Becoming a Pilot in Your 30's with a Wife and Children: Ep.4

Join us in this exhilarating episode as we delve into the world of aviation with Zach Zweizig, a pilot whose passion for flying traces back to his grandfather’s wartime tales. Whether you're an aviation enthusiast, a student pilot, or simply curious about the art of flying, Zach’s story will captivate and inspire you. 

Discover how Zach transitioned from dreaming about airplanes to mastering the skies as a licensed pilot. He shares invaluable lessons learned through earning multiple pilot certifications, including private, instrument, and commercial ratings, all while balancing family life. Listen as he recounts breathtaking adventures in aerobatic flying and reflects on the powerful influence of his grandfather’s illustrious flying career.

For aspiring pilots or seasoned aviators, Zach offers practical advice on navigating the challenges of pilot training and emphasizes the importance of safety in aviation. This episode is a treasure trove of insights and experiences for anyone interested in the flying world.

Tune in and get inspired to embark on your own aviation journey. Don’t miss Zach's exciting anecdotes and expert tips that make this episode a must-listen for all student pilots and flying enthusiasts.

Follow Zach on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/fight.or.flight/

Follow Fly Media on Youtube for both video the podcast and flying videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVcOy5Z0DD7szXuNYUncrvA

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Thank you for tuning in, may there always be wind beneath your wings!

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Transcript

Osa (00:17)
I'm your host, O, and as always, I am pumped to be here. Thank you so much for tuning in. On today's episode, we've got an exciting one. We're interviewing

Osa (00:27)
thank you so much for coming, Zach. I'm juice to have you on. I've been following you on Instagram for a while. you've been doing some really interesting and fun things. I see you spending more time pretty much upside down than you do, you know, flying with the wings level like us normal folks. It looks really, really exciting. And I'm super excited to kind of dive into that and not only hear how you got into aviation, but to hear more about.

Zach Zweizig (00:42)
Yeah.

Osa (00:50)
how you got into aerobatic flying. So will you, tell me a little bit of like, what was your inspiration? How did you get into aviation in the first place? Did anyone in your family fly before you?

Zach Zweizig (01:01)
I've always had this fascination with aviation. I think everyone really does. planes are cool, right? I don't care who you are. But my grandfather, he was a pilot. He fought in three wars. He fought in World War II, Vietnam, and Korean War. He was a fighter pilot in all three. And so I always wanted to get into aviation, but it wasn't until close to

35 years old, had the means or the maturity for that to really get into it. So there was always a desire to do it. I had flown in small planes before when I was in my teenage years, but never really pursued it. And it was more because I didn't have, I think personally, the maturity to handle adult activity and you have to treat it as such. And in my twenties, I was more worried about going to bars and hanging out with friends.

Osa (01:44)
The maturity factor is definitely huge because it's not something you just pick up and go, I'm going to study part -time and kind of dilly dally around and I'll end up getting my certificate. was something that I struggled with. I had to put a lot of hours into studying. I'm sure you can kind of relate to

Zach Zweizig (01:54)
Right.

Osa (02:00)
And then the price, it's not cheap. I got my license recently. It ended up costing me somewhere in the 20 to $22 ,000 range, which is not cheap and not something that most people in their 20s who are picking it up as a hobby can afford.

Zach Zweizig (02:15)
I agree. full commitment on every front, On your time, on your attention span, on your finances. You have to be committed And if you're not, you're wasting one of those resources if not all of them.

Osa (02:28)
Exactly. It'll take twice as long. You'll struggle. You won't pick up concepts and you'll get frustrated. I think the FAA says something around like 75 plus percent of pilots don't finish, or student pilots don't finish their private pilot certificate and end up quitting for, you know, many reasons. Financial, family struggles, losing motivation, struggling and getting frustrated. really like that maturity point.

Zach Zweizig (02:39)
Thank

you

we were talking about a little bit earlier, it's, if you, it has to be all or nothing, right? You almost have to make an obsession where you dive into it. You have to enjoy that study and you have to enjoy that burn yourself out if you're just doing it for any other reason by yourself, I think.

Osa (03:10)
without question, I couldn't agree One other thing I want to dive into, talked about, your grandfather was a pilot. He flew in three different wars, which sounds incredible. Did he share any stories with you when you were growing up?

Zach Zweizig (03:21)
Thank

Yeah. So, end, the three wars he flew in World War II, he flew the P -47 Thunderbolt, the jug, that was all ground attack missions. So it fly out, find the train, find something, straight fit, bomb it, and get out of there. So he really enjoyed that flying. He did in two years about 100 sorties, he did 100 missions.

To this day, he still doesn't know how he's still alive, how he made it out of that. It just blows his mind that he was able to get out of that situation and live few years. He actually had a good story, I'm going to toot his own horn on this because it's a story. He said, the stupidest thing he ever did while he was flying, they're coming back from a bombing mission, back to base.

Sees an aircraft underneath them, underneath their formation, closer to the hard deck. And so he's like, I'm going to go investigate what that is. So he radios up, he's going to break off formation, dives down. And as he's diving down, he sees, sees his plane and it's got, it's got German markings on it. So he knows it's German. But he doesn't understand the plane because it has two, what he thought were fuel tanks on each wing. And so he comes down and sees it, says German, going to shoot it down. strafes it.

shoots it down and then as he's pulling out of that dive, he realizes that he's actually over a base, over a German base. And so he realizes that he's a sitting duck at this point because he's on a High G maneuver up to try to get out. ends up pulling himself out, getting back into formation and then come to find out that he shot down an ME -262. So he's one of the first to be able to shoot down a German fighter jet.

but yeah, no idea coming up on it. He just saw the German insignia and he was like, I'm going to shoot it down. And then found out later, he's like, well, I was, was a German jet fighter and there's only a few of us that we've got spotted. So yeah, that was kind of like his, his, his claim to fame from world war two. at least one that he talked about the most. And then, yeah, I couldn't believe it. It was like, it was the stupidest thing I've ever done because I have broke formation. We're running low on fuel.

Osa (05:25)
Wow.

Zach Zweizig (05:34)
I dove down over enemy territory, I'm over their base and they will have fired anti aircraft artillery. I will have been done. Luckily I was able to just sneak up on it while I was on approach, shoot it down before it landed and then get out of there and realize that I put myself in a pretty bad situation, but I was able to get out of it.

Osa (05:54)
That is incredible.

Zach Zweizig (05:56)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. had stories like that. Some of the other ones he had, I always asked him, was like, have you ever crashed a plane? He's like, yeah. And then he just keeps going about his conversation. So I know at least three different ones that he's, he's geared up belly landing or something like that. But he talked to, he talked about it as though you and I get in a flat tire. It was just, it was nothing. was like, I've crashed a couple of planes. And then, he flew.

night missions in Vietnam. I can't remember the name of the jet, what the model number or anything, but it was mainly radar. So he'd fly it out at night, get radar pickups and then land. And then they would send everybody out during the day to go pick up pickups that he found. then he said his most fun flying was, sorry, that was Korean War. Vietnam War said it was his most fun flying.

Vietnam was the caribou. So it was transport. he was like, I, that was the most fun I had. He's like, I flew everything from chickens to ordinates, to soldiers, to people. He's like, I just flew from jungle strip to jungle strip. And every time he told me the story about it, it just, it reminded me of, what is the air America with Mel Gibson. And then he's like, yeah, that was kind of flying every day. We just flew in, into the strips and flew out of these jungle strips. And you're trying to find this.

Osa (07:06)
you

Yeah, yeah.

Zach Zweizig (07:20)
this man -made runway that's just cut out through the jungle and trying to this big plane down there and pick up chickens and get out of there. But that was most fun.

Osa (07:31)
Those sound like some incredible stories and I bet, you know, as a kid hearing those, your mind was just blown. You're like, wait, first of all, that's really cool. Second of all, my grandpa is a hero and he truly is. Thank him for his service. That man is incredible. What a hell of a pilot he is. How old was he in World War II?

Zach Zweizig (07:51)
World War II, so he was born in 1921. So he was about 21, 22 in World War II. I think he started his training in 21. He was in college, I know that. Going for his teaching degree, kind of similar personality you and I have was like, I don't want to do this. I'm doing it because I have to, but not because I want to. And so he signed up and enlisted and decided that he wanted to fly and was likely assigned a fighter as opposed to

Osa (07:58)
Okay.

Zach Zweizig (08:20)
or something else and he lucked out that way and he ended up being career military until I think he retired in 78, I believe right before I was born he retired.

Osa (08:33)
Wow, that's incredible. Another thing that I find really interesting is that you said like the story he the wildest thing he had ever done, his biggest regret was dropping in on that German plane, right? ties into one of your big key points and takeaways that you said, the maturity that you didn't have in your twenties, right? Would have led to you doing.

Zach Zweizig (08:49)
I'm sorry.

Osa (08:52)
kind of some of these more daring things that you wouldn't have done, having more experience and, you know, thinking things through a little bit more.

Zach Zweizig (08:59)
Exactly. Yeah. It's that frontal lobe, right? You're not that a part of the brain, it's called judgment and reasoning. It doesn't really develop to like 25. So it's like at 21, 22, you have that confidence and that stupidity to go with it. And you have access to an incredible machine. I don't buy them. I would probably do the same thing. I would like to think I would. don't know if I would. But at least the mindset of like, not? F it. Let's

Osa (09:03)
Right.

Right.

definitely you feel invincible, right? That might also be why airlines have that, you know, age restriction. It's loose and they're bending it a little bit more now, but it was typically something around 25 years old before you can fly for the airlines, even if you had the 1500 hours.

Zach Zweizig (09:28)
Yeah, exactly.

And I think there's some validity behind that, have asked me at 21 to take on the responsibility of transporting hundreds of doing so that if I'm not on top of the ball risking all their lives, at 21 I would have said, yeah, I could do it. I'd be like, yeah, because my confidence is up, right? But looking back now, I don't know. I was a dumb kid.

Osa (09:58)
Right.

Some of the goofy and wild things we do as kids. It's different when you hit your 30s and you start to mature, you start to have a family. I know we've talked a little bit offline. You are married and have kids. How many kids do you have?

Zach Zweizig (10:08)
Yeah.

I do, yeah, I got two kids. I got a almost six -year -old daughter and almost three -year -old son. So, man, they're my title is the coolest title Better than pilot and everything else, but be able to share with them is fun.

Osa (10:27)
What a blessing. I bet they.

That is amazing. What a blessing. can't wait to have the opportunity to say the same thing. At six, I know she is, you know, cognitively there and she understands and she's probably pumped. Do your kids love flying with you?

Zach Zweizig (10:49)
they love it. Yeah. the first time I took him up, took both of them at the same time. I, he was then to the sun. He was just more interested in looking out the window, which is great. Cause he just, want him just to be occupied. but she's really into, take, I try to take her up maybe once a month if, if winds and life works out that way and her and I will go just months around the front range and, and I'll let her just kind of mess with the yoke a little bit. I let her ask questions.

Osa (11:01)
Right.

Zach Zweizig (11:17)
And it's cool to see her really each time she has memorized the startup sequence for the Viper because she's watched me dry work it and talk about it out loud. So she knows that we're going master, alternator, emergency battery, master, alternator, mag one, mag two, strobe light. She knows that's what we're doing each time. So to see that osmosis.

Osa (11:41)
That's incredible.

Zach Zweizig (11:46)
It's cool. Be able to give that to her whether she does it or runs with it or not. It's just this is something that her and I have that we try to do at least one flight a month together.

Osa (11:57)
to be able to share that with your daughter, your family. Does your wife like to get in the plane with you at all?

Zach Zweizig (12:02)
yeah, yeah. loves to go up with me. Actually, I took her up aerobatics about a month ago for the first time and she loved it. There's cool Instagram. We finally got a babysitter that could watch kids in the morning. We went and flew she loved it. It was everything she expected and more. But it was cool because it kind of gave her a light on when I'm sitting there telling her about my flight and the aerobatics I do.

and gave her more of a guttural knowledge of like, the heck, right? Like, hey, I pulled four Gs off this maneuver and now she knows what four Gs feels like, right? She knows what negative one, two Gs feels like. So that was cool.

Osa (12:34)
Right?

Exactly. it's no longer you just explaining or telling she has felt it So when you say 4 GS she goes, ooh

Zach Zweizig (12:53)
I remember that. Or if I like, like today, today we're working on a couple of maneuvers. was flying with an instructor and, and he threw us into an inverted spin and he wanted demo demoed it. He threw it into the inverted spin and told me to recover. And so I recovered out of the inverted spin and be able to tell her that she has this idea of knowing, okay, I know what a spin is. I know what inverted is. I know what those feelings are. Wow.

Osa (12:55)
Definitely.

Zach Zweizig (13:22)
Okay, that makes more sense, that's cool. as opposed to like, good job, honey.

Osa (13:28)
Exactly, where they're just like, yeah, that's cute. I'm sure that was fun. You have your little thing that you're doing. Wow. No, that's pretty nutty.

Zach Zweizig (13:28)
successful.

Yeah, she's super supportive. She's the one that kicks me off the fence with anything. I I had to give her credit for a lot of this because I was like, hey, I want to get my pilot's license. I'm thinking about it. She kicked me out the door. was like, go get it. And I was like, I feel like I want to try Aerobatics She kicked me out the door. said, go do it.

has always been that pushing force.

Osa (13:55)
That's amazing.

Right? She's been that support. How many years now have you had your pilot certificate?

Zach Zweizig (14:02)
I got my, I got my first take in my private private in 2021. So it's been about three years now that I got it. Yeah. I got it. It got in 2021 and yeah, I started training probably 2019 is when I started training. It took me about a year, year and a half. kids do that, right? They get in the way.

Osa (14:08)
Okay

Awesome.

My excuse is my landings just sucked. I don't have kids yet, but my landings was just horrible. It took me probably six months of being fine and then regression and then it was up and down. But man, what an awesome ability to say that, you you got that done, you've got the kids. She was able to hold the kids down and make all that work at home to support you on that front. That's amazing.

Zach Zweizig (14:25)
Yeah.

Yeah,

Osa (14:47)
She's a trooper. My wife, when I told her I wanted to become a pilot, she went, you're crazy. That was it. She was like, you're crazy. This sounds expensive. don't know anything about it. I don't think you should do it. And I was like, well, I really want to do it. So I think we're going to do this. It's going to be fun. And now she enjoys We fly to lunch, fly to brunch.

Zach Zweizig (14:54)
Yeah.

See.

Osa (15:11)
flew through LA Bravo for the first time, which was absolute madness. You know, really busy airspace, lot of this. was, it was quite an experience.

Zach Zweizig (15:15)
Yeah. Yeah. lot of people are like, I don't get it until they get up there and they're like, now I get it. Now I...

Osa (15:24)
yeah, she's all in. She's looking forward to our next adventure. think the end of this month, we're going to go to Paso Robles, which is like 132 nautical miles away for the weekend. They've got like wine country and some outdoor things to do and just, you know, great restaurants. So we're going to go have a blast and just celebrate, you know, end of summer for her and just fly. That's that's all I think about. Like it consumes most of my thoughts.

Zach Zweizig (15:45)
Yeah.

It really does. I asleep thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. It's all

Osa (15:57)
I could search the statistic on my phone, how much time I spend on the controller app looking at planes that I'm nowhere near ready to buy yet, it's outrageous.

Zach Zweizig (16:03)
Yeah, that file is full I got like I'm gonna say that like I'm gonna buy it something I'm like I'm gonna say that All right, look at a price and bag 1 .5. That's ridiculous. Why would someone be that I give you 1 .2 like I have 1 .2

Osa (16:23)
Right. Exactly. Like, yeah, I'll look into it. Let me start saving. That plane is going to be gone before you have 10k in the bank, man.

Zach Zweizig (16:27)
Yeah. It's like when people are like groundies, when they sit there, they look at Zillow and they're looking at like this $5 million house, like, that tile is so ugly. It's like, what? $5 million house. I'm saying where to play it. I'm like, how that inter needs to be, needs to be updated. Like I'm going to do anything.

Osa (16:44)
Exactly.

You're better than me, man. I don't look past 220. If I see the price anything past 220 next, I don't tease myself too much.

Zach Zweizig (16:58)
Yeah. That's healthier.

Osa (17:02)
we talked a little bit about, you know, getting your ticket. What certifications do you now hold?

Zach Zweizig (17:08)
So I have my, my, obviously my private, I have my instrument, my commercial, and, I'm working on my CFI right now. So depending on DPE availability, hopefully I'll have that ticket by October. I'm not holding my breath on it. I'm just trying to keep myself getting ready for that check, right. When it pops up and, I do ground at my, my local school and do CFI ground with them. do mock teaching. I keep fresh on my maneuvers and I'm just trying to.

Just waiting for that, A OK, you're ready to go and then try to shoot for that, that check ride. yeah, I don't, I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Honestly, it was, just felt like it was the next in succession of what I was supposed to do. So I was like, I guess I'll get my CFI in case my daughter wants to learn. can, I can help teach her.

Osa (17:40)
that's amazing.

be awesome. That's incredible. So you kind of went all the way. You've got, you know, most of the certifications that somebody could, you know, hold that's kind of just looking to stay more general rather than going off to the

Zach Zweizig (18:11)
I think so. happened didn't know where to stop because I didn't have a goal in mind. My original goal is get my private license. And I want to go get the $100 hamburger or $300 hamburger now, but I want to go get some food and hang out. And there was no goal after that. But got my private and I was like, you know I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

Osa (18:20)
Right?

Zach Zweizig (18:31)
And I've been told that I need to get my instrument. So I went and got my instrument and that was great. And I enjoyed that. That made me a very precise flyer. I have a lot more precision in my control of the airplane. And I was like, man, I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. And so it's like, well, I guess I'll get my commercial on. So I was like, go get my commercial. And haven't exercised the rights of that yet, but have it. And I'm like, all well, I guess I'll get my CFI.

Osa (18:56)
right?

Zach Zweizig (18:59)
I always feel like I want to do whatever I can to make myself, especially if I am my family, the best pilot I can. if that means I keep getting ratings that maybe I don't use, but I get that knowledge and experience with it, then so be My Ultimate goal is be safe.

Osa (19:12)
So certifications and ratings that you now hold, which one would you say was the most challenging to get to achieve?

Zach Zweizig (19:19)
I'd say my private was the hardest because everything was new, was out of the fire hose, trying to digest all this information and just so much and not knowing where, where it ended, right? can look at the ACS and be like, I'm supposed to know this, but how in depth am I supposed to know this? So you over study, which is a good thing.

workload, I would say, would probably be more on the instrument, just it's a whole separate faction to just fly The communication's work the navigation's different. So that was just all new information and more so of it. Commercial is pretty easy. It's a glorified private.

kind of just take information you already know and you just expand on And then CFI is kind workload, I think is the most, because it's just a culmination of everything. You have to know those little nuances that when you first start out in your private pilot, you're talking to your CFI and you're how do you have that information? How are you pulling out that fars that 91.211

supplemental oxygen. How are you pulling that out on top of your head? you working on CFI, like, you just studied to nauseum.

Osa (20:36)
it really reinforces your knowledge though, right? can prove you really know something when you can teach it to someone else and have them understand it.

Zach Zweizig (20:46)
a struggle. It still is a struggle. To read something or study something, I got it my head. I understand it. Someone can ask me a question on it and I can answer to ACS standards But to teach someone from a zero position and I always kind of think of it, I try to explain it to them like they're five, not because of lack of intelligence, but starting from that background

How would I answer my daughter's question when she's like, how do planes fly? How does that wing create lift? All well, let's start from a five -year -old view. Let's build up. Let's get some foundation put in there. So yeah, definitely challenges you to be able to use your words correctly understanding just be an inch deep and a mile wide. has to be deep and wide all the way through.

Osa (21:12)
Right?

Right?

Well said.

That makes a lot of sense. I don't know if I have it me to go all the way to commercial just because I kind of know where my goals are and it's the hundred dollar burger weekend trip is pretty much it. Maybe a tour of the country every so often, fly into the Caribbean maybe, but instrument rating is definitely something that I see as a must. Not just because everyone is saying it and safety and all that sounds great until you find yourself in the situation where you go, shit.

Zach Zweizig (21:45)
Yeah.

Osa (22:00)
that would be really nice to have about now.

Zach Zweizig (22:04)
Yeah, out in the Bay Area like where you are you take off and it's it's clear for a million all the sudden that That fog rolls in and I got to get down and it's all covered. It's it's all I have far I got to figure out how to get in there so I get

Osa (22:08)
Yes.

Exactly. It definitely changes a lot of the trips that you're able to do in terms of destinations, as well as time of year. Like right now, the West coast is It is IFR along the coast through most of the summer. Fall and spring are nice, but a lot of my freedom and flying with the wife, she's a school teacher, will be during the summer.

So places like Monterey, Santa Barbara, pretty much anything on the coast is not really doable.

Zach Zweizig (22:52)
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. having that that freedom there. It opens more days to fly. and it makes you a better pilot. I mean, it's just, you know, to hold that altitude, hold that heading and, and, and multitask much more so than you would in a VFR flight.

Osa (22:52)
So I would love to have that ability.

Zach Zweizig (23:09)
It's nice doing a across country when you have ATC watching over you and they're telling you how high you need to be. And you're like, okay. And then you just have a straight line there. And yeah, you do your, you're vigilant about looking for traffic, but if you're, if you're full IMC, can't see anything anyways, but just knowing that someone's there with a lot of precision equipment to watch what you're doing is, comforting. It's a blanket.

Osa (23:19)
Right.

Definitely, definitely. Flying inherently has dangers. Why not be the best possible pilot you can be, especially when your mission includes flying with precious cargo, being your family.

Zach Zweizig (23:47)
Right. Yeah. That's where it really comes down to.

Osa (23:51)
using the instruments and not so much like your own sensory, you know, when you're VFR, it's sensory looking, using your eyes, every, every part of your body is on the same page, but it's almost like flying blind when you're in instrument. So now your body starts to have all these illusions. You know, we learn about all seven, eight of them.

Zach Zweizig (23:53)
you

Osa (24:10)
which one would you say is the one that you were like, okay, I'm definitely getting this one.

Zach Zweizig (24:16)
For sure the leans. We're talking about different vestibular and optical illusions. The leans was a big one, drop a pen or a pencil or something like that or even reach into your flight bag and come back up. Everything looks same out front and you feel same, but then you look at your attitude and you're just, you can't, they're just a little bit, right? You're just a little bit of a bank.

And you can see that if that went unnoticed, that would just gradually get worse and worse and of how insidious it can be, how quickly it sneaks up and you can't, you might not even notice it. And then all of a sudden you're like, I'm leaning to the left. And then you try to make a correction to the right. And then all of sudden now, now your whole inner ear is messed up and you have no which way is up. And you're just holding on.

Osa (25:04)
Right?

Zach Zweizig (25:06)
So that one, that one, yeah, you're praying. Yeah. That one rang true for sure. And that, that's where I was like, all right, just as your taught as an instrument student, trust your instruments, confirm and verify and confirm what your attitude indicator is saying with what your altimeter is saying or confirm what your airspeed indicator is saying and trust your estimates. They're there for a reason and they work.

Osa (25:07)
You're praying.

Okay, perfect. That is something that I'm definitely going to use when I start my instrument training, hopefully later on this year, early next year. Like you said, you're private. You're just kind of learning what things do, how to fly the plane generally. And it's all so new. When you started your instrument, you know the basics of how to fly the plane. Now it's how do I fly the plane well, precise, on the dot.

Zach Zweizig (25:35)
Yeah.

you

you

Osa (25:57)
it's something that I struggled with, you know, the little bit of hood time, the little three hours of hood time you have to do for your pilot with some.

Zach Zweizig (26:02)
Yeah.

Osa (26:02)
private was something I hated. was like, this, this is not it. I don't like this at all.

Zach Zweizig (26:07)
it keeps you humble. You have to be ahead of the plane. You have no choice, but you can't be in line with the plane. You have to be thinking three or four steps ahead, right? It's always, it's what am I doing now? What am I doing next? What am I going to do after that? I'm cruising at 8 ,000 and a half mile, I'm descending down to 7 ,500 and two miles or...

10 miles after that, I'm descending down to my final approach fix. So like you're, constantly miles ahead of where your plan is. So that if something does pop up, that you weren't expecting you already have that 10 minutes planned I can tell you right now, flying actual is

hood time is hood time you have to do it. have to be able to be able to do it. But find an actual IMC. it's a cool feeling. And I find it easier than the hood time, right? The hood time you want to peek out, but you have no choice when they're the actual, you, your brain switches over. says, know what? You have to trust these instruments. You have no choice. You can't, can't, can't take the hood off and take a break. You have, you're in it. You're doing it.

Osa (27:16)
There's no timeout I've had enough.

Zach Zweizig (27:17)
Yeah.

Osa (27:20)
Never thought of it like that, but we'll see when I get there. That's amazing.

Zach Zweizig (27:23)
It's fun. And being out on the West Coast like you are, you're going to get some good actual, which will be cool. Out here in there's a couple of maybe two or three months out of the year where we get some good chance for actual. For the rest of the time, it's usually pretty sunny or stormy one the other.

Osa (27:40)
Colorado, you guys have like the most sunny days of any state in the country.

Zach Zweizig (27:44)
we, jut up against something don't know, 90 % of our days, 95 % of our days are sunny. Given it might be, I think that number counts like sunny morning and stormy afternoon still counts as a sunny day because the sun came out. it's few and far between bad days, even in the winter. it could be, it could be negative.

Osa (27:51)
That's incredible.

Zach Zweizig (28:06)
negative three degrees outside, it's clear blue skies, right? And it's just cold. But there's no moisture, so you don't have to worry about eyes. Yeah, just cold.

Osa (28:11)
Okay. Just freezing. That's great. That's great. So being that you fly in Colorado, what is the elevation of your airport?

Zach Zweizig (28:24)
Centennial that I fly out of on the altimeter, it's 5820. So 5 ,820 feet is field elevation. the density altitude a normal day is probably sitting more around 6 ,500, 7 ,500.

Osa (28:40)
Wow. And what are the temps on a normal day, give or take?

Zach Zweizig (28:44)
And like, it's just like a 70 degree day and just a nice, nice spring fall day. You're sitting at about 7 ,000, 7 ,500 DA. Especially in summer, if it starts getting above 85, 90, that DA is getting too high for a lot of aircraft. Jets, no problem. Turbos, no But you take a Piper with 180 horsepower. Anything above 8 ,500 is above my personal limit. I just won't fly in it. At least not in the Piper.

get off the ground, you're not going to get up fast. of our runways is 10 ,000 feet, right? It's a big runway. You will get, you're getting off the ground. That's not a problem. You'll get fast enough to create enough lift to get off the ground. It's the buildings at the end of the runway that you need to get over. It's the mountains that are sitting at 10 ,000, 12 ,000 that are about.

Osa (29:10)
Wow, okay.

Zach Zweizig (29:33)
five miles away, 10 miles away that you have to get over if you're going over. So accounting for that further down the line is where that density out to really kicks in.

Osa (29:43)
That's crazy. I'll have to pull up a Archer POH and take a look to see what that distance needed to climb over a 50 foot obstacle is when you're up at say 10 ,000 feet of density altitude. That sounds insane.

Zach Zweizig (29:58)
nuts. lot of the schools and a lot of people that are flying GA, unless if they have a capable plane or anything over 8 ,500 DA, at least here in Denver, they just call it a day. It's the same thing if they have thunder storms. like, yep, I'm just not flying today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're grounded one way or the other.

Osa (30:12)
Right. 100 % you're grounded. Either that or you're going to probably have your worst day ever attempting to fly. Yeah. Right. That's a great point. know, a lot of people talk about gray areas in life and things. No, no, with aviation, it's black and white. It's hell yes or hell no. And that that's just it.

You've, you've got to be strict on those rules that you set for yourself, because at the end of the day, you want to take off and land a plane and be alive and fly another day.

Zach Zweizig (30:34)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's huge, right? It's, at least for me, that's a hard battle. You know, as a renter, put a reservation in for a plane, maybe it's a plane that's not always available. So I put a reservation maybe a month ahead of time. I'm like, all right, Sunday the 23rd, two weeks out from now, like I'm going to go fly, I'm going to take the kids up. We're going to, we're going to go do some steep turns because they love that, feel of the seat.

And like make all day of it we're going to get lunch afterwards and everything's going great. whether it might be a maintenance issue or just a timer game ready to take off. It's already 8500ft density altitude It's like, well, I guess we're not. And I got to that, no, and that's hard to gotta fight that. I just, I get their ideas or I want to, I just, whatever, whichever items it is. Yeah. Fight it. It's, it's tough.

Osa (31:26)
Yeah.

Right? And then you have the kids that I'm sure were pumped when you said, Hey guys, we're going today. They're like, can't wait. Thanks dad. This is going to be the best. Then you get there. Like, Hey guys, it's not safe and safety is the most important thing.

Zach Zweizig (31:40)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I always, at least with the kids, always have a backup plan. It's like, all right, if we don't fly, we're going to the pool or we're going to, we're going to McDonald's and go into play place. They play around and eat a cheeseburger. I give them something that the shield or not shield, but maybe deflect that, that let down because they don't understand. They're like, why can we not fly? It's beautiful. I'm like, yeah, that's, it's too beautiful.

Osa (32:07)
Most definitely.

Zach Zweizig (32:13)
you

Osa (32:14)
That's part of the problem. It's a little too warm out.

Zach Zweizig (32:16)
Yeah, it's too nice.

Osa (32:18)
So we've talked about, you know, safety. We've talked about some of the things you do with the kids. What would you say is like your normal mission right now?

Zach Zweizig (32:27)
fortunate enough that as a renter the club that I rent from that they have a lot of different

say for the most part, my missions are usually, I try to make them as productive as I can, right? I'm flying in the Piper, it's working on

my private pilot commercial maneuvers for my CFI check ride. I'm flying in the decathlon, it's just working on the aerobatic maneuvers. If it's mountain flying or something like that, it's just working on micro weather system knowledge and short field landings and density altitude and everything that goes along in the mountain flying as well. So I try to make it atleast productive.

more days where I just putz around. But time is money, money is time. And getting the kids watched and paid for this time, I want to make sure it's as productive as possible.

Osa (33:16)
That's a great point. you have an additional challenge that you have little ones it's one more thing to think about, one more thing logistically to have handled.

Zach Zweizig (33:25)
Right. But luckily, like I said, I have a fantastic wife and she's very supportive and her and I have made a great team. We've been together for 16 years now. We have a flow that works really well.

Osa (33:39)
think teamwork is definitely one of the biggest keys, especially when you have this type of a hobby, right? having a hobby that takes you out of the house that depending on what you're doing, it may not be something that you can do with the kids.

having a supportive, significant other, someone that you're on the same page with, it definitely means you have to schedule things a bit more in advance. You're not doing things quite as spontaneously, right?

Zach Zweizig (34:02)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's our family, we live and die by that calendar. Right. So that, that, that Google calendar looks like a bag of Skittles fell, fell at the table.

I'm gonna go practice my cello or speaking as my wife, I'm gonna go practice my cello and you got kids for the two hours I can do that. And we'll make that trade off. So we can both kind of accomplish those goals.

Osa (34:21)
Okay.

Yeah, the scheduling thing is something that I'm going to have to work on. My wife is really, really big on being organized and having a schedule. me, I'm just kind of, you know, Whatever happens, I'm good to go. I'm on the fly. So when we do have children, that is something that I'm definitely going to have to give you a phone call. like, hey, man, I'm trying to figure out this schedule thing. Could you give me some advice, please?

Zach Zweizig (34:45)
yeah, honestly, I'll be, I'll be picking your brain too about just letting things go. don't know how many times I'm like, just, just let it go. Just we'll see what happens. I can see what your line of work to being in the house, right? when you're at the firehouse, I'm assuming when you're there that everything else outside the life kind of stops for a little bit. Right. My times, and I'm focused here.

Osa (35:03)
Right.

Zach Zweizig (35:06)
and everything else I want to do, I'll have to wait until I'm outside these doors. I can see how you kind of have to have that that pliability, that flexibility.

Osa (35:10)
Exactly.

there may be things you want to accomplish during the day, drills, tasks, things of that nature. But when the tones go off and a call comes in, you drop everything and go because this is what the job is. It's kind of one where there's a routine, but at any moment something can happen. A call can come in.

Zach Zweizig (35:26)
Yeah.

Right,

Osa (35:35)
kind of moving forward and talking a little bit more about like your future goals. Do you see your mission changing any as you know, the family gets older, your kids kind of become, more school age children to teenagers, family trips, weekend trips. How do you see your mission changing as they, you know, get older and everybody weighs more, right?

Zach Zweizig (35:56)
I put a lot of thought into that and I wish I had a better answer, but I don't because it's kind of a don't know what I don't know. I suspect, what I'm kind of planning for is that as the kids get older and they get bigger and things of that sort, there's a selfishness of me that getting my CFI will allow me to help teach them. one, they want to, I'm not going to push them, but if they want to build a family of pilots, right?

Osa (36:05)
Right.

Zach Zweizig (36:21)
and have that available. think a big part of, me wanting to eventually own a plane, I think is, is, is probably the end goal, right? Something that's capable of carrying all four of us, at the very least three out of the four of us. And cause I'm sure there'll be times where my daughter's like, I don't want to go. I want to go hang out with my friends. Cool.

aerobatics might be taking a sidestep come five, 10 years or so. Or maybe not, maybe the kids are just like, you know what, I'm over the flying part

Osa (36:44)
right?

I never even thought of it that way that that could be a thing that like your kids just like, I'm not into it. But you're right. As you age, you have your own life hanging out with mom and dad may not be as cool as it once was. They may be into it. Maybe one of them has a weekend trip with another friend and your son goes, can Timmy come along and we go somewhere this weekend? You're like, of course, great. That'd be awesome.

Zach Zweizig (37:14)
Exactly.

Osa (37:15)
as far as airplane ownership goes, I think that's like every pilot's dream, right? You get your private, like, all right, man, I got to figure out how to get a plane. Currently, what planes are like, draw you the most or you like most interested in?

Zach Zweizig (37:20)
Yeah

personal interest, pretty much any, any kind of tail wheel, really it draws my attention. I just, I enjoy flying especially something like in a decathlon or the little two seater tandem seating. They're just fun. They're they're like motorcycles in the sky. but when it comes to kind of thinking of what would work best for my family,

Osa (37:41)
Mm -hmm.

Zach Zweizig (37:48)
The tail wheel version of the one 82. Something that has the payload to get everybody up. That has that feel of a tail wheel, but it can also go in the mountains, but it can also do long cross

Osa (37:48)
Like a one, yeah. Gotcha, okay.

Right.

I love the family dynamic, the family being involved, the trips. There's a channel that I follow on YouTube. I'm sure you've probably heard of them, SoCal Flying Monkey. I think his channel is amazing, right? The family trips, that aspect, that was another thing that helped keep me motivated when I got going. I was like, man, I want...

to be able to do this, these family getaways, these family trips, share the experiences, even if my kids don't move forward into aviation just to say, hey, we had a really cool childhood and our dad gave us some really cool trips and experiences. I think that'll be super rewarding.

Zach Zweizig (38:34)
Yeah.

think you and I are in the same all about the experience, right? love for them to have the passion I do, but I'm not expecting that, as long as I can give them the experience of it. so 15, 20 years down the line, I remember those flights with

those experiences will carry over regardless of what plane I have or what plane I can fly or even if they enjoy flying or not. That's what's key.

Osa (39:03)
it's like my outlet. It is my piece. And I don't have a tough life. I have very little things to complain about in life. I'm extremely, I feel extremely blessed, but aviation is just that thing that just like relaxes me. You know what I mean?

just being up there and seeing the world from that vantage point has just blown my mind. I'm like, this is amazing. People do this for fun? Like I get to do this for fun?

Zach Zweizig (39:26)
Yeah.

actually talked to my instructor on the way back today. When, after we got done there, We're heading back to Centennial. And he's like, man, it's like, love my job. I was like, who else on a Friday morning gets to sit there and go whip a plane upside down for a while and get paid for it and just enjoy this nice sunny morning? we're over I -25, the interstate, looking down and being like, these poor souls.

grudge it and just rough it out to get to their desk job so they can fight for the weekend. It's like, all right, that's why.

Osa (40:01)
Exactly. I've been flying with friends lately out to lunch and they're just blown away like, hey man, this is, I thought you were crazy when you told me you were starting this, but now that, you know, I'm here, I'm seeing you, I've been seeing some of your videos, it has been.

awesome to now fly to lunch. Like, dude, this was an amazing experience. How many people can say they've had this experience where they just went up in a plane with a buddy, flew to lunch, you you teach them to fly, give them the controls for a little bit on the way back. And they're like, this was mind -boggling, something I would have never fathomed doing.

Zach Zweizig (40:33)
Yeah. It's one of those you don't understand until you do it. And then even people that get up there for the first time or maybe the few times, the idea of just, you can go wherever you want. I think that blows a lot of people's minds. Sure. There's, there's air space restrictions and things that we have to pay attention to, but for the most part, you can go 3d world, you can go up and go down and go left and go right.

Osa (40:43)
Right?

Zach Zweizig (40:54)
You don't have that luxury on the roads. You don't have the luxury in the city. You don't have that luxury anywhere. They'll just go where ever you want I think that kind of messes with people's head. Yeah.

Osa (41:01)
Exactly.

You're just free. Yes. The world gets smaller. Right.

When we talk about our weekend getaway trip, you have two little ones. They're six and three and a half. So in that age range, I'm sure the comfortable amount of time in a car to drive somewhere is give or take about three hours. After that, they're probably going bonkers, right?

Zach Zweizig (41:20)
Yeah.

Yeah, we're starting to jet up against some issues.

Osa (41:28)
I've got ADD. I'm the same. At about three hours, I'm like, all right, man, are we there yet? I have a snack, please? I want some gummy bears or something, right? So three hours driving only gets you less than 180 miles. But now flying three hours gets you that equivalent of probably closer to seven hours driving. you know, like your ability to comfortably reach places for a weekend trip has gotten so much wider.

It's, man, it's something that I could cry about, but I can't be out here crying because of simple stuff, but dude, it's just, what a blessing.

Zach Zweizig (42:03)
It's awesome. It's awesome to take off on a Tuesday morning and go fly to another state fly out to Kansas and come back to Colorado. I just went all the way to Kansas and back and it's 10 AM. The day's still there. Where if I was to drive to Kansas, that's a day. It's a day to drive out to Kansas and then come back.

Osa (42:16)
Right?

It's really interesting. Speaking of like flying to Kansas and different where's your favorite place to

Zach Zweizig (42:29)
my, my airports to fly to are pretty much any one of the mountain airports, anything from like Leadville to the Buena Vista, the Gunnison, because they're all unique in their own right. here on the East side of Colorado, aside from just different runway headings, there's, there's not a lot of change, right?

You're just making sure you're lining up correctly for the downwind and get set up and getting the pattern get down. But up there it's, understanding how the terrain's working, how you're working around through canyons. Like for Gunnison, for example, you come up over, believe it's, it's monarch pass and as soon as you come over, there's just this green belt that goes all the way through the canyon. And there's green belt is, is, is all fed by the.

the local river there you just follow this one green line all the way up and it just ends right at the that's such a cool experience to not, not sit there and worry about heading or, or, or anything like that. You're at that pilotage in its own right. You're just following the landmarks all the way up. you know,

As soon as come around that bend, you're all sudden you're right on the downwind and you just hook it right in on base and you're ready to put it Those are really, really fun airports to go to. And I really enjoy going out west. Other than that though, my travel is outside of the state is Kansas, Wyoming. I haven't been to New Mexico yet. have a couple of trips I want to try to take down there. for my commercial I had to do a

mile cross country as part of the ACS.

took off late afternoon I needed some night hours for my commercial. So I flew late afternoon all the way to Amarillo, got down there, hung out at the FBL until it was officially night and then got back in the plane and then flew the night flight all the way back to Colorado. So was.

Osa (44:14)
Okay.

That's gotta be awesome. So where you took off, a lot of that flying ended up taking you kind of like over the Great Plains, right? So it's just a very different change in landscape from, you know, being near mountain, seeing mountains to just miles and miles of flatland.

Zach Zweizig (44:20)
You

Yeah, you get over to you're at 10 ,500 feet and you can still smell the cow manure coming up, like up the high and still coming into the vents You're like, I can still smell these cows way up here.

Osa (44:47)
That's so amazing that you mentioned that. I didn't know that you can smell it at 10 ,000, but last week I flew with a buddy and we went down to lunch at Harris we came in maybe 10 miles outside of the airport,

And at 5 ,000 feet, both went, we must be close

Zach Zweizig (45:05)
Yeah, don't think of it. You're like, wow, that carries all the way up here. Okay.

Osa (45:11)
Yeah, you're like, all right, cow manure is a very, very strong smell.

Zach Zweizig (45:17)
In Colorado, know a storm's coming because you can smell Greeley up north is where all the cattle ranches are. And wind comes in and it's blowing all that cold air from the north down, you can smell the manure and you're like, there's a storm coming in. And usually that means a winter storm's coming in if you can smell that Greeley smell. of our indicator that we need to start buckling up and buttoning down.

Osa (45:39)
And when those storms come in, are they usually pretty big? We're talking about lots of snow coming with those.

Zach Zweizig (45:44)
Yeah, because you had that cold Arctic air coming in from the north and up there in Wyoming and the Dakotas and everything. And then it'll hit the moisture coming up from the Gulf Stream from the south, New Mexico and Arizona. They just kind of collide right at the mountains. so that's where we'll get kind of those really big storms. The spring storms where it's like two to three feet of snow.

Osa (46:02)
Gotcha, wow, two to three feet of snow. That sounds like something I don't wanna experience. I'm happy to visit after that falls, but I don't wanna have to move around and maneuver in it.

Zach Zweizig (46:08)
Yeah.

Unless we have to just lock the doors and stay inside and turn on the fire and watch movies.

Osa (46:16)
Right?

I can only imagine what my heating bill would be. It doesn't even get cold here during the winter months. Our heating bill is madness.

Zach Zweizig (46:24)
Yeah.

I got to go to the in -laws house because they live further up in the hills. And so they heat their house all winter -iron stove. So we're going up there to my wife's father chop a bunch of and get all set up. So they have all their wood for the winter.

Osa (46:34)
Okay.

Zach Zweizig (46:41)
That's their main staple of heat for or five months.

Osa (46:44)
I got to make a trip out to Colorado and check this place out. I want to do some mountain flying. I've got this goal. Like I really want to fly into Colorado, into Boulder and go see a game. I got to go check out coach prime and see what the Buffalo's got going. But I'm sitting here trying to like wrap my head around flying to Colorado over these mountains, through these valleys and canyons where it's like,

Zach Zweizig (46:45)
Yeah.

Osa (47:07)
I don't really like bumps.

Zach Zweizig (47:09)
I would think less bumps. It's more like whitewater rafting, depending on how the winds are blowing. for sure, sure, for sure get some kind of mountain flying course. It's a necessity. They're unforgiving and it's microclimates. You could leave here and it's nice and sunny and you get over a rage and all of sudden it's IFR or it's...

Osa (47:26)
yeah.

Zach Zweizig (47:40)
the winds are picked up and you always have to have it out. No matter what you're doing, you always have a way to get at it.

Osa (47:43)
Right.

Most definitely. So I think that'll kind of be put on the back burner. I think I'll fly commercial into, I guess, Denver and then rent a car and drive into Boulder, figure that out.

Zach Zweizig (47:56)
go west from there. We'll fly out west from there.

Osa (47:59)
That sounds incredible. Let's make it Well, Zach, thank you so much. As we start to wrap this thing What kind of advice would you give to newer young pilots who are just getting

Zach Zweizig (48:08)
you

Osa (48:08)
going in their flying

Zach Zweizig (48:10)
I think for the most part, try not to compare yourself. Right. It's, different. Everyone has their own journey on it. Right. Everyone has the same destination to get to, but the journey is always going to be different. And understand that you I talked about, we struggle with our landings right. There are people out there that pick up their landings like that. They get them quick. But then it comes to navigation. That's where there's weak link is. So.

As a, especially a new pilot, you're going to hear people say, well, I soloed after 10 hours. Like, well, where'd you fly out of? Like a small town in Eastern Kansas, where there's no one around, and it's an uncontrolled airport, or an untowered airport. Sure, 10 hours can happen, but I try to tell students or people who are trying to learn how to fly out here in Colorado, it's like you're flying out of one of the busiest deltas in the United States.

you're not going to solo in 10 hours. NO CFI is going to do it because you have Bravo shelves above you and you have weather that's unpredictable you're all going to end up in the same spot. It's just a different journey each time. it's hard. want to compare it, right? Our egos are sensitive. I dont care who you are.

Keep punching through those hard times. at small problems once you're past them. like landing, right? Now you're on landing plane. How did I struggle with this? I remember those days. Those days where you're sitting like, I'm never going do this. I'm never going to figure this out.

Osa (49:36)
Right. Exactly. Where you get frustrated and you got to sit there and, come to terms with, this is a me problem. My instructor is doing what they're supposed to do. Something's not clicking with me. It's going to take a while. Don't get super frustrated.

But I do think the biggest thing toxicity wise is comparing yourself to others and talking about how many hours did it take you to get your private? How many till you soloed? How many till this, right? It took me 115 hours and I don't care to say that. Is that amazing? Absolutely not. The average is about 75, but I wasn't ready. I'm a pilot now and I'm having a blast.

But in every single group that I'm in on like Facebook, when it comes to like new pilots, student pilots, it's a question you see almost every day them asking, I haven't sold it yet. I'm at 25 hours. How long did it take you? And I respond like, Hey man, that's irrelevant. Don't ask that question. You're trying to compare yourself to others for no reason. So I think it's amazing that that was like your takeaway point, your advice to new and young pilots. Don't compare yourself to others. Learn at your pace.

Zach Zweizig (50:23)
See you here.

Okay.

Osa (50:42)
make it happen and when you get there the destination is the same.

Zach Zweizig (50:45)
Yeah, enjoy that process. Enjoy It's more fun than you think. And even the hard times, to have bad landings that are just not pretty or clean. But once you start nailing them, that joy that you feel, that's the point. I'm taking a mechanical object, I'm whipping it through the sky, and I'm putting it back on the ground without hurting anybody or causing any damage.

Osa (51:14)
Right?

Zach Zweizig (51:14)
There's a small fraction of the world that can do that. And even a smaller fraction that can do it safely. enjoy it. Enjoy what you're doing. You're doing something completely out of the box.

Osa (51:27)
100%. The owner of my flight school, when I came back from my check ride, I walk in the room, he goes, how did it go? said, I passed. He goes, man, he jumped up and down, gave me a high five and said, welcome to the 1%.

Zach Zweizig (51:39)
Yeah.

Osa (51:41)
because that's it. I'm not better or worse than anybody, but it's less than 1 % of the population that achieves getting their private pilot certificate. So it's a very unique task, ability, experience to have that most people don't get to

So to all the young pilots out there, people who looking to get into aviation, take it from Zach. Zach's got a lot more time and experience and ratings than I do. Phenomenal pilot, great content creator. Take your time, have fun. You'll get there when you get there.

But before I let you go, Zach, there's one segment that I've been working on, kind of like a rapid fire segment where I'm gonna throw a few questions at you. Nothing super crazy, but just, you know, answer them with the first thing that comes to your mind. So if you could fly any plane past or present, what would that airplane be?

Zach Zweizig (52:32)
P- 47 Thunmderbolt, Same one my grand father flew

Osa (52:34)
Okay, awesome, I'll have to put a picture of that up on screen so folks can see what that looks like. What would you say your favorite in -flight snack is?

Zach Zweizig (52:40)
you

in flight snack

I usually don't eat when I'm flying, but I'd say trail mix. I gotta think of the trail mix. I like M&M's the trail mix gets in the way, but at least it justifies the M&Ms

Osa (52:54)
It justifies the M&M's I was just going to ask, you one of the folks that believes M&M's has a place in trail mix? The answer is yes. All right, perfect. I was out on that wild land deployment and one of my coworkers that I was on the rig with for those two weeks, we had trail mix and M&M's and his thing was absolutely not. M&M's have no place in trail mix. And I was like, I didn't know this was like a thing. They're two different camps. So that was something I learned that day.

Zach Zweizig (53:01)
Absolutely.

you

Osa (53:19)
what would you say is your favorite aviation related acronym?

Zach Zweizig (53:23)
DPS, Do Pilot Shit

Osa (53:25)
Okay, I haven't heard that one. I like that DPS.

Zach Zweizig (53:28)
my DPE for my instrument.

check ride he was like listen you're doing great but just promise me when you're flying if things happen just DPS do pilot shit Fly the plane, get the plane on the ground safely, do what you need to do to make sure you land safely. That's all I care about.

Osa (53:51)
truer words have never been said. You can plan, you can check weather, the ability to adapt on the fly and realize like, all right, this is what I was trained to do. Have an alternate.

Zach Zweizig (53:56)
Yeah.

Osa (54:05)
have outs because my plans have now changed due to weather or circumstances do I do? Do pilot shit, let's go.

Zach Zweizig (54:18)
Just fly the plane

Osa (54:22)
I love that. I love that. I was expecting A- tomato flames or

Zach Zweizig (54:23)
from

Osa (54:26)
what was like your biggest like, O-shit moment or near miss?

Zach Zweizig (54:30)
O-shit moment near miss. I wouldn't call it a near miss, but it's definitely an O-shit moment. It finishing up, wrapping up my instrument flight. We had to knock out some more cross -country, so instructor and I, we flew out to Goodland, Kansas, and it was actually all the way out. was cloud weather, And so we were in actual all the way out there. We're coming into Goodland. We're set up on the approach.

come down, we're approaching minimums. Neither of us have shot the minimums at 200 feet off the ground, right? So we're coming in and so she's calling off the altitude. She's 100 minimums, 50 minimums, 40, 30, 20, 10. And as soon as she was about to say, go around, I just cleared out, saw the runway right in front of us. It's right there. It's like, right, get the power, settle in, put it down and do our touch and go. And then we went right back into that cloud and we were.

into it and back home. that was a cool experience to not see anything until, I 200 feet is nothing. You're coming up, you're waiting, you're watching that, those minimums approach on the altimeter. You're like, man, I'm going to hit it, we're going have to go around, I'm prepared to go around. All of sudden it just opens up. There's a runway, you can spit on it, it's so close. then touch and then you're back in those clouds again. That was cool. wasn't.

That plan was like, it was an shit personally, but not safety wise. Everything else, everything was, it worked out golden. It was exactly what it was supposed to be. It was cool to really see the capabilities. Amen. Yeah. That

Osa (55:58)
Right.

man, the pucker factor on that one must have been a 10 out of 10. Right?

Zach Zweizig (56:14)
Yeah, it was definitely a, it was a great culmination of all this hood training, you know, a nice sunny day wearing a hood and then actually being able to see what that actually looks like in real application. Now I get it. Now I know why.

Osa (56:26)
that is so awesome. can't wait to start that level of training and Really, really be a meticulous pilot who can keep something directly on my numbers, right? My altitude, my heading on a dime.

Tell viewers where they can find you online, where they can check out what you're doing as a pilot in life and follow you.

Zach Zweizig (56:46)
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, you guys can check them out at fighter flight. So it's fight .or .flight on Instagram Just give me a follow or just even give me a shout out. I try to just kind of put up content that I like. And if you like it, watch it. If not, there's no hard feelings.

Osa (57:04)
I'm going to link that down below in the show notes I'm definitely going to make a trip up to Colorado in

Zach Zweizig (57:10)
I appreciate having me on. was really cool. This is my first podcast. I had a lot of fun.

Osa (57:14)
Man, it's only my fourth podcast, but it's been a blast. I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Zach Zweizig (57:17)
You

Osa (57:20)
As we land the plane, I wanted to thank you so much for listening. I'm your host, O. As always, I've had a blast. I definitely hope you learned something and may there always be wind beneath your wings. Peace. Catch you next time.