Aaron Fitzgerald is a helicopter and airplane pilot with over 26 years of flying experience. He has worked in every facet of the helicopter industry from utility to charter work. Currently, he owns and operates an aerial production coordination company, and works as a SAG stunt pilot for TV and Film. He has also taken up the job of being Red Bull's one and only American Aerobatic Helicopter pilot flying the BO-105 helicopter on the Flying Bulls team!
On this episode, Aaron reminisces on his most memorable production and aerial coordination job, what it takes to become a production pilot for TV and Film, what he has been up to with Red Bull lately. You don't want to miss this one!
Aaron Fitzgerald is a helicopter and airplane pilot with over 26 years of flying experience. He has worked in every facet of the helicopter industry from utility to charter work. Currently, he owns and operates an aerial production coordination company, and works as a SAG stunt pilot for TV and Film. He has also taken up the job of being Red Bull's one and only American Aerobatic Helicopter pilot flying the BO-105 helicopter on the Flying Bulls team!
On this episode, Aaron reminisces on his most memorable production and aerial coordination job, what it takes to become a production pilot for TV and Film, what he has been up to with Red Bull lately. You don't want to miss this one!
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast what up aviation nerds. Thanks for joining us today on the forever on the fly podcast getting you guys took down aviation episode number one. My name is Diane on your host and I've got my co host Jose here. What's up everybody? Yeah, we have a very special guest for you today. He's a helicopter and airplane pilot with over 26 years of flying experience. The dude's worked on over 100 projects as a TV and film production pilot along with having worked in pretty much every facet of the helicopter industry you can think of from utility to charter work, but more recently what's made me his numero uno fan girl is his work as redpolls aerobatic helicopter pilot flying the beat. Oh 105. He's here to talk about some of his favorite projects and delve into what it takes to become a production pilot. And of course, what he's been up to with Red Bull lately. Let's bring him out. Yeah. Aaron Fitzgerald, call that the factory of bad ideas. I am Aaron Fitzgerald, and I'm forever on the fly you guys, huge honor to be here. You got it. Our first guest is so exciting. Yeah, try to set a high standard as the first guest but that's good. You started low and you're going to work your way up to a great climax. Yeah, exactly. setting the bar or setting the bar pretty high your reputation. Yeah, Aaron. Gosh. I discovered you back in 2018. through Instagram. I saw this crazy video of you doing a backflip in the in the Red Bull helicopter and I just immediately fell in love. We all know you're talking about the helicopter. I knew about the helicopter long before I ever got to fly it so I share that sentiment. It's it's an amazing machine. And I'm a really lucky guy that I get to be the one who flies it here in America. Yeah, that's awesome. You're one of how many guys that that flies for Red Bull helicopter white. Red Bull has five aerobatic pilots. There are two Austrians one German one Italian and me. Pretty sure that makes five. But yeah, I'm the I'm the only American but they're all great, great guys. I get to fly with all five of them on various occasions around the world. Sometimes they come here. Sometimes I go to Austria and Slovenia and fly with them. And it's a great team to be on. It's a huge honor. And I don't take one second of it for granted. That's for sure. Yeah, that is a huge honor. And of course, you deserve it. And other than being one of the world's best helicopter pilots out there doing backflips and unimaginable aerobatics in this machine, you also have a production company. That's correct. Yeah, that's primarily how I make my living is in film and television support. So I work as an aerial coordinator and a an A film pilot and sometimes on camera stunt flying as well. But primarily, it's Aerial coordination. So I my little company just provides aerial production services for for different clients, whether it's a studio or a small TV show, or a company making a car commercial or something like that. We provide the aerial assets and the crews, and it's been a really fun ride. It's a fun way to make a living. And I love every minute of it. Yeah, and honestly, I don't think I've ever met a production pilot that didn't completely love and enjoy what they do. So that's amazing that you were able to carve that path for yourself. But I mean, you've been doing this for years, and I'm sure you've done a million projects. But what was your favorite, like what was a project that really sticks out in your mind as something you're really proud of? There have been a lot of highlights, and it's kind of like picking your favorite kid, you know, I might have one but I'm never gonna tell you who it is. Just kidding. I have three sons, and I love all of them equally at various times. But the projects are the same way I like a lot of the stuff I've done has been what I consider kind of an achievement, something that was really stressful to pull off. But that worked out well in the end, and I'm proud of it looking back, but it wasn't necessarily as much fun. It was more work and more stress with a big payoff. And then I have you know, on my list of stuff that I've been lucky enough to get to do I have things like I went to the Bermuda for a month and a half and then flew over the racecourse for the America's Cup racing. So that was spectacular. Not really an accomplishment just like an extraordinarily fortunate opportunity that I was presented with. So I got to go do that. So there's a lot of different projects that are my favorites for various reasons. But if I had to pick one that I would kind of not necessarily hang my hat on but one that I'm very proud of. It would be the heaven sent project and that's the one where my good friend, the skydiver, Luke Aikins jumped from 25,000 feet with no parachute and landed in a net. So he was the first one to intentionally skydive with no parachute. And the project involved us working out all the ways to make that safe. You know, 95% of it was Luke and his skill and his, you know, his idea of how to do it. But the rest of it was the stuff that we all got to work on, I was the area coordinator for that. So I was tasked with, you know, clearing the airspace, getting approval from the FAA. And then and then I got the lucky job of testing the net. So we built a sled basically, it looked like a upside down umbrella with weights on the, on the spindle. And it was engineered to be his exact surface area and his exact body weight. So we've used that sled and dropped it into the net from various altitudes and hit different points of the net, and whatnot. So I got to fly over the over the net, and a 500, from altitudes all the way up to 1100 feet to get this this test sled to terminal velocity before it hit the net. So I got to be a bomber pilot. It was super fun, really, really challenging. That's a very hard thing to do. Tried it. But yeah, it was that was cool. And then you know, just the evolution of developing and testing and proving all the systems that we had. And then of course, the stress of the day of the jump winner with Luke's life on the line, he had to perform perfectly and there was no there was no backup, he had no parachute. There's no way the other jumpers could have helped him once he left the plane. It was his life on the line. And he performed it to a level of perfection. That was unheard of. I believe that that was the greatest human stunt ever performed. I'm a little biased because I was on bread. Did that, like come up? As far as like that project? Did he like were you guys just drinking beer one day? And then that's how most of our project started. Yeah, we call a call that the factory of bad ideas. And there's usually like a beach or a swimming pool and so beers and maybe some whiskey, and we come up with what if we did this? Or do you think it's possible to do that. But that particular idea came from another group of guys. And they brought it to Luke and said, This is what we want to do. And their initial concept of it was was interesting, but not the one that we went with in the end. So the all the all the execution of the stunt was Luke and his team, there was a great stunt coordinator, two of them named Jeff hammer stat and Jim churchmen. And those two guys were kind of the masterminds who made it all work. But it was mostly Luke's product, but it project but it wasn't it wasn't his idea someone had come to him. Do you think you can do this? Where you like, the day of the jump? Were you a little nervous or your gentleman was pumping were like, when you when they were sure? You know what I mean? Like, that's pretty surreal to see something like that. And yeah, that was the most stressful moment was when I left my house that morning, I was I was in the driveway saying goodbye to my wife, she was gonna come to the to the site, and she was gonna be there with my kids. And with Luke's son, and every, all the families were all there. So leaving the house in the morning, I knew that everything was gonna be different. When I got home, whether it worked or didn't work, it was gonna this was this was a life changing day that I'm never gonna forget. So I got not necessarily emotional. But I definitely felt all the stress of the situation at that, Brett. But then we flew to the site out in Simi Valley in the jump playing I went and jumped in with Dave Kaiser and rode out there. And as soon as I gotten in an aircraft and I was like Okay, time to go to work. And then we got I was doing the jump, I was flying the the high camera helicopter. So I was around 6500 feet when he went by me. And then we descended as fast as we could to kind of be there and get the shot of him going into the net as well. So during the jump, I was busy, I didn't really have time to be stressed out. We were trying to hit all the radio protocols and everything we had worked out. It was a complicated system that we were managing to make sure everything went well for the live broadcast and everything else. So no time to be stressed there. But yeah, that was the driveway. And then after you hit the net, I'm carefully move the microphone away from my mouth on my headset. And you know, I didn't have to watch my friend die. And then an interesting side note, what was pretty funny is we had a very complicated and strict radio protocol, everything we transmitted in the three aircraft, there were two helicopters. And then the jump playing actually, there were four aircraft cuz it was a camera airplane up high. But we had speaking airplanes. Yeah, we had a scripted radio protocol that we were following. Because everything we said on the radio was being broadcast live on TV. So we had to be careful what we said what we revealed. So most of what we were saying was was kind of code for each other. And if you know, if we announced that the trap was green, or the trap was ready, that meant two different things, but to the listeners at home and meant the same thing, things like that. So we had worked out every single aspect of the communication, except for one thing, and that's the jump pilot who was at 25,000 feet was the only guy in the whole system that didn't have access to the car. With all the broadcasts and everything else, his only communication was with me in the lower helicopter. And we didn't write anything into the protocol for what to do after Luke hit the net. So he was on on frequency with center and then the frequency that I was using to talk to him went dead because at that point, I turned and started talking to everybody on the ground about how to get the shots of everybody celebrating. So poor Dave was up there at 25,000 feet lifelong friend of Luke. Aikens and his whole family was up there all by himself going, I wonder if it worked out. I wonder if he hit the net or it didn't hurt. Dead radio silence on that frequency, he had to ask the controllers at La center. Hey, you guys watching this thing on TV? How did it turn out? I saw him later in the bar that day. He was not happy me. Yeah, that was the biggest mistake I made that day. And also one of the funniest anecdotes about how it all went down. It makes for a great story later, right? Yeah. But it's probably very different from Dave's perspective that it is from my class. A couple after that one? Yeah, I still do. So he started distilling whiskey and vodka so you can Yeah, cuz I am. Beer, whiskey. But I mean, you talk about uh, hold my beer moment for Luke there. I mean, stepping out of an airplane, without a parachute at 25,000 feet. Oh, my gosh, I couldn't even imagine that's so nerve racking. Like, I'm sweating, just thinking about it. But that was freaking cold. Thank you so much for sharing that story. And one thing that I would really like to touch on before we run out of time here is you are a SAG pilot, flying production for movies and television, which is actually I hear really hard to get into. But if there's any aspiring pilots out there that want to do that type of flying, what kind of advice would you be able to give them? What are the steps that they would have to take in order to do what you do? Well, it's a ton of fun flying production. When you say sag work, of course, we're talking about the Screen Actors Guild, which is the union that represents all the actors who perform on television and movies, and everything else. And a small division of that is the stunt department. And that's where helicopter pilots fall under. So the work that we do on camera, whether we're working on a big project, as the camera ship, or whether we're flying on cameras is done ship, that all falls under sag Screen Actors Guild. So that's what we're talking about here. And then to dig a little deeper into it, as you said, it's, it's a pretty small group, there's, there's five or six guys who are doing most of the movie work in the world. So I'm kind of on the outside edge of that I get to do a lot of movie work. I don't claim to be one of the top guys, but I'm definitely one of the lucky ones who's in the group. And I've had a lot of mentors and help along the way to help me get into it, it's very, very hard to break into. Because the big projects have huge budgets, and they don't, there's no real way to take a chance on a new person, they have to use proven people in every position, whether it's the helicopter pilot or the DP, or whether it's you know, anyone working on the set stunt people actors that they want to try to get somebody who they know will deliver and it isn't a risk. So it takes a long time to get to that trusted level at the very top. And it takes a long career of working with people and showing that you're trustworthy, and they work hard and you're easy to get along with and all that, you know, the the talent of flying the helicopter is very important. Sure. But it's a small part of the whole package. You know, you have to be a hard worker and someone is easy to get along with someone they know is reliable when there's a lot of money on the line. Or when there's lives on the line. If it's a dangerous stunt, you need to they need to know that you're going to perform under pressure. So it's it's important to be a really good pilot certainly work on your skills there. And, and if someone wanted to get into it, I would say that it's almost impossible to kind of bulldoze your way in with peer ambition, you need help, you need to make friends along the way and, and work under people that are kind of established in the business. That's certainly what I did. I've been really lucky that, that throughout my career, I've gotten to work with some of the biggest names in the business and currently teamed up with who I think is the best in the business, Kevin LaRosa, Jr. And he and Alex and doozy and I have done a bunch of big projects together lately. And I feel like we're really moving in the right direction and working on some really great projects. And it feels amazing, after many, many years of doing all kinds of stuff that I was more proud of some projects and other projects. Now I'm happy to say that working on stuff that I'm really proud of. And I feel like I'm on the best team in the business and I feel really lucky about that. Yeah, I mean, like not so much luck, man. Thank you, you worked your butt off, you put yourself in front of the right people. You were kind to the right people, you made good impressions. And that's super important. And we're probably going to talk about that here in a little bit as well. Just the value of making friends in the industry that you want to work in. Now how am I Important would you say that location is. So obviously you want to set yourself in a city that has a high number of production jobs where people like you are actually working and doing these jobs. Los Angeles and New York are probably the two centers of the production world. It's possible to build a good career outside of Los Angeles in New York, but it's it's a bit harder. There's one guy who comes to mind who's really, really good. His name is Michael Frank, and he's based out of Chicago, and he works as much as anybody and does tremendous work. And he's outstanding, and he's never lived in Los Angeles. So you don't have to live here. But it does. It does help to be kind of close to the center of it all. You know, and it's funny, a little side note. When I was in LA helicopters, I first met you there. You're buying, I remember, you're buying shirts for your kids. And yeah, man. Well, the helicopters always has the best gear. And I saw you land with the Red Bull helicopter. And I was like, Man, how do I get there? And you're like, Well, what do you want to do? And I was like, I want to be the Univision pilot. And I want to work for Telemundo or Univision, out in LA, and you're like, Hey, man, you just got to keep grinding. Looks like you got to get head on your shoulders and keep doing what you're doing. Sure enough, man earlier this year, made my dream happen. Oggie la dos? You know, yeah, yeah, I couldn't fly the jet Ranger. But they had me on a star. And, man, I thought about you that day, when you were talking to me out in LA helicopters, man. And sure enough, really, if you just keep grinding, you do what you got to do. It'd be nice to people, you know, go well was a long way. For sure. One of the things I say to people, when they say what's, what's the secret, or what's the what's the thing, I can concentrate on the most to get my career really moving. And I give the only advice I give. And I don't feel like I'm in any position to give career counseling. But But what I say is be nicer than the other people and work harder than the other people. And it really is that simple. You know, recorder, everything falls under that, like, you have to be a very accomplished, very confident helicopter pilot, you got to know your machine, you got to know the regs, you got to know you got to be ahead of the game. So by work harder, I mean, all that and be nicer. Just you know, 98% of this is hanging out talking like we're doing right now. 2% of it's flying, so you have to be a likeable person. And then to go back to our meeting, it's pretty funny. I'll tell you another little story, when I was a brand new pilot, and I was pumping fuel at a FBO in Santa Monica. And a guy came in and landed in a jet Ranger. And what I used to do is pretty much the same thing you did is walk up and tell everybody what my ambition was, and how do I help? What can I do? How do I get to where you are right? Now I know it's a really good way to do it, because it gets everybody wanting to help you. Right? So I said to me at the time, he said, Oh, I can tell you, you're gonna do fine, you're gonna have a good career, I can already tell. And I asked him, I said, How could you possibly know that I'm pumping fuel? I don't have any money. I don't know anybody how he's like, I just know, I can tell. We can tell you're going to be fine. And I didn't know what he was talking about. And then fast forward many years later, to me meeting you and you're saying this is my goal. Remember, I was like, that's no problem. You're gonna be able to do that. I can tell already. Now I know. So now, young pilots, you're gonna be able to go that one? Yes. She's gonna be great. I can tell she doesn't even know it yet. But I can tell. Ya know, for sure. Now, I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Aaron. Yeah, just funny how everything kind of comes around, you know? It does, for sure. Yeah. And you know, if you just keep plugging away, like what we're saying about production, just work at whatever's in front of you, you know, no one's gonna put you on a big movie today. But do the job you have today really well be the best Univision pilot they've ever had. And I'll be sad to lose you and you'll be moving on to the next thing. And at every step of the way, just push as hard as you can be a little better than the next person. That's all. I hear you. And then one day you look around, and you go, Oh my gosh, I'm flying the Redbull helicopter. And then next week, I'm making a movie with Kevin Rosen, Jr. How did this happen? This awesome. Meeting of that, so you're flying a Red Bull helicopter. How did that happen? Oh, yeah, that's another one I get asked about a lot. There's no real job application process for that they kind of come and find you, which is what happened. For me I was working sort of adjacent to the program because in my capacity as an aerial coordinator, I was doing a lot of work for Red Bull filming some of the advanced filming Air Race and the various things that they do that they needed helicopter services for. So I was kind of a known entity to Red Bull, both in North America here and also on the Australian side because I work for the international team doing do an Air Race and some stuff with the Formula One team, but only as a vendor. You know, just as a guy who flew camera helicopters for him. I dropped the skydivers occasionally. And then when they needed a new aerobatic pilot, then I was the guy that was nicer and had been working harder than everybody else that I was standing there when the door opened. So I got the opportunity. Of course I said yes. And then I drove home that night thinking what? Why would I say yes to that? That's insane. Who wants to go fly a helicopter upside down? I got a good thing. I don't need to take on all this risk what am I? But then you know, logical wore me down and I realized that these opportunities don't come along really ever so of course I said yes and and made it happen and now I really love aerobatics and helicopters that's what I was doing today. Just before we started talking I was out practicing right now. I love doing it. I'm extraordinarily lucky to be the guy that they chose and I don't take that lightly so I want to represent the brand well, because they've been so great to me and I also want to represent helicopter pilots as well as I can you know what air shows were the only helicopter really ever so there's all these airplanes and jets and everybody doing their thing and, and I feel like I get to represent all of us all of us helicopter people and it feels good. Yeah, represent. Yeah. Hey, I can think of no one better than I would want representing me out there. Thank you. That's a compliment. I'm doing my job. Okay. Yeah, no, helicopters. Airplanes. Airplanes too, and I love airplanes. Airplanes. I was gonna ask, does it or the I mean, obviously their ad aerodynamics are a lot different between a aerobatic airplane and an aerobatic helicopter. Does it feel any different doing aerobatics in an aeroplane versus a helicopter? The G forces feel different when you're doing different maneuvers? Yes. Is that a weird question? I don't know if I Well, no, it's not a weird question at all. But there's so many different levels of airplane aerobatics, you know if you're in like I own a decathlon, which is a very basic basic aerobatic plane, so they use that to train people how to do aerobatics, it's kind of like an entry level aerobatic plane. So it'll do all the maneuvers, but you don't pull a ton of G's, you might pull five or six, maybe really more like four. And then you can go negative, you know, when you're upside down, you could pull I never pushed more than about to negative because Thanks, my eyeballs hurt. But that's the basic level if you get up into obviously fighter jets in that but into the performance aircraft like the edge 540 or the extra, those guys are pulling 1012 13 Geez, maybe nine or 10. On the negative side. I mean, it's crazy. So on the on the High Performance end of the airplane aerobatics they're night and day from what I'm doing in the helicopter, but on the lower end like a decathlon, it's very similar we pull about in the helicopter, during the during the aerobatic display, I pulled out three G's positive and just over zero on the negative or just under zero rather. So about point two five of a negative g momentarily, but for the most part, it's positive, and it's under three G's. So would you say that red, being on the Red Bull team has been the highlight of your career is that when you realize like, wow, I've I've really like made it to the top of the top was, was there a moment in particular that you can recall where, you know, maybe your first barrel roller? Never flipping the helicopter upside down that you just thought to yourself? Wow, I can't believe I'm here. Well, yeah, there's been a few of those. I don't really ever feel like Oh, I'm at the top of the game. I'm this is this is as good as it gets. i i Maybe I'm insane. But I always have this feeling that there's more to come that the best is ahead of me. And this journey has been great. Obviously. You know, like I was saying earlier earlier, you wake up one day and look around and go look at the camera. Like they let me fly the rebel helicopter, I get to make movies. This is so great. And there were many steps in a lot of years along the way to get to that point. But in my mind, I feel like it's just a it's not necessarily an upward trajectory to the top. It's just the path I'm following. I want to do more. I want to see more. I want to I want to accomplish more, and see what helicopters can really do and explore the envelope and just find out what's out there. I don't I don't feel like I'm at the top know to answer the question. But I will say that there has been moments where I felt just extraordinarily lucky and definitely definitely appreciated the enormity of the situation. A couple of those were one of the opportunities I got to have since I've been doing this is I got to do aerobatics in Manhattan. So I was doing loops over the Statue of Liberty and I was doing maneuvers right up to Hudson river in front of downtown in front of Battery Park in the World Trade Center. And while I was doing it even while I was I'm going over upside down or barrel rolls thinking they're never going to let me do this again. I got to just drink this in and never forget any of it. And fortunately there were a lot of photographers there and we got a whole bunch of video and pictures so no one will ever forget it. But, but that was one where I really appreciated the enormity of the situation at the time. Another one would be Oshkosh, for instance, you know, there's 600,000 people in the crowd and you're up there flying in the same airspace that some of the most famous pilots you've ever you know heard of or read about or watched on TV They performed in that same aerobatic box over that runway in front of a crowd just like that. And that, you know, that's not lost on me either. I, I don't think of myself as one of those pilots, but it's certainly an honor to be, you know, walking in their footsteps and do some of the things they got to do. It's really cool. Guy here, you're so humble. And such a badass. And yeah, you should be super proud of yourself. And always, that's amazing that you're constantly reaching for the next thing, right? Like, never stop climbing. Never stop on your path. And you never know what's around the corner, the next big project the next, the next pinnacle of your career that you're going to have another wow moment. And I'm sure you have plenty of them ahead for you. And it certainly feels like there will be no no for sure. I can see that. Thank you. How do you know I can just tell. I really really tell God you're clairvoyant as well. I love it. I've been told. So while you're not flipping helicopters upside down, I saw I didn't even know this. But the other day I saw on your Instagram that you that you brew your own whiskey, you have your own brand. Yes, I have a partner and I Okay, so a friend of mine, I'm a hockey player played hockey my whole life. And one of the guys I play hockey with was a bar manager and and a bartender for many years and he always wanted to start a distillery want to make his own whiskey. So he was talking about that ambition one night, and there might have been some whiskey involved in the conversation. But at any rate, he convinced me that it was a great idea to start a distillery so now he and I own a distillery together and we make we make a whiskey that we're really proud of called Old 49 California whiskey. And we sell a vodka as well the vodka we like a lot and we sell a lot more of the vodka because quite frankly, it's much easier to make and we can make it in bigger volume. The vodka is called net kid or vodka. We named it after his grandpa, who was also a distiller so it's it's a fun little side project keeps me busy, keeps me supplied in whiskey. He's my friend supplied in whiskey. So it's a ton of fun. It could turn into something really financially successful. And right now it's not costing us any money. It's profitable. Barely. But we're, we're pushing really hard with a little teeny brand. That's that's trying to be a big brand. One day at work. Where are you guys based out of? The distilleries in downtown Los Angeles? That fourth and Mateo? Right. Right in the heart of downtown. Awesome. Cool have to come by for for a taste test someday? I'd love to try it out. Well, it used to yes, that's that's on and I'll bring us up to but our distilleries in a neighborhood situated with it used to be really gritty and full of warehouses and stuff. And now it's all like, espresso and hipsters change a lot. So super cool neighborhood. But that's not how it started. I mean, that's, that's pretty cool for your brand to you know, being in an area that's up and coming with whiskey drinkers. Perfect. That's perfect. That's that's a great situation. And they drink whiskey too. We all drink whiskey, right? So it's all good. Oh, cool. Well, we're gonna have to wrap this up here in a minute. We're running out of time. But yeah, we I was gonna circle back to our first conversation, but we kind of already touched on a lot of the advice that you gave me. I randomly reached out to you on Instagram, back in 2018. I was like, Hi, what's up? I slid into your DMS How do I how do I remember that? You were living in Vegas at the time I was a star. I was flying the Menzies helicopter, Bryce Menzies helicopter just doing corporate stuff for him and his dad, a friend of mine, Chris Ganya was his primary pilot. So he got to do all the fun Baja racing, production, Filming Filming stuff down in Mexico, which I was always super jealous of. I damn do. And I was like, you know, hey, I'm a pilot, and you're super cool. And how do I become you? And the four things that you told me which you've already touched on? was number one be nicer than any other pilot. I think we hit I think we batted that over the head pretty good, because that's a big one. Right? I've noticed in the industry, it's all about networking, and being personable and and being kind to other other people. It'll get you so far. Number two work harder than other pilots. You already touched on that three be better at the job than any other pilots, which you already touched on pretty thoroughly of, you know, study harder, just know your shit, and for spend the next few years being a teacher total badass helicopter pilot and make your case. So haven't heard haven't heard anything from Red Bull quite yet, but it didn't contact me right away either it takes a little while you're watching, don't ever think they're not watching because you know I'm coming on like a no going on almost nine years of flying now eight and a half years of flying so I'm working my way there, you know So do you ever look around and go oh my goodness I'm flying in a 109 for a medical team landed on the roofs of hospitals in the dead of night over the second biggest city in the world. Do you ever look around and go I've made it this is it can't get any cooler than this, right? Yeah, absolutely. No, that was like, it's it's such an amazing job getting to fly organ transplants. Especially, you know, we don't really get to see the product, or the result of what we do because we don't get to see the patient that we're delivering these to. But recently, someone actually found me on Tik Tok. And it had turned out that I had delivered a set of lungs to a kid that he raised. My goodness, why know that. And you know, I was in tears. And I follow the guy on Instagram. Now he he's a 29 year old guy with cystic fibrosis. And this was his third double lung transplant. And I know I that and that was like a very wow moment, very emotional, for me getting to actually see the result of a voice. So I've been able to follow his progress, because he's very open on social media about about his journey with cystic fibrosis and having these lung transplant. So that's been one of the highlights. One of the biggest highlights of my career, I would say for sure that should be that'd be a life highlight. That's amazing. Yeah, very proud of that you're using your powers for good and good. I know I'm not using my helicopter flying skills for evil, not exactly sure how I would do that. But I can think of a couple ways. I've had a few offers a lot of prison breakout, very successful prison escape by helicopter. I've been hearing about but awesome. So so glad that we got to get to talk to you. And we're so grateful that you are here with us and sharing your story and sharing inspiration to our listeners. So thank you so much for being here. Like so grateful for you and your team for having me. It's a huge honor. I enjoy talking to you guys, even if we're just hanging out on the ramp talking and it's fun to talk to you here on your podcast. So hello, and listeners and I can tell you all that you're in good hands with these guys. Good helicopter pilots, you can tell. But before we go, I also want to say thank you for your service. I know you were a proud member of 82nd Airborne Division. It was Yeah, yeah. I just want to say thank you for your service. And yeah, thanks for joining us today. Thank you guys. Well, Jose was a paratrooper as well. I think we made that connection when we first met right when we find each other. You guys just look at each other and you just spoken and spoken. Well, that's about all the time we have today, folks. Thanks for listening in. We hope you found some inspiration and insight from a round story. If you enjoyed the show, go ahead. Like Subscribe, hit us up on Instagram. We'd love to hear from you guys. Hope you have a beautiful rest of your day. Get out there. Kill it. Go fly. Catch next time later.