April 28, 2025 • 40 mins
What really happens beyond the cockpit door?
In this captivating second part of our conversation with Captain Ken Petschauer, we reveal the realities of life in the pilot’s seat—from the intense preparation required to fly safely, to the leadership, split-second decision-making, and resilience needed to handle high-stress situations.
Captain Petschauer shares hard-earned insights from his 30+ year career as a pilot, including how aviators manage emergencies, stay medically certified, navigate changes post-9/11, and maintain calm in the sky and on the ground. He also clears up some of aviation’s biggest mysteries—like why your seat needs to be upright for takeoff and landing, and whether leaving your phone on really impacts the flight.
Key Highlights:
- Managing High-Stakes Pressure: How pilots are trained to stay calm and make critical decisions even under extreme circumstances.
- The Path to Captain: What it really takes to move from co-pilot to captain—and the unexpected emotions that come with it.
- Behind-the-Scenes Secrets: Fascinating details passengers rarely hear about flying, airplane design, and cockpit life—including why those little airplane rules actually matter.
- Career Lessons: Ken’s advice for aspiring pilots (and anyone navigating tough career moments).
Whether you're a frequent flyer, an aviation enthusiast, or someone chasing a dream of your own, Captain Petschauer’s story is filled with incredible insights, humor, and inspiration. ✈️
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ken Petschauer (00:02):
I remember, like the first time you're a
captain, you got this hundredmillion dollar jet right, you're
signing a book and you're thecaptain.
And here you are and you feellike you're borrowing dad's car
for the first time.
I briefed the flight attendantabout what's going to happen.
Everything's going to be normal, it's no big deal.
We're just going to touch downa little bit faster.
You probably wouldn't evennotice if I didn't tell you, but
you're going to see theemergency equipment out there.
(00:23):
Just in case you know, ourbrakes overheat or something.
Okay, no problem, ken, you knowit's all good, captain, we're
fine.
And then, like 20 minutes later, I get a ding from the flight
attendant in the back and she'slike in tears.
You could ask any pilot in thatcockpit and go the engine quit
right now.
Where would we go?
And they're going to know theanswer immediately.
I know exactly where I'm going.
(00:45):
I don't even have to thinkabout it.
We always know that.
Larry Shea (00:49):
Why does my seat need to be in the upright
position?
Tushar Saxena (00:54):
How real is it that I have to make sure that my
cell phone and my computer isoff on takeoff and landing, and
then why can I turn it back onwhen we're at 35,000 feet?
And then why can I turn?
it back on when we're at 35,000feet.
Larry Samuels (01:05):
Hello and welcome to the Career Journey podcast.
No Wrong Choices.
This is part two of ourconversation with Captain Ken
Petschauer of JetBlue Airlines.
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to bejoined by Tushar Saxena and
Larry Shea.
Before we rejoin theconversation, please be sure to
(01:30):
like, follow and subscribe tothe show wherever you're
listening right now.
We now pick things up with me,asking Ken about the lifestyle
of a pilot.
What are the physicalrequirements of the job?
When you and I did a pre-callbefore the interview, we talked
a little bit about some thingsthat surprised me in terms of
the number of hours before youcan have a drink and then fly,
not being able to take NyQuildrug testing.
I'm sort of curious about allthat stuff, like what are some
(01:52):
of those requirements andconditions that you have to
satisfy in order to fly?
Ken Petschauer (01:58):
So to maintain your license you also have to
have what they call a medicalcertificate.
So ultimately you need to havepassed your FAA medical.
The FAA medical itself is notsome strict super thing like the
military or whatever.
It's basically a screening.
You know your blood pressurecan't be above this.
Your vision has to be this blah, blah, blah.
You know vision can all becorrected.
(02:19):
You know your hearing has to bea certain level.
Of course you can wear hearingaids if you need to.
The.
You know your hearing has to bea certain level.
Of course you can wear hearingaids if you need to.
The problem is medications.
If you take NyQuil, technicallyyou can't fly, for I think it's
60 hours If you take.
Tushar Saxena (02:29):
NyQuil, you can't fly for 60 hours afterwards.
Ken Petschauer (02:32):
Correct, I think it's 60.
It's either 48 or 60, somethinglike that.
Either way, that's a hell of along time Exactly.
And doctor friends of mine arelike why?
I guess it's because of theantihistamine.
If you take Zyrtec you can'tfly, for it's really high too.
It's like 48 hours or something.
So you have to be reallycareful about that.
So it's not something we really, you know, bitch and moan about
(02:55):
.
Really, Pilots whine abouteverything.
Right, we whine worse than thejet engine.
But the difference between apilot and a jet engine you can
shut the jet engine off.
Tushar Saxena (03:04):
Airplane humor.
Ken Petschauer (03:07):
Yeah, I got a thousand of them, but you just
have you know, accept it.
It's just like we talked about.
You can't have, you know, DUIs.
Larry Shea (03:16):
I would hope so.
Ken Petschauer (03:16):
Every time you do your medical you have to
attest that you have anyconvictions with your licenses
or driving or anything.
Have you had any convictionswith your licenses or driving or
anything?
So it's pretty strict with that.
But it's always been, at leastin my world, because it's all I
ever wanted to do and my wholelife is dedicated to it.
It's just always been that way.
So it's not really restrictive,but you do have to be really
(03:38):
careful and if you have anyproblems that come in the future
as you get older you know highblood pressure or anything like
that you can absolutely mitigatethose with normal medications.
But they are pretty picky aboutcertain things like heart
attacks and people with stentsand stuff like that.
They're very, very strict.
But there's a very strictprotocol to go to and there's
(03:59):
people to help with that withthe union, like our aeromedical
committee and stuff like that.
They're excellent at that.
Tushar Saxena (04:08):
All right.
So I've got a couple ofquestions I want to ask you, the
first being well, if that's thecase, I mean, do you know many
pilots who've had their licensestripped, unfortunately?
Ken Petschauer (04:14):
most of the time, uh guys medical out, so
they either get somedisqualifying heart issue or is
that?
Tushar Saxena (04:21):
is that maybe?
Is that an age thing too, or orno?
Ken Petschauer (04:24):
well it could be.
I mean, if if the heart thingis age related, but I know so
you do an ekg every year and youdo your first one when you're
young, you don't have to do it.
You do your first one, Ibelieve, at 35 as a baseline,
and then, once you hit 40 yearsold, you have to do an ekg every
year.
We've actually had guys thatare pretty young and it turns
out that they've had an issuethat didn't show up because
they've never gotten an EKGbefore.
(04:44):
It's either repairable orthey're out for a while until it
gets repaired, which a lot ofthings are, but there are some
disqualifying ones andunfortunately they just can't
fly, all right.
Tushar Saxena (04:55):
So then I guess the flip side to that is then
how easy or hard is it to thenget reinstated?
If you had your licensestripped tomorrow, could you
then, if you had the problemfixed within a month, then the
next month, start flying again?
Or is it like, okay, you got itstripped on tomorrow, well, you
can't fly again for six months,something along those lines?
Ken Petschauer (05:15):
Yeah, Head injuries are a big one TBIs,
traumatic brain injuries orpeople who, if you get knocked
unconscious or something, youhave to go through a whole
program and you're out.
I was told this hadn't happenedto me.
I don't know, but you're outfor at least a year or something
like that.
Wow, so they'll make your wayto you.
And it's frustrating becausethe FAA is way behind with
(05:35):
getting these approved andpeople have had their paperwork
in for months and months andmonths and they're just waiting
for their waiver to get signedor whatever to go back and get
their medical ticket so they canstart flying again.
So that part is prettyfrustrating.
Larry Shea (05:50):
While we're on this particular subject, I would
think it would be very stressful.
I mean, you're in charge of alot of lives.
You know lives at stake, andsafety is, of course, a main
issue.
Do you get stressed, and how doyou manage that stress?
And have you known other pilotswho've just it's become too
much for them?
Ken Petschauer (06:06):
Yeah, you know I get that question a lot also.
You know all the responsibilityand all that, but it's you know
again, flying from such a youngage and knowing it from the
beginning, it's just, it's justsomething you accept.
And you know, I have to say, asI got older you think about it
more you go wow, there are a lotof people back there, we're
counting on you, man.
Yeah, exactly, it's universalacross the board.
(06:30):
We're always told like hey,don't worry about the people
back there, worry about yourself, worry about keeping yourself
okay, because if I'm okay,they're going to be okay that
standards are so tight thatyou're nowhere near having an
accident, incident violation,whatever you want to call it, or
bending metal, you know, orinjuring somebody, you know
that's the biggest thing.
Oh God, you don't want to bendmetal.
(06:51):
You know meaning.
Oh, you're taxiing in and youdidn't see something.
You hit the wing, oh whatever.
But you know that'sembarrassing enough, but God
forbid, you would actuallyinjure anybody.
You know that's our biggestfear.
But I don't think we feelstress that way, for I'm sure
some people may and maybe whenyou first start doing it, I
remember, like the first timeyou're a captain, you got this a
hundred million dollar jetright and you're signing a book,
(07:11):
and you're the captain and hereyou are and you feel like
you're borrowing dad's car forthe first time.
And I remember, like, is thatlight supposed to be on?
Larry Samuels (07:31):
You know I don anticipated present themselves
once in a while.
Can you share with us anexample of a flight where
something went really wrong andyou had to work your way through
that?
Ken Petschauer (07:44):
I've had some issues.
You know nothing, my hair's onfire, doing mop too, or anything
.
I've had a couple of timeswhere, like, the pressurization
went out and, as opposed to themasks dropping, I actually was
able to descend quick enoughthat the mask didn't drop,
because that would really freakpeople out back there.
I've had several of those.
I've had a specific one whereit was a newer airplane and for
(08:07):
some reason there was an issuewith the flaps and the flaps and
flats would not come out, so Ihad to land with a clean wing.
That means touching down at avery high speed, holy cow.
And a very different attitude.
And I had cleared an emergency,of course, and called out all
the equipment and the trucks andattitude.
And I had cleared an emergency,of course, and called out all
the equipment and the trucks andeverything.
(08:27):
And, yeah, I briefed thepassengers and everything.
And it's kind of ironic becausea lot of our training is, of
course, threat, neuro-managementand leadership and
communication and managingstress, fatigue and things like
that.
I remember on this one occasionI knew it was going to happen
for a long time because we wereon a long flight I briefed the
flight attendant about what'sgoing to happen.
Everything's going to be normal, it's no big deal, we're just
(08:49):
going to touch down a little bitfaster.
You probably wouldn't evennotice if I didn't tell you, but
you're going to see theemergency equipment out there
just in case you know, ourbrakes overheat or something.
Okay, no problem, ken, you knowall good, captain we're we're
(09:12):
fine, and then, like 20 minuteslater, I get a ding from the
flight attendant in the back andshe's like in tears, oh geez,
she's all freaked out and I'mlike what did the other boys
here to tell you?
I was like, okay, come on uphere.
I brought her up into the jumpseat, sat her down.
I was like hey it's okay, weactually trained for this.
This is one of the things weactually trained for, so it's no
big.
And then when she saw how wewere all good and all was going
to be okay, everything was fine.
But she had never been in anyeven minor incident, so it just
(09:36):
kind of freaked her out a littlebit.
Tushar Saxena (09:38):
All right.
So obviously, now as a captain,you are the leader of that
aircraft, whichever aircraftyou're on.
So I want to talk a little bitabout the transition.
As you said, you started as aflight engineer to a co-pilot
and then obviously now to acaptain.
What's that transition?
We're talking about hours andflight time, stick time, et
cetera.
What does that transition looklike?
Ken Petschauer (09:59):
It's mainly a seniority based system.
Typically, you're going tostart out as a first officer, of
course, but there's no minimumamount of time beyond like a few
hundred hours with the airlinebefore you could upgrade to
captain.
Tushar Saxena (10:13):
It's not as if you'll say you had, I have a
thousand hours and now I am acaptain.
Ken Petschauer (10:17):
It's just when there's another slot that opens,
you're eligible, correct, andif you're senior enough to hold
it you know, except for the factthat if you're like brand new
with the company, they don't letyou upgrade to CAP until you
have like 500 hours or somethinglike that, and then when you do
that, you go to CAP schoolbasically.
So you know, it's additionalleadership training and, of
course, airplane training.
(10:38):
On the airplane you're going onwhether or not you're going to
switch airplanes or you're justgoing to move your mag over to
the left side on the sameairplane, but it's a full course
of training from the left seatand a bunch of additional like
leadership training and the like.
Larry Shea (10:52):
We've really jumped off the career journey path a
little bit, so I just want to, Iwant to make sure we cover it,
you know.
So TWA to JetBlue was thereanything in between?
And how does that JetBlue jobbecome available to you?
Ken Petschauer (11:04):
That was kind of like the biggest.
You know, I was going to sayturbulence, Clever huh.
We don't use the wordturbulence, by the way.
It's always bumps, just so youknow.
And it's never thunderstorms,it's showers.
Tushar Saxena (11:15):
Right.
Ken Petschauer (11:17):
That's part of captain training.
So I was with TWA.
Everything was going fine, andthen there was a huge downturn
in industry, of course, after9-11, which was a tragedy.
And then American Airlinesacquired TWA.
In that acquisition I basicallylost a bunch of seniority.
(11:39):
So when the downturn in theindustry happened, I got
furloughed.
So I went from being in theright seat of a 767 flying
overseas to being furloughed onthe street in just a few months.
So it was pretty devastating.
The good thing is I was on thestreet only for eight months.
I got hired with JetBlue, whichwas growing like crazy.
So that was great because yougain a lot of seniority.
Of course, in order to gethired with them, I already had
(12:01):
all these years experience Backthen.
You can get hired with 1,500hours.
Most guys then had 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 hours already, so it
kind of stunk.
I had to start over.
But the good part about that Iwas with a new, young, growing
airline and I got to be captainpretty quickly because they were
(12:21):
getting airplanes like crazy.
And it also gave me theopportunity to get into
management and become the fleetcaptain on the new fleet of
airplanes that they had, whichwas an incredible part of my
career because it was extremelyeducational.
A lot of work, but extremelyeducational.
That's basically how that works.
So I switch airlines and youstart all over as far as
seniority, of course, but startworking your way back up the
(12:43):
ladder.
Larry Samuels (12:44):
And how many years later are you still there?
Ken Petschauer (12:46):
22.
Larry Samuels (12:47):
It sounds like a nice ladder to me.
Ken Petschauer (12:52):
Yeah, it's been great.
I was so lucky to have theexcitement of doing the whole
management fleet captain thingand upgrading early and doing
all kinds of fun stuff and beinginvolved.
Larry Samuels (13:04):
What does it mean to be a fleet captain?
Ken Petschauer (13:06):
So it's a very technical job.
It's not like a chief pilot.
Chief pilots deal with, youknow, guys who come into the
office and have days off andvacation issues and all things
like that.
Chief pilot is moreadministrative.
Fleet captain is more technical.
So you're in charge of all thebasically the procedures,
manuals and the checklists andthe check pilots and training
(13:28):
the check pilots and workingwith.
Well, that's like a perfect jobfor you.
Oh, my god, as a geek, yeah, Iwas like in my glory.
I was down in brazil a lotbecause it was embryo airplanes
that we had gotten.
Uh, I got to work with themanufacturers and with
maintenance and it was.
It was an unbelievableexperience and education, like
you wouldn't believe, which hasreally served me well in my
career because I understand howthis all works, because I've
(13:50):
written some of the manuals andwritten the procedures and got
to do a lot of neat flying withbrand new airplanes and stuff we
don't normally do or wewouldn't do with passengers on
board.
Larry Samuels (14:02):
You know, earlier you referenced 9-11 and I think
we would be remiss, you know,if we didn't ask this next
question.
You've been flying for a longtime.
You flew before 9-11.
You've flown after 9-11.
We've all, as passengers, seenthe universe flip upside down
(14:23):
because of that event.
Seeing the universe flip upsidedown because of that event, as
a captain, how has your lifechanged?
And you know what are theemotions around that.
You know.
Do you look?
Ken Petschauer (14:36):
at your flights and look at the experience
differently than you did before.
Yeah, you know, 9-11 changedeverything.
It changed the industry a lotas far as security and all the
issues that go around with that.
Other than that, I mean,there's just more of a feeling
of wanting to be safe andknowing that the whole mentality
in the back of the airplanethat no one's going to ever let
(14:58):
something like this happen again.
I guess we all feel more secure.
It was just.
It was a very tough and sombertime that they would hit us,
because the industry took itvery hard, because it was like
they were attacking us.
Larry Shea (15:11):
You know what I mean ?
I mean no, it was everybody.
Ken Petschauer (15:14):
Everybody took it very, very seriously, and
what's funny now is so many ofthe younger flight attendants we
fly with now and a lot of youngpilots.
They were very young when ithappened, or not even born, so
it's almost like we'reforgetting, but those that were
there and lived through it willnever forget that.
Tushar Saxena (15:33):
I guess we've kind of we've covered a bit
about how the industry haschanged, change gears a small
bit and talk about staffingright.
This notion of you are thecaptain of a crew, so is it
typical for you to work with asimilar co-pilot crew as first
officer, or not?
Ken Petschauer (16:05):
especially if it's a guy who also likes to fly
three and four day trips,chances are you're going to get
a few of them together.
So you typically fly with thepeople from your base.
As far as flight attendants go,that you just never know when
you're beginning a trip.
At the beginning of a trip,you're probably going to have
Orlando based flight attendants,but when?
If I fly, so, pilots yes, more,yes.
(16:32):
I mean, yeah, we'll fly, butit's not always the same guy.
Sometimes you see a guy.
You don't see him for years.
You see him walking down thetrim like hey, I haven't seen
you for years.
Larry Shea (16:39):
Where have you been?
And?
Ken Petschauer (16:40):
they're like oh , I'm bidding this now or
whatever, so you don't get tosee them, right.
But the thing is, no matterwhat pilot you fly with,
everybody does it exactly thesame.
There's always some tinynuances, right?
Larry Shea (16:53):
So bring us behind the cockpit door.
What's something that thenormal passenger doesn't know
about flying in a commercialaircraft?
Ken Petschauer (17:00):
People always wonder that, like what goes on
behind the door On takeoff andlanding.
We are very busy.
Our busiest time is when theyclose that door right.
The cabin door closes.
She comes up, says cabin issecure, captain, and slams the
cockpit door and we are reallybusy.
From pushback to takeoff,probably up to at least 10, if
(17:22):
not 18,000 feet, we're very busy.
We're talking, we're runningchecklists, we're starting
engines.
A lot of times you know it'sgoing to be a long taxi out to
save fuel.
We'll start one engine and haveto start it.
We have to time that.
And taxiing in today's modernairports can be very challenging
, especially in like O'HareKennedy.
(17:45):
We know them like the back ofour hand but the threat there is
.
We know them like the back ofour hand.
I may have taxied out.
You saw that not too long agothat American airplane taxied
across the runway.
They had probably taxied atkennedy a thousand times.
But you have a, you know, anexpectation bias too.
You know that we're going toget this taxiway to that taxiway
, blah, blah and, and you knowyou have a brain fart or
whatever.
So we're backing each other upwith that.
(18:07):
So very, very busy during thosetimes.
And in cruise, you know, youknow obviously the autopilot's
on all the time.
In cruise we are monitoring theinstruments and if we're
international, then we have alittle more work to do.
If we're over the water, wehave to make position reports,
believe it or not.
Still, over HF radio on a lotof the airplanes, yeah, dander,
dander, right, right.
(18:28):
It's like Rangoon, rangoon,which just shocks me still but,
we do have Datalink in some ofthe airplanes and SATCOM now,
but some of the airplanes stillthey're using HF radio.
So we're monitoring ourprogress far more closely,
because we're out over the water.
We don't have navigation fixesout there.
Of course we're all GPS, butthe problem is what happens if
(18:48):
they fail.
Yeah, so we're not nearly astalkative while we're in cruise.
We're just monitoring theinstruments and trying to.
You know, look out the window.
Larry Shea (18:59):
So you mentioned going over the water before and
I'm just going to give you, likethe normal passenger thought
that I always have when I'mdriving a car and something goes
wrong, I can pull over to theside of the road and deal with
it.
When you are over the oceanhours from anywhere to land, is
this an irrational fear that Ihave?
What do you think about that?
As a pilot, we are hyper awareof that.
Ken Petschauer (19:21):
When we're out there, right, we literally have
exact, specific procedures.
So the worst thing that youwould think of you can always
think of the worst things butlike we're cruising along, we're
going from Kennedy to Barbados,whatever, four hour flight out
over the middle of the marinatriangle, middle of the night,
thunderstorms around, whatever,and the engine quits.
Right, we'd say, oh my God, wenever dispatch okay or go out
(19:47):
there that we can't get on oneengine to airport within an hour
and we're specifically trained.
If that happens, man, we'regoing to snap into action.
We're going to turn 90 degreesoff the airway or a 45 degree
angle off the airway to where somany miles displaced so we
don't run into any otherairplanes because we're going to
have to start down.
You can't hold altitude at oneengine.
(20:07):
High altitude.
You can go down to like 20,000feet.
You can't be in the 30s Tryingto get a hold of ATC, to get the
new clearance.
We already know where we'regoing At any time.
You could ask any pilot in thatcockpit and go did you put
right now?
Where would we go?
And they're going to know theanswer immediately.
It's in the box, we have itprogrammed and anytime.
We hit that with a fullequitime point where it's okay.
(20:36):
Am I going to Bermuda, or am Igoing to Provo, which is
Provenciales?
I know exactly where I'm going,I don't even have to think
about it, we always know that.
And then the guys that do likeover to Europe, where it's
further, they may be allowed togo up to two hours away or
longer, depending on theairplane.
But that airplane they'retrained for that and the
airplane is certified for that.
It goes through some moretesting and stricter maintenance
and stuff like that, so thatyou never have to worry about we
(20:58):
always know where we're going.
That's basic irrational fear ofmine.
Yeah, basic airmanship.
Yeah, I should be able to havea passenger call up and you
could call and go hey, where arewe going?
I'm going to the bermuda.
Tushar Saxena (21:11):
all right, so I guess, uh, one question that
we've seen recently is thisnotion of airspace, especially
over yeah, I know, and DC issuesyeah.
Over busy airports.
Sure, the DC issues.
Obviously Is there too much airtraffic now.
Ken Petschauer (21:25):
Not really.
It's not any worse than it hasbeen forever.
The problem is we do have somestaffing issues with ATC.
That's been going on for many,many, many years.
This is nothing new.
There's a whole thing of howthey were training controllers
and hiring controllers and allthat stuff.
That's been going on forever.
So there are times now where weeven get delays, like before I
even leave New York to come toFlorida.
(21:46):
It says any aircraft crossingthis line they show you on there
it's going to be delayed 80minutes, 91 minutes, whatever
due to staffing.
They show you on there is goingto be delayed 80 minutes, 91
minutes, whatever, due tostaffing.
And that's because one of thecenters somebody has whatever.
A staffing issue means thatthey have to delay the flights
and space them out further sothey can't be 10 miles of trail.
They may make you have to be 20miles of trail so they have to
(22:09):
space everybody out.
So the airspace now is notreally any more crowded than
it's ever been.
Everybody's worried about theDCA stuff.
That was very unique with themilitary flight, which they've
now canceled.
They've canceled those routesactually that they don't exist
anymore.
But as far as how crowded theskies are compared to how
(22:30):
they've been in the past, itreally hasn't changed very much
and we have some greattechnology on the airplane and
in air traffic control tomitigate those risks.
Larry Shea (22:41):
Speaking of air traffic control.
Am I the only one who doesn'tunderstand a word that's being
said when they play that on mytelevision?
Ken Petschauer (22:48):
It's like your own language or something.
Yeah, well, we definitely haveour own language.
Yes, my wife, I can, and I'malso really good at listening to
like three or four things atonce.
It's just something that youpick up, like when you first get
in you're taking flying lessons, you're like what.
But once you practice and learnand new pilots like private
pilots they actually have onlinetraining for that where you
(23:09):
hear tapes and you just start topick it up because you kind of
know what to expect.
Larry Samuels (23:12):
Tushar, you should do that.
I'd like you to learn thatlanguage and tell us a story
once in a while.
Ken Petschauer (23:18):
There's a lot of cursing, but I'm perfect.
No, yeah, my wife.
She's like are you listening tome?
I might not have heard her, butI can read back exactly what
she said.
You know, and she's like youdon't really know what they said
.
Larry Shea (23:35):
I'm always like I'm glad they understand that,
because I have no idea.
But then again it's usuallyplayed during a crash situation.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Maybe thingsdidn't go well.
Ken Petschauer (23:44):
Internationally .
It can be a challenge.
I'll tell you that.
You know we fly the DominicanRepublic and other places like
that.
Sometimes, or when I used tofly to Europe and over to Cairo
and places like that, sometimesyou're like what did he say?
As a matter of fact, they sentme down.
I was down in Brazil bringing anairplane back you know a brand
new airplane when I was thefleet captain and they said, hey
, can you take so-and-so withyou?
(24:05):
You know he's very new on theairplane but you know you're a
Czech airman so you can let himfly and he gets some experience,
experienced, you know, siminstructor and all that stuff.
But he speaks the language.
Even he's really going to helpyou.
And I said, great.
So we got down there and wewere getting a clearance.
I said, well, you get theclearance because you understand
that.
And the guy reads off theclearance and his Portuguese
accent.
And I'll never forget the lookon this kid's face.
(24:28):
He looked at me with all theblood draining out of his face
and he said what the F did hejust say, and I just started
laughing.
I'm like they sent you down tome because you speak the
language.
Larry Shea (24:41):
You know, it was just so funny, I didn't expect
it to be that way.
So quick, quick one here beforewe get to some advice and some
other fun stuff we have here.
Have you ever gotten into afight with another pilot like
and had to resolve somethinglike while you were in the
cockpit?
Ken Petschauer (24:53):
No, no, no, no.
There were stories of guysarguing over politics or
religion or whatever, but that'sextremely rare.
We pretty much police ourselvesvery well.
It's a very small field, I joke.
You can't talk bad aboutanybody because somebody will
say, oh, do you know, captainSozo?
Larry Shea (25:10):
And I go oh is that jerk and you're like, oh, it's
my dad, that kind of stuff.
Do you know who the bad pilotsare too, though, and can you
point them?
Tushar Saxena (25:18):
out, so I'm not on that plane next time.
Ken Petschauer (25:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah right.
Tushar Saxena (25:22):
And we'll make them wear our red leggings.
Make them wear that scarletletter.
All right, so I have no ideawhat they said.
How many languages can youspeak?
Ken Petschauer (25:40):
Yeah, I only speak English.
I do speak some German, but theinternational language of
aviation is English, so all airtraffic controllers are required
to speak English.
And it can be challenging withthe accent sometimes and you
have to ask them to repeat andrepeat, but most of the time we
already know how they're goingto clear us.
We have the approach plates, weknow what the names of the
(26:01):
fixes are and stuff like that.
So you have a lot of help withthat and, quite honestly, once
you fly to a certain place andlisten to it a little bit, you
actually learn to pick it up.
Tushar Saxena (26:10):
Why do all captains seem to have the same
voice?
Ken Petschauer (26:13):
You know, the same soothing voice, we'll be
flying at 35,000 feet.
Actually, you know, and believeit or not, that's something
like we practiced from a kidwhen he first started flying
Right.
But there is actually sometruth to that.
So everybody says to, like whenI make my PM, like, hey, folks,
welcome aboard.
Like, like, you got that pilotvoice down.
You know, it's funny becauseski patrol, like you have to
(26:33):
talk on radios too, and they'relike man, you got that pilot
voice on the radio.
Everybody knows who you are.
But part of that too, on theairline is that background
humming.
You hear?
That's another good question,that's a great question.
Yes, absolutely.
You know what that is.
That's 400 hertz, 400 cycles.
So most power is 60 cycles inyour house, but airlines,
airliners, run on 400 cycles.
(26:56):
So that's what that sound isOkay, now, I know, now I know
that sound is yeah, and it helpsyour voice and a lot of scotch.
Larry Shea (27:03):
Why does my seat need to be in the upright
position?
Ken Petschauer (27:07):
In case we got to evacuate.
Larry Shea (27:08):
Okay, fair enough.
Ken Petschauer (27:10):
So if we're on takeoff and we reject the
takeoff or something happens, weslide off whatever we got to
evacuate.
You don't want the seat downbecause you won't be able to
egress.
Also, this is kind of cool Ifyou ever sit in the exit row
right, the seats in front of theexit won't recline because they
don't want them coming back toblock the exit.
But also, if you look at yourand this is secret you can win
some money with this if you havesomebody.
(27:30):
If you look at the tray table,it has the little knob you turn
to drop the tray.
If you look at the ones in theexit row, they're blocked from
going one direction.
That's in case you're egressingthe airplane that you don't
accidentally pop the tray tabledown and block the people flying
.
Tushar Saxena (27:46):
I would never have thought of this in a
million years.
Ken Petschauer (27:49):
I got lots of them, if you ever see the little
triangles up above the window,above the wing.
Larry Shea (27:53):
Sure.
Ken Petschauer (27:54):
That's where, if I had a problem with the
flaps and slats and doesn't knowwhat position they were in, I
would tell the flight attendantto go to and look out that
window and it'll tell me whatposition the flaps and slats are
in because it's marked on there.
So if you look next time yousee the flaps and sort of slats
down in the back and the flapsyou can see marks and it'll say
30, 20 or something like that.
Tushar Saxena (28:13):
Is it still glamorous to fly?
We always hear stories aboutpeople getting in arguments on
flights and not not pilots I'mtalking about like passengers,
right?
Is it still as glamorous to flyas it once was I?
I remember when my father wouldtake us, the family, flying.
He would wear a suit.
Yeah, yeah.
Ken Petschauer (28:29):
No, it's not as glamorous as it was.
I started in 96, so I missedthe real heyday of all that.
But it was a lot different whenI commuted, because I commuted
at TWA.
I lived in Florida and had togo to New York to fly.
We still had to wear a sportcoat when I commuted.
You know if I wasn't in uniform.
So, but it seems like it's notjust this happened in aviation,
(28:50):
this has happened everywhere.
Everything has just changed.
That way it is less glamorous,but everything is, I guess is
the right answer.
Larry Shea (29:00):
That is the right answer.
Okay, once a plane has firmlylanded on the ground, the
correct thing to do as apassenger is applause or no
applause.
Ken Petschauer (29:12):
You know what's funny about that?
All of a sudden that's comingup and people didn't really ever
clap unless it was like areally bumpy flight or a really
bumpy approach and they werejust happy to be alive Alive.
Really bumpy approach and theywere just happy to be alive
alive.
But when we fly to, like puertorico, san juan, they'll clap
every single time of coursethey're going someplace nice.
(29:32):
You're taking them someplacenice every time it's a culture
thing.
There's no doubt it's a culturething, and we can hear it a lot
of times too, so we like it.
Tushar Saxena (29:39):
So yeah, do it right, okay, what is your
favorite airplane movie?
I don't mean the comedyairplane movie, although it
could be your favorite, but anymovie about flying or planes.
Ken Petschauer (29:50):
I guess it probably is airplane.
I like airplane.
Tushar Saxena (29:53):
Surely you cannot be serious.
Ken Petschauer (29:55):
Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.
Larry Samuels (29:56):
Don't call me Shirley, and have you been to
Macho Grande?
Ken Petschauer (30:00):
Absolutely Airport.
All those movies are good butlike people can't, like my wife
can't watch an airplane moviewith me because she's like all
he does point out all the errors.
You know I cannot do that well,ken, this has been um.
Larry Samuels (30:14):
It's such a great conversation.
You know we talked to so many.
Tushar Saxena (30:17):
Another two hours worth of questions.
Larry Samuels (30:19):
Yeah, hey, bring them on, bring them on we do,
which is why I'm trying to pointus towards an exit, because
this could go on for anotherthree hours.
Larry Shea (30:27):
That's it.
Let's talk about flying cars.
Here we go.
Larry Samuels (30:32):
So, ken, somebody who wants to get into this
business today, who wants tofollow in your footsteps and of
course it's difficult to do thatbecause the footsteps always
change, industries change, etc.
Etc but a young person whowants to get into flying, who
wants to become a pilot, whatadvice do you have for them?
Ken Petschauer (30:52):
First of all, make sure you really want to do
it.
It takes a lot of commitmentand a lot of time and a lot of
money, unfortunately, to getinto it, so make sure you want
to do it.
If it's somebody who's not sure, go to your local flight school
, take what they call adiscovery flight and go actually
fly with a flight instructor.
It'll actually let youmanipulate the controls and fly
around and make sure it'ssomething you really want to do.
The Experimental AircraftAssociation also has free
(31:15):
flights that we do for kids.
The biggest unfortunate block isfinancially and the best thing
probably to do is go to a flightschool that just teaches flight
school pilots.
And if you have probably to dois go to a flight school that
just teaches flight schoolpilots and you know, if you have
the resources, definitely getsome kind of degree.
If you can go to like a schoollike Emory Riddle, obviously if
money's not an option, that'sthe way to go or to one of the
(31:36):
flight schools that you go tothat just teach you the flying
part and get you all the waythrough.
Just you know you got to committo it because it's really hard
to start and stop and start andstop.
Tushar Saxena (31:48):
I had one I wanted to wrap up with and you
gave me another one real quickto pop in there.
Are you ever too old to fly?
Ken Petschauer (31:54):
No, so we have to retire now at 65.
It used to be 60.
Now it's 65.
We got no choice.
You got to retire at 65.
Tushar Saxena (32:02):
Let me, let me change that.
Are you ever too old to learnhow to fly?
Ken Petschauer (32:05):
No, I taught a guy who was in his 70s when I
was a young flight instructorand he just always wanted to
learn and he did fine and youcan fly.
So private flying is verydifferent.
You don't need the same medicalstandards.
You still have to get a medical, but it's not.
They call it basic med now andyou can actually go to like a
(32:26):
regular doctor and then the FBAcan sign off on it just to make
sure you're not going to have aheart attack or something like
that.
Tushar Saxena (32:31):
I say this because now you are inspiring me
to fly to go back and maybelearn, take lessons again.
Ken Petschauer (32:36):
Have you ever been?
Tushar Saxena (32:46):
well, you say you've.
I know we're gonna, we've gotit, we've got to wrap up.
But I got one more question howreal is it that I have to make
sure that my cell phone and mycomputer is off on takeoff and
landing and then why can I turnit back on when, the when, when
we're at 35 000 feet?
Ken Petschauer (33:01):
so there is a real problem with the cellular
phones.
Okay, I could hear, like when Iback when I flew the MD-80,
much older airplane we couldactually hear in the radio and
you'll hear it sometimes in yourcar or if you have a like a
radio around and your phone islaying next to it, like that
beep beep, beep, beep, beepsound.
That's that sound of thecellular and you can actually
hear it in the radio sometimesand in the older airplanes it
(33:23):
would actually affect ourcompasses.
Tushar Saxena (33:25):
It would actually make them turn and jitter, that
point I understand, but nowmore the modern craft.
Ken Petschauer (33:30):
Yeah, so the modern ones have all had a
modification done and testingdone to make sure that it
doesn't interfere with theaircraft system.
That being said, a lot of theairlines just institute policies
like that because they don'twant people either talking on
their phone or using it atcertain times and they just want
(33:52):
everything stowed in case of anemergency and stuff like that.
So it's more safety and a lotof airlines can make up kind of
their own rules with that.
So you'll notice some airlinesmake you do things a little bit
different than the other and youknow the FAA requires certain
things but the airlines can makeup pretty much whatever they
want and it's you know most ofit has a safety aspect.
Larry Shea (34:11):
Ken one more.
I'd be remiss if I didn't askit what's your most memorable
flight and why.
That's a good question.
Ken Petschauer (34:18):
Probably my first flight as a captain.
It's like the culmination ofyour career.
Like you know your career goalsFrom where to where.
It was from Orlando, fromKennedy to Orlando.
It was with JetBlue.
Larry Samuels (34:28):
Similarly, your first podcast experience will be
something that you rememberforever and hang on to Never
forget it.
As we've refused to let youleave.
Because this has been soincredibly interesting.
Thank you for the time, thankyou for the look inside of I
(34:51):
think, what, to a lot of us, isa very mysterious industry.
It's sexy, it's interesting,it's exciting and in a lot of
ways, it's mysterious, and yougave us a look that you know not
a lot of people have been ableto get their hands on, so to
speak, or their ears on.
So thank you so much forjoining us.
Ken Petschauer (35:10):
Well, thanks very much for having me.
I like what you just said too.
It's nice to get this stuff outthere too, because there is
like a lot of mystery behind it.
It's not that mysterious, it'sjust.
It's good to have interestingconversations that people would
be interested in.
So, got any other questions atany time, you know, just hit me
up.
I'll answer them all I mightnot all be right.
Larry Samuels (35:31):
But if I don't know the answer, I'll just make
it up.
But they'll be entertaining.
There's no question about that,Ken.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Ken Petschauer (35:38):
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
Larry Samuels (35:40):
So that concludes what I consider to be a
fantastic and really rivetingconversation with Captain Ken
Petschauer of JetBlue Airlines,giving us, in a way, a look
inside of a very mysterious andunknown world that not many of
us get to look into.
So I'm very appreciative forthat.
(36:01):
Larry Shea, what are yourtakeaways?
Larry Shea (36:04):
Yeah, I absolutely love this conversation.
I'm going to be real with you.
I'm a scared flyer, so I don'tknow if this gave me peace of
mind or what, but I'm alwaysfascinated with just big metal
boxes hurtling through the sky.
I mean, let's just start rightthere.
And I can't imagine howpowerful you must feel behind
(36:24):
that windshield and the sense ofresponsibility, knowing that
you have a full passenger deckbehind you.
You know so so many nuggets.
I mean all the little stuffabout like if you take NyQuil
you can't fly for 60 hours, andstuff.
Like I mean, it's so manyfascinating little pieces of
information.
I found his advice to be quiteinteresting Just make sure you
(36:45):
really want to do it and you'vegot to commit to it.
I mean, we could say that for alot of professions, but I think
he hit the nail on the headwhen it comes to this one.
So yeah, a lot of fascinatinglittle nuggets and just a great,
great conversation and a greatguy.
Tushar Saxena (37:00):
I'm flying JetBlue all the time now, or at
least the flights that he's on,that's for sure, that's right.
I got to tell you is that, youknow, I was so surprised by how
candid he was, which is onething.
I didn't think he'd be ascandid as he was and, let's be
honest, I mean, we really didhave at least another three
hours worth of questions.
Larry Samuels (37:28):
If he wanted to stay on, we probably could turn
this into a 10 part, a 10 partinterview.
Tushar Saxena (37:30):
That's absolutely like a mini series.
Absolutely a whole season couldhave just been good.
Pilot um yeah, I mean, shay,you kind of hit the nail on the
head is that you know to, topretty much know, when you're a,
you're a child, that this iswhat you want to do for a living
?
I mean, that takes a lot offocus.
And not only does it take focus, but to make that, make that
dream a reality, is just asimpressive.
I think you're right in sayingthat I would be far more
comfortable with having pilotslike him in the cockpit, knowing
(37:53):
how serious they take their job.
We all kind of wonder why theyall have the same voice when it
comes over on the radio to tellus that we're at 35,000 feet.
We all kind of joke about stufflike that, but there really is
a mentality to being not only apilot of such a craft but being
the captain of that crew.
And look, I am happy that KenPetschauer is the guy in the
(38:14):
cockpit.
He obviously will make lifeeasy for all of us knowing there
and you're right, shay, fromhere on out I will be looking
for Ken Petschauer on theflights that I take down to
Florida and take that flightonly.
Larry Samuels (38:26):
You know I feel really lucky that we had Ken on
today.
I forget who brought the ideaforward of getting a pilot Larry
Tushar, one of you and Kenpopped into my head right away
because I remember meeting him along time ago and my memory was
of this really, really funnyguy and he certainly lived up to
(38:47):
all of my expectations.
Today, in terms of theconversation itself, you know,
to me a big takeaway is leaninto your mentors they certainly
had a big impact upon Ken'scareer and also keep an open
mind.
Grab the opportunities thatcome your way.
I think one of the stories hetold was of working for, I guess
(39:08):
, a television station inOrlando as the traffic pilot and
you know, it might have soundedsort of silly at the time, he
might have wondered why he wasdoing it, but in the end it's
crystal clear that that was areally smart choice and it led
to incredible things on theother side.
So great stuff there and Iguess, in terms of opening my
(39:30):
eyes to the industry, I can nowsay I understand why my seat has
to be in the upright positionand I now know why I have to
turn off my telephone.
So, ken, thank you for all ofthat and thank you for joining
this episode of no Wrong Choices.
We also thank you for joiningus.
If this episode made you thinkof somebody who could be a great
(39:52):
guest, we'd love to hear fromyou.
Please reach out to us throughthe contact page of our website
at norongchoicescom to let usknow.
While you're there, check outthe blog for a deeper look at
our takeaways from each episode.
You can also connect with us onsocial media.
We you're there, check out theblog for a deeper look at our
takeaways from each episode.
You can also connect with us onsocial media.
We're on LinkedIn, instagram,facebook, youtube and X.
On behalf of Larry Shave,tushar Saxena and me, larry
(40:16):
Samuels.
Thank you again for listening.
We'll be back next week withanother inspiring episode.
I remember, like the first time you're a
captain, you got this hundredmillion dollar jet right, you're
signing a book and you're thecaptain.
And here you are and you feellike you're borrowing dad's car
for the first time.
I briefed the flight attendantabout what's going to happen.
Everything's going to be normal, it's no big deal.
We're just going to touch downa little bit faster.
You probably wouldn't evennotice if I didn't tell you, but
you're going to see theemergency equipment out there.
(00:23):
Just in case you know, ourbrakes overheat or something.
Okay, no problem, ken, you knowit's all good, captain, we're
fine.
And then, like 20 minutes later, I get a ding from the flight
attendant in the back and she'slike in tears.
You could ask any pilot in thatcockpit and go the engine quit
right now.
Where would we go?
And they're going to know theanswer immediately.
I know exactly where I'm going.
(00:45):
I don't even have to thinkabout it.
We always know that.
Larry Shea (00:49):
Why does my seat need to be in the upright
position?
Tushar Saxena (00:54):
How real is it that I have to make sure that my
cell phone and my computer isoff on takeoff and landing, and
then why can I turn it back onwhen we're at 35,000 feet?
And then why can I turn?
it back on when we're at 35,000feet.
Larry Samuels (01:05):
Hello and welcome to the Career Journey podcast.
No Wrong Choices.
This is part two of ourconversation with Captain Ken
Petschauer of JetBlue Airlines.
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to bejoined by Tushar Saxena and
Larry Shea.
Before we rejoin theconversation, please be sure to
(01:30):
like, follow and subscribe tothe show wherever you're
listening right now.
We now pick things up with me,asking Ken about the lifestyle
of a pilot.
What are the physicalrequirements of the job?
When you and I did a pre-callbefore the interview, we talked
a little bit about some thingsthat surprised me in terms of
the number of hours before youcan have a drink and then fly,
not being able to take NyQuildrug testing.
I'm sort of curious about allthat stuff, like what are some
(01:52):
of those requirements andconditions that you have to
satisfy in order to fly?
Ken Petschauer (01:58):
So to maintain your license you also have to
have what they call a medicalcertificate.
So ultimately you need to havepassed your FAA medical.
The FAA medical itself is notsome strict super thing like the
military or whatever.
It's basically a screening.
You know your blood pressurecan't be above this.
Your vision has to be this blah, blah, blah.
You know vision can all becorrected.
(02:19):
You know your hearing has to bea certain level.
Of course you can wear hearingaids if you need to.
The.
You know your hearing has to bea certain level.
Of course you can wear hearingaids if you need to.
The problem is medications.
If you take NyQuil, technicallyyou can't fly, for I think it's
60 hours If you take.
Tushar Saxena (02:29):
NyQuil, you can't fly for 60 hours afterwards.
Ken Petschauer (02:32):
Correct, I think it's 60.
It's either 48 or 60, somethinglike that.
Either way, that's a hell of along time Exactly.
And doctor friends of mine arelike why?
I guess it's because of theantihistamine.
If you take Zyrtec you can'tfly, for it's really high too.
It's like 48 hours or something.
So you have to be reallycareful about that.
So it's not something we really, you know, bitch and moan about
(02:55):
.
Really, Pilots whine abouteverything.
Right, we whine worse than thejet engine.
But the difference between apilot and a jet engine you can
shut the jet engine off.
Tushar Saxena (03:04):
Airplane humor.
Ken Petschauer (03:07):
Yeah, I got a thousand of them, but you just
have you know, accept it.
It's just like we talked about.
You can't have, you know, DUIs.
Larry Shea (03:16):
I would hope so.
Ken Petschauer (03:16):
Every time you do your medical you have to
attest that you have anyconvictions with your licenses
or driving or anything.
Have you had any convictionswith your licenses or driving or
anything?
So it's pretty strict with that.
But it's always been, at leastin my world, because it's all I
ever wanted to do and my wholelife is dedicated to it.
It's just always been that way.
So it's not really restrictive,but you do have to be really
(03:38):
careful and if you have anyproblems that come in the future
as you get older you know highblood pressure or anything like
that you can absolutely mitigatethose with normal medications.
But they are pretty picky aboutcertain things like heart
attacks and people with stentsand stuff like that.
They're very, very strict.
But there's a very strictprotocol to go to and there's
(03:59):
people to help with that withthe union, like our aeromedical
committee and stuff like that.
They're excellent at that.
Tushar Saxena (04:08):
All right.
So I've got a couple ofquestions I want to ask you, the
first being well, if that's thecase, I mean, do you know many
pilots who've had their licensestripped, unfortunately?
Ken Petschauer (04:14):
most of the time, uh guys medical out, so
they either get somedisqualifying heart issue or is
that?
Tushar Saxena (04:21):
is that maybe?
Is that an age thing too, or orno?
Ken Petschauer (04:24):
well it could be.
I mean, if if the heart thingis age related, but I know so
you do an ekg every year and youdo your first one when you're
young, you don't have to do it.
You do your first one, Ibelieve, at 35 as a baseline,
and then, once you hit 40 yearsold, you have to do an ekg every
year.
We've actually had guys thatare pretty young and it turns
out that they've had an issuethat didn't show up because
they've never gotten an EKGbefore.
(04:44):
It's either repairable orthey're out for a while until it
gets repaired, which a lot ofthings are, but there are some
disqualifying ones andunfortunately they just can't
fly, all right.
Tushar Saxena (04:55):
So then I guess the flip side to that is then
how easy or hard is it to thenget reinstated?
If you had your licensestripped tomorrow, could you
then, if you had the problemfixed within a month, then the
next month, start flying again?
Or is it like, okay, you got itstripped on tomorrow, well, you
can't fly again for six months,something along those lines?
Ken Petschauer (05:15):
Yeah, Head injuries are a big one TBIs,
traumatic brain injuries orpeople who, if you get knocked
unconscious or something, youhave to go through a whole
program and you're out.
I was told this hadn't happenedto me.
I don't know, but you're outfor at least a year or something
like that.
Wow, so they'll make your wayto you.
And it's frustrating becausethe FAA is way behind with
(05:35):
getting these approved andpeople have had their paperwork
in for months and months andmonths and they're just waiting
for their waiver to get signedor whatever to go back and get
their medical ticket so they canstart flying again.
So that part is prettyfrustrating.
Larry Shea (05:50):
While we're on this particular subject, I would
think it would be very stressful.
I mean, you're in charge of alot of lives.
You know lives at stake, andsafety is, of course, a main
issue.
Do you get stressed, and how doyou manage that stress?
And have you known other pilotswho've just it's become too
much for them?
Ken Petschauer (06:06):
Yeah, you know I get that question a lot also.
You know all the responsibilityand all that, but it's you know
again, flying from such a youngage and knowing it from the
beginning, it's just, it's justsomething you accept.
And you know, I have to say, asI got older you think about it
more you go wow, there are a lotof people back there, we're
counting on you, man.
Yeah, exactly, it's universalacross the board.
(06:30):
We're always told like hey,don't worry about the people
back there, worry about yourself, worry about keeping yourself
okay, because if I'm okay,they're going to be okay that
standards are so tight thatyou're nowhere near having an
accident, incident violation,whatever you want to call it, or
bending metal, you know, orinjuring somebody, you know
that's the biggest thing.
Oh God, you don't want to bendmetal.
(06:51):
You know meaning.
Oh, you're taxiing in and youdidn't see something.
You hit the wing, oh whatever.
But you know that'sembarrassing enough, but God
forbid, you would actuallyinjure anybody.
You know that's our biggestfear.
But I don't think we feelstress that way, for I'm sure
some people may and maybe whenyou first start doing it, I
remember, like the first timeyou're a captain, you got this a
hundred million dollar jetright and you're signing a book,
(07:11):
and you're the captain and hereyou are and you feel like
you're borrowing dad's car forthe first time.
And I remember, like, is thatlight supposed to be on?
Larry Samuels (07:31):
You know I don anticipated present themselves
once in a while.
Can you share with us anexample of a flight where
something went really wrong andyou had to work your way through
that?
Ken Petschauer (07:44):
I've had some issues.
You know nothing, my hair's onfire, doing mop too, or anything
.
I've had a couple of timeswhere, like, the pressurization
went out and, as opposed to themasks dropping, I actually was
able to descend quick enoughthat the mask didn't drop,
because that would really freakpeople out back there.
I've had several of those.
I've had a specific one whereit was a newer airplane and for
(08:07):
some reason there was an issuewith the flaps and the flaps and
flats would not come out, so Ihad to land with a clean wing.
That means touching down at avery high speed, holy cow.
And a very different attitude.
And I had cleared an emergency,of course, and called out all
the equipment and the trucks andattitude.
And I had cleared an emergency,of course, and called out all
the equipment and the trucks andeverything.
(08:27):
And, yeah, I briefed thepassengers and everything.
And it's kind of ironic becausea lot of our training is, of
course, threat, neuro-managementand leadership and
communication and managingstress, fatigue and things like
that.
I remember on this one occasionI knew it was going to happen
for a long time because we wereon a long flight I briefed the
flight attendant about what'sgoing to happen.
Everything's going to be normal, it's no big deal, we're just
(08:49):
going to touch down a little bitfaster.
You probably wouldn't evennotice if I didn't tell you, but
you're going to see theemergency equipment out there
just in case you know, ourbrakes overheat or something.
Okay, no problem, ken, you knowall good, captain we're we're
(09:12):
fine, and then, like 20 minuteslater, I get a ding from the
flight attendant in the back andshe's like in tears, oh geez,
she's all freaked out and I'mlike what did the other boys
here to tell you?
I was like, okay, come on uphere.
I brought her up into the jumpseat, sat her down.
I was like hey it's okay, weactually trained for this.
This is one of the things weactually trained for, so it's no
big.
And then when she saw how wewere all good and all was going
to be okay, everything was fine.
But she had never been in anyeven minor incident, so it just
(09:36):
kind of freaked her out a littlebit.
Tushar Saxena (09:38):
All right.
So obviously, now as a captain,you are the leader of that
aircraft, whichever aircraftyou're on.
So I want to talk a little bitabout the transition.
As you said, you started as aflight engineer to a co-pilot
and then obviously now to acaptain.
What's that transition?
We're talking about hours andflight time, stick time, et
cetera.
What does that transition looklike?
Ken Petschauer (09:59):
It's mainly a seniority based system.
Typically, you're going tostart out as a first officer, of
course, but there's no minimumamount of time beyond like a few
hundred hours with the airlinebefore you could upgrade to
captain.
Tushar Saxena (10:13):
It's not as if you'll say you had, I have a
thousand hours and now I am acaptain.
Ken Petschauer (10:17):
It's just when there's another slot that opens,
you're eligible, correct, andif you're senior enough to hold
it you know, except for the factthat if you're like brand new
with the company, they don't letyou upgrade to CAP until you
have like 500 hours or somethinglike that, and then when you do
that, you go to CAP schoolbasically.
So you know, it's additionalleadership training and, of
course, airplane training.
(10:38):
On the airplane you're going onwhether or not you're going to
switch airplanes or you're justgoing to move your mag over to
the left side on the sameairplane, but it's a full course
of training from the left seatand a bunch of additional like
leadership training and the like.
Larry Shea (10:52):
We've really jumped off the career journey path a
little bit, so I just want to, Iwant to make sure we cover it,
you know.
So TWA to JetBlue was thereanything in between?
And how does that JetBlue jobbecome available to you?
Ken Petschauer (11:04):
That was kind of like the biggest.
You know, I was going to sayturbulence, Clever huh.
We don't use the wordturbulence, by the way.
It's always bumps, just so youknow.
And it's never thunderstorms,it's showers.
Tushar Saxena (11:15):
Right.
Ken Petschauer (11:17):
That's part of captain training.
So I was with TWA.
Everything was going fine, andthen there was a huge downturn
in industry, of course, after9-11, which was a tragedy.
And then American Airlinesacquired TWA.
In that acquisition I basicallylost a bunch of seniority.
(11:39):
So when the downturn in theindustry happened, I got
furloughed.
So I went from being in theright seat of a 767 flying
overseas to being furloughed onthe street in just a few months.
So it was pretty devastating.
The good thing is I was on thestreet only for eight months.
I got hired with JetBlue, whichwas growing like crazy.
So that was great because yougain a lot of seniority.
Of course, in order to gethired with them, I already had
(12:01):
all these years experience Backthen.
You can get hired with 1,500hours.
Most guys then had 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 hours already, so it
kind of stunk.
I had to start over.
But the good part about that Iwas with a new, young, growing
airline and I got to be captainpretty quickly because they were
(12:21):
getting airplanes like crazy.
And it also gave me theopportunity to get into
management and become the fleetcaptain on the new fleet of
airplanes that they had, whichwas an incredible part of my
career because it was extremelyeducational.
A lot of work, but extremelyeducational.
That's basically how that works.
So I switch airlines and youstart all over as far as
seniority, of course, but startworking your way back up the
(12:43):
ladder.
Larry Samuels (12:44):
And how many years later are you still there?
Ken Petschauer (12:46):
22.
Larry Samuels (12:47):
It sounds like a nice ladder to me.
Ken Petschauer (12:52):
Yeah, it's been great.
I was so lucky to have theexcitement of doing the whole
management fleet captain thingand upgrading early and doing
all kinds of fun stuff and beinginvolved.
Larry Samuels (13:04):
What does it mean to be a fleet captain?
Ken Petschauer (13:06):
So it's a very technical job.
It's not like a chief pilot.
Chief pilots deal with, youknow, guys who come into the
office and have days off andvacation issues and all things
like that.
Chief pilot is moreadministrative.
Fleet captain is more technical.
So you're in charge of all thebasically the procedures,
manuals and the checklists andthe check pilots and training
(13:28):
the check pilots and workingwith.
Well, that's like a perfect jobfor you.
Oh, my god, as a geek, yeah, Iwas like in my glory.
I was down in brazil a lotbecause it was embryo airplanes
that we had gotten.
Uh, I got to work with themanufacturers and with
maintenance and it was.
It was an unbelievableexperience and education, like
you wouldn't believe, which hasreally served me well in my
career because I understand howthis all works, because I've
(13:50):
written some of the manuals andwritten the procedures and got
to do a lot of neat flying withbrand new airplanes and stuff we
don't normally do or wewouldn't do with passengers on
board.
Larry Samuels (14:02):
You know, earlier you referenced 9-11 and I think
we would be remiss, you know,if we didn't ask this next
question.
You've been flying for a longtime.
You flew before 9-11.
You've flown after 9-11.
We've all, as passengers, seenthe universe flip upside down
(14:23):
because of that event.
Seeing the universe flip upsidedown because of that event, as
a captain, how has your lifechanged?
And you know what are theemotions around that.
You know.
Do you look?
Ken Petschauer (14:36):
at your flights and look at the experience
differently than you did before.
Yeah, you know, 9-11 changedeverything.
It changed the industry a lotas far as security and all the
issues that go around with that.
Other than that, I mean,there's just more of a feeling
of wanting to be safe andknowing that the whole mentality
in the back of the airplanethat no one's going to ever let
(14:58):
something like this happen again.
I guess we all feel more secure.
It was just.
It was a very tough and sombertime that they would hit us,
because the industry took itvery hard, because it was like
they were attacking us.
Larry Shea (15:11):
You know what I mean ?
I mean no, it was everybody.
Ken Petschauer (15:14):
Everybody took it very, very seriously, and
what's funny now is so many ofthe younger flight attendants we
fly with now and a lot of youngpilots.
They were very young when ithappened, or not even born, so
it's almost like we'reforgetting, but those that were
there and lived through it willnever forget that.
Tushar Saxena (15:33):
I guess we've kind of we've covered a bit
about how the industry haschanged, change gears a small
bit and talk about staffingright.
This notion of you are thecaptain of a crew, so is it
typical for you to work with asimilar co-pilot crew as first
officer, or not?
Ken Petschauer (16:05):
especially if it's a guy who also likes to fly
three and four day trips,chances are you're going to get
a few of them together.
So you typically fly with thepeople from your base.
As far as flight attendants go,that you just never know when
you're beginning a trip.
At the beginning of a trip,you're probably going to have
Orlando based flight attendants,but when?
If I fly, so, pilots yes, more,yes.
(16:32):
I mean, yeah, we'll fly, butit's not always the same guy.
Sometimes you see a guy.
You don't see him for years.
You see him walking down thetrim like hey, I haven't seen
you for years.
Larry Shea (16:39):
Where have you been?
And?
Ken Petschauer (16:40):
they're like oh , I'm bidding this now or
whatever, so you don't get tosee them, right.
But the thing is, no matterwhat pilot you fly with,
everybody does it exactly thesame.
There's always some tinynuances, right?
Larry Shea (16:53):
So bring us behind the cockpit door.
What's something that thenormal passenger doesn't know
about flying in a commercialaircraft?
Ken Petschauer (17:00):
People always wonder that, like what goes on
behind the door On takeoff andlanding.
We are very busy.
Our busiest time is when theyclose that door right.
The cabin door closes.
She comes up, says cabin issecure, captain, and slams the
cockpit door and we are reallybusy.
From pushback to takeoff,probably up to at least 10, if
(17:22):
not 18,000 feet, we're very busy.
We're talking, we're runningchecklists, we're starting
engines.
A lot of times you know it'sgoing to be a long taxi out to
save fuel.
We'll start one engine and haveto start it.
We have to time that.
And taxiing in today's modernairports can be very challenging
, especially in like O'HareKennedy.
(17:45):
We know them like the back ofour hand but the threat there is
.
We know them like the back ofour hand.
I may have taxied out.
You saw that not too long agothat American airplane taxied
across the runway.
They had probably taxied atkennedy a thousand times.
But you have a, you know, anexpectation bias too.
You know that we're going toget this taxiway to that taxiway
, blah, blah and, and you knowyou have a brain fart or
whatever.
So we're backing each other upwith that.
(18:07):
So very, very busy during thosetimes.
And in cruise, you know, youknow obviously the autopilot's
on all the time.
In cruise we are monitoring theinstruments and if we're
international, then we have alittle more work to do.
If we're over the water, wehave to make position reports,
believe it or not.
Still, over HF radio on a lotof the airplanes, yeah, dander,
dander, right, right.
(18:28):
It's like Rangoon, rangoon,which just shocks me still but,
we do have Datalink in some ofthe airplanes and SATCOM now,
but some of the airplanes stillthey're using HF radio.
So we're monitoring ourprogress far more closely,
because we're out over the water.
We don't have navigation fixesout there.
Of course we're all GPS, butthe problem is what happens if
(18:48):
they fail.
Yeah, so we're not nearly astalkative while we're in cruise.
We're just monitoring theinstruments and trying to.
You know, look out the window.
Larry Shea (18:59):
So you mentioned going over the water before and
I'm just going to give you, likethe normal passenger thought
that I always have when I'mdriving a car and something goes
wrong, I can pull over to theside of the road and deal with
it.
When you are over the oceanhours from anywhere to land, is
this an irrational fear that Ihave?
What do you think about that?
As a pilot, we are hyper awareof that.
Ken Petschauer (19:21):
When we're out there, right, we literally have
exact, specific procedures.
So the worst thing that youwould think of you can always
think of the worst things butlike we're cruising along, we're
going from Kennedy to Barbados,whatever, four hour flight out
over the middle of the marinatriangle, middle of the night,
thunderstorms around, whatever,and the engine quits.
Right, we'd say, oh my God, wenever dispatch okay or go out
(19:47):
there that we can't get on oneengine to airport within an hour
and we're specifically trained.
If that happens, man, we'regoing to snap into action.
We're going to turn 90 degreesoff the airway or a 45 degree
angle off the airway to where somany miles displaced so we
don't run into any otherairplanes because we're going to
have to start down.
You can't hold altitude at oneengine.
(20:07):
High altitude.
You can go down to like 20,000feet.
You can't be in the 30s Tryingto get a hold of ATC, to get the
new clearance.
We already know where we'regoing At any time.
You could ask any pilot in thatcockpit and go did you put
right now?
Where would we go?
And they're going to know theanswer immediately.
It's in the box, we have itprogrammed and anytime.
We hit that with a fullequitime point where it's okay.
(20:36):
Am I going to Bermuda, or am Igoing to Provo, which is
Provenciales?
I know exactly where I'm going,I don't even have to think
about it, we always know that.
And then the guys that do likeover to Europe, where it's
further, they may be allowed togo up to two hours away or
longer, depending on theairplane.
But that airplane they'retrained for that and the
airplane is certified for that.
It goes through some moretesting and stricter maintenance
and stuff like that, so thatyou never have to worry about we
(20:58):
always know where we're going.
That's basic irrational fear ofmine.
Yeah, basic airmanship.
Yeah, I should be able to havea passenger call up and you
could call and go hey, where arewe going?
I'm going to the bermuda.
Tushar Saxena (21:11):
all right, so I guess, uh, one question that
we've seen recently is thisnotion of airspace, especially
over yeah, I know, and DC issuesyeah.
Over busy airports.
Sure, the DC issues.
Obviously Is there too much airtraffic now.
Ken Petschauer (21:25):
Not really.
It's not any worse than it hasbeen forever.
The problem is we do have somestaffing issues with ATC.
That's been going on for many,many, many years.
This is nothing new.
There's a whole thing of howthey were training controllers
and hiring controllers and allthat stuff.
That's been going on forever.
So there are times now where weeven get delays, like before I
even leave New York to come toFlorida.
(21:46):
It says any aircraft crossingthis line they show you on there
it's going to be delayed 80minutes, 91 minutes, whatever
due to staffing.
They show you on there is goingto be delayed 80 minutes, 91
minutes, whatever, due tostaffing.
And that's because one of thecenters somebody has whatever.
A staffing issue means thatthey have to delay the flights
and space them out further sothey can't be 10 miles of trail.
They may make you have to be 20miles of trail so they have to
(22:09):
space everybody out.
So the airspace now is notreally any more crowded than
it's ever been.
Everybody's worried about theDCA stuff.
That was very unique with themilitary flight, which they've
now canceled.
They've canceled those routesactually that they don't exist
anymore.
But as far as how crowded theskies are compared to how
(22:30):
they've been in the past, itreally hasn't changed very much
and we have some greattechnology on the airplane and
in air traffic control tomitigate those risks.
Larry Shea (22:41):
Speaking of air traffic control.
Am I the only one who doesn'tunderstand a word that's being
said when they play that on mytelevision?
Ken Petschauer (22:48):
It's like your own language or something.
Yeah, well, we definitely haveour own language.
Yes, my wife, I can, and I'malso really good at listening to
like three or four things atonce.
It's just something that youpick up, like when you first get
in you're taking flying lessons, you're like what.
But once you practice and learnand new pilots like private
pilots they actually have onlinetraining for that where you
(23:09):
hear tapes and you just start topick it up because you kind of
know what to expect.
Larry Samuels (23:12):
Tushar, you should do that.
I'd like you to learn thatlanguage and tell us a story
once in a while.
Ken Petschauer (23:18):
There's a lot of cursing, but I'm perfect.
No, yeah, my wife.
She's like are you listening tome?
I might not have heard her, butI can read back exactly what
she said.
You know, and she's like youdon't really know what they said
.
Larry Shea (23:35):
I'm always like I'm glad they understand that,
because I have no idea.
But then again it's usuallyplayed during a crash situation.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Maybe thingsdidn't go well.
Ken Petschauer (23:44):
Internationally .
It can be a challenge.
I'll tell you that.
You know we fly the DominicanRepublic and other places like
that.
Sometimes, or when I used tofly to Europe and over to Cairo
and places like that, sometimesyou're like what did he say?
As a matter of fact, they sentme down.
I was down in Brazil bringing anairplane back you know a brand
new airplane when I was thefleet captain and they said, hey
, can you take so-and-so withyou?
(24:05):
You know he's very new on theairplane but you know you're a
Czech airman so you can let himfly and he gets some experience,
experienced, you know, siminstructor and all that stuff.
But he speaks the language.
Even he's really going to helpyou.
And I said, great.
So we got down there and wewere getting a clearance.
I said, well, you get theclearance because you understand
that.
And the guy reads off theclearance and his Portuguese
accent.
And I'll never forget the lookon this kid's face.
(24:28):
He looked at me with all theblood draining out of his face
and he said what the F did hejust say, and I just started
laughing.
I'm like they sent you down tome because you speak the
language.
Larry Shea (24:41):
You know, it was just so funny, I didn't expect
it to be that way.
So quick, quick one here beforewe get to some advice and some
other fun stuff we have here.
Have you ever gotten into afight with another pilot like
and had to resolve somethinglike while you were in the
cockpit?
Ken Petschauer (24:53):
No, no, no, no.
There were stories of guysarguing over politics or
religion or whatever, but that'sextremely rare.
We pretty much police ourselvesvery well.
It's a very small field, I joke.
You can't talk bad aboutanybody because somebody will
say, oh, do you know, captainSozo?
Larry Shea (25:10):
And I go oh is that jerk and you're like, oh, it's
my dad, that kind of stuff.
Do you know who the bad pilotsare too, though, and can you
point them?
Tushar Saxena (25:18):
out, so I'm not on that plane next time.
Ken Petschauer (25:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah right.
Tushar Saxena (25:22):
And we'll make them wear our red leggings.
Make them wear that scarletletter.
All right, so I have no ideawhat they said.
How many languages can youspeak?
Ken Petschauer (25:40):
Yeah, I only speak English.
I do speak some German, but theinternational language of
aviation is English, so all airtraffic controllers are required
to speak English.
And it can be challenging withthe accent sometimes and you
have to ask them to repeat andrepeat, but most of the time we
already know how they're goingto clear us.
We have the approach plates, weknow what the names of the
(26:01):
fixes are and stuff like that.
So you have a lot of help withthat and, quite honestly, once
you fly to a certain place andlisten to it a little bit, you
actually learn to pick it up.
Tushar Saxena (26:10):
Why do all captains seem to have the same
voice?
Ken Petschauer (26:13):
You know, the same soothing voice, we'll be
flying at 35,000 feet.
Actually, you know, and believeit or not, that's something
like we practiced from a kidwhen he first started flying
Right.
But there is actually sometruth to that.
So everybody says to, like whenI make my PM, like, hey, folks,
welcome aboard.
Like, like, you got that pilotvoice down.
You know, it's funny becauseski patrol, like you have to
(26:33):
talk on radios too, and they'relike man, you got that pilot
voice on the radio.
Everybody knows who you are.
But part of that too, on theairline is that background
humming.
You hear?
That's another good question,that's a great question.
Yes, absolutely.
You know what that is.
That's 400 hertz, 400 cycles.
So most power is 60 cycles inyour house, but airlines,
airliners, run on 400 cycles.
(26:56):
So that's what that sound isOkay, now, I know, now I know
that sound is yeah, and it helpsyour voice and a lot of scotch.
Larry Shea (27:03):
Why does my seat need to be in the upright
position?
Ken Petschauer (27:07):
In case we got to evacuate.
Larry Shea (27:08):
Okay, fair enough.
Ken Petschauer (27:10):
So if we're on takeoff and we reject the
takeoff or something happens, weslide off whatever we got to
evacuate.
You don't want the seat downbecause you won't be able to
egress.
Also, this is kind of cool Ifyou ever sit in the exit row
right, the seats in front of theexit won't recline because they
don't want them coming back toblock the exit.
But also, if you look at yourand this is secret you can win
some money with this if you havesomebody.
(27:30):
If you look at the tray table,it has the little knob you turn
to drop the tray.
If you look at the ones in theexit row, they're blocked from
going one direction.
That's in case you're egressingthe airplane that you don't
accidentally pop the tray tabledown and block the people flying
.
Tushar Saxena (27:46):
I would never have thought of this in a
million years.
Ken Petschauer (27:49):
I got lots of them, if you ever see the little
triangles up above the window,above the wing.
Larry Shea (27:53):
Sure.
Ken Petschauer (27:54):
That's where, if I had a problem with the
flaps and slats and doesn't knowwhat position they were in, I
would tell the flight attendantto go to and look out that
window and it'll tell me whatposition the flaps and slats are
in because it's marked on there.
So if you look next time yousee the flaps and sort of slats
down in the back and the flapsyou can see marks and it'll say
30, 20 or something like that.
Tushar Saxena (28:13):
Is it still glamorous to fly?
We always hear stories aboutpeople getting in arguments on
flights and not not pilots I'mtalking about like passengers,
right?
Is it still as glamorous to flyas it once was I?
I remember when my father wouldtake us, the family, flying.
He would wear a suit.
Yeah, yeah.
Ken Petschauer (28:29):
No, it's not as glamorous as it was.
I started in 96, so I missedthe real heyday of all that.
But it was a lot different whenI commuted, because I commuted
at TWA.
I lived in Florida and had togo to New York to fly.
We still had to wear a sportcoat when I commuted.
You know if I wasn't in uniform.
So, but it seems like it's notjust this happened in aviation,
(28:50):
this has happened everywhere.
Everything has just changed.
That way it is less glamorous,but everything is, I guess is
the right answer.
Larry Shea (29:00):
That is the right answer.
Okay, once a plane has firmlylanded on the ground, the
correct thing to do as apassenger is applause or no
applause.
Ken Petschauer (29:12):
You know what's funny about that?
All of a sudden that's comingup and people didn't really ever
clap unless it was like areally bumpy flight or a really
bumpy approach and they werejust happy to be alive Alive.
Really bumpy approach and theywere just happy to be alive
alive.
But when we fly to, like puertorico, san juan, they'll clap
every single time of coursethey're going someplace nice.
(29:32):
You're taking them someplacenice every time it's a culture
thing.
There's no doubt it's a culturething, and we can hear it a lot
of times too, so we like it.
Tushar Saxena (29:39):
So yeah, do it right, okay, what is your
favorite airplane movie?
I don't mean the comedyairplane movie, although it
could be your favorite, but anymovie about flying or planes.
Ken Petschauer (29:50):
I guess it probably is airplane.
I like airplane.
Tushar Saxena (29:53):
Surely you cannot be serious.
Ken Petschauer (29:55):
Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.
Larry Samuels (29:56):
Don't call me Shirley, and have you been to
Macho Grande?
Ken Petschauer (30:00):
Absolutely Airport.
All those movies are good butlike people can't, like my wife
can't watch an airplane moviewith me because she's like all
he does point out all the errors.
You know I cannot do that well,ken, this has been um.
Larry Samuels (30:14):
It's such a great conversation.
You know we talked to so many.
Tushar Saxena (30:17):
Another two hours worth of questions.
Larry Samuels (30:19):
Yeah, hey, bring them on, bring them on we do,
which is why I'm trying to pointus towards an exit, because
this could go on for anotherthree hours.
Larry Shea (30:27):
That's it.
Let's talk about flying cars.
Here we go.
Larry Samuels (30:32):
So, ken, somebody who wants to get into this
business today, who wants tofollow in your footsteps and of
course it's difficult to do thatbecause the footsteps always
change, industries change, etc.
Etc but a young person whowants to get into flying, who
wants to become a pilot, whatadvice do you have for them?
Ken Petschauer (30:52):
First of all, make sure you really want to do
it.
It takes a lot of commitmentand a lot of time and a lot of
money, unfortunately, to getinto it, so make sure you want
to do it.
If it's somebody who's not sure, go to your local flight school
, take what they call adiscovery flight and go actually
fly with a flight instructor.
It'll actually let youmanipulate the controls and fly
around and make sure it'ssomething you really want to do.
The Experimental AircraftAssociation also has free
(31:15):
flights that we do for kids.
The biggest unfortunate block isfinancially and the best thing
probably to do is go to a flightschool that just teaches flight
school pilots.
And if you have probably to dois go to a flight school that
just teaches flight schoolpilots and you know, if you have
the resources, definitely getsome kind of degree.
If you can go to like a schoollike Emory Riddle, obviously if
money's not an option, that'sthe way to go or to one of the
(31:36):
flight schools that you go tothat just teach you the flying
part and get you all the waythrough.
Just you know you got to committo it because it's really hard
to start and stop and start andstop.
Tushar Saxena (31:48):
I had one I wanted to wrap up with and you
gave me another one real quickto pop in there.
Are you ever too old to fly?
Ken Petschauer (31:54):
No, so we have to retire now at 65.
It used to be 60.
Now it's 65.
We got no choice.
You got to retire at 65.
Tushar Saxena (32:02):
Let me, let me change that.
Are you ever too old to learnhow to fly?
Ken Petschauer (32:05):
No, I taught a guy who was in his 70s when I
was a young flight instructorand he just always wanted to
learn and he did fine and youcan fly.
So private flying is verydifferent.
You don't need the same medicalstandards.
You still have to get a medical, but it's not.
They call it basic med now andyou can actually go to like a
(32:26):
regular doctor and then the FBAcan sign off on it just to make
sure you're not going to have aheart attack or something like
that.
Tushar Saxena (32:31):
I say this because now you are inspiring me
to fly to go back and maybelearn, take lessons again.
Ken Petschauer (32:36):
Have you ever been?
Tushar Saxena (32:46):
well, you say you've.
I know we're gonna, we've gotit, we've got to wrap up.
But I got one more question howreal is it that I have to make
sure that my cell phone and mycomputer is off on takeoff and
landing and then why can I turnit back on when, the when, when
we're at 35 000 feet?
Ken Petschauer (33:01):
so there is a real problem with the cellular
phones.
Okay, I could hear, like when Iback when I flew the MD-80,
much older airplane we couldactually hear in the radio and
you'll hear it sometimes in yourcar or if you have a like a
radio around and your phone islaying next to it, like that
beep beep, beep, beep, beepsound.
That's that sound of thecellular and you can actually
hear it in the radio sometimesand in the older airplanes it
(33:23):
would actually affect ourcompasses.
Tushar Saxena (33:25):
It would actually make them turn and jitter, that
point I understand, but nowmore the modern craft.
Ken Petschauer (33:30):
Yeah, so the modern ones have all had a
modification done and testingdone to make sure that it
doesn't interfere with theaircraft system.
That being said, a lot of theairlines just institute policies
like that because they don'twant people either talking on
their phone or using it atcertain times and they just want
(33:52):
everything stowed in case of anemergency and stuff like that.
So it's more safety and a lotof airlines can make up kind of
their own rules with that.
So you'll notice some airlinesmake you do things a little bit
different than the other and youknow the FAA requires certain
things but the airlines can makeup pretty much whatever they
want and it's you know most ofit has a safety aspect.
Larry Shea (34:11):
Ken one more.
I'd be remiss if I didn't askit what's your most memorable
flight and why.
That's a good question.
Ken Petschauer (34:18):
Probably my first flight as a captain.
It's like the culmination ofyour career.
Like you know your career goalsFrom where to where.
It was from Orlando, fromKennedy to Orlando.
It was with JetBlue.
Larry Samuels (34:28):
Similarly, your first podcast experience will be
something that you rememberforever and hang on to Never
forget it.
As we've refused to let youleave.
Because this has been soincredibly interesting.
Thank you for the time, thankyou for the look inside of I
(34:51):
think, what, to a lot of us, isa very mysterious industry.
It's sexy, it's interesting,it's exciting and in a lot of
ways, it's mysterious, and yougave us a look that you know not
a lot of people have been ableto get their hands on, so to
speak, or their ears on.
So thank you so much forjoining us.
Ken Petschauer (35:10):
Well, thanks very much for having me.
I like what you just said too.
It's nice to get this stuff outthere too, because there is
like a lot of mystery behind it.
It's not that mysterious, it'sjust.
It's good to have interestingconversations that people would
be interested in.
So, got any other questions atany time, you know, just hit me
up.
I'll answer them all I mightnot all be right.
Larry Samuels (35:31):
But if I don't know the answer, I'll just make
it up.
But they'll be entertaining.
There's no question about that,Ken.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Ken Petschauer (35:38):
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
Larry Samuels (35:40):
So that concludes what I consider to be a
fantastic and really rivetingconversation with Captain Ken
Petschauer of JetBlue Airlines,giving us, in a way, a look
inside of a very mysterious andunknown world that not many of
us get to look into.
So I'm very appreciative forthat.
(36:01):
Larry Shea, what are yourtakeaways?
Larry Shea (36:04):
Yeah, I absolutely love this conversation.
I'm going to be real with you.
I'm a scared flyer, so I don'tknow if this gave me peace of
mind or what, but I'm alwaysfascinated with just big metal
boxes hurtling through the sky.
I mean, let's just start rightthere.
And I can't imagine howpowerful you must feel behind
(36:24):
that windshield and the sense ofresponsibility, knowing that
you have a full passenger deckbehind you.
You know so so many nuggets.
I mean all the little stuffabout like if you take NyQuil
you can't fly for 60 hours, andstuff.
Like I mean, it's so manyfascinating little pieces of
information.
I found his advice to be quiteinteresting Just make sure you
(36:45):
really want to do it and you'vegot to commit to it.
I mean, we could say that for alot of professions, but I think
he hit the nail on the headwhen it comes to this one.
So yeah, a lot of fascinatinglittle nuggets and just a great,
great conversation and a greatguy.
Tushar Saxena (37:00):
I'm flying JetBlue all the time now, or at
least the flights that he's on,that's for sure, that's right.
I got to tell you is that, youknow, I was so surprised by how
candid he was, which is onething.
I didn't think he'd be ascandid as he was and, let's be
honest, I mean, we really didhave at least another three
hours worth of questions.
Larry Samuels (37:28):
If he wanted to stay on, we probably could turn
this into a 10 part, a 10 partinterview.
Tushar Saxena (37:30):
That's absolutely like a mini series.
Absolutely a whole season couldhave just been good.
Pilot um yeah, I mean, shay,you kind of hit the nail on the
head is that you know to, topretty much know, when you're a,
you're a child, that this iswhat you want to do for a living
?
I mean, that takes a lot offocus.
And not only does it take focus, but to make that, make that
dream a reality, is just asimpressive.
I think you're right in sayingthat I would be far more
comfortable with having pilotslike him in the cockpit, knowing
(37:53):
how serious they take their job.
We all kind of wonder why theyall have the same voice when it
comes over on the radio to tellus that we're at 35,000 feet.
We all kind of joke about stufflike that, but there really is
a mentality to being not only apilot of such a craft but being
the captain of that crew.
And look, I am happy that KenPetschauer is the guy in the
(38:14):
cockpit.
He obviously will make lifeeasy for all of us knowing there
and you're right, shay, fromhere on out I will be looking
for Ken Petschauer on theflights that I take down to
Florida and take that flightonly.
Larry Samuels (38:26):
You know I feel really lucky that we had Ken on
today.
I forget who brought the ideaforward of getting a pilot Larry
Tushar, one of you and Kenpopped into my head right away
because I remember meeting him along time ago and my memory was
of this really, really funnyguy and he certainly lived up to
(38:47):
all of my expectations.
Today, in terms of theconversation itself, you know,
to me a big takeaway is leaninto your mentors they certainly
had a big impact upon Ken'scareer and also keep an open
mind.
Grab the opportunities thatcome your way.
I think one of the stories hetold was of working for, I guess
(39:08):
, a television station inOrlando as the traffic pilot and
you know, it might have soundedsort of silly at the time, he
might have wondered why he wasdoing it, but in the end it's
crystal clear that that was areally smart choice and it led
to incredible things on theother side.
So great stuff there and Iguess, in terms of opening my
(39:30):
eyes to the industry, I can nowsay I understand why my seat has
to be in the upright positionand I now know why I have to
turn off my telephone.
So, ken, thank you for all ofthat and thank you for joining
this episode of no Wrong Choices.
We also thank you for joiningus.
If this episode made you thinkof somebody who could be a great
(39:52):
guest, we'd love to hear fromyou.
Please reach out to us throughthe contact page of our website
at norongchoicescom to let usknow.
While you're there, check outthe blog for a deeper look at
our takeaways from each episode.
You can also connect with us onsocial media.
We you're there, check out theblog for a deeper look at our
takeaways from each episode.
You can also connect with us onsocial media.
We're on LinkedIn, instagram,facebook, youtube and X.
On behalf of Larry Shave,tushar Saxena and me, larry
(40:16):
Samuels.
Thank you again for listening.
We'll be back next week withanother inspiring episode.
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