April 20, 2022 • 36 mins
In this episode, I sit down with Alicia Hunt, a Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor. Before becoming a pilot, Alicia had a 13 year career in film, commercial work and theatre in Los Angeles. Alicia found she could never stop looking for her next gig and never turn off her phone and risk missing a call from her agent. She burnt out and planned a trip to Asia with her best friend. But the trip didn’t rejuvenate Alicia, it confirmed her life needed to shift. She says, “I thought I would come back refreshed. And instead, I got back and felt a natural point of separation. It was a natural point to change my life. I was ready to find my next step.”
Alicia knew she needed something hands on and very “boots on the ground”. Alicia thrives on high intensity situations and those around her offered suggestions such as becoming a surgeon, a 911 operator or a police officer. There was a very consistent theme.
Alicia enlisted the help of a career counselor, and she provided some blunt analysis: “Alicia, you are a complex person. There will be no perfect fit for you. Whichever career you choose, you will be leaving large parts of yourself at the door.” During this time, Alicia heard of the pilot shortage— that there weren’t enough people to fly planes, let alone women and people of color. Through twists and turns along the way, Alicia got herself into the sky and now teaches others how to fly. Alicia works to recruit women to the field and mentors both women and people of color to secure scholarships for flight school.
Alicia, like other pilots, is critical of her landings. Asking herself these questions helps her to remember, perfect is not the goal: “Did you bend any metal? Did anybody get hurt? Did anybody die? No? Then it was a good landing.” For Alicia, being imperfect is part of the job.
Highlights from Alicia:
"I took a train all the way across China from the eastern edge of it all the way to the edge of Tibet, and made a lot of stops in between. It was incredible. And when I finished the trip, I thought I would come back and feel refreshed, it was the vacation of a lifetime. And instead, I got back and I was at a natural point of separation. It was a natural point of being ready to change my life. I was ready to find my next step."
"One of the things I knew I wanted out of a new career is I wanted something high demand. I was really tired of being in a market that was saturated. And where I knew I had so much to give in that field. But so did everyone else. And I was tired of constantly pushing and pushing and pushing to look for work."
"One of my favorite things about acting is how you must be present. You can't be anywhere else. You have to be completely immersed in your character in the moment and the scene and the dialogue. And it's the exact same when you're flying a plane. You can not be distracted with anything else. You need to be listening to air traffic control. You need to be ready to deliver your own line which is coming up soon. You know your traffic control talks then you talk and it's a script. Let me tell you, if you can do Shakespeare you can sure as heck can do air traffic control."
Don't Miss a Beat.
Follow my Instagram for news from me, Tara Beckett:
https://www.instagram.com/letperfectburn/
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https://www.instagram.com/aliciahunt1/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tara Beckett (00:23):
Hi, I'm Tara Beckett and welcome back to let
perfect burnmy guest today is Alicia Hunt, a
commercial pilot and flightinstructor. Before Alicia
(00:43):
aviation career, she had a 13year career in film, commercial
work and Theatre in Los Angeles.
After over a decade of work,Alicia was completely burnt out
from never taking a vacation forfear of missing her agents call.
(01:04):
On a whim, she went to Asia withher best friend. Her friend got
on the return flight home,Alicia did not. After returning
from her almost three monthadventure, Alicia expected to
feel rejuvenated. But shewasn't. It confirmed it was time
to make a change. Alicia knewshe needed something high
(01:26):
pressure boots on the groundtype of work. When she heard
there was a pilot shortage,especially for women and people
of color. Alicia startedfiguring out how to get herself
into the sky. Hi, everybody, I'mTara Beckett, and welcome back
to let perfect burn. in studiotoday is Alicia hunt a
(01:51):
commercial pilot. And Aliciawhen you told me about all of
the certifications that you had,I was like, Ooh, I need a crash
course. So can you talk to meabout what defines you and who
you are as far as being a pilot?
Alicia Hunt (02:08):
Absolutely, yes. So thank you so much for having me
on. It's really just a pleasureto be here. And yes, I know that
the the world of being a pilotcan seem a little bit
mysterious. And it's prettysimple. What I do I teach people
how to fly planes. That's it, Ijust I teach people who are who
(02:29):
have absolutely zero experiencein most cases. And I take them
from no knowledge of planeswhatsoever to licensed as a
commercial pilot, all the wayfrom the very first flight all
the way through a fullcommercial rating. And so when
they come off the street, theydon't necessarily know anything.
And by the time they're donewith me, they can fly through
(02:51):
clouds without being able to seeoutside. Wow. It's a lot of fun.
It's really pretty great. And Ido this for the American
Airlines Cadet Academy. And I'malso licensed as a UK instructor
and in Denmark, oh, I didn't seecoming in my career at all. So
(03:13):
currently, I've been workingwith a whole lot of European
airline pilots in the making. Asa it's so much fun. It's
something I never ever sawcoming in my life. I didn't view
being a pilot someday as a kid,you know, it never occurred to
me to go be a pilot.
Tara Beckett (03:39):
Now, now, we just need to know what your journey
was to get there. So rewind usback a little bit and take us to
this point now as a pilot.
Alicia Hunt (03:50):
Absolutely. I, like so many people out there just
needed to follow my artistshearts. And I went off and was
so, so blessed and fortunate toget a 13 year career as an actor
and a director. And occasionallyI would produce things and I did
(04:11):
a lot of arts education. And Iam so blessed that I got 13 full
years of that in my life.
Because I needed it. I needed tobe in the arts. And I still need
it actually I still need it.
However, after 13 years, Irealized that I had never taken
(04:35):
a vacation in that entire time.
I realized I'd been on even whenI was on you know a weekend
vacation or even a full week orsomething like that. I was on
call all the time. And I had tobe able to answer my phone I had
to be able to drop everythingand go audition for something or
drop everything and go show upfor a shoot or something like
that. It's just I've neverreally felt like my time was my
(04:56):
own and at all I always feltlike there was more I needed to
be doing. In order to advance mycareer, no matter what I was
working on, you could be workingon your favorite project ever.
And I always felt like I neededto be doing more to find the
next job and to continue toadvance.
(05:24):
So I got this chance to go toChina, and I took it. And I knew
I wouldn't have another projectfor several months, my next
lined up project are severalmonths away. So I have this kind
of crazy idea in the back of myhead, my friend had to be back
at work 10 days, you know, sheworks a regular nine to five,
she was like, I have to get backto everything. But I was looking
(05:46):
at my schedule and saying, Okay,if I had an interesting
experience over there, I'm justnot going to come back. I'm just
not gonna get on my returnflight. And I'm just going to
trek across Asia for as long asI feel like trekking across
Asia. And that is precisely whathappened I got there, I 10 days
(06:10):
was not even close to enoughtime to see everything I wanted
to see. And I spent almost threemonths over there, traveling
solo through and went toMalaysia and Singapore and Hong
Kong and all over China took atrain all the way across China
from one edge of it the easternedge of it all the way to the
(06:30):
edge of Tibet, and made a lot ofstops in between and went to
Thailand and went to Laos andall these places. And amazing.
It was incredible. And when Ifinished the trip, I thought I
would come back and feelrefreshed and feel like okay,
I'm energized that was you know,the vacation of a lifetime. And
(06:52):
I'm ready to go. And instead, Igot back and I was at a natural
point of separation. I was anatural point of, I'm ready to
change my life, I'm ready tofind my next step. And there was
absolutely no part of me thatwanted to go back to Los Angeles
(07:12):
and get right back into thegrind and do everything I was
doing before there was just nopart of me that wanted to do
that. Which was a surprise tome, that was a complete surprise
to me. So I honored that feelinginside of me and went, Okay,
it's time for the next thing.
And I didn't know what the nextthing would be. But I knew I
wanted to take the time toreally find the right thing,
(07:36):
something that was very alignedwith how I wanted to live a
substantial portion of my life,you know, and so it took almost
two years to find to commit tomy next career move, and it took
that much time to find it.
(07:58):
Honestly, I think if you told meat the beginning that it would
take two years to find it, Iwould have, I would have freaked
me out big time. But that's nothow it went. You just take it
day by day, and go on to thevery next step. And I'm so glad
that I took that much time tofind my next step because it led
(08:18):
me to aviation. So during thattime of transition, I went back
and got to be with my family whoI missed and lived really far
away from for a long time. Iworked on several passion
projects, I helped found atheatre company, I did some of
my favorite projects I've everworked on, which made no money,
(08:41):
they made no money at all. Thoseare the best ones. They weren't
great, beautiful, amazingprojects, and also health
insurance was never going to bean option. And so it was very
fulfilling and also quiteconfirming that the work I
really wanted to be doing didnot have to take the form of my
(09:05):
paycheck of my career. And thatin terms of going to work 40
hours a week, I needed to adjustwhat that looked like for
myself. And so I saw a careercounselor who was amazing and
who walked me through a reallydetailed process of sort of
(09:28):
digging into what is a good fitfor me and I wouldn't I in
addition to this, I was jobshadowing anyone who had any
sort of interesting job. I waslike, Can I go to work with you?
Can I see what you do? And I Ijust stepped in and everyone
said yes, people love showingwhat they do you know, and so I
(09:48):
got to see all these from aproject manager to to a 911
operator and a lot of stuff inbetween. And so that was there
eye opening, seeing all thesedifferent jobs that seemed
interesting to me, it seemedlike it might be a good fit. And
when I was working with thecareer counselor, two major
(10:09):
things happened. One, she askedall the people that know me
really well, to come up with alist of five jobs that they
think I'd be good at. And it wasreally fascinating seeing
Tara Beckett (10:25):
this feels like a party game with
Alicia Hunt (10:28):
let me tell you, when your therapist tells you
that you should be a cop, youknow that you got an interesting
life.
So I decided not to become apolice officer. But I did notice
there was a consistent theme.
And that was very hands on veryboots on the ground doing
(10:55):
things. Often very highintensity situations, people
were like, oh, you should be asurgeon, or you should be a 911
operator, or you should be a copor something like that. There
was a theme. And my brother putthe word pilot on his list. He
himself has his pilot'scertificate, he doesn't do it
(11:16):
professionally. But he you know,he loves planes, like so many
boys do. He grew up lovingplanes. And he was like, Oh, I
know a little bit about planes.
I think you'd be good at this.
And it really stood out to me, Iwill honestly, first of all, I
don't even know how to do that.
(11:38):
I didn't, it actually didn'tstand out to me. At first, it
sounded fascinating. But itdidn't seem realistic. I didn't
know what it takes to get intoaviation or anything like that.
And it just, it didn't seem farfetched to me to go be a
professional pilot. So I kind ofdismissed it. And then the other
(12:00):
major thing that happened whileworking with that career
counselor is she took a deepdive into sort of my
personality, and my favorite wayto work, and probably my
favorite projects I've everworked on what were the common
themes and what was the workenvironment like? And she, she
took a real good deep look atit. And she went, Oh, Alisa,
(12:22):
you're a complex person. She'ssaid, and I quote, There is no
perfect fit for you. Ah,whichever career you choose, you
will be leaving large parts ofyourself at the door. So you
need to decide which parts arethe most important in terms of
(12:44):
your professional life, in termsof your goals, for your
finances, your goals for yourday to day lifestyle, your goals
for having a family or somethinglike that. Think big picture
here. Because no matter whichcareer you go into, yes, some
are a better fit than others forsure. But there is no perfect
(13:08):
fit for you. So let's prioritizewhat's most important to you.
And that was a revelation to mehearing that and accepting that,
oh, there is no perfect fit. I,I just need to prioritize the
things that align with my valuesand my long term goals and put
(13:28):
that together and then go forit.
And so one of the things I knewI wanted out of a new career is
I wanted something high demand.
I was really tired of being in amarket that was saturated. And
(13:49):
where I knew I had so much togive in that field. But so did
everyone else. Yes. And it wasvery, very saturated. And I was
tired of constantly pushing andpushing and pushing to look for
work. Because it made even whenyou did them really amazing
projects. You were constantlylooking for the next one. Yeah.
(14:10):
And so it was almost it made itdifficult to sit back and rest
in that and enjoy the projectsyou were working on. Because you
also had to do the other half ofyour job of finding your next
project. And that was wearing onme it was absolutely wearing on
me. So I knew I wanted to be ina very high demand position. And
then I heard about the pilotshortage. And that majorly
(14:34):
tipped the scales got it once Iheard there was there's not
enough people and especially notenough women to go fly the
planes I said wow, fly theplanes that's so you know, I
started looking into how to doit and I look back now and go
wow, that was what was Ithinking? Flight School is
(14:56):
daunting. It's hard. or I willsay, it's not as hard as a fine
arts degree.
Tara Beckett (15:06):
I got one of those two girls a little tired.
Alicia Hunt (15:10):
was really interesting. The three years I
spent in flight school were haddifferent challenges. But I will
say the fine arts degree washarder than flight school.
Tara Beckett (15:21):
So you ready, then?
Alicia Hunt (15:23):
I was ready. I was absolutely ready. And it sounds
like the kind of transition thatdoesn't make a lot of sense.
Because what could be the whatpossible overlap? Could there be
between flying planes? Andworking in arts and
entertainment? There's, it justseems like there could not
possibly be overlap there. Butwhen I think back of, I think
(15:45):
back on how much work it was toget through the Fine Arts
degrees that I got, and then Iwalked into flight school was
like, Oh, I got this, I can doyou know, and that was just one
of many, many, many ways thatI've found incredible overlap
between my first career and whatI'm doing now. So it's, it's not
(16:06):
as random as it seems. I neverwould have put those two
together.
Tara Beckett (16:10):
Yeah. I mean, I, as soon as you kind of drop
that, I want to know more. Whatare some of the other ways that
you've just found that you know,your training or your
experience, or your passion forwhat you were doing in your
first career just really, almostgave you an edge in your new
career?
Alicia Hunt (16:28):
Absolutely, it gave me quite a few edges. So first
of all, when you're serving aspilot in command of an aircraft,
you have to be able to use yourvoice, and you have to mean it,
you have to be able to commandthe obviously the aircraft that
you're in. But there is a law,there's a federal law, that when
you're serving as pilot incommand, you are directly
(16:50):
responsible for the safety ofthat flight. And you can deviate
from any other law that'swritten in order to meet the
needs of an emergency. So youhave to be able to get on the
radios with air traffic control,and tell them what's happening
when it matters most when livesare on the line. And he that's a
(17:13):
level of trust in your voice andtrust in your ability to
communicate and trust in yourability to not fall apart when
things are stressful. Anyone whohas ever been on a film set, or
in front of a live audienceunderstands, your body is going
(17:35):
to tell you you're dying, yourbody's gonna tell you that, that
that's too stressful, and you'regonna die, you're not going to
die. But your body tells youthat and so you in my previous
career, I learned over and overand over again, to manage stress
and still do my job. Even when Ifelt terrified at times. I did
(17:57):
that almost on a daily basis atcertain points of my career in
my previous career. And so, whenI got into the cockpit, and they
were they're like, Okay, myinstructor would reach over in
flight school and kill my engineand say, Okay, what are you
going to do captain? Oh, shootit, my body would say we're
(18:20):
going to die, we're going todie. Oh, my gosh, I can't do
this. I didn't practice enough.
I'm not ready. I don't know.
Your body just starts to wantsto shut down and seize up and
you want to freeze and all thesesort of things. And I am so
practiced at not letting thathappen. I am so practiced at
breathing deep thinking andgetting to work. Middle of a lot
(18:43):
of stress. So that's somethingI've been honing for 13 years.
Yeah. And so it was directlycorrelated as soon as I got in
the plane. You know, there's,it's it's exciting to be on a
plane and there are moments ofstress and moments of serious
stress. And I'm just very usedto get to work. You know, that's
(19:03):
what I do I get to work.
One of the other ways I didn'texpect to be very prepared for
(19:25):
this career. There's thescholarship opportunity that I
talked about the CAE Women inAviation, or women in flight,
scholarship opportunity. theirvery first round of interviews
for the scholarship was a videointerview. And here I'd been
self taping videos and makingfilms and editing things and
(19:47):
directing things for years. Yep.
So I thought to myself, Wow,okay, well, this one is no
problem at all. I get to be inmy living room wearing my
company's t shirt. doing this, Ican definitely do this. So I
made it through that first roundof interviews. And then
subsequent interviews were alsorecorded. And I was fortunate
(20:09):
enough to be awarded ascholarship to go to flight
school, which is incredible, itis really, really rare to get
that awkward sort ofopportunity. And there have been
quite a few interviews sincethen. It's an it's publicity
things and sort of being anexample of a woman who is
helping other women get intoaviation and whatnot, it puts
(20:30):
you in front of the camera muchmore than I expected.
Tara Beckett (20:34):
But you're, you're a little bit at home there.
Alicia Hunt (20:37):
I have a little bit of experience there. They asked
me to do an interview and, andI'm ready to go. It's very easy
to get those pieces together andfar less stressful. And so that
has that in the interviewprocess for scholarships, I
would imagine that gave me anedge. And, and even just since
then, to be able to communicateabout what it's like to be a
(21:00):
woman in aviation. It's justhandy because people want to
know, people are very curiouswhat it's like being a pilot,
and it's really fun to talkabout. So I'm lucky that at
least I feel comfortable doingthat.
Tara Beckett (21:23):
What piece of advice, would you give another
woman who is interested in goinginto this field?
Alicia Hunt (21:31):
Start now. Don't wait. The sooner you get started
on this, the better it's goingto be. The seniority is how
everything is calculated inpilot life. So the sooner you
join a company, the better yourlifestyle becomes, the more
senior you you're more senioryou are in terms of choosing
(21:55):
where you live, choosing whatsort of schedule, you fly,
everything like that. What typesof planes you fly. So the sooner
you get into it, the betterposition you're in, and the door
is very open right now for newpilots. So for most of our life,
it's taken people about 15 yearsto upgrade from first officer to
(22:17):
a captain, you have to pay yourdues. And it's going to be a 15
year grind as a first officer.
Right now at the airlines. It'staking two years. Wow, from
first officer to captain. Wow.
So get started. Yeah, how do youget started, it doesn't work
(22:39):
like a traditional universitydegree. In most cases. There are
airports everywhere, smallmunicipal airports, a city
airports, things like thatsmaller airports all over the
country. No matter where youlive, you probably live
relatively close to one, justhop on Google and Google Flight
School, and you will find aflight school nearby. And what
(23:02):
you got to do is you got tomarch down to that flight school
say, hey, I'm interested inmaybe becoming a pilot, I'd like
to go on a discovery flight. Andyou do a one hour flight with an
instructor which you can log inyour logbook as an hour that you
flew and we're receivingtraining. And you just get to
see what it's like to be up inan airplane and they show you
(23:22):
the basics of how to fly it. Soyou actually get to be hands on
and manipulate the controls andand you get to do a tiny bit of
flying during discovery flight,which Wow, it's pretty
incredible. And you just get tosee is it right for you. So
that's step one. And then forany woman joining aviation, step
two is going to be find yoursupporters find people who are
(23:44):
completely on board for this,the biggest barrier that people
run into getting through flightflight training is paying for
it. Because the upfront cost canbe exorbitant depending on where
you go. It can if you do thingseconomically it can it cost
about $50,000 to get throughflight school. If you go to an
(24:06):
all inclusive package, deal typeschool, that's fast track, it'll
get you through in allegedly 12months, that's going to be
closer to 100 grand. Wow. So itkind of depends where you go to
school for it. In most cases, Irecommend you find a very
experienced instructor who isjust operating independently and
(24:30):
get lessons from them one onone, almost all flight training
is one on one. So having areally good instructor is the
most important thing. So if Ihad to start all over again
before the scholarship and allof that I would have gone down
to my local flight school andfound a very experienced
instructor and said, Hey, I'm inbusiness. I want to fly three
(24:50):
times a week and I want to getthrough this and find someone
who is says yes, I've got thetime and availability to do
that. Let's make it happen. AndI And then start studying,
studying, you know, it's a lotof studying and a lot of flying.
And in terms of paying for it, Ialways described it as building
(25:12):
a bridge, as I was walking over,
Tara Beckett (25:15):
oh, wow, yeah,
Alicia Hunt (25:17):
I had no idea how it's gonna pay for flight
school. I had absolutely no ideahow I was gonna, I got a little
bit of savings, which flying isexpensive. So savings ran out
pretty darn quick. Yeah, Iworked a job while I was in my
initial primary training. Andevery I moved in with my amazing
(25:38):
sister who let me move in withher to save money and whatnot.
So that cut my expenses. And Iwon a small scholarship that
made a tiny dent. But the muchbigger thing that did was it
opened up incredible resourcesin terms of mentors, and people
who were able to kind of shinethe light in the right direction
(25:58):
and help me on my path. BecauseHigh School is tough, it's
challenging. And you're gonnaneed people in your corner who
say, I believe in you, you cando this. Yeah. And you do have
what it takes, because at somepoint along the way, just about
everyone I've ever talked to,and what I see with my students
to just about everyone, at somepoint says, oh, gosh, do I have
what it takes to do this? And soyou're going to need your
(26:20):
supporters to be in your cornerand say, yes, yes, go go go.
And, and then I could probablyjust recommend, just make some
recommendations on how to winscholarships. Because I'm so
lucky, I have this incrediblesister who taught me how to win
scholarships. I had no idea howto win a scholarship. I didn't,
I had no idea how to evensuccessfully apply for a
(26:42):
scholarship. And one of mysisters just paid for most of
college that way. And sheobviously had it all figured
out. So I said, How did you dothat. And she taught me how. And
so I, I get a lot of pleasureout of teaching other people how
to do that, too, you know, andsort of showing what makes for
(27:03):
winning scholarship application,because there's a lot of a lot
of people who want to bringwomen into aviation. And there's
some big scholarships out thereto help women join to help
people of color join also,because as you can imagine,
aviation is largely white. Yes,the numbers are very, very
similar for people of color asthey are for women. So I'm
(27:26):
really, really excited abouthelping people succeed in
scholarship applications. And Ifeel lucky to do that, because
I've done fairly well withscholarships. So my big
suggestion there is, make sureyou write a good essay, and have
set, find the best writer, youknow, and have them look over
(27:48):
the scholarship essay thatyou've written. And craft a
narrative that talks not abouthow much you love lying, because
everyone loves lying. Everyoneloves it, and so it's fine. But
if you talk more about whatyou've accomplished, you know,
even if it's I moved in with mysister to save money. Great.
That looks amazing to ascholarship committee. You know,
(28:11):
I took a second job to beworking towards my private
pilot's certificate. Great tojust tell them everything you
done. Yeah. And everything thatyou've done to give back, Join
your local Women in Aviationinternational chapter, and start
giving back or the 90 nines andother women's pilots
organization and start servingin that community. Because even
(28:34):
if you don't have any money, youhave something to give, you can
form study groups. And you know,I was a tutor for quite a long
time. And so I gave freetutoring to people who were like
two steps behind me in theprocess. Yep. gave that away,
you know, and volunteered thatpeople were giving away
scholarships like to choosepeople who are giving, you know,
(28:56):
in some sort of way, so find away to give back.
Tara Beckett (29:12):
Because you're an actor, I feel like you could
really describe this for us, butcould you describe being in the
cockpit?
Alicia Hunt (29:19):
It's awesome. It's so much fun. One of my favorite
things about acting is how youmust be present. You can't be
anywhere else. You have to becompletely immersed in your
character in the moment and thescene and the dialogue. And it's
(29:40):
the exact same when you'reflying a plane. You can not be
distracted with anything else.
You need to be listening to airtraffic control. You need to be
ready to deliver your own linewhich is coming up soon. You
know your traffic control talksthat you talk and it's a script.
Let me tell you if you can doShakespeare you can sure as heck
do air traffic control CongressIt's so much easier script than
some of the other ones outthere. So what it's like in the
(30:06):
cockpit, it's very focused andnot something I really like
about it. You're constantlyscanning for traffic, especially
where I fly. There's a lot ofplanes up here. And what a lot
of people don't know, this isless true for airliners
airliners are more on a freewayin the sky. But when you're in
small aircraft in your training,there's kind of no roads, going
(30:27):
where they want to go. And soyou were personally responsible
to see and avoid any otheraircraft. So you have a few
tools on board to do that. Butmostly, you need to keep your
eyes outside, see other planesand not run into? Wow, yeah. So
you can't be distracted, youcan't be thinking about other
(30:53):
concerns or things like that,you got to be on your game. And
I've always liked that aboutflying, it's very focused. And,
oh, man, it's just such a greatview up there, I just can't
believe my office view, I can'tbelieve it's such an incredible
view, every single time I go upthere I go, Wow, I can't believe
(31:14):
I get to do this, you know, justto get to see cities. And I flew
over the Grand Canyon a fewweeks ago. And I'd never been to
the Grand Canyon, and I wasthere I was. And I was like, Oh
my gosh, I'm flying over theGrand Canyon, you know, and it
was just just amazing the viewsthat you get up there. And I
also really appreciate thatthere's a whole structure in
(31:35):
place in terms of high stressscenarios or emergency
scenarios, there's a completestructure in place, there is the
pilot in command who's going tofly the aircraft. And if you
have another pilot on board,they're going to be doing all
the radio calls, they're gonnabe doing all the navigation,
they're going to be doingeverything, running checklists,
(31:56):
doing everything you need to doin these either emergencies or
just high workload scenarios.
And so you get to work together.
And there, it's collaborative, alot. Like when I was working on
film, and theater, it'sincredibly collaborative, you
have to trust your team, youhave to communicate well, with
your team, you can't really doit without your team, you know.
And even if you're the onlypilot on board, air traffic
(32:18):
control is your team. You know,so it's, I would take special
pleasure from that I really,really enjoy the harmony of
working with other pilots andworking with air traffic
control. And just every singletime I touched down safely on
the ground, like, Oh, this isamazing. I did it. You know, and
it's just, it gives you thisboost of excitement, basically,
(32:40):
every time you know, yeah,
Tara Beckett (32:43):
a little bit of a rush there.
Alicia Hunt (32:46):
Absolutely.
Tara Beckett (32:57):
Before we end, I would just loved for you to
speak of what let perfect burnmeans for you.
Alicia Hunt (33:06):
I absolutely love that you've got a podcast is
dedicated to just tearing downthe concept of doing things
perfectly, especially as women.
We are just so indoctrinated todo everything perfectly. And I
am absolutely no exception tothat rule. I just want to get
everything right all the time.
(33:27):
And I'm so hard on myself when Idon't you know, and it's been
such a long process of learningto be kind to myself, when
things don't go perfectly. Andto sort of let that what I don't
even know where that image comesfrom. Where are you this perfect
idea of how everything's youcould perfectly all the time,
(33:47):
what has anything goneperfectly?
Tara Beckett (33:50):
I don't know. I don't know. So
Alicia Hunt (33:52):
I just really appreciate that you're holding
these conversations about, aboutlearning, the continuing process
of letting the perfectionismjust sort of melt away from our
expectations and, and to be kindto ourselves when we when we are
hard on ourselves about it, youknow. So I mean, I'm in a field
(34:14):
right now, where you would thinkbeing super type A and getting
everything perfect and perfectlylanding the plane and perfectly
doing the checklist. It would bea high priority. And in a way it
is you do have to run thechecklist. You do have to cross
your t's and dot your i's thatdoes have to happen. And every
pilot I know has to know how tosay well, that landing wasn't
(34:41):
the best landing I've ever done,but I didn't know what to do now
in the future. And to not beatyourself up so much. You know,
we say in aviation you know, didyou want to let go because every
pilot I know beat themselves upabout landings and you know you
A great landing. They don'tthink it's a great way better
(35:04):
and better, you know. And so wesometimes remind ourselves,
okay, what was it? What did youbend any metal? Did anybody get?
Did anybody get hurt? Didanybody die? No. Then it was a
good landing. Yeah, there's sometruth to that. There's an
absolute choose to that, youknow, we didn't bend metal. We
didn't kill anyone. We didn'teven hurt anyone. We're all
(35:26):
still here. It's a good landing.
And that just rings very true tome in a lot of ways. So thank
you for getting the wholededicating a whole podcast.
Tara Beckett (35:36):
You're welcome.
And I mean, I'm just selfishwith the whole thing and that I
get to listen to all of yourstories. I mean, every day I'm
like, yes, yes. Yes, we've gotsomething go and let's keep
going. Well, Alicia, I wouldlove to be in your plane
someday. Yeah, how to make thathappen. But until then, take
care and thank you so much forbeing on. Thank you, Tara.
(36:00):
Perfect
Hi, I'm Tara Beckett and welcome back to let
perfect burnmy guest today is Alicia Hunt, a
commercial pilot and flightinstructor. Before Alicia
(00:43):
aviation career, she had a 13year career in film, commercial
work and Theatre in Los Angeles.
After over a decade of work,Alicia was completely burnt out
from never taking a vacation forfear of missing her agents call.
(01:04):
On a whim, she went to Asia withher best friend. Her friend got
on the return flight home,Alicia did not. After returning
from her almost three monthadventure, Alicia expected to
feel rejuvenated. But shewasn't. It confirmed it was time
to make a change. Alicia knewshe needed something high
(01:26):
pressure boots on the groundtype of work. When she heard
there was a pilot shortage,especially for women and people
of color. Alicia startedfiguring out how to get herself
into the sky. Hi, everybody, I'mTara Beckett, and welcome back
to let perfect burn. in studiotoday is Alicia hunt a
(01:51):
commercial pilot. And Aliciawhen you told me about all of
the certifications that you had,I was like, Ooh, I need a crash
course. So can you talk to meabout what defines you and who
you are as far as being a pilot?
Alicia Hunt (02:08):
Absolutely, yes. So thank you so much for having me
on. It's really just a pleasureto be here. And yes, I know that
the the world of being a pilotcan seem a little bit
mysterious. And it's prettysimple. What I do I teach people
how to fly planes. That's it, Ijust I teach people who are who
(02:29):
have absolutely zero experiencein most cases. And I take them
from no knowledge of planeswhatsoever to licensed as a
commercial pilot, all the wayfrom the very first flight all
the way through a fullcommercial rating. And so when
they come off the street, theydon't necessarily know anything.
And by the time they're donewith me, they can fly through
(02:51):
clouds without being able to seeoutside. Wow. It's a lot of fun.
It's really pretty great. And Ido this for the American
Airlines Cadet Academy. And I'malso licensed as a UK instructor
and in Denmark, oh, I didn't seecoming in my career at all. So
(03:13):
currently, I've been workingwith a whole lot of European
airline pilots in the making. Asa it's so much fun. It's
something I never ever sawcoming in my life. I didn't view
being a pilot someday as a kid,you know, it never occurred to
me to go be a pilot.
Tara Beckett (03:39):
Now, now, we just need to know what your journey
was to get there. So rewind usback a little bit and take us to
this point now as a pilot.
Alicia Hunt (03:50):
Absolutely. I, like so many people out there just
needed to follow my artistshearts. And I went off and was
so, so blessed and fortunate toget a 13 year career as an actor
and a director. And occasionallyI would produce things and I did
(04:11):
a lot of arts education. And Iam so blessed that I got 13 full
years of that in my life.
Because I needed it. I needed tobe in the arts. And I still need
it actually I still need it.
However, after 13 years, Irealized that I had never taken
(04:35):
a vacation in that entire time.
I realized I'd been on even whenI was on you know a weekend
vacation or even a full week orsomething like that. I was on
call all the time. And I had tobe able to answer my phone I had
to be able to drop everythingand go audition for something or
drop everything and go show upfor a shoot or something like
that. It's just I've neverreally felt like my time was my
(04:56):
own and at all I always feltlike there was more I needed to
be doing. In order to advance mycareer, no matter what I was
working on, you could be workingon your favorite project ever.
And I always felt like I neededto be doing more to find the
next job and to continue toadvance.
(05:24):
So I got this chance to go toChina, and I took it. And I knew
I wouldn't have another projectfor several months, my next
lined up project are severalmonths away. So I have this kind
of crazy idea in the back of myhead, my friend had to be back
at work 10 days, you know, sheworks a regular nine to five,
she was like, I have to get backto everything. But I was looking
(05:46):
at my schedule and saying, Okay,if I had an interesting
experience over there, I'm justnot going to come back. I'm just
not gonna get on my returnflight. And I'm just going to
trek across Asia for as long asI feel like trekking across
Asia. And that is precisely whathappened I got there, I 10 days
(06:10):
was not even close to enoughtime to see everything I wanted
to see. And I spent almost threemonths over there, traveling
solo through and went toMalaysia and Singapore and Hong
Kong and all over China took atrain all the way across China
from one edge of it the easternedge of it all the way to the
(06:30):
edge of Tibet, and made a lot ofstops in between and went to
Thailand and went to Laos andall these places. And amazing.
It was incredible. And when Ifinished the trip, I thought I
would come back and feelrefreshed and feel like okay,
I'm energized that was you know,the vacation of a lifetime. And
(06:52):
I'm ready to go. And instead, Igot back and I was at a natural
point of separation. I was anatural point of, I'm ready to
change my life, I'm ready tofind my next step. And there was
absolutely no part of me thatwanted to go back to Los Angeles
(07:12):
and get right back into thegrind and do everything I was
doing before there was just nopart of me that wanted to do
that. Which was a surprise tome, that was a complete surprise
to me. So I honored that feelinginside of me and went, Okay,
it's time for the next thing.
And I didn't know what the nextthing would be. But I knew I
wanted to take the time toreally find the right thing,
(07:36):
something that was very alignedwith how I wanted to live a
substantial portion of my life,you know, and so it took almost
two years to find to commit tomy next career move, and it took
that much time to find it.
(07:58):
Honestly, I think if you told meat the beginning that it would
take two years to find it, Iwould have, I would have freaked
me out big time. But that's nothow it went. You just take it
day by day, and go on to thevery next step. And I'm so glad
that I took that much time tofind my next step because it led
(08:18):
me to aviation. So during thattime of transition, I went back
and got to be with my family whoI missed and lived really far
away from for a long time. Iworked on several passion
projects, I helped found atheatre company, I did some of
my favorite projects I've everworked on, which made no money,
(08:41):
they made no money at all. Thoseare the best ones. They weren't
great, beautiful, amazingprojects, and also health
insurance was never going to bean option. And so it was very
fulfilling and also quiteconfirming that the work I
really wanted to be doing didnot have to take the form of my
(09:05):
paycheck of my career. And thatin terms of going to work 40
hours a week, I needed to adjustwhat that looked like for
myself. And so I saw a careercounselor who was amazing and
who walked me through a reallydetailed process of sort of
(09:28):
digging into what is a good fitfor me and I wouldn't I in
addition to this, I was jobshadowing anyone who had any
sort of interesting job. I waslike, Can I go to work with you?
Can I see what you do? And I Ijust stepped in and everyone
said yes, people love showingwhat they do you know, and so I
(09:48):
got to see all these from aproject manager to to a 911
operator and a lot of stuff inbetween. And so that was there
eye opening, seeing all thesedifferent jobs that seemed
interesting to me, it seemedlike it might be a good fit. And
when I was working with thecareer counselor, two major
(10:09):
things happened. One, she askedall the people that know me
really well, to come up with alist of five jobs that they
think I'd be good at. And it wasreally fascinating seeing
Tara Beckett (10:25):
this feels like a party game with
Alicia Hunt (10:28):
let me tell you, when your therapist tells you
that you should be a cop, youknow that you got an interesting
life.
So I decided not to become apolice officer. But I did notice
there was a consistent theme.
And that was very hands on veryboots on the ground doing
(10:55):
things. Often very highintensity situations, people
were like, oh, you should be asurgeon, or you should be a 911
operator, or you should be a copor something like that. There
was a theme. And my brother putthe word pilot on his list. He
himself has his pilot'scertificate, he doesn't do it
(11:16):
professionally. But he you know,he loves planes, like so many
boys do. He grew up lovingplanes. And he was like, Oh, I
know a little bit about planes.
I think you'd be good at this.
And it really stood out to me, Iwill honestly, first of all, I
don't even know how to do that.
(11:38):
I didn't, it actually didn'tstand out to me. At first, it
sounded fascinating. But itdidn't seem realistic. I didn't
know what it takes to get intoaviation or anything like that.
And it just, it didn't seem farfetched to me to go be a
professional pilot. So I kind ofdismissed it. And then the other
(12:00):
major thing that happened whileworking with that career
counselor is she took a deepdive into sort of my
personality, and my favorite wayto work, and probably my
favorite projects I've everworked on what were the common
themes and what was the workenvironment like? And she, she
took a real good deep look atit. And she went, Oh, Alisa,
(12:22):
you're a complex person. She'ssaid, and I quote, There is no
perfect fit for you. Ah,whichever career you choose, you
will be leaving large parts ofyourself at the door. So you
need to decide which parts arethe most important in terms of
(12:44):
your professional life, in termsof your goals, for your
finances, your goals for yourday to day lifestyle, your goals
for having a family or somethinglike that. Think big picture
here. Because no matter whichcareer you go into, yes, some
are a better fit than others forsure. But there is no perfect
(13:08):
fit for you. So let's prioritizewhat's most important to you.
And that was a revelation to mehearing that and accepting that,
oh, there is no perfect fit. I,I just need to prioritize the
things that align with my valuesand my long term goals and put
(13:28):
that together and then go forit.
And so one of the things I knewI wanted out of a new career is
I wanted something high demand.
I was really tired of being in amarket that was saturated. And
(13:49):
where I knew I had so much togive in that field. But so did
everyone else. Yes. And it wasvery, very saturated. And I was
tired of constantly pushing andpushing and pushing to look for
work. Because it made even whenyou did them really amazing
projects. You were constantlylooking for the next one. Yeah.
(14:10):
And so it was almost it made itdifficult to sit back and rest
in that and enjoy the projectsyou were working on. Because you
also had to do the other half ofyour job of finding your next
project. And that was wearing onme it was absolutely wearing on
me. So I knew I wanted to be ina very high demand position. And
then I heard about the pilotshortage. And that majorly
(14:34):
tipped the scales got it once Iheard there was there's not
enough people and especially notenough women to go fly the
planes I said wow, fly theplanes that's so you know, I
started looking into how to doit and I look back now and go
wow, that was what was Ithinking? Flight School is
(14:56):
daunting. It's hard. or I willsay, it's not as hard as a fine
arts degree.
Tara Beckett (15:06):
I got one of those two girls a little tired.
Alicia Hunt (15:10):
was really interesting. The three years I
spent in flight school were haddifferent challenges. But I will
say the fine arts degree washarder than flight school.
Tara Beckett (15:21):
So you ready, then?
Alicia Hunt (15:23):
I was ready. I was absolutely ready. And it sounds
like the kind of transition thatdoesn't make a lot of sense.
Because what could be the whatpossible overlap? Could there be
between flying planes? Andworking in arts and
entertainment? There's, it justseems like there could not
possibly be overlap there. Butwhen I think back of, I think
(15:45):
back on how much work it was toget through the Fine Arts
degrees that I got, and then Iwalked into flight school was
like, Oh, I got this, I can doyou know, and that was just one
of many, many, many ways thatI've found incredible overlap
between my first career and whatI'm doing now. So it's, it's not
(16:06):
as random as it seems. I neverwould have put those two
together.
Tara Beckett (16:10):
Yeah. I mean, I, as soon as you kind of drop
that, I want to know more. Whatare some of the other ways that
you've just found that you know,your training or your
experience, or your passion forwhat you were doing in your
first career just really, almostgave you an edge in your new
career?
Alicia Hunt (16:28):
Absolutely, it gave me quite a few edges. So first
of all, when you're serving aspilot in command of an aircraft,
you have to be able to use yourvoice, and you have to mean it,
you have to be able to commandthe obviously the aircraft that
you're in. But there is a law,there's a federal law, that when
you're serving as pilot incommand, you are directly
(16:50):
responsible for the safety ofthat flight. And you can deviate
from any other law that'swritten in order to meet the
needs of an emergency. So youhave to be able to get on the
radios with air traffic control,and tell them what's happening
when it matters most when livesare on the line. And he that's a
(17:13):
level of trust in your voice andtrust in your ability to
communicate and trust in yourability to not fall apart when
things are stressful. Anyone whohas ever been on a film set, or
in front of a live audienceunderstands, your body is going
(17:35):
to tell you you're dying, yourbody's gonna tell you that, that
that's too stressful, and you'regonna die, you're not going to
die. But your body tells youthat and so you in my previous
career, I learned over and overand over again, to manage stress
and still do my job. Even when Ifelt terrified at times. I did
(17:57):
that almost on a daily basis atcertain points of my career in
my previous career. And so, whenI got into the cockpit, and they
were they're like, Okay, myinstructor would reach over in
flight school and kill my engineand say, Okay, what are you
going to do captain? Oh, shootit, my body would say we're
(18:20):
going to die, we're going todie. Oh, my gosh, I can't do
this. I didn't practice enough.
I'm not ready. I don't know.
Your body just starts to wantsto shut down and seize up and
you want to freeze and all thesesort of things. And I am so
practiced at not letting thathappen. I am so practiced at
breathing deep thinking andgetting to work. Middle of a lot
(18:43):
of stress. So that's somethingI've been honing for 13 years.
Yeah. And so it was directlycorrelated as soon as I got in
the plane. You know, there's,it's it's exciting to be on a
plane and there are moments ofstress and moments of serious
stress. And I'm just very usedto get to work. You know, that's
(19:03):
what I do I get to work.
One of the other ways I didn'texpect to be very prepared for
(19:25):
this career. There's thescholarship opportunity that I
talked about the CAE Women inAviation, or women in flight,
scholarship opportunity. theirvery first round of interviews
for the scholarship was a videointerview. And here I'd been
self taping videos and makingfilms and editing things and
(19:47):
directing things for years. Yep.
So I thought to myself, Wow,okay, well, this one is no
problem at all. I get to be inmy living room wearing my
company's t shirt. doing this, Ican definitely do this. So I
made it through that first roundof interviews. And then
subsequent interviews were alsorecorded. And I was fortunate
(20:09):
enough to be awarded ascholarship to go to flight
school, which is incredible, itis really, really rare to get
that awkward sort ofopportunity. And there have been
quite a few interviews sincethen. It's an it's publicity
things and sort of being anexample of a woman who is
helping other women get intoaviation and whatnot, it puts
(20:30):
you in front of the camera muchmore than I expected.
Tara Beckett (20:34):
But you're, you're a little bit at home there.
Alicia Hunt (20:37):
I have a little bit of experience there. They asked
me to do an interview and, andI'm ready to go. It's very easy
to get those pieces together andfar less stressful. And so that
has that in the interviewprocess for scholarships, I
would imagine that gave me anedge. And, and even just since
then, to be able to communicateabout what it's like to be a
(21:00):
woman in aviation. It's justhandy because people want to
know, people are very curiouswhat it's like being a pilot,
and it's really fun to talkabout. So I'm lucky that at
least I feel comfortable doingthat.
Tara Beckett (21:23):
What piece of advice, would you give another
woman who is interested in goinginto this field?
Alicia Hunt (21:31):
Start now. Don't wait. The sooner you get started
on this, the better it's goingto be. The seniority is how
everything is calculated inpilot life. So the sooner you
join a company, the better yourlifestyle becomes, the more
senior you you're more senioryou are in terms of choosing
(21:55):
where you live, choosing whatsort of schedule, you fly,
everything like that. What typesof planes you fly. So the sooner
you get into it, the betterposition you're in, and the door
is very open right now for newpilots. So for most of our life,
it's taken people about 15 yearsto upgrade from first officer to
(22:17):
a captain, you have to pay yourdues. And it's going to be a 15
year grind as a first officer.
Right now at the airlines. It'staking two years. Wow, from
first officer to captain. Wow.
So get started. Yeah, how do youget started, it doesn't work
(22:39):
like a traditional universitydegree. In most cases. There are
airports everywhere, smallmunicipal airports, a city
airports, things like thatsmaller airports all over the
country. No matter where youlive, you probably live
relatively close to one, justhop on Google and Google Flight
School, and you will find aflight school nearby. And what
(23:02):
you got to do is you got tomarch down to that flight school
say, hey, I'm interested inmaybe becoming a pilot, I'd like
to go on a discovery flight. Andyou do a one hour flight with an
instructor which you can log inyour logbook as an hour that you
flew and we're receivingtraining. And you just get to
see what it's like to be up inan airplane and they show you
(23:22):
the basics of how to fly it. Soyou actually get to be hands on
and manipulate the controls andand you get to do a tiny bit of
flying during discovery flight,which Wow, it's pretty
incredible. And you just get tosee is it right for you. So
that's step one. And then forany woman joining aviation, step
two is going to be find yoursupporters find people who are
(23:44):
completely on board for this,the biggest barrier that people
run into getting through flightflight training is paying for
it. Because the upfront cost canbe exorbitant depending on where
you go. It can if you do thingseconomically it can it cost
about $50,000 to get throughflight school. If you go to an
(24:06):
all inclusive package, deal typeschool, that's fast track, it'll
get you through in allegedly 12months, that's going to be
closer to 100 grand. Wow. So itkind of depends where you go to
school for it. In most cases, Irecommend you find a very
experienced instructor who isjust operating independently and
(24:30):
get lessons from them one onone, almost all flight training
is one on one. So having areally good instructor is the
most important thing. So if Ihad to start all over again
before the scholarship and allof that I would have gone down
to my local flight school andfound a very experienced
instructor and said, Hey, I'm inbusiness. I want to fly three
(24:50):
times a week and I want to getthrough this and find someone
who is says yes, I've got thetime and availability to do
that. Let's make it happen. AndI And then start studying,
studying, you know, it's a lotof studying and a lot of flying.
And in terms of paying for it, Ialways described it as building
(25:12):
a bridge, as I was walking over,
Tara Beckett (25:15):
oh, wow, yeah,
Alicia Hunt (25:17):
I had no idea how it's gonna pay for flight
school. I had absolutely no ideahow I was gonna, I got a little
bit of savings, which flying isexpensive. So savings ran out
pretty darn quick. Yeah, Iworked a job while I was in my
initial primary training. Andevery I moved in with my amazing
(25:38):
sister who let me move in withher to save money and whatnot.
So that cut my expenses. And Iwon a small scholarship that
made a tiny dent. But the muchbigger thing that did was it
opened up incredible resourcesin terms of mentors, and people
who were able to kind of shinethe light in the right direction
(25:58):
and help me on my path. BecauseHigh School is tough, it's
challenging. And you're gonnaneed people in your corner who
say, I believe in you, you cando this. Yeah. And you do have
what it takes, because at somepoint along the way, just about
everyone I've ever talked to,and what I see with my students
to just about everyone, at somepoint says, oh, gosh, do I have
what it takes to do this? And soyou're going to need your
(26:20):
supporters to be in your cornerand say, yes, yes, go go go.
And, and then I could probablyjust recommend, just make some
recommendations on how to winscholarships. Because I'm so
lucky, I have this incrediblesister who taught me how to win
scholarships. I had no idea howto win a scholarship. I didn't,
I had no idea how to evensuccessfully apply for a
(26:42):
scholarship. And one of mysisters just paid for most of
college that way. And sheobviously had it all figured
out. So I said, How did you dothat. And she taught me how. And
so I, I get a lot of pleasureout of teaching other people how
to do that, too, you know, andsort of showing what makes for
(27:03):
winning scholarship application,because there's a lot of a lot
of people who want to bringwomen into aviation. And there's
some big scholarships out thereto help women join to help
people of color join also,because as you can imagine,
aviation is largely white. Yes,the numbers are very, very
similar for people of color asthey are for women. So I'm
(27:26):
really, really excited abouthelping people succeed in
scholarship applications. And Ifeel lucky to do that, because
I've done fairly well withscholarships. So my big
suggestion there is, make sureyou write a good essay, and have
set, find the best writer, youknow, and have them look over
(27:48):
the scholarship essay thatyou've written. And craft a
narrative that talks not abouthow much you love lying, because
everyone loves lying. Everyoneloves it, and so it's fine. But
if you talk more about whatyou've accomplished, you know,
even if it's I moved in with mysister to save money. Great.
That looks amazing to ascholarship committee. You know,
(28:11):
I took a second job to beworking towards my private
pilot's certificate. Great tojust tell them everything you
done. Yeah. And everything thatyou've done to give back, Join
your local Women in Aviationinternational chapter, and start
giving back or the 90 nines andother women's pilots
organization and start servingin that community. Because even
(28:34):
if you don't have any money, youhave something to give, you can
form study groups. And you know,I was a tutor for quite a long
time. And so I gave freetutoring to people who were like
two steps behind me in theprocess. Yep. gave that away,
you know, and volunteered thatpeople were giving away
scholarships like to choosepeople who are giving, you know,
(28:56):
in some sort of way, so find away to give back.
Tara Beckett (29:12):
Because you're an actor, I feel like you could
really describe this for us, butcould you describe being in the
cockpit?
Alicia Hunt (29:19):
It's awesome. It's so much fun. One of my favorite
things about acting is how youmust be present. You can't be
anywhere else. You have to becompletely immersed in your
character in the moment and thescene and the dialogue. And it's
(29:40):
the exact same when you'reflying a plane. You can not be
distracted with anything else.
You need to be listening to airtraffic control. You need to be
ready to deliver your own linewhich is coming up soon. You
know your traffic control talksthat you talk and it's a script.
Let me tell you if you can doShakespeare you can sure as heck
do air traffic control CongressIt's so much easier script than
some of the other ones outthere. So what it's like in the
(30:06):
cockpit, it's very focused andnot something I really like
about it. You're constantlyscanning for traffic, especially
where I fly. There's a lot ofplanes up here. And what a lot
of people don't know, this isless true for airliners
airliners are more on a freewayin the sky. But when you're in
small aircraft in your training,there's kind of no roads, going
(30:27):
where they want to go. And soyou were personally responsible
to see and avoid any otheraircraft. So you have a few
tools on board to do that. Butmostly, you need to keep your
eyes outside, see other planesand not run into? Wow, yeah. So
you can't be distracted, youcan't be thinking about other
(30:53):
concerns or things like that,you got to be on your game. And
I've always liked that aboutflying, it's very focused. And,
oh, man, it's just such a greatview up there, I just can't
believe my office view, I can'tbelieve it's such an incredible
view, every single time I go upthere I go, Wow, I can't believe
(31:14):
I get to do this, you know, justto get to see cities. And I flew
over the Grand Canyon a fewweeks ago. And I'd never been to
the Grand Canyon, and I wasthere I was. And I was like, Oh
my gosh, I'm flying over theGrand Canyon, you know, and it
was just just amazing the viewsthat you get up there. And I
also really appreciate thatthere's a whole structure in
(31:35):
place in terms of high stressscenarios or emergency
scenarios, there's a completestructure in place, there is the
pilot in command who's going tofly the aircraft. And if you
have another pilot on board,they're going to be doing all
the radio calls, they're gonnabe doing all the navigation,
they're going to be doingeverything, running checklists,
(31:56):
doing everything you need to doin these either emergencies or
just high workload scenarios.
And so you get to work together.
And there, it's collaborative, alot. Like when I was working on
film, and theater, it'sincredibly collaborative, you
have to trust your team, youhave to communicate well, with
your team, you can't really doit without your team, you know.
And even if you're the onlypilot on board, air traffic
(32:18):
control is your team. You know,so it's, I would take special
pleasure from that I really,really enjoy the harmony of
working with other pilots andworking with air traffic
control. And just every singletime I touched down safely on
the ground, like, Oh, this isamazing. I did it. You know, and
it's just, it gives you thisboost of excitement, basically,
(32:40):
every time you know, yeah,
Tara Beckett (32:43):
a little bit of a rush there.
Alicia Hunt (32:46):
Absolutely.
Tara Beckett (32:57):
Before we end, I would just loved for you to
speak of what let perfect burnmeans for you.
Alicia Hunt (33:06):
I absolutely love that you've got a podcast is
dedicated to just tearing downthe concept of doing things
perfectly, especially as women.
We are just so indoctrinated todo everything perfectly. And I
am absolutely no exception tothat rule. I just want to get
everything right all the time.
(33:27):
And I'm so hard on myself when Idon't you know, and it's been
such a long process of learningto be kind to myself, when
things don't go perfectly. Andto sort of let that what I don't
even know where that image comesfrom. Where are you this perfect
idea of how everything's youcould perfectly all the time,
(33:47):
what has anything goneperfectly?
Tara Beckett (33:50):
I don't know. I don't know. So
Alicia Hunt (33:52):
I just really appreciate that you're holding
these conversations about, aboutlearning, the continuing process
of letting the perfectionismjust sort of melt away from our
expectations and, and to be kindto ourselves when we when we are
hard on ourselves about it, youknow. So I mean, I'm in a field
(34:14):
right now, where you would thinkbeing super type A and getting
everything perfect and perfectlylanding the plane and perfectly
doing the checklist. It would bea high priority. And in a way it
is you do have to run thechecklist. You do have to cross
your t's and dot your i's thatdoes have to happen. And every
pilot I know has to know how tosay well, that landing wasn't
(34:41):
the best landing I've ever done,but I didn't know what to do now
in the future. And to not beatyourself up so much. You know,
we say in aviation you know, didyou want to let go because every
pilot I know beat themselves upabout landings and you know you
A great landing. They don'tthink it's a great way better
(35:04):
and better, you know. And so wesometimes remind ourselves,
okay, what was it? What did youbend any metal? Did anybody get?
Did anybody get hurt? Didanybody die? No. Then it was a
good landing. Yeah, there's sometruth to that. There's an
absolute choose to that, youknow, we didn't bend metal. We
didn't kill anyone. We didn'teven hurt anyone. We're all
(35:26):
still here. It's a good landing.
And that just rings very true tome in a lot of ways. So thank
you for getting the wholededicating a whole podcast.
Tara Beckett (35:36):
You're welcome.
And I mean, I'm just selfishwith the whole thing and that I
get to listen to all of yourstories. I mean, every day I'm
like, yes, yes. Yes, we've gotsomething go and let's keep
going. Well, Alicia, I wouldlove to be in your plane
someday. Yeah, how to make thathappen. But until then, take
care and thank you so much forbeing on. Thank you, Tara.
(36:00):
Perfect
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