Today we give the floor to our good friend Scott Booth. On February 10, 2018 Scott survived a fatal helicopter crash in the Grand Canyon. The NTSB determined the cause of the accident to be loss of control likely due to Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness. For more information please refer to the official NTSB report. On this episode we wanted to give Scott the ability to share his story. It is one of courage, survival, and mental resolution. Today Scott shares his recollection of the accident, his recovery, his struggles, his successes , and how music has aided in his mental recovery. He hopes to be an inspiration to anyone out there who has experienced extreme trauma, and shares a beautiful message of courage and strength. Thank you for trusting us with your story, we love you!
SEASON 1 THAT'S A WRAP!
Thank you guys so much for listening in, we appreciate your support and encouragement. We hope you enjoyed the first season of the Forever on the Fly Podcast, and we will catch you next time!! Fly safe out there!
Today we give the floor to our good friend Scott Booth. On February 10, 2018 Scott survived a fatal helicopter crash in the Grand Canyon. The NTSB determined the cause of the accident to be loss of control likely due to Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness. For more information please refer to the official NTSB report. On this episode we wanted to give Scott the ability to share his story. It is one of courage, survival, and mental resolution. Today Scott shares his recollection of the accident, his recovery, his struggles, his successes , and how music has aided in his mental recovery. He hopes to be an inspiration to anyone out there who has experienced extreme trauma, and shares a beautiful message of courage and strength. Thank you for trusting us with your story, we love you!
SEASON 1 THAT'S A WRAP!
Thank you guys so much for listening in, we appreciate your support and encouragement. We hope you enjoyed the first season of the Forever on the Fly Podcast, and we will catch you next time!! Fly safe out there!
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast What's up AV nerds. Welcome to this week's episode of The forever on the fly podcast, your bi weekly dose of aviation inspiration, education and entertainment. My name is Diane and I'm Jose and we're trying to get you guys hooked on aviation. Alright guys this week we're going to give the floor to our good friend Scott booth to share his story. On February 10 2018, he survived it fatal helicopter crash in the Grand Canyon. To learn more about the accident, please refer to the NTSB accident report online. On this episode, we wanted to give Scott the ability to share his story. It's one of courage and survival and mental resolution. Today he shares his recollection of the accident, his recovery, his struggles, most importantly, his successes, and how music has aided in his mental recovery. He hopes to be an inspiration to anyone out there who's experienced extreme trauma and shares a beautiful message of courage and strength. We're going to give the floor to him now. And thank you for listening in Scott booth. It was just a normal, normal flight until it wasn't. Hey, I'm Scott booth. And I'm forever on the fly. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for sitting down and chatting with us. I mean, it's always good to see you. Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, you're my partner right here. I know, dude. I'm like super pumped to see you, missy. Yeah. So Scott and I met I don't know what. So when I first started to work for Pantheon and our old friend Isaac Etherington was leaving. And Scott was actually my first friend at pantheon. He bought me a six pack of beer and brought me to my first bonfire. So I remember that. Yeah, I went to the bonfire, and then just sparked this beautiful friendship that we have now. I'm really happy about that. Obviously, I get it. I know. First time I saw you mean you were just joking it up. Just jaw jacking over there in the pile alone. Yeah, I think that has more to do with your personality than mine. You know, I'm I'm more standoffish. I think you're you're more easier to approach standoffish. I've never heard you be described as as that ever. Definitely not in the list of words and adjectives that people use to describe you. Well, I love working there. You know, it's fun. Just it's like going to work with your friends. I don't want to say high school. But but it's I mean, I know I've been I've said that many times. It was just like, finally finding a job where you can go and everyone's doing the same thing. Like the complaints are the same that the love of what you're doing, there's the same that the the issues you have are the same that not wanting to go back to the canyon one more time. After four three type three landings and like, you know, a couple of months in chubster you're gonna have to for today, or we're shorthand in this month do you have to for landings a day for a week straight? No problem. Let's just get it done. Whatever. I know I'm gonna have a week off later so let's just get done it but I just love that place because everyone just got together I think no matter if you worked at pappy on or, or Sundance rip Sundance or, or Maverick or the other smaller ones, I think that the things are all the same. You're just like, it's like, what, like the fraternity or sorority? I don't discriminate, right? Yeah, totally. It's like a definitely we talk a lot about the camaraderie there. The word I was going for, like when I heard Isaac's voice, it got me happy because I was like, that's a chill, dude. Yeah, he's a super chill dude. And I remember he told me, he was a helicopter, three engines. And I was like, Damn, dude, where do you put third engine? And he's like, No, one engine, like starts it and then the other two and just like fly it. And I'm like, Well, do you need three pilots is like, Yeah, I'm like, Wait, so you get one engine for pilot. So how does that work? So we had to break it all down. And we had it's down over dinner. I remember that night we're going to dinner and when the helicopter pilot says, Hey, Scott, you want to have some supper? Like are the radio on the AC frequency? And I'm like, Yeah, who's it? He's, it's Rick. And I was like, Sure he's all meet me at the Mexican spot in in Boulder City. And we'll have supper and then he rolled out with me and Isaac and him and just shot the shit for a couple hours. It was great. Oh my god. That's hilarious. Great hanging out with like, like older dudes that don't drink cuz they. They've seen it. All right. They shouldn't be drinking. Like you want to have a drink. You're like, dude, just have a beer with me. Come on. We just flew like four hours today to have a beer with me. You don't want to see the top person. I want to have that beer. You don't you don't want to open that. Can of Worms. I love my wife too much have that beer. I've never met a man. I never in my life. To this day. I've never met a man like that loved his wife that much that couldn't wait to get back home to Texas to be with his wife on his week off. Couldn't like when he was out PowerPoint. He couldn't wait to get home when he was in Texas. He didn't want to leave. Like damn, I'm never gonna find that. Which guy was this gentleman? Mr. Rick Neely. He was a he flies EF he was a private helicopter guy on the airline guy and then he flew. He flew In the Canyon for a cook for a year or two, and then he went part time for a little bit and then went back to Texas. He flies EMS out somewhere near Austin now I think, yeah, he still keeps the results. And once in a while out of the blue, I'll get a text and it was remind me he's like, hey, it's Rick. I'm like, I know you are. Great, dude. Like some separate deal. Yeah. But like, oh, you know, sometimes you're flying along and you just hear like, some weird stuff on that frequency. Yeah, you're like, Oh, my passengers hear this? Yeah. I remember one time I'm flying. And I hear I'm actually flying alone. The instructor pilots, and I hear Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for flying with us today. I just really want to thank you, you know, a lot of choices and flying in the canyon. And really, hopefully, that you enjoyed yourself. You took some great pictures. And if you did, you know, just pilot appreciation is always you know, expected. It's I mean, except, you know, and then when the guys radiates it, it's like, that's an epic fail man. Broadcast, it was really funny. And it was actually on the Boulder City frequency. So I mean, not too many people are flying around for that, but I don't know who it was. But I, I don't know who what, who was, but I do know one time. My good friend James and Jones, who who's a good dude. And there's some stories about him that are kind of funny, but he was flying in the canyon and he keyed the mic and started giving his whole speech about the most beautiful place on earth, which is the Grand Canyon. So we're listening like the whole everyone out flying that day. I probably 20 or 30 helicopters listen to this guy going. And this is just the most amazing magical place on Earth. One of my favorite parts is on Mike Burrows. Mike I mean you can you know you can do a great whole segment on stuck mics like the time I was at the airport in in I just got a helicopter delivery back from Florida the other way normally, I've done I've done like five deliveries to Florida and then two down to Brazil from here, like through the Caribbean and all the way down through South South American countries that like you name them and people go oh, they're in Africa. My were surname. Africa. Where's Guyana? Oh, Africa, where? It's French, Ghana? Africa. No, they're not. It's Venezuela. Suriname. Guyana. What? Sorry, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Ghana. Then Maka pop Brazil. Basically, they were the Amazon dumps into the forest, some gnarly flying, which I don't want to repeat. Yeah, I can do that. I can tell you stories. I heard online once for this. This guy says he's taken off and out of like New York, or it's either in England or New York. Mmm, it's east coast or England. And the pilot asked for something. And the guy says, Well, you know, I could approve that. But then you'd be over my mother in law's house and she's just a bitch. Something like that, or she's just PAL to deal with. So I'm going to have you turn early. Okay. Can we extend the down when he's all? Well, I'd let you normally. But that's my ex wife's neighborhood. So we're just gonna have to move. I don't want to hear them today. You can find that one on YouTube as well. Nice. Well, at this point, Scott, if you're comfortable, would you mind talking about the accident? What happened that day? And did you feel like the NTSB Did you justice and their report? I don't know how I can just jump right in and just tell you like my last day there, which, which was a bummer. As you guys know, I I had two flights. I did a landing tour, which is great. And I don't remember the people you don't remember him. It's usually good. Because you've had 1000s 1000s of passengers, right? I had a planning tour. And then I had an air tour. And I was like, I should be done today. Because that's too it's a slow day. And then I remember that, that they're like, Oh, you're you're sunset landing to our soul. And I'm like, Alright, cool. Let's go back out there. I didn't think anything of it because I've done it a million times will actually read later that I've done it like six or six or 800 times I can't give you the exact number but somewhere in there. Yeah, and then and it was a good flight into like I've said this before, it's it was a good flight until it wasn't it. And, and you know, I just remember waking up and not not being in a good place. And some lady giving me what he would call the equivalent of like the military last rites. And if you ever seen the movie where like the soldiers are storming the beach, and there's a like, a Navy chaplain or murdering a child over them, giving them like, their last rites, if they were a Christian or Catholic, I think I've seen it in the movies. But that's what somebody was doing to me and I was like, Wow, this isn't good is really bad. And yeah, and then I woke up in the hospital, I don't know how many weeks or months later and like you guys were there. Which is really, really nice because kind of goes back to what you were talking about all the the camaraderie and the family that you get from working where we did and, and flying together and maybe that's probably the true the true case flying anywhere in the world when there's a group of people that do something that there is an element of danger to it. I think that you guys come together really well. You know, I know people when I worked in restaurants, you know, wasn't dangerous, but they're like, oh my god, another double. And everyone's like pulling together and everyone hangs out together. It was kind of like, I can't compare a restaurant to flying. Yeah, flying in the canyon. But it was the same vibe of everyone's get together when I had so many people, one of the nurses who, who later became very close to me, told me that she was actually there when I woke up, which was really cool, that she's can still tell me the story to this day. She's like, he woke up and we're like, where am I? Where's my, where's my MacBook Pro. I went on my MacBook. Probably did because I was on that thing all the time, right for all my stuff. But what I was saying she told me that she hadn't seen that many people come to visit. And even though a lot of them I couldn't get in because of a lot of different reasons. And you know, keeping the infection level down pre COVID, non pre COVID. I was gonna say pre COVID Nonsense, pre COVID, you know, keeping the infection level down because I was really septic. And susceptible to diseases, so but there was just so many people coming in, and it was, that was a lot of love. And I think someone even made me like, homemade, like granola or something. That was me. Well, I remember Yeah, you. I was like, Hey, man, is there anything that you that you want or need? And you're like, Yeah, I just need some like protein bars or like granola bars or something. to chew on. Yeah, the food I love. I mean, you gotta give love to the hospital. UMC in Las Vegas, they've saved a lot of people's lives. No matter who you are, they're gonna take care of you. And, you know, it's just, it's unfortunate that at hospital on those levels can't get the food, right. But that's okay. Like, we're not going to complain about because they let you bring in your own food, which is really nice. You know, it just like once it's in the room, it can't leave to go get heated or some sort of someone brings you something nice. And you're like, I'll just put it there. I'll get to it later. It's not it goes out, it can't come back. And there's a lot of rules on that. And, again, this is all for infection level. Makes sense? Yeah. But um, yeah, it was a nice place to live for, for four months, four or five, four, I can't remember at this point. But I know I was in the hospital for eight months, total and across three different hospitals. So I think for at UMC. So February, March, April, May. And then I spent June, July and August in Torrance. And then I spent a month in Long Beach so I ended up coming home from the hospital that I was born in. Whoa. Which was kind of cool. Yeah, it's pretty kneaded and after being in UMC which was a teaching hospital and also a public hospital so it's kind of on the dirtier side but again, like they save they say lives over there there's nowhere else to go i If you get hurt anywhere within like 100 miles of Las Vegas like they're gonna they're the only option and I went to Torrance for like more recovery and to be closer to home but that was like living in a hotel because their private hospital is super nice and I really get food and what do I want for dinner? I was like, well what can I have like what do you want? What can I have like what do you want? Pizza Sure. isn't on the menu. No, we'll make it for you. Wow. Hi pizza order that like five nights in a week I love who I invited to it's such an unpopular no before I got so good. I was 185 pounds. When I got hurt I was I just come back from Mount Everest. I went to I was Mike one of my goals to do I want my friends we had a destination wedding and they got married at the base of Mount Everest right and and I was like on that whole three week journey of hiking from we flew up to from Kathmandu up to this town and in height three weeks and I lost like eight pounds or six pounds but I was in really good shape which is probably that probably what saved my life because like couple month or two later I was I got hurt and and I went down to from like 185 When I got hurt down to like I think it was 118 in the hospital. Yeah, and now I got it. I got it all back. And then some lion fetus. Yeah, but I was where I was going to circle back with a story was I went from UMC which is kind of on the dirtier side but again life saving dental to Torrance which was like hotel flawless side, then to Long Beach and the front Last night, I spent the night in the in the Long Beach hospital like this giant. I woke up at two or three in the morning and this like giant cockroaches was like you know, like, I mean, we're in Long Beach right now I'm from here. I love it and I'm like, Oh, just welcome home you know, great. Okay. Yeah, here we are. What's up? What's up Roche? Do you name him? Nah Jose Oh, that's a big one. I can imagine. Forgive me va but that's what I thought when I saw one of the riches at the VA hospital. I was like, dang. Well, we in the VA for just when I got out when I got to do a checkup? Yeah, they gotta do like checkups. So just go to the VA hospital. I don't even use my regular medical. Yeah, I don't know. I like the VA hospital here in LA. I like the clinics there. But they're pretty solid for the most part. Yeah. No, I forgot that. We were in the army. I forgot that. Mexican Navy. Yeah, I mean, I there's a NTSB report that's out. That's, I think pretty thorough. I read it. I thought they took a couple shots at me that were that were a little below the belt, to be honest with you. But you know, that's their job. And I mean, well, I'll just point out one because in I haven't had a chance to talk about it yet. But they said, you know, a couple months, couple months before the the incident that the pilot was unsatisfactory on a training flight. And I was like, you know, one I don't remember ever being on Saturday, we didn't talk about anything. We I was flying with the training pilot. And he said, we were doing one at our auto rotations to hit a spot on the on the runway, and it was fairly windy and we weren't hitting our spot. Exactly, neither of us. And we said you know what, let's just discontinue this till tomorrow and before your check, ride just come up and nail one. So that was our deal. And then I and then I read in the NTSB report that I was unsatisfied on a training maneuver a couple months before and then flew the next day with a different pilot and was passed as like that's really not what happened. But if that's the if that's what they want to put out there then have that makes them feel better about making me now I mean, who what pilot going on what pilot who flies anywhere hits there? Who does a an emergency procedures, one time a year ever hits their exact spot in like, unusually windy conditions on a, you know, on a check ride prep on the you know, maybe they all do? I don't know. I don't think so. But anyway, that that was I thought that was a little, little off. But overall, I thought the report was fairly detailed. But yeah, I think we were just what I said in the, in the interview with them, it was it was and what I told in the interview with the Las Vegas journal a long time ago was that it was just a normal, normal flight until it wasn't something you've done many many times before. I think the report said I can't get the number but I think it was something like 800 flights and five or 600 landings and in that area would so I mean, I do know what I'm doing and and when you have helicopters pointed in multiple directions already down there that kind of tells you that landings are being done from multiple directions and you know, when the wind sock obviously telling you one thing and then can switch pretty pretty quickly which is what we think happened is the wind was coming from one direction and then quickly shifted and there's some downdraft combinations and just kind of slowing down to set up for landing the helicopters like a sail, it just spun and it became uncontrollable and and next thing we knew were weird on the on the ground and I I was fairly far away from the from the aircraft and my my pair I remember my pants being on fire and I was brushing my brushing my legs to get the put the fire out and I was in pretty bad shape. My left leg was broken pretty bad but other than that I was conscious and then like I said earlier that there was a lady like giving me what I would call the last like the last rites she was over me praying and remember that the EMS people showing up and trying to keep me going until they could figure out how to get help down there and I think it took something like seven hours or so I was good. But you know it kind of circles back to right the there The accident happened was because of nothing that I did. It was just like we could call it an act of God or something. But what could have been better Yeah, could there have been the crashers and fuel tanks on the aircraft, which, you know, can educate the audience on? Maybe you could educate the audience on, on why there's not at the moment or why there doesn't have to be because of certain type ratings and built aircrafts built, we started in certain timeframe. Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely go over them. Yeah. So there wasn't those fuel tanks on the aircraft, which would have been a great, great help for all of us. And I think that pretty confident that that everybody would have would have survived. With the exception of like, my broken leg or whatnot, I think we would have been in pretty good shape if we would add those fuel tanks on on board. So I hope that in the future that that I know pappy on has already put, purchased and installed and if all the fleet if not, most of or all the fleet they did at their own cost, and I really applaud them for that. And they're great people, and they've been great. The whole family has been great to me from from before the accident from day one working there all the way till now, and they still keep in touch with me and, and I hope to see them all again. And under better circumstances, you know, as I recover, I mean, I'm still on, get I learned the word, sir. It's called ambulatory, that means walking. I didn't know that. I didn't know that either. Yeah, right. As I get more ambulatory, you know, I started in the I started in the not being able to move in bed, to just being able to like, roll from side to side, and then I could get into a wheelchair. And then after a while, I got into, you know, I can, I can use a walker. And while I was with the help of prosthetic leg, I could get into a walker. And now I can walk with crutches. And pretty soon I'm going to try to get to just a cane. And the people at rehab seem to think I could get down to just nothing, but I don't see that at all. Or really, yeah, I don't see that. Why do you say that there's just too many hills and driveways. And you know what, you just you stumble and you're just gonna topple right over real quick. So I just, I don't see, you know, just taking the dog to the park and just walking up the grass that's uneven, without, like, some support from the ground with a cane or whatnot. I just don't think I could do it. But, you know, they're positive. And I'm just going to keep going. And just keep hitting hard until we reach some point, I think it's all off strength to you know, you have to do a lot of a lot of stuffs on your own. There's no book for this stuff, right? You're, there's no manual. Yeah, there's no manual is. So for the people that that don't know, my injuries, I was had a very low chance of survival be mostly because of burns. So the burns caused my me to lose most of my left leg, but just like but only, you know, from the ankle down of my, of my right leg, but still, that's both of your feet, which is you know, very unpleasurable and very depressing and special for coming from someone that's traveled to 50 plus countries and just came back from hiking to sleeping at Mount Everest base camp was such a cool thing. And then you know, like I said, a couple months later, you're just like laying in bed dying. And and yeah, like there's no manual for this and I'm and because of my injuries with the with the burns and the way the skin heals, there's just no way to wear traditional prosthetics at all, which is the what they call sockets where you slip them on your, your left leg and your right and then you you know you have a sleeve and then you walk and and it just kind of breaks down the skin so you're something you're only able to do for a short period of time if not minutes, but now they've developed what's called osseointegration which basically just means integrating into the bone and I have so that's the surgery that I had done post accident about a year a little over a year ago and that inserted the titanium rods into with what's left to my femur on the left leg and then my tibia on the right leg so that allows me to no longer wear prosthetics as far as slip them on I can just click them on like a like you just click into your into like ski boots or something like that and just just go which is no there's no more rubbing on the skin and and the pain is is pretty much non existent, no more skin breakdown. So that's a very positive thing. So The distance as walking is, is there's unlimited that far you can go. It's just how much strength you have. And you know what's left of your, in your muscles. So just building the muscles back will will bring that back, man. It's incredible. I mean, I just what's incredible is that nobody does all the doctors said don't do it, right. They're like, No, this won't work for you know the No, because they just don't do it in America. It's huge in Europe, and Australia. So I'm like, What am I going to sit on a plane to go to Australia for 16 hours to let some doctor that I've never met, like, drill into my material into my bones and tap in some, some rods, I mean, and I got to pay for that auto pocket. And it's very expensive. So I was able to actually find someone that had done in Australia, but they have a surgeon here in Las cedars that looks after them. So I contacted that doctor and he said, I said, No, I'll do it. I've done it before. And I can do it for you. And we know we'll get a great price for you because we want to help you. And you know, we're learning to so if you'll take a chance with us and I go, I met him one time, and I said let's do it. Yeah. And, you know, the recovery was pretty long. And there's been a lot of ups and downs. And you know, they'll still will be but but that was you know, I had to do it. I had no choice, either, like, be miserable, or, or be you know, be in a wheelchair and I just can't do I can't be like, I got to stand up right? You know, and San Jose being taller than me. I just couldn't help but get so emotional seeing the video that you sent me the other day and be walking with your friend. Yeah, Kim was over here. And yeah, we just my wife, Liz took six videos. She's like, let's just go for a walk. And then um, yeah, I wish that we could have done that without me lay down her so much. But, you know, like I said, So tell us that man. Like, I mean, I seeing you go from being in an induced coma in the hospital to not being able to move to where you are today. It's just absolutely incredible. It's been a over three years. Amazing over three years. Unbelievable. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have expected this, I wouldn't expect to be where I'm at now. And when I Yeah, it was, you were there. It was bad. And to go from there, she here is pretty, pretty amazing. And I met so many nice people and from you know, Lizzie, to all the doctors and all the care people, but you know, the question you have to ask, and a lot of people maybe they don't want to ask me, but I asked myself, like, would you give that all up? Like, would you? Would you not? Would you rather not know them? And have your old life back? And, you know, that's always a question that that's gonna come up is like, would you give it give up everything you've gone through, and all the new people you've met to have your life back to go back to like five minutes before so you could have, like, done something different with the aircraft or like, you know, decided not to land and just flow off? Or maybe still would happen? Who knows? But maybe you're just not gone to work that day. You know, those are, and you start going down those rabbit holes in your mind. It gets a bad place, because you can't stop. Yeah, dude, I could totally get that. Yeah. Cuz then you're gonna go back to well, you know, what if because my aunt had died a week before. And so I didn't, I switched my schedule, at work to go be with them. And then my girlfriend's brother had died like two weeks before that. And in a car accident in San Diego. So I had like, I'd taken a bunch of time away from work to go down to San Diego and then up to La me. So I can go to the funerals and stuff. And then I went back to Las Vegas. So then you're saying like, what if those people had to die, then would I still be hurt? Right? So you could play that game all day? Yeah, it's bad. You don't want to do that. Yeah, I think the most important thing is staying present. And not not going back to the what ifs? Because it doesn't matter. Right. Like all we have is the present and what to look forward to. And yeah, I mean, I I think it was it was a blessing. I'm sorry. It was a blessing at the time that I wasn't working. I'm so glad that I was able to have so much time to be able to come and spend some time with you in there. I don't know if you even remember me being there half the time, but I remember I think you were even there once when I had like, when it might have been I'm pretty sure it was you at my like the catheter that they had in me like like wasn't working and it was like all backed up and I was I was trying to like pee and it was hurting so bad and I was like crying. It was either you or like Vinita or somebody was in my room and there's looking at me and I'm just like, tears in my eyes and like it hurts so bad. Doctors like come in. We'll just take it out. They just ripped it. Like this day. And then you know, cuz they put it in what? You're not awake. Yeah. So when you are awake, they gotta put it back in. It's not good. Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine. I mean, oh, yeah, we all you know, I had when I woke, I had the tubes and in all the areas because of the burns, they, they couldn't, they couldn't chance you like, you know, go into the bathroom by yourself and getting the wounds infected. So they did their best to just Yeah, gotcha. Yeah. Dude, I can't imagine. Yeah, it was an incredible to see just your, like, the little victories along the way, you know that, that keep you going? Yeah. And like from, from the time you're able to actually be awake to getting the trach out and you know, these little steps in teaches you patience. That's one thing you I don't know, if I had a lot of patients before I got hurt, but it just teaches you because they'll say, we're going to do this operation in two weeks. And you can't move like, nowhere I could go out and so many tubes in me and whatnot. I couldn't go anywhere for for two weeks on the lay, they're just looking at the clock, like 24 hours a day, and then all of a sudden the date would come. And it's we're gonna push it back two days. I mean, that just would break your heart, man. Yeah. And then the day of that, so we're gonna, we're gonna do it. We'll be there at six in the morning to prep you for surgery. So we can't give you any food tonight. And then Sam will come no income, then 8am 9am 10am? Noon, two o'clock. Okay. They'll be here in 15 minutes. An hour later they show up? You know? So yeah, it's just it's just, yeah, it's a game and you just have to? You're at their mercy. Yeah. And how many surgeries total? 50 Plus, yeah. Wow. Yeah. There's quite a few. I mean, just for this for the skin grafts in the initial days, and weeks. It's a lot and then it kind of tapers down. And so I know you already mentioned that they gave you a very low chance of survival that I remember some numbers getting thrown out there at 1.2% 3% chance, like ridiculous, like, yeah, you know, nobody, none of us knew if you were gonna unfold through, there's a scale that I learned about later, it has something to do with your age, and the percent of your body that's burned. And since I was 41, at the time, and 70%, estimated burns, so they take that number 70 plus 40, wide, and if it's like over 100, you pretty much not going to live that's what they that's, that's what I that's what I read I could be I could be wrong, we should do some research on it. But yeah, but it's like there's it's the name somebody whoever invented it's their name. And it's a scale. So so it was very, it was very low. And they tell you that in the hospital, or did they keep that information kind of like that you don't lose that that part. That part I found out later. From some nurses that treated me who later became my friends, but one of the doctors told me in the hospital that that it's a miracle that that I love them so that I'm alive absolute miracle they had they had they said they all thought there was no way. Well, what were some of the things that got you through it, do you Oh, can you pinpoint any really quick they said that? They said that? They had a meeting to debate how much care they should they should give me because I had a couple of doctors said there's no there's no way it's, it's going to be a waste of effort. And I guess a couple of doctors thank God on on we're on the other side of that. And they said, Well, his lungs are okay, so let's put him on the breathing machine and let that energy that would go to breathing like focus and on other stuff and healing on ailing but yeah, what got me through I don't know I've never really been, I've never really given up on on anything. And I think I was way more optimistic than I should have been like I thought oh, well I'm gonna be fine. Like, I'm just gonna get right back out there and, and it's gonna be fine. Like I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm not going to be in a wheelchair. I'm not going to be in pain. I'm just gonna go and I'll get out of here I'll be I'll be I'll be the my friends were having an event at the at the Wynn and in April and I think I was in the hospital still in Vegas because they'd come over and visit me. And I'd say you know, I'm gonna come to the event and I'm gonna see everyone there's no there was no way there was no way but it's just my brain kept thinking that I'm not hurt and I mean to this day, I never still feel like I mean I don't even like the park in the handicap spot. I mean, I have a wheelchair accessible van And that requires me to go in through the side. So if I so it's hard to park in a regular parking spot when I take the wheelchair because I have someone parked next to me I can't get out of the car, I have to go through, I'd have to only go through the, the the, the front seat, right? So now that I'm taking the walker, or the crutches, I feel much better about like dry. I don't even I won't even use the handicapped spot. If I don't need I don't care about being close. I only care about getting out of the side. Yeah, eating out on the side. Right. So yeah, I think that will get you through or what got me through just so many people, you guys, all the pilots and my family and just just just a lot of I had a lot of good medical care that was provided by by the insurance company, they they provide what's called, like a catastrophic case manager, that, that deals with the worst cases of worse, and mine was like the worst of the worst, right? They, they don't, they don't normally have people like what happened to me survive, so that I had like somebody that would come and visit me all the time. And they take me to my appointments. And it was really nice and, you know, helped helped my my family get through it, because I didn't. I was seeing someone at the time of my accident, but they were in San Diego. And it was it would be unfair to think that they were going to take care of me or anything. So that was that was quickly wrapped up while I was hurt. But I had to go back and live with my parents and I haven't lived with them for decades. And my dad's much older and he's got dementia and my my mom's taking care of me and him and, you know, I moved into like the living room in our house. And it's just it was it was you know, once you get home from the hospital, there's no one left to tell you when to get up tell you when to go to rehab tell you when to take a medicine, you're just on your own. And I think that's when the lowest of the lowest kicked in for me when I was the most depressed and the most sad and the most suicidal and most everything was when I finally got home and didn't have the visitors because I got a visitor every day I was in hospital for almost eight and a half months. I was visited every day, even if it was 10 o'clock at night. And I had an hadn't had a visitor all day like someone I remember like my cousin Mike would pop in the room at like 10 o'clock at night in Torrance. And I'd say Wow, man, I didn't think I was gonna get a visitor today. And he's like, No, I was just, I was down there on a bar in Torrance, I was down at the bar that comes to you. Like, that's great. But when you're home, you know, now it's like, you got your mom there. And I mean, I was just in bad, bad shape living at home. And I didn't think I was gonna make it. I really did it. And, you know, I don't know, I don't know what I did to snap out of it. I can't put my finger on it. But having the the visualization of getting the osseointegration surgery, which is like I said before, instead of wearing the prosthetics, they insert the titanium rods in your bones. And that allows you to click in rather than rather than slip and slip them on and break down your skin and be really uncomfortable and press on the bones. And it's just, it's so uncomfortable. There's so painful and so uncomfortable. So I think keeping my eye on that, and then I think that just helped. And, you know, reconnecting with Liz from the hospital. Yeah. Tell us about that. So you already mentioned that you became pretty close with one of your nurses. Yeah. We were. She was the nurse that was there when I woke up in the hospital. And, you know, it was pretty shocking, because she was in there. And she's like, What do I say? I don't think she didn't even know what she could tell me. What I was allowed to know. I found all this out later, right. And then me she used to work nights. And I just always look forward to her coming in because she's so just such a kind person. And she she was smart and cute. She had all kinds of funny stories. And she knew a lot about the restaurant industry and, and marketing's for restaurants. And this interests me and she used to be a restaurant manager at one of the nice restaurants in Vegas, and she was in Somalia. And I remember saying, Oh, um, when you get discharged, I'll bring in a nice bottle of whiskey and and then we'll have a drink. And I said that's nice. And I think I got discharged before I ever saw her again. And then one day I got a really nice note from her in the mail. And it was just really awesome. And I happen to be going to Vegas like two weeks later for to go see my friends that were working at an event at the again at the Wynn and I wrote her back and I said I would love to He won't come in and see you guys again. And so I went to the hospital to UMC in the middle of the day and and I went saw everyone I saw like some nurses I was really, really, really, really cool. And I said, you know, you guys could have been a little more lenient with the pain meds. Yeah, that's when I got the torn stay confident. I'm like when I go to the torn pain, Doctor, I got that pain nurse. Oh, you guys are stiff. You guys like caused me a lot of pain, man. And yeah, it'd be like, I mean, look at my body. I look at what I went through. And then like, you're gonna, you're gonna like give me like one milligram of morphine before a dressing change. I mean, come on, I got a torn so like, whenever you need, like, like, every hour on the hour push that. So yeah, so I go to visit them and we take some pictures. And then I run into one of the doctors and same doctor that before he, he actually he called me left him a voicemail. He left me a voicemail and says like your absolute miracle, you're one of our best cases we ever remember because nobody thought you were going to make any surprises all and so they said, Oh, she'll be here on like, Friday or Saturday, I come back. And so I just made a note to come back and and then I came back and and I said I said Yeah, I got your your letter was so sweet. And you get mine. I wrote you back. And she's all we haven't checked the mail yet. And I said we of course she's married. And then she's so nice. I stayed with my mom right now. I was like, Oh, well, once you come visit me in Long Beach. You should come over here and hang up. And so she did and, and yeah, we spent some time together in Las Vegas. And, you know, looking at me and everything I've been through and and, and me you know my body and stuff. It's it's like I don't even like looking at my what's left of myself in the mirror sometimes or after a shower. I'm like, Man, I look pretty scarred up and it's pretty bad. But then like, you know who who's gonna have more to love you than a burn nurse? Right? So I think I got lucky it's amazing. Yeah, that is awesome dude. I you know, man, I never ever got to tell you I don't think I've ever have But dude, I got nothing more love for you dude. Ya know, it just you have a lot of grit and yeah, well remember what I was saying before I appreciate that and I have here but memorize I was I was saying like I go to boxing and there's the like I'm gonna take a picture you can put it on I'm gonna put this picture up on the the our Instagram or some because I want to show the other guys that aren't cutting it to they need to come here because you're doing it they need to be in here every day. And you know I've been doing some more reading and research articles by some handicapped or disabled people I'm not even sure the term of what I'm supposed to call myself. I don't feel hurt you know, like I'm still do everything I used to do except, you know, I mean, I'm not a stand up paddleboarding. And I'm not running on the beach and stuff but you know, that's overrated. I don't need to I don't need to work out I mean, I don't think you work I don't work I don't you're not working. I don't know. Did Jose has been hitting lately actually. He's been going on us morning runs. Yeah, well, you know, I got a I got a gym in the garage. I got a bike you paddle on. I got a recumbent bike. I have a bike you pedal with your hands. And we just live right here by the beach. So that that's seven miles a bike path? Yeah. So he's go right down there and do the do the whole thing on so I mean, I'm getting some mix. Definitely get some exercise. So full circle. Liz is now his fiancee. Yeah, we just say we just say we it's so much easier to say wife. We deserve a wife. Yeah, okay, cuz cuz I gave her both rings already. Nice. So like I gave her the the nice rock. And then I gave her I said, Well, why don't you just have the band to because it just looks better together. Yeah. So we just we just went all in and yeah, your Wi Fi. Yeah, it's just easier. And she's incredible. She doesn't want to go anywhere. I just I'm like, don't you want? I'm like, Are you sure you want to deal with me? She's like, Yeah, and our next house. We're gonna do this on my couch. She's already planning for the next house. And you guys just got this one. I know. We've done a full house. I love this house. Thank you. We've been working on it for about 14 or 15 months. So it's, it's like every day there's like last week it was the garbage disposal that that exploded like homeownership. Yeah. I liked renting because that was that was that was exciting. I'm like, Hey, John, my heaters not working. I'll get over there take care of that right away. And that's great. Because you know, you have to because the law belongs to you. If you ever do leave, man, and you don't want that painting, you let me know. It's got your name on a scoop that Jose ran all over it? No, we could do some research online and See if we can find that artist there might be a duplicate out there, fingers. So it's a Hispanic man playing guitar wearing a sombrero. And Jose got a similar piece commissioned by an artist who ended up sending him a photo or a painting of a woman playing guitar. And she had six calls up artist, he's like, Yo, this girl has, what, what I just thought about, about my paintings that it's abstracted guitar I'd ever realized that's not a guitar that's only got four strings is that a call is that a qualifying characteristic of a guitar it has to have Yeah, guitars got to have six or 12 strings got or I mean, they do make seven string guitars as well. But not four. But six is the obviously by far the standard that 99% of guitars are rarely rarely you'll find a seven string guitar that some like speed medalist has had commissioned. And, and 12 strings of course, because it gives you that nice little sound but that that I think is a ukulele that has fallen but um, you know, you asked me but I can tell you again, what I thought helps me maybe get through some stuff is, is my my music love. I mean, I went when I was in college, I had a I went after this this degree pursued of audio engineering and music theory. And then I finished in around 2000 With that, and I've always loved music. That's why we got the piano in here now. And you had to put we had to add the baby grand from the 20s to go with the house was from the 20s. But my guitars I've just loved collecting and playing guitar for forever since I had like, my bought my first guitar when I was like 14 years old. And my two or three by the time I was 16. And then like five, it just it's like a like a passion. I just can't stop it and it can't. It's hard for me to get rid of one you're supposed to have a rule when you get enough that like one comes in one goes out. But it's usually like two in one out or three in one out. And I've honestly only sold one in the last couple in the last decade. I've only sold one. And I'm always so impressed by a collection. That's insane. How many guitars Do you haven't heard? Quite a few I think I think there's probably like maybe 15 in here and 17 that I've counted there's in there 19 Then there's then there's four more in my in my bedroom. So you got like 24 guitars, garage and then in like workshop, there's probably about 20 more. Oh wow, that's insane. Do you have a favorite? Yeah, they're my favorites are in my bedroom. So what do you see out here? It's just these are. These are just for for love. I have like, I have my section on my Jose section over there. Yeah, dude, I noticed I was like diggin the graphics on a couple of those other guitars. Those are the Alvarez those made in Mexico. They spoke to me. Yeah, so let me go. And yeah, so I know which ones are your favorites and one that are the ones that you keep in the bedroom. I have a guitar that that Liz and her mom got me for Christmas. That's it's a taco meanie nylon string acoustic guys, it's so easy to play because my fingers are still recovering with my my hands. I mean, there was a time in when in the hospital, I couldn't even grip a tennis ball. So that and my fingers are you know, kind of burns on my hands. So my fingers are still a little gent a little soft. So that's that nylon string. Talk to me he's really nice on the street on my hands and easy to play. And then I have a I have a Paul Reed Smith, John Mayer signature, which is it's just like playing a Strat but faster. It's really fun to play. And I have a Fender Jazz Bass in there. So because you gotta have a bass you know, the bass is just like a guitar but with four strings I mean, do you think that the I mean other other than the emotional aspect of music I mean, there's no denying that music aids and mental recovery and depression and mental health Do you think that help physically with your hands as well? Like practicing you were always practicing the guitar Yeah, every single time I saw you Yeah. I just I think my playing got anything got better. My job this accident my my. My patients improved greatly. My guitar playing as as compounded in skill greatly because you know, there was a point when I was was just really different. And I wasn't leaving the house. And I would try to, like, you know, medicate myself to sleep. Most of the day, when the sunlight was out, I just didn't want to be outside, I didn't want people to see me. I didn't, I didn't want people to see me without my full body the way I used to look before cuz it's hard to be, you know, so active and, and everywhere and so full, you know, so happy and full life and I wasn't acting I was really happy and I had a great life and, and have that all just disappeared was really, really hard. And I still feel a little self conscious, definitely self conscious. Like if I'm out in the wheelchair, I feel like you know, really staring at me if I go to if we go to Costco, I have to ask people to help get me stuff. So I'm really trying to get out there with the with the crutches and the walker. Another meant mentally I think so. The guitar definitely helped getting my my, my hands back in order in my brain and then give me a purpose, right. Like, I wanted to write some new music and work on melodies. And I've been spending a lot of time taking some my favorite songs that I've ever played from, from everyone from Van Halen, to the Grateful Dead just named like, even like Skid Row. I mean, like, I've just been taking all my favorite guitar players in bands and just mashing them changing the tune of the key of some of the songs and just mash them all into madly so I can, I can run through like 10 to 15 songs in a row, but medley them all together. So it sounds like one like 15 minutes on, which I think is kind of fun. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I am. I saw some guys that when I was I was flying helicopters around the Lake of the Ozarks in I believe 2012 Summer of summer of 2012, I believe, or 2011. I can't remember. But I would go to this bar at night. Buy my house, just listen some music and these guys would be there. And they they play. They'd medley some tunes together these two guitar players from from St. Louis. And I was like, I never thought to put those two songs together. And the guys playing like a song we even had in the helicopter by lights by Ellie Goulding. They're playing lights on the guitar, like, right into some poisoned song or something. But they were they were and they were singing the lyrics to one song over that song. And it was I was like, Damn, that works. Yeah, I mean, I've seen DJs do that. But I've never seen like guitar players to live with with taking country and, and hip hop and rock and like mixing it together. I thought was pretty cool. Yeah, I think I think whatever gets you by for therapy, whether it's if it's anything, whatever is going wrong in your life, if it's music, if it's working out if it's just going for walks by yourself, if it's watching TV, like a vegetable, like watching all 84 episodes with the Sopranos. What? Whatever it is, that was you didn't know before. Yeah, that's how I know there's 84 of them. That's a good show. Yeah, get like 10 pounds a week. That's when you're eating your wine pizza. Those are some good Tony Soprano would roll in his grave. I love pizza. I do love. I do love Tony. Man. That's a great character. Yeah, yeah. Rest in peace. I couldn't. You couldn't ask for a better show. We used to have it literally just playing on a boat when I was in the Coast Guard just on a loop those anytime you went out to the maesteg would just be on the TV at all times. Always set the intro to that show was like the best. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, there's a lot of interviews where people say, you know, I heard that. I heard that. I heard that music start and then I get excited. I get the drink. Get my drink, right. I get on the couch. Get it going. I get excited. get amped up. Yeah. Yeah, it just I don't know. Every time I heard that song, I was just like, dang. Woke up this. Yeah, I love it. That's great. I mean, I don't even remember that those guys are but I know like one of the producers or show runners of that show found that song and they're like, this is the song. Gosh, thank you so much for sharing. I actually think that this could really help a lot of people. You know, it's a going back to kind of kind of some things that you were talking about with just maintaining your mental health and your survival. And I know you said you can't really pinpoint exactly what helped to get you through it but having things to look forward to like you had you guys I had my parents. I had you know, I have a daughter that I want to see her finish school and we even talked about Kendall Yeah, I want to see you're about to graduate. So I want to see your finish school. Get married, all that stuff. So those are those are things you know, someday I could actually With the technology that we have now that I'm using, and just keep, keep pounding, keep grinding, Keep walking, keep trying, I could actually, like with some assistance, maybe at least like Walker, down the aisle, she chooses something like that. Which would be, which would be great because, like, in the hospital house was people were telling me like, you need to hang on for this person and this person. And, you know, maybe I was being selfish, I probably only thought about, I don't even I can't even really tell you, I was thinking well, but yeah, there's, there's, there is a lot to live for. And, but it's okay to be depressed too. It's okay. Because bad things happen. And it's okay. Like, there's no reason why you can't be sad or soccer be or go through hell, because you are going through hell. So you don't have to, like, try to fake it, just own it. And, and hopefully, you know, you'll pull out of it. And, I mean, I think that if I can help other people that have gone through similar things, to me that that survived horrific accidents that shouldn't be here. If I could help motivate them to not stay in bed all day, just like, Okay, stay in bed today, but get out tomorrow for like one day. You know, that would be, that would be great. I think that's important. Because I don't need to motivate you guys, you guys are you guys are motivated, I don't need to motivate people at the gym, like the guys at the boxing gym. Like I'll get Scott, he can stand up and hit the speed back. I'm not there to motivate those guys. Like I need to help people that are like me, that see, they have think they have no way out. Because when I was in the hospital, and so sad and depressed, some guys came in to visit me that I've been through house fires, and been through like a really tragic accidents. And they had lost, like arms and legs. And sometimes like both that came in about lost both arms and legs in the fire. And he's showing me like, he's like, Look, man, if I can do this liquid, you're gonna be able to do and you have like, you know, you have your knee. And you know, you have both hands, you're going to be good. And I didn't see it until and then, but it sure helped like it. It just brightens my day. So I mean, now with them. COVID It's hard to go and see people that are in bad places because they just won't let you in. But when this gets sorted out, I would like to start to start doing that more. Because I do know a lot of people will work in the hospitals around here in the burn units. And they they want me to come in. And people from Nevada from UMC in Las Vegas still reached out to me. And they say they say we have a patient in here that's pretty down, like would you be willing to talk to him? And I'm like, of course, give him my number. And so I've done that a couple of times, which is which is cool. One one even survived was a survivor on a plane crash and in Vegas. And so I I talked to him for a little bit. And I said what he was I said, Man, I've ever talked to him. I said, Wait, you got burn, but you got both your legs, both your arms and your face is good. He's like, Yeah, you got to get a good amount. I'll text you the whole pictures of me and you'll you'll see. So that helped him like seeing it's it's strange, but seeing someone that's worse off in you in your time of need. Seeing someone that's worse off than you. Surviving. That's showing you you can do it. It helps you because it helped me. Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to sound morbid or whatever. I don't mean to put that in a bad way. I don't think that you know, that way at all. Yeah, it's like you're like look at the special kid. He's trying to shoes you should be to tie your shoes to I'm not saying that. That's, that's, that's over the top. No, but I mean, on a deeper level of like I said, I think just seeing not that you're live and living but you're thriving. I like just seeing where you're at right now. You have a beautiful, beautiful wife, Liz. Hi. She's connected in the house. He just got a dog. It's really really freakin cute dog named Phil. Liz's son. So cute. This amazing house. All of these beautiful guitars. A passion that you're living for. We have a golf cart and a golf cart. Living in a really prime neighborhood in Long Beach. Yeah, I want to check it out. I am we I used to ride motorcycles and before I got hurt, I was a big motorcycle lover and had a boat little small it wasn't a big it was nice to cruise cruise around the bay in so Things that could no longer do is ride my my Honda 6/53 Bike dual sport license plate and my my Harley 2003 Dyna Super Glide it was it's a it's Jax tellers bike before there was a Jax teller. Nice. I didn't buy it to be no sons. Okay Jax Yeah, but it didn't look like that. But he had it he had that bike modified to look like it like the way he's does, which would look cool. It look cool. But after he did it, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. But anyway, though, I sold them my friends. My friends helped me out and sold, sold all my things that I couldn't use anymore. And we bought, we bought the golf cart, because I can cruise that really easily. And you know, it's nice. It's nice to you could still get a little wind in your, in your hair, which is, which is what's really nice. I'm actually looking at motorcycles again. They make an automatic one, because like, I think I'd have trouble shifting with my feet. But they do make an automatic one by Honda. And, and the only thing would be how do you how do you stop it? And you don't have to write it stop it at the stoplight. Because there you know, it's about 600 pounds, right? So I'm looking at like side cars, and things like that. And then you could put sell on the side and put film. So cute. Yeah, he's crazy. He loves putting his hair. He'll stick his head out the window at the golf anything. He's he's supposed to be what's called a pomsky. So a Pomeranian husky. But we think we got ripped off. We think he's a full husky. only weighs 60 pounds. He looks just like a husky. So we think that the Craigslist people can bamboozled Yeah, he's he's got these eyebrows that are just the cutest oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to put a picture of him on the post. But it looks a lot like my old dog. He's got pretty blue eyes. We're being shamed often because we got his hair cut. He loves his hair cut. But people think that they need to tell us that you should never cut the Huskies care. And we just say, Okay, thank you. Like at this point. It's like if the 20th person tells you that you shouldn't cut their hair. Yeah, for too bad. He likes it. And it keeps our house super clean. Yeah, and it's hot here. Well, the argument is that the top coat keeps them cooler cooler. Yeah, I mean, I used to have a border collie mix, and people would tell me that all the time too. But we lived in Las Vegas. And honestly, he was so much happier when we shaved him. So yeah, no, I get it. So I'm gonna have to start going to the dog park with her so I can use my, my wit on them. And you have that in spades. Not as much as Jose does. But No way dude. Every time every time we met over there in the pilot lounge, I always come back with a witty comment. He's gonna translate yours from Spanish to English. There's the guy. That's really good. So do you have any plans of flying in the future? Are you thinking you want to get back up there? Yeah, my friend Paul, who's was with me so much in the hospital, he's been a good friend forever. He's got a he's got a couple helicopters in his hangar in Fullerton. And so we're just figuring out right now. Like, how can I get in, because he's got a, he's got a 500 that's literally impossible for me to get into with the suprise kids, and then he's got a, b two, that that actually could be something I could fit in. So we'll just see, I'd like to, um, I don't think flying by myself is ever an option. Again. Also, I don't have a medical. So there's a couple of steps I'd have to take to to even get a third class medical again. That requires obviously look, do some more research into it. But for what I understand after go do a flight with with an AMA Yeah, with a with a with someone from the Fisto and show them that I can manipulate the controls. That's if you want to get a second class. But if I just want to get a third class I think I can just get one from the get go back and get one which was would you be fine. It's more fun to fly with someone else anyway, I I never, you know, it really is I never liked flying by myself and then, which I rarely had to do anyway. But once in a while I'd have to ferry an aircraft by myself. And I was just like, No, this is kind of cool. But I really like having company you know? Absolutely. Absolutely. I'd love aviation so amazing. It's so fun and it's so we're so blessed and fortunate to be able to do what we do or did It's I'm so happy you guys are still doing it. And hopefully you do it for as long as you want and have a long successful career I wish I wish I was, every day I wish all my friends that are flying the EMS ships around the country and world I wish that I could, I can be there with them I something I was wanting to do. And, but that doesn't mean that you can't still find new passions and, and you know, there's a term that they always use in the hospital, it's a well, this is gonna be your new normal and I'm like, I don't wanna hear that shit. I don't hear anything about new normal, like, don't tell me what I can't do. Like, I never thought I'd be able to, you know, use my hands again, because I couldn't even grip a tennis ball. And, you know, I never thought I would stand up again. I never thought I'd walk again. So I'm doing things that pretty much um, didn't feel like me. People don't even feel alive, right? So, you know, you just have to be listen to other people or worry about what other people say you're just gonna be miserable and sad and be where other people think. And even I have to do a better job at that. Like, I don't like going out in my wheelchair now that I can walk. I don't want anyone to sue me see me in the wheelchair because I'm like, I don't want people to think I'm in a wheelchair. I want them to see me walking. So but you know what? Who cares, right? Everybody is on their own journey. Everybody cares what other people think. And yeah, for all the helicopter pilots future helicopters listening, it's no shame to do DoorDash to drive Uber to I cannot tell you how many pilots I know have delivered food delivered pizzas drove an Uber in the last decade because they're just we're not getting the hours or the pay in the industry. So suck it up and you will get your you will get where you want to go. Yeah, there's no shame even this year, like I said, I was driving DoorDash and Postmates. And but it was more, more so to fund my skydiving endeavor. This is a supplement the money for that. But yeah, no shame is actually kind of fun. You just throw on your favorite tunes and driving around and find actually, it was a great way to find all the good restaurants in town because once you started getting deliveries from the same restaurants, you're like, oh, man, it smells really good. When I go like, found the best spots to get a nice burger, whatever. I got my flight instructor rating. I think my first job was driving a town car, picking people from the airport in a white suit with a black tie. Nice fancy with my college degree and everything. I'm like, This is what I'm gonna do, because this is what lets me work at night. And then I can do like flying during the day. I didn't know that you like don't get paid to sit around the office waiting for a student to come in. I thought like, Wait, I gotta be here all day and not get paid. Yeah, that doesn't work. Oh, yeah. Does. Everybody does it. That's what you gotta do. This has been absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your story. So glad to see that. Thank you for coming. Your, your mental strength, your your courage, your just sheer willpower to survive and thrive and starting to you know, do amazing things. And I know you're going to be an inspiration to a lot of people out there. And thank you for trusting us with your story. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we love you. Love you guys. Love you too big dawg. Let's talk crash resistant fuel tanks. This is a very important subject, we want you guys to be informed of what crash resistant fuel systems are, why they're important and a little bit of a history behind them. So what we are using for reference is the Federal Aviation administration's helicopter occupant safety Toolkit, which can be found on the FAA website, you can just Google it. And we're literally just going to read off of this document. So all of the credit goes to the FAA for providing this information. helicopters equipped with Crash resistant fuel systems crash resistant seats and structures provide the highest level of protection for pilots and passengers. A crash resistant fuel system increases the likelihood of surviving a helicopter crash due to reduce threat of injuries from fire. Crash resistant seats and structures increase the probability of surviving the initial collision from an accident. And now Jose is going to tell you guys a little bit of a background about the CR Fs crash resistant fuel systems increase safety for occupants by decreasing or delaying a post crash fire, which is amazing systems that meet the FAA regulatory requirements, minimize fuel leaks and lessen fuel ignition sources. Crash resistant fuel systems are required for all helicopter models that were built certified after 1994. However, the requirements did not apply to newly built helicopters if the original design was certified before 1994. Most newly built helicopters continued to be those certified before 1994. As a result, nearly 25 years later, a low percentage of us helicopters about 15% Meet the regulatory requirements. Question one, which helicopters will require a crash resistant fuel system. So all helicopters manufactured after April 5 2020 will require crash resistant fuel systems no matter when the models are originally certified. So that's a big change. Question number two, do older helicopters need to be retrofitted with Crash resistant fuel systems? The FAA reauthorization law of 2018 does not require retrofits. Question number three is does the legislation address the installation of crash resistant seats in older helicopters? Nope, the legislation does not address this. However, all helicopter models certified after 1989 must have crash resistant seats and structures. And question number four, how many fatalities have occurred because of a post crash fire after a helicopter accident. So there were 58 deaths from 2009 to 2017, attributed to fire that occurred after a helicopter accident, a number that could definitely be way reduced with the installation of these systems. And again, operators might be hesitant to install these into their aircraft because they're very expensive. And they also add weight. So that decreases the amount of useful load that they can put in the helicopters, which in helicopters is a pretty big deal. And also takes the aircraft out of its active role with the company because of how long it takes to retrofit the aircraft. Yep, so there's always that potential to lose revenue for the company. But I know manufacturers like Airbus are implementing a lot of incentive programs to incentivize operators to retrofit their aircraft such as trading programs, etc. So hopefully, we'll see an increase in that percentage in the near future. We really hope you guys enjoyed this episode. That concludes season number one. Thank you guys so much for your support, and your listens and your downloads, your comments, your reviews. This has been so much fun doing this for you guys. We're gonna recoup we're gonna get some more interviews on the books for you and we'll announce when we release season number two. Thank you guys again and enjoy the rest of your days rest of your week. We love you and we'll catch you next time on The forever on the fly podcast. Bye