Mikey T: Setting the Bar

What is up Av Nerdation!

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 8 of the Forever on the Fly Podcast! Jose is back and joins in for a special interview with helicopter pilot Mike Tomlinson. Mikey goes way back with Jose and Diane to their Papillon days. He was their lead pilot and colleague who has now flies the AW109 in support of transporting Columbia River Bar boat Captains (otherwise known as bar pilots) out to cargo ships in the Astoria, Oregon area.

Cape Disappointment is home to some of the most treacherous waters in the world, and sees about 2,552 hours of fog a year—the equivalent of 106 days—making it one of the foggiest places in the U.S.  Only a few of these types of operations exist in the world, so join us exploring the unique life and niche helicopter job that is being a Bar Pilot .... PILOT! 

Diane also recently returned from her first international helicopter ferry, so stick around until the end of the episode where she shares what to expect when crossing borders. Lessgo! 

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:02):
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast
What's up aviation nerd nationand Welcome to season two
episode eight of the forever onthe five podcast, your bi weekly
dose of aviation inspiration,education and entertainment. My
name is Diane dollar. And Joseis back. He is here back with

(00:26):
us.
Thank you Sandy Rita. So happyto be back. Yeah, we face
fires. We missed your face too.
I mean, we couldn't figure outthe stupid technical
difficulties friggin internet.
Oh man. So man. Tell you what, TMobile not the way to go guys.

(00:46):
Still use T Mobile. Bryson manbrightens where it's at. Yeah,
spectrum. Let me down. Oh. Wow.
Yeah. Well, we really missedyou. And we are so happy that
you're back. And are you readyto help me get these guys?
Aviation? Dang, that was goodhooked on aviation. We did get a

(01:11):
good job there.
Yeah, that's pretty legit.
too legit to quit? Well, guesswhat?
What happened?
I passed my multi engine check.
Rad.
Congratulations, and thank youfor telling me about it. What?

(01:32):
What was it all? Uh, what was itall? Like, tell us a little bit
about it.
Oh, man. Well, yeah, so I did itin a Piper Seneca. I don't know
if you've ever flown one ofthose before. But no, I haven't.
Dang, nothing was heavy. I'mhappy. I haven't been skipping
arm day. I've never had to flarewith both hands before. Yeah, so

(01:55):
yeah, that elevator man. But itwas really good. The checkride
went really well. I had to flyit to Greenville, South Carolina
to do my checkride I love theDP. He was so great. It was
Brent. And he was fair, firm,friendly. All the all the good
things that you look for in aDPE. And yeah, it was a little
windy that day. You know, ofcourse. I swear to God, it is

(02:18):
like a checkride thing where yougo your entire training, being
slick, calm winds store if theyare winds or straight down the
pipe, and then they have yourcheck ride through gusting 19
outside with a straight upcross. Yeah, moderate or greater
turbulence. It was kind of windythat day. But
you know, compared to othercheckride like all the ones that

(02:40):
you've taken throughout yourcareer. Well, we would stand the
difficulty level of Oh, Isee. Yeah, I mean, I feel like
at this point, I've, I've done alot of check rides. And I think
just having experience under mybelt and being an experienced
pilots, a relatively experiencedpilot, then someone knew going

(03:02):
into a checkride I still got thenervous jitters like the
checkride. jitters, they stillhappen. I was still really
nervous. Even though I knew Iwas I was ready. I had just been
struggling with the short fieldlandings. For some reason, they
were very difficult for me, itwas hard for me to get the sight
picture, right, and aimingaiming for those 1000 foot

(03:26):
markers. But I managed Amandawas the only one that I was kind
of having, like real troublewith that, you know, and I was
expecting to be done becauseeveryone's like, Oh, it only
takes five to seven hours tofinish your multiengine but I
think that's somebody who fliesairplanes on a regular basis.
Maybe but someone like me, Idon't really fly fixed wing all

(03:48):
that much. I don't have verymany hours in fixed wing. So,
you know, I was being reallyhard on myself because I thought
you know, I should be done bynow. I was at like our eight our
nine I'm like, Man, I stilldon't feel like I'm completely
ready. So yeah, I was beingreally hard on myself for having
to take longer than what peoplewere saying or the average but I

(04:11):
think going from being ahelicopter pilot and
transitioning to a multi engineheavier aircraft. I definitely
had to be patient with myself.
You know, I started noticingnegative thought patterns like
man, I just maybe I'm just notcut out for this kind of flying.
I don't really like it. I'm nothaving fun and we had a
conversation remember I calledyou I called you I was

(04:33):
struggling with it. I was likeman, I just like don't know if
this is for me like I'm notreally having fun because I feel
like I'm not good at it. Yeah,but once once it clicked, right,
you know, you have to be patientwith fixed wing when these
heavier aircraft you have to bea lot more impatient because
with helicopters, we are so usedto immediate satisfaction of the

(04:54):
aircraft doing being responsiveand doing what we want it to do
immediately. But with a heavierairplane, you kind of have to
like put in the input and waitfor it to do what you're asking
it to do. And for me, it washard for me to like build that
patience up to be like, No, Iwant you to come now.
Yeah. I'm really happy you stuckwith this thing?

(05:18):
Yeah. I'm happy to and you'renot the
only one that did it in 10hours. I did it in an hour.
Yeah.
Okay, so it seems like that'smore of the average for someone
who maybe doesn't. Who doesn'tfly? Have as much? Yeah, it's
very typical of helicopterpilots going into fixed wing
that we flare high, becausewe're so used to slowing down,

(05:39):
you know, coming into land tohover with airplanes or nose
down, nose down, nose down.
Yeah, at first, like thecomplete opposite. Yeah, it
was very, it was fightingagainst all of my instincts, and
the muscle memory that I'vebuilt over, you know, a career
doing helicopter flying. Thatwas the struggle. But anyways,

(06:00):
enough about that. We also havea couple announcements. Well,
one, Jose is going to be able toget a G 650 type rating paid for
by the GI Bill. That's goodnews.
Oh, no, not by the GI bill by aprivate owner.
Oh, I thought it was a GI Ithought you said that you're

(06:21):
getting it paid for by the GIBill.
Different type rating for the GIBill. But yeah, it's gonna be a
private owner. So cross myfingers. That should be epic.
And yeah, I can't wait for that.
Also coming up. We have dare todream Dallas coming up in the
spring and we're seekingsponsors contributors. If you
guys want to donate to our nextbig event, or attend or

(06:44):
volunteer, go to our website wwwdot forever on the fly.com and
check. Check that out under dareto dream Dallas. You can also
email us if you have ideas forthe event at Diane at forever on
the fly.com That's Diane at foreveryone with live.com Our next
guest goes way back with Joseand I he's an original gangsta

(07:05):
OG helicopter pilots. He wasboth Jose and I's lead pilot
over at Pantheon and has sincethen worked as chief pilot of a
Grand Canyon tour company andcurrently flies the A w 109. Out
of Astoria, Oregon, famous foryou know the Goonies, everyone's
favorite movie if you're cool.
He flies in support oftransporting Columbia River bar
boat captains otherwise known asBar Pilots to incoming cargo

(07:29):
ships. I'm so excited for him toshare his experience. It's a
very niche part of the industry.
Not a lot of them in the world.
So here he is to talk about whathe does on the day to day, some
of the challenges that areinvolved in what he does. If you
stick around until the end ofthe episode, we'll have a short
ground lesson on therequirements for crossing
borders if you're ever planningon doing an international

(07:52):
flight. So without further ado,I know this has been a really
long introduction. Here is MikeTomlinson.
A live human on the line whenthe ship is moving violently
next to you with nothing else tolook at. But the moving ship is
intense. Hey, I'm MikeTomlinson. And I'm forever on

(08:13):
the fly what's up guys doing?
Thanksgiving you guys.
Thanksgiving, you guys somuch to be thankful for. We're
so happy that you could join us.
Thanks for coming onThanksgiving Day. We appreciate

(08:35):
it.
You're You're a trooper, homie.
No worries, man. I you know, mykids upstairs watching Charlie
Brown Thanksgiving, and mywife's at work. She's working
till 9pm tonight, so we're gonnago over to a friend's house
later and chow down, butOh, man. Awesome. Yeah, yeah.
Your wife works in the hospital,doesn't she? She's a nurse. I

(09:02):
really are. Yeah, you're anurse. Hmm. Which is
something show your mom or yourjob that
seems to be a good combination.
We know a lot of like helicopternurse helicopter pilot nurse
combos seems to work prettywell. pretty flexible job and
they're in high demand. So ifyou have to move, so anyone out
there in the dating pool,looking for a spouse? And you

(09:26):
don't want to be ailed by thewhat is that AIDS aviation
induced divorce syndrome?
Exactly. Got to find someone whocan move a
victim vaccination for AIDS isyou know, marrying a nurse Well,

(09:53):
yeah, no, thanks. Thanks forcoming on Amigo.
Thanks for having me. I feellike you guys have had all these
like celebrities. fighter jetpilots and famous people like,
I, it's just,no. That's awesome. You get the
big bonus and what you do,we're gonna talk about, we're
gonna talk about that where I'mreally excited to kind of get

(10:14):
the scoop on, on what you guysdo up there. Well, first, let's
talk a little bit about who youare. Where you, you know, where
you grew up? What inspired youto become a helicopter pilot?
What were you doing before? Whatare you doing now? And go,
oh, six questions. My name isMike from Detroit. If you ever

(10:40):
get a chance to go there, don't.
Let's see, before this, I was amountaineering guide. I worked
as a climbing guy for 10 years.
And before that, I was a bum andwaiting tables and digging
ditches and other fun things.
Let's see. What else Where areyou gonna get the helicopters?

(11:02):
Well, whereveryou are a mountain guide.
All over, I started off inAlaska. And I went back and
forth from Alaska to New Zealandand to Chile. And I ended up
here close by climbing MountRainier for three seasons. And
that's where I sort of got theitch again to go get a real job

(11:25):
and took on a big ass scaryloan. And here we are.
Back. Did he I can't remember.
Did he go with Hillsboro? Avianthat yeah, that's he went with
right. It was June fall.
Yeah. Fall Guy. I mean, there'sa bunch of people that we work
with in canyon that yeah, hecame on hills. No. Oh, sweet. I

(11:48):
was really nervous aboutspending that money. You know,
getting that that big loan. Iwas terrified of failing at it.
I mean, it's pretty goodmotivation. You know, you're 80
grand in the hole. Man, I'mgonna get up on time today. When
my,my flight instructor says show
up, I'm going to be there. I'mgoing to study. Yeah, sure. I'll

(12:08):
tell you what, though. That is alittle extra motivation, then. I
mean, don't get me wrong, the GIBill is still our money paying
for it. And we're utilizing thatmoney that's available to us.
But I still don't feel like Ihad the same kick in the pants
as somebody who took out a bigscary loan. I mean, I still like

(12:29):
you know, I still did my stuff.
I still showed up. But you know,cuz I was motivated to get it
done. But I definitely had someGI Bill students who are not as
motivated, but like, man, if youwere paying out of pocket, I bet
you would feel a little bitdifferently.
I think so. I was, I was like ahalf breed. I had like half GI

(12:50):
Bill Half. Half of my own money.
10 is like paying a little over40 grand, but that was enough
for me to be like Well don't bebag.
I was psyched about that aboutflying. Helicopters are flying
planes way earlier to when I wasliving in New Zealand and
working on the Southern Alpsdown there. We fly around a lot.

(13:16):
You know, we'd fly, you know, onand off of the glaciers into
huts and whatever. And I'm like,damn, this is sweet, like
heroin, like wet and cold andtired. And I got tourists and
you know, jumping the helicopterand Jesus chillin, warm and
dries like playing the videogame all the way back. I'm like,
oh, man, that's what I want todo. And it took me it took me a

(13:40):
while I started making moves. Iactually got in contact with
Silver State. And I was like,Oh, this is the way to go. And
then I was just about to, likeactually do the thing. And they
went under. I knew it. This isonly for rich people. Or
military guys like that. That'sit. I'm done. And so the idea
set simmering for like, eightmore years. Wow, eight years.

(14:04):
Eight. Yeah, that's crazy.
Scared me off. I was like, apyramid scheme, man. I'm not
doingwhat sparked you saying okay,
this is it's time again to getthis going? Well,
I mean, it's always been in theback of my head. It's the
coolest job ever. Right. And Iguess I type in a bunch of

(14:24):
people, just random individualsthat I had found email addresses
for on on various websites. Ithink I ended up sending out
like 25 emails and was basicallylike, Hey, I'm about ready to
pull the trigger. I want to goto school, like, tell me, you
know, where I should go. This isthe right time or if it's the
wrong time, you know, we'vewe've seen the industry sort of

(14:48):
expanded contract and you know,there's definitely a good time
and a real bad time to getstarted and get your first job
and so I got three or fourounces And, you know, it was
overwhelmingly like go to abigger school, and it was either
Florida or Oregon, going toFlorida. So here I am in Oregon.

(15:12):
So I solicited a bunch of adviceand kind of went with it.
direction. I mean, Hillsboroughis a great place to train
because you deal with weather. Imean, okay. There's like pros
and cons, right? Because if youfly somewhere where you have to
deal with weather, then you haveto deal with weather. And you
might not be able to get done asfast as you would somewhere like
Florida or Southern Californiawhere you have, you know, good

(15:35):
weather all year round. So, Imean, we
have the Santa Ana winds for aweek. Yeah. We do. Yeah, real
man. Wins,wins. I mean, fires smoke, you
know, bad visibility duringthat.
No, no, we're nowhere near asclose as you and me go. I can
say that.

(15:56):
Yeah, but it never gets, youknow, I mean, it'll freeze
higher up. But I mean, here onthe coast, like, people freak
out it snows like once or twicea year here. And it was like,
Oh, my God, lock the doorsinside.
Hansel school.
So after you became a pilot, soyou went to school? Did you get

(16:17):
your CFI? Did you go thatdirection?
Yeah. That, you know, thatseemed like the formula
everybody was following. Iremember a couple of guys that
were, you know, I'm not gonna bean instructor. I'm like, I'm
ready to go. Have you do that? Ididn't even know that that was a
thing other than like, bothpics, you know? So yeah, I

(16:41):
understood I had to be aninstructor. And I was I was
psyched about that. Oh, evenstill looking back at some of
the most fun flying, right, youget to, you get to make it up
every day, choose what you wantto do. You know? Now we have to
go where we're supposed to goand
right. Yeah, you were a greatinstructor. I remember. I mean,

(17:01):
you weren't my instructor. Butwhen we were at Pantheon, and
you take us out, you know, to dotraining, and I think you did
all my a star training. And, uh,yeah, no, you were a fantastic
instructor, you were really,really good.
You were a very good student. Wewere lucky to have all that
territory. I mean, it's all BLMland, like, do whatever you
want. Go are very few places wecouldn't go and, and it was fun.

(17:25):
You know, you can really exploreand find new places to go and
scare your students.
No, that wasn't you. That wasthat was all me. It wasn't us,
me. No, I just remember youbeing very a very good
instructor. And being reallyimpressed. And it was really

(17:46):
cool having you as a lead pilot,because I don't know, I always
just felt like you were able totow that line between being a
good leader in the, at thecompany and also, being a good
friend. That's what I alwaysreally liked about you. So you
were very well liked and verywell respected at pantheon.

(18:11):
Thank you, it's a hard line,it's a hard line to walk. I've
known a lot of people who are inpositions of leadership, and
they just don't know that youknow, how to not have to demand
respect from people. And, youknow, that's a that's a very
hard thing to do. So I applaudthe demand that you already
failed,you already thought well. Yeah,
well, it's hard to be a leadpilot, and, like, hang out with

(18:36):
the crew at the same time, also,because you have to, you know,
be in that position of being aleader. And, you know, keeping
that respect and not likecompletely mingling with the
commoners. But I feel now, but Ibut I feel like you did a really
good job at being in thatposition, and still being a
really good friend, and younever lost that leadership

(18:58):
ability. So, bravo.
Well, thanks. I'm glad that Idon't have a leadership
responsibility anymore.
After copy on, where did you go?
I mean, I know but tell everyoneelse. So,
you know, in hindsight, then thelead pilot jobs at Pantheon is

(19:22):
great. It's so sweet. I waslured away down the ramp to be
their chief pilot, which inhindsight, maybe not the best
choice. It was a ton more work,not really much more fun. You
know, flying the line, ratherthan doing a bunch instruction

(19:43):
flights is also a lot less. Andso it didn't last that long. I
started scoping out other jobs.
Falk, and Eric had just come uphere. My friend Joe Dennis had
come up here a few yearsearlier, and So I was, how did
you guys get that job? Likethat's supposed to be, you know,

(20:04):
your retirement job? This thisbar pilot thing I figured, and
you got a ton of experience. Ihave four time there hoisting,
like, No way. I'm applying justin case. Yeah, yeah, it worked
out. It's, you know, they, theydon't pay much. So they don't,

(20:25):
they can't get people with tonsand tons of experience, like I
would have expected. The jobdoesn't pay. It's really no
better than EMS. And so I thinkthat's why not getting getting
folks with tons of instrumenttime and hoisting time. And

(20:50):
is it a private company? Or isit a government run agency that
you work for?
Yes, it is a private company,some brim remediation spaces in
Ashland as a utility operator,I've got a bunch of mostly MDs,
couple nanotubes and a wholebunch of five hundreds, and they
were operating the powerlinestuff, and, you know, all over

(21:12):
the country. And then, you know,completely separate to all of
that is just this Astoriaoperation, where we fly the Bar
Pilots on an office. And, youknow, it really seems like a
separate company, you know,somebody from the head office
will come by once every year orso we talked them on the phone

(21:33):
sometimes, but we're really ourown, our own little independent
operation.
That feels nice, right? Likeyour little entity.
It's a really good group ofpeople, you know, it's a, what
do we have? Eight pilots, maybenine pilots, and seven, seven or

(21:54):
eight mechanics right now, Ihaven't done a very good job,
introduce what the whole missionis, for us. It's also confusing,
because they're called pilotsthe pilot of the ship's
captain's right? Alright, so thethese, these captains have to be
put on and taken off ships. Soevery, every ship that comes in,
into the river over the bar hasto have a bar pilot, basically

(22:18):
steering the ship, take controlfrom the captain and ensuring
safe passage across this mosttreacherous piece of and then
once they get into town, a boatwill will deliver the river
pilot who then continues to takeit to Portland, or wherever
else, the ball pilot gets off.
Likewise, on the way outbound,the ships will get their pilots,

(22:39):
you know, in town, and then takeit over the bar, and then we'll
go pick them up. Now, there aretwo pilot boats that have been
doing this job for 147 years,something it's the oldest
business in Oregon, at theballpark. I think it was about
20 years ago that thishelicopter program began. And so
you know, now you know, theseguys tend to use the helicopter

(23:05):
a little bit more just becauseit's, it's a 20 minute deal.
Whereas the boat takes a couplehours. But the boat has to be
that's the backup plan. Right?
If we can't get out there, if wecan't launch for weather, if
it's too rough, we can't getthem on. There are some ships
that come in, when there's nospot to go, you know. Sometimes

(23:26):
there'll be like, windmillblades, on deck, and just
there's not a good spot to dropthem off. And in that case,
they've got to they got to takethe boat. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah,
that's kind of likethat makes. Yeah, that makes a
lot of sense. Because I wasunder the impression that like,
yeah, I don't know why I thoughtyour lug longlining I didn't I

(23:47):
didn't think there was a hoistoperator on there.
Yeah, yeah. So our operators,also our mechanics. So these
guys do double duty, fixing theship and then and then also
operating the hoist?
Are they also like, rescue swimdivers?

(24:08):
No, no. No, we don't. We don'tdo any any rescue work we do.
It's a pretty small bunch.
How does it shift work then?
Like a 12 and 12? Or, like 12hours off? hours off? Hi, Bill.
Yeah, yep. 12 on 12 off, andit's seven and seven weekly
schedule.

(24:29):
ain't bad, man. That's prettygood. Do you have to switch days
and nights all the time? Or doyou have to do like EMS, where
you do like four days and threenights or something? Or do you
work all days one week and allnight, the next week?
Well, when when you first startoff, you're an si si at night.
And that's all you can do for awhile and takes six months or a

(24:50):
year till you start, you knowdoing your day PMIC training. It
takes it takes a while. I mean,another year or so and you're
working days on your own as aPAC. And then, like, what I'm
going through right now is mynight PAC training. So I've been
working nights for a few months,I'll probably be working nights
for another. I don't know, ayear or two. And then ideally,

(25:13):
once, once we have a crew that'smostly trained up, then sure
we'll be in the swap. But yeah,there's been, you know,
historically, there's been quitea bit of turnover. And so we
often don't have a full group ofnight PI's like pilots,
sometimes we only have two orthree no job, but

(25:36):
it's pretty stable situationright now. Yeah. And I'm hopeful
that that the the crew that wehave is gonna stay this way for
a while. So yeah, yeah, sequel.
Right.
So I remember and we I knowwe've talked about this before,
but that's where I was stationedwhen I was in the Coast Guard
was up there. CapeDisappointment, Columbia bar

(25:59):
Astoria, Oregon, and I'll tellyou what, that is some of the
densest fog I've everexperienced. I mean, we'd be out
on the boat and we couldn't seetwo feet in front of the bow of
the boat. Sometimes we couldn'teven see the bow of the boat
because the thought the fogwould be so thick. So how many
days out of the year would yousay are actually flyable for you

(26:20):
guys? Do you go out in IFR orare you just VFR? All the time
or? Yeah,yeah, we're we're IFR program.
So our our minimums for the dayis one mile and 300 feet pretty
low. And that night, three milesand 700 feet and you know, at
the airport, but once we're oncewe're out of our class echo

(26:44):
airspace. We we fly IFR, but wedon't talk to anybody. We have
this special little aspect thatlets us fly. It's it's stated
IFR as golf, but it'stechnically just IMC, right,
because we're not following anyrules or talking to anybody. So
we punch you in the clouds. Andwe'll get down to 300 feet

(27:08):
ripping along and 140 knots andthen we find the ship on on
radar to slow down once we cansee something ships lights, some
water meters anything then we'llcome down to 200 feet and then
you know our radars only goodfor up until you know a mile or
two. So you set your yourheading and then wait and

(27:30):
hopefully I'm from the mistappears here. Yeah. Wow ships.
Crazy. Sounds so intense. Itwell.
I hit a radar going pinging.
I was really, I think when I gotthe job, I was really expecting
that the IFR piece was going tobe that was going to be like the

(27:52):
the intense part, you know, andit certainly is, but you sort of
get used to it. And again, wedon't have a great deal of
variety, like this challenge ofgoing through to a different
city to a new airspace todifferent you know, we're making
these approaches to ships allday every day and so that that
weather gets comfortable prettyquick. The only exciting part is

(28:14):
the hoist itself. So real livehuman on the line when the ship
is moving violently next to youwith nothing else to look at but
the moving ship is intense soand disorient but it's only for
a few seconds.
Then I go back and sit my lazyboy and tasty food and and it's
ours again before my sheerterror for several seconds.

(28:38):
Wow. Okay, so what is are theselike point in space approaches
that you're doing to theseships? Is that what they're
called? Or not? It's just like,oh, it's
not a published offshoreletdown. It's not like the Gulf.
We just, we just take care ofour own navigation flying out
there on our owncrazy. So I mean, the waves get
so big out there. I couldn'timagine hoisting and lowering

(29:03):
hoisting a human alive, a reallife human. With these boats
rocking like that. I mean, doyou guys have a limitation for
how big the waves can be whenyou guys are actually going out
there to do these missions?
No, we don't have a we don'thave a limitation. At a certain
point. The Bar Pilots will closethe bar. Sometimes 20 to 25 feet

(29:28):
is a typical, you know,significant wave height to shut
things down. But it depends onthe ship. Sometimes we'll have
very small ships, skinnier shipsthat especially tankers tend to
move a ton and in 10 or 12 feetthat can be almost impossible.
It can be a nightmare. And then,you know, you get a big

(29:49):
container ship. Panamax thesebig wide ships with no cranes,
nothing to run into 20 feet 30feet. You know, it's it. That's
all doable.
Yeah, they might win. Whenyou're flying did and you like
long lining the captains andstuff? Was there like ever a

(30:10):
moment where you thought aboutjettison them by, like putting
them in the water or anythinglike that or, or were you just
like just pull up a tie you getabove the cloud layer.
Let's see, let's see. So we sawwith the hoisting, it's not not
long line, just just to makesure that nobody gets the wrong

(30:30):
idea. They're posted down. So wewent through. And we've
definitely had to abort a numberof voice, it's not at all
uncommon to lose track of theroll, put a wrong input in, you
know, you can imagine as soon asthey start swinging, that, you
know, we can call the board, thehoist operator, we'll call it
work, we'll move away and tryand get stable. You know, they

(30:53):
can hoist them up, and then, youknow, I can back down, cancel
some of that, that movement. Sowe abort a lot of hoists.
Gotcha. There, there have been acouple of events that I can
think of where waste cables beencut. I was my first winter I

(31:13):
was, uh, in the left seat, I wasat SAIC, on a hoist where, you
know, we ended up moving on aposition and the hoist operator
couldn't maintain visual withthe, with the bar pile. And, you
know, he was still on deck. Buthe couldn't see him. And so he
ended up having to, to cut thecable. So he was fine. He was on

(31:37):
deck, he just had to fall on thehoist cable when we call the
boat.
Nah, man, that's, that's prettycrazy. Dude, I can't imagine
like what you said, how theships go, like moving up and
down, like with the current, youknow, 20 foot waves and stuff
and having having to be soprecise and putting them on
deck, you know, without gettinganybody hurt. Yeah, that's,

(31:59):
and it's a ton of training. Imean, we go through a years of
training just to finally get,you know, cut loose all the way.
Yeah. It's such a weird,specific little specialty, you
know? Yeah. The drama is alwaysjust, you know, when when the
ships moving a ton, it's anintimidating prospect. What's

(32:20):
the hard part, the hard part is,particularly at night, your
entire frame of reference is amoving ship, it becomes
difficult to know if thehelicopter is moving, or it's
just everything around you. Wefly with force shims. Right? So
we'll make our approach put intohover mode, and then make small
adjustments. And you know,there's a little button on the
side to move to make theadjustment you guys. It's all

(32:42):
though. And so, the bigchallenge is just the stay off
the button. Right. So, you know,if you if you set a slow and
steady course, on the way end ofthe ship, you should be able to
make small adjustments. Andthen, but it's I know, it's such
a head game. I mean, I haven'tdone a whole lot of longline

(33:05):
flying. I think I got eight or10 hours while I was at
Hillsborough. And yeah, it hasabsolutely nothing to do with
hoisting. I feel. There's, it'slike a skill, you know, like a
physical skill. Like, it's, it'ssomething you could get good at,
like a video game. Right. Andhoisting, it's, it's just like,

(33:27):
it's just a head game. You know,it's, it's how to choose the few
references that aren't lying toyou and ignore everything else
that you see. And resist theurge to push. So, and, you know,
when you screw it up right away,you know, it's like, oh, the
nose pitches up. Oh, I must bemoving forward. I fucked it up

(33:47):
aboard.
That is so disorienting. I don'tknow if I would like that. I
don't know if I'd like that.
It's like when you're sitting inyour car, and the car next to
you starts backing away. And youthink your car's moving. And
you're like, Whoa, does it everhappen to you? Yeah, no, but
that's like, that's, that'sreally disorienting and a very
impressive skill once you get itdown. So that's awesome. That
there's someone out there likeyou who wants to do it not?

(34:13):
Well, I think anybody could doit. I'm sure it just takes a lot
of time actually practiceto get that I'm sure when I
first started buying the 109 Itwas hard to stay off the button.
And we talked about this werecorded a little bit of an
intro before we got on here butgetting that immediate, you know
satisfaction of you know, Idon't know going from playing an
A star for example. You know, Ikeep the friction all the way

(34:35):
off. You know, I like you know,I like me loose cyclic, but you
know, and you have that you havethat stabilization on there
definitely took me a minute tolike, not hold it down the whole
time and try to fly it like an Astar. You know, you have to kind
of like be patient with it andtrust like okay, I'll have to do
is like, set it and let go. Andit'll fly. It'll take care of

(34:57):
itself. thing definitely tooksome getting used to. There was
one time taxing and anothertower was doing something weird
they were like having usactually ground taxi across the
runway. And so they cleared meacross the runway but I was
accidentally triggering the andI wasn't used to the SAS button

(35:18):
yet and I was holding it down.
But apparently I was alsoholding down the trigger for the
microphonethey cleared me across the road
I'm like get across runway onesix left or something and I was
I just gonot realizing that I was still

(35:41):
holding down because when yourground taxing the 109 you have
to hold down the SAS button orturn this asses off. And I was
squeezing it together with themic key and made a complete fool
out of myself on the radio.
They're like stuck mic stuck? MyI'm like that wasn't a stuck mic
that was just moving. Yeah,yeah, that was

(36:09):
fine. The 109 for like, when Iwas doing my training for about
like a month. And then how to goback into the star, one of the
instructor pilots was with me.
And I kept pushing the Porschetrim button on the it was on a
star. And he's like, What areyou doing? What do you mean,
what am I doing? What am Idoing? Like, what am I doing? Do
anything do squad,shoots the missiles.

(36:40):
I was like, I flew the F 76 Theother day, and I got to fly it.
And then I was like, Well, youknow, it's automated. And it has
like all the things like as likethe flight director and stuff
like that on there. And we gotto go to Palm Springs. And I
will say man, I do like havingto do automated just like that a
couple buttons, bop, bop, bop,good. Boom, my altitude and just

(37:04):
talk to approach and be like,Hey, man coming into Palm
Springs. That's itthat's it. I'm gonna make way.
Part wussies.

(37:28):
How, Diane, when you are outthere doing your swim training?
Like what? What were the worstseas that you saw there?
I mean, in the winter time, wecould get up to 40 foot breaking
surf just in certain areas. Doyou know the names of the areas
like Clatsop spit and peacocksbit like those areas, they could
get pretty freakin high. But Inever did any swimming. When I

(37:48):
was out there. I just worked onthe 47 foot motor lifeboats. I
mean, we had to test out our drysuits once in a while where we
have to jump in the water tocheck for leaks and the there
were no ways but that was cold.
But I cannot imagine being in asmall boat. I mean, just looking

(38:10):
down at at how fear so far. Welltalking about it'd be in a
helicopter,talking about where I got some
of my inspiration become ahelicopter pilot was the same as
you were I was like I'm freezingmy butt off down here miserable.
And just GG here comes the mhscfives will just like or a J Hawk
will, you know pass by asoverhead after we'd been out

(38:32):
there freezing our butts off forthree hours. They're like got it
from here guys. Getting all theglory, you know, I was down
there like oh my gosh, you know,and we finally get to the boat.
And they've already been onscene for however long doing
their thing and saving the day.
And I'm like, man, you know, Idon't want to be down here. I

(38:55):
want to be up there. So no, thatwas that was a very intense
place to work. It was we neverrolled completely but we came
pretty close a couple times. AndI think the scariest part was at
nighttime because sometimes youknow, in the bar, the waves
wouldn't come from just onedirection they'd be coming from
all different directions. Sowe'd have to station ourselves

(39:16):
on different parts of the boatand yell out to the Coxon near
20 port 30 starboard and likelet them know where the waves
are coming from and approximateheights that we'd kind of have
to guess so that they couldmaneuver the boat so we wouldn't
flip. But you know, these boatshad the ability to roll and
rewrite themselves. So we haveto be strapped in with harnesses
that we've you know, every timeyou take a step you have to
unclip and clip in unclip clipin, you know kind of a situation

(39:40):
so that if we did roll, we'renot going to fall out of the
boat. We're you know, it's notgoing to be pretty it's not
gonna be fun. You know, peoplebreak arms legs, the mast will
snap in half if that happens,but you're not going to die
because it'll rewrite itself. Soit was never like, we never
rolled completely but yeah,there was one time At night, we

(40:00):
got picked up from a wait likewhat by a wave from the back. So
like we kind of got sucked up,you know, and almost went but
overhead to the point where wewere holding on to the
stanchions. Our legs are justdangling in the air, just like
looking into a black abyss ofwater. And then the nose just

(40:21):
sort of skipped it just likechurch. I don't know, it's kind
of hard to explain on talkingabout it. But basically, the bow
just sort of like skipped alongthe water as we were getting
pushed by this wave. Andeventually, we kind of just came
back over it. But yeah, that wasone of the scariest moments of
my life holding on to thatstanchion. Just looking down

(40:41):
into the Blackwater, like,that's not going to be fun.
I think I would have got introuble on purpose and like,
just cleaned latrines for thenext two years.
There are some times we berocking back. And so we would
have to stand on the outside, wewouldn't be able to be inside
the boat, because we have to beable to see. And we'd have to

(41:03):
stand on the on the top openbridge, which was about 30 feet.
And we would have wavesliterally that would be over our
heads in height from where wewere standing. So sometimes we'd
be rocking side to side so hardthat our faces would be dragged
in the water. As we're lean,let's like that's how far we
would lean over. Like, I mean, Iwasn't a pilot yet. So I

(41:26):
couldn't appreciate what theweather was like there in
regards to flying. But I mean,looking back on it, I can't even
imagine the kind of conditionsthat you guys are flying in.
Does aCoast Guard pilots like see you
guys launch and go, like, Wherethe hell are they going? And
then they just see you go intothe abyss?
No, we, you know, we talk on theradio quite a bit. There's a ton

(41:46):
of Coast Guard operations, youknow, they they are fun. I think
that they have to operationalhere all the time. And then they
have a couple more stash in theHangout. I don't know exactly,
but they are offline. There'slots of training that goes on
here. They do auto rotationtraining in those Jayhawks like
all day, every day, it's it's,it's wild. Yeah, that's cool.

(42:10):
And we see him operatingoffshore, either training or
there's a lot of active rescuesthat go on up and down the
coast. I mean, these guys have apretty big range, they go way
inland, I mean, they'll they'lldo rescues up in the mountains.
And and, you know, all the waydown and up, up all the way to

(42:32):
the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
I wonder what you what you callme
that I've like read, but maybeI've never
know, I think that sounds right.
You know, when I, I had to I hadto do a watch standard job,
which basically was like being adispatcher, where we had to
decide whether or not a maydaycall was a switch flipper,

(42:54):
whether, if we needed to soundthe alarm and wake everybody up
to get out there. Or if it was,you know, calling someone Hey,
guys, we have a boat their wayoffshore. They're not in any
real danger, but they ran out ofgas so we can take our time with
it. But usually in Cape de if itwas something in the immediate
vicinity of the bar, it wasalways a switch flipper. Because

(43:16):
if someone ran out of gas, andthey could get thrown up against
the rocks, the jetties. I mean,it was just a nightmare in there
for anybody having any boatproblems. But yeah, we got
launched quite a bit. But Iremember having to memorize the
area of operation that we wereresponsible for. We had to know
every little point along youknow, we were 20 miles up river,

(43:37):
and then I think 20 miles up anddown the shoreline. And we had
to be able to have a boat wascoming through saying, you know,
I don't know where we areexactly. Our GPS is down. But I
see a rock and it looks like abig thumb. You know, we have we
have to be like, Oh, that's, youknow? Yeah. Oh, I know exactly
where to send our guys.

(44:00):
Well, we listen to the radio allnight, you know, you gotta
listen to 2169 and one three.
And so, you know, we hear youknow, and there may be many
calls on a surprisingly frequentbasis. And they're often kind of
funny. I mean,they are funny. What's the
funniest one you heard?

(44:22):
There's one, there's one guythat sounded like the dude from
basky Yeah, he was he wasoffshore. They're taken on water
engine quit. Yeah. It's uh, youknow, he made his mayday call.
And, you know, the reply, youknow, you got to listen to read.
I don't know what comes for.
What's your location? Doeseverybody have floatation

(44:42):
device? Is there you know, andhe's just like, answering
questions here so, so she sayslike, How many people on board
do they have? TFT she just likewent right back into the field

(45:02):
is so funny.
That's hilarious. Dude. That'sfunny. You have to take every
call seriously until they'reproven otherwise. And sometimes
we'd get calls that weredefinitely just you knew they
were not anything but you stillhave to respond as such. And we
I was standing watching heardover the radio over 60 And

(45:24):
somebody get Chuck Norris. I'mlike what? And then they said it
again. Somebody helped ChuckNorris. And I'm like, no vessel
Chuck Norris. They need ChuckNorris, Chuck Norris, Chuck
Norris, Chuck Norris. And likeover and over again. And it was

(45:47):
so funny because I think thatyou know, Coast Guard was out
there. We were doing trainingwith the hilos somewhere and
they went over all the boatsthat they could find a go Do you
have any kids on board? Can youhave them say Chuck Norris into
the radio? So for the next hour?
We're just have little ChuckNorris. Like over channel 16
Trying to find out like whatthis boat? Yeah, it was the most

(46:10):
ridiculous thing. But enough ofall that let's get back to your
story. Is this where you imaginethat your career would be or
what you would be doing? Did youhave any concept or is it
something I was?
Yeah, I was aware of this job.
You know, since the beginning,you know from Hillsboro, we
would fly on cross country,coaster and land. I remember

(46:31):
being I was terrified the firsttime I got to a story because it
was 30 knots. You know, windlimitations is probably the
pilot, right? And this is abovemy wind limitations. But you
know, we got to get gas. And itwas 39 like perfectly laminar
when I just laid it right intothe windows. Oh. No big deal.
But you know what, your privatepilot man? Yeah. That's a lie.

(46:59):
Especially in a Robbie? Man.
Yeah. Is that what you trainedin Robinson's? I mean, I guess
Yeah, Hillsborough? Yeah, thatwould make sense. Yeah, that's
crazy, the wind would wouldreally get kicked out there. But
at least it's you know, onshore,or offshore winds. So I guess
they can be pretty predictable.
You know, there's not much theonly thing that can make

(47:22):
turbulence is the ship, youknow, once we're out there, so
we can work with that to acertain extent.
Yeah. I was gonna ask, like the109. How does it operate out
there? And that thatenvironment, you know, do you
get? Well,it's, like uniquely suited to
this, which is surprising,because I don't know, I would
think it's just for, you know,VIPs or maybe EMS. It is it's

(47:43):
uniquely well suited. It's got avery capable autopilot. It's a
with a fourth axis, you havehover mode. And it has a ton of
Taylor authority. You know,it's, it's got this big long
tail, and, you know, the tailrotor blades are like these huge

(48:04):
paddles. They're like, they'rejust meaty, and, and, you know,
we fly, we'll even hoist in veryhigh winds. You know,
technically, our limit is 50knots. And, you know, we always
stay in that, in that in thatrange. Yeah. But, you know, the
one nines, it's, it's good forthat. Everything you've heard

(48:29):
about Leonardo is true, is verydifficult to work with that
company. The support islaughable. It's, you know, it's
an attack. It's a Ferrari, youknow, it's bright yellow, and it
breaks when you look at it thewrong way. On mechanics, just
like most Italians in the world,man, these guys do an

(48:51):
extraordinary job of shooting,finding these mysterious
electric gremlins. Just say10,000 miles a wire on there.
Yeah, question. Because, youknow, when I was finding the
109, we would always if itrained even just a little bit. I
mean, we'd get warning lightsthat would be thrown, you know,

(49:14):
you would you would just expectthat you'd get an engine fire
light or a chip light orsomething weird on your flight
the day after it rained, if wedidn't put them in the hangar or
have any have any cover on them,and it rains a lot out where you
are. So do you just get likemorning lights getting thrown
all the time? Or,you know, our guys have found
solutions to a lot of thatstuff. And are there are, you

(49:37):
know, ways to add some pottinghere or some insulation there
or, you know, they've, they'vemanaged to basically, you know,
marinized the helicopter, youknow, it's our ton of processes
that that, you know, it goesjust our unique aircraft to sort
of prevent that kind of thing.

(49:59):
Oh, man. Share it with theworld.
Yeah, we have the highest time109 SP we're at almost 6000
hours and it's going to getreplaced. We got a new one on
order. It's coming in September.
And you know, when you call thetech rep for help with any help
they call us though, whenanother one or nine SPS having

(50:21):
an autopilot problem, becausewe've had all the problems we've
got this old aircraft it's it'skind of not that cool. When the
factory has got a call. You canlearn about their problems.
Yeah.
What do you guys think aboutthis? Have you ever experienced

(50:41):
it?
And the support is, it's aproblem and our customer the Bar
Pilots are us being down justwaiting for parts like
that about changing it up, likepicking a different platform.
Definitely, everybody's beenkind of eager to explore those

(51:02):
options. And it's a hard sell,you know, the, the 145 is too
expensive. And the 135 is justnot big enough. And before 29th
got a shitty autopilot doesn'thave hover mode. And I guess the
Canadian code is suing bellbecause they bought all these

(51:25):
these for 20 nines with theexpectation that they would be
able to hoist with hover mode.
And that was like five, sixyears ago. Okay. Voice with
hover mode. So yeah, there'sthere's not a ton. Not a ton of
options.
options out there. Hmm.
I was voting for the AugustaWestland. 609 doesn't sound like

(51:45):
that's gonna be an option forus. Oh, yeah.
Just just got a couple Hawks.
Yeah, no, right. Well, we wehoist differently. So the
Jayhawk Man, these guys arehoist experts, they do tons of
that work. But they do itdifferently. They're way, way,
way up above the ship, these taglines. So it's a static hoist.

(52:09):
And it takes a while, you know,we we don't we get in very
close, we can be 10 or 20 feetup above a deck. And it's a
dynamic hoist and we go in, putthem on, it should be a five
second.
It's pretty quick. Okay.
So a bigger helicopter, like alike old 212 or something like
that. It still wouldn't work.
It'd be you know, there's toomuch downwash and we'd have to

(52:33):
be higher. The higher you arethe more difficult the visual
references, you know.
So, yeah, so dynamics, a small,small pool of auctioneer friends
as definitely Nice, dude. Youknow, like, it's a very
specialty thing you guys workingwith? Yeah, that 145 Be nice,

(52:55):
though. But you're right. Yeah.
That is expensive. That's whatI'm trying to sell my bosses,
Mike. Dell it all and just.
Sure.
Well, let's start somecrowdfunding for you guys. We
started a GoFundMe, GoFundMe,Oregon.

(53:21):
I don't know how the BarkBoxfeel about that. Right
on man. Well, so cool. And I'mthat was it's so cool and
interesting to hear, to hearyour story and what you do up
there. So I mean, I had an idea.
But it's cool to do a little bitof a deep dive into your
operations and how you guys dothose missions. So thank you for
sharing. I know, we don't goupside down on no jet pilot.

(53:45):
But, but it's something that'sso niche and different that it's
so it's cool to share somethinglike that on the podcast,
because not a lot of people doit. I mean, there's eight of you
in the whole wide world that dothis mission in that specific
area. So there's afew other helicopter pilot like

(54:06):
harbor pilot operations. There'sone in Norway, one in South
Africa. I think there's one inAustralia. But yeah, it's it's
not super common. And sometimesthey always land on deck like in
Australia, I think their primaryplan is land on deck. We only do
that when it's like a lake outthere. It's got to be sweet

(54:28):
conditions.
So yeah, but that's a veryunique area and very specific to
what you guys do with theweather and the way that the
ocean is out there. SoI'd say the most of the picture
and pilots that I know I wouldsay 70 80% probably never get
into helicopter and the onesthat would would probably never
go special VFR anywhere yourhelicopters lift up a time see

(54:57):
now And they're like, yeah, letme get special be a part of the
North. And they're like,like but yeah, it was just
funny. I would say most of themlike, are like, no, they
honestly do think we're cowboys.

(55:17):
Yeah.
I mean, they're not wrong. No, Ifly like a grandma.
Me to me and I, you know, evenif I'm not a cowboy at all ever,
it's still risky. It's excitingenough. I don't need to add any
excitement to notice like, yeah.
Required.

(55:43):
No cowboy certificate required.
No, I hear that. Thank youso much for coming on the show
and spending your Thanksgivingwith us and have a beautiful
Thanksgiving with your familyand going over to your friend's
place. It was really awesome.
Oh, hi. Oh my gosh, whatis your boy have a mullet? I
like your haircut.

(56:13):
Up here, one of these days youshould book yourself a ticket
come up here.
Oh my gosh. That's happened.
It's such a beautiful area. AndAstoria is a really cool little
town. Man, Mikey T. I love thatguy. Yeah, super cool, dude.
Like,yeah, I miss him. Whole pap
crew. It's cool to hear his job.

(56:35):
But a nice little part of thehelicopter industry. It's really
neat to be able to share hisexperience and right,
yeah, really, a lot of peopleknow what he does or how I
didn't really know too much ofwhat he did. Yeah. I didn't mean
that he flew out and, you know,took captives out to boats and
stuff. Mm hmm.
It's a little bit more involvedin that.

(56:55):
Pretty cool, right?
It is time for a little groundlesson. Let's go. All right. All
right, you guys. First andforemost, I want to apologize
for my voice. I'm a littlehoarse right now. I just spent
the last week fairing and our 66from Puerto Rico, up here to

(57:17):
Atlanta. And it was my firstinternational helicopter
adventure. So I just wanted toshare the information that I
learned about leaving the US andreturning to the US and
traveling internationally, justa couple of tips and things that
I picked up on this trip. Andit's all really fresh right now.
So I just want to get it downfor you guys. If you're planning

(57:38):
on ever taking an internationaltrip to and from the US,
especially in the Caribbean,because that's the only
experience that I have. Thus farin a helicopter, or an airplane.
This all applies to either one.
Take notes, had originallystarted this ground lesson
before I left utilizing the AOPA's for cross border flying PDF

(58:01):
that you can find online, youcan just Google it a OPA cross
border flying, they have areally good checklist on there.
But there was a couple of thingsthat I wanted to add from things
that I learned along the way. Sofirst and foremost, you want to
make sure you verify all of yourdocuments, you have everything
in order for you as the pilotand for the aircraft that you

(58:23):
are going to be flying. So ifyou're fairing, someone else's
aircraft, or if you're flyingyour own, you need to make sure
that it has all of the requireddocuments on board. Now we've
already done a lesson on therequired documents that you need
to have on board. But just as areminder, you need arrow. And
now we're going to add a customsdecal, a CBP decal, so you need

(58:43):
to go to their website and seehow you can apply for and for
the aircraft. For you as thepilot along with all of your
other flight certificates,you're also going to need a
radio license, which you can getfrom the FAA for pretty cheap,
it's very quick, very easy. Doyour research on the country
that you're going to be going toin regards to their COVID
policies. Some of them requiredocumentation of your

(59:07):
vaccination records, or have aCOVID test within a certain time
period before you're going to bearriving in the country. And a
lot of them have electronicdocuments you need to fill out
online and get approved prior toyour arrival sort of like a
health visa. Now, I only went tocountries in the Caribbean. So
this is the only thing that Ican speak on. I haven't traveled

(59:30):
any farther than that. But nomatter what you need to enter
into an airport of entry for thecountry that you're going to so
do some research figure outwhich ones those are called the
FBO is in advance. Let them knowthat you're going to be arriving
and customs is going to knowthat you're going to be arriving
as well through the FBO. Sothere were some airports where

(59:53):
we were approached by customs onthe ramp before we even had shut
down And there were some thatwere a little bit more laid back
where we just went into the FBO.
And they assisted us with all ofthe customs forms that we needed
to fill out. But at no time, wasthere any real struggle with
customs, everybody was superfriendly, and courteous, we had

(01:00:18):
no issues whatsoever. Andlastly, once you arrive, make
sure you close your flight plan.
It is required in the Caribbeanto open a flight plan between
countries, not necessarily ifyou're flying into country. But
some places like the Bahamas,have cruising permits that you
need to fill out and pay for inorder to go into your country to

(01:00:40):
different islands. So that issomething to be aware of. But
customs will let you guys knowall of that stuff when you get
there. They allpa flying guidesare a really good tool, if you
go to their website, you canpurchase those there. And it has
all of this information onthere. But you can also just
find all this stuff online. Andit's really not that hard. When

(01:01:00):
you're returning back to theUnited States, again, you need
to pick an airport of entry. Solook up which airports are a Oh
ease and read about their timesof operation, because maybe the
office is going to be closedwhen you are planning to arrive.
So that's also very important.

(01:01:21):
And again, to return to the USyou need to fill out the E A P
is form online, just one peraircraft, all of the crew and
passengers will all go on thesame document, you will get your
confirmation email that lets youknow that you have permission to
arrive and you have landingrights, you will need to file a

(01:01:42):
D VFR or IFR flight plan toenter the Aidas if you think
you're going to be later than 15minutes earlier than fifth 15
minutes at your arrival timethat you have on your paperwork.
Or if you think that you'regoing to enter at a different
point of entry to the ADAs morethan five miles from what you
filed. Make sure you let themknow as soon as humanly possible

(01:02:05):
of the changes.
Custom customs also wants you tocall them at least one hour but
no earlier than 23 hours beforeyour planned time of arrival are
super nice. You'll talk to themon the phone, they just want to
verify a couple things. Andsomething to keep that kind of
caught us off guard was thatwhen they were verifying
information over the phone, theywere saying their initials after

(01:02:28):
everything we said as sort of averbal, initial saying that they
are confirming so that wassomething that I didn't realize
that they did and was kind oflike weird, really, why are you
keep saying J S? Oh JSA yourinitials didn't had no idea that
that's something that customsdid. But just something to know.

(01:02:49):
When you get to your airport ofentry. Go directly to the
customs ramp, there are placesthat you can get fuel at the
customs ramp as well. But do notland at an FBO before you go to
customs, they can hit you with a10 to $20,000 Fine and you
really don't want that tohappen. When you arrive at the

(01:03:09):
customs ramp. It's verystraightforward. Someone comes
out to the aircraft, they do aquick aircraft, like walk
around, they're actuallychecking for radiation, which
was something else I didn't knowthat they did. So they have like
a radiation detector thatthey're going around the
aircraft with. And then you'llbring all of your baggage inside
they'll put it through thescanner just like you're

(01:03:30):
arriving at the at a normalairport and Bada bing bada boom,
they send you on your way.
Welcome back to America. I hopesome of this information helped.
I have no idea if any of youguys are planning on flying out
of or to the US. But this wassomething that I learned some
new experience that I can sharewith you guys. So I hope that
this was interesting andhelpful. And make sure you like

(01:03:52):
subscribe. Leave us a comment onApple podcasts. It really helps
us out but beautiful, beautifulday you guys fly safe out there,
fly smart, and we'll catch younext time on The forever on the
fly podcast. Bye