March 7, 2021 • 45 mins
If you don't know who @iflyheli is on Instagram, you better get on the app and look him up ASAP. I always say the one thing I love most about aviation is its ability to bring good people together. York Galland is just one of those people you meet along the way in the industry that shines his love for helicopters through and through, and has a passion for sharing the experience of helicopter flight with others. He joins us today to share his experience with personally owning and operating an R44, R66, Bell 505, and EC130T2. We get into a pros and cons discussion of owning each of these helicopters, and why he chose to recently upgrade from a Bell 505 to an EC130T2. On this episode we also delve into what happens when your original flight plan and weather brief goes down the tube, and you have to recognize your own hazardous attitudes to put the ego aside in order to deviate from your original plan to land the helicopter safely.
Stick around to the end of the episode for a quick ground lesson on how to obtain a proper weather brief, identifying possible hazardous attitudes and their antidotes, what you should be looking for on a high and low reconnaissance while choosing an off airport landing site in the event of a forced landing.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:02):
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast
What's up aviation nerd nationWelcome to episode number seven
of the forever on the flypodcast, your bi weekly dose of
aviation inspiration, educationand entertainment. I'm your
hostess with the most is Dianedollar. And I'm Jose and we're
(00:25):
here to get you guys hooked onaviation. We've been really
feeling the love from you allout there. Thank you so much for
your support your reviews,subscriptions and downloads. It
really keeps us rockin overhere. Oh man the other day, I
blew out my back at the gym mantrying to get them gains. It
sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Whenyou have to go out there and fly
(00:48):
and look for traffic. I kind oflook like a robot. You know,
like turning my head to the leftlooking for traffic to the
right. That's like the worstwhen you can't turn your neck.
Have you ever experienced that?
No, I haven't. Oh, lucky man.
You must not be hitting goals.
No, probably not.
(01:10):
Well, why don't you go ahead andintroduce her next.
Without further ado, our nextguest has personally owned and
operated the art 66 to Bell 505and recently upgraded to the EC
130 T two. He has firsthandexperience on these products, as
well as he could tell us thepros and cons to each of them.
You guys might know him firstand foremost as at I fly heli on
(01:33):
Instagram. I always saythat one of the things I love
most about aviation is itsability to bring good people
together. And your guy is justone of those people you need
along the way in the industrythat just shines his love for
helicopters through and throughthe nicest guy you'll ever meet.
And he gets so excited to sharehis love for aviation with
everyone he encounters. Justlove the guy.
(01:54):
Oh, yeah, super cool dude. He'shere to chat about his recent
switch to the EC 132. Thebenefits of flying helicopters
over airplanes. Don't worry, wewon't throw too much shade on
you airplane cat. What happenswhen your original flight plan
and weather briefing goes downto tube.
And that's episode we reallywant to drive in the importance
of recognizing that hazardousattitude that tells you that you
(02:17):
can continue to fly when theweather starts going to crap and
trying to stick to that originalplan. Putting away that ego to
make the decision to deviatefrom your original plan to land
the helicopter safely and stickaround at the end for a short
lesson on choosing a suitableoff airport landing site. Let's
do it.
Your Galland with the goldenhour. And it was just like this
(02:41):
perfect storm we like all feltat the exact same time. Hi, I'm
your gallon, and I'm forever onthe fly.
coming on the show, I really seeyou taking the time to do this
with us because I'm excited.
Yeah. So your your work and Imet he's super popular on
(03:01):
Instagram. Everybody knows I flyheli. And so I had been
following you for for quite awhile before we actually met.
And I was in Sedona with acouple of my girlfriends camping
for my friend's birthday, yousaw that I was in Sedona through
one of my Instagram Stories.
Right? And you messaged meyou're like, Hey, I'm in Sedona.
(03:26):
I was at a family reunionlooking for a break for a
break. And so I'm like, Well,what's what's a couple of girls
got to do to get her rightaround here. Just show up to the
airport at sunset. Okay. Andyeah, so you ended up taking me
and my friends up some of mygirlfriends who had never been
in a helicopter before and justgave them this super magical
(03:49):
experience flying over Sedona atsunset even to this day. I mean,
I I've been on you know,hundreds 1000s of flights. And I
mean, that was such a magicalthat was such a magical flight.
You made my friend cry.
Oh, yeah.
But you know what's interestingabout that I that one experience
(04:09):
effect I haven't took a pictureof her crying. Yeah, yes. That
if someone says hey, why? Whatdo you love about flying? Why do
you do it? I've got like a top10 Maybe lots of reasons, you
know, to explore just the thefeeling of flight is amazing.
The views incredible. The peopleyou meet is top three for sure.
(04:34):
But not only the people that youmeet, but you're sharing this
experience. I mean, Sedona I'dnever been there before. I mean,
I'd only been there maybe half aday when I saw you there and it
was just a magical. It looks alittle bit like Zions, just a
just a magical Geography andEnvironment there. And then we
(04:55):
had a new helicopter. It smelledgood. had the Bose headsets. I'm
sure I had something. I wouldcall it magical. My son would
call it majestical music goingthrough it with the golden hour.
And it was just like thisperfect storm. And I could just
we like all felt at the exactsame time. I kind of just
(05:19):
glanced back when to see you. Ithink you had two or three
friends back there. But I wantedto see if they're having a good
experience and your one friend.
I don't even remember her name,but her name Jade. Jade. Yeah,
she was she was like acombination of like bawling. And
she was also smiling. Like, likeear to ear at the same time. And
yeah, that was that was a greatflight. And that is that is like
(05:42):
the number one reason for flyinga helicopter. I don't have the
same experience in an airplane.
And you don't get thatyou painted a good picture,
brother. I felt like I wasthere. Yeah. We need to get the
girl Jade crying.
(06:04):
Guys long black hair. Yeah, I'mlooking at you Jose, she was
prettier than you for sure.
Yeah.
I think you pretty nowappreciate it. Yeah.
(06:26):
So you're out there onInstagram, sharing your
adventures with everybody.
You're a GoPro creator, which isawesome. I'm sure they get to
send you all the newest, latestand greatest equipment to shoot
on. And I know any anytime Imeet somebody, and you come up
somehow, I'm like, oh, yeah, Iknow, York, we've flown a couple
of times, they always go like,what the heck does that guy even
(06:47):
do?
That the number one, it's amystery.
It's a mystery knows like, well,I could ask you to tell
everybody. Maybe you want to beshrouded in that mystery for a
little bit longer? I'm not sure.
Well, I'll tell I'll respondthis way. I do. I do make some
(07:07):
money flying, but not nearenough to justify it. My main
source of income is outsidebusinesses, mostly real estate.
Let's save that for anotherpodcast on what I do. But it's
kind of interesting. Because Ifeel like on my Instagram, I'm
fairly transparent with who Iam. As far as I mean, I put my
(07:29):
family on it, my homes in it. Myfriends are on it. My religions
on it. But I really don't talk awhole lot about my other
businesses. And so it's justkind of weird that I've been
able to keep that a little bit,you know, bailed or not in the
forefront. But meanwhile, Imean, that couldn't compete with
(07:50):
some of the views. I take with aGoPro in a helicopter. So you
know, what does that guy do? Heflies all day long.
You are literally always lying,which, you know, is the I guess
Pinnacle or dream of any pilotHealthcare's like oh, yeah,
someday, of course, I'd love toown my own helicopter and just
(08:11):
be able to go heli camping andtake all my friends and family
out for pleasure runs. ButI will say this on that one
note, I used to love the idea orthe thought that if you do what
you love, you never work a dayin your life. I think I've kind
of changed my feelings aboutthat. Sometimes when you have to
feed your family based on thisthing that you love. You I think
(08:36):
it taints the experiencesometimes might even caused a
little bit of resentment towardsthis thing that you love if it's
not beating your family. And soI I was kind of different. I
worked really hard when I wasyounger flute very little,
didn't get into ownership untilyou know, really into my 40s.
(08:58):
And, and now I do what I love,and I don't have to feed my
family by doing it. So that'sjust a thought. Yeah. You can be
a hard business making money inaviation.
It can be Hey, can I feel likeI'm one of those guys?
(09:19):
Yeah, I mean that that'ssomething that always comes up
is have a backup plan. Becauseflying is what a it's a
privilege not a right and it canbe taken away from you. If you
don't have a backup plan anotherway to make income and you lose
your medical or anythingsubstantial like that, then
where are you? Yeah, that's kindof what I'm facing right now
going into my 30s I'm 30Wonderful, but I'm in my 30s
(09:42):
already, but now in myadulthood. It's kind of one of
the thingsisn't that 30th year or top one
Do you feel like officiallyyou're an adult? It was hard for
me? Yeah. Andno, I was actually excited for
my 30s I think you know my 20s Igot to do a lot of cool stuff.
But I mean, my 30s this is whereI'm starting to see the fruits
(10:04):
of all of my labor from my 20sand getting to this. So now I'm
actually really enjoying so far.
Yeah. So far, so good to gooddecade and join up. Yeah,
but that's ultimately I thinkthat's true. I mean, I've been
guilty of saying, you know, ifyou do a love you never have to
work day in your life. And,yeah, some days it feels like
(10:27):
that. Yeah, I get to do thecoolest job in the world. And I
don't really feel like I'mworking because I get to fly my
friends or, or whatever. Doing acool mission. But yeah, I think
when I was building my flighttime and flying all day, every
day, it's it's work. It isdefinitely work. There is no
(10:47):
doubt about that part.
120 degrees in the Grand Canyon.
Serving champagne, and oh, boy,no, no bueno. Man. And
especially when you're talkingto the French love you, Esther.
You know, you tell them that thebest wine come from California?
(11:07):
Mind blown.
Picture. See, I can imagineyours heads explode. Yeah. could
imagine. So you recently madethe switch from the bell 505 up
to an AC 130. Now, is that a Ttwo? Or is it a before?
(11:30):
It's a T two? It's 2014. T two.
And I think whatever has beenchanged since 2014. Is being
upgraded right now in a shoppingCanada. But that's the T two. So
I did make the change in thesummer.
What prompted the I mean, Iwould say upgrade for sure.
(11:55):
Yeah, well, let me ask you thatby backing up just a little bit.
So I have I have personallyowned and flew the heck out of
an R 44. And r 66. A 505. Andnow an h1 32. And so that's kind
of my experience, I put a numberof hours on a 125 or an A star,
(12:22):
done a little bit of jet Ranger.
But for the most part, thosefour helicopters have been my
experience. That's kind of whatI have to compare things to. So
it was kind of a, I thought itwas a nice incremental
graduation, you know, ownsomething for three or four
years and then kind of move upto something a little bit
bigger, a little more powerful,a better performance. So that
(12:43):
was kind of the path that Ichose. when I really started
playing a lot. Maybe 15 yearsago, I do pick swing as well. Do
not enjoy it. I do it when Ineed to have done the whole
corporate thing. business jetsthat grind. There's Yeah, I
don't want to have to I loveflying helicopters. But to your
(13:06):
point, why did I switch from a505 to a T two? I think the
bigger question that most peoplemight have is why did I switch
from a five to a T two, andmaybe not a 125 or even even
even an a star like a b two orsomething. And I think it all
comes back to like my personalmissions are. And I think it's
(13:31):
important when you're lookingat, you know, a helicopter to
really identify what your goalis with it and what your mission
with it is. Maybe something thateveryone can relate to is buying
a car. I mean, it's it's it's amistake to buy a car for 5% of
why you'll be using it. Forexample, you know, I'm going to
(13:58):
get a world drive car because Imight be going up to Mammoth.
You know, once a year, you wantto buy a car that meets 90% of
your needs. You don't want tobuy a car that meets 5% your
needs and sacrifices the other90% Right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
you. I mean, you should buy acar that fills your needs.
(14:20):
Exactly. And I think a lot oftimes, you know, first buyers
make a mistake there. Well, Iwould say the same thing is true
with the helicopter. I don't dofirefighting. I don't do
longlining I don't do lawenforcement. I don't do
forestry. If I did, I would havean A star 100% I mean they are
(14:45):
the top performer. They aresuper powerful, right? Yeah. And
you can attach anything to an Astar. Try a defy you try to Find
the utility arm for 505. Yeah,that's not just now you can get
a couple things you can attachto an R 66, or an R 44. But you
(15:06):
can't attach anything to an Astar. So I will say he, he's too
kind to beat me up too muchabout it. But one of my mentors
and just an amazing pilot,thanks, Chris Smith. He's flown
there quite a bit in LA. But he,it just rubs him wrong every
time I buy something besides astar. Yeah.
(15:33):
I was always kind of curiouswhy? Well, I remembered when I
asked you, you know, the thefuel economy that you got from
the 505 versus in a star, theprice point on it and
everything,those arguments are gone with
the T two T twos are moreexpensive. So like, my main
mission is why might do a littlebit of work. Most of it is for
doing a collaboration or justfor personal flight. And for me
(15:58):
like the number one importantthing is the ride and the view
period are 66 or 66. has anamazing do. The bell 505 has an
amazing view. And the T two hasthe very best view and an A star
(16:19):
has a marginal view upfront itfor the pilot. It's almost like
an airplane. It has a terriblefuture sit in the back. Yeah, I
mean, I've gotten sat back likeno, I don't like it, I'm getting
sick, you can't get like bendyour head down to see out the
windows, right? And so thatalone was a deal killer for me.
(16:41):
And so if my main mission isexploring or sightseeing, and
doing it with family or friends,the 505 actually was a great
aircraft for that and the T twois even a better aircraft for
that because you can get morefriends. Yeah, T two, then you
can have 505 You know, I willsay in answering your question.
(17:06):
Also, people really want me tocompare a like a, you know, the
bell product to the Airbusproduct. I've owned Robinson
Bell, and bus and they have allactually been really good
aircraft. For me. There's beenthings I've loved about every
one of the aircraft. You know,if you talk about that, you
know, we talked about cars.
(17:29):
There's, you know, there was onecar that fit every need. It
probably be a minivan exceptit's missing a soul. So you
can't own a minivan. I would saythe r 66. does a pretty good job
of being the one machine thatdoes it all. Okay. I mean, look,
(17:52):
you can put both fuel fivepeople and land pretty high. In
that thing, it will fly for overthree hours non stop, the two
front seats have great views tothe back of the throat, or okay.
I hate the turbine lag in thatthing. But it's a minivan to me.
(18:13):
It's kind of lacking that soul.
The 505 is is just the next stepup. It has that flat platform it
is modernized it's pretty coolto have all your engine
instruments integrated into thatGarmin 1000 The abuse really are
incredible, not 505 testified bythe tears and grants of your
(18:34):
friends who are sitting in theback seats. And it's you know,
where were our six six mightburn 20 gallons an hour of jet
fuel, really 30 on the 505. Andreally, I might burn 48 on the
TTL you never just go on fullthrottle on that thing. So there
is that difference. But the 505was a pretty good attempt at
(19:00):
creating one machine. That willdo it all. Honestly did. Okay.
did pretty good. There's acouple things I'll just say that
they really got to step up on.
Are those doorsand doors are horrible. They're
super flimsy,or flimsy. And you can't open
them in flight. Obviously.
(19:24):
They're not easy to take off atleast in a Robinson you can pop
them offmore often. Yeah, for sure. Did
you? Did you like the aestheticof the 505? Because the one
thing I hear from so manypeople, which I personally
thought it's a decent lookinghelicopter, but I know a lot of
people are like, Oh, the 505 isjust ugly.
(19:44):
Wow. Well, I'm guilty of that. Iwill say I'm saying God bless
everybody. Bill. But yeah, Ijust think it's her and just
looking.
Well you know in part there'sreason for that because you know
when anything's made bycommittee, which kind of was I
think they really consulted withinjured a lot of engineers and
pilots and people in theindustry on hey, how do we
(20:06):
create something for everyone?
And we end up with is, you know,something that was designed by
committee. And so it's rarelybeautiful. I will say, though
that I think my red bell 505with the tall and longer skids.
I thought that lookedgood. Yeah. I thought it was
like pretty damn good. Yeah.
(20:29):
And then you throw a couplereally good photographers like
Aaron Brimhall or Mike begins atit, and they can make it look
really good, too. Yeah. Yeah,now that's over to the A star,
Atari but to the tee to it iseverything that the bell is but
more refined, more powerful.
More seats, bigger views. To payfor it.
(20:55):
Yeah, bigger engine, you know,I was gonna say you, like took
the words right out of my mouth,amigo. Um, as far as like the
mission of, I just think thatyou're right for what you're
trying to do. And for the amountof horsepower that T two pulls
out, it's almost double what the505 puts out. So just in that
aspect alone, I think it's worthit. And then the theater seating
that you get in the EC 130 orthe H 130. I think I, I
(21:18):
personally think you made a goodchoice. Yeah, thank you.
The only thing people also saywhen you're if you're talking
about buying a T two versus an Astar is just the resale. You
know how if you're ever planningon turning around and getting
rid of it someday then becausethe 125 A 25 is so versatile in
(21:41):
the industry, and everybody usesit across the board. It's just a
lot easier to resell it later ondown the road versus NEC 130
Which is pretty much only usedby tour companies, which we all
know what's happened with thatindustry.
lately. Yeah. tour companies andprivate owners
and private owners. Yeah, yeah,for sure. Yep. Agreed. But you
(22:03):
just got your beautiful newpaint job your role orange. Is
that Is there a search? Oh,actually, no, my Bible five
digit color orange like areddish
orange. Sunrise orange, or whatdid it say on the color swatch?
(22:24):
I forget. But I will say on theT two. I told Euro tech Canada
who they are amazing. That's alittle plug for them. They can
so great to work with. I said Iwant Ferrari red, and I really
don't want it to be orange. Butwhat we ended up going with is
something that's a little bitbetter. It's Ashley red. There
(22:45):
is a quick story behind that.
Kodiak which I apply has a nicedetail stripe, Patel and Mark
Brown who's Kodiaks head hischief, their chief pilot, he
kinda I think designs whateverthe demonstrator is going to be.
And I bought a demo aircraftfrom him. His his wife, who's an
amazing pilot, as well. She Hername is Ashley. And he tells me
(23:11):
that he chose Ashley red, whichis an actual color paying homage
to his wife so I thought it wasappropriate. And so I ended up
going with that color and itdoes look absolutely amazing.
It's stunning.
Yeah, I saw on your Instagramstory. Oh my gosh, it's yeah,
that's pretty I can't wait tocome out there and fly with you.
(23:35):
Because you know, I invitemyself to go fight with York all
the time. I'm like so by the waya couple months from now I can
make a trip are you gonnado it just got to work squeaky
wheel.
Just got to keep bugging peopleuntil they say yes, it's kind of
been you know, my my grind. Justpoking at people on Instagram.
(23:58):
Hey, hey, what's up? Can I gofly with you? Can I go fly with
you? Eventually they say yes.
You know,there's there's a phrase for
what you are. Diane getspleasantly persistent. Oh, I
love that goes a long way toit's an important skill.
Yeah, I mean, it's tough to toethe line between being
pleasantly persistent andannoying
(24:19):
and annoying. I try not to veeroff and I'm on the opposite end
of that. Yeah. Annoying.
Things Done. No, no, I'mtalking for Diane when she talks
to me your real friends.
(24:42):
Oh, question. Does your new T tohave crash proof fuel tanks?
Well, I guess what do all theteachers they do? All the
teachers have the crash ball.
The teachers have them? Yep,that's right. They have the
bladders, the bladders with adetachable fuel hose nozzle,
what do you call it?
(25:03):
Were you not gonna fly with meif it didn't have it? No.
I was just backing away.
That is an expensive upgrade tothe before though
that's 100 grand or something,I don't know, I'd have to do
(25:23):
that. I just know that it'speople have done it. It's not
cheap or easy. As you know, I'ma fixed wing, as well as rotor.
And I think I already bagged onfixed wing enough, say that it
is boring and it kind of is. Butthe one thing that I have loved
about it just the peace of mindabout flying a helicopter is its
(25:46):
ability to ultimately landanywhere do is to fly a
helicopter like you fly a plane,I fly between Salt Lake City,
and John Wayne all the time. Andyou know, the spots where you
can land and take a bathroombreak or take a picnic or, or
leaving the afternoon and youknow, it's a four hour flight
(26:10):
four and a half hour flight orcamp halfway there. But more
importantly, like flying up tofly up to Canada all the time.
No matter what kind of weatherplanning you do, man, there's
always problems. But helicopter,I don't stress about it. Because
I always keep enough gear on foryou know, for myself or
(26:31):
passengers to stay the nightsomewhere. You know, in a
forest, we'll put on a forestbecause there's lots of trees
somewhere, even in a parking lotif you needed to. But the peace
of mind that being able to sitdown and safely into whether
it's something that's a bigdeal. And I will say there's
been no dozens of times whereI've done that. And sometimes
(26:56):
I've even kind of planned onclick Map to sit down somewhere.
Yeah, I just know looking at theweather. But there was one time
I was actually headed down to doa in southern Utah to do a photo
shoot. And truly, I checked theweather. It was looking good.
And by the time I got down toSouthern Utah, there's never
rain. But I found myself 30minutes away from becoming dark
(27:20):
sun had gone down. And the stormcloud just moved in around me.
And I started looking roused bymyself because the job was the
next morning. And I'm thinkingthere's no really safe way to go
through this right now. And I'malso you know, in an area where
(27:40):
there there wasn't like a roadeven. And so like, you know
what, I'm in unrestricted BLM.
There is a pinnacle right belowme. I say pinnacle. I'm talking
like 50 feet across and youknow, 1000 foot drop all the way
around. Oh my god. That's myspot. Pinnacle. Right. And so I
(28:05):
sat down on that I sat downthere and I secured the
helicopter. And it raged thestorm for four or five hours,
may have a tent. I didn't set itup because would have been a
mess. It probably would haveblown off or blown me off a
cliff. But I just kind ofhunkered down in my helicopter.
I think I had a season orsomething on my iPad. And it
(28:29):
just raged and rained so hard.
And then I have a picture on myInstagram. It's my my favorite
picture about 2am The cloudsbroke and I got out my camera.
And I took this picture, youcan't see that I'm on a
pinnacle. It just looks like I'min space floating. But just the
Milky Way was right there,surrounded by these clouds. And
I was like yeah, this is why Ifly a helicopter.
(28:55):
You know I thought of when youwere talking about landing in a
parking lot. I could onlyimagine I'm at Walmart or
something and I see a helicopteron the parking lot with the
tent.
Painted Ashleyis that she read? She read? I
know that guy.
So what about your experienceflying in the LA basin and the
(29:17):
constantly changing weather thatwe have out here the marine
layers that come in it can beunpredictable sometimes
I think there's probably beenfour or five times over about
the 10 years I was flying therewhere I said no you know I'm
gonna go sit down in Burbank orVan Nuys or whatever Camry Oh,
and and my passengers on an Ubersend it back down to Orange
(29:41):
County. And that is that's apretty cool option. And it's
like ah, can you make it back tocamera? Oh, even it's even you
know the candles. powerlinesgoing over that four or five.
They're like, you're thinkingokay, I gotta sit down in a
parking lot. You know which onewould I pick? And I think we all
(30:03):
have this kind of fear oflanding in a Walmart. The police
show up, firemen show up, thenews shows up and they start
asking questions like, okay, sowhy did you land here? Well, cuz
I got weathered out. Did youcheck the weather before you
left? I did it look like it wasdoable. Like, what does that
mean? So you said going throughthese. For me, it's always like
(30:24):
what happens when the reportersshow up? Yeah, yeah. But you
know what, I think two things,it doesn't matter. If you're
alive, you can deal with any ofthose questions of like, I guess
I didn't have enough fuel. Ormaybe I didn't look at the
weather closely enough. But manto sit in the industry, I really
feel like the industry wouldprotect and defend a pilot who
(30:47):
decided to land and live even ifit were in a Walmart parking
lot, don't you? Oh.
And it's as long as like, youknow, you're not causing any
hazard to people on the ground.
If you can find it, your face.
Obviously, weather changes sodrastically, sometimes,
especially in the LA basin?
Where what do you got marinelayer, the marine layer, move in
super quickly, before you evenrealize it? You know, when
(31:09):
you're flying atnight, you don't see it coming
in?
Yeah, like one minute, it'scompletely VFR next minute, it's
may not be 200 foot verticalvisibility over Santa Monica.
And like, you can't get off thepad at UCLA but and that's not
necessarily always forecasted,either. Those things moving in.
Sowell, I can tell you that the at
(31:30):
least once a year, if Ipurposely choose to make the
decision to land and not make itto my destination. I always try
to like at least put it on mystory. Kind of as, Hey, guys.
It's okay if the best laid plansand the best flight planning and
(31:50):
weather briefs and fuel plansdidn't work out, like you
expected. Didn't work out for metoday. I'm here, I'm in the
desert. And I'm going to spendthe night here. And what passes
in the morning, I'm going tocontinue. I tried when I have
those experiences to you know,kind of make it public. That's
not a mistake. It's a success.
(32:15):
Now, that's a good decisionmaking right there. And that's
promoting getting rid of yourego. That's in the back of your
head saying, you know, oh, if Iland here, what are people going
to say that I didn't do a goodflight plan or a good weather
brief or like that macho addict,but not listening to those hot
not succumbing to thosehazardous attitudes and just
(32:37):
putting the ego away and justputting the thing down and
waiting it out? I mean, it wouldhappen all the time at pappy on
like when we were doing ourGrand Canyon tours. Monsoon
season was crazy. Yeah, you'dget force coming in out of
nowhere. And we'd have fourhelicopters landing in the
parking lot down at by theColorado River because there's
(32:58):
lightning all around. And youknow, everyone's and you're not
that far from Boulder City,right there by the river. But
someone sees some lightningstrike really close by
everyone's just putting it downand the company will back you
when 100% of the way. There's noshame. No shame, it's better
that everyone's not dead.
(33:21):
Going back to your like whatyou're saying about like,
sometimes you might have thebest plan and it doesn't quite
work out when I was flying inthe regionals. I can't tell you
how many times we had deviationsbecause of a thunderstorm cells
that were you know, a lot biggerthan they were forecasted to be
right or certain things come upand next thing you know, we have
two alternates, and we're justtrying to navigate the storm
(33:45):
system. So it totally makessense. Sometimes you the wall.
The best plan is adaptability.
Agreed. Yep. 100% I'll put thatwas really wise. You're not
surprisedI joke around a lot. Yeah.
(34:09):
looked at me. I was like, what?
Where did that come from? Mr.
gritties. Oh, man. Oh, thank youso much for sharing your work. I
really appreciate again, youcoming on here and taking the
time to talk with us and sharingyour experiences. I know that
(34:31):
you know, somewhere out there.
There's a pilot who reallyneeded to hear that today. So
wellgood. Well, hey, it's always
nice to talk with you. Hang withyou Jose. Nice to meet you. You
all will all free go flyingtogether.
That'd be awesome brother. Yeah,awesome. Cool sooner,
(34:51):
the better.
The sooner the better is right.
Your I cannot wait to come outthere and check out your new AC
130 Looks beautiful Euro techCanada looks like they did an
amazing job. Can't wait. And youknow, we're gonna hold you to
that.
Alright, if you're still withus, thank you so much for
(35:13):
sticking around for the lastlittle bit here. Jose was unable
to stick around, unfortunatelyfor this little ground school
session, but that's all right, Igot you guys don't worry. So
let's talk about a couple ofthings from this episode. Now,
if you're already a pilot,you're already a trained pilot,
this is always a good review tojust get everyone thinking about
(35:34):
these again. And if you're abrand new pilot, and autopilot,
and all this will be all newinformation for you. So that's
exciting. Alright, so duringthis episode, we talked a little
bit about making the decision todeviate from an original flight
plan to land the helicoptersafely if the weather went to
crap, or you didn't perform aproper weather brief. Well,
(35:55):
first of all, just want to drivein, make sure you guys out there
are covering your buds, man,just get a proper weather brief
one that is actually recorded.
So we want to make sure thatwe're doing this. So that is
logged, just in case you didunder pavlina. Land in that
Walmart parking lot. And youhave to explain yourself, you
want to be able to prove to theFAA, that you in fact, did your
(36:16):
due diligence, and you got aproper Weather Briefing. So
there's a couple of ways thatyou can do this right. One of my
absolute favorites is callingthe number one 800 WX brief,
where your friendly neighborhoodFlight Service briefer will give
you a thorough weather brief andknow tam rundown for your
(36:37):
flight. And this has always beenmy preferred method to
supplement a textual weatherbrief. They decipher briefs all
day every day. You know, liketheir weather people, this is
what they do, they're going tobe able to really offer you some
great insight to help with yourgo or no go decision. You can
also supplement that with one800 WX brief.com, where you can
(36:57):
create an account and get yourweather brief on there. And if
you have an account, it's goingto record it, that's gonna back
you up. And you can also if youhave for flight, you've got an
iPad, you can get your weatherbrief on there, that also
records it as well. And the FAAalso suggest that you use
aviation weather.gov. Butunfortunately, aviation
(37:20):
weather.gov does not actuallyrecord that you got a weather
briefing from them. So you'regonna have to supplement
aviation weather.gov with one ofthe things I just mentioned
above. So just to review,aviation, weather.gov is not an
approved source. So one 800 WXbrief, or call the phone number
one 800 WX brief, you can alsoget a flight briefing on for
(37:42):
flight. Alright, let's just sayyou were a good little pilot and
you got yourself a weatherbriefing and you go fly,
expecting the weather to be goodand VFR. And all of a sudden,
it's not anymore, which happens.
And sometimes we're near anairport and we can deviate from
our plan, we can go to anairport safely. Sometimes we
(38:04):
find ourselves like York landingon top of a pinnacle in the
middle of Utah, where maybethere's not any really good
places to land and you kind ofhave to do what you got to work
with what you got so, so just aquick rundown of the hazardous
attitudes that pilots may facefor people out there who are
unfamiliar, they are antiauthority, impulsivity,
(38:27):
invulnerability, macho, andresignation. And I would say if
any pilot out there claims thatthey have never succumbed to one
of these hazards, attitudes,they are absolutely lying. We're
all vulnerable to them. But theimportant part is being able to
recognize when we'reexperiencing them, and the
(38:47):
antidote that we can have in theback of our head in order to
fight it and make good decisionsout there. And I would say that
if you're flying along andyou're experiencing the weather
changing for the worse, andyou're trying to decide whether
or not you're going to put thehelicopter down in the middle of
nowhere or continue your flightor deviate, we might be subject
(39:08):
to machoism. I can do it. Theantidote to that is taking
chances is foolish. And I wouldsay that nobody can really argue
with that. But you know, our egogets in the way sometimes. But
if you start noticing thatlittle spidey sense in the back
of your neck that's telling youthat you should put it down and
you start telling yourself No, Ican do it. Maybe you should
(39:30):
start thinking to yourself, youknow what, taking chances is
foolish. I'm going to put thehelicopter down just to be on
the safe side. And I would sayanother hazardous attitude and
the situation that we might fallvictim to is invulnerability. It
won't happen to me. Well, no itcould happen to you definitely
could happen to you. It couldhappen to any of us doesn't
(39:52):
matter how experienced we are.
We are all vulnerable to goinginadvertent IMC and bad things
happen. happening. So if youstart noticing that you're
telling yourself that you knowwhat, it's never happened to me,
it won't happen to me. Justthink to yourself, no, it could
happen to me, I need to err onthe side of caution and put the
helicopter down. Now you madethe executive decision to put
(40:14):
the helicopter down, and you'relooking for an off airport
landing site, let's say you'rein the middle of nowhere and you
are unable to deviate to anairport could be a pinnacle
could be a confined area. Or ifyou're lucky, you got some wide
open spaces, options. We lovegood options. But let's just say
(40:35):
no matter where you're landing,you still have to do a proper
high and low reconnaissance ofthe area to make sure it's a
proper and suitable place foryou to put the helicopter down.
So in flight school, we learnedall of these different acronyms.
And they're supposed to behelping us organize things in
our brain. And sometimes theyjust made absolutely no sense
(40:55):
like flot, wheat, or Ssssss.
Swat. So for me, I use the SWATmethod through flight school,
Jose used flot wheat, but we'rejust gonna go through the SWAT
method. It's quick, it's easy.
So we're going to beestablishing a high
reconnaissance at 500 feet 60knots. And we're going to do an
(41:19):
orbit around the landing zone.
So the six SS stands for size,shape, surface, we want to check
out the surface of the areasometimes on the high
reconnaissance is kind of hardto tell what the surface is
like. So these things, we'realso going to double check on
our lower connaissance. We wantto see if it's loose dirt,
(41:41):
hardpack, dirt, snow, these arethe things that we're going to
be looking for slope, we want tosee if there it's a slope that
might be too much for thehelicopter to handle. If it's
beyond its limitations.
surroundings, we're checking forpower lines and obstacles and
terrain and cows. where Ilearned how to fly there were so
(42:01):
many cows in our practice area,we always had to watch out for
those guys, Sun is the last sand one that I think gets
overlooked a lot. Definitely,when you're coming into Lana
spot know where the sun is, youdon't want that sun in your
face, it can be completelyblinding, and you can't see
anything. And W stands for wind,you are checking the direction
(42:23):
and the speed of the wind, we'refiguring that in our orbit,
there's lots of different waysto figure out where the wind is
coming from your ground speedversus your indicated as you're
orbiting. You can find flags orblowing trees or smoke or
ripples on water. Depending onwhere you're at a is your abort
plan, we want to figure out ifyou have to go around or you're
(42:45):
on your approach, and you'redoing your low reconnaissance
and you deem that the place isno longer suitable to land.
Where are you going to fly offto, you're gonna pull in your
power going to go around, andhopefully you have a path out
that is free of obstacles. Sonow that you've determined that
you're going to land there, youget on your final approach, and
you're kind of running throughthe checklist. In an abbreviated
(43:07):
version on final, you're gettinga closer look, you're seeing the
slope, you're seeing the surfacea little bit more clear now that
you're coming down a lot lower.
And you can determine if you'regoing to go around or if you're
going to continue the approachand put your skids down. T is
your touchdown point whereyou're gonna put your skids. So
(43:28):
this is a very textbook method,very textbook method. In
reality, you're going to gainexperience. And you're going to
find out that these acronyms areactually missing a couple of
crucial things like your path inyour path out doing a power
check. Those things are reallyimportant as well. Turbulence.
(43:49):
If you're flying in amountainous region you want to
know and determine where themountain waves are going to be
coming from. You're worriedabout updrafts and downdrafts,
there's all these differentthings that you're also thinking
about. But all of those thingsalso come with experience and
doing these things practically.
So this is just a really quickguideline of things that we're
looking for when we're doing ourhigh and low reconnaissance. And
hey, if anybody out there has abetter method, or a way of doing
(44:12):
things that you think would bereally helpful, go ahead and
share that with us. Send us anemail forever on the
fly@gmail.com. You guys, thiswas so fun going back and
reviewing this stuff. I hope ifyou're already a pilot, and you
listen to this, and you stuckaround to the end, I hope you
got a good review, just like Idid. It's all the basic stuff
that you learned the beginningbut kind of becomes automatic as
(44:34):
you go through your career. Soalways really good to review and
go back to your basics. Just anice little reminder. And if
you're not a pilot, hopefullyyou found this interesting
enough to stick around to theend of the episode with me. And
thank you so much for stickingit out and listening in. I hope
you guys have a beautiful restof your day and fly safe out
(44:55):
there. Bye Wow
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast
What's up aviation nerd nationWelcome to episode number seven
of the forever on the flypodcast, your bi weekly dose of
aviation inspiration, educationand entertainment. I'm your
hostess with the most is Dianedollar. And I'm Jose and we're
(00:25):
here to get you guys hooked onaviation. We've been really
feeling the love from you allout there. Thank you so much for
your support your reviews,subscriptions and downloads. It
really keeps us rockin overhere. Oh man the other day, I
blew out my back at the gym mantrying to get them gains. It
sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Whenyou have to go out there and fly
(00:48):
and look for traffic. I kind oflook like a robot. You know,
like turning my head to the leftlooking for traffic to the
right. That's like the worstwhen you can't turn your neck.
Have you ever experienced that?
No, I haven't. Oh, lucky man.
You must not be hitting goals.
No, probably not.
(01:10):
Well, why don't you go ahead andintroduce her next.
Without further ado, our nextguest has personally owned and
operated the art 66 to Bell 505and recently upgraded to the EC
130 T two. He has firsthandexperience on these products, as
well as he could tell us thepros and cons to each of them.
You guys might know him firstand foremost as at I fly heli on
(01:33):
Instagram. I always saythat one of the things I love
most about aviation is itsability to bring good people
together. And your guy is justone of those people you need
along the way in the industrythat just shines his love for
helicopters through and throughthe nicest guy you'll ever meet.
And he gets so excited to sharehis love for aviation with
everyone he encounters. Justlove the guy.
(01:54):
Oh, yeah, super cool dude. He'shere to chat about his recent
switch to the EC 132. Thebenefits of flying helicopters
over airplanes. Don't worry, wewon't throw too much shade on
you airplane cat. What happenswhen your original flight plan
and weather briefing goes downto tube.
And that's episode we reallywant to drive in the importance
of recognizing that hazardousattitude that tells you that you
(02:17):
can continue to fly when theweather starts going to crap and
trying to stick to that originalplan. Putting away that ego to
make the decision to deviatefrom your original plan to land
the helicopter safely and stickaround at the end for a short
lesson on choosing a suitableoff airport landing site. Let's
do it.
Your Galland with the goldenhour. And it was just like this
(02:41):
perfect storm we like all feltat the exact same time. Hi, I'm
your gallon, and I'm forever onthe fly.
coming on the show, I really seeyou taking the time to do this
with us because I'm excited.
Yeah. So your your work and Imet he's super popular on
(03:01):
Instagram. Everybody knows I flyheli. And so I had been
following you for for quite awhile before we actually met.
And I was in Sedona with acouple of my girlfriends camping
for my friend's birthday, yousaw that I was in Sedona through
one of my Instagram Stories.
Right? And you messaged meyou're like, Hey, I'm in Sedona.
(03:26):
I was at a family reunionlooking for a break for a
break. And so I'm like, Well,what's what's a couple of girls
got to do to get her rightaround here. Just show up to the
airport at sunset. Okay. Andyeah, so you ended up taking me
and my friends up some of mygirlfriends who had never been
in a helicopter before and justgave them this super magical
(03:49):
experience flying over Sedona atsunset even to this day. I mean,
I I've been on you know,hundreds 1000s of flights. And I
mean, that was such a magicalthat was such a magical flight.
You made my friend cry.
Oh, yeah.
But you know what's interestingabout that I that one experience
(04:09):
effect I haven't took a pictureof her crying. Yeah, yes. That
if someone says hey, why? Whatdo you love about flying? Why do
you do it? I've got like a top10 Maybe lots of reasons, you
know, to explore just the thefeeling of flight is amazing.
The views incredible. The peopleyou meet is top three for sure.
(04:34):
But not only the people that youmeet, but you're sharing this
experience. I mean, Sedona I'dnever been there before. I mean,
I'd only been there maybe half aday when I saw you there and it
was just a magical. It looks alittle bit like Zions, just a
just a magical Geography andEnvironment there. And then we
(04:55):
had a new helicopter. It smelledgood. had the Bose headsets. I'm
sure I had something. I wouldcall it magical. My son would
call it majestical music goingthrough it with the golden hour.
And it was just like thisperfect storm. And I could just
we like all felt at the exactsame time. I kind of just
(05:19):
glanced back when to see you. Ithink you had two or three
friends back there. But I wantedto see if they're having a good
experience and your one friend.
I don't even remember her name,but her name Jade. Jade. Yeah,
she was she was like acombination of like bawling. And
she was also smiling. Like, likeear to ear at the same time. And
yeah, that was that was a greatflight. And that is that is like
(05:42):
the number one reason for flyinga helicopter. I don't have the
same experience in an airplane.
And you don't get thatyou painted a good picture,
brother. I felt like I wasthere. Yeah. We need to get the
girl Jade crying.
(06:04):
Guys long black hair. Yeah, I'mlooking at you Jose, she was
prettier than you for sure.
Yeah.
I think you pretty nowappreciate it. Yeah.
(06:26):
So you're out there onInstagram, sharing your
adventures with everybody.
You're a GoPro creator, which isawesome. I'm sure they get to
send you all the newest, latestand greatest equipment to shoot
on. And I know any anytime Imeet somebody, and you come up
somehow, I'm like, oh, yeah, Iknow, York, we've flown a couple
of times, they always go like,what the heck does that guy even
(06:47):
do?
That the number one, it's amystery.
It's a mystery knows like, well,I could ask you to tell
everybody. Maybe you want to beshrouded in that mystery for a
little bit longer? I'm not sure.
Well, I'll tell I'll respondthis way. I do. I do make some
(07:07):
money flying, but not nearenough to justify it. My main
source of income is outsidebusinesses, mostly real estate.
Let's save that for anotherpodcast on what I do. But it's
kind of interesting. Because Ifeel like on my Instagram, I'm
fairly transparent with who Iam. As far as I mean, I put my
(07:29):
family on it, my homes in it. Myfriends are on it. My religions
on it. But I really don't talk awhole lot about my other
businesses. And so it's justkind of weird that I've been
able to keep that a little bit,you know, bailed or not in the
forefront. But meanwhile, Imean, that couldn't compete with
(07:50):
some of the views. I take with aGoPro in a helicopter. So you
know, what does that guy do? Heflies all day long.
You are literally always lying,which, you know, is the I guess
Pinnacle or dream of any pilotHealthcare's like oh, yeah,
someday, of course, I'd love toown my own helicopter and just
(08:11):
be able to go heli camping andtake all my friends and family
out for pleasure runs. ButI will say this on that one
note, I used to love the idea orthe thought that if you do what
you love, you never work a dayin your life. I think I've kind
of changed my feelings aboutthat. Sometimes when you have to
feed your family based on thisthing that you love. You I think
(08:36):
it taints the experiencesometimes might even caused a
little bit of resentment towardsthis thing that you love if it's
not beating your family. And soI I was kind of different. I
worked really hard when I wasyounger flute very little,
didn't get into ownership untilyou know, really into my 40s.
(08:58):
And, and now I do what I love,and I don't have to feed my
family by doing it. So that'sjust a thought. Yeah. You can be
a hard business making money inaviation.
It can be Hey, can I feel likeI'm one of those guys?
(09:19):
Yeah, I mean that that'ssomething that always comes up
is have a backup plan. Becauseflying is what a it's a
privilege not a right and it canbe taken away from you. If you
don't have a backup plan anotherway to make income and you lose
your medical or anythingsubstantial like that, then
where are you? Yeah, that's kindof what I'm facing right now
going into my 30s I'm 30Wonderful, but I'm in my 30s
(09:42):
already, but now in myadulthood. It's kind of one of
the thingsisn't that 30th year or top one
Do you feel like officiallyyou're an adult? It was hard for
me? Yeah. Andno, I was actually excited for
my 30s I think you know my 20s Igot to do a lot of cool stuff.
But I mean, my 30s this is whereI'm starting to see the fruits
(10:04):
of all of my labor from my 20sand getting to this. So now I'm
actually really enjoying so far.
Yeah. So far, so good to gooddecade and join up. Yeah,
but that's ultimately I thinkthat's true. I mean, I've been
guilty of saying, you know, ifyou do a love you never have to
work day in your life. And,yeah, some days it feels like
(10:27):
that. Yeah, I get to do thecoolest job in the world. And I
don't really feel like I'mworking because I get to fly my
friends or, or whatever. Doing acool mission. But yeah, I think
when I was building my flighttime and flying all day, every
day, it's it's work. It isdefinitely work. There is no
(10:47):
doubt about that part.
120 degrees in the Grand Canyon.
Serving champagne, and oh, boy,no, no bueno. Man. And
especially when you're talkingto the French love you, Esther.
You know, you tell them that thebest wine come from California?
(11:07):
Mind blown.
Picture. See, I can imagineyours heads explode. Yeah. could
imagine. So you recently madethe switch from the bell 505 up
to an AC 130. Now, is that a Ttwo? Or is it a before?
(11:30):
It's a T two? It's 2014. T two.
And I think whatever has beenchanged since 2014. Is being
upgraded right now in a shoppingCanada. But that's the T two. So
I did make the change in thesummer.
What prompted the I mean, Iwould say upgrade for sure.
(11:55):
Yeah, well, let me ask you thatby backing up just a little bit.
So I have I have personallyowned and flew the heck out of
an R 44. And r 66. A 505. Andnow an h1 32. And so that's kind
of my experience, I put a numberof hours on a 125 or an A star,
(12:22):
done a little bit of jet Ranger.
But for the most part, thosefour helicopters have been my
experience. That's kind of whatI have to compare things to. So
it was kind of a, I thought itwas a nice incremental
graduation, you know, ownsomething for three or four
years and then kind of move upto something a little bit
bigger, a little more powerful,a better performance. So that
(12:43):
was kind of the path that Ichose. when I really started
playing a lot. Maybe 15 yearsago, I do pick swing as well. Do
not enjoy it. I do it when Ineed to have done the whole
corporate thing. business jetsthat grind. There's Yeah, I
don't want to have to I loveflying helicopters. But to your
(13:06):
point, why did I switch from a505 to a T two? I think the
bigger question that most peoplemight have is why did I switch
from a five to a T two, andmaybe not a 125 or even even
even an a star like a b two orsomething. And I think it all
comes back to like my personalmissions are. And I think it's
(13:31):
important when you're lookingat, you know, a helicopter to
really identify what your goalis with it and what your mission
with it is. Maybe something thateveryone can relate to is buying
a car. I mean, it's it's it's amistake to buy a car for 5% of
why you'll be using it. Forexample, you know, I'm going to
(13:58):
get a world drive car because Imight be going up to Mammoth.
You know, once a year, you wantto buy a car that meets 90% of
your needs. You don't want tobuy a car that meets 5% your
needs and sacrifices the other90% Right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
you. I mean, you should buy acar that fills your needs.
(14:20):
Exactly. And I think a lot oftimes, you know, first buyers
make a mistake there. Well, Iwould say the same thing is true
with the helicopter. I don't dofirefighting. I don't do
longlining I don't do lawenforcement. I don't do
forestry. If I did, I would havean A star 100% I mean they are
(14:45):
the top performer. They aresuper powerful, right? Yeah. And
you can attach anything to an Astar. Try a defy you try to Find
the utility arm for 505. Yeah,that's not just now you can get
a couple things you can attachto an R 66, or an R 44. But you
(15:06):
can't attach anything to an Astar. So I will say he, he's too
kind to beat me up too muchabout it. But one of my mentors
and just an amazing pilot,thanks, Chris Smith. He's flown
there quite a bit in LA. But he,it just rubs him wrong every
time I buy something besides astar. Yeah.
(15:33):
I was always kind of curiouswhy? Well, I remembered when I
asked you, you know, the thefuel economy that you got from
the 505 versus in a star, theprice point on it and
everything,those arguments are gone with
the T two T twos are moreexpensive. So like, my main
mission is why might do a littlebit of work. Most of it is for
doing a collaboration or justfor personal flight. And for me
(15:58):
like the number one importantthing is the ride and the view
period are 66 or 66. has anamazing do. The bell 505 has an
amazing view. And the T two hasthe very best view and an A star
(16:19):
has a marginal view upfront itfor the pilot. It's almost like
an airplane. It has a terriblefuture sit in the back. Yeah, I
mean, I've gotten sat back likeno, I don't like it, I'm getting
sick, you can't get like bendyour head down to see out the
windows, right? And so thatalone was a deal killer for me.
(16:41):
And so if my main mission isexploring or sightseeing, and
doing it with family or friends,the 505 actually was a great
aircraft for that and the T twois even a better aircraft for
that because you can get morefriends. Yeah, T two, then you
can have 505 You know, I willsay in answering your question.
(17:06):
Also, people really want me tocompare a like a, you know, the
bell product to the Airbusproduct. I've owned Robinson
Bell, and bus and they have allactually been really good
aircraft. For me. There's beenthings I've loved about every
one of the aircraft. You know,if you talk about that, you
know, we talked about cars.
(17:29):
There's, you know, there was onecar that fit every need. It
probably be a minivan exceptit's missing a soul. So you
can't own a minivan. I would saythe r 66. does a pretty good job
of being the one machine thatdoes it all. Okay. I mean, look,
(17:52):
you can put both fuel fivepeople and land pretty high. In
that thing, it will fly for overthree hours non stop, the two
front seats have great views tothe back of the throat, or okay.
I hate the turbine lag in thatthing. But it's a minivan to me.
(18:13):
It's kind of lacking that soul.
The 505 is is just the next stepup. It has that flat platform it
is modernized it's pretty coolto have all your engine
instruments integrated into thatGarmin 1000 The abuse really are
incredible, not 505 testified bythe tears and grants of your
(18:34):
friends who are sitting in theback seats. And it's you know,
where were our six six mightburn 20 gallons an hour of jet
fuel, really 30 on the 505. Andreally, I might burn 48 on the
TTL you never just go on fullthrottle on that thing. So there
is that difference. But the 505was a pretty good attempt at
(19:00):
creating one machine. That willdo it all. Honestly did. Okay.
did pretty good. There's acouple things I'll just say that
they really got to step up on.
Are those doorsand doors are horrible. They're
super flimsy,or flimsy. And you can't open
them in flight. Obviously.
(19:24):
They're not easy to take off atleast in a Robinson you can pop
them offmore often. Yeah, for sure. Did
you? Did you like the aestheticof the 505? Because the one
thing I hear from so manypeople, which I personally
thought it's a decent lookinghelicopter, but I know a lot of
people are like, Oh, the 505 isjust ugly.
(19:44):
Wow. Well, I'm guilty of that. Iwill say I'm saying God bless
everybody. Bill. But yeah, Ijust think it's her and just
looking.
Well you know in part there'sreason for that because you know
when anything's made bycommittee, which kind of was I
think they really consulted withinjured a lot of engineers and
pilots and people in theindustry on hey, how do we
(20:06):
create something for everyone?
And we end up with is, you know,something that was designed by
committee. And so it's rarelybeautiful. I will say, though
that I think my red bell 505with the tall and longer skids.
I thought that lookedgood. Yeah. I thought it was
like pretty damn good. Yeah.
(20:29):
And then you throw a couplereally good photographers like
Aaron Brimhall or Mike begins atit, and they can make it look
really good, too. Yeah. Yeah,now that's over to the A star,
Atari but to the tee to it iseverything that the bell is but
more refined, more powerful.
More seats, bigger views. To payfor it.
(20:55):
Yeah, bigger engine, you know,I was gonna say you, like took
the words right out of my mouth,amigo. Um, as far as like the
mission of, I just think thatyou're right for what you're
trying to do. And for the amountof horsepower that T two pulls
out, it's almost double what the505 puts out. So just in that
aspect alone, I think it's worthit. And then the theater seating
that you get in the EC 130 orthe H 130. I think I, I
(21:18):
personally think you made a goodchoice. Yeah, thank you.
The only thing people also saywhen you're if you're talking
about buying a T two versus an Astar is just the resale. You
know how if you're ever planningon turning around and getting
rid of it someday then becausethe 125 A 25 is so versatile in
(21:41):
the industry, and everybody usesit across the board. It's just a
lot easier to resell it later ondown the road versus NEC 130
Which is pretty much only usedby tour companies, which we all
know what's happened with thatindustry.
lately. Yeah. tour companies andprivate owners
and private owners. Yeah, yeah,for sure. Yep. Agreed. But you
(22:03):
just got your beautiful newpaint job your role orange. Is
that Is there a search? Oh,actually, no, my Bible five
digit color orange like areddish
orange. Sunrise orange, or whatdid it say on the color swatch?
(22:24):
I forget. But I will say on theT two. I told Euro tech Canada
who they are amazing. That's alittle plug for them. They can
so great to work with. I said Iwant Ferrari red, and I really
don't want it to be orange. Butwhat we ended up going with is
something that's a little bitbetter. It's Ashley red. There
(22:45):
is a quick story behind that.
Kodiak which I apply has a nicedetail stripe, Patel and Mark
Brown who's Kodiaks head hischief, their chief pilot, he
kinda I think designs whateverthe demonstrator is going to be.
And I bought a demo aircraftfrom him. His his wife, who's an
amazing pilot, as well. She Hername is Ashley. And he tells me
(23:11):
that he chose Ashley red, whichis an actual color paying homage
to his wife so I thought it wasappropriate. And so I ended up
going with that color and itdoes look absolutely amazing.
It's stunning.
Yeah, I saw on your Instagramstory. Oh my gosh, it's yeah,
that's pretty I can't wait tocome out there and fly with you.
(23:35):
Because you know, I invitemyself to go fight with York all
the time. I'm like so by the waya couple months from now I can
make a trip are you gonnado it just got to work squeaky
wheel.
Just got to keep bugging peopleuntil they say yes, it's kind of
been you know, my my grind. Justpoking at people on Instagram.
(23:58):
Hey, hey, what's up? Can I gofly with you? Can I go fly with
you? Eventually they say yes.
You know,there's there's a phrase for
what you are. Diane getspleasantly persistent. Oh, I
love that goes a long way toit's an important skill.
Yeah, I mean, it's tough to toethe line between being
pleasantly persistent andannoying
(24:19):
and annoying. I try not to veeroff and I'm on the opposite end
of that. Yeah. Annoying.
Things Done. No, no, I'mtalking for Diane when she talks
to me your real friends.
(24:42):
Oh, question. Does your new T tohave crash proof fuel tanks?
Well, I guess what do all theteachers they do? All the
teachers have the crash ball.
The teachers have them? Yep,that's right. They have the
bladders, the bladders with adetachable fuel hose nozzle,
what do you call it?
(25:03):
Were you not gonna fly with meif it didn't have it? No.
I was just backing away.
That is an expensive upgrade tothe before though
that's 100 grand or something,I don't know, I'd have to do
(25:23):
that. I just know that it'speople have done it. It's not
cheap or easy. As you know, I'ma fixed wing, as well as rotor.
And I think I already bagged onfixed wing enough, say that it
is boring and it kind of is. Butthe one thing that I have loved
about it just the peace of mindabout flying a helicopter is its
(25:46):
ability to ultimately landanywhere do is to fly a
helicopter like you fly a plane,I fly between Salt Lake City,
and John Wayne all the time. Andyou know, the spots where you
can land and take a bathroombreak or take a picnic or, or
leaving the afternoon and youknow, it's a four hour flight
(26:10):
four and a half hour flight orcamp halfway there. But more
importantly, like flying up tofly up to Canada all the time.
No matter what kind of weatherplanning you do, man, there's
always problems. But helicopter,I don't stress about it. Because
I always keep enough gear on foryou know, for myself or
(26:31):
passengers to stay the nightsomewhere. You know, in a
forest, we'll put on a forestbecause there's lots of trees
somewhere, even in a parking lotif you needed to. But the peace
of mind that being able to sitdown and safely into whether
it's something that's a bigdeal. And I will say there's
been no dozens of times whereI've done that. And sometimes
(26:56):
I've even kind of planned onclick Map to sit down somewhere.
Yeah, I just know looking at theweather. But there was one time
I was actually headed down to doa in southern Utah to do a photo
shoot. And truly, I checked theweather. It was looking good.
And by the time I got down toSouthern Utah, there's never
rain. But I found myself 30minutes away from becoming dark
(27:20):
sun had gone down. And the stormcloud just moved in around me.
And I started looking roused bymyself because the job was the
next morning. And I'm thinkingthere's no really safe way to go
through this right now. And I'malso you know, in an area where
(27:40):
there there wasn't like a roadeven. And so like, you know
what, I'm in unrestricted BLM.
There is a pinnacle right belowme. I say pinnacle. I'm talking
like 50 feet across and youknow, 1000 foot drop all the way
around. Oh my god. That's myspot. Pinnacle. Right. And so I
(28:05):
sat down on that I sat downthere and I secured the
helicopter. And it raged thestorm for four or five hours,
may have a tent. I didn't set itup because would have been a
mess. It probably would haveblown off or blown me off a
cliff. But I just kind ofhunkered down in my helicopter.
I think I had a season orsomething on my iPad. And it
(28:29):
just raged and rained so hard.
And then I have a picture on myInstagram. It's my my favorite
picture about 2am The cloudsbroke and I got out my camera.
And I took this picture, youcan't see that I'm on a
pinnacle. It just looks like I'min space floating. But just the
Milky Way was right there,surrounded by these clouds. And
I was like yeah, this is why Ifly a helicopter.
(28:55):
You know I thought of when youwere talking about landing in a
parking lot. I could onlyimagine I'm at Walmart or
something and I see a helicopteron the parking lot with the
tent.
Painted Ashleyis that she read? She read? I
know that guy.
So what about your experienceflying in the LA basin and the
(29:17):
constantly changing weather thatwe have out here the marine
layers that come in it can beunpredictable sometimes
I think there's probably beenfour or five times over about
the 10 years I was flying therewhere I said no you know I'm
gonna go sit down in Burbank orVan Nuys or whatever Camry Oh,
and and my passengers on an Ubersend it back down to Orange
(29:41):
County. And that is that's apretty cool option. And it's
like ah, can you make it back tocamera? Oh, even it's even you
know the candles. powerlinesgoing over that four or five.
They're like, you're thinkingokay, I gotta sit down in a
parking lot. You know which onewould I pick? And I think we all
(30:03):
have this kind of fear oflanding in a Walmart. The police
show up, firemen show up, thenews shows up and they start
asking questions like, okay, sowhy did you land here? Well, cuz
I got weathered out. Did youcheck the weather before you
left? I did it look like it wasdoable. Like, what does that
mean? So you said going throughthese. For me, it's always like
(30:24):
what happens when the reportersshow up? Yeah, yeah. But you
know what, I think two things,it doesn't matter. If you're
alive, you can deal with any ofthose questions of like, I guess
I didn't have enough fuel. Ormaybe I didn't look at the
weather closely enough. But manto sit in the industry, I really
feel like the industry wouldprotect and defend a pilot who
(30:47):
decided to land and live even ifit were in a Walmart parking
lot, don't you? Oh.
And it's as long as like, youknow, you're not causing any
hazard to people on the ground.
If you can find it, your face.
Obviously, weather changes sodrastically, sometimes,
especially in the LA basin?
Where what do you got marinelayer, the marine layer, move in
super quickly, before you evenrealize it? You know, when
(31:09):
you're flying atnight, you don't see it coming
in?
Yeah, like one minute, it'scompletely VFR next minute, it's
may not be 200 foot verticalvisibility over Santa Monica.
And like, you can't get off thepad at UCLA but and that's not
necessarily always forecasted,either. Those things moving in.
Sowell, I can tell you that the at
(31:30):
least once a year, if Ipurposely choose to make the
decision to land and not make itto my destination. I always try
to like at least put it on mystory. Kind of as, Hey, guys.
It's okay if the best laid plansand the best flight planning and
(31:50):
weather briefs and fuel plansdidn't work out, like you
expected. Didn't work out for metoday. I'm here, I'm in the
desert. And I'm going to spendthe night here. And what passes
in the morning, I'm going tocontinue. I tried when I have
those experiences to you know,kind of make it public. That's
not a mistake. It's a success.
(32:15):
Now, that's a good decisionmaking right there. And that's
promoting getting rid of yourego. That's in the back of your
head saying, you know, oh, if Iland here, what are people going
to say that I didn't do a goodflight plan or a good weather
brief or like that macho addict,but not listening to those hot
not succumbing to thosehazardous attitudes and just
(32:37):
putting the ego away and justputting the thing down and
waiting it out? I mean, it wouldhappen all the time at pappy on
like when we were doing ourGrand Canyon tours. Monsoon
season was crazy. Yeah, you'dget force coming in out of
nowhere. And we'd have fourhelicopters landing in the
parking lot down at by theColorado River because there's
(32:58):
lightning all around. And youknow, everyone's and you're not
that far from Boulder City,right there by the river. But
someone sees some lightningstrike really close by
everyone's just putting it downand the company will back you
when 100% of the way. There's noshame. No shame, it's better
that everyone's not dead.
(33:21):
Going back to your like whatyou're saying about like,
sometimes you might have thebest plan and it doesn't quite
work out when I was flying inthe regionals. I can't tell you
how many times we had deviationsbecause of a thunderstorm cells
that were you know, a lot biggerthan they were forecasted to be
right or certain things come upand next thing you know, we have
two alternates, and we're justtrying to navigate the storm
(33:45):
system. So it totally makessense. Sometimes you the wall.
The best plan is adaptability.
Agreed. Yep. 100% I'll put thatwas really wise. You're not
surprisedI joke around a lot. Yeah.
(34:09):
looked at me. I was like, what?
Where did that come from? Mr.
gritties. Oh, man. Oh, thank youso much for sharing your work. I
really appreciate again, youcoming on here and taking the
time to talk with us and sharingyour experiences. I know that
(34:31):
you know, somewhere out there.
There's a pilot who reallyneeded to hear that today. So
wellgood. Well, hey, it's always
nice to talk with you. Hang withyou Jose. Nice to meet you. You
all will all free go flyingtogether.
That'd be awesome brother. Yeah,awesome. Cool sooner,
(34:51):
the better.
The sooner the better is right.
Your I cannot wait to come outthere and check out your new AC
130 Looks beautiful Euro techCanada looks like they did an
amazing job. Can't wait. And youknow, we're gonna hold you to
that.
Alright, if you're still withus, thank you so much for
(35:13):
sticking around for the lastlittle bit here. Jose was unable
to stick around, unfortunatelyfor this little ground school
session, but that's all right, Igot you guys don't worry. So
let's talk about a couple ofthings from this episode. Now,
if you're already a pilot,you're already a trained pilot,
this is always a good review tojust get everyone thinking about
(35:34):
these again. And if you're abrand new pilot, and autopilot,
and all this will be all newinformation for you. So that's
exciting. Alright, so duringthis episode, we talked a little
bit about making the decision todeviate from an original flight
plan to land the helicoptersafely if the weather went to
crap, or you didn't perform aproper weather brief. Well,
(35:55):
first of all, just want to drivein, make sure you guys out there
are covering your buds, man,just get a proper weather brief
one that is actually recorded.
So we want to make sure thatwe're doing this. So that is
logged, just in case you didunder pavlina. Land in that
Walmart parking lot. And youhave to explain yourself, you
want to be able to prove to theFAA, that you in fact, did your
(36:16):
due diligence, and you got aproper Weather Briefing. So
there's a couple of ways thatyou can do this right. One of my
absolute favorites is callingthe number one 800 WX brief,
where your friendly neighborhoodFlight Service briefer will give
you a thorough weather brief andknow tam rundown for your
(36:37):
flight. And this has always beenmy preferred method to
supplement a textual weatherbrief. They decipher briefs all
day every day. You know, liketheir weather people, this is
what they do, they're going tobe able to really offer you some
great insight to help with yourgo or no go decision. You can
also supplement that with one800 WX brief.com, where you can
(36:57):
create an account and get yourweather brief on there. And if
you have an account, it's goingto record it, that's gonna back
you up. And you can also if youhave for flight, you've got an
iPad, you can get your weatherbrief on there, that also
records it as well. And the FAAalso suggest that you use
aviation weather.gov. Butunfortunately, aviation
(37:20):
weather.gov does not actuallyrecord that you got a weather
briefing from them. So you'regonna have to supplement
aviation weather.gov with one ofthe things I just mentioned
above. So just to review,aviation, weather.gov is not an
approved source. So one 800 WXbrief, or call the phone number
one 800 WX brief, you can alsoget a flight briefing on for
(37:42):
flight. Alright, let's just sayyou were a good little pilot and
you got yourself a weatherbriefing and you go fly,
expecting the weather to be goodand VFR. And all of a sudden,
it's not anymore, which happens.
And sometimes we're near anairport and we can deviate from
our plan, we can go to anairport safely. Sometimes we
(38:04):
find ourselves like York landingon top of a pinnacle in the
middle of Utah, where maybethere's not any really good
places to land and you kind ofhave to do what you got to work
with what you got so, so just aquick rundown of the hazardous
attitudes that pilots may facefor people out there who are
unfamiliar, they are antiauthority, impulsivity,
(38:27):
invulnerability, macho, andresignation. And I would say if
any pilot out there claims thatthey have never succumbed to one
of these hazards, attitudes,they are absolutely lying. We're
all vulnerable to them. But theimportant part is being able to
recognize when we'reexperiencing them, and the
(38:47):
antidote that we can have in theback of our head in order to
fight it and make good decisionsout there. And I would say that
if you're flying along andyou're experiencing the weather
changing for the worse, andyou're trying to decide whether
or not you're going to put thehelicopter down in the middle of
nowhere or continue your flightor deviate, we might be subject
(39:08):
to machoism. I can do it. Theantidote to that is taking
chances is foolish. And I wouldsay that nobody can really argue
with that. But you know, our egogets in the way sometimes. But
if you start noticing thatlittle spidey sense in the back
of your neck that's telling youthat you should put it down and
you start telling yourself No, Ican do it. Maybe you should
(39:30):
start thinking to yourself, youknow what, taking chances is
foolish. I'm going to put thehelicopter down just to be on
the safe side. And I would sayanother hazardous attitude and
the situation that we might fallvictim to is invulnerability. It
won't happen to me. Well, no itcould happen to you definitely
could happen to you. It couldhappen to any of us doesn't
(39:52):
matter how experienced we are.
We are all vulnerable to goinginadvertent IMC and bad things
happen. happening. So if youstart noticing that you're
telling yourself that you knowwhat, it's never happened to me,
it won't happen to me. Justthink to yourself, no, it could
happen to me, I need to err onthe side of caution and put the
helicopter down. Now you madethe executive decision to put
(40:14):
the helicopter down, and you'relooking for an off airport
landing site, let's say you'rein the middle of nowhere and you
are unable to deviate to anairport could be a pinnacle
could be a confined area. Or ifyou're lucky, you got some wide
open spaces, options. We lovegood options. But let's just say
(40:35):
no matter where you're landing,you still have to do a proper
high and low reconnaissance ofthe area to make sure it's a
proper and suitable place foryou to put the helicopter down.
So in flight school, we learnedall of these different acronyms.
And they're supposed to behelping us organize things in
our brain. And sometimes theyjust made absolutely no sense
(40:55):
like flot, wheat, or Ssssss.
Swat. So for me, I use the SWATmethod through flight school,
Jose used flot wheat, but we'rejust gonna go through the SWAT
method. It's quick, it's easy.
So we're going to beestablishing a high
reconnaissance at 500 feet 60knots. And we're going to do an
(41:19):
orbit around the landing zone.
So the six SS stands for size,shape, surface, we want to check
out the surface of the areasometimes on the high
reconnaissance is kind of hardto tell what the surface is
like. So these things, we'realso going to double check on
our lower connaissance. We wantto see if it's loose dirt,
(41:41):
hardpack, dirt, snow, these arethe things that we're going to
be looking for slope, we want tosee if there it's a slope that
might be too much for thehelicopter to handle. If it's
beyond its limitations.
surroundings, we're checking forpower lines and obstacles and
terrain and cows. where Ilearned how to fly there were so
(42:01):
many cows in our practice area,we always had to watch out for
those guys, Sun is the last sand one that I think gets
overlooked a lot. Definitely,when you're coming into Lana
spot know where the sun is, youdon't want that sun in your
face, it can be completelyblinding, and you can't see
anything. And W stands for wind,you are checking the direction
(42:23):
and the speed of the wind, we'refiguring that in our orbit,
there's lots of different waysto figure out where the wind is
coming from your ground speedversus your indicated as you're
orbiting. You can find flags orblowing trees or smoke or
ripples on water. Depending onwhere you're at a is your abort
plan, we want to figure out ifyou have to go around or you're
(42:45):
on your approach, and you'redoing your low reconnaissance
and you deem that the place isno longer suitable to land.
Where are you going to fly offto, you're gonna pull in your
power going to go around, andhopefully you have a path out
that is free of obstacles. Sonow that you've determined that
you're going to land there, youget on your final approach, and
you're kind of running throughthe checklist. In an abbreviated
(43:07):
version on final, you're gettinga closer look, you're seeing the
slope, you're seeing the surfacea little bit more clear now that
you're coming down a lot lower.
And you can determine if you'regoing to go around or if you're
going to continue the approachand put your skids down. T is
your touchdown point whereyou're gonna put your skids. So
(43:28):
this is a very textbook method,very textbook method. In
reality, you're going to gainexperience. And you're going to
find out that these acronyms areactually missing a couple of
crucial things like your path inyour path out doing a power
check. Those things are reallyimportant as well. Turbulence.
(43:49):
If you're flying in amountainous region you want to
know and determine where themountain waves are going to be
coming from. You're worriedabout updrafts and downdrafts,
there's all these differentthings that you're also thinking
about. But all of those thingsalso come with experience and
doing these things practically.
So this is just a really quickguideline of things that we're
looking for when we're doing ourhigh and low reconnaissance. And
hey, if anybody out there has abetter method, or a way of doing
(44:12):
things that you think would bereally helpful, go ahead and
share that with us. Send us anemail forever on the
fly@gmail.com. You guys, thiswas so fun going back and
reviewing this stuff. I hope ifyou're already a pilot, and you
listen to this, and you stuckaround to the end, I hope you
got a good review, just like Idid. It's all the basic stuff
that you learned the beginningbut kind of becomes automatic as
(44:34):
you go through your career. Soalways really good to review and
go back to your basics. Just anice little reminder. And if
you're not a pilot, hopefullyyou found this interesting
enough to stick around to theend of the episode with me. And
thank you so much for stickingit out and listening in. I hope
you guys have a beautiful restof your day and fly safe out
(44:55):
there. Bye Wow
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