Self proclaimed "normal every day helicopter pilot" Falko Baguhl, takes us through his absolutely not normal pilot journey. From flying the Alouette, the S55T, the Bell 204, to now flying the AW169 in support of offshore windmill farms off the coast of Emden, Germany.
In this episode we cover a variety of topics from discussing his path, day in the life of a windmill pilot and its unique challenges, his transition from the FAA license to the EASA license, his experience with the Deep Water Horizon tragedy, and finally the dangers of icing and why it should be avoided.
Stick around for the end of the episode, Jose and I will give a brief lesson on the different types of icing, their dangers, and what to do if you ever encounter it.
Self proclaimed "normal every day helicopter pilot" Falko Baguhl, takes us through his absolutely not normal pilot journey. From flying the Alouette, the S55T, the Bell 204, to now flying the AW169 in support of offshore windmill farms off the coast of Emden, Germany.
In this episode we cover a variety of topics from discussing his path, day in the life of a windmill pilot and its unique challenges, his transition from the FAA license to the EASA license, his experience with the Deep Water Horizon tragedy, and finally the dangers of icing and why it should be avoided.
Stick around for the end of the episode, Jose and I will give a brief lesson on the different types of icing, their dangers, and what to do if you ever encounter it.
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast What's up aviation nerds. Welcome to Episode lucky number 11 of the forever on the fire podcast, your bi weekly dose of aviation inspiration, education and entertainment. Number SDN. And my name is Jose, and we're here to get you guys hooked on aviation. fire season is already upon us here in LA Whoa, I know I started crying the other day. Yeah, I was like, So is that how you are trying to put the fires out with your tears? So I do two days of flying news and two days of flying for medical transport. So those are my like additional duties. But it turns out when you fly news here in LA, and there's a fire relatively big fires, you know, you're up at 7000 10,000 feet AGL in a helicopter. Right? Right. And you're over the fire. And, you know, you just go down enough you cover the fire for as long as your shift is typically about six, seven hours of flying over a fire. You know. That's a long flight day. Yeah. Especially you're sitting out there hovering at 7000 feet for six, seven hours. That's cool. Yeah. You know, you started thinking about the fire and I'm like, do we have any bigger tankers? Really? Are they putting it out? There? We're putting it out yesterday, it was in our garage hills. And don't get me wrong. It was like the fire was fast moving LA County, Ventura County, all the fire ships were on it. The helicopters were out there ASAP. And believe it or not, they put it out in like, three hours. I think that's about it. Now they brought in some ba e 146. Aircraft, which are British, essentially air tankers. Cool that are stationed out here in Southern California. And yeah, they put it out pretty quick. Once those tankers came in. They like it was a game changer. Yeah, game changer. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, Southern California. Fire squads are on point. You know, they kind of have to be Jesus April. Usually fire season doesn't really get going until what? July? June, July. And like last year, it was pretty much didn't end until that. Yeah. Right. Yeah, February. Yeah. It just started again here at the end of April. I'm like, board game. Wow. Does it really like flying above the fires even at 7000 feet? Is it really irritating with the smoke? And how are your eyes and throat get irritated at all like and he tend to we tend to stay away from like the downwind of the like smoke and stuff like that. And smart, you know, but the biggest thing is just trying to get the correct shots and when the tankers are coming in, and it gets pretty complex. Yeah, up there. Aircraft. sure that every stations out there covering it. You also have the fire ships coming in. Yeah, it's it's pretty dynamic, dynamic situation. Yeah. And then only that you're up with SoCal. And you got Southwest and everybody coming in on their approaches. Right. A lot of things to think about. Yeah, it's a very complex environment. Yeah, it's quite draining at the end of the day, you're like, exhausted. Yeah. And you're just hoping that it's out by the time you come into work. The next day, I get in my car, and I go help the firefighters. literally was like, wait, wait, your volunteer firefighter? How did I not know? I'm like, Do you have any property? But I feel like sometimes you tell me things. I'm like, How did I not know that about you? You like you're full of surprises, which is, which is cool. I like that. Yeah. A little bit of a mystery. That's awesome. So yeah, I know, especially at nighttime, when if you guys depending on where the fires are, if they're up in the mountains up here, you guys have to go pretty high. And you have to start thinking about bringing oxygen with you. And especially during COVID I remember last year fire season it was like a weird thing because nobody wanted to put the same oxygen tubes in Yeah, it was yeah, they we use them but I think the highest ever flown in a helicopter was 14 Five and that was for fire and for covering the fire here in California for about 13,000 AGL at night. Wow. I've been up to 13 for a skydive like to drop skydivers off and a star and the doors were off. It was February I forgot my gloves for decision. I'll like get out. I can't feel my fingers. No, it feels so weird in a helicopter. It feels like you could feel every little thing. Yeah, it's a little unnerving especially with the doors Yeah, I'm pretty crazy, but why don't you go ahead and introduce our next guest? This episode's pretty cool. Yeah, so this week we are highlighting a helicopter pilot from Germany. He calls himself an everyday normal pilot. But his career has been far from ordinary, to say the least. He has flown a range of helicopter platforms from the Alouette the bell to 204 the s 55 t. And now he's flying the A W 169 in support of offshore windmill farms out of Emden, Germany. So as part of that sure been a unique one, and we're excited for him to be here with us to share his story. I think that's pretty bad. Yeah, that's pretty cool. In this episode, Falco takes us through his experiences the challenge of flying the sport of the windmill farm, crew resource environment, and the hazards of flying in icing conditions. And speaking of icing conditions stick around until the end of the episode, we're going to have a short lesson on the hazards of flying and icing conditions, the different types of aircraft icing, and what to do if you unexpectedly encounter it. So chill out and enjoy the episode. Falco buckle when you fluff them up, and everything was completely an eyes. Anything outside at all? Hi, my name is Faisal bug. And I'm forever on the fly. Be nice to meet you, amigo. My name is Jose. Awesome. You guys. Nice to meet you, too. Thanks for being a listener and reaching out. Oh my gosh, anytime anytime I got time to so awesome. Awesome. I was reading over your resume. Man. I was like holy cow. I mean, you can argue I mean, normally in this case, of course, he was sector company for a long, long time. But as we all know, you kind of move from job to job. Also, you know, life is full of surprises. And of course, throughout the career paths, you kind of decide, I wonder rather do this and that. And, of course, things change. When you sent me the email, and the subject line said normal everyday pilot, I'm like, alright, and I opened it up and I read through your story, the short version, apparently, wow, this guy isn't a normal everyday pilot. But you know, it's kind of cool. It's a really neat thing about the industry that we're in is that if you're a pilot, you're really never living an ordinary life. Everything you do is pretty extraordinary encase and boy, look at what you do on a day to day basis. What's your primary job? Okay, so right now, I work for a company that's based on engine that if you look at Germany on the map, a second the top left corner, and what we do is we fly offshore technicians to the wind turbine, so they're about Africa, so maybe like 12 Wind parts or something right now. And they have between between 30 and close to 100 turbines each. And what we do we bring those technicians to these wind turbines need some technical attention, so to speak, they have some some arrows. But there's also like regular maintenance that needs to be performed. Well, that's super unique. I've never met an offshore windmill farm pilot before lots of oil and gas pilots, but never a windmill farm. Are there any unique challenges that go along with what you do? Can you walk us through a day in the life of kind of a thing. So the night before we get an email, or we look online, our schedule to see who's flying with whom the next day. And then basically days, I could take a fit aid. So you arrive about an hour early. And then you do flight planning for about 15 to 20 minutes. And basically dispatch has all the flight route planned for you. And you just have to calculate the performance of the aircraft. So with the host operation, we have to operate the machine, which in my case is no Agusta 169. So we have to calculate our sestina performance. And there is a 32nd limit and then two and a half minute or ei limit. And due to customer requirements is either one of them, but it's mainly two and a half minutes. And then also we have the wind. But we can only use depending on the client up to 75% wind or 100% of the wind. Of course the wind is 100% offshore. It doesn't want that one is safety margin a case you arrive and the wind is not as strong as planned, basically. But if you imagine a wind park full of turbines, of course the turbines create like turbulence but also slow down the wind. So let's say the Winnipeg assessing massive from the sea is from East West spread out and they'd say the winters from the West, but you're hoisting on the east side. So although the wind had to go through all the turbines before that, and of course it gets slow down a little bit. And of course not as strong as advertised. But yeah, this is why we have to do the calculation. Yeah. And then we basically it's a team of depending on what size is between two and four technicians that will fly offshore. So suppiler co pilot hosts operator who controls the winch in the back, and plus some base three or two to four technicians that will fly offshore. And as you can imagine, they bring a lot of cargo with them, like cooling fluids to specialized tools. So best case scenario if the wind is strong, and everything fits in the aircraft and we go straight to the turbine and hoist the entire team down. And that lasts about six, seven minutes maybe depending on how many high specs we have. If it struck hardly anyone at summer time hypertext system then we may have to go to the substation so every wind park has its own converter station in the middle where all the turbine speed energy true, then it gets converted I think from DC to AC but my boss had way around on the show right now. But then it gets fed basically onshore where that gets fed into the entire electric grid system. So if we have that heavier it's the performance of course with our minimum fuel. So but there might be times we have to fly to a substation, leave some guys behind if some power behind tie them to the turbine hoist the guys down we have on board in the car will then return back to the substation collect the other guys, bring them to the turbine, and then go back. Belinda also, this is like the first time and but then they're also certified. We have like two through 12 months. plan today. Then you come back from your entrepreneur or let's see in my case, I did pardon me a couple hours later. Get all the guys again worst case back in the substation, back to the next tournament. Doctor first load off back to the substation get the other guests remaining cargo back to the next destination. And then back to Mr. Volcom or whatever destination can be dynamic at times. Are you operating at max gross weight most of the time? Because yeah, so this depends on which aircraft types have flown some. So the one I'm flying right now it's the booster 169 is certified up to 4800 kilos to hoist that wait you know when you first started out flying? Did you have any idea that someday you would be flying technicians out to offshore wind turbine farms? No, not I mean, in my case to my father used to be a full time firefighter and to me as a firefighter and ammo or in Germany in general, you also paramedic and there used to be this air for Search Rescue Helicopter, rebel 205 For Huey that used to be based in downtown Hamburg is a big city was about 2 million people. And it served its main job was to collect like downed military pilots or any anybody pressuring us. But in this case, it was used for the military guys to learn more about my like Level A or level one trauma patients so they flew within hammock city, like a heart attack case car accident, any any trauma you can think of so they did this and they took firefighters like my father along as a paramedic. And this is how I was introduced into like helicopters. And I was totally blown away by the Huey sound and the downwash and the smell of jet fuel in across this corner flies around. Totally me, you know, it's not like the American Hewitt country, but the military use it also actually it just retired now. So it was flying until just recently active active force, German military. But yeah, but in my case, actually, I grew up next to the airport in Hamburg. So I was flipping a short cycle. So the aliens came over all the time. So I was highly impressed by that also, then I thought maybe become an airline pilot. But then ended up being helicopter, so I'm happy with that. Not too bad. I know it was like a 205 landed at our company. The other day we don't have one out our company. And we were all in the pilot lounge you know watching a little TV and you had as a very distinct sound, you know the flap, like wah wah. And all those kind of got up I'm like, Who's this who's flying that you know, there was a bunch of kids in a candy shop we're looking at bit landed I'm like, Oh my God, I want to see his cool oh, look a dolphin and then you guys like what were you just run into the pilot? Yeah, no, I totally get it that. I will say though the 169 Man, that's a pretty impressive aircraft. You know, actually it is I mean, so my progression. So I started finding God 22 And most guys make fun of me because I'm quite tall. I'm like, almost like six feet or some. And of course it's hard to sit like a tall guy in the sacrum. And but when I became it struck down the left seat, you got a little bubble window. over your head. And that took the form of my headset, I got a bit more space, I can fit quite nicely into an AR 22. But yes, I progressed through the 22 different types of toys into the glass probably like an EC 1451 through five into the, the H 145 into the 169. And the other ones, six, nine, I mean, we have some brand new co pilots will come straight from our 22 into the 169. And it's a gigantic jump I mean, I would be in their shoes, I would be struggling it's just it's very, it's not an easy aircraft easy s and of course offer the same, but I think it's easy, it's difficult as far as the systems and on the screens. I mean, they and you also play the one night thing for See also. So I have I mean a flu in the old one on either a true model something old, but also Yes, perfect. But that was on the one side there's so much data presented to you. So it can be overwhelming you have to kind of train your eyes where to look to find the data because everything is thrown at you. And you can argue it's good or bad. I mean on the flip side you have everything you need right there are no buttons to push, it's all there what you want to see on the Eurocopter ABA side is smaller, like they show you something that's wrong, everything works. The this the screen is pretty much empty that's only shows you what you need to know. Of course you can set it also chose more but me personally, of course, heavily Europe the damage are in France 169 I mean, it's I like it, it's very powerful. Just another update coming up shortly can even lift in more and oil conditions and also more payload. But I mean, I really like it. It's complex, it's not as easy to understand yet this is called EDC use again, imagine two iPads in the center console and you control like lights, few whales fly plan, it's such a garment ish. But hence sound it's not as intuitive as Airbus, but again, no offense to anyone I mean, I like it. Okay, sorry, Leonardo. Best wins again, like we say, well, you know, I mean, I've just found with any new aircraft that I hop into, there's just a learning curve. And you know, you know, you, you get into an aircraft that presents you with more information than you're used to, at first, it's going to be so overwhelming, and you're not going to know where your eyes are supposed to go. But you know, I mean, as you know, once you get some time in it, it just becomes not like a second nature, to abstract for your eyes to go where they're supposed to go. It's just like you experience when you first do instrument trading, everything looks like, you know, even just a panel of an AR 22. And you first hop in there is like, oh, you know, that's a lot of information that I'm having to collect to my brain. But our brains are so adaptable. You know, we we learn fast, faster than we give ourselves credit for saying like, Oh, go ahead, sorry, I'm gonna say you want to switch back and forth between the one through five from the h1 for five. It took me a minute to kind of excel in again, of course apply the same but like I said, the end, you can use the one machine unless even offer two months or like it's five weeks off or something. And then you come back my case, I have to sit down again. Okay, this, I need a couple hours to get totally back into it. Like, what's the 169 have about 400 hours now? And I've just mean about like, was like 300 hours? I started to feel okay in it just because I mean, yeah. It's yeah, it's not as easy for my opinion. But yeah, yeah, no, if you don't care, I was thinking like, going back to your co pilot site, you were saying about the 22. Going to the 169. I was putting myself in, like their shoes. I remember going from the 22 to the EC 130. And I thought that was complex. You know, I was like, oh, man, well, it is complex, but I can imagine just having like, a multi engine aircraft, you know, having all those redundancies and understanding all the different systems, they could get a little overwhelming, you know, and then only without you having to fly it as well, you know, you I bet you feel a little bit behind the curve. When you're exactly I mean, yeah. Finally, machine is one thing. But of course, once you're immersed in the operation, you bring it to model something. Of course, this radio communication is planning what to do now. And of course, it's a checklist to do. So in our case, it's all a multi pilot operation, like I mentioned earlier, so yeah, one pilot flying if one crew member and non pilot flying, and we switch around, so let's go and take off. So I will do the takeoff. And then as we finish hoisting, I'll show me come back, then I would give the control to the co pilot and he gets to do all the flying back and then whenever we take off again, we're always switch back and forth. That's nice. That's like a it's almost like flying in the airlines or something. The effect Yeah, so in Europe, I mean, of course, I spent some time in the states and it's a little bit different here as far as like In part 135 operation, you can correct me but I think we did a checkride every year right? Part 135. Yeah, so in our case here, so what we do in this commercial operation, it's like one part 135. But we do it every six months. So in our case, we do every six months checkride in a simulator. In our case, we fly to Italy to assess to Kelowna and do it at the factory with assimilators or level D, but we kept up by her own instructors. And then the next six months, we either go there again, or we are still in the aircraft. So but in our case is twice twice the amount of training. So speaking of a big leap, I mean, you had a pretty big jump, too. So you came over to the States. You got all of your certificates here at Hillsborough, in Oregon, which we knew another German guy named Falk also. Yeah, yeah. And EJ Falcone, J, who went to went to Hillsborough, as well, German guy that we flew with at one point, but you went, you went from flying an R 22, to getting a job in West Virginia flying the bell to a four, and the s 55. Right off the bat, less than 200 hours. Good point. So I finished my training and his pro. And as you can imagine that a lot of pilots or CFI, stabalize being put out every month, and back in 2006 was done in 2007. But there were a lot of guys, of course, applying for CFA job sort of guy slept in all the flight schools all over the state. And I think Silva state was still around a belief. But anyway, so it was hard to compete against other people. So and his probation, they just started hiring when I was finished, so I was not able to find a job. And then I was looking around, but of course, like everybody else in the set of resumes everywhere. And at that time, you know, we also talked about net networking, which is very important. At the time, I was just, you know, networking within a flight school because I didn't know anyone else. I didn't know any, like helicopter conventions or anything. I was just focusing on getting the license. So I was looking online, a font, this company was Virginia and they advertised the job for a co pilot initializer so I sent an email say, hey, I'm interested on this. Okay, come by. So I drove by. I'm so sure that was the most vital part of site. It was the s 55 t, the LOL tos and then the Huey and the first one company and and also writing Okay, so then let us chitchat. It was the chief pilot. And at the same time I was interviewing, there was another guy coming from PGI with 4000 hours. And I was like Jesus, how am I going to get this job? Anyway? I have no idea what anything that's about a flight school and I got my travel I but customer for now. You know, we got limited time here in the States. But long story short, I was somehow I don't know why. But I think even the job and the company itself, like I said they did we use the ello wet for low level gas piping control this instead of containing the risk for the sniffer box, and you get from the gas companies like your relative to fly on this gas pipeline, and you fly low level over the trees up and down the West Virginia and hillsides basically and sniff the air and shoot the system detect any gas? It would it would it would look that that location. And then we just continued on and when we're done flying, then we'll give this file to the gas companies and they can send the grantee now and find the gastic and shut it basically. Yeah, so to prosecute 55 T was used to do like, you know, like sightseeing rides like local festivals, orders fly by owners rich friends around with that also see and hear us use is a restricted category. It says you h1 B and of course it comes a little dumb photo from Germany just company has no idea what anything. And this machine was in in the Rockman the movie and like several big Hollywood movies, of course. Oh, yeah. So this machine was used for firefighting, and so some training and that and also for the web. But then as you may remember, in 2007, August, September, the FAA announced that they made a mistake back in 1970s, maybe more 60s and said Well, the other word is it's a military production aircraft, therefore it's restricted category, but somehow we signed it off as a standard certificate. So long story short, the Bronner that aircraft, which kind of took away the job that I had, that's what I was trained for. So the company in the end kind of shut down and it's been around for a little bit because a huge part of it, but the rest is all shut down to there and that was fine. You know, living the dream in America fake turbines, you know, the cost the other word theory and then of course, lose the job and then then I went to normal way I should say do it the right way. And then I started moving to Minnesota. We're then structuring on the 20 to 44. And then later on the generator, when people would ask you what you do and you tell them that you were a helicopter pilot, did you tell them you were a gas never honest, I didn't have I mean, I was just we had this trailer. So there wasn't any, like social attraction was nobody asked us pretty sophisticated equipment. So many American dream, you got to fly some really interesting vintage rare machines. That's cool. I saw recently the SFD five, incompetent, I didn't even realize here at the airport, they have an aviation museum, they had one sitting out on the ramp. And I wanted to climb inside of it so bad that they would, they wouldn't let me but it's really, really interesting, interesting aircraft. Did you have the upgraded gas turbine engines in that one? Or was it the old radial kinda, we had the turbine version. And then we actually had two of them. But I think one of them we sold too thin was Alaska. And funny story in the size of the s 55. Team. Obviously, that was much used, but anymore, and then I've put it correctly. And adult production like adult movie production companies stop by and purchase that extra for in flight scenes. Got it? And yeah, I could see how that could be useful, man. So they they produce produce those I did a little bit of research after I saw it. And after I saw that you had flown it as well, that they you know, they're built in the 1950s. And then kind of got slowly taken over by the 204. And two fives during the Vietnam era. Right? Yeah, really, really interesting history behind the s 55. So people want to go in and check out all of that. But totally, totally super rare, super rare opportunity that you had, especially being a pilot with less than 200 hours jumping into turbine aircraft. So you're right. You're not a normal everyday pilot, because not every normal day pilot. Yeah, get that kind of an opportunity. Unless you're flying in the military. In that case, you could be jumping into a Blackhawk doing voice missions slip less than 200 hours. I got really lucky. Really lucky. Definitely. on the civilian side. That's a very, very lucky transition. I would say. So when when you how was it being German and a foreigner living in West Virginia? trailer did say that. countryside is beautiful. I mean, I mean, of course I didn't. I mean, I knew about West Virginia as a drummer, but I didn't know where it was. It was like a beach anywhere like mountains or you know, but yeah, it's very mountainous. I mean, it's, it's really nice and above. I love it. And I was actually there last fall. And yeah, it's it's absolutely beautiful. We got a cabin up there. When I was a kid, we used to vacation there. Yeah, we used to get a cabin up there. And yeah, it was absolutely beautiful in the fall time now, like all the trees changing and beautiful thing in California, we don't really get that, you know, the seasonal changes. And I was really missing that about being in the CGL here for us. You know, someday we're all gonna have windows that just sort of like change with the seasons to make it look like it. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure they still have this or they have that already. But let's say you transitioned for your license from your FAA license to the EA, SA license. And I. And I looked into that a couple of times. Just out of curiosity, was it really expensive? I mean, I saw it was kind of like you had to pretty much go through all of your training again, and go through all the check rides a lot of written tests. What was that process? Like? Exactly. So where do I start? So basically, to make a long story short, um, you? Yes. Ah, yeah, so they don't, of course, it's an ICAO member country, or the countries on your ICAO. But for some reason, they decided at some point not to accept any American license anymore. We want you to do take all the tests and start from zero basically, they will accredit you your flight time that you know, the electric here in the States, yeah, acquired. But as far as the theory goes, you have to start from zero. And so my case By the time I started the process, I was flying EMS in Minnesota. And I use the time as a seven, seven roster, we did an EMS, so I used to time it off and also on time, obviously, to study for the exam. So you have to take, I think it was 14 written exams. And it's about it's whether you have to know where the hair Toko house or whether in July around Mexico, how about in fall in India, so you have to know all the global wind directions. And also navigation, you have to learn how to navigate around the north or south pole. But almost everywhere is north of 1000s. Of for me what's quite difficult to, to comprehend on that. But yeah, so it's an all the test to take the question that basically it's a non open book test. And also what's tricky is, at least when I took my exams in Germany, you have one question, three answers. And one of them is the right one, but it's also a little bit incorrect. So as they make it even more difficult to find the right answer. But yeah, you have to basically do like 200 hours on site with the local flight school. Besides all your learning, what's called the Pardis, near Long Term distance learning course. You have to take all the 14 exams at the flight school first, and then again, all of them at the authorities again, and then I had to enter to Oxford and also Europe, there is a type rating for everything I accept. And of course in a state that type of thing. I believe it was a 12,000. Exactly. So I had to take and soft cross pick the cheapest aircraft or in this case was not 44 So I had to fly 10 hours to that one to get my commercial license. And then of course there's an IFR in euro for single engine and then there's an IFR for multi engine. So since I flew the EC 145 I had a lot of IFR hours in the States. But now I had to take kind of strange a to take a simulator skill test and a 145 in Germany, but then I finished the IFR training because it was cheaper in an Agusta one or nine and that a flight three hours in a one or nine and then five hours in a very simple simulator like a stationary nonmoving flight training device. But speaking of money, I think I spent about 15 20,000 euros it's about $25,000 Just for the conversion. Yeah, so it's so it took me about now I would say close to a year just to do all this theory parts and as studying it's like if you mentioned like kissing moms anymore, but it's like you know spread out that's how many books you study. Yeah, you it's possible, but it takes up did you have to pay all that extra sim stuff out of pocket as well or did it already hire you? Know, so, I know there is no company that I know of service sponsoring from zero so the guys are companies that may pay you for your instrument. But yes, this is something everybody pays on their own. So when you start from zero right now from zero to commercial license with instrument, multi engine IFR and more to true training. You're looking at about close to 100,000 110,000 euros so$120,000 Rhonda Bob Yeah, was that still cheaper than just starting your initial training in Germany? Right so So back in the days in Germany before I started flying activity, I wanted to become a pilot so I tried to join the German air force and I pass all the tests but I'm quite tall so there was no demand for pilots by the time we finished the last test which I could have told me beforehand Yeah, so did all the tests for nothing basically come on like they were trying to trap you is what they're trying to do. They're like yeah, you could like why don't you be a pilot and they know it's cooler as a tank driver. But anyway, what was the question again? Sorry? Yeah, why why? Why come to the US did it your training if you were just going back to your point just saw this is why I picked the states because I'm headed on all the training in Europe or Germany at least that would have been a bit more expensive thing is states and also the helicopter market in Germany it's very very small there handful of operators and this leads to my knowledge is super super hard to find a job was $200 so this is why I looked around and that's when I found the American option. And the other thought looked at there was ha I thought was really crap adventure. They can Florida which is no Bristol and but then also looked at his for aviation and it wasn't Oregon I thought well, of course it's nice to play It's a beach in Florida and no question about it. I'd like to go there. But I thought for the training, I think it's it makes more sense to go to Oregon, high density all it should mountainous terrain, crappy weather. So I thought maybe I should go there and take as much as I can. And of course the plan was to best case get hired by the flight school I trained and then flight instructor get my phone I was on war, and then go back to Germany and they get higher. But obviously, I spent about eight years in the states and where my American wife who is also here, upstairs. Yeah, that's awesome. I think you made a good choice, you know, going to Oregon, don't get me wrong, Florida would be nice, but it's uh, we call those Flatlanders. It's much better training and or in Oregon, if that if that's what you're trying to get out of it. I mean, like the only I guess the only downside is maybe some days your your training will take longer, because maybe it'll be IFR more days out of the year, then, you know, somewhere like Florida, where you might be able to knock out your training really quickly. But ultimately, I think it makes you a better pilot having to deal with the weather systems that are coming through and but now apparently, you're well equipped to fly in the north and south pole. Because you know, all of the weather systems that are gonna be coming through there. I will say, I will say the antennas out there in Florida are really high. There. So if you're not paying attention, man, they hit you right in the face. Gotcha. Yeah. Have you flown in Florida? When you didn't tell me that now? What do you find? very varied aircraft. Oh, god that way. Cool. But um, oh, going back to, um, your written test for like navigation for your ATP? What is it similar to the FAA one wouldn't even cover like ADF vo Rs. Ils is you know, and all those different types of things as far as the different types of navigation and GPS, of course, or what some of that excluded. Alright, so in this case, that was the general navigation subject. You're testing. And then there was the radio navigation part of the exam. So it was two sub two different subjects. But like I said, all the IFS stuff was mainly covered in the radio navigation subject. And, to my surprise, of course, I was used to the American tests, although now not too bad. You know, of course, you have to know your stuff. But it's it's, it's doable, since it's an open book test, kind of with the FAA system. But now here with this one, of course, we have a database that you can study. But it's not really the same questions that you get the clothes, but it's not really the questions that you will get. And you really have to just a lot of calculations, for example, one question is you fly from thing or something like Paris to New York, at which point in your flight, or actionable giftya lat long on the globe, somewhere in the North Pole, for example. And they want you to know, I want you to tell them, what is your heading at this point, because it's great circle, navigation does everything, it's curved. And this is nice, long formula we can use to calculate what heading you have at each and every point of your route. So you have to have mass mass bolts. I mean, I didn't I'm not the greatest guy math anyway. So I struggled. But yeah, I mean, you can manage, man, they make it really difficult for you. I mean, for helicopters, the your chances that you're going to be flying from France to France is not going to happen, or do you really need to know your you know, I mean, what's the practical application for that? I think it's a little unnecessary. Actually, in my case, actually got lucky that turned up more towards the tutor test towards helicopter pilots. The year before me, you had to calculate a Boeing 737 braking distance on a wet runway. I mean, of course, it's nice to know, I guess, but it doesn't help me much in West Virginia, you know, going what a Boeing 737 braking distance will be on such a such runway. That's how I felt with the FAA tests with their weight and balance, or yeah, there we see now, it's like you going in and you're doing your part 22 And then you realize you get a question on a 747 What's the weight and balance? Or what's the CG on a 747? Like, I don't care I mean, I get it, but I mean, like just loaded up. I will figure it out. I could see the argument for just for just the general understanding of how weight and balance works in different applications and different aircraft like I could see what that but like, you probably had to learn Lorenz see you know, nobody friggin uses that anymore. What's the practical application for that? They need to they need to upgrade their stuff over there. It sounds like but no offense to Europe. Let me guys Yeah, I mean, Europe, you know, the I don't know. So you have the European Union, because you get your individual countries and every country. So own little aviation rules underneath the whole gas regulation, Tory and you have always some little changes are not all the same. And so if I do my checkride here, or if I do my conversion into Germany, or France, there will be differences for sure. Oh, that's probably really useful information to maybe a European you came over here to do their training, and they're thinking about going back home. So yeah, no. Yeah. I mean, it's again, it's a lot of work, but it pays off. Interesting. I think in the end that his probation or actually no and presto Academy, they do have, I believe, he asked, flight training department on his own, I think everything took all the tests, I believe in Florida already. I think now they do have a couple friends. Do that product. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about your offshore oil experience. I know I saw on your resume that you had some experience during Deepwater Horizon working the oil spill. Tell us about that. What was that experience like? Yeah, so I just came to the end of my fire firefighting contract in Minnesota, and then one guy, somehow put my name forward to someone else in the company needed a pilot's note during the Deepwater Horizon incident. So long story short, I then hopped in a car drove from Minnesota down to Louisiana to Asheville. And that's a lot of company we had gentlemen are some long retros and then we took the actress from their flow to leg from volumes and had our headquarter or base at the future of aviation check in area basically. So we had biologists on board from the US Fish and Wildlife. And we flew this technicians or traditional students biologist, basically, we flew them all the way from Lake Front to the shorelines of Louisiana. So basically, we took off at seven in the morning and flew to the all the way to Taos west corner of Louisiana coast. And for low level monic 1500 feet and estimate remember that what is like an oil absorbing booms or fabric whatever laid around the Louisiana coastline. And our job was to fly along this coastline to take photos office absorbing boom, so Susan in your audit oil at all, and also to see if there any birds covered in oil. And if you look at Louisiana at the map, and you can see where the Mississippi River comes down into the Gulf of Mexico, that's this is kind of where the worst oil pollution. That's where the most oil was washed against the shore and polluted the birds. There were also lots of oil patches floating offshore around but you had this thing was 3130 Airplanes it spread chemicals on top of these oil patches offshore. And that chemical broke up the oil consistency, although the chemical constellation so it's it's sand basically so out of sight out of mind, basically, but it was still there was just not coming towards the shore anymore. So when we were flying along the coastline, we were flushing a burst and the one that didn't fly anymore, we took a closer look and it was usually the ones covered in oil. So then I would land near with a boat was running around. And then my colleagues hopped out with the big fish net and then tried to catch the pelicans in this case, but sometimes the Pelican hop into the water and tried to swim away. And then I move the helicopter towards the Pelican use a downwash to blow it back to my guys back to the shortlands we could catch the Pelican and then we put it in a kennel legal dog kennel. And then we flew to clean facility that was around abou still. That's where the massive ph ibasis. One of them so we kicked out the birds. And then we just went back to our last location and continued on flying all day low level. What's the long range on my case? We spent about six, seven hours every day for like three, four months every day. All over lose the end of the coastline. Wow. Oh, poor birds. I know. I felt like that. Yeah, I was I was there too. I was in the Coast Guard during that Deepwater Horizon. So I was patrolling the outside of the oil spill and my 110 foot patrol cutter out of Miami. I know I was like, That's so funny. We probably cross paths like what's yours? Yeah, we were we were isn't that funny how life works? Sometimes. I mean, you know, be so interesting. You know, I wish that there was some sort of an app that shows like your path through your entire life. And you see, and you can like connect it to a friend or something and see where maybe you guys have ever crossed paths in the world and your entire life. Yeah, you're really really interesting for someone to come up with that. And I'm sure with like everyone having iPhones or phones now something like Got it right now could get implemented. Good figure that out. I guess you could also ask the CIA I guess they would know. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, I got my, my vaccine chips so well I'm very trackable right now. Yeah. Yeah, that's so interesting. I was out of Pascagoula, Mississippi. I don't know if you're spending time in Mississippi, I don't know how to map within a mobile and golf Porter thing, but I don't remember that. Yeah, it's not that far from okay. Yeah. So yeah, we, we were out of there. But we were, you know, patrolling around the oil spill for about three months. That we were down there. So yeah, quite nice. Good job. Awesome. Crazy. That's really good barbecue down there. So cool. Has there been a moment flying IFR, out in Europe, that you kind of got turned around or had any spatial disorientation at all? No, not at all. I mean, so when I was flying offshore, out of Aberdeen and Scotland, so if you look at England to UK top right corner, that's where the main basis there's basically every flight isn't an IFR flight then all of them are and the two to five that I feel it has is called limited icing clearance and then there's also unlimited icing clearance so limited you can be in that aircraft type you can collect up to 45 millimeters of ice and then you have to either climb or descend. Luckily the North Sea never freezes over so you can always descend into warmer air masses and then all the ice shuts off the aircraft and then you could climb up again for example then the s 92 It comes with fully ice protection system delivered right off the door to koskie so it has heated plate heater Although everything is heated so we can stay with that one in icing but our policy was we encounter icing evaded evade ice, but I see why it's I mean, I picked up some ice when I was flying EMS to us. It was a funny story maybe so it was requested like one in the morning and there was a patient a little child who might have might have in chested chick McNugget in his lap, but nobody really knew but this was the the situation we had. So we flew this child to a special hospital like for childcare and so we dropped them off and turns out much cheaper and again it's all fine it's easy but yeah, so on the flight back went back is fine of course I've checked the icing levels and everything and it was supposed to be any icing at all and upon entering the final approach fix of my approach to my base I picked up all the sudden is so stuck the windshield was unlike goggles, also images and I was surprised about ice building up and two bottles already on a descent and I didn't feel anything as far as an increase in talk or ratio but I thought it was ice on the aircraft and of course was dark so once the machine was in the hangar then I could have a better look at them but the bloodshot eyes on of course the nose. Basically everything externally had some ice on like the horizontal stabilizer. So of course there wasn't a great moment. I mean, pilot site. I mean, I did my pre flight and everything as far as planning and looked at all the temperatures and ice levels. But also obviously well I can change I experienced I think on on a jet that I was in and it happens quite rapidly actually. It's surprising now fast. The eyes can accumulate like on your windshield on the nose. It was really fast. You know, it happens and I can only I'd never happened to me in a helicopter. But I can imagine it's the same you know, like you could have if you have ice on your windshield you definitely have ice on your blades because of aerodynamic cooling down in there what kind of ice was it? Was it clear ice rime ice? Yes a little bit of everything. I wanted to mix up bowls in this case, it was the only time I had ice I had another colleague from the same base who was flying our backup ship there was a BK 117 b two and I was playing the C two to the EC 145 is a C two is assessable Eurocopter you know brand name I call it the H 145 By definition, DK 117 D two anyway according to the backup the BK 117, b two and a severe fascia and all the sudden he was surprised to come he couldn't see much outside in most scholars zone. Then he flipped them up and everything was completely an ice anything outside at all. So he ended up left and right everything was good was just from was totally eyes. So he ended up flying sideways to the hospital when you arrive to see because he couldn't see anything up. So you got lucky. There was all of nowhere Yeah No way and so is it impossible to see ice when you're under nbg goggles, night vision goggles halos on the lights or? I mean, I haven't. I mean, in my case, I mean, when I had my ice experience so when you have goggles on of course you're you're also look underneath the goggles, and look at instruments and such because when you when you focus them as the oscilloscope, if you look inside with the garbage, you can read the gauges or like very. So my case, I think I spotted it was more of an offside vision let us you know, on my peripheral. But actually so Minnesota with ATMs, we had a really popular crash due to ice it was 2013 or 14, there was a mercy or helicopter bill for seven that were dispatched for flight. And while I worked the Mayo Clinic, we were an IFR program. And but if think about it IFRS nice to have when it comes to icing, you have no alternative viewed as a basic VFR aircraft. So we turned flies down other programs trying to fly down. But that program that Mercia they accepted the flight, and they ended up flying through freezing rain. And it was a matter of I don't want to say a sec, but it was very rapidly. The machine I stopped completely, and then they had retreating blade so and there's nothing you can do because the aerodynamic forces didn't work the way they should honor. The blade has a totally different f4. Now that's why you had very their case. And if you imagine a sister, when you have if I've built up here becomes like a wall. Sometimes it doesn't go round, it kind of builds up this way. So you start angles probably way lower than what would be expected. So ended up ended up being holed up in US crushing over nose hitting a big wall of flames basically. Wow. So sad. Yeah. So it's so important to do a proper pre flight and make sure you're not flying into icing conditions. I mean, obviously, like in your case, it kind of came out of nowhere. And then but being trained on what to do in the event that because you know we learned about that stuff on in ground school. Right? Freezing rain. What do you what do you do? How do you get out of the area? But yeah, practical application, I've never flown anywhere that was cold enough where I really had to worry about that. I mean, at the Grand Canyon during the winter time, you know, there was, I don't know some days where it was lightly snowing and the temperatures were kind of closer. And if you don't have experience flying in those colder weather areas, it's just a lack of knowledge like a lack of knowledge. All I know is what I've read in books but practical application. I mean, Jose is flown in Alaska, so he's got a little bit more Oh, wow. Window intense or temperature intense. But what I mean, I mean, so the books they and they say when when I mean you know your eyes sing, they see your flight you're cruising. And when you have an increase in torque and a decrease in aspect and of course vibration sets what The Book says what the indications are and again, I haven't had it this bad that it had such indications. It I think right away anyway when I have something like it. But this is just for the listeners who fly in warmer temperatures and don't have much experience flying in colder temperature areas. When you have increase in top vibration speed decreases while trying to maintain your current settings then you know you have icing for sure. But I think when it when you have such indications, you spend too much time with that weather already. Yeah, with your operation that you do out in Germany. And I know you said that when you fly IFR, you have certain like limitations when you go fly due to icing conditions, do they? I think he said on the 169 it doesn't have built in de icing equipment like the ESP 32 does, but does it have a temperature probe to let you know that you are icing? And my second question is, do you get di stamped like an FBO? Or at your company for the time you do fly an ice? Right so the 169 asked, certificate certification is not allowed to fly known icing conditions at all. Leonardo actually is working on getting certified so that there's something in the bush like planning wise, but right now it's nothing certified. So but if you encounter icing, I'm sure it's the same as a part 135 manual would stay the FTD and put glycol or some alcoholic material, take your good old brush, you know room and spread the wings to get to get the auto but in our case, it's vfio Five but we have to stay with to stay out of the ice and conditions was the one time gotcha. Oh, no, perfect. The I didn't know if there was a standard of Operation measures that you would use in Germany. You know, like, you know, like in the airlines how they could spray down the wings and the whole future too large. I didn't know. I didn't know if that was something that they could do for your aircraft. I'm sure I mean, the 139 is also machine will operate and other companies too. And the 139, you can get a belief with heated blades and such. But obviously, it comes with a cost. As far as payload is also paid, of course, it's very, it's problematic and like hot summer days. And of course, the operator doesn't want to spend too much time to take this kit off and put it back on on and they have downtime with the aircraft. So all the machines that I know that flying in our area or limited to non icy conditions, but but it doesn't mean of course, it's important on that I'm sure, Jose, Jose, right. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure they have, they have procedures in place, such as like they call put in put in a warm hanger is always a good idea. It just makes me think that like if there are standard procedures in place for preventative measures, the more risk people would accept. Does that. Does that make sense? I don't know. It does come popped in my head, you know, when when people have a little bit of a warm and fuzzy like, Yeah, well, I have anti ice all over my aircraft. So maybe I'll fly in that little bit of a colder temperature than what I would maybe normally be used to, or I don't know, like, increase their level of acceptable risk of what they're willing to do, you know, exactly curious. And there's also a thing as you can also compare that was a synthetic version, let's say the was the 169, or the h1 for five, you have the synthetic vision screen and the corporate. So let's see, if you find that whether in the 145 or 169, or anything that has synthetic vision, you would feel much better about lying in MAMC you know, supposed to but you see like houses, roads, rivers, valleys, so you can fly the machine without hitting anything. Just looking at the screen. Of course, it's not allowed legally to use it for a while. But like you said, if you have such towards me extra move, some guys may elect to take a flight they would normally not take under let's say if there was flyers simply I covered us steam gauges, no, no fancy foreflight iPad or something Univision. So I think you're right. And that that's, that's also a chance that you're more inclined to take higher risks with more advanced technology in your aircraft, that's for sure. Yeah. Well, it still doesn't hurt to have that kind of stuff on board. You just have to know yourself. Pilots have to self monitor and self check and make sure that we're making good decisions out there and not pushing the limits. Doing everything legally, that we're supposed to. So do do what you're supposed to do go where you're supposed to go and you're gonna have a long, fruitful. I do like how you? Yeah, I do like how you guys find a crew atmosphere, though? I do. Like, I do like to check the balances of it. Absolutely. So when I was playing in the states that EMS of course sustained a pilot. I don't think they have any say any multi crew operation and the state's EMS. Maybe, maybe ePHI. Maybe they do for EMS. Yeah, not that I have Boss, boss Medflight maybe I'm not sure. I think it was somewhat motocross thing is really helpful. Especially, there's also another story so when I was flying the 145 in the states part 135. You know, we have this category A is this push button in the in the easy one for five? I'm like, What is this button for our favorite avoid us? That's fly way one. It's all fine. So when it came to Euro, no, no, no, you gotta fly category April file fee. This vertical, you know, technical profile landing was decision point landing decision on your TDP, LDP and V toss and Vy and all this for file stuff. So this is where we're most improved, comes in quite handy with something if an engine fail on takeoff, then as a crew, you kind of talk each other, what's happening, and that just makes it especially emotions of any kind was a fire hydrant engine of fire. That's a big procedure to follow. And doing the thing a pilot, it's, it's so much better than what you grew. Yeah, I think so. Checks and balances, man. Yeah. God, I wish we didn't take care of here. I think I know, it's not as feasible at times, you know, due to the company. Yeah, but it's more money. No, no, a lot of, I don't know, an EMS in Europe. Is it a profitable business? Or is it like government run paid by taxes or? Yeah, I'm just I'm just curious at the differences because in the US when it's, you know, a competitive market between EMS companies, exactly, you know, and they're, you know, they go off of how much money they're gonna make by only putting one pilot on versus having to pay two pilots to be there. But if it's You know, paid for by the government in the in Europe, it might be a little bit of a different situation. In Germany, we have two major EMS players, one of them was called ad AC. It's all these yellow helicopters here on YouTube doing a crazy, you know, narrow landing like tied to sections like someone's backyard or front yard or something. And then you have the DRF. So the ADC is like, also called a triple A in the States as car insurance is a triple A. So ATSC is like, like a, like a car club. So you pay money. And so they have lots of fundings that they used from like normal automobile drivers to finance the EMS basis. But how it works here. The local authorities at some point they decide, okay, we have that many people living here, we need the EMS helicopter. And it should be based here who wants to put a tent or like a built in for this base. And of course, then Eric NDRF has put the button. But as far as money goes, wherever Texas patients say it's a fixed governmental patient rate. So no matter who's flying, that is my knowledge should I give my friends flying EMS is the fixed value that's being paid, and every base that they get this, it's not forever, but seems like five, something five plus years or something and then it gets this another 10 we can best case maintain the space or you have to vacate it or go somewhere else. And so as far as EMS in Germany, they just start to do IFR and but it's nothing like what I experienced in the States, America is usually ahead of the game when it comes to aviation in Europe or Germany. So we had lots of hospital based GPS approaches when I was flying in EMS in Minnesota here. This is you cannot imagine it's such a procedure is horrible. Mentally, it takes ages and you have some guys that are really stubborn and certain agencies to have the arkoma back in the day, we didn't need GPS coordinates, just lay on the clouds, you know all the MC. So now slowly start to introduce GPS approaches. Daytime is all sing a pilot as a pilot. It's paramedical nurse, but then it's an emergency doctor. At night you have another pilot. So nighttime is always more to crew as far as two pilots up front. But daytime is usually a pilot and an paramedic and a nurse, paramedic and a doctor or nurse and doctor. Nice. That is awesome. We don't really do dual dual pilot. But when we going back to transitioning into a more complex aircraft, the way our company does it here is when you transition into the 109. Even after you've passed your checkride, they still have you fly with another qualified pilot for like X amount of time, they don't really have anything specified, it's more so just to make sure that you're still you know, comfortable and getting familiar with the mission getting familiar more familiar with the aircraft and seeing the procedures being done over and over and over again. So it's kind of a nice, it is nice, it's a nice thing that they do to help transition into a multi engine aircraft. If you've never flown. It helps out a lot. Right now my case I had also like I said, when I started EMS, I had a month of day shifts only obviously because you don't want to start at night agreeing on like I was going to study the MS. But you have to have the normalization of pilot who was flying with you all the flights, like you said for like four weeks or so and then they let you go and it's the same in Germany also you start here. They also have like, whatever specialized instructor pilot online trainer here, but it's the same basically. Peanut butter jelly. So I will say I want to fly in Europe. I want to live in Europe so bad. He speaks a little italiano. He wants to cool. I was like I just want to move to Italy, northern Italy. And that's really nice. At some point come over here find my senior Rita. Yeah. And I thought about it too. So just a long story short, I'm I come from a family of Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula and we have a deal with Portugal where if we get confirmation from a rabbi and basically just hire a lawyer to help do the paperwork, I could get my European passport. I could get a passport for Yeah, I could get a passport for Portugal who should give me your shirt? Yeah. I you know, it's it's one of those things it costs like not not even that much. I think my friend did it and I think hers was like three grand, but you know, she would have the opportunity to be able to work in Europe and I was just kind of curious if I did that and I how much the transition would actually cost me to get my licenses over to isa Yeah, yeah, no, that's I was also really curious about that. And like, I've never actually talked to anyone who's done it before. So, yeah, I mean, like I said, Yeah, I mean, it's totally possible. It does take some time. And if you were still flying job we've had some time off during the day. Yeah, that's useful for studying, you know, all this material that I mentioned earlier. But see, if you have, for example, this company that you know, Ericsson, you know, that are firefighting in America, in Australia, in Greece, and Wales and Portugal also. So if you would have if you're citizen, European citizen, so you can fly anywhere for errors. Yeah. Before you get to your Mexican citizenship, and you could get me my year, so even even with triple pass, even with someone like Ericsson, that has contracts all over the world like that, even with contracts, they require you to have the European license. They don't have any sort of exceptions. If you're only going to be there for like, a couple months with a company. I think, I think they're kids, I believe to have a, like a specialty. I'm sure that you because you're flying American clients. Exactly. So I'm sure you wouldn't have to but I thought maybe it's another bonus feature. Yeah, sure. I got European citizen, no big deal. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it goes off your tail number, right. So if you're because I looked into flying conservation in Africa, and a lot of the Oh, wow. And a lot of that aircraft over there are not a numbers. And so yeah, depended, you know, you'd have to get a South African license, or some of them require the European licenses. But if you can get a rare opportunity where you find an aircraft over there that they're flying that has an n number, then I think they said you can have an FSS. Oh, interesting. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I love having helicopter pilots on here. That's the majority of the world the majority of our listener base is helicopter pilots. And when we look at the numbers and downloads and streams, all of our helicopter episodes are like twice as much than the airplane guys even though like we love our we love all of our guests. And our fixed wing guys are still awesome. But definitely our listener base, I think really enjoy hearing about helicopters and helicopter experiences, because there's not a lot of podcasts out there that focus on helicopter. So exactly, know exactly between you and I don't know if you listen to our episode with Tom Ostrom, from Yeah, from Norway. And he also had the same thing where he tried to go the military route, and it didn't work out. And he got a little discouraged and kind of got out of it for a couple of years and then revisited aviation after he had a couple of different jobs in the military, doing other things. But it kind of just shows that, you know, don't get discouraged if like your first plan doesn't work out. Because there's so many other opportunities out there. And life is kind of just pointing you in a different direction. Like man, like this is a different path that you're supposed to go. And so yeah, people out there who maybe first attempt something and even not an aviation but like, you know, the first attempt or first dream that you're going after, if it doesn't work out, there's a reason for it. And there's another path for you. And it's always going to be other opportunities and window closes, another door opens or whatever, I don't know. I mean, in my case, I mean, I wasn't the smartest kid in school than back in the days, I couldn't even give you couldn't even say simple English sense. I was privy to all the vocabularies. I couldn't even say normal sense of anger. So, but what I'm saying is, but if I could achieve what I did, and everybody else can, of course, I had to work hard for it. Mastery came really for nothing for me. But I think I just hope what I said today, the shows everybody, you know if a foreigner can do it from Germany was in America, and if you work hard, if you work hard and be nice to everybody, something will eventually work out for you. Absolutely. Thank you, Miguel. Thank you. You're selling yourself short, though. You know, if you could calculate the distance from Paris to New York, I think you're doing you're heading is on 32 00 0.1, North 40. Right now, I would fail the test guaranteed. And that's the thing with these written tests, they make them so complicated, and you study their butt off for them. But there's no real practical application for some of the stuff you learn in there other than just Internet being like, yeah, you could learn that for a short period of time. But because you don't use it, you lose it. You know, I'm not going to go out there and navigate with Loran. But you know, you have to learn it. You have to learn it for a stupid written test. And then as soon as you're done with that test, your brain is like, well, I don't need that anymore. Just dumps it, you know? Yep, yep, short term memory. they just learn it for the written and then you just get rid of it and make room for all the stuff that you actually do need to know. And store in there for the actual practical application of flying and the mission that you're doing. But yeah, so question How about you guys? You guys have any dreams? Anything you guys want to pursue in your aviation career? Anything? Yeah, definitely. I want to live in Europe. Yeah. That's this whole thing I figured out I'll figure it out. I want to go to the moon. I want to go and Falco basics, though. Yeah, number one. You know, I had a potential opportunity to fly a jet PAC right off the bat. And it just felt through last week. And yeah, unfortunately, the company abruptly dissolved over some, you know, drama between owners. But yeah, it's a really unfortunate because I was like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna be able to build my 1000 hours a PAC jet time, I'll go to test pilot school and Bing, bang, boom, NASA. Here I come. But yeah, that didn't quite work out for me. But who knows. I mean, there's, again, when it doesn't work out, there's a reason for it. And yeah, something better might come along. You know, when I was growing up, I just, I wanted to be an astronaut. So bad. My entire room was just filled with space stuff. And I had this mural mural on the wall, you standing on the moon looking down at the Earth. And I just had a vision recently of like, how crazy would that be if that actually, you know, came into fruition? And I was staying on the moon looking down the earth like, Huh, that's funny. manifested that from childhood crazy. Yeah, I don't know. Well, we'll see some other dreams, I guess other than flying dreams is also just creating programs that are inspiring kids and getting youth involved in aviation. And right now we're in the midst of planning this really big Aviation Day for middle and high school kids. I mean, people can bring their kids of all ages, but we're kind of catering more towards middle high school students, we're going to have a career seminar, helicopter flights, airplane flights, vendors, it's going to be like this whole 500 person event show Minier Yeah, basically a mini air show. It's a lot of planning a lot of work. But I think in the end, it's going to be worth it. And I'm really passionate about sharing my passion for aviation and getting more people involved. So I guess, you know, creating something out of an idea, I guess, is getting to use my creative powers and gotta start somewhere. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, that I guess that's another a dream. I want to start a nonprofit foundation and start offering flight scholarships. And, you know, I'm in the, in the midst of, I guess, building Yeah, building something beginning So beginning at that stage. So that's pretty much it, man. It was such a pleasure to meet you. And thank you again for coming on so much, guys. Let me go that was awesome. Thank you guys. Bye. Alright, guys, school is in session. Let's talk about icing. Icing. It's gonna make you want to snow cone after this. What is aircraft icing? It's when ice is accumulating on the aircraft structure, or the induction system, which is where you know, the engine get this air from, we kind of need that. So what are the different types of icing, we've got clear ice, and for airplanes, this can turn into what they call swept back icing. This is the worst it's heavy, it's clear, it's dangerous, mostly accumulates in temperatures approximately negative 10 to two degrees Celsius, or large water droplets don't freeze immediately. But as they move over the airfoil surface, it freezes in a sheet of ice. So for airplanes, this is increasing the weight, never good for performance. And it's also changing the aerodynamic property of the airfoil itself. Also, not great for performance. And if we're talking about helicopters, or then all of those things that we just mentioned, that sheet clear ice can break off your blades and go into your tail rotor. And I wouldn't want to be that pilot that day. No, thank you. Rhyme ice is a lighter OPEC brittle and forms in temps approximately negative 20 to negative 15 degrees Celsius. So a little cooler, where the small to medium size water droplets freeze on impact, which sometimes can form a horn on the leading edge of the air foil changing its aerodynamic properties. And this one this one looks like a snow cone kind of makes me want to like there was some grape on there. Next I Can I get an upgrade to a combo? We got clear eyes we got rhyme And together, we make a no good situation, it forms in temperatures between negative 15 and negative 10 degrees Celsius. So get a little bit of both, but same, same, same, same, same, but same dangerous properties can can occur on this as well. So maybe one day you got outside, you're doing your pre flight and you see a little bit of frost on the blades. And you're just like, oh, that's just a little bit of frost. That's not going to hurt anybody wrong. You guys might be wondering, what's the danger? A little bit of frost on the blades? Well, have you guys ever seen a Christmas story? I'm just saying, when he got his tongue stuck on the pole. Same thing happens when there's visible moisture in the air and you got a little bit of frost on the helicopter. So all it does is make the ice stick easier. So why would you want that, get it in a nice warm hanger and remove it from the aircraft, induction icing. For the engine to run smoothly and produce a power as opposed to we need a clear path for the air to be sucked into them be compressed and burned. If we have icing forming on our induction system, we're going to lose some power if not all the power Peto static icing can also form on both your pido tube and your static ports. And if your Peugeot two gets blocked, you could find yourself without an operating airspeed indicator. So this is definitely not something to take lightly. I know we joke around a lot, but I think is a very serious situation. And we have to do our best if you're in an aircraft that's not rated to go into icing conditions. Don't do it. Don't do it. Just stay out do a proper pre flight. Make sure that if you're in cold weather environments, that you're doing a thorough pre flight to make sure that you're not in close to freezing temperatures with high high water and moist visible moisture. If you're flying you catch yourself in an icing condition as a rule of thumb is to climb or descend 3000 feet. Now that's not always possible due to the circumstances of ceilings or the train below you. But if you do catch yourself in icing, get out of those icing conditions and climb or descend 3000 feet, that's usually a good altitude to be able to get out of some of that visible moisture and change in temperature. Yeah, so temperature will change to degrees per 1000 feet. So 3000 feet is a good six degree difference, which could you know mean the difference between icing icing and not icing, we say close to freezing temperatures because of aerodynamic cooling. So when we're producing lift, we're decreasing the pressure on the top of the airfoil, which also decreases our temperature on top of the air foils dramatically. So if you're flying in a condition where you look at your outside air temperature, and you see that it's you know, five degrees and below and you're invisible moisture, those are prime conditions for aircraft icing, especially if your air foils. And the ways that you can recognize that you're getting into icing if you see it starting to build up on your windscreen or on the Skids. Or on any part of the aircraft structure you can you can best believe that you have icing on your blades as well. And you're going to notice that you're going to have an increased power demand higher torque than what you had been flying with. And in that instance, you want to get out of the area as soon as possible away from the visible moisture and either climb or descend like Jose mentioned so. So just like warming up the air, getting the air even cooler, is also going to help that's why he mentioned climbing 3000 feet. So if you decrease the temperature, you're getting into a situation where the moisture is already frozen enough where it's just going to bounce off the surface and it's not going to stick. So that's what we're trying to avoid here guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. We really appreciate everyone's support. Thank you guys for listening in. I hope this episode was educational at the end here. And we love you guys. Don't forget to leave a review and a rating on Apple podcasts again, it really helps us out. Thank you guys so much for listening, and we'll catch you next time adios baby