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October 3, 2025 33 mins
Andy Riesmeyer kicks off the show with news about a theft of a Rolex at Equinox Gym in the Valley! Andy also talks to two community organizers, Shawna Dawson and Lauren Randolph, who both lost their homes during the Eaton wildfires last January. They talk about the Altadena Report and their reaction to its contents. They want accountability. Also, pilot Mike Daniel is on the phone to chat from Huntington Beach about the Pacific Airshow, that won’t have any military this year due to the government shutdown.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand by me.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Andy Reespire. This is Later with mo Kelly. I am
in for mister mo Kelly. I'll be with you all
the way to ten o'clock tonight. Would love to hear
from you at Andy KTLA if you've got some thoughts.
Of course, you can normally see me Monday, Tuesday and
when else Thursday on the KTLA Morning News and then
on the weekend show. I'm here on the weekends as well.

(00:25):
You can access me in a lot of ways. It's
a lot of meat, which is great if you're a fan.
If you don't like me, that's a struggle.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
I get it. We've got a lot on the show tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm just talking to Conway about the Pacific Air Show
at Huntington Beach. That is going to be exciting. Big airplane.
People love the planes. Will tell you about what to expect.
We're actually going to talk to one of the pilots.
Of course, there's no military jets there due to the
government shutdown, but the short takeoff in landing planes the
stall planes now listen. You usually don't want a plane

(00:57):
that's called a stallplane. That's like the number one thing
you don't want in an aircraft is stalling. But we
are going to talk to one of the pilots of
those planes tell us about what to expect they land
on the beach. I think great time down there in
Huntington Beach. Beautiful day today, It's going to beautiful this weekend.
Like I said, we will have that just in a
little bit. Plus a woman who lives in Altadena, SHAWNA. Dawson,

(01:21):
she lost her home in the Eaten fire. She'll join
us also to talk about her reaction to this report
that the Board of Supervisors spent two million dollars on
two million dollars of our money and the people in
Altadena don't like the report. The Bord of Supervisors slam

(01:43):
the report. On Tuesday, We're going to get a reaction
and see what the community members are thinking about with that.
Plus a new dating app. You know those dating apps
out there? What a hell that is? It's going to
actually ask you if you want to receive nudes? Now,
how fun is that? Good stuff? But before we get

(02:03):
into that, something is afoot in the valley. Bad news
in the valley. The studio city Equinox better not lock
up your watch. Will you go to pump some irons,
as they say.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
According to the LAPD, this isn't just happening at gyms,
but also at parks, yoga studios, essentially anywhere where people
have their guard down. And the victim in this case,
he says, he took off his watch. You put it
inside the locker. When he came back, it was gone.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
I put my watch inside the locker.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Darius Hicks is referring to his twenty thousand dollars rolelex
he believes was stolen from this Equinox gym in Studio City.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
Took a shower and steamed. I came back maybe about
fifteen minutes or so.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Did she call it?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
It is Alinobovian, who I think is a great reporter,
but I think she's pronouncing equinox equinox.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
Like erewon the pricey piece of jewelry. It was inside
a locker which was locked.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
He says.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
It was on September eighteenth, and still no clues as
to who could have taken it. What's worse, the watchheat
sentimental value, a reminder of his best friend who passed
away at a young age.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's terrible.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I also got to say something about this, so believe
it or not, And I know this is going to
sound out of touch. I am a member of this Equinox.
I did not know why I signed up for this,
but I worked for a company many years ago where
I got a really good deal on it. And I'm
hoping that no one from Equinox finds out I don't
work for that company anymore because I think I'm still
grandfathered in on that deal. But I'm sure had they

(03:35):
known that I changed careers, I probably wouldn't qualify for this.
But I've got a lot of thoughts on this, and
when we listened to the rest of the story, I'll
tell you what I think.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
Starting in real estate together and doing quite a free
real estate deals, and then we bought these matching relexes
as a celebratory thing. Quite maybe about three years later.
He passed away at the age of.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Thirty six, and while police have not yet confirmed this
case is linked to others, law enforcement has caution before
the locker rooms across LA from the Valley to the
West Side have become hotspots for theft.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Wow, I don't get this.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
When you go to the Equinox, and again when you
look at me, I understand why you think I don't
go to the gym a lot. I'm on the same
one hundred percent. But when you go to the gym here,
you open up the locker, you put your stuff in there,
and then you close it. And then there's a keypad
and it's like a magnetic lock, and it's pretty secure.
And if you lose or forget the keypad or the

(04:35):
number or whatever on the keypad, you got to go
ask a manager who will then walk over with a clipboard.
He'll ask you what's in the locker. You have to
tell him what's in the locker. He makes a note
of it with the clipboard, and I think he actually
takes the license, takes down your license.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
This is very strange.

Speaker 6 (04:55):
After the suspects go and enter gymnasium and they go
through the lockers, see locks that are cut and broken,
real easy versus the ones there are a solid great
locks that doesn't know where they We're able to touch
those items.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
The department says the best too, put your own locks.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's not how that works. I don't know what's going
on here. I think only the manager has access to those.
You need a special key to get in there.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Does it make a lot of sense, and says the
best advice is to invest in a strong, sturdy lock,
or just leave your valuables at home.

Speaker 7 (05:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I don't war watches very much anymore so. I think
in the last couple years people used to wear watches
all the time. Wow, Like, guy's so proud of not
wearing a watch. Have you ever heard somebody so so
smug about not wearing a watch?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
It's so over, it's so last year.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Listen our watches very much anymore, or just leave your
valuables at home.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
I don't want watches very much anymore so. I think
in the last couple years people used to wear watches
all the time.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Oh but but get with the program Misobovian maring.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
A short sleeve shirt or something. I'm not wearing a
watch right now.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
In response to the theft, Equinox says we take the
security of our members property very seriously and our assisting
law enforcement following a recent incident. As for Hicks, he
posted the devastating incident on his social media, only to
realize he isn't alone.

Speaker 5 (06:14):
There isn't any recourse when you're voing to these gyms,
when you're going out grocery shopping, just on your everyday errands.
Be vigilant because people are wowed and it's insane that
you can't go to the gym without being robbed.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
All right, I think that the setup there was something
like Aleno Bovian talked to Jim Gohers to see if
they had any insight onto what went down there, And
I asked, who is Jim goers Lionel Richie is in
hot water? I guess kind of. We're going to get
to that in a little bit. Plus a dating app
that asks if you want to see nudes? What a

(06:52):
world we're living in. So much news here today on
this Thursday in Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Nadi Riesemeyer in for mister mo Kelly. Let's go out
to Altadena. There's some news that broke just earlier today
about the Eaton fire, or at least the moments leading
up to it. An investigation by NPR that's an up
and coming radio station, found issues with so Cal Edison
power lines the morning before the Eton fire destroyed part

(07:21):
of Altadena. So this would have been hours because if
you remember back on January seventh, the fire started in
the Palisades that morning and then didn't. We didn't see
a lot of smoke, or at least a lot of
activity happening in Altadena until much later in the afternoon.
But distribution lines are basically the lines that go into

(07:42):
individual houses from the power company, and they were failing
as early as eleven AM, and at least one was
linked to a fire, and like I said, hours before
the fire actually broke out at Eaton Canyon. Firefighters responded
during the morning in the afternoon and all those soak
how Edison could have shut off power to most of

(08:02):
the circuits in the area, they didn't. It is the
latest investigation in the last week about the fires. A
two million dollar report commissioned by the Board of Supervisors
found failures at the county level, but did not put
the blame squarely on any department or any person Immediately,
the reaction from the community was negative. On Tuesday, the

(08:25):
county criticized their own report, saying it was full of
gaping holes and didn't answer the question why did evacuation
alerts come so late for so many I'm sure you
remember nineteen people died in the Eton fire. Eighteen of
those were in West Altadena who that community didn't receive

(08:46):
those emergency alerts to evacuate until way farther into the morning.
Many people who live in Altadena are also frustrated by
this report, including Seanna Dawson, who runs the community group
social media account Beautiful Altadena. She joins us with Lauren Randolph,

(09:08):
who also lost a home in Altadena during the fire.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Good evening to both of you.

Speaker 7 (09:12):
Thank you for being here, thanks for having us on tonight.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
So I want to ask your initial reaction from the
fire report on Thursday was publicized Seana, pretty well in
the Los Angeles Times, in another media, you were really
displeased with it. When Tuesday rolled around, the Bard of
Supervisors took a look at that and sort of echoed
what you were saying in that the report really didn't

(09:37):
go very far, or at least didn't give the people
in Altadena what they were hoping for.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
What were you guys looking for in this report?

Speaker 7 (09:46):
You I'll kick it off by just saying, I think
what Alcadina was looking for is some form of accountability.

Speaker 8 (09:53):
Right.

Speaker 7 (09:55):
What was promised by the county was that this report
would bring some clear, fact based review how the alert
warnings and evacuations were handled specifically in West Albadina, which
is a historically black community and where we saw the
majority all but one of the nineteen documented depths. And
I say documented because we still have neighbors who are missing.

(10:15):
We've lost neighbors since the fire, the suicides and to
other complications, so that depth toll is not representative.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
But what we got.

Speaker 7 (10:24):
Instead was carefully inconveniently worded pr spin tiptoying around the
county's midsteps, no assigning of responsibility anywhere. In particular, if
anyone seen the spider man name of everyone pointing at
the other spider man, that's it, that's right. We shared
that actually on our social media account. And so you know,
this is what brought community members and community organizers together.

(10:46):
So Lauren and I separate of our representations with our organizations,
myself with Beautiful Albadina, Lauren as an altogether block cabin captain,
both of us total lost survivors west of Lake. We
are also part of an organization called alpadin into Accountability,
and so we brought together. We ended up bringing together

(11:07):
a couple hundred of our neighbors in very short notice.
In Albadina to have a press conference to communicate loud
and clear how unsatisfactory it is for a community that
needs some form of justice and the true accountability, and
clearly we were heard.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, yeah, And I think that you must at least
feel good to hear Supervisor Barker or Barger Rather and
a few of the other Board of supervisors say yeah,
this didn't go far enough, and how upsetting is that.
It almost feels like it must be insult to injury
to look at this and say, there's two million dollars
that were spent on this study that ostensibly could have
gone to helping rebuild, and we have less answers than

(11:52):
we could have ever expected.

Speaker 7 (11:55):
Right, I'm gonna let Lauren take that.

Speaker 8 (11:58):
Yeah, I I feel the same way. I mean, a
lot of what came out of a Crystal report where
things we already knew, right, We knew we were under staffed,
we knew we weren't prepared. We didn't need a two
million dollar report to tell us that we needed the
report to tell us why the nine to one one
calls in West Altadena were unanswered, and why evacuation didn't

(12:20):
come through sooner, and why we didn't get those alerts
sooner and why there wasn't a better, more coordinated do you,
eft other than community members, do you have.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Any indication why there was so little uh findings? I
guess or I mean it was a sense of this
was an independent report that was paid for by the county.
But does it feel like there was some of CYA
action happening?

Speaker 8 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, I think definitely. It feels like it was
kind of a performative report rather than rather than a
report that really dove into investigating. I think the first
page of the reports is this is not an investigation
and it's not to lay blame, and if we're paying
this much for report, it should be an investigation to
understand what went wrong and how to do better next

(13:07):
time so that this doesn't happen again anywhere in La County.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
I think it's obvious when you look at the photos
of the aftermath of this now almost ten months later,
and how devastating it was, but even now, how little
it feels like has been done.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
You just say, like, what is happening right now? I mean,
what's your sense?

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I mean, at least in the community, about the sentiment
of how the rebuilding process has been going at a
county level.

Speaker 8 (13:42):
I think it's not greating Seawanna. I don't know if
you've started the process, but I have talked to a
lot of neighbors who have started, and it's just it
seems like red tape and disconnect. You know, the process
is supposed to be quicker to get permitting and rebuild,
and there's no consistency in how long anybody's plans get
turned around. And then every day there's a new report

(14:05):
on soil or air. So you start to rebuild and
you start to make a decision, and then you gain
more information that is being let out and investigated, so
it makes it really difficult to push forward. And then
on top of that, you at the Christopher Court and
a lack of clear understanding of what happened that night
to fix it, and it's hard to move forward.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Do you have any indication, Seana, sort of what goes
what happens next year? I mean I almost want to say,
like I get the urge to say, Okay, well you
didn't fix the situation. Who's your boss that I can
talk to, which I know is like probably.

Speaker 7 (14:43):
Heapace, But well, I'm not going to I'm not going
to use the euphemism that we tend to the last
year because it's you know, it would undermine what we staycare.
But the bottom line is, you know, our organizations, you
know our coalition of organizations, are very clear in our
demand and it is that Attorney General but Rob Bosa

(15:06):
conduct a true independent investigation with the pena power, because
that is the only way that we are going to
get what we need. That report is a report, it's
not an investigation. It's not actionable. We've had reports like
this in the past. There was one after the Right
we had one after the Woldy fire. None of half
the things that motions were passed and promises were made

(15:26):
to implement were not implemented. If they had been, you
and I would not be having this competition. Well, so
cashun say, ultimately we need a real investigation with subpoena
power that agencies cannot dodge. I think it's critical to
understand that that report was not only full of errors
and inaccuracies and just it's absurd. Some of the passages

(15:50):
are absurd, and that we have time tonight to cover
them if you do these in air. But the biggest
you know hole to me is the fact that entire
swaths of data are missing. The Eli County Sheriff Sheriff
Luna effectively right now, in candem with OEM and Eli
County Fire heads up emergency Response, the Eli Sheriff's Department
did not provide any data for this report. They declined

(16:14):
to do that. And the only way it's going to
happen is if our Attorney General compel them to do it.
So that is what our organization and ultimately our community
and the tens of thousands of altadenions that we represent,
are asking for.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Can you stick with us through a break here.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
We'll be right back after just a couple of minutes here,
and we want to hear more sort of about what
you and your community group, not only what you want,
but also what you think can happen to help the
community move forward, but also what maybe will will give you, guys,
an indication of if there will be any accountability here
going forward, because obviously no one wants this to happen again.

(16:51):
This is something that you know as a person who
doesn't live in that neighborhood but still is obviously very
aware of it. I don't know that I've heard a
lot of accountability and a lot of things that have changed.
So let's talk about that just after the break, but
now check it in.

Speaker 7 (17:06):
Who's next? Is that it just happened to us. Who
do you think is next?

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Well? Well, well said.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
So we'll continue this conversation with Shauna and Lauren about
the Altadena fires and the unfortunately disappointing report here from
the Board of Supervisors at the county level.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
You're listening to KFI A M six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, I'm Andy Reesmeyer in formo Kelly tonight. We're talking
about the Eton fire. Of course, that's one of two
devastating fires that took place earlier this year in Los
Angeles or at least a La County. We had more
than six thousand structures burn in Altadena, and I've remembered
so well after the fires the phrase that you saw

(17:50):
all over social media and you would see it in
real life if you if you drove through Alta Dina
afterwards when we were covering it, the words were Altadena
is not for sale, and the essence was to preserve
these neighborhoods where families have lived for generations. But I

(18:10):
imagine that insurance money, the loss of use money is
what they call it. That's what you spend while you
wait around to rebuild. Only lasts so long, and so
now we come up here on ten months and what
has been done. We have a report from the county
that the county themselves was dissatisfied with community members are upset,

(18:39):
they're worried. There is no plan joining us right now.
Lauren Randolph and SHAWNA. Dawson and Lauren both community organizers.
Shauna runs the Beautiful Altadena Instagram social media account, and
the two of you both lost homes in this fire.
So this is so personal to you, and I'm so sorry,

(19:01):
and I just my heart goes out to you because
to think about losing your home is one thing, but
then to think about I don't know how long it
will be until I can build it back, must be
really terrible.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Shana.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
This NPR report that just came out earlier today disclosed
a lot of details that were not in this report
from the county.

Speaker 7 (19:24):
Good good, I would have to say, I think it
was a bombshell for a lot of people who must
have been reading that today. But for those of us
who live in the community. I know Lauren and I
have exchanged our own personal stories, as we both know
people who reported fires earlier in the day. This is
not a surprise. It's just another omission in this lackluster

(19:45):
two million dollar piece of paper, right thee hundred pages
that we got for this. But you know, there were
fires reported as early as three and four pm in Altadena,
started by downed electrical lines reported to nine one, one
reported to the fire department, reported to see and still

(20:05):
power was not cut. One of the other fallacies in
that report is that there was no cell signal. This
is why they couldn't track. This could be another cause
for why there was no evacuation warning. All of that
is very patently untrue because power was still on in
many areas, and people had clear phone signals, for example,
to call their loved ones and tell them to get
out when no warning came. Well, at what point do

(20:29):
you think it right?

Speaker 2 (20:31):
I mean, people's lives were lost in these parts of town,
and even if you had been way outside of the
evacuation zone, you knew how wonky that evacuation warning system was.
I mean people were getting those evacuation warnings in Calabasas,
in northern parts of Los Angeles, County that were nowhere
near the fire evacuation zones.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
At what point?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
And I'd ask that this is a real question, This
is not a leading question, But does this verge on
krim at some point?

Speaker 7 (21:03):
It makes you wonder, right, It really does make you
wonder between see and everyone else who is culpable here,
who who does pay the ultimate price for this other
than our community? And I say our community because outside
of all these lives that have been lost, and the
nine thousand homes and structures that have been lost, and

(21:23):
the thousands of our neighbors who have been displaced, and
to your point, you know, and they'll never be able
to come back, right between insurance running out or being
under insured or completely uninsured, or being renters, or being
elders who can't possibly get through a rebuild, or people
with young families who cannot spend the next five years
doing this, pick something right. The fabric of our community

(21:44):
is forever changed. And you know it'll be the topic
I think, frankly, of another show and another conversation. But
with some of the legislation, including SB nine and eighty
seven eighty two, you know, we're looking at our community
in the rebuild being forever changed. Beyond the challenges, beyond
all the broken homises around permits and suspension of s
benign D, here are are CSD and it's a lot

(22:06):
of that's a lot of numbers and letters, but you
know there, I.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Think the sentiment is is big issues, is right? Yeah,
we have big issues.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
And as you said before, if there is no accountability,
and I'm assuming you know, one of the things that
they said in the original report was like, well, we
don't want to blame any this isn't about blaming people.
But I also hear from the community saying I don't
think that you guys are trying to uh tar and
feathered people in the town square. I'm assuming no, and

(22:32):
correct me if I'm wrong that you just want to
make sure that there's accountability so this doesn't happen again,
because as we said before, those conditions, uh though they
were absurd, you know, certainly can happen again.

Speaker 7 (22:47):
Yeah, but they weren't unprecedented.

Speaker 8 (22:49):
Sorry, I would please.

Speaker 7 (22:50):
Go ahead, Lauren.

Speaker 8 (22:52):
Yeah, I mean the same thing. I mean. I grew
up in southern California. The Santa Ana Wins has been
something my entire life that we've that we've known about
high fire, earthquakes.

Speaker 7 (23:02):
Right, these are all.

Speaker 8 (23:05):
Things. These are all environmental factors that we've known about,
and especially I think coming out of the Loosely fire
in the twenty eighteen report and thinking there would be
reforms to make us safer, and seeing how far away
we were from enacting everything that needed to be does
warrant accountability. Yes, we're not trying to roll heads in

(23:28):
the street and we're not shouting to fire everybody, but
we want to understand who made these decisions, Who didn't
make these good decisions right? Who made the decision that
when there were nine to one one calls coming in
from actual people seeing flames and fire and Altadena decided
to ignore that and not evacuate those residents earlier? I

(23:50):
think it is important to know who was making these
calls because it doesn't add up, and there should be
accountability in any other job, right, if the doctor messes
up or something, there's accountability most of the time.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Well said, We will leave it at that. Thank you
both of you for making time for me. I know
you did John Cobbolt earlier, so I'm sure you're tired,
but I really appreciate it. And please stay in touch
and please let us know how it goes. It's people
like you who are going to make it so that
this doesn't happen again, because obviously, left to their own devices,

(24:24):
they'll put out a report that doesn't really give us
any plan or pathway forward. So, Lauren and Shawna, I'm
so sorry about your losses, and I'm sorry about the
continual pain that this community is going through. I think
that it's a tragedy and I just don't understand how
a place that is so proud California, Los Angeles, so

(24:46):
proud of how big our government is, how much money
we pay, how many elected officials we have, and how
much we trust or some trust in the local government
that they cannot get it together to help these people.
That's the whole point I think of government is to
make sure that your people are safe and they they're

(25:08):
able to have a quality of life.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
And so I'm sure.

Speaker 7 (25:12):
Property for those times you would think you would think,
but I would here, we are all right, Well, thank
you so much. Tonight.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yes, there they go.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
You can find her Shauna at Beautiful Altadena on Instagram
and follow along. Of course, with all of the rebuilding there,
they're really doing just the most important stuff that you
could be doing, and the energy that you would have
to have to continue to fight over and over and
over again for this many months. And I'm sure we're
not even close to being done with this fight. I

(25:44):
really appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
You're listening to KFI AM sixty on demand.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
And from my mouth to your ears, yuck. I mean,
any reason my are in from mo Kelly on this
evening Later with mo Kelly, your normally scheduled host is
taking some I guess well needed time off, well deserved
time off, and now I think he'll be back on Monday.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
But here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
This weekend, as you might know, is of course the
Pacific Air Show Down in Huntington beach Man. It's cool
and yes, sure, the government shutdown means that we don't
have some of the military jets that you're used to
see in but and I have this on pretty good authority,

(26:26):
the Canadian forces are bringing their snowbirds. They got their
parachute display teams from the UK. The Royal Air Force
they're still working, they're still clocking in and out. They
got the Royal Air Force is bringing a big ol
C seventeen and then a couple people are bringing their
private fighter jets, their former military jets, so there's still

(26:46):
going to be awesome things to see. Red Bull flyers
will be there, and you gotta check out. This is
very exciting Mike Daniel and the cheshire Cat. It's called
a stuff all aircraft s t o L which we're
gonna find out what that means right now with Mike Daniel,
who's joining us now. Sir, I hope we're not cutting

(27:09):
into your uh your pilot rest, No.

Speaker 9 (27:13):
What's up? And Andy, thanks for having me. I am
sitting I think at the corner of Magnolia and Slater,
just battling Huntington Beach. Stoplights. All good, you know that
just got off, just just got off the beach, had
a few practice landings and demos with a couple, a
couple of individuals who had a time of their lives.

(27:33):
And yeah, I'm just heading across back across town.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
So this cheshure Cat is the name of your plane.
And it is a small single engine aircraft. And I
don't know if it's a you call it an experimental
plane perhaps, And it's these big knobby tires that look
like they're like the the big infla look like they're inflatable.
They almost look like you could like eat it like

(27:57):
a donut. And you are sto l stall means short
takeoff and landing. You're going to be taking off and
landing that plane on the beach at the Pacific Air Show.

Speaker 9 (28:09):
That's right. So there you're in, You're you're hitting you know,
right right right on the nail. The plane is a
bush plane. It's meant to land off airport in the dirt,
in the woods, on the beach, in the grass, that
type of stuff. That's the type of flying we do.
So you know, backcountry aircraft. A lot of people will familiarize,
you know, bush flying with Alaska bush pilots things like that.

(28:31):
But but there's a huge community of bush pilots across
kind of the country down here in the lower forty
eight and yeah, we get you know, the best opportunity
to come in and land on the beach, which is
almost unheard of in all of the state of California
and many other, uh, you know, coastal areas.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
I don't even want to very great, yeah, I don't
even want to think what the Coastal Commission thinks about this.
You know, I don't even want to think about the insurance.
I don't want to have anything to do with that.
I just know that it looks awesome and that thing
must be so fun to flo I'm sure it doesn't
weigh more than a thimble.

Speaker 9 (29:03):
Yep, it's twelve hundred pounds at home, dirt bike in
the sky. So if you can think about what that
might mean, they're they're basically a toy, you know, big
boy toy if you want.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
To call it.

Speaker 9 (29:12):
Yeah, just a very very capable plane, very easy and friendly.
I mean it's a lot of people say they are
very difficult to fly. I mean I fly it. I've
become very accustomed to it.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
Captain Mike.

Speaker 9 (29:25):
Problem with that.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
So you know how long it takes?

Speaker 2 (29:28):
How long it takes to go up and down the
beach there with all those red lights which everybody sat in.
It's like thirty minutes to get from Seal Beach all
the way down to Long Beach, through Sunset Beach or whatever,
all the way all the way to the end when
you're in that aircraft. And I know it's not an
F sixteen, but how long does it take you to
get that little stretch?

Speaker 9 (29:47):
Yeah, So the stretch. Oh gosh, I'm going about you know. Well,
let's put it this way. I can be flying just
about the same rate ass as the traffic is going
along the road. But the nice thing about my aircraft
it does have a decent cruise speed, so I can cruise,
you know, comfortably at about one hundred and twenty miles
an hour. And I actually live in the Lake Tahoe area.

(30:08):
I'm from Trucky, California. Hey, love truck Love coming down here.
Love Trucky, great place. And I fly so to fly
direct Trucky down here to Huntington takes me about three
hours on the nose. So if you're driving, you know,
I don't know what it is, seven eight hours, so
it's it's it's not an overly fast aircraft, but you
definitely get from point A to point b.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
A luckily, yes, sir. And I bet it's beautiful flying
up there in the eastern Sierra.

Speaker 9 (30:33):
It's gorgeous. And the type of flying we do is
low and slow, so we're you know, we're not very
high off the ground, and you get just some most
incredible views all the way out. Flew the three ninety
five down here this time, and it was just I mean,
it's it's I'm so grateful to be able to do
this and see the world from just up above.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Is this your full time gig?

Speaker 9 (30:52):
No, not at all. I am one hundred percent of
recreational pilot cool. So I actually my background is in
design and marketing. But I've actually about seven eight years ago,
i quit drinking and needed a new awesome hobby. I
have a big background in the skateboard world, and I've
been beat up pretty good from that and wanted to

(31:14):
sort of take that same level of adrenaline and rush
and sort of you know, I don't even know it's
called like kind of that that lifestyle, yeah, and take
it into something next. And backcountry flying I really gravitated
to and just really latched onto it and dove in
full board, got my pilot's license, and I used to

(31:35):
see the guys driving around with the big bubbly tires
and coming back dirty, and I say, where are those
guys coming from? What's doing?

Speaker 3 (31:42):
That's what I want to be, right right.

Speaker 9 (31:43):
And that's what I got. Got into the tailwheel aircraft
in the back country.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Captain Mike, thank you so much for being with us.
You're gonna be at the Pacific Air Show. When will
you be flying? If people want to come and check
you out.

Speaker 9 (31:56):
So here's what's going on with my plane. I actually
imparked on static to play. My plane has a sweepstakes
along with it. I have a QR code on the
side of the plane. You scan the code, you point
your phone at the chessure cat which is on the
side graphic. It's right by the front entrance. You can't
miss it, and that brings up a little augmented reality experience.

(32:16):
The cat comes to life through the lens of your
phone and it'll bring up a call to action to
enter a sweepstakes to fly off the beach with me
on Sunday. Wow, that's what my plane. That's what my
plane will be doing all weekend. Luke Chappella. Many of
you may or may not know if you follow any
of the aviation world famous Red Bull pilot, he the
guy who landed on the helipad in Dubai. He'll be

(32:37):
the one flying the beach demonstrations. He's got a yellow
carbon cub that will be flying around during the show.
So that's pretty one actually flying. My plane will just
be sitting on the beach, but enter to win. Maybe
somebody listening to the show right now I'll get a
chance to play up.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Let us hope.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
So the Pacific Air Show down in Huntington Beach all
weekend tickets are still available of ours. I know the
military jets aren't there, but there's a lot of fun.
Captain Mike, thank you so much for colling. We'll take
a look at trying to get a little, a little
jump seat ride with you out there on the beach.
Appreciate you. Thanks, save me, save flying this weekend. My friend,
this is KF I AM six forty KFI a M

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Six forty on demand

Later, with Mo'Kelly News

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