Episode 45: The Merge: Changes to the podcast, air-to-air photography, and aviation publishing Part 2 - Mike Reyno

What is it like to survive a mid-air collision with the Snowbirds? What does it feel like to join an Aurora crew on operations in the Mediterranean Sea for Op Sharp Guard? What does it take to make the jump from publisher to having an aviation podcast network?  Today, we sit down with renowned air-to-air photographer and publisher Mike Reyno to discuss his many adventures and experiences in air-to-air photography and beyond.

Episode Transcript

Bryan (00:29):
Alright. We're ready for departure here on the pilot
project podcast, the best sourcefor stories and advice from RCAF
and Mission Aviation Pilotsbrought to you by Sky's
Magazine. I'm your host, BrianMorrison. And with me today is
Mike Reno, publisher and ownerof Vertical Valor, Vertical
Marketplace, Skies, RCAF Today,evtoll.com, Insight Magazines,
and Vertical MRO Conference, allunder MHM Publishing. Today for

(00:53):
part two of our chat, we'll betalking about Mike's career as
well as MHM's foray into thepodcasting world.
Mike, welcome back to the show.

Mike (01:00):
Thanks, Brian. It's a pleasure to be here again.

Bryan (01:03):
Does any trip stand out to you as a highlight from your
time flying in the RCAF? And ifso, why?

Mike (01:09):
So there's a couple that did. You know, one, I'll go back
to, you know, that flight I didwith with four zero one Squadron
and the sixtieth anniversary ofNORAD. That was definitely one
that that stood out.

Bryan (01:19):
Yeah. Of course.

Mike (01:19):
There was another flight that I did that was actually it
was it it was a it was aninteresting flight, and it was
called Amalgam Warrior. So thisis where they would do the it
was part of the NORAD trainingexercise they would do, and and
this one was at a Cold Lake. AndI was flying with four three
four squadron. So v u thirty twodisbanded, and then it morphed

(01:44):
into what was four three fourcombat support squadron. And
then they were based atShearwater, and then they
eventually moved over to toGreenwood.
So I was invited to go along,and it was t birds, f eighteens,
challengers, and then theAmericans had b 50 twos. They
had some of their fighters. Andso at that time, basically, what

(02:07):
what four three four squadronwould do is that they would do
things like they would simulatecruise missiles. So the T Bird
was a perfect profile tosimulate a cruise missile. So,
you know, you would you wouldcome up under a wing of a of a
challenger, and then you werebasically launched like a like a
cruise missile.
Oh, cool. And then it would befor the fighters to intercept
you or for, radar to to trackyou. And and on this mission,

(02:30):
what it was is the, the t birdswere acting kinda like as like a
an an aggressor, the bad guys,and the challengers were
involved, then he had the feighteens. So we we do the
briefing, and we launch it. AndI believe on this mission, there
was four t birds and and achallenger that were on it.
And and it's wintertime, soyou're wearing the, you know,

(02:52):
the emerge the all the wintergear, and it's and it's it's a
tight squeeze. I'm a small guy,and it was a tight squeeze for
me in the in the back of the TBird. So we launch out of Goose
Bay, and and we're flying. AndI'm excited because, like, this
is the first time I'm gonna bephotographing. We had everything
set up.
We're photographing these feighteens with the b 52 bombers
and with the T Birds. We hadeverything planned out. Well, as

(03:16):
we're as we're flying, I losecomms with the pilot. So one of
the things that we always wentthrough is, you know, we never
went into what sort of handsignals that you should use if
you lose comms. So I'm lookingI'm trying to get the the
pilot's attention in the mirrorsYeah.
Because he's I can hear him. Hecan't hear me. I don't know what

(03:39):
to do. So I'm waving my arms inthe in the back of the T Bird.
He's asking me questions, andI've got my head down because
now I'm tracing the the commcords, and I'm I'm trying to see
is it disconnected or anything.
But all he can see is my head isdown, and I'm waving my arms. To
me, I'm waving my arms to say,hey. I can hear you. Something's
and I'm going like this. Like,something something's wrong.

(04:02):
Well, next thing I know andwe're probably in the the low
twenties, 20,000 feet orsomething like that. And all of
a sudden, we roll upside down,and we head down for the deck.
And and all he can see is again,I'm I'm waving my arms in in the
mirror, and I'm looking up, andI see all these aircraft
starting to form formation offthe bombers. And we get down,

(04:23):
and we land, pops the canopy,and he's like, are you okay? And
I'm like, I'm fine.
I don't have comms. He said, Ithought you were going hypoxic.
Oh. So so that was why we had toget on the ground, and I missed
what would probably been at thattime the most you know, the
ultimate photoshoot of all time.

Bryan (04:40):
Oh, man.

Mike (04:40):
It's never been done, that I would have had all these
aircraft together. And, ofcourse, it was a once it was a
onetime opportunity, and I nevergot to do it again. So that one
was a that one was quite wasquite memorable. I also was
fortunate to do a couple ofoperational missions, and I did
operation Sharp Guard. So thatwas over in the Adriatic, and

(05:02):
that was four zero five squadronwas flying out of Sigonella in
Italy.
Yep. And so I was invited to goover and fly and cover, you
know, what the auroras weredoing when we were over there,
and I was actually given theability to fly on an operational
mission, which was quiteinteresting. The at the time, if

(05:25):
I if if I recall, the auroraswere doing most of their flying
at night. And they weremonitoring the illegal shipment
of weapons that were were tryingto they were trying to smuggle
in coming out of Italy.

Bryan (05:37):
Okay.

Mike (05:38):
And they they caught a a a go fast coming out of I forget
where it was in Italy, but theythey got this go fast coming
out. And as you know, being aformer Aurora pilot of the
capabilities of their Aurora,and and they started tracking
one.

Bryan (05:53):
And just for the audience, I just wanna explain
quickly. A go fast is just afast moving boat usually used
for smuggling.

Mike (05:59):
I forget I shouldn't be using all these military terms,

intro (06:01):
but I

Mike (06:01):
should explain explain what it is. And so we so we're
coming up on this on this gofast, and and I don't know if
the aurora still has it today,but in that day, they had that
flash illumination system thatthey would use on their aurora
so they could take a picture atnight. And we came over that go
fast. I don't even know if wewere 200 feet, and that flash

(06:23):
illumination system went off,and the boat just started going
everywhere. They didn't they hadno idea that we were there.
But it was a pretty fascinatingmission because, you know, off
in the distance, you could seethe artillery. You could see the
artillery that was that washitting. But we stayed over the
Adriatic the the whole time, butthat was, I believe, at that

(06:44):
time, they were flying I thinkthey were eight hour eight hour
missions is what we were, whatwe were doing. So that was
something I was fortunate to bepart of, was to go up on on an
operational mission.

Bryan (06:56):
That's cool. Of course, that's my my squadron. My old
squadron is four zero fivesquadron. So that's pretty cool
that you got a chance to goflying with them, especially
operationally. Like, I I don'tknow if we would still do that.
I think it'd be tough in generalto get media onboard an Aurora
just because of all these secretsystems and stuff that are
onboard. I think that's a a veryunique experience.

Mike (07:17):
Yeah. It certainly changed, you know, with this
with the systems that are thatare onboard the Aurora. Over the
years, though, I haven'tpersonally been involved, but
for, people that work for us, soour writers and photographers,
we've gone to Moly. With theRCAF, we are embedded with,
Chinooks and Griffins, in Moly.And we also did a big feature on

(07:41):
operations in Afghanistan.

Bryan (07:43):
Wow.

Mike (07:43):
So I had a team that was over there for I believe it was
almost two weeks that we were inAfghanistan that we were flying
embedded with with the Chinooksand Griffins over there as well.

Bryan (07:55):
Wow. That must have been quite an experience.

Mike (07:58):
It was it was incredible. And, again, it goes to the trust
that the RCAF has with us, withthe brands that we have. So and
they know that we self edit whatwe put out.

Bryan (08:10):
Right.

Mike (08:11):
So, you know, there are certain things that obviously we
get to to see that a lot ofpeople wouldn't normally get to
see, but we know what we can putout there and and what we can't
put out there. So, like, we'renot gonna put out information
that shouldn't be for people tosee. Yeah. And I and I think
that's that's one of the reasonswhy we have such a good
relationship with the RCAF isthat we already know. And for

(08:34):
all intents and purposes, it'slike it's almost like we're part
of the air force when we'redoing these things.
Like, I already know what we canand cannot do. Mhmm. What we can
and cannot show. Mhmm. So that'sthat's always worked out very
well.

Bryan (08:46):
Yeah. So you obviously love flying. Do you have a
pilot's license?

Mike (08:52):
So you probably find this funny is that and I get this
asked asked this question a lot,and people assume that I do, but
I actually don't have a pilot'slicense. I honestly never had
this this big calling to be apilot. My mind was that I wanted
to cover the aviation aerospacesectors. That was what my

(09:14):
interest was, but it wasn't tofly. I mean, I've flown almost
every aircraft I've flown in,I've had stick time like anyone
would, you know, for five or tenminutes or whatever.
But, no, I'm actually not apilot.

Bryan (09:26):
Well, there you go. So keen listeners will have noticed
that a large number of yourpublications are helicopter
based. Where did that loveaffair with helicopters begin?

Mike (09:38):
Well, I I guess it actually started with that first
flight with four two threesquadron. You know, that's where
it started. And when you've itit goes back to where I was
saying, I flew a lot with a lotof the squadrons that were
didn't get the sort of attentionthat, say, the fighter squadrons
were getting. You know, the thefighter guys were always getting
the attention. Whereas I pickedthose squadrons that, hey.

(10:00):
They don't get the sort ofattention that they deserve. And
a lot of that was in thehelicopter communities. So the
tac hell community, for example.You know? It's it's not as it's
not as sexy as being a fighterpilot.
The mission they do isincredible. So it was being able
to to tell those stories, butthe more I got involved with

(10:21):
helicopters, especially in thecivil world, the more
interesting they became. And thehelicopter is really it's an
engineering marvel. When youlook at what they can do, the
number of missions that they cando and I'm I'm not talking about
military. I mean, that's onething, but I'm talking about in
in the civilian world.
So you can take let's take a aBell four twelve, which is the

(10:43):
Griffin. K? So this is based offyou can take that Griffin, and
you could probably come up with30 different missions that that
aircraft could do. If you take aa transport aircraft, let's say,
it's, a caravan. So caravan'seither gonna carry passengers.
It's gonna carry cargo. It mightdo, ISR, but not too many other

(11:07):
missions. Yep. But you couldtake that four twelve. That four
twelve can be equipped for doingaerial firefighting.
It can be equipped for doing airmedical, then it could be going
out, and it could be doingmoving drills for mining and
mineral exploration, what theydo. So they'll move drills.
There's so many missions thatyou can take that a helicopter

(11:28):
can do, and it's fascinating.And the community within the for
helicopters, when you see thelevel of ingenuity of what they
come up with, of what you can dowith a helicopter, it's
incredible. It's it's almostendless.
So that's where when I startedto learn more about the civil

(11:49):
world helicopters, that's whereit became more fascinating. I
remember my my first civil storythat I did for helicopters was
actually it was hella logging onVancouver Island. I was coming
back. I was doing an air to airshoot with Transport Canada.
They had this beautiful DC threethat I had just photographed.

(12:11):
And as we're landing at theairport, I see these two b v one
zero sevens, which is thecivilian version of the Labrador
helicopter that the Okay.Canadian Air Force flew.

Bryan (12:20):
Yep.

Mike (12:20):
The lab. This is the civilian version of it. And I
see these two helicopters goingby, and I'm like, what the hell
are these? So I I asked when wegot down, and I see them sitting
there, and it says Heliphore onthe side. Never heard of them.
And so I started makinginquiries. And there was a
gentleman there. His name wasJeff Briggs. So he was

(12:41):
responsible for operations forHelifor, and they were doing
heli logging with thesehelicopters. I had no idea that
you could use helicopters tolog.

Bryan (12:51):
Yeah.

Mike (12:53):
So it goes back to, well, if you don't ask the question,
you'll never found you'll neverfind out if you can do it. So I
made a connection with withJeff, and I said, hey. We we'd
love to do a story on hellalogging. And they took me out,
and they had a one of thesehelicopters out there logging.
And the the one zero seven,they're they're lifting about
9,000 pounds of wood at a time,roughly about that, depending on

(13:15):
on altitude that they're loggingon Vancouver Island.
And it was amazing watchingthese pilots fly with a a 50 to
a 200 foot long line below ahelicopter, grabbing logs off
the side of a mountain. Andthat's where I started to see
the world of helicopters and befascinated with all these
different missions that they cando. And there's still new

(13:37):
missions that they're creatingwith them. I mean, one of the
new missions that helicoptersare doing now is that we're
getting, workers down on the topof, the windmills that are
offshore. You know, thosewindmills have to be serviced.
Mhmm. We're not gonna go byboat, but they're they're using
helicopters now. So it's a newsector that they've created for
for helicopters that this is howthey're getting people down or

(13:59):
using helicopters to put thepilot boat captains onto ships
offshore. They're doing that offthe co off the West Coast Of
Vancouver Island. They're alsodoing off the West Coast Of The
United States.
It's kinda new for Canada. Weonly just started doing that.
The first contract only came ina couple months ago. But in
Europe, this has been somethingthey've been doing a lot is this

(14:20):
is how they're getting the pilotboat captains down to ships that
are coming into whatever port.

Bryan (14:25):
Okay.

Mike (14:26):
So it's just it's fascinating when you see what
they can do with a helicopter.

Bryan (14:32):
Yeah. Just super versatile.

Mike (14:34):
It's it's versatile. It's it is a helicopter is the most
versatile aircraft everdeveloped. You go to a when you
go to a show and give youexample is that you look at a
Sikorsky s 92, which the Cycloneis is basically built from as a
is an s 92. That helicopter wasdesigned to be an offshore oil

(14:58):
and gas transporter of people.Fly offshore workers to oil
rigs.
That was what it's designed for.Then, of course, Canada is the
only military in the world tofly it as the cyclone and the
mission it flies. I mean, the vh 92 is is flying the president
of The United States now. Butnow because of this ingenuity,

(15:19):
the s 90 two's, they're in thattwenty year old range. They're
taking them, and now they'reconverting them into doing
aerial firefighting.
Oh, wow. VIH helicopters out onVancouver Island, They've taken
an s 92, and they've put a bellytank on it that can carry, I
believe, it's 6,000 liters ofwater, and now they can go fight

(15:40):
fires with it. Wow. It was amission that that helicopter was
never designed for. And you seethat now too even with
Blackhawks that are that arebeing sold from the US army that
are going into civilian hands inThe United States.
There's a handful now that areflying in Canada. They're doing
missions that Sikorsky or the USmilitary never envisioned that
those helicopters were would bedoing. Mhmm. But a lot of it is

(16:03):
that public safety type stuff.They're doing every if it's
utility work or they're doingsearch and rescue with those
aircraft.
So it's that level of ingenuitythat you see in that helicopter
sector that you just don't youjust don't see that anywhere
else.

Bryan (16:16):
Yeah. For sure. So what's the best experience you've ever
had as an air to airphotographer?

Mike (16:23):
I would actually say it was with four four two squadron
in in Comox. There is a a pilotthere, Jean Francois DuPont, who
is now the commanding officer ofof four three one squadron,
better known as Snowbirds, hewas a photographer, a great
photographer. So that's how wekinda connected was as

(16:45):
photography, and and I had methim briefly when he was on the
Snowbirds, not as as the boss,but when he was on the Snowbirds
earlier, and we just connectedbecause of the photography. And,
when he left the Snowbirds, heactually went and, he went from
fixed wing to flying thecormorant. And with vertical is

(17:06):
very vertical magazine is verywell known amongst the the
rotary wing community.
And he invited us out. He said,listen. He goes, come on out to
442, and we'll do some stories.And at that time, we had one of
our writers, a gentleman by thename Rob Urdas. Rob was retired
RCAF.

(17:26):
He had flown Labradors, but healso came as from the RCAF, he
went to the National ResearchCouncil of Canada, and he was
the chief pilot of Rotary there.So as a test pilot, Rob had the
pedigree that the RCF would lethim fly aircraft that we could
put him in. So we came up withthis with this idea. Let's put

(17:48):
Rob in the Cormorant to fly it.And then we did a story about
Rob flying the the cormorant.
Well, as part of that, we neededto gather as much photo and
video content as we could. Andso the squadron OPSO basically
put us on every mission thatthey were doing with the

(18:09):
Kormoran. Every trainingmission, we went on the
Kormoran. And so we did someamazing photography. And the
weather, we were there in inApril, and it was unseasonably
warm.
There wasn't a cloud in the skyover Comox for the whole week
that we were there.

Bryan (18:25):
Beautiful.

Mike (18:26):
And we just we flew them out around Mount Washington.
We're landing at the top ofMount Washington. Like, all
these areas that we're going, itwas just an incredible flight.
The Sartecs were amazing. Youknow, we'd pick a spot to land
and, you know, the Sartecs, youknow, they're the ones that are
looking after us in the back ofthe aircraft, and they did
everything to help us.
But it was just an incredibleexperience because the areas

(18:48):
that we're flying in, I think Imentioned earlier is that, you
know, in a plane, you're gonnafly over it. You can look at it
and say, oh, that looks pretty.

Bryan (18:55):
Yeah.

Mike (18:55):
In a helicopter, you fly over it, you land, you
experience it. And that's whatwe were doing with the
cormorant. We landed in so manydifferent types of environment
where the cormorant would dosearch and rescue missions. So
that would go down, I would say,probably the best experience I
ever had. I I believe in a twoday period, I flew almost eleven

(19:17):
hours in a Cormorant.

Bryan (19:18):
That's a lot of time in two days.

Mike (19:20):
It was a it was a it was a lot of time, but it was great.
And it's not like the old days.The old days, you would set up a
photo shoot, and they're like,okay. We're going out for a
photo x. That's what it was.
Nowadays, it's like, we're wehave a training mission. We'll
allow you to come along with usYeah. And you just get what you
can get. You know? We might havea few minutes.
We can do some air to airphotography, but you get what
you can get. So that's what wedid during that those flights.

(19:43):
They kept on putting us on thetraining missions, and we just
got everything that that wecould. And it's it's content
that we continue to use today.So it's yeah.
That was an incredible flight.

Bryan (19:53):
That's awesome. What is the scariest experience you've
ever had as an air to airphotographer?

Mike (20:00):
So, you know, one of the things that you that you learn
when you're doing this is youlisten. You listen to what
people have to tell you. Youlisten to what the pilots are
telling you, and you learn, youknow, the capabilities of an
aircraft, you know, what oneaircraft can do. So you're
flying in an f five. You'rephotographing an f 18.
They can't do the same. Theydon't have the same performance

(20:21):
to be able to do certainmissions. So you listen you
listen a lot to this. So whenyou would do the the missions, I
would always have, you know,Mike, what do you wanna do? So
I'd have a brief, this is how wewanna do things.
So because of the the thebriefings and what I learned, I

(20:41):
learned how to identify when toshut something down if
something's not going the way, Ithought maybe this isn't safe, I
would never hesitate speakingup. And it was very rare that I
would ever do that if I didn'tfeel comfortable with something.
So and that was because we wedid these briefings. You know,
we always did a good briefing onthings. But probably the most

(21:05):
scariest experience I had wasactually flying with the
snowbirds.
And that was 02/2001, and,again, it was back at the London
air show. And I was one of thesnowbird photographers. So at
that time, the snowbirds had ahandful of of people that they
would fly that were considered asnowbird photographer. So I'd be
contracted by the snowbirds tofly with them at a show to

(21:26):
capture whatever imagery I couldthat then the snowbirds would
then own. So it was London airshow, and I was asked to to be
part of the the media flight,which was on the on the the
Friday before the air show wouldstart.
So we do the briefing, and atthat time, major Bob Peixon was

(21:48):
the he was the boss, cowboy, andI was flying in snowbird number
five, which was Warren Wrightwhiskey. And I had flown with
the snowbirds at that timeprobably at least a half a
dozen, if not more times by thetime the London air show came.
So we did the brief with so youhad media personalities. We're
flying in the other jets, and Iwas gonna be flying in number

(22:13):
five, which is in the back ofthe diamond formation is where
they had where I was slated tofly. So as a snowbird
photographer, when we're doingthe mission, they would ask,
okay, Mike.
What is there anything that youwant? Well, at that time, they
had just there was a brief timewhere the snowbirds were doing a
three year tour versus the two,and it was Cowboy's last year.

(22:35):
And I had flown with Cowboy whenhe was in f eighteens. I I I
think I did one or two photoshoots with Cowboy. And I said,
well, let's get some shots ofCowboy on his own.
This is his last year. Andthey're like, yep. No problem.
And and we brief it. Now I leftat that point because they knew
what we'd be after, and weweren't doing anything that was
gonna be crazy.

(22:55):
And then we kinda left it atthat. So we go to the jets, and
everything is normal. We go up.We're we we do the the mission,
and we start. And when thesnowbirds move, you've got nine
jets that are trying to move atthe same time.
Mhmm. So it it's a it's kindalike a domino effect. One start

(23:17):
one starts to move, then theothers have to move. So keep in
mind, cowboy's in the front ofthe diamond. We're in the back
of the diamond.
Cowboy calls for a formationchange because he's gonna come
out of the formation, and my jetnumber five is gonna come out of
the formation, and we're gonnago off on our own to do some
photos. It's a standardprocedure. There was nothing

(23:38):
that was different about the theradio call. So we go off to do
the photos. And when you startto get involved in aerobatics,
that's where things can go wrongvery quickly.
So we're set up. We're over LakeErie. Cowboys, he's, you know,
he's we've got him goinginverted. We've got him going
straight up. We're doing allthese different types of

(24:02):
formations probably in a periodof it was, like, maybe ten
minutes.
And then we call for theformation. We break, and then we
join up with the rest of thesnowbirds. So I'm talking with
with Whiskey, and I'm just like,yeah. You know, I got what I
needed. And at that time, thehumidity was building up over
the lake, so you're starting toget that high cumulus cloud, and

(24:24):
it was starting to get overcast.
And and I thought we were onlydoing the one breakaway for the
for those photos. And thenCowboy made a made the radio
call, he said, to do theformation change again. And I
said to Whiskey, I said,Whiskey, I said, I got what I
need. And when Whiskey made theradio call to Cowboy, he said,
too late. Because it goes backto the team was starting to

(24:48):
change formation.

Bryan (24:48):
Okay.

Mike (24:49):
So all the jets had already started to move, so we
were like, okay. Let's go outand do the photos again. So we
did it again. And then on thelast photo, cowboy split away
from the formation. Whiskey andI were just like any other time
I was flying.
The snowbirds, the rest of theformation was probably four
miles away from us. We'reliterally just talking. Did you

(25:11):
get the photos you need? Yep.And we heard the rejoin.
So we heard cowboy come over theradio and basically called for
the rejoin. I had flown with thesnowbirds enough that I could
understand, you know, when youcall certain rejoins, you know,
the the jargon that's used, AndI understood the rejoin the same
way that whiskey understood therejoin. However, what later came

(25:34):
down, it was the lingo that wasused. Whiskey came from
transports. Cowboy was a fighterpilot.

Bryan (25:39):
Okay.

Mike (25:39):
So it was misunderstood. We thought to rejoin the
formation of snowbirds, the callwas to rejoin on cowboy. So as
we're talking, we're literallyflying straight and level. At
the last second, we saw thebottom of cowboy. We saw the
speed bird, which is the bottomof the of the tutor.

(26:00):
He's in a flat turn, coming atus in a left hand turn. I'm
sitting on the right side of thejet. And we saw at the last
second that we bunted enoughbecause I feel if if if Whiskey
didn't bunt, he might have comethrough the cockpit. So cowboy
came across our wing. We rippedoff his tail.

(26:21):
He took off about four or fivefeet of our leading edge. Oh,
wow. And, unfortunately, theyhad to, they had to eject. So
this is over Lake Erie. He had apassenger with him.
It was a sergeant who what savedhis life was the fact that he
was a former airborne, becausewhen he ejected out the
aircraft, I believe they were atI wanna say we were under 2,000

(26:44):
feet.

Bryan (26:45):
Oh, wow.

Mike (26:45):
And the parachute just came out of the pack when he hit
the water. So, cowboy, heejected. No injuries.
Unfortunately, his passenger, hehad several injuries. He but
even with those injuries, thatpassenger and the the the swells
in the lake were probably likelike lake swells.
Like, it's you're not talkingwhite caps, but it was enough

(27:07):
that you can't see. So theycouldn't see each other, but
that passenger started hisinstincts kicked in even with
his injuries, and he startedlooking for the pilot. He's
trying to find the pilot, youknow, and make sure the pilot
was okay. Oh, wow. Sort oftrying to find, cowboys.
So, anyway, we, a Labradorhappened to be in Hamilton doing
a search and rescue demo withthe fire department. They got

(27:29):
the pan pan call, which is thecall when you have an aircraft
go down. And from going into thewater to when the Labrador was
overhead, I believe it was aboutforty five minutes, which was
incredibly fast. Because if theywere coming from Trenton, it
would have been a lot longerthan that. Mhmm.
And for us, we managed to thethe dash on the Tudor just lit
up red. Yeah. And but we managedto get back. There was no

(27:53):
issues. But one of the pilots,they were trying to find us,
going back to that it wasovercast, and we're pumping
smoke so they could see us sothey could do us do a once over
on us to see if there was anyadditional damage, they couldn't
find us.
So we made it back to London. Itwas maybe a fifteen minute
flight to get back to London. Itfelt like two hours No kidding.

(28:17):
To to get on the ground. Butthat was that was by far the
scariest the scariest moment.
But I would say it was also itwas probably had I known then
what I know now, it was probablya dark time for me in the in the
air force. Yeah. Because whathappened at that time is, you

(28:39):
know, the snowbirds all cametogether to look after their
teammates, which they should,but I was a civilian, and I was
offered nothing. I'm not talkingabout monitor I'm talking about
just help. I mean, back in thosedays, you didn't talk about
things like PTSD and all thatkind of stuff.
Like, there was nothing.

Bryan (28:59):
Yeah. And you had just been through this, like,
traumatic experience?

Mike (29:02):
I had just been through this traumatic experience. I
landed, and and I won't say whothe who the the guy was on the
team. There's only one person inthe air force I ever ever got
along with, and it was this oneparticular pilot. And he would
not let me call my wife.

Bryan (29:18):
Oh, wow.

Mike (29:19):
And and then we had some some words exchanged, and I did
call her because she had justheard it on the radio that there
was a crash with the snowbirds.

Bryan (29:26):
Yeah.

Mike (29:27):
So I would say that was where I really considered, you
know, do I continue doing whatI'm doing? I was I was mad at
the air force because I hadnothing. There was I had you
know, my conversation with theair force was at the accident
investigation. There was noresources that were provided to

(29:50):
me. Those resources provided tome should have been the same
resources that were provided toanyone else on that team, and
there was nothing Mhmm.
Because I was a civilian at thattime. But I know that now back
then, you know, I'm this kidthat's you know, it's what am I
gonna do? Yeah. So so it was athat was a tough time, and I

(30:10):
didn't know, could I continue todo this? I didn't know if if the
air force would say, hey.
You know, Mike, you're the causeof this because I was the one
that asked for that for thatphoto. Right. But it was no
different than you do in everyother photoshoot. Right? But it
took me a month.
I think it I believe it was amonth before I got into the air,

(30:31):
but that was only with theblessing of Linda that she said,
okay. But you cannot fly withthe snowbirds again.

Bryan (30:38):
Yeah.

Mike (30:39):
So so it took a month. And and, actually, it the in that
month, the air force called meup and said, hey. We got an
we've got an exercise we wantyou to be part of up in it was
back in Goose Bay. No kidding.And to be honest with you, I was
shocked.
I was shocked. I figured thatthe air force would never fly me
again. And it was within a monthI was back in I was in the

(31:00):
backseat of a T Bird again.

Bryan (31:01):
How did you manage to push through and get back in the
cockpit?

Mike (31:05):
It was one of those things, you know, we it's one of
those it can it can't happen tome again.

Bryan (31:09):
Okay.

Mike (31:10):
Like, you just you you have that in your head. Well,
it's not it's not it can'thappen to me twice. Yeah. And I
think that was that was part ofit. And I think it would have
been different had he had accessto the sort of resources where
you keep on being reminded by,you know, everything you see on
social media.
We didn't have social media backthen. Right? So we didn't have

(31:30):
those things that kept onreminding you about it other
than just what you remembered.So I think when I went on that
first flight, it was just alittle apprehensive when we
started getting into the closeformation. But, again, you know,
it was, you know, briefing thatmission to make sure.
And what was interesting is thatwhen when we flew, I remember

(31:53):
the pilot saying, oh, we didn'trealize you're you're the one
that was flying in the withsnowbirds. Yeah. So but it was
it was great. You know, thoseguys at four three four
Squadron, I mean, they, again,they they really helped you to
get through it all. And and thenafter that, I never I never
looked back again.

Bryan (32:11):
Wow. I can't imagine going through that. That must
have been really, reallychallenging. So how did you make
the jump into the publishingspace? Can you tell us more
about that story?

Mike (32:23):
Yeah. So when I was editor of Wings and Helicopters, we
were based they were based inCalgary. I was living in in
Kitchener, Ontario. And thepublisher at the time, Paul
Skinner, decided he was gonnasell the magazines. So he sold
them to a company in Ontario.
And what happened is when it wassold, basically, anyone that was

(32:44):
full time with the company minusmyself, they were all let go.
But I was kept on because I wasthe the one that had the
aviation knowledge and theaviation experience.

Bryan (32:54):
Right.

Mike (32:56):
But the the the company that bought us knew nothing
about aviation. They bought usjust because we happen to be an
aviation magazine, and they mademoney. That's how they looked at
it. They had

Bryan (33:05):
Oh, okay.

Mike (33:06):
Probably 30 different brands in all different sectors
of the industry, and that's whythey that's why they acquired
us. But soon after I started, Ididn't like it. I didn't like
the new company. I didn't liketheir direction. I didn't like
what their what the the futurewas, and I was the only guy

(33:26):
there.
I was very passionate aboutaviation, and we did things for
a reason when I was at Wings andHelicopters, and they wanted to
change that because they thoughtthey knew better because they do
pharmaceutical magazines or theydid vending machine magazines,
and whatever applied thereapplied to aviation Okay. Which
it does not. So I basicallydidn't get along with them, and

(33:47):
I was now starting to dislikewhat I was doing. But Linda and
I wanted to we wanted to getinto business of our own for
quite some time. Linda comesfrom a family of eight brothers
and sisters, and almost all ofthem had husband and wife
businesses.
They all worked together, and wewanted to do the same. So,

(34:08):
basically, push came to shove,and I said, that's it. I called
Linda. I was at a trade show. Itat a actually, was a helicopter
trade show, and I called Linda,I said, you know what?
I don't wanna do this anymore,but I wanna do it if if we can
do it together. Let's launch ourown helicopter magazine. And and
the reason why we decided to gohelicopters is that there wasn't

(34:29):
much in the way of competitionin the magazine world in the
world of helicopters, And itgoes back to where I felt that
helicopters, it was a it was anunder service market for getting
up media attention, and it's afascinating sector of the
industry to cover. So, you know,our girls were were young. They
were not weren't even a yearold, and she's like, okay.

(34:51):
So you wanna start a businessright now and put everything on
the line? And I said, yeah. And,so we made that decision, and it
was, Labor Day weekend of '2thousand '2 is when MHM
Publishing was launched. That'swhen I had left, my previous
employer, and we launched, MHMPublishing, MHM being Mitchell,

(35:15):
Hannah, Madison. So everyonealways asks, what's MHM mean?
Well, that's my kids. Mhmm.Which I'm happy to say that all
three of my kids now work forMHM Publishing.

Bryan (35:25):
That's awesome.

Mike (35:26):
Mitchell yeah. So Mitchell is in sales. Skies is more of of
his portfolio. My daughterHannah, she is a designer. She
actually she only joined usabout six months ago, and she
just designed her first Valormagazine.
And then my other daughter,Madison, she comes from the
communications world, and shejust joined us. And she's

(35:48):
involved she handles all oursocial media channels, and she's
gonna be involved in our MROconferences

Bryan (35:54):
Okay.

Mike (35:54):
That we're doing. So it just factored out. It was never
planned that my kids would bepart of the company, and my
brother also works for me. He'she does a lot of the editing and
helping on the helicast side ofof everything. So so it truly is
a family business.
But when we launched, Verticalwas that first magazine that we
started to, decided to go with.But what made it different is we

(36:17):
said, we're gonna make this aNorth American publication. So
it's gonna be Canadian andAmerican. A lot of those the
industries across the border,they have a lot of lot of
similarities between each other,and a lot of those aircraft go
back and forth across the borderon contracts. So it didn't
exist, and that's what wecreated.
And after the first magazine sotypically, in the world of

(36:40):
publishing, it could take up totwo years before you have a pub
a profitable publication. We didit in one issue. So from that
one issue, we knew we hadsomething when, when we launched
that. The thing that wasinteresting is that when we
launched, we came up with thename Vertical, something

(37:00):
different. So one of the thingsto keep in mind is everything we
always did was something thatwas different.
We didn't wanna be the same. Wedidn't wanna have a helicopter
in the name, so we came up withVertical. But those first phone
calls we made in The US, theykept on saying, you're from
Vertigo? We're like, no. Vertvertical.
And so for a while, they werelike, duh. Did we maybe pick the
wrong name? But then it itcaught on. So after that first

(37:24):
issue, it just it snowballed.

Bryan (37:26):
So you said it started to snowball. How did you manage to
grow MHM Publishing's portfolioto such a

Mike (37:31):
large degree? Two things. Listen. So we listen to to the
audience, and two, surroundyourself with an amazing team.
So and I think that says as asmall business, that's where it
doesn't matter what you do.
Small businesses fail because,you know, they'll either
micromanage or they bring in thewrong people to be part of a

(37:52):
team. For us, we've beenincredibly fortunate to surround
ourselves with an amazing groupof people. By listening, we
listened and and then we hadvertical. And then there was a
calling that people said, hey.It'd be great to have a
helicopter magazine that wasdedicated to public safety and
the military.
So search and rescue, airmedical, firefighting, and the

(38:15):
military and airborne lawenforcement. So then we launched
at that time, it was verticalnine one one. It's now called
Valor. And then people startedto ask us, can you guys get back
into the fixed wing world? Thenwe launched Skies.
So Skies was, I had alwayswanted to get back into the
fixed wing side of things, sothen we launched Skies. And then

(38:37):
once we had Skies, then the airforce because I had a hiatus of
the air force for about six orseven years where I really
wasn't doing that much with theair force. Well, all those
people that I was dealing within the air force that were
lieutenants or captains said nownow they're majors, lieutenant
colonels, and higher. So when Ipicked up the phone and called
those people and said, hey. I'mgonna launch RCAF today.

(38:58):
It just picked back up againYeah. Where we left off. So then
so then we launched RCAF today.And then we got into trade
publication insight, and then westarted to to blossom from
there. But it really is that isby listening and by surrounding
yourself with an amazing groupof people, they'll allow you to

(39:20):
grow.
And we did, and we're 24 fulltime people now. Our full time
people are located in Canada,United States, and United
Kingdom. And then we probablyhave about 20 to 25 regular
freelancers that are basedaround the world. And as I said
earlier, the the the thing thatI'm most proud about that that I

(39:41):
should say that Lind and I aremost proud about is that our
kids are now involved in thisbusiness. And that was never an
intent that our kids would beinvolved.
It just naturally happens that

Bryan (39:50):
Mhmm.

Mike (39:51):
That they're involved. So the saying goes is that the
writing was always on the wallwith MHM Publishing because
their names were there.

Bryan (40:00):
So recently, you've launched into the podcast space.
What made you decide to get intothat arena?

Mike (40:05):
So when when when COVID hit, what changes the way that
people receive information? Howthey consume information? You
know, we're all used to gettingprint magazines. When COVID
came, I mean, one of the firstthings that we did, probably
more so because no one knew whatwas what the what was in store

(40:26):
for us, as a small business. Sothe first thing we did is we
chop print.
We said that was the biggestexpense. You know, you're doing
everything for the survival ofcompany. We said, okay. Chop
print. We already had digitalmagazines, so we weren't losing
out in that area.
But through COVID, that's whenyou started to see the
popularity of podcasts start toshow themselves.

Bryan (40:47):
Yeah. For sure.

Mike (40:48):
Were consuming, you know, they were consuming information
differently. It wasn't just inthat print medium. We are now
more tied to social media. Weare now more accepting of a
digital publication. I mean,everything that we're getting
now is coming across on a mobiledevice on our phone.
So that's where we started toreevaluate and not looking at

(41:08):
within aviation for ideasbecause aviation, when it comes
to, I would say, like, say, memedia or public relations,
things like that, it's probablyten years behind regular
industry. So what we looked atis that we looked outside of our
industry and said, okay. Whatare some good good examples of,

(41:29):
you know, success and branchingout into other ways of
delivering the news, deliveringinformation. And that's when we
started to look at podcasts.

Bryan (41:39):
Mhmm.

Mike (41:40):
We had been approached to do podcasts. I would say we were
right in the middle of COVID oron the tail end of COVID, and
the time just wasn't right.We're like, no. No. This isn't
this isn't right for us.
And and to be honest with you, Ididn't know enough about it, you
know, how much would be involvedin it? So I actually I I turned

(42:01):
the person down and said, no.We're not we're not gonna do
this. Fast forwards about a yearafter COVID, and I get a call
from a gentleman by the name ofJohn Gray

Bryan (42:12):
Mhmm.

Mike (42:12):
Who is the host of the Hanger Seat Podcast. And John
had asked. He said, hey, Mike. Iwould love to for you to be on
the podcast to talk aboutVertical and Valor magazine and
what you're doing for theairborne law enforcement
community. And and, initially, Iaccepted the offer to be on it,
but then it was explained to youbefore we started this podcast

(42:32):
is that I I typically don't liketo take the spotlight on
anything.
I'd like to be in the backseat,and I let everyone else take the
spotlight. So I actually endedup declining John's request. And
but I said to John, said,listen. I said, John, I think
what you're doing with theHangerZ podcast, and his podcast
is really focused more towardsthat airborne law enforcement

(42:53):
community and delving it alittle bit more into public
safety. But that's where itreally focused.
And I said, but, John, I thinkwe can maybe work together on
getting your podcasts moreexposure within the airborne law
enforcement community. AndJohn's retired from Ontario City
Police Department where he flewAirbus h one twenty five
helicopters.

Bryan (43:14):
That's in California. Right?

Mike (43:16):
Yeah. Sorry. Ontario, California. So outside of Los
Angeles. And so we came up withan agreement, and we started,
you know, sharing his podcastthrough our channels.
And then what happened, it wasthat it was going so well. We
just said to John, we were like,John, why don't you just become
part of us? And that's what wedid. So we basically absorbed

(43:37):
the HangerZee podcast, and thenJohn is he's now a full time
employee with with MHMPublishing. And now John is
responsible for all the otherpodcasts, which are now seven
that he's managing, which nowincludes, you know, the pilot
project as part of our ournetwork of getting that
information out there now.

(43:59):
And it just kinda it took off.We started to see that people
love the podcasts. So then whatwe did from the Hanger Z
podcast, then we came up with anidea that said, why don't we
bring all these like mindedpodcasts together under one
channel? And that's when welaunched the Vertical Helicast,
network where we brought inhelicopter specific or

(44:22):
rotorcraft specific podcastsinto that channel. So we
approached Halsey Scheider,which is the helicopter podcast,
Jason Quinn or better known asQuinny with the with the real
rescue.
Yep. We partnered with them.They came in under the fold of
Helicast, and then we launched,the vertical, MRO podcast, which

(44:46):
is, relates to rotorcraftmaintenance repair and overhaul.
And then, just recently, welaunched the flight crew podcast
in a partnership with with Echo.So that is more dedicated
towards that air medical side ofthe world for for podcasts.
And then, of course, now we comeover to the pilot project. And,

(45:08):
you know, with with you leavingthe RCAF, then we came up with
something that we could worktogether that how can we help
you, how basically, how can wehelp each other

Bryan (45:19):
Mhmm.

Mike (45:19):
With a podcast? How do you get how do you share this
information? And this is wherewe see that that podcasts are
becoming a phenomenal outlet forgetting that information out
there. And it allows people totell some pretty incredible
stories where you can capturethat you can capture the
enthusiasm. You can you cancapture the emotion in someone's
voice that you can't capture inan article.

(45:42):
So things have changed, andthat's where we're basically,
we're jumping on that bandwagon.

Bryan (45:47):
Yeah. And I feel super fortunate to be to be part of
that as I've been watching youguys kind of grow over the past
couple years. I spoke with JohnGray kind of just after you guys
had partnered and he had nothingbut but great things to say
about about you and theorganization. So it was really a
no brainer for me to to look atpartnering with you guys. We

(46:09):
talked about this a little bit,but, what are you hoping to
accomplish by partnering withthe pilot project podcast?

Mike (46:14):
So there's a couple different things that we look at
with the with the pilot project,podcast. I think one of the most
important things is that whatyou're doing is you're sharing
those stories of the RCAF. Youknow, we wanna help to to get
further exposure through our ownchannels, through the magazine,
through online, through socialmedia to get that messaging out.

(46:38):
But it's also now to look at,you know, what other stories can
we tell that are not specific tothe RCAF. Mhmm.
There's a lot of incrediblethings that are happening in the
world of Canadian aviation, Sowe can talk about things that
are, say, special missionrelated type operations. Prime
example, you know, Quebec hastwo c l four fifteen water

(46:59):
bombers that were being usedunder contract with LA County
Fire to help fight the fires.They've been they've been there
for almost twenty years wherethey've been holding that
contract. That would be a prettyinteresting story to tell people
about, hey. Did you know thatthese there's these
opportunities that you can be aaerial firefighting pilot?
What about flying in the airmedical community? Fixed wing.

(47:23):
We also look at, you know,contract opportunities where you
have, civilian contract pilotsthat are flying with, example,
the Dutch Coast Guard

Bryan (47:31):
Mhmm.

Mike (47:31):
Down in Curacao. You know, they're flying there under
contract with PALS. So sothere's some pretty interesting
things that are happening in theworld of Canadian aviation that
the air force, obviously, thatwill still be your the number
one priority. But everyone nowand then, it might be nice to
kinda dabble into some of theseother special mission type,
communities within Canadianaviation.

Bryan (47:52):
Yeah. I think it's gonna be a super interesting
opportunity to kind of expandsome of our topics. And I'm
really looking forward tolearning how those other people
do the business.

Mike (48:03):
Awesome.

Bryan (48:05):
So you're a busy guy running a very successful
publishing company. What is onething you do to stay ready to do
your job?

Mike (48:13):
It it comes down to what I said earlier. It's it's just
listening. You know, there's alot of different facets of the
industry that we're trying to tocover. You know, if you look at
yourself with your previouscareer where you're flying the
Aurora, your your knowledge oryour focus was on that
community, whereas I go from ato z. So it's trying to make

(48:34):
sure, like, how do you how areyou tracking what's going on in
the RCAF?
How are you tracking what'sgoing on the maintenance repair
and overhaul world withinhelicopters? How do you how do
you monitor what's going inoffshore oil and gas? Like,
there's all these things, thatyou have to try to to cover, but
what helps, it goes back to thatteam. So that team that we've

(48:56):
surrounded ourselves with, as Itell people, you're only as
successful as the people yousurround yourself with. And
that's where I really can'tstress enough that we have
surrounded ourselves with anamazing group of people that
help, not help.
They've been instrumental inallowing us, allowing me to do

(49:16):
what I do. I mean, this is apassion that it hasn't changed
from when we first started doingthis. I'm still excited about
aviation today as I was when Istarted doing this or when I
went to that first London airshow. But it's because of those
people that they allow us to do,what we are, and we we hire
someone. You give them a task.

(49:37):
This is we hired you to do this.Let them do what you hired them
to do, and don't micromanagethem.

Bryan (49:43):
Mhmm.

Mike (49:44):
So that's really helped. I've got a great team of
editors. I got a great team ofphotographers. And, I think one
of the the one of the bestthings I've got an amazing
partner in this, you know,having Linda, you know, that's
that's really how is what madethis be successful. Mhmm.
Know? It's not I'm doing this onmy own. No. This is a fifty

(50:07):
fifty between between Linda andI.

Bryan (50:09):
Mhmm.

Mike (50:09):
And, you know, Linda, she was she was all in when we
started this. And what made itwork is it was because I I was
doing that editorial side. I wasdoing the photography side. I
was doing what people see. Lindawas responsible for all the
behind the scenes, you know,making sure the business was
running the way it should runand and things like that.

(50:30):
So I can honestly say it wouldnot be what it is today because
of the people we surroundourselves with, but also because
Linda and I are doing thistogether.

Bryan (50:41):
Yeah.

Mike (50:41):
That's that's really key. And that's a rarity, you know,
in doesn't matter what you do inbusiness, but to have a husband
and wife that can work work welltogether. I can honestly tell
you, I mean, we started thisbusiness in 02/2002. We have not
had an argument about thisbusiness. That's awesome.
Because she just listens to me.I don't get it because that's

(51:04):
no. I listen to her. It's justit it's it's worked out.

intro (51:08):
Yeah.

Mike (51:08):
It worked out. We're we're very lucky with what we with
what we do.

Bryan (51:14):
Yeah. I can totally relate to that. I feel super
fortunate to have Melissa, mywife, as the editor. And not
just the editor, but she knowswhat we need to do. I can bounce
ideas off of her.
I can talk to her when I'mstressed about the projects that
we're working on. Whatever itis, we get through it together,
and it just makes it so muchmore enjoyable.

Mike (51:36):
It does. And, you know, and now it makes it even that
much more enjoyable is that nowthat that my kids are involved.
You know? And this was somethingthat I I tell I tell the kids. I
say, you know, you will be thehardest workers here at this
company.
You're not working here becauseyou're a Reno. You're working
here because you earned thatposition. And that's one of the

(51:57):
things that's hard too whenyou're when you're a business
owner, forgetting about what wedo. But as a business owner,
like, people think that it's a,you know, it's a free pass when
you see

Bryan (52:06):
Family.

Mike (52:07):
An owner's kid coming in. Yeah. You see the the family
come into the business. No. No.
And if anything, it was peoplethat work here that were pushing
to have them join the companybecause of what their skill set
is.

Bryan (52:20):
Mhmm.

Mike (52:21):
We were looking we were looking for people that had that
skill set, and it just workedout naturally.

Bryan (52:25):
That's awesome. You've worked with a ton of pilots.
What qualities have the bestpilots had in your experience?

Mike (52:33):
Wait. So so this question can can get me in trouble
because, you know, there's a lotof different personalities that
you that you deal with aspilots. Doesn't matter if you're
in the air force or the civilianworld. But I can honestly say
it's it's those pilots that areyou know, they're the humble
pilots that they're they'll doanything to help you. They've
always been great to work with.

(52:54):
You know, you do have pilotsthat I've flown with where it's
they get in front of the camera,and they wanna show that, hey.
I'm the best pilot that thereis. And but then you have to
have the ability to push backand say, hey. I don't need you
to do this. Yeah.
You know? I've had that happen afew times where I've gone, you
know, hey. We're we're gonnastop right now because I don't
need to know that you're theworld's greatest pilot. But I've

(53:17):
seen that, you know, thehelicopter guys and gals, they
don't get that sort ofacknowledgment that they
deserve, but some of the bestpilots are are helicopter pilots
when you look at what they do.For sure.
You know, I'm I remember I usedto give some presentations to
cadets. Okay? And and they'dalways wanna talk about

(53:40):
helicopters. But the first thingI would I would go in, I would
say, you know, who here wants tobe a fighter pilot? And you
probably 80% of them put uptheir hand.
And then you would go throughwho wants to be fly transports?
You know? And then and then youget down to helicopter, and
there'd be that one or twopeople that put up their hand,
and they'd be embarrassed to putup their hand. I wanna be a
helicopter pilot. I would givemy presentation about

(54:01):
helicopters, and by the end ofit, I had reversed it all, where
now everyone's putting theirhand, I wanna be a helicopter
pilot.
Right? It it's just it's a, it'sa different community. It's a
blue collar, white collar.That's kind of the ways I
describe it as well between thehelicopter community and the and
the fixed wing community. But Isaid, I've flown with with many
pilots.
I've flown with with some trulyamazing pilots. I've I've never

(54:26):
been in a situation except oncewhen a pilot made me nervous. So
it's and it's interesting. Like,you there's a lot of
personalities that are that areout there that you fly with. But
it's having the ability toidentify that, okay, if you
have, you know, you have a pilotthat's maybe wants to push

(54:48):
things a little more becausethere's a camera or you're doing
video, is that how you can kindabring them back down to what you
need.
So having the ability to say noto some of the pilots also works
for you.

Bryan (55:01):
Yeah. No kidding.

Mike (55:02):
Yep.

Bryan (55:03):
Yeah. I I fully agree with with what you're saying.
I've said for a long time, thebest pilots are are humble
professionals. And, you know,the best pilots know that
they're always learning andthere's always gonna be more to
learn and you're never gonna

Mike (55:16):
be the best. So If if you get to the point that you say
you're the best, you might aswell just finish finish your
career.

Bryan (55:22):
Yeah. You're done. Hang up the keys. Yep. So there are a
lot of amateur aviationphotographers out there.
What advice would you give tosomeone who wants to make the
jump to doing it as aprofession?

Mike (55:33):
I think the number one thing is is be different.
There's so many times, like, wehave our annual photo contest
between all the magazines.Between both magazines, we
probably receive over 4,000images.

intro (55:46):
Wow.

Mike (55:47):
On the helicopter side, we always see a lot of of different
types of imagery just because ofwhat helicopters are doing, the
missions they do. They're, youknow, they're not landing at an
airport like you're watchingairliners land at an airport,
and you're sitting at the end ofa runway taking pictures. So
it's a little different on thehelicopter side. But on the
fixed wing side, we constantlysee the same thing. But all of a

(56:07):
sudden, I'll see something like,well, that's different, and that
catches my attention.
And that's why I say is that youlook at what everyone else is
doing and don't do that. Dosomething that you can create
that's your own. What's your ownsignature? It's funny is that I
we we probably have nearly400,000 images on file here at
MHM Publishing. Wow.

(56:28):
I can look at at an image, and Iknow who the photographer is
without having to look at aphoto credit. Because what I've
learned is what their style is.You know? How do they take a
photo? And so that's the biggestthing is that be different in
how you're approaching things,get different angles, be more
creative with taking the photo.
And I think the the big thingtoday, now more than ever, is

(56:52):
that what really gets ourattention is that if you have
the ability to also take video.So it goes back to, you know,
how people are receivinginformation, what are we seeing
on social media, YouTube, andthings like that. And, you know,
we're we're quite big on onYouTube. So that also gets our
attention if we're seeing that,oh, this person can take video

(57:12):
content as well. So that's athat's a big thing.
And then for some of them, weconstantly get asked, like, how
do I get to go fly in a fighter?How do I get to to how do I get
to go up and do basically, like,a lot of things that I used to
do? As I mentioned earlier,things have changed. It's not as

(57:33):
easy today as it was back when Istarted doing this. There still
are some opportunities to do it,but it's basically it's
demonstrating that, a, you havethe the capability as a
photographer to do it, thatyou're professional on how

(57:53):
you're approaching it.
There's still thoseopportunities where we're seeing
new photographers come in. Ihave one one gentleman that's
he's been working full time forme now for five years, Lloyd
Horgan. Young guy, he came fromnothing, and I gave him a
chance. And he is he's one ofthe best videographer aviation
videographers and photographersthat's out there in the world

(58:14):
because he was different on howhe approached things. And I
think that's the big thing isthat you have to there's a part
when you're an aviationphotographer is that you have to
take the aviation enthusiasmpart out of it and be a
professional.
And sometimes people can't drawthat line of how do I do this

(58:35):
professionally. And it's not,oh, I get to go fly in a
helicopter, or, oh, I get to gofly in this. That's just the
tool that allows you to do whatyou're doing.

Bryan (58:43):
Mhmm.

Mike (58:44):
So I find that we're seeing some, the new the newer
generation, if you wanna callthat, that are coming up, and
there are some incrediblytalented photographers out
there. They they surpassed whatwhat I was able to do, but look
where technology is, where wetalk about digital cameras.
Yeah. You know, you're takinghundreds of frames in in one

(59:06):
pass of an aircraft. So it'schanged.
So it allows you to to do thingsthat are different. So so my
number one piece of advice is bedifferent. Okay.

Bryan (59:17):
Okay, Mike. That's gonna wrap up our chat for today. I
just wanna thank you so much foryour time. I know you're a busy
guy, so I really appreciate youtaking the time to chat with us
today. I'm really lookingforward to our partnership and
all the great things that'sgonna bring.
So, yeah, thank you very much.

Mike (59:33):
You know what? This has been it's been an honor to be to
be on here and to tell a littlebit about the story of of how I
got into this and a little bitabout MHM Publishing. But like
like we said, this, thispartnership that we have with
the pilot project, we're excitedby it, and, there's gonna be a
lot of great opportunities thatcome from it.

Bryan (59:51):
Okay. That's gonna wrap up our chat with Mike Reno, all
about his career in air to airphotography with the RCAF, as
well as all his publicationefforts. For our next episode,
we sit down with very specialguest, major general Chris
McKenna, commander of oneCanadian Air Division for a
super interesting three partseries. Part one will feature
our discussion on his career,including his early days in

(01:00:14):
flight training, his tours inAfghanistan, as well as his time
as the CEO of four fiftytactical helicopter squadron,
which is our Chinook squadron.Do you have any questions or
comments about anything you'veheard in this show?
Would you or someone you knowmake a great guest, or do you
have a great idea for a show?You can reach out to us at the
[e-mail] oron all social media at at pod

(01:00:35):
pilot project. And be sure tocheck out that social media for
lots of great videos of our RCAFaircraft. As always, we'd like
to thank you for tuning in andask for your help with the big
three. That's like and follow uson social media, share with your
friends, and follow and rate usfive stars wherever you get your
podcasts.
That's all for now. Thanks forlistening. Keep the blue side
up. See you.