Scott Gendron: Helis to Heavys

Whaaaats up AV Nerds! I can't believe we are already on SEASON 2 EPISODE 5! Mind bloowwn away with so many amazing guests, and our next one is no exception. 

Are you a helicopter pilot? Are you thinking about making the switch to the airlines? Well this episode is for you! We're here to chat with Scott Gendron; USCG rescue swimmer veteran, former helicopter pilot, previous Skywest Captain,  and current 747 new hire at Kalitta Air. Have you ever wondered what your path could look like to transition into the airlines from a helicopter career? We're here to get you the scoop on what it was like for Scott, and how long it took him to go from helos to heavys. Later in the episode Diane and Scott reminisce on some crazy stories from the good old Coast Guard days. 

Stick around until the end of the episode for a summary of the Restricted ATP requirements that you will need if you are planning to change up your career. 

**Episode Rated PG13 for some adult language**

Transcript

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You're listening to the forever on the fly podcast What's up AV nerds and Welcome to season two episode five of the forever on the fly podcast, your bi weekly dose of aviation inspiration, education and entertainment. My name is Jose, and my name is Dan. And we're here to get you guys hooked on aviation aviation. Does that work? Yeah, sounds good. Doo doo doo doo doo. The event is coming up awesome date this coming Sunday. I'm gonna be so happy when I don't have to plan anything anymore. Oh, it has been six months in the making, and I just am ready for the execution. No, I'm ready for it to happen. It's gonna go, it's gonna go, it's gonna go off really? Well, I you know, I also have a gut feeling Guess how many people signed up? We're almost at 500 Count 500 500 People now multiply that by two. And that's how many people are actually going to show up. 1000 we're gonna run out of heat. We're gonna run out of food. We're gonna run out of everything. That's what we were kind of capping it at was 500 people. That was our goal, and we hit it. So that's really exciting. Just a quick reminder, you guys, actually I don't know if we ever actually announced it on the podcast. We are giving away a DJI mini to drone in a raffle. Whoa. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I mean, I'm kind of upset that I don't get to enter and do the raffle because I kind of want one. Well, I entered myself. surname. Right on right on. Well, a $10. Donation. Fabulous. Fabulous. Yeah. Oh, is that your alias? Yeah, that's cool. All right. Good. When I do this, like, how do I do you want the drone? The drone is dope. Yeah, I've never actually tried to fly one before. Never even attempted, but they'll be cool. So this is just a little bit of an incentive. Hopefully, people actually enter into it other way. Otherwise, we just spent$500 on a job that was gonna give the person is a raffle. But it's $10 per entry. And to enter into the contest, you need to be 18 years or older, you need to be living within the US. And you have to enter by August 22. This

coming Sunday, by 2: 2:43

30pm. Pacific Standard Time, you can find the link to do the donation on our website on the dare to dream event page. don't donate through our website, donate through the link on the event page. And that's an online raffle program for nonprofits that will, you know, pick someone at random during the designated time we tell. So, again, if you guys want to enter into the raffle, go online to www dot forever in the phi.com backslash aviation dash day. And you'll see I even think I put it on the front page. So you can even just go to the forever on the fly.com. And it'll be right there on the front desk things. Yeah, just click on the link, click on the link and I'll direct you straight to it. Okay, I think I beat that. Yeah, yeah, I think you got the point across? I think I did. I don't know. I think it's probably tell people again. Donate. We'd like to continue to do these events all over the US eventually, you're continuing to do the work that we're doing with inspiring the next generation of aviators to join the ranks of pilots around the world because we're retiring and dying right now, man, they're all going to the Space Force their application out for that because I'm kind of curious. We'll get to the episode. Are you a helicopter pilot? Are you thinking about making the switch to the airlines? Well, this episode is for you. We're here to chat with Scott Gendron US Coast Guard rescue swimmer veteran, former helicopter pilot, previous SkyWest captain in current 747 new hire at Kalita air Ever wonder what your path could look like to transitions the airlines from a helicopter career? Well, we're here to get you the scoop on what was like for Scott, and how long it took him to go from hilos to heavies. And if he has any regrets, and stick around until the end of the episode, we're gonna go over exactly what our requirements you would need and all the boxes you need to check off if you were transitioning into the airlines from a helicopter career. Scott Gendron for crosswind jet is some of the most exciting flying that I've ever done. I am Scott gendered and I'm forever on the fly I got to start this sprouts of glory did you look I tried to grow a mustache and I was in the airlines bro and I look like a catfish on me. I like the only girl like Yeah, I kind of make it in the boys club man but couldn't make it couldn't make Jose can't quite gotta give it a couple months you know I gave him 14 years every every birthday a straight up every birthday since I was 14 knows like mustache Yeah, but I'm not cool enough to just go straight for the mustache. I have to do the beard for like a week. And then I get rid of that. No. Yeah, it's right there, bro. Man. You got a look at that. Look at that. Look at that mustache, bro. Looking good. Oh, this is a week. Yeah, it's a week. Yeah, I just got mine bleached. So thank you so much for joining us. I haven't seen you in forever. This is so great. I know. Yeah. This is such a cool thing you guys have done. This is awesome. I don't think I seem like three months, maybe two months. Three months. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for the sweater. Thanks for sending me back my sweater. Yeah, well, I had a I had a layover in LA and his places like couple miles from our hotel. So Oh, yeah. Beach. Worked out. Yeah, it was. It was awesome. Right. He ran from his hotel to my place. Of course he did. You know, like the homie like that was like, was that like 1012 miles? Something like that? Yes. Well, yeah, there's 10 miles, right. On the beach, it's, that's even harder, you know? Well, you know, you're stuck in an airplane for you know, it's sometimes it's super nice to get outside, especially down there and, you know, go for a run or whatever. After. Yeah, because we spent so much time just sitting. Yeah, you know, staring in there playing console, you know. So, yeah, it's nice to get out, telling people why they're here. And telling people why their airplanes are delayed. Sir. Why is my plane delayed? No, that's another that's another time I'm running. That's just like, when we were at pappy on, and we would, you know, fly standby and we get to wear the uniform to the airport, and everyone would just assume that you're an airline captain. And my point would be delayed and you're sitting on the ground about to bite into a sandwich and everyone's approaching you like, do you know when this flight is gonna leave? I'm like, do I look like someone? Let me enjoy my sandwich. Let me enjoy my you know, no, but that pandect My my Wolfgang Puck sandwich $30 for? I can't tell you about your airplane. But that double orange chicken is delicious. So I didn't realize when we were at pappy on, we didn't wear ties. So when we you know, I only non revved ones at pantheon. But I was like, I must look like a total idiot walking around the airport. With no dye on Yeah. Give me a weird looks. Or wearing your wings. Like you know how like they had like those pappy on wings with the P as a PA Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. I realized nobody ever wears wings in the airport. Or a hat for that matter. Really? The thing? Except if you're Delta, I never worried that they were the double gold pockets. Oh, yeah, man. They sleep in their hats over there what's your favorite airplane air airport food? What do you what's your go to? Oh, I you like I probably find myself and like the Keto better Chipotle line a lot. Nice. Yeah. So brother, well, let's start. Let's get let's get going. So already we've been going yeah. Like we know we're just gonna jack in here is the best part. The best part? was all I had prepped. Perfect. What else is there? I still feel like it still felt like a meatball sub on my face. Oh, yeah. I just savagely ate this sandwich a minute ago. There's a deli in my neighborhood. And it says like best sandwiches in the world. And I'm like, oh, yeah, well, let's check this out. Turns out I better try it. It's pretty freakin good. It was good. It was good. I did not have the meatball sandwich, but it did look good. Yeah, I wore it proudly. Yeah, for sure. Things always turned into a mess. So it did Yeah, I was like, by the way, I'm not gonna wait my face until the very end. So you're just gonna have to deal damn with what? Man and I'm looking at it. I'm like, Whoa, you got got some stuff right here. And I like to have my most serious conversations with me ball over my face. Just like we have to talk about something very serious right now. So saving napkins. Exactly saving the tree is all about conservation over here. Well, cool. Welcome to the forever on the podcast. This is what we do. Well, yeah, happy to be here. It was so it was so cool. The video that you sent of you guys listening to the podcasts in the cockpit. Were like, Oh my God. Yeah. That was that was pretty cool. It was yeah, it was like much. That was totally I forget which one we were listening to. But yeah, we're enjoying it. Yeah, I got my app. Oh, I got him hooked on it, too. So you got another man got another hooked on? Yeah, I came up with that tag on a on a hike. I was like, what should it be? Like? I'm like, hooked hooked hooked on Ed hook. Yeah, got it. Yeah. No, it was like I was on a hike. It was up in like Pasadena area. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I thought it was a team after write it down like Yeah, totally. Right. I'm like freaking out my phone. Don't forget. Totally. Well, cool. Let's, let's talk about you. Let's talk about your career. So right now, you are in training day one, right? Yeah, day one was today. I just started a new job. So it's, I'm kind of in between. I just left sky West a couple weeks ago. And yeah, today was my first day at Kota. So I'm gonna be moving over from the passenger side of flying cargo. Do you know what type of aircraft? Is it gonna be? Seven 747-747-4074 100. Yeah. Yeah. Jay? Yeah, I was on the CRJ. I flew the 200 709 100 at Sky West, but would fly all three variants to those. And then yeah, we're here. It's the, it'll just be the 747. So it's, I'm excited. Yeah, we just started today. And it's exciting. What, uh, what do you do? It's awesome. Because I get a lot of friends asked me about, like the transition, you know, and you're like, one of the few guys that I know personally, that has gone completely from rotorcraft all the way up through a heavy you're actually the only one I know, that helicopter. Yeah, that's done that you're gonna answer a lot of questions. I'm sure. A lot of my friends are gonna want to know, like, the route you took and how you took it? And what were the pros and cons of it? Well, I mean, I'm super happy to get this information out there, just so people can see that it is possible to do that. I mean, when I went over to Sky west, from helicopters, I mean, I tried to do as much research as I could, but you know, I didn't know any airline pilots. And you know, just trying to kind of break into that industry and figure out how that all works, what that lifestyle is like, and everything like that. And I went to Sky West, because I had heard kind of, you know, I was researched a bunch of regional companies and tried to figure out like, where you can go and maybe spend a career at a regional cuz I was like, I don't know, to helicopter guys ever get to move on from the regionals? Are we kind of stuck there? Because, you know, we've got all this helicopter time, so. And that's not the case at all. FYI. I mean, I thought that, but I thought that might be a possibility. That's not the case at all, at all. I mean, here at class eclipta. We've got, I think it's eight or 10 guys that are in training on the 7.7 and two of us are helicopter guys, so Wow. I mean, yeah. So I mean, and tons of guys, that sky West that I flew with were, you know, helicopter guys as well. Yeah. So let's get anatomy on, you know, Yeah. Cuz I always thought that maybe like a stigma or being like a rotor guy going into the fixed wing world. You know, like, yeah, I was, I was a little bit nervous about that. But, I mean, not in my experience. I haven't seen that at all. A lot of people are happy to talk about it, like, oh, you know, what's flying helicopters, like, and it's like, well, you know, it's a lot cooler than how you built your first 1000 hours. Yeah, I mean, well, you talk to some of these guys that did. I mean, I'm super happy that I started off in helicopters, it was so much fun. And you talked about, you know, when people are building their, you know, their flying resume and doing their low time flying, like what I got to do in a helicopter, you know, just instructing around Central Oregon and, you know, landing on mountains, you know, going to win in all these cool places to, you know, go fishing or whatever. It just sounds so much better than, you know, building 1500 hours, you know, do an aerial survey, you know, back and forth or, you know, even play instruction in airplanes. I mean, to me, I'm happy I did it that way. Yeah, it was someone hearing so The other story is I'm like, oh, man, that sounds boring. Yeah, don't miss it a lot. No, I don't. I thought it's so funny when I left. Pappy on. And like, walked away from that helicopter and I was the last time I flew a helicopter. I was like, man, is this a huge mistake? Or like I worked so hard to get here? That's ballsy, dude. Cuz he left like three months into it. Like you're the class right now or five months? I can't remember. Yeah, I did like five or six months, right? I did a season. I think you're like right there. October, I think is when you bounce. Yep. Yeah, they asked me to stay till October. So and then, yeah, I went to Sky West and double once after that, I think ended November is when I started at Southwest. So yeah, so when I left I was I was I was pretty nervous. But no, I thought and I was a little afraid that I was like, my hanging up flying. Like, you know, helicopters, or something you fly. You know, it takes a lot of work to fly a helicopter. I mean, you know, people think we just get it's a big mystery. What happens in the flight deck of an airline. You know, people just think it's like, oh, it's all automated. We just turned on the autopilot. That's it. You know? Yeah, we use the autopilot a lot, but doing the approaches down to minimums and 40 now crosswind jet is some of the most exciting flying that I've ever done. It's a different type of flying it's totally different what we do but it's still super exciting. Nice no regrets. Yeah, no, no, I'm happy I did it I don't I don't look back on it. It's something like that. I wish I had stuck with them and ended up but yeah, yeah, what is hard man find like when I was flying assistant and I went from assessment to find the Embraer it was such a steep learning curve flying the Embraer with only having like 250 hours of fixed wing time. So when I went straight into the Embraer there's a lot of things that I didn't know that I felt a little bit behind the curve when it came to some of my friends that were in my class that were airplane pilots the whole way through little things like oh, you want to keep it like on a standard return or whatever the case is shooting ILS, you know, I never had Chevron's, you know, on a flight director. So that was something you had to learn. It's a lot more complex when everything I felt like when everything was running smooth. And you did have the autopilot was fine. But I thought airplane pilots never got enough credit. When things go bad your bandwidth expand, it gets it gets bad quit. You know, when things like there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff to do. That's why they have like, that's why they don't expect you to memorize all the tech like manuals and the checklist. It's like, there's a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, that was some checklist. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. Going into airplanes. I'm like, wait, I don't have to memorize every single little item on these, you know, and these things, and, yeah, and helicopters. You just had to know what to do every for every scenario. But I mean, they're much more complex in the airlines, you know, so many more systems and so many different things that could go wrong. But crew management, that's not something that we're really that well versed in, in helicopters, because usually we're single pilot. Yeah, yeah. When I interviewed for SkyWest, and we did that. We did that scenario based scenario. Yeah, you've got like, and I was the least experienced airplane pilot and the group that I was interviewing with, so they put me in the captain's seat, of course. And they put the least they're the most experienced guy and like the jump seat, and it was all like diverting for weather scenarios, kind of like okay, well, there's reporting this here, this here, your destination, this over here, and there's a thunderstorm cell right here. What are you gonna do? Broke, you know, broken air, and then they would come in? And they'd be like, Sir, everyone is getting really sick in the back, we're running out of, you know, or Ma'am, we're running out of bags, whatever. And it's just like, what are you going to do? Kind of a thing, and then they would kept like, beeping in with like, the flight attendants bringing problems to the flight deck. Yeah. And I forgot that I had the guy in the jump seat. I forget the type of all the resources. And so that was actually kind of a challenging exercise. And I think they knew that being putting the least experienced person in the captain's chair, like, let's just see how you do with this and what your thought process is, I totally forgot about the guy in the jump seat. So you know, it was just working with the other guy. I'm like, Okay, you set up the flight plan over here, we're gonna, I'm gonna get the weather over there. And we'll divert to this airport. And they're like, Oh, well, I'm trying to deal with the flight attendant the same time. And at the end of the exercise, they're like, Well, don't forget, you got this experience captain in the back, you know, right behind you and tell him to deal with the passengers and the flight attendant. It's like, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I think you have to do everything yourself. But it's cool. It was a cool exercise. So yeah, I had a more respect. I was like, oh, yeah, this is, you know, a lot of stuff going on in here. And that was just in a classroom. And then having like, what you Scott, like being a captain, that's a lot of responsibility, man, you know, I mean, you could even talk you know, in the summertime, the wintertime, it's just a lot of thing going on. Yeah, they both I mean, all the seasons kind of present their own their own challenges for sure. And I mean, that's scenario Diane, I mean, no one ever is that scenario is, is no one ever gets through that scenario without you know, you never get the airplane on the ground you do a perfect job. It's like well, now you're in the middle of the tornado. So we have an unruly passenger, just get the duct tape. But I mean starting off, I mean, I think when you like when I went to Sky West, I was like, holy cow. I mean, I was with these. I mean, there were some, you know, the other. I think we had, I think there were 50 people in the class. And I was like, I mean, I day one I was like, what I, I think probably everything went over my head. I mean, I looked over at the guy next to me and I was like, what's an RCC code? You know, which is a code basically says how slippery the runway is. And he like looked at me like, how do you not know that? Yeah. Oh, no way. Yeah. Crap. You're like, just kidding. Just kidding. See, isn't your googling on your phone under the table? RCC? Yeah, it's sky West, they were like do not have your phones out mouths like, oh, man, um, this whole lesson is going to go over my head loss. I know when RCC code is, but you just have to ask questions and your first year is you just got to ask questions and be humble. It's a totally new thing that I mean, you know how to, you know, you're, it's just a totally new division applying. I guess, when I had first officers that were coming from helicopters, I think sometimes the biggest problem that I would see is like they didn't want to, they weren't ready to, you know, they've got 1000s of hours in a helicopter. You know, they weren't so excited to take critiques and stuff. So but I mean, when I when I think, you know, when I started at SkyWest, all of my legs that were that I flew in my brief, I was like, Look, if you see something that you think I can be doing better, or whatever, I mean, please tell me, because I'm coming here with like, I had, like, planned around 250 hours in an airplane, I think, I mean, the absolute minimums that I could come with. So I was like, I mean, it was a great guy was was a great opportunity for me to learn, you know, really how to, you know, be an airline pilot in the CRJ is a great airplane for anyone coming from helicopters. To the airlines. I mean, that's not a very automated airplane. I mean, yeah, of course, it's got an auto pilot and stuff. But I mean, there's a lot of, I guess, kind of extra work. It's not, it's not very, very automated. So you're, you kind of have to really learn the systems as you're going through it. And everybody in their first year, every first officer in their first year. I mean, it is in the learning phase. So I mean, that's, I mean, everybody is, you know, it's a two two person flight deck. So, I mean, you're used to if you've got a first officer, that's only been, you know, flying, you know, jet for a couple months, and then you're gonna they're gonna miss things. And that's, that's just the way it is. That's a encounter that'll quite a bit. Yeah, yeah, as a captain. Yeah, when you get in UFO, I'm sure you're already assuming that. Alright, I got to be a little bit more on my toes. But certain things are just don't you? I looked at it as it was a opportunity to teach and I needed that for sure. You know, I don't know what I looked like, when I first came online at Sky West. I mean, I was probably, you know, it's probably horrible. But I think if you just, you know, you know, ask for critiques and take those to heart and, you know, try and improve, you know, with to what I've described before, is like, with two pilots up there, you know, you want to make one perfect pilot, right? That's the whole purpose of having two people up there, you know, because you got all these, you know, a lot of people are counting on you to, to make sure that, that everything's run safely up there. So, I mean, when one person you're always backing each other up, and, you know, captains, you know, first officers will will say, hey, look, this is, you know, you're turning on the wrong taxiway or, or, you know, whatever, it's, it's always mean, you're two people are confirming, you know, different. Yeah, like Yeah, checks and balance. Yeah, yeah, totally. I can't remember though. Scott. Did you? Do Did you do a rotor transition program? Or did you do with the VA to get your stuff you're ready when I was instructing in helicopters. I still had some GI Bill money left. So I started taking some airplane classes. And so kind of when I didn't have a student for a blog, go fly the airplane or take an airplane lesson. So when I left when I went to Pantheon I had close to the minimums you needed for to go to the regionals. Oh, God, I had been. Yeah, I needed to get my Multi engine commercial great. But, you know, I never got a multi engine private. So it's like, or a single engine commercial. So I'm like this weird. You know what? I had a check ride. He's like, you're kind of like the duckbill platypus of pilots, aren't you? Cuz I don't have like, I don't have a commercial. single engine. You know, license? Yeah. Did you? I think you just went straight to commercial. Yeah, for multi. I guess. I mean, you're a composite. Let me go. Because I think it's kind of cool. Yeah, I skipped over that. I skipped that. Yeah. It's funny because it's like so have my times in assess then other halfs in the embryo? And it's like, I didn't It's not that much time. So you're like, how the hell did you get half your time in an embryo in like, 250 hours in assessment? I'm like, I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. Did you get did you get to? You get to choose right, if you're gonna fly the embryo or the CRJ? Yeah. I'm not sure exactly how it works now. But they did ask me in my interview, like which one I wanted to fly. And gosh, at that time, I couldn't even tell the difference between the two. I was like talking to a buddy of mine. About which airplane I should fly. And he's like, I you know, I was looking at two pictures. I was like, What's the difference? They both look the exact same. He's like, dude, the engines are on the wing on one and on the tail. On the other. I was like, oh. A little picture in my in my portfolio that I brought into the interview, like one had like the engines up high and like, equal CRJ. useful. So do you know Do you know why you chose the CRJ? Over? The, let's see, I think back then it was just your the seniority moved faster, your schedule would be better or faster. So I think that's kind of why I chose that. I think I got a little bit of an earlier class date, too. But, and I think also, I had heard even back then that it's a more of like a pilot's airplane like that's the airplane you really fly. It's not as much automation, which is definitely true. And even I think that might have been part of the reason to, because I knew that I like wanted to learn how to fly an airplane, I didn't want to go and you know, work a computer system. So and for you know that I'm really happy I did it that way. The CRJ is a great airplane to fly. It's I mean, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, it's a lot more work. But you're gonna learn how to fly a jet. So if that's what you want to do, the CRJ is a great airplane for it. And also the domicile choices change, right? Because they only have certain ones at certain domiciles Where did you end up? I left my last domicile was Denver, but I moved domiciles a lot because I commuted to work what they call commuting. So I never lived in a domicile. You know, I lived in Central Oregon. So I spent time and I mean, when I was at Sky West, the junior base for most of the time was Detroit. So I spent a fair amount of time in Detroit and then I went to Chicago. And I went to Denver as an fo and San Francisco and then when I upgraded I went back to Detroit. And then I went to Fresno for a little while and then finished up in Denver. Wow, you did yeah. And now I'm back in Detroit man it's like this airline airline they're their headquarters are in Detroit. So we do our training and stuff here but after that your home base so they fly it where you can live wherever you want in the country and they fly and work so which is awesome. That was a huge selling point for me. That's your schedule gonna be like with colletta it's two weeks on two weeks off. So you they basically fly you from home to wherever the airplane is. And then you can you I mean you go fly all around the world for two weeks and then at the end of that you come home. So you have two weeks off and this will be your first international job. Well, I flew to Canada Yeah, definitely. 100 miles north of the border. How long did it take you to upgrade? And SkyWest less than two years? Because I knew I would Coming up on my second requirement, and I was like, I don't want to go do that, I'm just gonna might as well just upgrade so. And I was kind of I, you know, I went back and forth, I was like, do I want to upgrade right away? Or do I want to stay Amphoe for a while, you know, because if you want to ultimately move beyond the regionals, you need to, you know, the command time. So, and ultimately, that's what I decided to do is I was like, Alright, I'm gonna bite the bullet, my schedule is gonna suck, which it did. And then COVID hit, and that made it suck even more. So it was like that, that made it, you know, pretty rough. But yeah, I got the, you know, I got the time that I needed. And I was, you know, and then I got picked up by quota. With pretty quickly. So nice. I mean, I was fortunate for that, as well. So I mean, even all through COVID and stuff, um, you know, is brutal as that was on, you know, the passenger carrying airlines, I was happy to be at least building the me. I see. I think I had to get spotty because I here to get a good company. And the pays well, yeah. Yeah, I'm super excited to be here. So after, you know, one full day. But yeah, it's exciting. I mean, things are on another level here. So I mean, like, they gave us a list of, you know, hotels and stuff today. And they're like, all over the world. Like, from planes, you know, all over the place. From the time you started helicopters to the point you're at right now, how long did that take your training zero to hero first day flying a helicopter to where you're at with colletta? How many years started flying? I was student in 2015 2000 to 2015, like September 2015. was when I got out of the Coast Guard. And I started in like my first student flights. So six years? Yeah, like six years, six years? Dang, yes. Six years, and you're in the 747? Yeah, that's rated. Dude. That's killer. mad respect. Rather, you know, I've always been researching or even before I got out of the Coast Guard. You know, trying to kind of figure out what I needed to do. And luckily, I got to know some good people that helped me out. No, that's the reason I got here is, you know, so about who you know. People help. Yeah, people helping each other out. And I knew, like I said, I knew nobody. I knew absolutely nobody come into sky West. And, you know, I, you know, when I was new there, I was talking to captains, and they're like, oh, yeah, you know, I was like, Where do you get these recommendations? Because you need recommendations to get anywhere. Like, where do you get these recommendations? And they're like, Oh, you'll get to know people. And, you know, they'll, they'll move on. And, you know, just keep in touch with them. I'm like, Okay. I remember this has been Taylor. Taylor. Yeah. Yeah, Taylor helped me out. When I was still a Patreon he showed me like, you know, an arrival and he was like quizzing me on it. And I was like, failing. I was like, Oh, this is horrible. I had this airplane pilot, or this corporate pilot that we picked up the other day, a friend of the guy been flying with and he was like, quizzing me on IFR stuff. I'm like, Bro, why are you doing this to me right now? Yeah, he got me on this one. Because he he was saying, you know, if the, the airport that you intended to go to is below the minimums that you needed to not have to file an alternate, and then they want to return back to the airport that they came from. But that's also below the minimums for choosing an alternate. Can you file that as are like, something like that? And he got me on it, because he said that just because you file an airport as an alternate doesn't mean that you have to go to that airport. Right? So he's like, he's like, you just have to pick an airport that definitely is above the minimums. And then if you can make it back to your airport, if you can, like get down to the minimums on the actual approach, then you can go to whatever airport you want. Right long as you had the fuel like, oh, boy, because that's true. You don't have to go to the alternate that you filed. I don't know. Yeah, I was like No shit. Right on. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, that's one of the things when we're when we're flying in the air, whatever, you know, a thunderstorm comes over Denver, and you know, Denver basically closes or whatever it's like that's one of the first things we're looking at is alright, let's look at the list of airports we want to go to you know, this you know, you might have you know, Colorado Springs listed as an alternative of course, that's where everyone wants to go. So it's gonna take you 40 minutes to get in there because of traffic. So it's like alright, well, guess we're all taking. We're all going to Pier Kansas. I swear to God, the Rockies are more rocky Have you ever had any experience like unruly passengers that you've had to deal with in flight? Um, we've had I mean, I think COVID brings out the best in everybody, right? I mean, we've had some of the, you know, some of the compliance issues with the mass policies and stuff, and it's not, you know, the issue that I had was a couple guys getting, you know, aggressive with the flight attendant. You know, it's not just like, you know, if you're not gonna wear your mask, it's like, alright, well, we'll talk to you on the ground. But then when you start bullying the flight attendant around, that really pisses me off, so, and that was in a busy phase of play, when I got the call from her like, that she's done her aspect there. So that was what happened. You know, that was that was. Let's see, she she called up, she was a super sweet flight attendant, which I mean, oh, God, a lot of them are kind of crazy, but she was super sweet. And, you know, she said she was having an issue back there. So I made an announcement. You know, it was your captain lovable. And anyway, these these people were, I forget exactly. They were they were harassing her taking pictures of her and, you know, like, poking or stuff like that. So I was like, that's totally, totally not acceptable. And we're going we're on you know, our rival so it's like, things are just kind of starting to get busy for me now. I have to know I'm worried about the safety of my flight and then the bet there. We ended up taking their travel privileges away, you know, when we when we got on the ground. Ultimately, you know, we had security and everything at the gate. Because, I mean, I know there's all this stuff, you know, all these issues going on, but an airplane is not the place prove your point. So it's certainly not not the place to be like a bully. So and that was that was our issue was you know, people being aggressive towards a crew member way man, you know, that that doesn't fly. So well handle, Captain Yeah, well done. Yeah. You know, did you ever practice your captain's voice before you get onto a flight This is your captain Gendron speaking. Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to go Morriston beaches, turbulence. When you're the first officer, you make, like, you know, whoever is not flying, makes the announcements for like the seatbelt sign or whatever. So you like do a little bit of that. And then you go to your upgrade training and they're like, look, you know, it's not required, but would really appreciate it if you if you make, you know, welcome aboard announcement. Now you don't, you don't have to. But you know, Delta really wants you to or United really wants you to or, you know, whoever we're flying for. You know that basically, if you don't do it, they're gonna stop contracting, they're flying with us. So you lose your job. So we're telling you, have you but you have to. Yeah. And then eventually you just get used to your spiel, you know, introduce yourself and kind of want to hear your spiel. It's been a it's been a while since I've given it you know, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Scott. I'll be your captain. Gosh, you know you know, I will say I never gave weather, you know, unless it's gonna be bumpy, but like, man, people can look up weather on their phone. So I wasn't. I wasn't the weather guy. I kept it pretty brief. You know, I didn't like Bose after like seven o'clock. No announcements, you know, I was like people are asleep. Yeah. That's the worst when you're like, it's like 10 o'clock on a flight and Gavin's like, Hello, ladies. Captain. I hope you're enjoying the flight. He woke me up. Off All right, is a green cane and you can't see it. But it's out there. It's there. Now sit back and relax. We ever attempted to make airplane jokes from the movie? Oh, Roger, Roger. Oh, yeah. Those ones What's your daughter gave me? My daughter gave me a great airplane joke. She was like what do you call seagulls flying over the bay? Bagels. Damn. I did we're taking off over the bay in San Francisco. So I said something I was like, Well, you know, we'll try to avoid any bagels on our way out a bagel of course being a seagull that's flying over the bed if I was a captain oh my gosh, it's so cheesy. Amazing. i On a serious on a serious note. Like if there is another if there's a helicopter pilot wanting to do what you do. Would you go into like the rotor transition program? Um sure when it does come back, is that something that you would recommend? And yeah, what would be something that needs me to focus on when they're building? Like they're like, fixed wing time? Is there anything that you noticed? That was like a deficiency in helicopter pilots? Going in as efos? I think, no, I would definitely recommend the rotor transition programs. I mean, I have flown with a lot of guys that have done them. And it's like, I think you're obligated, I think it's sky West was like, I mean, don't quote me on this, but I think it was like two years. I mean, two years, if you're want to make a career out of, you know, flying for the airlines two years is nothing, I mean, you're just going to be hitting your 1000 hours, probably with, you know, maybe a little bit before that time, and then upgrading and stuff. So, two years goes by pretty quick. As far as, you know, deficiencies and stuff like that, you know, I would just say, in every flight, try and, you know, check as many boxes as you can, you know, get the cross country time, get the night time, if you can't, you know, that'll just help you out in the long run. But flying a 172 is totally different than flying a jet. So I mean, I couldn't I remember, like, I could not land a 172 it was like clam, you know, onto the runway. And, you know, I had a buddy at Sky West said, like, don't worry about it, but jet flares. Totally different. So, you know, even, you know, I remember even doing maneuvers for my private in the 172. I was like, I'm not, you know, I didn't feel super good about them. But you know, you go and you fly the jet is totally different. So, yeah, you're going to learn that as a first officer on the job, people are going to give you critiques. I heard this guy was had a really good training program. They do. Yeah, they have a really good training program. And that was another reason I, I chose that was they had a reputation for being, uh, you know, you know, have a good training program. And even in my interview here at Cleta, they're like, Well, we have really good success with people coming from SkyWest. And their training program. So yeah, that was I mean, that was a, I was really happy to be there for that. You know, so. But yeah, I mean, yeah, the rotor transition program is great. It's a great opportunity for people if you don't, you know, I mean, I was fortunate I had the GI Bill. But I mean, it's expensive. So it's expensive. It's almost like 50 grand, you know, to close, close to 50 grand to get all your additional readings anywhere between 30 and 50 MB, depending if you do a lot of your cross country in Mexico. I don't even know how much the GI Bill to and it's just sort of like you don't really pay attention. At least I never really paid attention to how much money was being spent. They kind of just rolled with it. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm not saying it to brag or anything like that money. Is yours, though. You know? You did? Yeah. Knows. Good. Oh, Semper Paratus. Gendron. Yeah. It's a lot. It's a lot cheaper to if you're going from like Mexico to Texas, like 50 feet over the ocean. Sometimes they pay you until you leave some cargo. Landing with nothing in the back. Is like so how last 100 hours. They were alone. When did I tell you about that made a lot of money when I think I told you about that when I was at Transnet. And they it was like my first day with everybody introducing themselves, right? They're on like our auditorium. And we all had our name tapes on. And they're like, one by one. We're all like standing up introducing ourselves to upper management. And they get to my table and they get to me and they stand up and they're like, so Mr. Hernandez, like, tell us about your flying background. And I'm like, I'm gonna wing it. You know, like, here we go. We're gonna send out the joke. And I was like, I was like, Well, you know, I did a lot of my flying usually low level at night, working for a pharmaceutical company in Mexico. I swear to God, like, I swear, my joke was split. 5050 down the middle. There was a lot of cool cats in there. They started laughing but I could also tell that I didn't make a lot of friends with upper management. This joker guy but yeah, sounds like I don't know. But after that, man, everything everybody like it was cool. I mean, like, I don't regret it. It was no that was a solid move. Solid move. That was a solid move ended. Yeah. Bagels. Yeah. I would say bagels is pretty hardcore, dude. Yeah, that was pretty. It's a pretty good joke. I'm actually one of my last flights. My my daughters came with me and they made the announcement. So my daughter's like, welcome aboard to Denver. fasten your seat belts, whatever, you know, no one's listening to you anyway. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I thought that and apparently they do that one I'll do off here, okay? Are listens, listeners, they're gonna be like, oh, you can't do that? No. Job. Sorry. Stick around for season three, you know, we'll go with the unedited version. That's pretty good. That's funny. Yeah. For the training that you do at colletta how long? How long? Is it training? Or how long are you gonna be there in Detroit? It's about five to six weeks. So we go six days a week, and it's all business. You know? It's, it's a ton to do. What was it? Like? Like, your first day there? I mean, the first days, you know, a bunch of car stuff. Yeah. Yeah, kinda HR stuff, how to, you know, some, you know, get your new your iPad and your uniforms, got your, you know, new ID badges and stuff like that, but no, it's not that bad. I mean, they're still nice to you. by the, by the lunch and stuff, but, but yeah, once like, when, you know, after I think like, tomorrow, we'll go and and then it's, you know, you get on with your Sim partner, and you start calling through all the system is of the airplane. And, I mean, just the systems alone, you know, takes like, weeks. Yeah. To get through that, then you go into the, you know, you kind of build up on things you go into, they call it like the matrix, which is kind of like a simulator that it doesn't quite move, but it still has like, the computers and stuff in there. And then eventually, you'll go into the SIM, you know, the full motion sim, and, you know, do your engine failures and all that. And yeah, you know, take your check ride at the end of like, six weeks. So, there, it's a pretty brutal process. I mean, it's the same at any airline, it was the same at Sky West, same here, same, you know, anywhere, you're going to go and spend a lot of time in a hotel room studying for, you know, anywhere from, you know, a month and a half to three months doing this. So let's, with the pass rate for the company, for the most part on like, first time goes, Do you know? Oh, I'm not sure. I mean, most of the time, I mean, people that get here, I mean, I mean, people do fail. I mean, you don't want to fail on these events. And all that. I'm not sure. I don't know. But I mean, yeah, it happens. Yeah. You don't want that to happen. I know. So, yeah, that's a trick, right? Yeah. And that goes on. It goes on your pre as a failing checker. Yeah. Shoot. Oh, yeah. That's a big Yeah, you don't want to check 121 Island. I mean, like, I, I, you can fail stuff in your, like an, you know, private or CFI you know, everyone fails. CFI tons of people fail. CFI Yeah. But over over those. Yeah. You don't want to 121 failure. Yeah. Yeah, talk about pressure. But but you just if you, you know, you kind of, you know that everyone here and it was the same with Sky West. You know, everyone's there to help you. I mean, the train, it's very thorough, and, you know, they, especially right now, like, they need pilots. Everybody needs pilots. Time. So, you know, they're no one's out to get you. But you have to do the work. And you have to know the airplanes. I mean, yeah. You don't want to I mean, they're there. You know, people back there are you know, I mean, in my case, cargo, of course, but, I mean, you're operating, you know, you might have people back there. How extensive is the hazmat section of the training for cargo that way? Yeah. Actually, I was actually doing that one and they give you some of this training a couple like a couple days before you start class so I was going through like, like hazmat Oh, that your hazmat that's probably not your battles. I'll like do that one before I get there. So I like quick diagur like open it up. You know how you find out that your will carry the radioactive material has to be kept at least 50 feet away from the dry ice. You're like, oh yeah, I never really understood some of the ones just like her part. 135 year old, not your will not carry operator. And they're like how many centimeters from the edge of the sticker? Does the label need to have the A and the triangle hazardous sign you're like, why do I need to know that? Like, Well, I'm not making the stickers for these things. But yeah, and I know there were some like really detailed stuff in the hazmat So I always thought it was like the worst section on the 135 joining I hated it. But oh yeah, I would imagine I just remember strike anywhere matches was one of the answers that you cannot. You cannot bring on board. And you do it enough you do enough of those trainings that you just like the answers from? I'm pretty sure strike anywhere match. Yeah. Batteries on wheelchairs. Yeah, batteries. Yeah, batteries are a big one. Yeah, yeah, there's a I mean, and that's part of like, just learning the new company procedures for wherever you're going. You know, will they carry hazardous material or not? Or, you know, what the policies are on that? Yeah. So, but, yeah, I mean, you know, cargo airplanes carry a lot of stuff that don't go on passenger airplanes for, you know, for those reasons. So, true, true. Well, if anybody out there doesn't know. But Scott Gendron was actually a rescue swimmer. For the Coast Guard. Yeah, we didn't even talk about that. Yeah, man. You know, he taught Kevin Costner. What's up on the garden? Gosh, I was a lifetime ago. Still, it's so cool. So yeah, I mean, I was the surface swimmer for my cutter. But you know, I did my little two week crash course on how to save people have jetties and stuff. It was pretty cool. Yeah. So what was that? Like? I mean, you i one story always stuck with me that you told me about one time that you were on a rescue. And you're in the middle of ocean at nighttime, and then the whale breached right next to you? Oh, yeah. That's yeah. coast of Oregon. Yeah. Yeah, we would do these things. And I think that was like a just just a training, but like, we'll do these. We call them vectors or the air, the helicopter would, you know, drop you off. And in the ocean, you'd be a couple miles off the shore, and then the helicopter would fly away. And you would, you know, vector them back in on the radio because they can't see you. You're just a little thought there. And you would say, you know, on the cheer, you know, eight o'clock, two miles, or, you know, whatever. Yeah. Anyway, so then fly off for like, five or 10 minutes, and you just kind of be floating there at night, sometimes during the day, but. And yeah, I heard this sound behind me. And I was always worried about sea lions. Like I heard about how aggressive sea lions were. And I heard like, I heard like, you know, you know, whatever, behind me. And I was like, Oh, shit. Yeah, I'm about to get attacked by sea lion. I don't know why I wasn't concerned about sharks, which I probably should have been. You know, probably been a little while since I'd seen shark Shark Week. So that wasn't on my mind. But yeah, then I turned around, and I saw, you know, another whale breach. Right there. So cool. Terrifying. But cool. Yeah, that would be scary as Yeah, they're just checking me out. So how come? How come you didn't want to go into the Coast Guard to become a pilot, like fly the helicopter fly? Jayhawks. I thought about it. And it was I, you know, ultimately, I was when I was weighing the options. I was like, okay, I can get, I can get out and use the GI Bill and be, you know, guaranteed to go to an aviation program. And you know, go fly helicopters, or whatever I want to do with the GI Bill, or I can, you know, go to OCS, and apply for flight school after I get through OCS. And like, maybe I'll get it. Or maybe I'll end up a junior officer on a big cutter somewhere. Big cutter. Yeah. And go out for like, six months at a time. So I was like, Yeah, I think I'm, I think I'm gonna get out. And yeah, and I talked to I talked to one pilot, you know, when I was trying to kind of figure out what I should do. And he's like, man, it's just, it's just a matter of how bad you want it. And, you know, I beat out to rescue swimmers for this spot. And I was like, Oh, well, that doesn't sound good for me at all. Sounds like So you're saying you beat out people exactly like me. And they didn't get it. So I was like yeah. Oh, man. So I'm happy. I did. I mean, it's the things of God when I got out. I mean, everyone was saying like this, you know, me being a rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard is a great job. And, you know, your schedules, you know, pretty good. I mean, as far as like military jobs, like, that's pretty awesome. And people were like, man, you're crazy. What are you doing? My wife was like eight months pregnant. And I was like, I don't know what it's Quit looking back on. It all worked out. But boy that was like, that's tough. Yeah, I bet me Yeah, I remember I wanted to see what the airman program was all all about when when I was in I was up in Cape de and yeah, so I went over to air stay Astoria and they let me try it out for like a week. They're like, yeah, we'll put you through like a mock you know, Airmen training program and they just kicked my butt. Like to the point I was like, Oh my God, this it'd be six months of this. What? Yeah, that was that was tough. Literally, you know, if you're even one minute late, they're like, Okay, I push up for every second you were late. And then they put you on the treadmill at the all the various different levels and then you taking the gymnasium and run run exercises for an hour and then like, right before your legs are about to fall off. They're like, Okay, let's go for a six mile run. I'm like, what you guys are insane. Kill me. Oh, like maybe this isn't for me. I don't know. But yeah, I compromised with the just being the cutter surface swimmer when I got to Miami, which was still pretty cool, you know? And I said, I always felt like bait, you know, because they put the I'm on a hook. I'm on the tether, and they throw out like a big orange, you know, fender out into the water be like, you know, fetch and, you know, swim out there and if the Coxon of the cutter wasn't great, you know, put you in the wrong spot and then the line would be being pulled with the current in the wrong direction and you're fighting against that China's swim out to you know, the, the fender you're supposed to be rescuing and then you grab it totally out of, you know, just exhausted from fighting against the current because the Coxon sucks. And then and then they're just like reeling you back in, right? They're just like pulling on the line, just bringing it back to the boat. I'm like, I really feel like they're trolling for sharks right now. And I'm the bright orange bait at the end of the line. And I'm just waiting for sharks like dinner. They're like we got the job. But I remember we had it we had to do a night swim. And earlier that day, we were doing Jetty rescues, and they put the dummy on the rocks and they like okay, you just gotta let the water lift you up and put you on the jetty. And then you grab the dummy and then you wait for the water to kind of come through and you swim it out the other side. It's like okay, cool. I got this, but I was on a shorty. A short suit. It's a shorty. It's like a short wetsuit. Because it's, you know, it's warm in Miami. Yeah. And so I got on the jetty and I grabbed the dummy. And then the instructor just goes, hold on. And I was like, huh, and I look back and this big go fast as for giant outboard engines, like cigarette boat drives by and casts a huge wake. And it hits me on the jetty. And I got just tumbled head over heels on top of the rocks. And I got up and I had barnacles sticking out of my elbows and my knees and I was bleeding everywhere else cricket sucked. And yeah, but then we had to do the night swim that night. And I'm like, great. So you guys are gonna put me out in the middle of the ocean. I've got all these open wounds. Just come on. Come on anything. They say? Yeah, they took us out in auxilary boat and they dropped us off different locations and left us alone out there. And we had to find each other, like get into the rescue, you know, circle or whatever. And yeah, just remember Bobby. And as soon as the boat kind of drives away, it just goes completely silent. And you're just bobbing out there by yourself and Okay. It's cool. It's cool. I'm cool. There's nothing here at all. Oh my god, what is that? And then you just start sweating as fast as you can like, yeah, that was hated it. Yeah, being an open open water at nighttime. You just you can't imagine like what is below you and what's about to come up and eat your legs. That's what I feel like you know when I get seaweed on my leg? Oh my oh my god jelly. Oh, no. It's cool. Nothing to see here. But I never actually got to like rescue anybody. Just drill. What about you, dude have any hairy situations? Let's see. One of my favorites was we there was I think I heard later that these kids actually stole this duck blind with we got called out in the middle of the night. And this was in the great lakes. Lake Huron or something, I think but it's winter. And it's the lakes like partially frozen. So it's super cold outside and these kids are adrift on this duck blind. That's and you know, this ice flow and we got got out there and it was, you know, super early in the morning. No boats could get in there because of the size. So they lured me down. I swam you know, you're like pushing away these icebergs and stuff and to get to, you know, these kids on the on the duck blind. Get up there and yeah, they're there. Okay. They're just cold and stuff. But there's duck blind has a roof on it, and there's no way to hoist to the helicopter from the duck blind, that I could see, you know, it's like, All right, well, we're gonna have to, you know, get them in the water for a second, put them in the basket. So I when I, you know, I called for the basket, I swam out, grabbed the basket, dragged it back through the ice, which was I mean, it was like, that was a lot of work. Yeah, got it to right next to the duck blind, and it is like, right there, all they have to do is like, jump off the duck blind into this into the basket. And, you know, then they're gonna be up in the air. And, you know, a couple seconds, you know, as soon as they start hoisting, so I call I, you know, point to one of the kids, I'm like, you, you know, it's loud. You can the helicopters there and everything. You know, I'm like, coming here, and, you know, it comes over, it's kind of scoots over this duck plans, like sinking the things probably straight out of the garbage can. And you like, sticks his foot in? And you're like, oh, no, he's like, you're never like, grabbed his leg, and I just, like, pull him down. And he's in the water. He's in the basket, you know, then, you know, I gave him the signal to hoist. And so they hoist up and you know, then then he's out of there. So I'm like, Alright, sweet. You know, I swim right back to the duck blind. His friend, you know, the other kid is like, in the corner, just like staring at me. Like, no way. No. Friends, like, I'm cool. I'll just stay. So what happened? Same thing with it, but basically, just, you know, grandma's like, come on. He like kind of inches, like, you know, a little bit forward is the same thing, you know, grab a toe and yank them into the basket. And yeah, that was one of my I mean, that was two kids. And that was that was, dude, how cool was that water for it to be like icebergs? Oh, it's freezing. Yeah, you hit I mean, in the Great Lakes when you were doing stuff out there in the winter. I mean, you were your dry suit would be ice before you got back when you were being hoisted out of the water. I mean, you'd leave the water and you know, you you could start bending your elbows and ice crystals would fall off your, your suit because you just froze like immediately. But I mean, we you were we were prepared. I mean, you'd wear a ton of clothing under there. Yeah. Man walking out to the helicopter. I would imagine you're pretty heavy. Right? Like with all the gear with all the extra layers? Yeah, our I forget how much. I mean, our harness was like 40 pounds. I mean, you had a bunch of like, Pyro in there radio, a radio and yeah. Yeah, the dry suit. Yeah, I mean, it kind of all neutralized. I mean, it was just hard to swim. And if you're wearing that much gear, it made it hard to like maneuver around. And then you'd be it'd be dressed for the cold. But then when you're working trying to get through like an ice flow or something, then you get super hot. And then you're like, Oh, God. So when I was up in Cape D, we would have to do these escorts of the big cargo ships coming into Astoria, because some of the times they would have really dangerous chemicals on board that, you know, we had to make sure nobody was going to, you know, drop a bomb off the bridge or I don't know do something crazy. But sometimes they would last hours and hours and hours. And there's no bathroom on a 47 foot motor lifeboat and you know, the guys had it pretty easy, cuz like we had dry suits and everything too. So Under Armour fleece bunny suit the dry suit. On top of that, you got your life jacket and your Pio jacket on top of that, gloves, your boots, like, you know, got all the gear on. And for a guy that PNN all you got to do is like unzip, you know, the zipper on the front, and you could kind of like finagle his way to like pee out of it off to the side of the boat. But for a girl you had to like take off the whole ensemble, right? So you're basically just like naked on the boat. And they want you to put your harness, clip it into the boat and like stick your butt over the side of the boat to go pee. But then the water would come up and like gets you right in the butt. You were like not done at the go anymore. Like this huge cargo ship like right next to you. Like you just imagine the guys on board be like what is she? They're blowing the horn. They're blowing the cargo horn to reposition to the other side of the cargo ship or like so that I was on the other side. Nobody could see me but you see all the you see the whole crew on top of like the top top deck of the cargo with their binoculars. You got to do what you got to do sometimes, but it was called see for three months. Yeah, literally like all the water they would like go inside the dry suit. You're like well that just defeated the entire purpose of this day and why is This 800 foot vessel repositioned to the other side I don't I don't even know. existed back then. Yeah, we had a pilot at pappy. I don't know if you remember her? Oh yeah shout out. Shout out to the girl. You know we love you. I'm not gonna say any names those hilarious guys. Yeah those wait to go pee in the canyon. I mean should wait should be like oh this is a real bathroom at the at the hangar on the skipper yeah right back out to the canyon so she could use her shoe I always remember a guy. When she did use it. I remember a guy seeing just her legs on the other side of the helicopter in this dream, you know? Like, how did I see him like this? She was just on the other side of the helicopter. I just like I just remember his facial expression like what? Oh my god. Yeah, gang gangster. That's pretty gangster gangster. Yeah. I've told this story so many times, I'm sorry to hear this again, Jose, but my instrument check ride for airplanes, my instrument add on. I do the ground and everything. And then the DPE was like cool. You know, he did really well on the ground. So it's time to go fly. And he pulls out one of those like medical urinal things like the little, little, I don't know, containers that you pee into. And he was like, if I have to use this during your flight Do you mind? And I'm sitting there like, oh, ah, what do I do here? Because would you be an extra 100? checker? The checkride if I say no, is he gonna like mess with me and fail me or something? And I was just like, Well, sir, do you have a medical condition where you wouldn't be able to hold it for an hour and a half for checkride? Or you could just let me know that you have to go as at the first sign of of trouble and I'll pull you right back into the FBO. You can hop out and or back to the school you can hop out and use the restroom. And he was like, Okay, I was like, Yeah, but if it's like a medical emergency, like your bladder is gonna explode out of your body. Yeah, yeah, sure, like, go for it. But I would prefer I would prefer the fact. I just paid you $800 In cash rich checkride. And it's a 172 it's a very small cockpit. I really don't want you whipping out. You're dangling in front of me during a checkride and I'm pretty sure that's illegal anyways. Yeah, like Sir, I'd rather you not expose yourself to me during my checkride and oh my god. He looks at me. He's like medical emergency time. Wink. I probably I don't know. I probably would have reported it. If he actually whipped out his thing in the middle of my checkride took us about Yeah, that's not that's not It's not okay. Yeah, so that was really crazy. I don't even know where to segue from that. So P stores. Yeah, he's gonna look at my record like who did her chakra? Who was this guy? Yeah, it was pretty some guy named Samsonite. See Swansea? Yeah, pretty crazy. Well, we're kind of coming to the end here. Are there any closing thoughts, anything that you'd like to share? I think this is a great resource for people. I mean, one of the things that got me excited about, you know, coming on and stuff was just to let people know that, you know, for guys that are in the helicopter industry and decide that this is something they want to do. You know, it's totally possible. So that's, you know, that's the big takeaway, I hope know, for sure. But now, I really appreciate you. And there's a lot and there's a lot of X helicopter guys, you know, in the airlines, so a lot of people ready to help you out. So you might not know all of them when you make the jump and stuff. But yeah, I think the helicopter industry is also just suffering a little bit because all the helicopter pilots are going to the airline. Because it's such a such a thing now. Yeah, I mean, there's some serious bonuses out there for guy is, you know, so, I mean, I think I mean, I what I yeah, when I left, I remember one time I left. I was leaving pappy on to go home and I like saw the airplane recruiters outside of the airplane hangar. I was like, Oh, man. You know what I just found out ATP, the flight school. Um, as far as like getting like type ratings, you know, I think just got approved for the VA For the GI Bill. So now you can use your post 911 GI bill for type ratings. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I just got an email about it. So I thought I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah. So I'm gonna get my Gulfstream 650 type rating. And oh, yeah, no, I'm just kidding. That's a pretty big corporate airplane. Yeah. I don't know, like corporate jets very well. But yeah, yeah, no, yeah. Some of those are like, some of those type ratings are like, I mean, 40 grand, 40 grand. I looked into it. You know, what's ridiculous, is that a Blackhawk type rating is equivalent to a Gulfstream 550 type rating? Like, yeah, as far as price goes, yeah. That's a big, everything helicopter is just so expensive. And it's like, it's almost to the point where like, why would I get a Blackhawk type? Right, and I just get the Gulfstream 550. Yeah, yeah, I guess it just depends on what you want to do. Some stay at the Four Seasons. Yeah. Okay. Four Seasons in Hawaii. Quality left kind of guy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. corporate jets is the way to go. That's right. That's right. Yeah. So if you want to go helicopters, like a guy who tents my Italian suede boots, the finer things in life. I can't tell you how many compliments I get on my boot. Tommy. Boots are dope. suede boots. Yeah. Yeah. I'll pull them out for you. Guy bottom. Cool. She doesn't I guess she don't care about my boots. But I get a lot of other coverages. I didn't know I didn't. I didn't realize I was oblivious. But anyway, let me go. Yeah, good luck on your training. Thank you so much for taking the time. I know you have so much stuff to study and things to work on this week. So I really, really appreciate you coming on and sharing your journey. And it's going to help so many people who are choosing to or thinking about going that going that route and getting a little bit of insight from someone who's done it in six years. Total. Yeah, man. So you must have worked your ass off. You must have flown your ass off to get to where you are in such a short period of time. So bravo to you and congrats on your success and your career. And it was really good to see you. Yeah, it's good to see you guys too. Thanks for yeah, thanks for the invite. Now for sure. I'm gonna go out there. You know your homeboy blue? Yeah. Next time in LA Heck, yeah. I'm gonna be in LA a fair amount, I think. Awesome. All right, man. Good talk. Pick me up so I don't have to run 10 miles. Wow. Right. Yeah, that was like a bad bone. I was working you know. Alright, guys. Alright. See you later. Later, homie. Goodbye. Hey, good luck, guys. Scotty Boy, that was super dope talking to him. It's been a while. It's been since pantheon. Yeah, no, I see him. Um, well, I guess the last time I saw him was a couple months ago. Yeah. Yeah, it came in on a layover. And he's like, Hey, you want to go get some beers? I was like, hell yeah. I didn't make the cut. I don't know where you're at. You know, you're, you're always out and about. Yeah, forever on the fly, you know, on the fly, baby, you can't keep it down. You can't can't put baby on the corner. Okay, well, we talked a lot about Scott's transition into the airlines. And we had a couple of takeaways from our conversation that we'll just kind of sum up here at the end. So we're super proud of Scott and the journey that he has taken in his success. So you know, bravo to Scott, we're super proud of you. Love you, man. Okay, so ways to fund your airplane flight training. So there's the obvious ones, save up, pay as you go. Take out a loan, if you absolutely need to, we all know you're gonna be making that big airline bucks eventually. Eventually, it'll get some pay it off. Rotary transition programs are our TPS. They stopped them during COVID. But it seems as though they're going to make a comeback. So do your research into what airlines are going to be offering these programs. And if you're a veteran, you can get the GI bill to pay for your fixed wing commercial and instrument add ons, and then maybe pocket some of that bonus cash that the airlines are going to give you. All right. So let's go into the our requirements that you need. If you are going to go from helicopters to the airlines to a part 121 airline. We did some of the legwork for you so that you guys don't have to in order to fly for the airlines, you need an ATP license. Now in order to get an ATP license, you need 1500 hours of flight time. However the FAA does recognize Certain experience in work and education should maybe exempt you from that 1500 hours. And there's a couple of categories of exemptions here listed, and that's called a restricted ATP license. And that's what a lot of helicopter pilots use in order to transition into the airlines. So it falls under a couple of categories. One, if you're a military pilot, you only actually need 750 hours of total time, and 200 hours of cross country time. If you are a graduate from an approved four year University with a bachelor's degree and an aviation major, you only need 1000 hours of total flight time. Also, if you're a graduate from an approved two year college with an associate's degree and an aviation major, you only need 1250 hours of total flight time and 200 hours of cross country time. So in summation, if you don't have any of those degrees, and you're not a military pilot, you're still required to get that 1500 total and 200 hours of cross country time, no exemptions. Now Jose is going to dive a little bit deeper into the nitty gritty boxes that need to be checked off things that you need to keep track of while you're going through your flight training. So a lot of the helicopter pilots that go into the fixed wing version, a lot of little hidden, I would say our requirements that you needed like check off the box 250 P IC, ours fixed wing, there is no substitution for that the 250 P IC is for you to get your commercial multi engine license, you cannot get your ATP. First, you need to be able to get your multi engine commercial before you could get your ATP license. The second is your 50 hours of multi Engine Land. Now 25 hours can be substituted in a sim. But that's about as much as it can be substituted for 200 hours across country. But 100 hours a PAC cross country in a fixed swing. That's no substitution as well you cannot substitute let's say 200 hours across country in a helicopter 100 of it has to be in fixed wing aircraft 100 hours at night total 25 hours of night fixed wing pie see that also cannot be substituted. Now 75 hours of instrument would be your last box, which 25 hours can come from simulator as well. And that pretty much knocks out all the little like boxes that you need to get your ATP. And I hope that helped. Oh, that's a lot of numbers. And something that I did as someone who is utilizing the GI Bill to get my add on ratings. Because usually schools have you do your instrument add on before your commercial add on. None of that time for during instrument is counted as pilot in command time. So something that I did to build my P IC fixed wing faster was I just paid out of pocket for my private. And that way once I've already licensed all that instrument time. And all the time that is spent doing your commercial add on as well is all considered PAC fixed wing time. So that kind of helped me out a little bit, just build my PAC 10 faster. And I was one of the pilots that actually took the rotor transition program when it was first out. And I have zero regrets from that. I mean, I got free training. Of course I was going to do my two years but sadly the company went out of business. But it was definitely worth it. But one thing to always keep in mind, when you do the rotor transition program, you got to really treat it like a job. I would not recommend you go and fly now VFR every day doing your cross countries VFR because that's not going to help you when you get to training at the airlines. You need to be able to do your holding procedures for procedures Mr. proach is tracking vo Rs. Identifying vor is essentially everything you need to build a solid ground base for your instrument training. Because that's gonna take you a lot further when you actually get into the airline because everybody else is already going to be ahead of the game. Yeah, and that's good advice. All right. That's all the time we have for today. You guys, thank you so much for tuning in and giving us your support. We appreciate every single one of you. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple podcasts that helps circulate this information a lot faster around the globe. Leave us a message on Instagram. We always love to hear from you have a beautiful day. Bye