This week our guest joins us from Valdez, Alaska with her story! She has flown everything from Robbies, Hughes 500s , 412s, AS350s, to most recently her personal Bell 505. She’s here to share her journey from traveling the world as a pro snowboarder, to how she developed in the aviation world beginning in Hawaii to starting her own utility helicopter company based in Valdez, AK.
In this episode we dive into bush flying in Alaska, and her journey in starting her own utility helicopter company in Alaska. Also...have you guys seen that Bell 505 that looks like a candy cane? Well that's Leigh! She just picked up her new heli and flew an epic cross country journey from Mirabel to the Bahamas, through the midwest, up the coast of Canada to finally reaching her home in Alaska——dang what a journey of inspiring people and bringing joy along the way. Oh and by the by, she’s also a BA señorita Gravity pilot getting ready to throw on her racing gear.
You guys may know her as @Leighyogipilot on Instagram...handstanding her way around Alaska while spreading her inspiration around the world through her social media.
Stay tuned at the end of the episode we are going to review required Aircraft and Pilot Documents and Maintenance Items!
*Episode contains some material not suitable for children*
This week our guest joins us from Valdez, Alaska with her story! She has flown everything from Robbies, Hughes 500s , 412s, AS350s, to most recently her personal Bell 505. She’s here to share her journey from traveling the world as a pro snowboarder, to how she developed in the aviation world beginning in Hawaii to starting her own utility helicopter company based in Valdez, AK.
In this episode we dive into bush flying in Alaska, and her journey in starting her own utility helicopter company in Alaska. Also...have you guys seen that Bell 505 that looks like a candy cane? Well that's Leigh! She just picked up her new heli and flew an epic cross country journey from Mirabel to the Bahamas, through the midwest, up the coast of Canada to finally reaching her home in Alaska——dang what a journey of inspiring people and bringing joy along the way. Oh and by the by, she’s also a BA señorita Gravity pilot getting ready to throw on her racing gear.
You guys may know her as @Leighyogipilot on Instagram...handstanding her way around Alaska while spreading her inspiration around the world through her social media.
Stay tuned at the end of the episode we are going to review required Aircraft and Pilot Documents and Maintenance Items!
*Episode contains some material not suitable for children*
You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast What's up AV nerds of all flavors. Welcome to the forever on the fly podcast, your bi weekly dose of aviation inspiration, education, and entertainment. My name is Diane mi nombre. And we're here to get you guys left on aviation and we might need to go to the grocery store to get some nerds because I'm kind of craving them now. Yeah, yeah, some Pop Rocks. Pop Rock, Pop Rocks are my jam when I was a kid. So how do you think that our live podcast went last week? I think our live podcast went really well. A lot, a lot of learning things that that happened. So if you guys missed the live show last week, unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well. So just for safety. I had Jose stay at home. And unfortunately, that meant that we could not record it on our microphones to post on the podcast. But you can still check it out on Instagram at forever on the fly under our Instagram channel. And you guys can check out the interview of us answering everybody's questions that they had. So yeah, that was super fun though. It's really nerve wracking going live. You know, it was nerve wracking. Yeah. I felt very out of my element out of sorts. Yeah, I didn't know what to say. But luckily you went first and it kind of set the tone. I was like okay, now I kind of know what it's all about. You know, they're gonna ask them questions you're gonna fill in it. Jose was like really ready for his close up because he put the camera like right up on his face. Yes, I did. Really good. Diane was always up on my business telling me oh, a proper oh my god and not enough lighting. I might put what do you want for me? I got my phone on. I mean, I wanted you to just prop it up and have good lighting. Is that too much to add? It was a desk. I have a desk in my apartment. I got my bed and I'm going to take you to IKEA later. Forget the grocery store. I'm going to get to your desk. You know, I have a bed with the mirror. Yeah, sure. Sure, sure. All right. Well, guys this week. Our guest joins us from Alaska with her story. She's flown everything from Robbie's he was 500 for 12 Eight stars to most recently the belt 50550555 I'm gonna call it balance on maybe to start a new campaign for their 505 Get flavor flavor. That's so fucking pop. Yeah. Well, I guess it's here to share her unique journey from traveling the world as a pro snowboarder to how she developed in the aviation world beginning in Hawaii to starting her own utility helicopter company based in Valdez Alaska. So in this episode, we're gonna dive into flying in Alaska, her epic cross country journey in the new 505 She's gonna cross all around Meribel to the Bahamas to the Midwest up the Rockies and finally up to Alaska. Dang, what a journey that is. inspiring people bringing joy along the way and oh my god, she's also a Bravo Alpha. And you ask what is the Bravo Alpha? Bad? You said it senorita blasting off gravity and a jetski getting ready to throw on her racing gear on her gravity. You guys might know her as li Yogi pilot on Instagram Han standing her way around Alaska spreading her inspiration around the world through her social media. And while we're on the topic of epic cross countries and ferrying helicopters to new lands, well, we thought it might be kind of fun for at the end of the episode, we are going to do a short ground lesson on all of the required documents that aircraft has to have and what you as the pilot need to have before you can pick up that aircraft and fly it. Lee coats I will five and we're going to fly around spreading joy and happiness throughout the land and landing in all kinds of different places. And Hi, I'm Lee coats and I'm forever on the fly Hi got it work. Ready? Hi. Thank you. Hi. You look beautiful as well. Thank you. I just you know, I literally just got home from a six hour flight. So I'm probably don't smell pretty. I actually I just saw One of your stories and you were in a race with Southwest or something? Uh, yeah. It was pretty funny. We flew down to Phoenix and yeah, I mean, it looks like you're gonna beat them there for a second. I was. I was hopeful. I was hopeful you're beating spirit, that's for sure. Oh, no. Did you hear about everything that's happening with spirit I just got brought up to speed. So, um, well, Spirit Airlines had a canceled about 70% of their flights the past four days, because of a front moving through, but they don't have enough when they when they have to deviate to different airports to kind of accommodate the scheduled routes that they have. Sometimes they have to move other aircraft to other bases. But those other bases because it COVID Don't have the same type of maintenance and the same type of personnel that they need to carry on those scheduled operations that are now unscheduled. So they don't have the pilots the pilots or duty now they don't have the maintenance, they don't have the schedulers. And it was just a shit. Well, pardon my French shit show, you know, and canceled 70% of their ops. And yeah, there's just like a snowball that just keeps rolling down. And that the company that you worked for, I don't know. But my friends, my friends work there. They kind of gave me the heads up. And now No, and I'd always heard spirit was actually a really good place to work. I mean, I don't like flying with them. But I guess the pilots got treated really well and they get paid really well. Not bad. Not bad. But anyways, let's get to you, Madame. Thank you for joining us. You have probably one of the coolest, most impressive resumes slash just life stories you started off as a pro snowboarder. Can you tell us a little bit about that? So what's your story? Where are you from? Oh, geez, where am I from? That's like the hardest question ever. Actually. Yeah. I was born in Mexico. No way. Yeah, it was. Yeah. My parents were. I was born in in Sanada, into the military hospital, only because my parents were living in a commune about 60 miles from there. Yeah. So when my mom gave birth, they rushed me off to the hospital. And that's where I was born. But they were basically living off grid and traveling around in Central and South America. Well, not South America, but Central and Central America. Yeah. and Mexico. And that's where I was born. And then my little brother was born in the lease. And then we ended up moving to the States when I was maybe four. So I don't remember that much of being down there except for running around in bare feet and no walls and bathrooms. And yeah, easy. I guess when I answered that question, I would say Southern California is probably home. Because that's where my mom lives. My stepdad. That's where I went to high school. That's where I started flying. I started flying when I was 15. I lived in Yeah, I also lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for many years. And I live in Lake Tahoe for many years. I lived in Hawaii for years. And now Alaska is home. So you grew up in a very nomadic lifestyle. So being a pilot was, you know, you're probably used to all that moving around and no, probably getting bored in one place. I understand that. Yeah, and I have no problem reinventing every time I've if I go to a new place, just learning that place and meeting new people and figuring out new schedules for myself and, and even now, I still spend about six months away from Alaska in the winter months, and just get into my routine there. And so yeah, I I feel home is wherever I am at the at the moment. What made you pick Val DS? Is that where you live currently? That's where I am. Yeah. So funny. So I was actually working for a company in at a Merrill field out of Anchorage. And we were doing all kinds of work all over the state. So I was out in Donlin Creek in western Alaska. I was just basically living in man camps all over the place and doing really fun flying, working in mineral projects. And then I came to Valdez. I did a two week job here. And it was just it was so civilized. I mean, it's a town of 2500 people. Yeah, but for me, I was like, I'm out of a man camp, and I actually have a bathroom that I can use instead of an outhouse. This is so civilized. Ah. Toilet. Amazing. So, luxury. When I was done with that two week job, I went back to my boss and said, Hey, if you've got other jobs and valleys like I'm your girl, I would love to work there. And it was beautiful. So the next year, he sent me two valleys with a helicopter and said start a remote operation there. I want to have a presence there. And and so that's your new home base. And I was like, perfect. Where you flying? 44 there. Is that where you were flying it? That was a 44 Yeah, yeah, a company called Jayhawk air. Yeah. And the owner Tim, just great, great guy. He was a real big man. For me and starting my own business, eventually after that, and he's passed away since but he's a great legend in my life. Sorry to hear that. Yeah. But so I ended up meeting two of my partners here in valleys. So I met Douglas, who is our maintenance guy and Mike, who's now become my man, but he's also our paperwork liaison. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. I don't know, how are the Pickens up there and tell you there's less women more men? There's definitely a lot of men up here, that's for sure. Really, but Well, odds are good. And what do they say they say the goods are odd and odds are good. before so it was a total fluke that I ended up here and it was and started a business here just so you can think toilets for you ending up with I think that full all the way through. That's true. Great, um, I think we skipped ahead a lot in your story, I kind of want to backtrack. And just here from the beginning of your aviation journey to where you are now, and, and even a little bit about your past being a pro snowboarder and how you got into aviation. And let's go from there. Well, so the aviation started first, my mom met my stepdad. He had a pirate, private pilot's license, and he took me up and I was just like, wow, and looking down on the world and seeing all the little cars and the little people I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. It's total freedom. And so that was a real big changing point in my life. And I was just, I mean, I was 15. So I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. Until that day, I was like, I'm going to be a pilot. And so I, I started flying lessons. I think I was 16, maybe even 15. Still, I ended up getting my license at age 19. I had just turned 19 I was so bummed I really wanted it on my still be able to say 18 bucks. Yeah. And that was that I paid for it myself. I actually asked my grandfather to help me he was the only person in our family that had any money at all that I could ask. And he just said, You know what, you're gonna feel better about it if you do it on your own. And I was like, so crushed at that moment. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, grandpa. Did you if you do find that to be true, do you think that paying for it out of your own pocket made you respect it more or appreciate it more after you achieved it? Very much. So I mean, I think that goes for anything. And, and as hard as, as it is to hear at that moment of like, oh, gosh, I'm gonna have to climb this gigantic kill all by myself. Once you do that, it's such a huge accomplishment. But then I knew I could do anything I ever wanted in life. So that was, that was a really big moment for me. But I didn't continue on that path. Because I ended up getting my private license. I started on my instrument rating. And then I went snowboarding with some friends. And I was like, Whoa, what is this and all of a sudden, my focus went from aviation to snowboarding. And I literally went every single day. I think I was two weeks in before I got a job as an instructor. Wow. You never you never snowboard before. That was your first time snowboarding and you became an instructor. Say that I was a good instructor. I remember specifically thinking please let me be able to stand up and not fall over when I get off the chairlift. Are you going to Big Bear? Were you still in Southern California at that time. At that point, I had moved to Santa Fe. So I was I was going to Santa Fe ski basin, which is a really cool Hill. Nice. And we had a really big snow year. And I was just lucky because I was buying tickets every day, lift tickets, and they're expensive. So I had some friends that were instructors and they said just come get a job. Even if you don't teach very much. You'll get your pass. And so I probably only taught 10 lessons. That's awesome. That is the bug. And that actually took me on a 10 year tangent. So I ended up in Breckenridge, Colorado for a couple seasons. I went to New Zealand when it stopped snowing in the northern hemisphere. I was like I'm going south. And all of this with my own money. I was I was always resourceful. I was always frugal. I was always figuring out how to make things work without without a big budget. I waited tables, I saved my money. I bought and sold things. I always had like enough money in the bank that if my brother needed to borrow some money that I could lend him some money with a little bit of income on that. So I was always like looking for ways I was kind of are always entrepreneurial again. Yeah, man. You're a hustler girl. Yeah, respect, no mad respect. Cool, and that's scary. A lot of people wouldn't do that. Yeah. Yeah, he had a 66 Mustang and I had a 67 Mustang and he needed to buy this trailer If for some reason I don't remember what it was, but I was like, well, you need 300 bucks. Here you go. I'll give you 600 for your car, and I think I sold it for 1500 right away. Oh, yes. Yeah, I think you still might be mad at me about. I like the 67 better than the 66. But that's my opinion. Hey, I like you the 67 was my favorite. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, totally totally. Yeah, sure mechanic. Diane, I know you've done a lot of Yeah, yeah, I haven't. I didn't work on cars. I just worked on boats when I was in the Coast Guard. The Yeah, mostly just like big diesel boat engines. Cutter engine mad respect for you. Right? Well, actually, most of the time I worked on like the sewage pumps, like in the cargo bins in like Boston's dry yards, you know, looking like Tiny Tim, and they're coming out like, can I have? No, it's pretty badass. I was listening to your story on one of your lives. Both of you guys. Just mad respect. Oh, thank you. Yeah, we were so nervous about that live. I know it was my first time first time going live. And with these things, we can go back and edit and be like, Oh, no, we sounded like an idiot there. With live there's no going back. There's no editing. In my mind. It was like You ever see Wolf of Wall Street? Senorita. Yeah, I don't think so. Oh, you have right. Yeah, with Leonardo DiCaprio. He takes a bunch of clay leads. And he thinks he drove really, really well. But then like they show like the surveillance or something the next day and it shows it's crashing into every car. He's going to park in my mind. After we did it. I'm like, Nah, man, I crushed then I go back and I'm like, yeah. Oh, no. No, it was it was pretty cool. Yeah, not not too bad. Well, from what I saw, I think both crushed it. It was alive. I saw it afterwards. Yeah. Cool. I appreciate that. We went live because you were stuck on a boat. Thank Thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for pushing us to do a live interview. Otherwise, we wouldn't have done it. But yeah, so I mean, it was a good excuse. I mean, I think you had a pretty good excuse for not being able to show up to the interview and actually I ended up having some troubles with my airplane and got stuck in French Valley anyways, so it went all worked. It all worked out. It all worked out. Well good. And I'm glad we're finally here now but yeah, stuck on the boat was kind of terrifying, right? wasn't very fun. Really? Yeah. What happened? Yeah, what happened? What was the full story and so we went fishing and we weren't expecting the weather to come up the forecast wasn't that bad. And we were in we're in a bay that was kind of protected but we couldn't find a good anchorage in there. And then all of a sudden the winds picked up a swell picked up and we ended up sitting we ended up doing two days of like the staying on watch watching the hurt the anchor, and the guys weren't even fishing anymore. So rough. That's when you know it's really rough. Yeah, and then yeah, and we couldn't get a good anchorage we kept slipping off of the anchor and so after that we got back out into the we watched one small boat leave and we asked him over the radio to give us a report I was like Can you give us a pilot report? They don't fishermen are a whole different breed. Yeah, I'm sure he never He never let us know the pilot report but he came back he came back in and we're like okay, we're not going to try that. We tried it one more time and we just got out in the seas were so rough so we turned around came back we didn't have radio enough to get weather and we didn't have cell phone service. Why was there no way to call the Coast Guard if you guys got in some deep trouble or we were in real trouble then we could for sure maybe get a postcard and we could relay and we actually listened to somebody else relaying where they had lost their engine and so it was they ended up okay because card didn't have to go for them their anchor held but that's kind of last resort in the boating world like you do not call the Coast Guard as I'm sure you know, Diane you probably get a rash and crap for calling the Coast Guard. I mean, yeah, what I mean was stationed up in Cape Disappointment and that was like some pretty rough water up there. Right the mouth of the Columbia River. I don't know if you've ever heard of the Columbia River bar, but it is a massively treacherous river bar. But pretty much anytime someone went out with a sailboat we would just put on our suits be like alright, let's give it like 30 they're gonna be calling us here shortly. I would say about probably 70% of people who buy boats don't actually know what they're doing and don't know how to read the charts and go out and stuff that they shouldn't be. Yeah, yeah, got always got that call. Well, that's, that's insane. I'm so glad Okay, I know that's pretty. I mean, that's pretty sad that nobody would help you like that fisherman guy who just was like later losers, but then he comes back. He's like, all right. Tied up for the night. Crappy out there. But in all reality, I mean, we had everything we needed. We had food, we had all we had shelter. It's a nice boat. So it was totally fine. It was just an extra, an extra day out there that we weren't expecting. And then then they sent you the bill that see will cost you the weather actually got really nice. And it was forecast to be terrible. So we finally got a little bit of cell phone service. And I called my sister in law and like, Hey, how's the weather look, and she's like, don't go it's terrible. The Caesar at eight feet high on this side of the island, and they're seven feet high on that feet on that side, and don't go and it's and we're like, well, we're gonna keep going. Anyway, we kept going and it just smooth out and it was perfect. And Angel started singing. And I was like, You know what, we should spend one more day out here. Why not? So we found a really nice code that we could get a good anchorage and I just didn't, I wanted to shake it off and not be like scared to go on another big fishing trips. Were you guys on? What kind of boat were you guys in? It is a 45 foot. It's almost like a houseboat. But you can fish off of it as well. I gotcha. Mike has had it for as long as I've known him probably 20 years before that, too. Yeah. Oh, that's a cool old house boat. Super comfy and Cruzi. It's all like wood on the inside. It's a unified if you've ever heard of that. Okay. Yeah. Well, where did we leave off in your story we love on your aviation story. Where we left off with snowboarding. Oh, yes. We were in snowboard. Never got to the snow. Yes. Sorry. Yeah. Snowboarding your instructor for 10 days or 10. Instructor Yeah. 10 lessons, 10. Lessons and lessons. You got it in two weeks. That's right. Okay. That's where we left off. So snowboarding was an accidental career. I just love to do it. I did it every day I traveled the country or I've traveled the world really on my own dime. And then all of a sudden I showed up in Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe, and everybody that's like, slowly would if you've ever heard that, and everyone's like, Who are you sponsored by like, What do you mean sponsored? And I just I didn't understand at that point. This is in the mid early, early to mid 90s. And I didn't understand that that was something that people could actually make a living at. And next thing you know, they're like, Oh, you're not sponsored? Well, here you go. Here's a board. Here's bindings. Here's clothes, here's glasses, goggles, and and then I started getting on a salary. And then I started racing boardercross and was entering the pro competitions and doing well ended up about fifth. I was fifth in the world when I had a car accident. Oh my god. Yeah. Fifth World. What is that? what's what? I'm not familiar with that term, which border crossing support is six snowboarders start out in the gate. And when that gate opens, you first went across the finish line wins. And you have what do you do? Banks, berms, you have jumps. And a lot of times, I was always the risk taker. So if there was a jump, where I could either take the big jump, or I could suck it up and try to just play a conservative and maybe hold the lead. I would take the big jump. I either one or I fell. Yeah. That's badass. I would watch you. So fun. That's incredible. And you did that for 10 years? I did. You said you were actually after. Go ahead finish what you're gonna say senior year. Oh, well, when I first became aware of you, Diane is because you met Bob Carlson, who owns Arbor snowboards. And Arbor snowboards was one of my first board sponsors. And I actually was their very first pro rider, which was cool because they hired a pro rider, female pro rider, which was kind of rare at that at that time. And completely spacing. Where did I meet Bob? It was some party and he guys sent me a selfie or Oh, the party in LA Yeah. Oh, wow. How random I remember. Wow. Ba and so he had a 20 year reunion and I showed up in my own helicopter and camped out and so cool. Like five days. Yeah, that's pretty nice. I haven't seen him since that party, but that's super cool. Yeah, I'm really proud of him. I mean, he I was going to New Zealand for the for the winter. And he and his partner at the time, Chris. They had this board that was Hawaiian koa wood top sheet and they said, Hey, will you take this with you to New Zealand and see how it rides? I was like, Absolutely, I will. So that was kind of my first introduction with those guys. And then I came back and I was like, you guys, you need team riders. You need this. I gave them a whole proposal and, and they were like, okay, yep. And I ended up becoming their team manager. And just was, was so tight with them from the very beginning. And it's really cool to see what they've grown into. Yeah, That's pretty cool. Wow, man, small Arbor skateboards. It's the arbor collective now. So they're skateboards, there's shoes, there's bindings, there's boards. So I guess Long Story Short was snowboarding. It was my passion. I absolutely loved it. And then I had a car accident where I could no longer race at the level that I was. So I moved to Hawaii, because that's what people do. And they want to when they can't snowboard anymore, right, yeah. So I had a friend in Hawaii and has showed up at her place and, and I was just literally there for to skip one winter season. And this guy that I met at a party, he's like, this is like, Yeah, I'm a helicopter pilot. And he's all cool about it. And I was like, What do you mean? He's like, Well, I'm a student helicopter pilot, because once I told him that I had flown airplanes, he was like, he kind of came clean. Okay. And then he told me, he was like, Yeah, I've like look after. And then he started telling you all about and he started asking them about airspace, and he's like, she's like full disclosure I'm five hours in that's pretty funny. That is. Becoming my student. A little bright shot him down. He ended up being your student. Yeah. Well, he was. I mean, everybody goes through school at their own pace, right, of course, eight years. And some people like me, I'm like, 13 months, I did all five ratings in 13 months. I wasn't wasting time. And I was in my, I think I was 30 or 31 By that point, so take it serious and just like I need to get my career going. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So mass track. I'm so stuck on like the homie going like yeah, you know, so girl. A helicopter pilot. gonna hear like, oh, yeah, where you flying? He's like, you know, the pattern. I'm in Kona, you know, flying Kona. Next thing? Yeah, you're like, you're like, me too. And he's like, Oh, shit. I thought I had it in the bag. Yeah. Okay, so after mana Lola. Yep. So I went to Monaco. I did all five ratings in the 13 months. And then I was the lucky one of the eight of us that all finished our CF double i right around the same time that got job the job offer. So I actually got to stay and fly as a flight instructor there. But I was ready for whatever I sold all my stuff. I was ready. I was going to wherever I could get the job. It's just what you have to do when you're climbing that ladder. And then after that job, let's see I did the 1000 hours and I was sending out resumes everybody. And I almost went to the Gulf of Mexico to go fly for pH I think and at the very last minute I got a call from temsco in Juneau. Well actually they're in Ketchikan but they've got bases in Juneau and Skagway and that's what I really wanted. I wanted to fly Alaska. And they offered me the job. I came up there, flew three months, got my a star time, got the experience, and then came back and got my my dream job in Hawaii flying tours over the volcano and I was like yes, I did the full loop. I'm done. I'm just going to be like surfing in the afternoon flying tours in the morning. And that's my life. And I was perfectly happy for like six months I've said the same joke over the same macadamia nut farm and I might have said it twice and then laughed twice. So wait, hold on, what is your macadamia nut? Job intrigue? Well, nobody likes a premature nut. Because the nuts have to be I don't even remember what the gym yes I'm taking no look, I'm the queen of dead jokes. So a macadamia nut it has to fall off of the tree before it's actually right. So you you don't want big wind and so they actually put wind breaking trees so that they won't fall off prematurely because you know nobody likes a premature nut back on doing tours over the Hoover Dam I was like you know what is the what did the fish say when you hit it on the wall? them I'd look around and see who would laugh and like if they didn't laugh I'm like fine forget show like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give you the cool toy that's probably a little more appropriate than mine. No, I just I like yours better like you're very well anyway, I was flying a huge 500 I was like making good money. I paid off my student loan I had borrowed actually 30 grand to go through to finish school I paid most of it out of pocket while waiting tables at the Four Seasons actually. And and so I had bought a condo like I was set. And then I was like okay, wait, I just set up this life and I'm super bored and I need to go fly some real missions and I'm losing my skills. I was landing at an airport every day. single time. So a friend of mine was working up in Alaska for an AR 44 operator. And she got me a job and I came up and, and that's when I feel like I learned how to fly. I think I was at about 2500 hours at that point, and still didn't really understand how to do confined area landings and how to really pick out a spot where I'm going to put the tail right between those two bushes there. And I'm going to I'm not just looking for big, open space to land and I'm looking for a little knoll something I can hang the tail off of just all the different types of thinking that you do. When you're doing off airport stuff. Yeah, man, I learned how to longline. Did you do that all in judo, when you were with Tesco? Or did you No, not at all. temsco was my training wheels. i That was a great job, just for stepping into the world of starting to understand weather, but I wasn't making real decisions there. That was following somebody around who knew what they were doing. Yeah, yeah. Which was great for me at that point. The way that temsco does is they just they don't hire you. They say, yep, you can come on up. And then if you pass the training, you're hired. Yeah. So you don't even know that. I used to fly for Northstar? Yeah, um, but yeah, no, I could see that the temsco is very rigid, you know, good at what they do. But they're very rigid at what they do as well, with like, their policies and stuff, which for me was perfect. Coming out of being a flight instructor and only understanding that rectangular box that I had flown in, said to come to temsco and have felt like having training wheels because I didn't have to make all those decisions. I didn't have to get thrown into like being a real Pac and really understanding all the decision making that happens. Yeah. Because flying in that kind of weather and picking out landing spots that was all brand new to me. Yeah, there was, um, one does one thing that I liked about, don't get me wrong, I had friends that work at temsco. And they loved it. You know, the guys have been there for three, four or five years. And they gone through a couple of seasons with them. But one of the things I liked about Northstar is that the freedom that they gave us on being able to go do what you want to do, and land just as long as you made the time that you needed to make. It was kind of like your free little birdie. Like, you know, go do go do your thing. So and the weather, though you're right, it was pretty challenging when I was down there, coming from California. Yeah, and when you're new to it, and you don't understand that, just having that local knowledge and time and experience is a big and having the weather cams, you know, not having like a TAF and you're looking at the online at a picture where it's like super cloudy and says, This is what a tree looks like at two miles. Here's a river at five. And if you can see the mountain peak, that's 10. And then I look at the live cam. And I look at the picture. And I'm like, wow, it looks like we're not going today, folks. I flew for them. And I flew for temsco in 2006. And that was an kind of an era where there were there were lots of pilots, and they could pick and choose who they hired. And so for me, I was like, I am so grateful for any opportunity that I can get any job, I don't care where it is, I'm going to that job because I want to progress my career and learn this stuff. And, and so halfway through the season, well, they actually send you a packet and they say, Hey, you're gonna make $1,500 a month, you're going to live in a pilot house with 12 other people you're, you're going to have one day off, you're going to work 14 hours a day, that's not flying, that's just your duty day. But I mean you I knew exactly what to expect and so I get up there and then halfway through the summer all the guys around are just like pissed off that they're only making $1,500 a month and that they're living in this pilot house with other people and they only have one day off. I'm like but that's what you signed up for Norstar get makes more and coastal makes more but you didn't get hired by them you got hired by these guys, these guys gave you the opportunity be grateful for it go through what what you said you're going to do and do that with gratitude and then go to the next step from there. So I I've always been just super grateful for any opportunity that I get and I for sure that the the hard work that goes into it and the pay your dues thing I I kind of like that I kind of like that we have to pay our dues to get somewhere that I hate people who like fudge the logbooks, you know people that lie about their time and stuff like that. I know if you and I'm just kind of like forget you dude. Oh, come back around. Yeah, even met a wingsuit or on a went on a date with with like from Bumble or something like years ago and we were on a hike and he was bragging about how he fudges logbooks to show that he had the 200 jumps so that he could get into the wingsuit and now he's a wingsuiting instructor. And I'm sitting there like yep, this dates over Mike I'm not interested anymore. He's like you want to Lesson like that's not cool, man. That's not cool at all. Yeah, pay your dues like it's okay. It's okay to do and to share that you had done like, yeah, I don't get I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't like you paid your dues. I have a lot of respect. For the journey that you're on, and the journey that you are taking, tip the hat. But after temsco, then I went to Hawaii flew couple 1500 hours in the 500. And then came back to Alaska and got into the 44. Yeah, took a step back and aircraft. But I learned how to really fly. And just absolutely loved it. I did that for a couple years. And then I got into the 500, again, doing the same sort of work. But again, now I'm all living out in man camps and using outhouses and using a satellite phone every once in a while to check in with my family. Yeah. And so that's when I ended up. Well, actually, I flew fell for 12 for for a very short stint, and then I flew, then I'd started doing drill moves. Got into doing the precise, long line. And there's not a lot of women in Alaska that are doing that. So it was a rare breed. Yeah. Did you find it difficult? Just the sheer fact that you are a female working in these man camps with you know, did you find it hard to get people to respect you? Or Did anyone give you a hard time? While you're up there? Did you experience like sexism? Not really, because I wasn't looking for it. And I didn't even notice every once in a while there would be some little thing like well, okay, there was one time where I picked up a guy, I flew him maybe an hour to where we were going to be based for the next two week job. And he gets out of the helicopter. He's like, I never flown with a woman before, runs off and grabs a bottle of Jack Daniels or something. Yeah. By the end of the project, he was he was very, he had a lot of respect for what I was doing. And the type of work that I'm doing. I'm handing I'm I'm setting 1000 pound pieces on top of another piece on a tower and someone's putting a bolt in there with their fingers. So there's a lot of risk of trust that goes on not only them trusting me, but me trusting them. So there's a lot of communication and it takes a little bit of time. And then once you're once you're dialed in with your crew, and you each respect each other, it's theirs. Yeah, then you're the Dream Team. I always like to say I fly like a girl. Smooth, gentle and in control. Nice. I like it and and a lot of the guys that I work with are like wow, we've never had someone set the loads down so nicely, like a lot of times it'll come down hard. Yeah, like set it into their hand cuz I fly like a girl. I happened to be a couple of times flying in the canyon, they'd like we do up and downs are basically like an elevator service. You know, picking people up and taking them to the top and it would happen all the time guys would get in there. Usually older gentlemen, that would be like, Oh, I don't know how I feel about a lady pilot. You know, thing, like saying things like that. I'm like, well, you're more than welcome to jump out, sir. You can live down here if you'd like, or the next female pilot can come pick you up. Yeah, I don't know, stupid stuff like that. You have I've seen it happen to you. I remember like came in and didn't want females flying for them. And yeah, there were there was a couple times, some passengers roofie just flat out refused refused to fly with me because I was a female. Or, you know, you'd get the once in a while you'd actually, you know, set the helicopter down really nicely at the bottom of the canyon. And they'd all go. Wow, that was actually really smooth and like, what did you expect is gonna happen? Anyways, I never I never experienced anything like that, of course. But there is a construction Expo happening in Vegas. And this guy kept like, you know, pulling my chain. He's asking like this, your real job is like, How come you don't get a man's job like construction? Or like, you know what I mean? Something like that. And I remember we're on our way back. Finally I had enough and I'm like, Yo, man, listen, dude, I could drop you off right here in the middle of the desert. And you could walk back like real man. His wife sort of looked at him and I could just tell he wanted to punch me in the face because his face got so red. I'm like, don't tell my boss. I want to pull the memory cards out of like the video recorders and say I never brought him Yeah, that's a great way to handle it. And I mean, I think it's it's gonna be prevalent in our society for a while longer, but it's changing. And one of the funniest things that happened actually was with a woman. I I was flying it to her and a star onto a glacier. So I flew a whole group of people up to the glacier and I get out and I'm showing them around and, and the ladies and I said something about flying and she's like, Oh, are you a pilot too? And I was like, Well, how do you think you got here? Oh, my God on the glacier. She looks over at the gentleman was in the front seat the passenger that I that had was on the tour. And she's like, well, he's the pilot, right? And I was like, Oh, okay. So on the way back down, I put her in the front seat. I was like you fly us home? Oh, yeah, that, of course, there's no dual controls or anything, right? Yeah, say like, you know, you get with passengers. And you did the whole safety briefing. And we're wearing epaulets. So it's, you know, obviously, you're a pilot. And we'd even take pictures with them in front of the helicopter and show them how to use a seatbelt to the whole safety briefing, introduce myself as the pilot, even put them into the helicopter and then hop in the front seat. And they'd be like, Wait, you're not our pilot? Are you? Like, what did you think we were doing this entire time, but I'm like, I was like the model taking pictures with you like, I'm flattered. But it's not the career choice. I decided, sir. And there was a couple of times it was like, No, you know what your real pilot will be out here in just a few minutes. And then I would just start at the helicopter and you put your hat on a different hat. Yeah, let me switch my hat here. Hi, my name's Bob, I'm gonna be your pilot today. Even just yesterday, we you know, my, I'm building some time in this serious with a friend of mine who's getting his commercial, and I'm also a CFI, and airplanes. So I was, you know, just kind of helping help helping him get his add on, and building time at the same time, all that stuff. And we, we went to this airport, there's a big fire tanker, they invited us in to come, you know, check out the inside and the guy that I've been flying with, they just started talking to him. And they were only looking at him when they were talking about aircraft stuff. And then I would ask a question, you know, something technical, something about the aircraft? And they wouldn't look at me, they would answer to him. Okay, well, how many gallons? Can you guys hold in the tank? And then they would just look at him and be like, well, the tank and actually, yeah, no, are you gonna like address me at any point of this conversation? It was the strangest thing. And even you know, we went up to the cockpit, he's talking about this up and the same thing. I was asking all these questions, and he was directing all of the answers to the guide and flying with. And like we leave there. I was like, did you notice that he never even looked at me that entire time. I was asking questions. And this cop was kind of giving us a ride around the airport because we weren't allowed to walk, walk around on the ramp. You know, we've been talking about helicopters the whole time. And we pull it to this helicopter area of the ramp, and he shouts outside. Hey, can can this guy come check out your help. He's a helicopter pilot, not even addressing me sitting next to him at all. Me too. It's just like the strangest It was so weird, like wasn't even down was not even being acknowledged. What's that? What town are in? Santa Rosa? In California in California? Yeah. And I don't know. It was it was really strange. But anyways, I digress. Yeah, well, I can totally relate to that. Because when you first ask, like have I had issues being a woman in this industry doing this type of work that I'm doing? I really haven't I've had, once I once I get into the safety spiel, and we're, we understand who's who's in control of making those decisions, then it all changes, and then they have the respect and it's all fine. But now, now that I fly around with a guy who is my man, and in our own personal helicopter, and I am the instructor role, and he is the student roll. Every I get the same thing all the time, people will completely talk to him, they don't talk to me, they will ask him the questions. So same exact situation that you're dealing with. I deal with that all the time now. Right? They just assume the guy is the pilot and you're just the girlfriend or wife just tagging along on the trip. And they're the ones that they're addressing. So you're the eye candy, it's take that role. I mean, can we be both like totally tell us about after so you got your you went up into Alaska, you started getting to real fly and like you were saying and you you grew as a pilot. So I grew as a pilot. Yep. And I really got to explore the state and I my precision longlining got better and better and actually, I shouldn't say better and better because it got less worse and or less terrible and less longlining is really hard, but I I mean, it's something that I consider one of my specialties at this point. So I really enjoy I enjoyed the the challenge of it. But then I ended up in valleys and just kind of where life took me. I ended up me and my two partners we started our own business with one our 40 for 2010 We had one our 44 I think we did part 91 LOA At just 25 nautical mile tours for that first year, and then we got to one, we got a single pilot 135 for 2012. I flew all the missions, I had worked other places in the state. So I knew a lot of the clients and I ended up building all kinds of all the cellphone towers on the mountaintops around here and Coast Guard stations and just did a lot of telecommunications work with that one are 44 Well, you did all the long line precision on the 44 with the 44. Yeah. How much work we do in Alaska with the 44 Yeah, I'm sure the big crews that are used to it they they're on a budget and they've figured out they can do everything into 500 600 pound loads, we we move everything in big super sacks and break things down into smaller loads and get a lot of work done that way. There's a company called Pollux up there, right. Pollux that does a lot of the long line stuff in a 44 as well. They do. Yep, there's politics. There's Quicksilver there's Alpine and vs. Helicopters was was my company. So vertical solutions vs. Helicopters started with one helicopter had no intention of turning it into a big business. It was basically so that we could make some money for our personal machine. I was like, well, let's see if we can break even anyway on the insurance and, and other payments that go into it as far as putting a nest together for overhaul. But the end of that year, I was like, wow, we actually have a lot of work around here. We need another helicopter. And so the end of that we took we bought a helicopter, we never went into debt. We just did it bootstrap style. So each year, we grew as was necessary. And as what we had the funds for, we ended up buying for our three or four our 40 fours one our 66 and one a star and, and put in a fuel system were the only people on the valleys airport that have fuel for sale, big hangar, big infrastructure, office retail space. And then And then last year, we found a buyer for it. And we handed over the keys and and brushed off her hands and walked away. And that was kind of the plan from the beginning was just to work to have fun and to be able to fly. And so um, peanut butter jealous. I know now you have a bug getting stuck in the bay and you're living in Costa Rica. I'm just kidding. And have a 505 and a five now, right? Yes. So basically, self retired and then and then me and my man went in on a on a candy cane helicopter. So it's a brand new bell 505 and it is painted like a candy cane. We picked it up in Mirabel April 7, and we flew all the way down the east coast. We flew out to the Bahamas out to Turks and Caicos Dominican Republic. Yep. And turned around. We do have floats. We have emergency pop out floats on it. So we were overwater and the fuel like did you have like a STC for like the tanks at all? No, it could do no, you can pretty well hop the longest leg only because we're battling a headwind, which is pretty typical to have a headwind there was from the Bahamas to Turks and Caicos. And we actually did land on a deserted island and put in a couple jugs of fuel, just on the safe side. But then, on the way you thought it was alone, you thought you're alone. And then you see like the cast of Naked and Afraid out there. You totally take off. It's really funny, because when we did pick up all of a sudden look down, I saw a wrecked boat or there was an old boat wreck. So we there could have been somebody like sprinkled some candy canes down to them. It was called Gilligan's Island. Just missed it. Yeah, this helicopter has been a lot of fun. And for us, our whole reason to fly it is for fun and to be able to meet people and to bring joy to people's day and take people for flights and and we started sharing it on social media. And next thing you know, we had a lot of people following along with what we were doing and sending me little messages like hey, I've got a floating dock that you should come land on or hey, my, my cousin, her husband as a disabled veteran. It'd be really cool if you could stop and take them for flight. And yeah, and we did him and a couple others and it was just really, really an honor to be able to take people and give them joy in a machine that wasn't joyful for them in the past. Yeah. Yeah, and take their kids and I have another girlfriend who I've never met in person who I I hosted a year of handstands on Instagram. And so I actually had people doing handstands with me from all over the world for a full year. Every single day, and one of them is this cute, sweet, short little thing. I think she's maybe four foot five and she really wanted to be in the Air Force and she couldn't because of her height. So I made a point to stop where her home airport was and, and put her in the front seat. She had to have her feet flat on the floor, but she she flew it and she had a great touch and then then we got out of the helicopter did handstands together. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this was all during COVID. So Canada was closed, we had to pick up the helicopter in Canada had to have paperwork to get across the border. And then we had to fly straight back to the US. So straight line for us from Mirabelle Canada to valleys. Alaska, would have been right through Canada. And since we couldn't do that, we're like, why don't we take the long way? Let's take the real long way. plotted it out of where we wanted to go. I was like, Wow, this actually looks like a candy cane on foreflight. Does it call this the candy cane to her? So cool. Yeah, no. A unicorn. I have to really look at the map that you sent me and or the chart that you sent me and see, because I didn't notice that. It looks like a candy cane. Upside down. Yeah. And then realize now into the Caribbean, then then it turned into the unicorn flight move. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, just we left ourselves open. We didn't have a set schedule. We said, we've got two or three months to just play. We would meet people while we're fueling up and they'd say, hey, come for a flight and my my breezy. This one guy was really cool. He's like, you've got to come see my breezy if you're an aviation lover and you're traveling around come on and check this out. And next thing you know, he's got me with goggles on and taken off in this like, open open air thing with a wing on it. Coolest flights I've ever done is a scarf and a leather helmet with the cigar. Ever been to Mexico? Must be nice. Must be nice. I would love to do something like that. He's in Texas to and he's trying to get 7002 I can't remember what 7001 passengers. And so if you ever go through Texas, you got to check him out. Dave Dave and what town? What Airport? This down, Dave? Oh, it'll take me a little bit to find. No worries. No worries. We're good. It's he's definitely not an Instagramer No. He is in kultur field. Bryan, Texas. Dave with the breezy. Alright, with the breezy. I like that. I do that on my phone all the time. Jessica at Chili's. Do you guys are you on telegram? No, what's that? No. Oh, it's an app like WhatsApp. Oh, and anytime somebody joins, it says in their in your contacts. It'll be like Dave from the bar outside smoking join telegram. Great, I'm so glad. Hey, and just so you know, your insurance company is watching what you put on social media also. And me as a private helicopter owner, I didn't even think about that. I think about well, maybe I don't want to put that because I'll get some sort of judgment from the, from the helicopter community aviation community. So but I never thought well, my insurance is watching that too. But our our Brochard basically said, yeah, there's a few people that have lost their insurance because they dropped someone into a boat from a helicopter or they did whatever. And yeah, and they said, You guys are all over the internet. He said, You look good. He's like, we're we're always a two pilot crew almost always. So it's usually Mike and I flying together. And, and we were both professional pilots. We both have. I mean, I've got 7000 hours of flying, and he's got about 1000 of helicopter time, probably another 3000 of airplane. So that's impressive. So we both have a lot of experience and and we keep each other in check. And we always if we question something like Oh, do you think we should check the weather? Or do you think we should file a flight plan or do you think we should if we ask should then the answer is yes. Oil Yeah, should we should we land on this island and get some more fuel? Probably, I don't see another island. We're gonna have a passengers in the back and you're gonna see like, they're gonna see this person up front, but he's really a mannequin and a sweater. And they're gonna be like, Wow, your co pilots really? Like yeah, that's how he rolls. He just, you know how much of a talker not much of a talker. He's just my navigator. He just sort of looks like he looks with his eyeballs and where he wants to go and you hit turbulence on the head like falls off. I'm sorry guys for insurance purposes and they instantly get like after this podcast comes out they're like okay, Mr. Hernandez seriously considered blowup dolls in the passenger seat for the right, boy, sometimes I like put my like big floppy hat from the beach just like on the head. This is Sally. Got to do what you got to do. No way. She doesn't watch either option. I have a friend that had an engine failure in LA in between I think it was like the five and the 10 where they were intersex. He had an engine failure in a small airplane and he landed it into oncoming traffic and nobody got hurt years ago but yeah, oncoming traffic oncoming traffic. He chose to go that way because people could see my instinct with with the the traffic I'm with. I'm with you, then. But then someone's driving and all of a sudden they've got a big deal coming down at True. I feel like I get I get both points of what do you choose right now? Pop quiz, hotshot. What are you gonna do? I think my natural instinct would go with the flow of traffic just because it's a natural instinct, because that's the direction everybody is going to have more protection. Someone's gonna hate you. They're gonna hit the tail. Boom. They're gonna hit the engine first. You know? So we're gonna put the person in the car in danger. Got Bridgestone? Got some Bridgestone? Doggy Dog world. Up the guy in the car run into the engine? No, okay, I get it. You're not going like straight head on to a vehicle. I mean, that's gonna double the amount of impact than if somebody hit you from behind. Sure. Yeah. I learned this from the concept of dissymmetry of lift your relative saying so actually, I was supposed to be coming up to North Star last year last summer and then COVID hit. I quit my job, and everything. And I had my bags packed. I was putting all my stuff in storage. Literally the day I put my stuff in storage. They close the Canadian borders. And I called up there. I'm like, Are you guys still gonna have a season? And they're like, yeah, come on. Come on. Maybe, maybe. Yeah, no, they told me like, come on up. We're still gonna do training as you know, as planned. I was like, I think you guys understand what's brought to happen. Like they just closed the Canadian borders. I don't know how cruise ships because, you know, the cruise ships, I guess have to go to Canada before they can come if they're foreign flagged. Before they can come back to the US. It was like, Uh, yeah, I mean, if the ports are closed, and the cruise ships can't come and that's all the passengers. So yeah, I just called me Chief Pilot pretty immediately and begged for my job back. I swooped in on her job. He got hired. As soon as I left, I got let go for Norstar No, I was on Northstar. And then I went and did the rotor transition program for the airlines. And I was at the airlines for a while and then COVID hit, took the boot from the airlines and went to work where she was working. And she was going to go up to North Star. And we're going to do like a little switcheroo. And then and then she couldn't resist me. She decided to come back and I boomerang a boomerang back. But now I've been considering going back up there. Going back up there on next summer, maybe? I don't know. It's fun flying. It is it's so easy to experience. Yeah, it really is. And your skill set. I mean, the things you learn the the comfort level that you get, like for me in the beginning of the season, I can land in something this big, but by the end of the season, I can land in something this big, very comfortably just because you get to know you get the practice. There's lots of jobs up here. Yeah, yeah, there will definitely be jobs available available for you if you want to. Where do you go in the wintertime? You said you well, so the last couple of winters we went to Scottsdale Arizona, we actually traveled we take our 66 and we just traveled south and then found the warmest place that we could find. Yeah, it's a nice place. This past winter, we went to Hawaii, and then and then came back, took delivery of the 505 and then did our candy cane tour. So I spent actually three months of that flying this winter. I think we're gonna do maybe the Big Dipper tour. I'm trying to see what it's gonna look like. Yeah, but I definitely want to put California into the mix. because that's where my my mom is, and a lot of my friends are in California, so I definitely want to come down there and if I do, then we'll get you in the hot seat in the candy cane 505 Yeah. I know and by you guys where I live, we'll have some great Mexican food. Yeah. laughs margaritas. Deidre. Do I drink? I do. Okay, so yeah, we'll have some margaritas. I drink a lot more now that I'm retired. I'm trying to cool it. When, when I was running my business, I was also basically on call on speed dial with the our local fire department. So I wouldn't drink all summer long, because it's light all summer long in Alaska, and I'll fly basically anytime that it's light. And so they would call my personal cell and say, All right, when can you start flying? I'm like, Well, okay, let me look. Yep, I can start at 5am. And, and it was really rewarding to be able to do that for them and to be able to serve my community that way. Because it's a really small town. We don't actually have an EMS in our town at all. Oh, really? Nobody's qualified EMS ones. Where's the closest? You guys contract that out? Don't you locally though, like with like, helicopter companies are. So we are the only helicopter company here. I should say. My company that we started is the only company here so it's no longer mine. Got it. VS helicopters is the only one here. And and so there is no EMS, anywhere close. The state troopers. They've got a helicopter that's about maybe three hours away. But we're also in a challenging bowl where if there's bad weather, and you can't get through any of the passes, you just can't get here. I feel like you guys are a lot like yak attack. Yeah, we're like that in that area. Right? Like we're just always soft in areas, you know, where it's very remote. Yep, it's maritime climate. It's wet. It's foggy. When it's when it's sunny. It's usually windy. So I actually prefer the rainy days. I shouldn't say rainy. But we get a lot of overcast days like high overcast with wispy fog layers. And it's just smooth, calm air. And we have coastline. So you can always follow the coastline. Almost always, if as long as the clouds aren't touching. But it's it's just a magical place to fly. Yeah. And we have the whole place to ourselves. That's amazing. That is yes, you can. So for the last, the last 10 years of running this business, it's been like full on and I'm on call always. And I running it I'm doing day to day operations. I'm if one of the pilots can't fly, I'm gonna fly that mission or if it's a really technical mission, I'm always the one flying in the crappy weather and flying the technical missions. So are you going to be there in June? Are you going to be sorry, up there in September? Yes. Yep. I'll swing. I'm going to be I'm going to go to Alaska in the beginning of September. I'm going to go see some friends in Juneau. That'd be awesome. If I could go check your guys's place out. Come on up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. How far is it from Toronto? Oh, from Juneau it's about 800 miles we're gonna take a seaplane there you're gonna take a seaplane in from judo. Yeah, from junior to you. Oh, okay. Good luck. Already instrument rated. We're gonna pop here and turn it into a boat. Altimeter seaplane with the deluxe floats. Sounds. Yeah, everything's just so much bigger up in Alaska. 2000. Everyone's like, Oh, I'm coming to Alaska. And then I show him where I am. They're like, Oh, yeah, we're gonna be eight hours away from you. Yeah, we're not coming. I got I got time. I have about like, 10 days. So cool. Well, I love I love having visitors. And especially because I haven't been able to say yes to any better visitors in the last 10 years of finally I'm like, Ah, yeah, live in life. And yeah, having guests and I'm getting to meet my local community. That's a whole different ballgame. When I was when I got my first job. I didn't fly a helicopter for about a year and a half. And then I got the job out in LA. And I was like the last command sto, you know. And I remember like, I was scared at times when I was flying up in Alaska because of the weather. You know, and there was like times where I was like, Whoa, things change like so rapidly. Within about 15 minutes. You're like, well, that screwed. But then I remember like, when I got the job here in LA, and I was flying for the news. It's very dynamic with like the how the car chases happen out here. You got like seven different aircraft, all within about a half mile of each other and you're all following the same guy. So it's very fluid. I remember when the fire scenes fire seasons came around. And it was my first time putting oxygen in the helicopter because we had to get above the TFR for this fire. And the fire was about 12,000 feet So you're up at 14,000 feet, and I could see southwest on SoCal. Like coming in on the Disney arrival for John Wayne. And I'm like, Oh my god. So Kyle approaches like, hey, there's a helicopter out to you. 11 o'clock, you know, two miles. I could only imagine the Southwest pilot. What the hell is that guy doing? And why is he staying still? And I can only imagine seeing everybody on the freeway looking like ants. And I was just like, why am I up here? This Hi. feels so awkward does and helicopters just scary being up that high? It doesn't feel natural. I've never been that high. I went to 12,000 and are 22 ones. And a 22 more ballsy. ballsy hires, I've been in a 22 is maybe 1000 feet. But that was still kind of like, what did you do that for? It was a photographer that wanted to get like as high as he possibly could. And I said, Well, this is the ceiling of the aircraft. And, and actually, he had talked to one of my best friends who was running the school at the time. And so she knew that I was afraid of heights. So she's like, I'm gonna make lead do this flight. So I put my door on because in Hawaii, we usually flew with the doors off like I am not going up there without a door. Yeah. And and I just I kind of like challenges like that when there's something that's out of my comfort zone. I like to step into that. And that's how I grow and like, if I'm afraid of something, if I just face it, I won't be afraid anymore. Yeah, if it all goes if it goes well, right, and it went up there and I was making radio calls and then the island, five islands away over in Hawaii is listening to me. They're like, what are you doing up there? Yeah, just auto down. You'd might as well make a coffee. It's gonna take you 10 minutes true. I went up to 13,000 for Skype for dropping off some skydivers and an A star. But then it but it was February and so cold and I totally forgot gloves. So my hands were freezing. So once we got up there, I was like, Get out. Get out. I'm not gonna be able to feel my hands like five minutes. Yeah, they jumped out and I got down as fast as I could. It was like, literally my head was like it was like a little not gonna be able to feel it after and then it right. Yeah, I felt like an idiot once I got up there. I was like, Oh, man. And the doors are off of course because the skydive. But yeah, so crazy. So one very important question. I have to ask you. Are you are you jet woman over LA? Are you? Are you the mysterious jet pack person? You're not really involved as I? Am I the man in the jet pack? Yeah. Why do they think it's a man? It could totally write a female they have no idea I have already interviewed not one but two female jet pack pilots so far. Yeah, they're just assuming it's a man. Maybe because they know a woman would never be that. Way. I don't know. What do we call him a legend we call him I call him a legend now because like a full disclosure, I was working the news that day that afternoon that had happened. And you know, you get a phone call from my brother, my reporter and like, hey, you know, we got a shooting or whatever, like the regular stuff, right? And I'm like, Alright, be out in a minute. You know, start making my way over there. And then he calls me up and he's like, Hey, man, there's somebody in a jet pack over le x at 3000 in a couple airplanes just saw him. I was like, why? You saw me? You thought I was in NASCAR. I was running I started turning everything on. I'm like, pulling MCP and I'm like, we'll get there in two minutes. And then we got there and I didn't see anything and I was very disappointed. Um, I think that I guess a school got maybe one of the instructors was able to video something. Have you guys seen that? Yeah, I think I did I on on your story. I thought okay, I think you had done you did an interview with with somebody. Yeah, watch. So it's happened three times now that they've had the sighting. And do you guys know that there is an A star arrival into LA X called the Iron Man to? Oh, yeah, no, I knew that from you. Okay, I didn't I started reading that like really? So someone someone's either like messing around and doing some sort of crazy stuff because of that, or I don't think that the pilots would ever make that joke. It's way too serious. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know what's going on. But every time it happens, the several news stations will call me because because I'm usually available to do an interview about it and and I have flown the jet pack and the jet suit. I flew the the gravity jet pack off together in the UK and they invited me on to their race team. So I was telling you that I was doing boardercross before. They want to do jet cross basically. So it would be Six jet suit, fliers taking off of a dock and then flying around a course over water. And the first one back to the dock unscathed and hasn't fallen into the water would win. And our first race was Bermuda. March 24 of 2020. And we I was all set to go. I was I had an orange suit. That's what my color was my color. But I had orange helmet and suits and all ready to go and race this jet jet race around the Bermuda and COVID hit and it got canceled literally a week before. So yeah, man, that sucks. Man. COVID Yeah. Badass jetpack racing. So you could go What, like 30 miles an hour or 30 3040 miles an hour? Well, so Richard Browning himself, the guy that invented it. I think he has broken his own record multiple times. I think he's done maybe up to 90 miles an hour. Oh, wow. He's gone up on that really fast. Yeah. And he's real. He's got so many different ideas. He's tried out different, like elevators on his legs and things to help him to get into kind of a more vertical position to go fast. But, but really, it's more about being maneuverable and just being able to fly up and land on a boat pick up off the boat land on another boat, just being maneuverable. And he's gotten really, really good at it. And with COVID He's been really working on r&d And they actually just flew their first prototype of an electric model. Wow, electric jet, you can't call it a jetpack. But it would be like over viac Vitol pack via pack. That's there's so many exciting things happening on that realm. And then there's there is jet pack aviation, and they're actually based out of vana Van Nuys, that's where their addresses but he's David Mayman. He's in Australia. But they just demonstrated their their speeder Have you heard of their speeder? It's basically like you like a laying down motorcycle. But it is totally autonomous. So now they'll be able to send it without a pilot into maybe enemy territory and then have wounded soldiers get in and then bring it back. Wow. That's super dope. Yeah, it's all its autonomous. And he just flew his first prototype on the tether, but safely and it hovered no problems. So there's big games happening and out of a job and it's so cool. So I'm trying to get to Australia. I want to go work over there with Gen. Z, like, what's what's happening next, you know, I mean, it's uh, yeah, it was so cool. interviewing her and hearing about her journey with with with IVIG or I jet pack? Yeah, I made that mistake. It's not I fly jet packets. I jet because because I jetpack was taken. Yeah, the reason? Are you guys gonna go head to head on the racing? You'd be like, I would love her. I think she amazing. I think she's just a passionate human being. Yeah, she knows that. She learned at a young age that everything's possible. And she's she's proving that she is an amazing woman. She so she has also flown the jet pack and the jet suit. And and I'm just really excited to see what she comes up with her. I have I jet pack? Yeah. Say Say it again. I get back. But yeah, she wants to fly across Australia and I would love to fly with her. I think we would make a great team. She's, she's a really bright lady. Yeah, she's super cool. How could Yeah, it was gonna take a long time to do I told her to buy more blades, you know? And like, race down the highway cut like your time in half. I did all the math. Basically, physicists now Yeah. Quantum quantum mechanics. So do you do you think that all of the yoga that you do because I don't know for all of our listeners out there who have ever heard of is it coats? Coats? Yeah. Leah. Leah cones. Yeah. Lee coats. Lee Yeah. Oh, I've been calling you Leah. I'm so sorry. worriedly coats and your yoga, Instagram. You have a couple of them. So you go on. On Instagram. I share my yoga practice and I do a lot of challenges and try to get people interested in trying new things, trying new poses, learning how to handstand learning how to forearms and that's all on my Lee pile. I can't even remember my Instagram. I was waiting for you to see it because I was like, I don't remember the order of the yogi pilot. It's Lee Yogi pilots. So That's been my main Instagram for years. But I started just a specific helicopter page, which is heli pilot Lee, because the two audiences can be quite different. A lot of people are interested in both, but not everybody is. So I have my helicopter page and my yoga page. Do you think that all of the yoga that you've done has helped you with the physical aspect of flying the jet suit? Yes, it's definitely physically demanding. And I think the handstands really helped because there's a lot of shoulder strength involved. It's basically you're wearing a tripod, you have a, you have thrust on either arm, you have two engines on either arm and one on your back. And they all have equal thrust. So when you start, you start with your arms out, you get the Jets going, and then you aim towards the ground and you'll start going forward. So you're I basically am hunching over a little bit using keeping my arm straight. And then from there, just moving my shoulders in the direction that I want to fly. And so it's pretty intuitive with but it definitely takes some strength. And I think, between handstands between racing boardercross on a snowboard, flying helicopters. I think everything I did in my life just led up to that being my jam. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, I'm sure you've picked it up really quickly. I did. It was surprising. And then I got to go to the UK. And actually, I'm the only woman in the world still, who has flown it off tether. Wow. Where did you go? That's amazing. Such a small like, nice, you know, like, you're like the only person in the world you and like, a general don't you're the only two jet pilots. I know. No jet pack pilot. Jet soon as I learned the difference. It's pretty badass. And see, I thought that everybody wants to do that. And so when I started to understand that there was, I would say, Okay, you have the opportunity to do this, it's going to cost you this amount of money. And it's going to take this amount of time and, and it's going to be in this place. Oh, well, I've got this to do. I don't think I can quite afford it, the better that's like, for me, as soon as someone says, Hey, there's this opportunity. I'm like, okay, okay. And for me, actually, it was I don't know how much it's gonna cost. I don't know where it's gonna be. I don't know, when it's gonna be and I was like, Sign me up. I'm in. Yeah, like, as you figure those things out, you just tell me and I am in Yeah. And I was like, I just made it made it happen to go there and be there and do the training. And, and I first trained in the jet pack, which is a little bit less intuitive and more, I think helicopter skills helped more because you actually have a yaw control. You have a throttle and a yaw. And in any way, being able to have our helicopter, I think what I was able to pick that up quicker than the average bear. Yeah. So I did, I trained with them twice. And then I trained with with the jet suit, jet pack tech suit. And my very first time on tether with them, I was hovering and Richard browning the founder, he basically said, Yep, the next time you fly, you're probably gonna be able to go off tether. And I was like, okay, that's my goal in life is to fly it off to other Yeah. And, and I did. And literally, I was actually added an airshow in Arizona with our 66. And I had landed at the Air Show, and someone came over, hey, can you do a candy drop for us? Or our pilots? Stuck? They they couldn't do it. And all of a sudden, now we don't have anybody to drop this candy. I was like, yeah, absolutely. Well, then we're going to the air show. And I have to wait a few hours to do the candy drop. And I get a whatsapp from Richard browning. And he says, Hey, Lee, I need you in the UK on Friday. And this was like, Tuesday, I was like, okay, and jumped in the helicopter, did the candy drop, and then went and got all my stuff together and jumped on a plane. Wow. So like, you say jump, I say how high thing that I'm passionate about, like, that's what I want to do. And I'm gonna do it. Like, I don't understand, like the guy you hear about the guy with Jeff Bezos, the one that should have went to space but said he had a prior engagement. Yeah, like this guy won a raffle like 20 million to go to space with Jeff basses. And, um, he had to back out because he had a prior, like a prior engagement. And I'm like, what, what prior engagement dentist, like you had to go to the dentist what happened? You know, like, maybe he just the media that we're hearing and, and one of my thoughts on that was, so it ended up being a young kid that went instead. And maybe that guy wanted the young kids ago because that young kid can change the world. He's gonna grow up and he's gonna have he's, he now has the overview effect. So he has seen the Earth from above and looking down. And it's a really profound experience that maybe 80% of everyone who's ever been to space has experienced, where they all of a sudden understand the fragility of our world and the end they are have a driving force that is so now connected, that they have to do everything that they can and to nurture and to save our world. And so that young kid now is going to come back and he's got so many years left to live and maybe he's gonna He's gonna change the world in some way. That's That's because he's had that experience. So, yeah, we've talked to think about it that way. Like, what a loser? Or maybe he just got scared. Maybe he got scared. It was like, Maybe I don't know. Maybe the guy like ended up having a kid or like a baby or something. And he was like, it's just too risky. One week, babe, I'm going into space. Never know. But can we all agree that that rocket looks like I did not know when I send you that video. It was gonna be like the thing everybody talks about, you know, like when Oh, really? Of course, everybody was gonna talk about Jeff Bezos made a rocket look like a penis giant penis. He said it. Well, I said as soon as I saw it, I was like, oh, man, it looks like Austin power spaceship. Back in the day just looked like a penis. And like, I sent it to her. And next thing you know, everybody's sending the same video. And I'm like, Well, I'm least not the only one. Yeah, not. Definitely not. Definitely not. Yeah. So no, I didn't hear about the guy that backed out. I didn't realize that. So what we talked about in a recent podcast with Chad Halstead, I don't know if you saw we talked a lot about environmentalism because he was he was in the sea shepherds. And he's a conservationist, and he flew the MD 500, off the back of the CSET, Sea Shepherd vessel and supportive, you know, Whale Wars, illegal whaling and fishing in Antarctica in a lot of different places. He had a really interesting perspective, because, you know, he's a helicopter pilot, and a lot of the times you hear people say, in helicopters, oh, you're like, you know, you're killing the environment, because you're releasing all the, you know, you know, gases into the, into the ozone, ozone. Yeah, that's the word I was thinking of sorry. But, you know, he made a fair point that like, when you give people these profound experiences, like flying them in the Grand Canyon, or doing even just tours, what you're actually doing is making a mark on those people, where they feel more of a connection with the planet, and more of a sense that they want to protect it, kind of kind of in the same way, sense that you what you were just saying about, you know, the kid who got to see the world from this totally different perspective and realizing the fragility of it and getting a newfound sense of wanting to nurture and protect it. And I think it's the same same thing when you give people a tour, and you show them a different perspective from the air, and just makes people feel more connected to the planet. I love that makes me feel better about burning God. There you go. Yeah, you're sharing it with the world. I mean, even just like on Instagram, and people will feel inspired by it. And, you know, I know I feel inspired every time I see your videos flying around in Alaska. I'm like, man, like, okay, maybe I do really want to go up there. It looks like such a magical place to fly. Even like I just saw those glaciers. Calvin is having Calvin's it's calving, but it had an L oh god, calving. I saw an IMAX film one time of glaciers. And it was like the craziest experience in IMAX because they have like the sound, surround sound and the IMAX of the glaciers calving. And it was the most intense, crazy experience, but it was so cool seeing that on your Instagram. I was like, I can't even imagine seeing this live. seeing it in person is really profound. And I have had people crying we just stand on the shoreline and we watch it and just crying from the sheer magnitude of like feeling so small on this earth and this planet and and yeah, maybe that has maybe it's almost like the overview effect. When you see that in person were like, wow, the Earth is changing. The world is so dynamic. We need to protect it. And any little part I can do to share that with people. I absolutely will. Amazing. You're gonna come visit to both of you guys. Oh my god. I know. I just saw it in Stacy's arm down in Juneau. We went out and like luckily, I mean, luckily, like I just saw it, like break off, you know, from one of the glaciers and I was just like, I felt this big, you know, just like gigantic I felt it sounded like thunder. You know, like, God just struck down this piece of ice. I was like, Well, I've had arguments with people out, like standing there and listening and it literally sounds like a thunderstorm. I live really close to the fastest receding glacier in the state. It's called columbia glacier. It's about 26 statute miles from my house. I only know that because I couldn't I couldn't fly part 90 One sewers out there as a party on the far there's northeast corner. And it's receded almost seven miles since I started flying over it. And that was only 10 years ago. So it's receding really, really fast. But it literally it'll calve maybe every five minutes. And you can be standing there and someone's like, no, it's that thunderstorm. And it's like a blue sky day. There's not a cloud in the sky. There's no thunder. That is the case. Do you guys are standing out in Alaska? Do you get thunderstorms, please do Interior often. But where I live now on the coast? Very, very rare. Maybe twice a year tops. Yeah, maybe even just once a year? Yeah. Yeah. When I was injured. I think that my idea told me I think the last one was like four or five years ago when I was there. Oh, wow. Yeah. And he lives there full time. So it rarely happens. At least in the area I was living in. Mm hmm. Yeah. Same judo and valleys are very similar as far as weather patterns. Yeah. Great. wet, wet. Yeah, lots of snow rainy we get an average of 33 feet of snow a year. That's it doesn't melt so every neighborhood has a big empty lot and they you have to push all the snow into that big lot. Yeah, I have zero experience living in that kind of a snowy environment. I don't know if I would like it. I don't know if I would like the snow. I mean maybe like summertime for sure. But I don't know because I had been back and forth wanting to like move to Colorado. And I'm like I just don't know if I would be able to handle the winters I've just never lived in that kind of environment. I think you just get old like not saying new scenery but I think it just get old like scraping the windows warming up the car for like 30 minutes or 15 minutes you know and having to shovel your driveway. All the little things lifestyle. It's a lifestyle I'm more of a Mohito kick it in a hammock kind of guy some kind of spoiled we have a heated driveway and we parked in the garage driveway driveway it's a game changer right there thing good right toilets and heating driveways full circle awesome. I want to share one last thing you had asked where I'm going to go this winter. Oh yeah. And so this winter we are going to go on tour again with our candy cane 505 And we're gonna fly around spreading joy and happiness throughout the land and landing in all kinds of different places and if we get invited to people's homes we will go land in their backyards will give people candy canes will give people rides. I will leave treasures here and there I had so much fun doing that on this last trip and and share it all on social media. So if you want me to stop in, show me your LLC and I'll be there now a strange lady is asking me if I want candy and she just landed a helicopter in our yard. Free candy take candy from weird ladies of helicopters treasures are you talking here? Well, treasure Reese's Reese's Pieces. I left a treasure in Keene, New Hampshire at a place called Life is sweet candy store. And so if you go in there and there's a little treasure on the wall, you have to take a selfie with the treasure and they will give you a free cupcake. There's also a place called Sterling helicopters and that's in Pennsylvania. And the owner will give you an actual tour of all they have like two Trump helicopters in there. They have all kinds of really cool, interesting helicopters more than I've ever seen anywhere else. They'll give you a full tour and a little goodie bag that I left that has like some schwag a mug, a calendar. Somebody picked that up today so nobody can have that one. Oh, yeah, that's so good. Good idea. We're in Pennsylvania isn't that is? I don't know. Oh, in fact, I'll tell you our candy came to her our totals I had to total it up. It was only 110 flight hours and that was from Montreal to Dominican Republic and then along the south and then back up to Alaska. It was only 110 hours. But we did 140 stops. And let's see burn 3300 gallons of jet A to talk about that during the glaciers, caching, just kidding. Sometimes I was too busy. to land and visit somebody, but I would do a flyover and and they'd video and I'd video and then we'd share videos. And it was just so touching to see like how I could bring joy to someone's day. Yeah, we did that we did six of those. And I took, let's see 48 passengers 13 of them up in the front seat gave them all flight lessons. So like, I have all these numbers of what we did. And I just went, I want to do more. So I just want to keep going. And I want to meet more people. And I want to have your own TV show. So you should my own TV show. Yeah, but I don't even like being in front of the camera. No, I don't know. Yeah, I don't even a zoom call like this. I'm like, girl. I think you're right. Yeah. Oh, thank you so much for sharing your story and talking and joking around with us. Because I know we're we've taken up more of your time than expected. But it's been so wonderful talking to you and actually getting to know I can talk to you guys for hours, honestly, you're gonna have a heck of an edit. Because we think, oh my god, I'm gonna be sitting at that computer for so long. But it's gonna be good, because then I get to relive it and hear all the funny stories again, by senior year. It was a wonderful day. You too, Jose, great to meet you and Diane, hopefully, hopefully get to see you guys up in Alaska one of these days or in LA? Yeah, for sure. No, it'll happen for sure. What an inspiring life story. She she's probably one of the most go getter type of people that I've ever talked to. You know, she wanted something. She had a goal. She had many different goals that she set out to accomplish. And she did what she had to do to make her dreams happen. And she wasn't afraid to go get a waitressing job while she was, you know, working on those things. Or, you know, she stayed humble through the entire process and look what she where she's at right now already self retired, and owns her own helicopter and lives between Alaska and going on these epic cross country trips with her blue face hashtag life goals. So I feel super inspired by her story. Now you guys know what time it is. All right, she went on a really long cross country. So I think it would be really helpful just to touch on some things that you guys might need to look for if you are going to be picking up an aircraft to ferry across the country or to the next city over even and it's a aircraft that you've never flown before. So this is just a quick reminder of the things that we should be checking for. We're going to split it up into two categories. We've got documents and maintenance. So let's take a look at the minimum documents and maintenance you should be checking for in an aircraft in their logbooks before you decide to go so first thing we're going to talk about our aircraft documents which if you are a pilot already, you should already know the acronym arrow A R O W, one the airworthiness certificate registration, the operator's handbook and the weight and balance for the aircraft. So remember that your airworthiness certificate does not have an expiration date unless any major alterations have been completed, which you can find in the maintenance logbooks, both engine and airframe. However, your registration does have an expiration date, it should be renewed every three years. So make sure that you're checking that that specific registration is current and up to date, the weight and balance remember, that's not the weight and balance for you and the aircraft that is the weight and balance that has been officially made for the aircraft itself. And that's going to be found in the pilot operating handbook in the aircraft, or the rotorcraft flying manual, which is in some helicopters as well. So you also want to make sure that that aircraft complies with all of the required equipment in 91 205. So this, if this is an aircraft that you've never flown before, again, it's never bad, a bad thing to make sure that it has all the required legal equipment. Alright guys, we're gonna go over the pilot documents. Number one federal aviation regulation six 0.3 requires you to have your basic three, government issued identification whether it be like your driver's license, your REAL ID, your passport, your air medical certificate and your pilot's license. If crossing the border into another country like Canada, the Bahamas, Mexico, he must have your FCC Federal Communications Commission, which is your commercial radio operating license. All right. What about aircraft maintenance? You guys might be wondering whether or not that aircraft would need a 100 hour inspection. Well, it would if you are going to be carrying any passengers for hire that are other than the crew or if you're going to be providing any flight instruction for hire and that aircraft then it would require the 100 hour inspection. You also need that annual completed any airworthiness directives or check for service bulletins, even though those technically are not legally required, but they are smart to have them completed. Your ELT make sure that that has been tested in the last 12 calendar months. And talking about the batteries of the ELT really quick if they are the rechargeable kind, and they've been used for one cumulative hour, they must be replaced. And if they're the replaceable kind, they need to be replaced. For every half of the battery life if half of the battery life has been used, they need to be replaced. Transponder should be checked every 24 calendar months, and the Peto static system should be checked every 24 calendar months. So look for those stickers in the airframe. logbook for that aircraft. And it's not such a bad idea if you have a GPS to make sure that that database is current. And what about pilot maintenance, make sure that you're keeping up with your stuffs that biannual flight review that's required every two years. If you're carrying passengers on this flight, make sure you have your recency requirements completed. So that's within the last 90 days, three takeoffs and three landings in that make and model of aircraft. And if you're going to be flying at night time, make sure you get your nighttime requirements of three takeoffs and landings to a full stop. And that make and model of aircraft, at least one hour after sunset to one hour before sunset in that bracket of time. And make sure you're doing your I'm safe checklist illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, it could be a big one on a long cross country. So make sure that you're maintaining your rest and getting good sleep, and make sure that you are eating and you're emotionally sound for that flight. And of course, complete that proper flight planning procedures before you take off your weather briefing, all of that good stuff. Alright guys. So those are the things that we need to make sure are taken care of both aircraft and pilot documents and aircraft and pilot maintenance. Just a couple of reminders. The dare to dream event is coming up August 22. If you and your family are in the LA area, make sure you go online to forever on the fly.com and make your reservation as we are going to be limiting the amount of people in attendance. And something that we're doing that's pretty fun, we're going to be giving away a DJI mini two, which is one of those really cool little Mavic drones. Pretty awesome. It's about it's over a $500 value. And all you need to do to enter is be over 18 years old, live in the continental United States and donate $10 and you'll get a raffle ticket for every $10 that you donate. And that has to be done through the raffle website which you can find through our website, www dot forever on the fly.com. And then go to fotf youth go to the dare to dream event page, scroll down and you'll see the raffle on there. And there's a button that says count me and that's the link that you have to go to in order to enter into the raffle. The
raffle will close at 2:30pm on the dare to dream event day. And we will be announcing the winner at 3pm So if you don't live here and you're not going to be at the event, we will ship your prize to you. And don't forget our forever on the fly youth is now on Instagram at fot F youth f o t t f us forever on the fly us. So go ahead and go to Instagram and follow along on our journey to inspire the next generation of aviators. Don't forget guys to subscribe to the podcast send over a review on Apple podcasts. We always love to hear from you and hear what you think and how we're doing out here on the podcast. Have a beautiful day Fly safe and we'll catch you next time on The forever on the fly podcast. Bye later.