So in order to
get both licenses at my highschool, you have to go to school
for five years, just because ofthe hours and stuff so, so after
four years, if you get acceptedinto the program, so not
everybody gets into the programto get there, or get invited

(18:10):
back to get their fifth. I'msorry, their second license.
Yeah. So. So at 18, I finishedmy fourth year. But then since I
applied for the program, and Igot in, they allow you to do a
fifth year and they hold backthe way they get around it is
they hold that one class thatyou need for graduation, and you
do this one class and then yourshot classes. So that's how I'm

(18:32):
able to get past that. So Ifinished I had my airframe first
the I had my airframe first at18. Did my fifth year and then
at 19 I had my powerplant. Andthen I officially graduated high
school at that point. Nice. Soso it's not being left back.
Everybody that went you went toschool for five years. Didn't
you wish were freshmen in 2001?
Why the hell he graduated in2006? When it's supposed to be

(18:54):
oh, five, but I'm like, Yeah,well, you know, kind of did and
oh, five but yeah, so Ithink P certificate, and you're
like, Yeah, but did you graduatewith this, Mike?
Oh, yeah. And then like I said,you know, I got lucky so I
actually went to actually wentto a flight school for college,

(19:20):
because I was thinking aboutpursuing the whole goal again,
but then when I got there so Sodig this, I go to the school
name is down in college, I gothere, and you know, my plan was
to get my, you know, bachelor'sin I think it was aviation
management that I was going for.
So anyway, so I go there. Sinceit's a flight school, I have my
NP they hired me as an a&pmechanic for the flight school

(19:43):
but it's work study, becauseit's a conflict of interest. So
I'm making you know, since theycan't hire me as a full time
employee while I go to theschool yet or some whatever BS
excuse they gave me, so I'mmaking like six bucks an hour to
work on the flight school.
airplanes. I'm making the samemoney as the damn library
attendant. Since this works,that it's crazy, right? So but

(20:08):
you know, I wasn't complainingbecause I'm like, wow, like I
actually went to the school, andI'm putting my licenses to work
and I'm actually getting paidfor it. So I thought it was
pretty, pretty cool. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know, not what Ishould be getting, but hey,
whatever it was experience. So Iget back to my dorm room one
day. And I'm like, You knowwhat, I'm just gonna start
applying for all of themdifferent airlines, I applied

(20:29):
for delta, united, at the timeContinental, right? JetBlue. I
mean, all these companies,Southwest, everybody, I can
think of US Air America West. Imean, everybody, I didn't care.
And I just just started firingoff my resume there. My head.
I'm like, nobody's gonna hireme. I mean, I'm 19 years old,
you know, basically, I mean,basically no experience. And

(20:51):
maybe about a month later, Deltacall me and said, hey, you know,
you got your resume, you applyfor a job here at JFK? You know,
we want to bring you in for testand I'm like, get the fuck out.
You know, there's no way. Sothis was back in JFK, because I
went school out in Long Island,which is not that far away. So I
came back home to take thistest, I was late. Late to the

(21:14):
test, I couldn't find thebuilding or whatever, I get
there. And so I get there, guys,like, Hey, man, you know, so you
had an hour to take the test.
But I'll still give it to you ifyou want. But you only have like
25 minutes. I'm like, sit down.
And I run through this damntest. It had physics on it. It
had spatial relations, spatialrelations, you play with the

(21:38):
boxes and shit and triangles onboxes, or whatever, and kind of
messing around with them in yourmind. And it's funny, because
I'm like, I don't have that muchtime. So I need to figure out a
quick way to do the spatialrelation thing. And I'm watching
people have a piece of paperhere. I'm watching people pick
up the test. And you're like,you know, I mean, they're trying

(21:58):
to figure out, and I'm like, No,I'm not. If I if I do that, I
might as well just fucking walkout now, because I'll be here
forever. So I started usingtrue. So I started using process
of elimination, I'm like, well,that trend in the picture
triangle is next to the box. SoI'm just going to cancel out
these two because the trianglesare next to these boxes, which
they're not. So I finished thetest. I was actually like the

(22:19):
second person to finish and onlyhad 25 minutes to do this, our
longtime true story. So Ithought I bombed it. I'm like,
There's no way that I finishedthis test. In basically 25
minutes, and I got here with 25minutes left to spare. That
doesn't make any sense. So Ifinished the test. And then the
guy goes, alright, if I callyour name, please step outside.
So you know, so my name iscalled whatever sounds like

(22:43):
damn, I guess that's it, youknow? So I walked out, and it
was only maybe in a room full ofmaybe like 30 people, maybe only
like four of us walked out. Iwas like, damn, I guess
everybody. Yeah, I guesseverybody else passed it wrong.
We pass everybody else fail.
Wow. Yeah. True story. Dang.
Not. And yeah, it was crazy. SoI looked at him. I'm like, Dude,

(23:05):
you have to be fucking joking.
He was like, honestly, I don'tknow how you fucking did it.
Because you didn't have enough.
You didn't have enough time. Andyou finished and you passed and
I'm like, This doesn't make anysense. He's like, listen, dude.
I know. But you know, I waswatching you. You didn't cheat.
You didn't have a lot of timeyou fucking back. So here it is.
Did he like, got to thatclassroom?

(23:27):
Yes, I was like, man. I'mthinking about the people in
here. Like, those fucking 480It's fucking he fucking had, you
know, at some point, he fuckingwalk back and like, yes, you
guys didn't fucking pass on, youknow. So anyway, they gave me an
interview on the spot. And sothat, you know, after I pass the

(23:51):
test portion, then it was like,hey, we want to interview you
now. So I interviewed and thenthey offered me the job on the
spot. And that's, that's how Igot in.
Oh, man. Cool. I can I couldclap. I would.
I'm telling you, man, you know,I can't I can't make this shit
up. You know. So I don't know ifhe's a little bit of luck for
me. Maybe it was me sittingdown. Like, you know, whatever

(24:11):
happens. I didn't really thinkabout it too tough. I just took
the damn test. I knew I didn'thave enough time. So I thought I
was gonna fail. And I ended uppassing. And it was only like
four or five of us out of like aroom full of like, 30 people
that fast. And here I am now.
Here you are. 737 instructor.
It's crazy, right? Yeah. And Itell people what they end up in
instruct back. I can hateschool. I hate and I'm teaching

(24:34):
people.
And you're also teaching asubject matter that you enjoy.
That's true. But it's still it'sstill in the back of my mind.
I'm like, these people aresitting down staring at me.
Writing notes and shit. I'mlike, you know, sometimes I'm
right. I'm like, Dude, what thefuck are you? Right? You know
about APU and you know, and youknow, when you turn off the

(24:56):
battery and this startscharging. I'm like, Oh, she's
looking really bad. not done.
Well, that's cool. Yeah. Welllisten to me. Suit yourself.
So after you got the job withDelta, at what point did you go
to flight school? Where did thatcome about? Ah,

(25:16):
so there's an interesting storybehind that. Fast forward to
2016. Yeah. But late 2016. I'mdown here in Atlanta, I'm
working as a line mechanic. Soyou're not familiar with what a
line mechanic does. So when yourairplane breaks at the gate,
they're like, oh, we gotta callmaintenance. You see the guy in
the green bright vest? Come on,or whatever, whatever color it

(25:39):
is that? Yeah, that's themaintenance that I was doing,
which I love. You know, it'sfast paced. It's interesting.
You get to see people, you know,you don't work in a hangar and
stuff like that. See the samepeople the same airplanes every
damn day, you know? So, so it'snice. But anyway, what happened
was, I got a gate call, I'll sitin the office, and somebody
said, Hey, Mel, run out to gateso and so is a pile out there
with some type of issue. Oh,cool. So I go out there. And I

(26:01):
walk into the flight deck, isthis guy turns around, he looks
at me like, wow, you like ayoung guy, you know? And I'm
like, Yeah, I guess fairlyyoung. You know, he's like, man,
you ever thought about flying?
He didn't even tell me what hisissue was yet. And that's how
the conversation started offwith me and this captain? And
I'm like, Yeah, years ago, butyou know, I'm kind of past that.
And true story. He's like, Whatdo you mean your past that it's

(26:24):
gonna be a whole bunch of us,you know, retiring soon and
stuff, you know, you know,floods, it floodgates gonna be
open, you know, for pilots. AndI'm like, whatever. So you know,
fixes issue, whatever, and Ikeep it moving. So fast forward
to like two weeks after that.
Another gate calm Sydney office.
Hey, Mel, go out the gate. So onand so cool. Alright, so I'm
walking out, walk to the flight.

(26:46):
I got my Hey, man, aren't youthe guy from two weeks ago I had
and you start flying yet? AndI'm like, hell nah, just start
flying man. Well, you know, whatif she got you know, you, you
know, you got passengers to fly,you know, somewhere, let me you
know, fix the airplane safely.
You get the hell on, you know?
And, you know, so he actuallygave me his number. And say,

(27:07):
Hey, man, if you change yourmind, let me know. Okay. So then
maybe a month after that I sawhim again. True story. So my
head I'm like, Man, I guess it'smeant to happen.
You're like, Man, I'm breakingmy airplane.
Right. But, but yeah, so I sawhim, you know, we chat. You

(27:27):
know, we when we spoke and hesaid Ma, you know, you really
should consider it, you know,young guy, you know, is going to
be the, you know, big meat forpilots and stuff like that all
over the place, you know, andstart flying from now and yada
yada. Ah, so I think that nightor maybe like two nights from
Matt or something like that Iwas kind of sitting on it.
Because I was trying to figureout how I'm going to, you know,

(27:49):
get the finances to fund thisthing. I know, it's expensive,
you know. So anyway, so I sendhim a text message. His name is
Dave buck. So I said, Hey, Dave,you know, really thought about
what you said, you know, itcan't hurt to take Intro flight,
you know, I hear they give thesethings out, you know, you can
either go on Groupon and find acheap one, or you know, someone

(28:09):
that just give you one orwhatever. So he's like, Well,
let me you know, reach out onFacebook, you know, kind of see
who bites he's like, I know, awhole bunch of people or
whatever. So let me just kindof, you know, kind of test the
waters a little bit, I'll letyou know. So I think maybe two
days after I said, Hey, I got aguy, you know, here's his
number. Give him a call. And,you know, he said he can take

(28:30):
him so I call this guy I met himdown at the airport and jumped
in his airplane. It was a 182Actually, Cessna 182 was my
first flight and jumped in theairplane went you know, he kind
of let me fly a little bit, myeyes kind of cool, you know. And
then after we landed, well, ofcourse, he landed and stuff. And

(28:51):
he said to me, Well, what do youthink I said, Man, I want to
fly. And that was it. The restwas history. And that here I am
now, as a flight instructorowning two airplanes and stuff.
It's crazy how life works,doesn't it? Yeah. It's yeah, I
mean, that's, that's that'sreally my story. And you know,
to make it more interesting Ijust wanted to just be able to

(29:15):
fly so he said, Hey, you know,I'm not sure how how much you
know about this stuff. But youknow, it's a private than his
instrument and his commercialand his multi him in the CFI is
me I see him doubleline I was Ijust want to be able to come out
here on a nice day, pull theairplane out and go. That's all
I want. True story. And all Iwanted was the private at first

(29:37):
and then I just couldn't getenough of it. So I'm like, Man,
I want to know about thisinstrument stuff. Man. I want to
be able to work for moneysomeday, man, I want to fly an
airplane with more than oneengine man. You know, maybe I
want to teach since I'm alreadyteaching it delta. So and here I
am.
How did you secure the funds togo to flight school? Hmm. So now

(29:59):
is the ultimate question. Andpeople want to know is how do I
get my training paid for.
So there's a little so sothere's actually a little bit of
luck, and a little bit ofinvesting. So at Delta, they do
this thing called profitsharing. And what that is, is
every year, well, not now to theCOVID, and stuff like that,

(30:21):
unfortunately. Yeah, so everyyear for us, February,
Valentine's Day, February 14,depending on how the company did
the year, before, they give youa percentage of your earnings,
whether it be 14%, within 10%,whether it be 5%, whatever it
is, they figure out apercentage, and they give it to

(30:43):
you. So every Valentine's Day,you get a payout of, you know, a
percentage of your earnings fromthe previous year. So that's
actually how I paid for myprivate, I just took my entire
profit sharing check. And I justput it toward my license. And
then the investing part of itis, so I also invest in real

(31:05):
estate. Okay, so I own a fewproperties and stuff like that.
So I started to use a little bitof that money to start my
instrument and when things got alittle bit more expensive,
because instruments a littlewhile for me to get you know, I,
you know, I like to considermyself an intelligent person,
for some strange reasoninstrument instrument had me by

(31:26):
the neck, and, you know, youknow how it goes, it starts to
get frustrating, you know, yougot a whole lot of funds in the
beginning where it's like, oh,okay, couple more flights, no
problem, but then, you know,starts running low and low.
Like, what do you mean, we'renot done yet? You know, I don't
have enough money to finish thisdamn thing. So I use a little
bit of some real estate money,some residual income to pay for
it offcall. Yeah, I can hear you about
instrument rather, like in thebeginning, when I first started

(31:48):
learning about it, it was like,What the hell is this hold?
You're talking about? How do Ienter it?
That's crazy, dude, they starttalking about parallels and
directs and here's somethinglike, Listen, you know, what the
hell is going on? There like,you know, oh, man, it's

(32:08):
terrible, man. It took me forever doing a deal. Now granted,
I don't think anybody doesn'tanymore, but I think he's still
got it. You know, practice it,you know, DME arcs and stuff.
Oh, yeah, turn 10 Twist and whatthe hell you talk
to your job? Like, I got plentyof tears for you. I don't need
to doI'm turning the wrong way. I'm
turning twist in this ways.

(32:30):
like, Nah, man, you doing it allwrong. I might listen, I can't
get this man. Is there like acheat code to this thing? You
know? So instrument kind of, youknow, took me a while I actually
failed my first checkride funnystory behind that shooting
approach. First of all, again,disclaimer, I'm terrible at
check rides, you know, I got itall figured out until I sit
down. And then, you know, yougive the the DP his money. And

(32:53):
he's like, Alright, you ready?
And then you go, yeah. And thenafter that, it's like,
Hey, man, you're not the onlyone whose brain just turns to
mush when checkride start, andit has a lot to do with the DPE
to like, making you feelcomfortable. I've had a couple
of DPS who are just complete aholes, and they try to make it

(33:17):
as stressful as possible. Andthey try to set you up for
failure, which like, there'spros and cons to both ways of
giving a checkride. You know,obviously, some people are like,
if you can't handle the stressof a checkride, then like, you
know, when this stuff happens inreal life, what are you going to
do? So like people actually dotry to put on the pressure
obviously during check rides,but I am a fan of the of the

(33:38):
chill DP that's like, Hey, man,don't worry about it. It's cool.
You know, if you mess up, we'lljust move on. And we'll you
know, and it's like, you getthis nice and warm and fuzzies
from those guys. And Iappreciate that that type of DPE
for sure. Butyeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, so
do I. But you know, I mean, likeI said, when I failed, I was
just so nervous. And you know,it was silly. No, that's a lie.

(34:00):
It was it was silly. The reasonwhy, you know, I shouldn't have
done what I did. But anyway,long story short, I'm shooting
an ILS approach. He calls outminimums. Well, actually, yeah,
he calls up minimums and he saysrunway in sight. So what do I do
not look up not take the fallgoes off. Just continue to fly
it down. The iOS. I got so closeto the damn runway that I can

(34:21):
see the centerline stripes rightabove that's how low he let me
fly. And then he goes, he takethe files off. I'm looking I'm
like, Yeah, this doesn't lookright. I think I'm like, way too
low. Because like I let's let'sgo around and we'll head back to

(34:44):
Henry County and I knew it wasover. And I I broke down in
tears. Man. He felt so bad. Imean, he's uh, you know, he's a
buddy of mine now. You know,he's also an aerobatic guy. He
also does. Reno Air Races outthere. Cool. he actually won. I
think he won last year or theyear before. What's his name?
Kevin Harper. Kevin Hart, KevinHarper. Yeah, he fought, he

(35:07):
flies the yellow pits, andTacoma first place. But anyway,
so yeah, he's a man, you know,everything was looking so good.
All you had to do was look up.
Don't worry about it, man. Iknow what happens. It happens
everybody. So I was just sittingthere in tears as I'm flying
this airplane tears rolling downmy eyes. I'm like, yeah, man,
Whatever, dude. I was supposedto fail today, man. But you

(35:30):
know, but but, you know, goback in time and give Mel a big
hug and like, just like,you know, he, he brought up a
really good point. And also thepoint that you just previously
made, like, you know, in real inthe real world, I can't make
that mistake. You know, in thereal world. A mistake like that
can kill me, you know, flying itgo, you know, so low and having

(35:52):
a brain fart and being sofixated on the CDI. You know, so
that was the explanation like,Hey, man, you know, I'm doing
this to protect you, you know.
And he did a great job. And, youknow, we scheduled another one,
maybe like two and a half weekslater. I'm not gonna park.
You didn't charge you again,though, right? Hey,

(36:15):
I can't remember. There mighthave been a small fee.
It wasn't like a full timecharge. No, no, no.
That's the worst part of failinga checkride. Not not not, I
mean, obviously, the like, oh,ego, you know, stabbed to the
gut. But it's the fact that youhave to, like pay more money. I

(36:35):
mean, checkride these days havegotten so expensive. I think my
CFI checkride was like 800bucks. Oh, yeah. So it was much
more. Yeah. So if you fail, andthey're like, Well, you know, a
redo is like 600. Like, oh, man,that's where the pressure comes
for me. I'm better not screwthis up. But obviously, no shame

(36:56):
and failing check rides. Ialways try to drive that into
people who are just starting outas well, because everybody gets
the checkride jitters. I mean, Istill get checkride jitters
during 135 checkride. Who knowyou know, you know your stuff.
And you know, your chief pilotor the training director,
whoever you're doing yourcheckride or your whoever the
chairman is for your company.
Usually at this point in yourcareer, you know, the dude and

(37:18):
they're your friend and you justgo fly with them. And it
shouldn't be that nervewracking. But for some reason,
it's always, you know, alwaysalways the jitters like I failed
my private my first privatecheckride I failed. I was so
freakin nervous. I picked up thehelicopter, the door flung open.
It was like, oh, no, that's nota good sign. So set it back down

(37:40):
and look at the DPM, like, youknow, close the door, pick it
back up. I'm taxiing out, I'mtrying to call the tower. I'm
like, man, like, I can't hearanything. They're not answering
me back. And this is an AR 22.
So like, you can't take yourhands off the controls to mess
with the radios. If you'resitting in a hover, the DPS just
sitting there looking at me. AndI'm like calling the tower over

(38:03):
and over and over again. And Ijust really was like, Well,
maybe you should check yourradio volumes. Oh, so. So I'm
like, Oh, no. So I set it backdown. Turn up the volume realize
the tower had been calling methe whole time. Yeah, you can
take off and you know, repeatingmy request, turn the volume back

(38:24):
up. I'm like looking at him.
He's looking at me and like, andwe, we take off, we start on the
first couple legs of thecheckride. We're supposed to fly
the first few legs of your crosscountry plan that you made. And
we get to the first checkpoint.
I'm like, okay, read the firstcheckpoint, and we're continuing
on. He was like, Yeah, you knowthat. That might be something
you'd want to write down. I'mlike, Yeah, you're right. That's

(38:49):
probably something I should puton my paper. And he's like,
Yeah, and he's just looking melike waiting for me to write it
down. I'm just like, yeah. Andso we keep flying, we get to the
second checkpoint. And I'm like,Okay, we're at our second
checkpoint. He's like, Yeah,that might be something you'd
want to write down like, yeah,you're right. I should probably
do that. And like, I just neverwrote it. I just never wrote it

(39:11):
down. He's like, so All right. Ithink you know, this isn't going
well. I'm like, Oh, my God.
Like, my pits are sweating sobad. So nervous, I want to
vomit. And he's like, alright,you know, we can continue the
checkride. Or we can go back wetry that again. Another day.
Ended up being like, Alright,dude, let's just go back. I'm

(39:32):
not I'm just so afraid. I'mgoing to vomit on you. I'm so
nervous. And so then we wentback and I kind of regrouped.
And a couple days later triedagain, and I just remember my,
my instructor sorry. No, thestory's going a little bit
longer thanI'm interested. I'm tuned in I
wish I had popcorn right now.

(39:53):
Yeah.
So my instructor he nevercussed. He never said anything
wrong. Mostly inappropriate. AndI'm flying, flying with my
instructor. And he's always justlike the nicest guy just so
freakin nice all the time. Andhe was just not talking to me
kind of being a little bit of anasshole. I'm not gonna lie, like

(40:15):
God, are you really this mad atme and so we're doing my
recurrent, you know, flightsafter I failed the checkride.
And he's putting me through thewringer. And making me super
nervous. And like this was hisplan all along, apparently was
just to try to simulate being ina checkride with, you know, the
guy was not so nice, but, and welanded and I'm like, Hey, I'm

(40:38):
really, really sorry for feelinglike I'm really sorry. I know
that hurt your record, blah,blah. And he's like, did it
work? Did it work? Did whatwork? I was trying to be a dick
start cracking up, I was like,did you just say to do anything

(40:59):
remotely, that it was reallyfunny, like, yeah, man. He was
such a dick. That was so good.
You know, can did a great job.
Yeah. prepared me for mycheckride. And yeah, when I go
and kill it, right? Yeah, Ithought I was doing my CFI
initial mill. I walked in, andthere was two gentlemen sitting

(41:21):
in there. And I was like, alittle weird, you know, why are
there two dudes in here? And oneof them was an FAA guy that was
gonna be, you know, monitoringthe DEP. You know, that's
administering the test. And byDEP is like, Hey, is it okay, if
he sits in on this? And like, Itook it about 45 minutes to get
the aircraft over there. Sorry,spent already committed to the

(41:43):
checkride. Yeah. And I was like,Well, yeah, forget, like, it's
cool. Now, I'm already here. Butit felt like speed. You know,
like the movie with Keanu Reeveswas like, pop quiz, hot shot.
What are you gonna do? You know,I was like, I was like, he was
giving me these questions. And Iwas like, damn, like, let me get
bled out. Butyeah, man, that's, that's, yeah,

(42:04):
that's, that's always, you know,from what I understand. It's
always on the table, I thinkthey have to send out a notice
or something like that, like 24hours in advance to like, the
local Fisto that they're given acheck ride, and if anyone's
available, and they want to comeout and sit in on it, they do
that. Soyeah, I'm with you. Like as far
as like, you know, feelingnervous and stuff like that. Oh,
yeah. Well, hit me pretty goodthat day.

(42:28):
And what are some, what arewhat's some advice that you
would give somebody who's goinginto a checkride? To like, help
with those? Those checkridejitters? Do you got Gani advice,
anything that any tips, tricks,anything that's helped you,
man, I'm terrible at it.
Because, you know, I would say,you know, get a good night's

(42:50):
rest. I know, everybody saysthat. It's like, well, how can I
do that? I got a whole lot on mymind. You know, I got a big day
tomorrow. What do you mean getit done tonight? You know, good
night rest. Because you know,I'm a crammer sometimes, you
know, so a lot of us shot youknow, grab the far aim and fish
through and you know, look atnotes and you know, take a look
at your airplane flying handbookand all that stuff, you know,

(43:11):
forget about if you don't got itby now you you're not gonna get
it you know, magically and thenthree hours right before you
sleep. So take it easy don'teven think about airplanes.
That's that's how I starteddoing it. Especially after my
instrument. The night before theeven the day before I don't even
think about it, I go home, Ihang out I watch sports,
throwing a nice movie orwhatever. And I don't open up

(43:32):
anything I just have my backpackready to go for tomorrow. And I
think that it helps me outbecause then when I actually get
there now it's like okay, I'mkind of settled in and I can
kind of you know, start pullinginformation from where I need to
and I'm not as stressed as Iwould have been if I started
cracking open books because youknow, you almost like yourself
out you know, you start fishingthrough and start to figure out

(43:53):
things that are in there thatmaybe you thought you knew, but
then now you're starting torealize well maybe I don't know
it as good as I think I know.
Now you start freaking out whatelse Don't I know you know what
I mean? You start going throughand down the rabbit hole yes
starts to seem like you don'tknow anything you know? I don't
know this either. I don't know.
So now you're freaking the hellout so I don't even I don't even

(44:14):
concern myself with aviation theday before I'm doing something
else go out play bass we'll goto the gym just something
completely different fromairplanes altogether and then
when I get there I settle in andnow I'm locked in and I'm you
know I give my best shot. He hedoes another thing a lot of
people forget to eat grapes youknow wake up it doesn't wrap is

(44:39):
yeah, they they wake up I gottacheck right today grab the bag
hop in the car and then you knowto get some chocolate oh crap, I
didn't eat you know and you'llget tired and you don't have
energy and stuff like that, youknow? So the whole the whole
Maslow's thinglike to bring extra money for
the benefit of the doubt.

(45:00):
I heard your check ride fee was600. But here's a just for fun.
Put a star dinner latergot away by or something pretty.
You know that cash is goingstraight into their pockets

(45:23):
anyways and like bro, you justgave four check rides at 800
apiece in one day, I thinkyou're doing pretty good. That's
really good advice. So a lot ofpeople get super stressed out
and you go down the rabbit holeof flipping through and trying
to figure out what you don'tknow. But you don't know you
don't know until you figure outwhat you don't know. And usually
you just gotta wait until thecheckride and never be afraid to

(45:44):
just say I don't know. If it'sreally not in there. You know,
check airman will rather hearyou say, I don't know then sit
there and waste time and try tobullshit your way through it.
You know? Yeah.
And honestly, it becomesdangerous. I mean, you know, if
you don't know something actlike you know it now you're

(46:04):
trying to figure out stuff thatyou don't really know. And it
can, you know, become adangerous situation
and check them and usually arepretty cool about making things
a teaching moment. You know, atleast in my experience it unless
it was something that is like asale item or whatever, but, but
usually just say, you know, Imean, I actually don't know that

(46:26):
one. I mean, obviously if you'rethe whole checkride like I don't
know. gonna ask you to come backanother day. Yeah, but
you only get a few I don't know.
So you have a decathlon and theBeechcraft but I assume the you

(46:46):
don't fly aerobatics and yourBeechcraft. So Oh, no. Add to
capital long behind to cash tocause a long catalogue to cast
long behind you. I love thedecathlon. Is it a super
decathlon?
It is not a super decathlon. Soit's 150 horsepower, fixed
pitch. So it is it is not asuper D super D would be one at

(47:10):
constant speedwho got you into aerobatics.
What got you interested in doingthat?
Um, so a couple of differentthings. So my primary
instructor, my CFI, he owns aRV. And one day I was at the
airport, he was at the airport.
I think either he was washingit, cleaning it changing oil,

(47:32):
something I can't reallyremember. But he was like, Hey,
man, you want to, you know, jumpin the back and go for a spin.
Sure, you know, little RV, atandem seating. Little home
built airplane, you know, Ididn't know anything about it.
And, you know, so I hop in thebag, the squishy toy ride, and
we take off and head south. Andthen he's like, yeah, man, you
know, so these things, you know,you can do like gentleman's

(47:53):
aerobatics. And I'm like, Whatthe hell is that? You know,
like, you know, you can roll itaround, and you know, some white
stuff, you know? So I'm like,really? He's like, Yeah, you
want to do a roll? And I waslike, yeah, he's alright. So he
explained to me the wholemaneuver, you know, just so I
don't, you know, freak out andstuff. And he pitches the nose
up a little bit and throws itover. Oh, wow, that was cool. So
I actually still have it onvideo on my phone. When he did

(48:15):
it. I was recording, you know,of course, I'm like, I got the
big old. I'm recording, youknow,
those headsets? I still, I stillhave that. You still got the DC
is nice. Yeah.
But anyway, so. So we rolledaround, I was like, wow, that's

(48:35):
cool. You know, and, and when welanded, I said, Man, you know,
it'd be cool to do that, youknow, so I started doing some
research. Well, I started torealize not every airplane could
do that. And, you know, so thenI, you know, flipping through
Instagram, I started followingthis guy named Anthony. Oh,
yeah. How cool. Yeah. So Istarted so I started flying,

(49:00):
following Anthony Anthony. And,you know, the first thought in
my head was, you know, I didn'tknow black people did this
stuff. DREW. You know, it'strue. But it was it was a true
statement. You know, I'd neverseen you know, now granted, I,
you know, I actually, up untilthat point, I've actually never
been to an air show, but I'veseen their shows, and I've seen

(49:22):
you know, doing, you know, crazystuff or whatever. You know,
like you find videos online orwhatever. But I never seen a
black guy do it. I was like, Oh,wow, this guy's a black guy, you
know, African, you know, aNigerian guy. He has his own
airplane he sponsored, I mightwant a hell of this unicorn come
from True story. And I said,Well, I want to get into it. I

(49:44):
want to explore this thing alittle bit more. So I started
following him and you know,liking this content and you
know, kind of seeing how he wasmaneuvering around it, you know,
and then I reached out to himand told him I was interested in
aerobatics. And you know, he'sbeen a great resource. We talk
often Now, you know, he's like alittle mentor of mine to say,

(50:04):
you know a little bit aboutthat. And then I started going
further I started to look aroundthe area down here in Atlanta in
the Georgia area is like hey,you know, who has an airplane
that could help me out? So Istarted you know, not the
different people and and Ieventually got in contact with
Kevin Harper, who I told youabout my DP for instrument and

(50:26):
you know, he had a CITABRIA youknow, not in the cath lab but
it's a Tabios you know, verysimilar different wing so he
said yeah, man, you know, we canyou know, if you're interested,
I can take you up and see howyou like and spin around and do
different things. Yeah, sure. Sowe did that. And actually not
with him he put me in contactwith one of his mentees another

(50:48):
guy and we went up there we spunwe did loops we did roles we did
you know, all this stuff. And Isaid all I want more, I want
more. And then he's like, Well,you show you what more and more
he's like, Well, I want to pissyou know, a little bit different
than us a taqueria you know,look a lot more power and stuff,
you know? So we have the netthing I'm thinking you know, I'm
this you know, I'm this aspiringaerobatic pilot or whatever. And

(51:11):
he rung my bell in that thing. Imean, my head my head hurt for
about a week and a half, youknow, and true story. And then I
eventually got my tail wheel andnot this specific airplane here.
But one a bottle just like aregular calf. 150 horsepower,
fixed pitch. After I got my tailwheel. I said, Okay, I need one

(51:31):
of these. So now I was on amission this was I got my tail I
think in August, August of lastyear, something like that.
Sounds familiar. Yeah, thankyou. And then I said, You know
what, if I want to pursue thisaerobatic journey, this dream,
I'm going to need my ownairplane. That's just kind of
how it is. So I started shoppingaround for the caf on I wanted a

(51:52):
to a decathlon. And I found one,I got lucky. I hopped on a
Facebook forum, you know, one ofthose, you know, groups and
stuff. So it's called the Tabrizscouts and in the calf lawns or
whatever, and I just put out amessage hey, you know, new
tailwheel guy here i everybody,you know, shopping for

(52:14):
decathlon, anybody and one guysent me a private message
saying, Hey, man, you know, ifyou're, you know, I got this
going on, you know, if you'reinterested, I went up to Bowling
Green took a look at it. And Imade him an offer. And that was
it. So here it is. Does she havea name? You know? Oh, I went

(52:36):
with peppermint.
Oh, she looks like a peppermint.
Yeah. I like it. Yeah. Got thenice Vanna White thing. Oh,
white and red stripes. I likeit.
Yeah, that's it. That's a newname. Everybody's asking, oh,
what's, what's the name? What'sthe name? No, I looked at it one

(52:58):
day. And I'm like,government. Yeah. So very,
absolutely. Andyes, I mean, so that's my, you
know, that's my quick and dirtyhow I got into aerobatics. And,
you know, going a step further.
My plan with it is to, you know,hopefully compete you know, with
the dicey when a couple ofcompetitions, hopefully, and

(53:21):
then eventually go into airshows. So I'd like to explore
the air show realm. See how Ilike it. If I don't like it,
then I don't like it. Maybe I'lljust kind of stay with competing
and try to win, you know,competitions and stuff like
that.
So I'm probably just gonna say,man, like, that's pretty cool
that you and Anthony and Harper,you know, just such a small
industry, where I feel likeeverybody's wanting to help

(53:45):
everybody, you know, along theway. So I just thought it was
badass that you guys areactually connected. I didn't
know that. Yeah,yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny
because you know, Anthony doesReno also So Anthony races up
against Kevin is in there in thesame class. So so so it's
interesting how that kind ofcame around to so
there are there are differentlevels of competitions like

(54:08):
amateur. Oh, amateur. Oh, yeah,you have to qualify before you
enter into these things, or doyou just sign up?
That is a very good question.
And this year, well, no. So oh,by the way, thank God, we're out
of 2020 Let me just put that outthere, but 2020 was supposed to

(54:31):
be the year that I was supposedto figure all that out. I wanted
to go to a competition as a as aspectator, you know, because,
you know, we go to air shows andstuff like that, but, you know,
going to a aerobaticcompetition, you know, my plan
was to learn how you know,people are judged and you know,
is there a qualifying, you know,how good are these people what
are the different, you know,classes or what do you call it

(54:53):
not classes, different levels.
or, you know, this primary?
Yeah, thank you. I tend to havethese brain farts every now and
again, you can only imagine whatit's like during the checkride.
So, so anyway, but yeah,different categories, you know,
so you have primary you gotsportsman, you know, and then,

(55:14):
you know, unlimited, which isbasically like, you know, these
guys, you know, that go outthere and they like, the ish,
you know, I mean, like, they canstop an airplane on it done and
been doing it for years. Likesomebody like Rob Holland, for
example, if you ever heard thename, you know, Rob Holland, you
know, he's I watched him, buthe's like, the best of the best
Mike booleans. You know, theseguys, you know, are those

(55:36):
limited class? You know, pilotPatty Wagstaff, you know, so?
So, yes, you know, I would startoff with primary, you know,
being all sloppy and stuff,like, not as crispy, you know,
and work on it, you know, the,you know, the plan is to
eventually, you know, work myway up the ladder and stuff like
that. So, going back to myoriginal statement, 2020 was

(55:57):
supposed to be the year that Iwas going to figure all of that
out, go shake hands, you know,watch the competitions happen
real time and, you know, kind ofput my own thought process
together. So I haven't been ableto do that, unfortunately.
Because the competition thatthey were supposed to have here
in Georgia, up in Rome, wascanceled due to COVID. So But
this year, March coming up,there's gonna be an aerobatic

(56:22):
camp, hopefully it goes through,up at Rome, same place, and, you
know, they'll have like MikeUillean supposed to be a mentor
and in, you know, someone comein to, to work with the camp and
a couple other people and stuff.
So yes, I'm gonna definitelytake this thing and go straight

(56:43):
and show my stuff. Right now. Soright now, I just, you know, I
go practice there in a week,maybe for like, you know, 45
minutes an hour, because itwears you out. And it really
does, doing all these aerobaticsand stuff like that. And then
eventually, hopefully, whenMarch comes around, I'll have a
little bit to show a little bitof confidence and go up there

(57:04):
and, you know, hopefully, youknow, perform pretty well. So
cool. Well, good luck with allof that. That sounds awesome.
beginning of a journey. That'sso cool.
Yeah, very interesting. Cool,but scary, but still cool at the
same time, right? You'regonna start working on a fun
like a promotion reel to getyour sponsors go, no,

(57:26):
that that, that is something Iwould like to talk to Anthony
about. Because, you know, he's,he's doing that done that or
whatever the case is, I don'tknow. Hey,
listen to his podcast. Yeah. SoI was I was involved with that.
I was the pilot that took thecamera guy up to film his, his

(57:46):
promotion to see that video hasmotion video. So basically, he
just said he called themarketing team over epic fuels
and was like, Yo, this is who Iam. Here's a video of me. This
is what I'm trying to do lookingfor a sponsor. And yeah, he got
epic fuels to sponsor him andgive him a fuel card. So he
could,I'm telling you, man, man better
than free gas, free gas. Freegas.

(58:13):
But once you get the airplaneand you just got to put fuel in
it and get up there and practiceyour craft that's paid for but I
have no doubts, no doubts thatyou're gonna find that sponsor
and you're gonna, you know,reach your fullest potential
man, I already I see that inyour future. I see that

(58:34):
you are trying to catch all thefields that you're sending,
sending you all the vibes, allthe success by 2021 It's gonna
be your year you can go to thatcamp. You're gonna get mentored
by some of the greats. Andyou're just gonna be awesome. I
know. Like, I got really sickwhen I did aerobatics. And

(58:57):
you know, people ask me all thetime I posted video doing loops,
they're like, like, man, youdon't get sick doing that stuff
and spins I'm like, no, no,really. I've never gotten to a
point where I'm like, Ah, that'sit. You know whether it be
flying with someone or flyingalone now? I just don't get
sick.
Cool. That's not I mean, that'sa good trait to have a guess if

(59:18):
you're trying to pursueaerobatics.
Yes. I really get to my to myadvantage, right?
Yeah, man. I really wanted toget into it too. Because I was
like, oh, man, this is so muchfun. But yeah, I got messed up
for like two days after the lastone I did. Even though it was so
much fun. I was having such ablast doing it, but by the end
of it, and people kept tellingme you know, you just got to
keep doing it. And eventuallyyou get used to it and I'm like,

(59:42):
Man, I don't know if I want togo through the suffering that
it's going to take to get tothat point of you know, I
couldn't even hold down a pieceof bread for like a day after
that. So it was pretty bad. No,yeah. Oh, but so much fun
though. So I'm envious of yourGot

(01:00:02):
a tough one, man. Yeah. I'm nota big guy, just small little
man. And we'rejealous. I'm jealous. Yeah.
Cool, man. Well, um, so you'vegot your aerobatic goals and the
other professional goals thatyou're going to be working on
with delta or anything of thatsort of sort.

(01:00:26):
You know, professional goals, Ireally like where I'm at. I like
to talk if you haven't noticedthat.
We like that in a podcast guestYeah, some people don't like to
talk. It's like, we have tocarry them through the
interview. But you know, youdefinitely,
I love, I love you have to mygums, that's absolutely not a

(01:00:47):
problem. So I like teaching. Soyou know, being an instructor at
Delta, I like to talk, I like tosit stand in front of people.
Now granted, in the beginning, Iwas a little weird, because I
wasn't a CFI yet. But you know,I do like to talk, but then
getting in front of a big classfor like, 20 people, they're all
looking at you. And it's like,well, it's a little different,

(01:01:09):
you know, but now I'mcomfortable, you know, I'm
confident in my material andstuff like that my delivery, so
I don't really worry about itanymore. But I like where I'm at
there. So professional goals.
Stay and put for now. Cool, butpersonal goals, I would like to
really, really, really retireearly. And that's it. Look, this
thing around, you know, trainpeople, you know, being like,

(01:01:35):
you know, little sci fi andstuff like that, have a couple
of students and just wake up andfly all day, you know, so, so
we'll see what happens withthat, hopefully, and I still go
to the gas station, likeeverybody else by a couple of,
you know, by a couple ofnumbers, hopefully, hopefully,
to get lucky and stuff. But, youknow,
not only one, but you know,try my luck, you know, anything

(01:02:01):
else that you'd like ourlisteners to know, any words of
encouragement or advice to upand coming? Pilots who are just
starting out?
Fly good, don't suck now just alittle truth in fly good, don't
suck. But no, you know, youknow, my advice would be, you

(01:02:26):
know, enjoy it, I feel that,especially starting out. And
then even later on, you know, Ihave friends and you know,
almost myself in a sense, where,you know, you get so fixated on
flying and, you know, gettinginto time building because yes,
you do need time to you know, ifyou're gonna eventually work and

(01:02:47):
stuff like that. But I think alot of people forget to have fun
during the process. I know whatit feels like. And I think all
of us knows what it feels liketo you know, at some point, wake
up, you know, going to work andyou know, going to do something,
you know, maybe at this specifictime, you really don't want to
do and it's like, I really haveto go and you know, go fly or,
you know, go do this or go dothat, you know, I hate that

(01:03:09):
feeling with something that Ilove. You know, so I try to find
a happy medium. And you know, soyes, I'm a CFI. But I also do
this. So there's a, an even, youknow, trade off, if you will. So
yeah, that's work, you know, Iget paid to train people and
stuff like that on the side. ButI have some fun too, and it
balances out. So my biggestthing is, you know, if you're

(01:03:33):
trying to get to the airlines oryou know, you have a goal or you
know, you want to fly corporate,for some rich person or whatever
the case is, but you need awhole lot of time. Just don't
forget fun while you're buildingthe time, because there's
nothing worse than now flyingfeels like a job. And it's like,
I don't really want to do thatnow you'd like on the other end.
And you know, soit's been a kind of a

(01:03:53):
reoccurring theme of people justsaying enjoy the journey. We
said, All right, just don'tforget to, you know, Ferris
Bueller. If you don't stop andlook around once in a while you
could miss it. Yeah, it's true.
They're so focused on buildingthat time and your experience

(01:04:14):
that you forget to look aroundand be like, Oh, wow, like, I
got to go on these super coolcross countries. And I got to
choose where I got to fly, whichis really rare once you get into
the professional world offlying, unless you own your own
airplane or have friends that door rent one once in a while to
just go fly for fun, which thatthat's something I try to do

(01:04:36):
once in a while too is like getup to Santa Paula and get into a
decathlon once in a while alsojust to have fun with it. Not
necessarily fly for work, but tokeep that passion for flying
alive. While you're in theprofessional world. That seems
like you're already aninspiration to so many people
through Instagram and spreadingthe love and your passion for it

(01:04:59):
doing a great job. been cool,man, thank you so much for
coming on the show.
Thank you so much for havingYeah, man. It's always Always a
pleasure. Hey, listen, I haven'theard the special word that you
said earlier during this wholething, so I don't know if I got
you speechless or what?
Oh, dang.

(01:05:22):
All conscious about itnaturally, I've been like,
yeah. I'll just like, I'lllisten to what you were saying,
dude. And I just mad respect it.
I was like, Man, that's a sapman.
Thank you so much. You guys. Youguys. Awesome, man. Keep doing

(01:05:43):
what you're doing. I love a goodpodcast. You guys are fun and
bubbly and greatdude, that's so impressive that
he got picked up by delta rightafter high school.
I know just like when he'stalking about it. I was like,

(01:06:03):
wow, I wish I knew what I wantedto do right off the bat like
when I got into high school.
Yeah, it's cool that they havethose type of high schools that
allow you to get your EMP duringschool. I mean, takes five years
but still like you learn a tradein the middle of high school. I
don't know if I would have hadthe discipline to do something
like that. In high school.
I was too busy trying dip andthinking I was in the sound lot.

(01:06:29):
A big chief. Nice. Gross, I'venever tried it but it is a big
shout out to Mel the traveleragain, if you guys haven't seen
him on Instagram, veryimpressive story. He had a lot
of really good insight intobeing an a&p how he got picked
up by delta. And just a veryimpressive story of owning his

(01:06:54):
own airplanes and getting upthere and financing his his
flight training and having bigdreams, to fly aerobatics. And,
you know, he put himself outthere. We talk about that all
the time on the podcast here ofjust reaching out to people who
might be able to help you out.
And just from him reaching outto somebody he knew that had,
you know, their pilot's license,who was a pilot and said, you

(01:07:15):
know, Hey, dude, I want to fly.
And I heard they give out thesediscovery flights sometimes. And
they're super cheap, I couldfind and Groupon somewhere. And
this guy just threw on hisFacebook, like, hey, got a guy
who wants to go on a flight andboom, done, done, you know,
someone someone wanted to helpout. And that's the really cool
thing about aviation in theindustry here is that once

(01:07:37):
people get to a certain point,like they just want to help for
the most part. Yeah, forsure. Small community it is. And
everybody seems to be reallynice.
Yeah, totally. For the mostpart.
I know there's a fewbad eggs. But you know, for the
most part if you throw stuff outthere, like that's so cool about

(01:07:58):
social media also, is thatthere's Facebook groups,
helicopter pilot networkFacebook group that you can post
things on, and people post jobson there and different charters
and stuff. And just some funnyhelicopter stuff as well. But
you know, stuff like this, andjust never freaking know who's
going to come out of thewoodwork. And yeah, so don't be

(01:08:19):
afraid to reach out to people onsocial media 100% For sure.
Alright, the time has come top10 things we believe will help
you guys with your checkridejitters.
Number one, get good rest.
Number two don't cram the nightbefore do something to relax,

(01:08:43):
like take bath, chill, dosomething to keep your mind off
of it.
Number three, eat healthy brainfood.
Number four. It's tempting toreach for the bottle when you're
nervous, but do your best toavoid alcohol the night before.
Number five. It always helped meto make sure everything else in
my life was in order to minimizedistractions. Keep your space

(01:09:04):
clean, make your bed in themorning and organize your
materials and reference.
Number six, don't drink a ton ofcaffeine. It'll definitely
amplify your jitters and makethings worse. I'm definitely
guilty of having one too manycoffees in the morning.
Number seven. Some check airmanwill do their hardest to make
you nervous on purpose. Justrelax. Try to have fun with it.

(01:09:25):
After all, you get to fly thatday.
Be here. Number eight. Don'tbeat yourself up. If you don't
know something, be honest. Makea note take in the teaching
moment. The chairman again,always love to teach you
something new.
Number nine. Don't beat yourselfup. If you fail a maneuver,
brush it off, keep it going. Youcan always continue and pass

(01:09:47):
other maneuvers that you won'thave to do again when you
retest.
Do your best to be prepared. Butas you guys heard about our
experiences, it's not the end ofthe world if you don't pass the
checkride it doesn't help todwell so just learn what you
didn't No and improve yourmaneuvers with your instructor
be like Alia and dust yourselfoff and try again. Try again try

(01:10:08):
again. Students see licenseereally hope that this short
ground lesson on how to handlethose checkride jitters helped
somebody out there. And I'mdefinitely you know, taking note
of these things too because Istill get nervous on check rides
not gonna lie same same.
I don't know what it isit's just like you know yeah I
don't know either gets Yeah, itgets you some times. Just try

(01:10:31):
not to think about it. Yeah,totally.
Hope you guys have a beautifulrest of your day. Don't forget
to subscribe download, leave areview, leave a couple of stars
if you feel inclined to do so.
We'll catch you next time on Theforever on the five podcast bye