Extra Section with guest Jeff Lester

In the first Extra Section episode we host aviation enthusiasts Jeff Lester.

Transcript

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For the best Aerospace Era this is Mansplaining. Here is your Host Anthony L. Sealey.

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. This is a first for the Mansplaining Podcast. So far, you've only heard my voice and my AI flight attendant, which does the intros and announcements today. However, I am not alone. In addition to the Mansplaining seven series, I'll have bonus episodes, which I'm gonna call extra sections, where I host a guest who are also aerospace enthusiasts. Our guest today is a former musician, radio dj, longtime airline veteran aviation enthusiast in BNA Nashville International Airport. Legend Mr. Jeff Lester. Uh, a legend. I don't know about that, but, uh, I've been called that when I retire. I'm have t-shirts made up with that. See if I can't get that done. Might want to get one of those T-shirts. Yeah. Well, well, I'll, I'll, I'll just give you one. I'll give you one. It's it a pleasure to be here. Thanks for, for having me on. You and I have worked together in this business for a while and you know, once that jet fuel gets in your blood, it's hard to get out. It is, it is. Uh, I guess y'all should include also very excellent photographer also. Yeah. You know what? I have an thank you. I, I have an eye for lightning and sunset it seems like. Yeah. And when I'm on the ramp and, and, and working a flight and I have a moment and I see something, I'll stop and pull my phone out and snap it, and then I'll look at it a little bit later. And, you know, when the airport is closed because of storms, we're in a safe place, but we videotape the lightning and then we can stop it and freeze frame it. And so I, I, that's a blessed to be in a job where, in a position where you can get really good weather. And even the guys that work the ams, when the sun comes up from the east side of the airport, they got some great shots too. Nashville is positioned very well for all kinds of weather. Uh, pictures and some of your pictures have actually been featured on the news and yeah, that's really awesome. A couple of'em here in Nashville. One of'em went to Oklahoma City for some reason. I think a friend of a friend and, uh. I, I, it, it, I just, I, I enjoy, that's a hobby. When I retire, I want to kind of do that, but not to an extent. All of my pictures are from the phone. Mm-hmm. You know, so it's just, I, you just, you just happen to see something. I mean, while my wife and I have been driving down the road and Florida, the sun sets since Sarasota and she'll pull off side of the road and take pictures. It's just, you know, when you, you, you gotta catch that moment.'cause in 10 seconds it's gonna be gone. Oh yeah. But I guess it's safe to say if you worked in the airline industry, you've probably got a few pictures of the nice sunsets over the runways and stuff. And not to mention in flight, I always videotape my takeoff and landings and stuff and you can see, you know, especially if it's rough weather, the wings bouncing and you're flying through the clouds and wingless disappear and it come back and mm-hmm. Then when you break outta the clouds and the sun is shining, uh, just, you know, just above you, and I've taken some of those videos and put'em to music. And um, that's a lot of fun. It's editing and so I try to put in music and I've had some good reviews on those and I just enjoy sharing it with people. I don't want, I don't wanna d for'em. Well, how long have you worked for the airline industry? 20, I'm going on 25 years now. That's a long time. 25 years. And I normally say you represent kinda my target audience. You work for the airlines, you're interested in the history of it, you relation to airplanes. And that's why I wanted to bring you on here. You're a perfect guest I have for this podcast. Thank you. And also, one of the reasons my episodes are actually 30 minutes was because if you work in the airlines, you've gotta take a shuttle most likely. And 30 minutes is kind of where I'm around, how long it takes sometimes, which it's not good, but maybe you can listen to my podcast and maybe it'll make somebody feel better. Sometimes all you got is 30 minutes out there. That's it. Yes. Have you, were you always an aviation enthusiast before you joined the airlines? Yes. Yes, I was. Um, I grew up on a dairy farm just 30 minutes south of here, and we were near Shelbyville, the Shelbyville airport, and my dad wanted to be a pilot in World War ii and they found out he was colorblind. So they, back then they, they couldn't fly because they used different color lights, flags. You know, wanted doing wave offs and stuff. And, um, he, the, the army took him, he was, I guess to see he learned to, to the darker shade of gray of the German uniforms is what he was telling me when growing up. But he always wanted to fly and he liked flying. Well, Southern Airways had a Martin 4 0 4 that used to fly over our farm twice a day, and it would go to Shelbyville from Nashville. Um, I believe Huntsville, maybe Birmingham, and then on to Atlanta. And they had another one, did the same thing, went Nashville, Crossville, I believe. Knoxville, maybe one other stop. I had to do a little re research on that. And then it wind up in, in, in Atlanta? Yeah. Almost like a horseshoe. And my dad was president of the American Dairy Association along with, uh, German Incorporated in Southeast Night Dairy Industries. We were a big, he was a big farm subsidy guy. Had, did a lot of things with, uh. Uh, congressmens and senators to help farmers. Back then, the family farms almost gone now at, at least in the Tennessee area, but back then it was, it was really big and he would've to fly to Atlanta sometimes. So, sometimes we drove him to the Nashville airport and he would get on usually eastern. And, um, this was even before the days of, of deregulation. And he'd get on the plane. Usually it was a 7 27, sometimes it was a DC nine, and, uh, we'd take off and fly to Atlanta. And sometimes if he had to be there for an emergency meeting, like, Sandy, we need you here. Within two hours, we would drive him to the Shelbyville airport and he would catch that Southern Martin 4 0 4, and they would drop the stairs down from behind the tail and the back just like the two sevens and the MDs and the nines have, and they throw two, three boxes of freights and mailing my dad on the plane and off he go. He, he loved flying props. Anyway. Way. One of his favorite planes outside the 7 27 is the Lockheed one, double eight. Electra. Loved that airplane. I have heard him on the phone change his flight from jet to that airplane going to Cleveland just because he wanted to fly on the big props. Wasn't a big fan of the Connie. He flew on one, Connie. He didn't like'em. He loved the elects. Mm. And I just, that's one of my favorite planes as well. The electrics. Yeah. I just like the way they're, they look and they're built that sound. There's no other sound to me like those big Allison engines. You know, it's just you hear that, you just go, oh, I know what's in town. Alright. And I became an enthusiast by that, by watching the planes come and go and we'd go to air shows and stuff and he would take us on family trips to, to coincide with his business. And we always flew. And my, my first jet plane ride was a 7 27 American Airlines from Nashville to Knoxville to Dulles. I was five years old. Hmm. I remember that. I remember the logo on the tail and everything. And I said, man. I wanna be a pilot or at least work in this industry somehow, some way if the family farm doesn't last. And when that finally went to where it was not a money maker anymore, and we had, we had a pretty big farm. I got involved in a little bit of radio, which led to my job in aviation. I was an aviation reporter for a Metro Networks. I did the air show, circuits, made a phone call one day to a recruiter and got my job three days later. This is almost 25 years ago. Hmm. So that's, that's, that, that's how it came. I, I've had. A full-time job since I was nine years old, Anthony? Oh, I would say for me, it kind of came later'cause I was more into the space side of aerospace. And then once I got a job in the airlines I was in, like I said, Atlanta Airport, I drifted to the end of Sea Concourse. And if you think Atlanta, you're thinking traffic. It's on the cars. It's also on the runways. Yes. And I was looking out and I saw airlines from every country you can name. They're going every different direction. And I was like. We didn't have this a hundred years ago. Mm-hmm. Like this, this, this, we shouldn't take this for granted there. This took, it took a lot to get to this point. And that's when I started, you know what, I gotta start reading into this. Mm-hmm. Learning about, um, old pilots, old, um, airline engineers and everybody who made this possible. And that's when my one day I started talking about Eddie Rickenbacker. And, uh, I read his, uh. Biography and I know you had to borrow that one. Yeah, that, that. And I recommend that book to anybody or any, any book about him. But the book that you and I read, it was absolutely fascinating. And sometime you get a chance, you do a series of, this extra section shows you should do it on Eddie Rickenbacker.'cause you can't do it in 30 minutes or, or almost one day. I can't. You can't. You know. I mean, he was the 94th Arrow Squadron. They called the hat in the Ring Squadron. That he became a leader of you. You, you, you can't begin to fathom just how many enemy kills he had flying, you know, just in spa. And he also raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is where you live now. Mm-hmm. And so, like me, this man's had a full-time job since he's nine. Mm-hmm. You know, but it's, except he was a trailblazer. He invented things and just, and just, and just fascinating. Uh, um, and he was in, you know, two plane crashes that should have taken his life. One of'em a B 17. That they survived for days in the water on catching fish with a seagull that they had got hold killed somehow. And uh, that was a goodwill flight. And then he crashed in an Eastern DC nine make on approach into what is now known as Hartsville Jackson International Atlanta, uh oh, an airline. He was basically going to take over, I mean, be the general manager of. And, uh, that's a whole nother research on its own. I mean, just reading the newspaper articles about that. But e you know, his efforts led to Eastern becoming one of the Big four along with American TWA and, uh, United and Eastern and even before the day Pan American. And that's a whole nother show in itself. The Juan trip and the evolution of the 7 47 and the Pan Ams. And, um, you know, he was. Uh, he was just, he, he was fascinating. I mean, he was a pioneer in aviation, uh, even with the Wright brothers. I mean, this man took aviation to a whole nother level. And w what was, was fearless was he crazy? Might be a little bit, do some of the things he did, but, you know, he went up every day. Uh, he, he took off in bad weather against the squadron commanders, uh, orders when he was first flying and he came back and, I mean, sometimes you just don't tell 80 Rickenbacker. No. You know, especially then, and he's just, you know, fascinating. His parents were from Zurich, Switzerland and, uh, started doing some stuff with Ford Motor Company. I mean, Henry Ford signed him on early on, and I. And when he got into the airlines in Florida Airways, it didn't last a year, but they were flying mail And, um, some passengers, which eventually when it closed down kind of became a little bit a part of Eastern Air. And whenever you see Eastern Airlines, I, I think of Eddie Rickenbacker and a video that he's in called Flying with Arthur Godfrey. I recommend that to anybody you can pull up on YouTube and watch it. He's in that. And Arthur's getting ready to go up in a Connie. He was made an honorary captain by Eddie and, um, in chronological the airlines and the Connie, which was a newer airplane at that time. And they had the Martins and they had the silver falcons and the golden Falcons. And it depends on the airplane and you, it goes through a whole flight, I mean, literally a whole flight. And, and you see him smoking in the cockpit, which is unheard of in an airport at all now. And, um. The ground crew, the, the ramp supervisor has the headsets talking to the flight deck crew. As they spool the props get rid of taxi and they take it off and put it in a box on the nose gear, and so it flies to the next city. You know, back then they made things to last. Some of the headsets we had today would not get off the ground, but, uh, I, I find that fascinating. When Eddie Ricken blocker's in this, he flies and spad flies over. Then he taxi up next to Arthur Godfrey and the Connie and it's Eddie Rickenbacker with his famous logo with the hat in the ring. And, um, that, that really got me interested in Eddie Rickenbacker when I saw that video, and you and I discussed it sometimes in length in Nashville. And, uh, I recommend that reading for anybody. You find somebody that's, you find different resources and different things, but man, get one of those books and go to one of the, um, aviation history websites to know that you're getting the, the straight story on this. Because there's a thousand things that they're, that How much, how much are believable? I don't know. Some of'em are a little bit true, some of'em are not. But you go to any of the websites that's aviation history, Wright, Protestant Air Force Race in, uh, Ohio. I think I pronounced that right. Wright Patterson. Yes. Um, they have, they have a good resources and you, you can't, you can't talk enough about Eddie Rickenbacker. I mean, it was, well, I just did what, eight, 10 minutes on him? Yeah. And I just touched on part of his life. Yeah. You know, read, read up how many kills he had in World War I. And, and heck, he wasn't done. He said, I gotta, I wanna fly for a living, you know, and, and I have a die cast model of, not his, but an Eastern DC three in my collection. And the postcard of that airplane when it was parked at the old Nashville terminal many, many years ago, which is still there, but it's an office building now and. It is just him being a part of aviation history and then bringing up Eastern and you know, you think about the big four and then you throw PanAm in there and, and look where we are now. And there's so much aviation history, not only North America, around the world that anybody who's an enthusiast or wants to get interested in it, Hey man, hang on, enjoy the ride. Because you'll find a lot of things and go to the libraries and check out books about aviation and read them and then it'll. Pique your interest to go to Amazon or to any of the bookstores and, and see if you can find'em. And, and, and that they're fascinating magazines, airways Magazine, these are great magazine back in the day. Airliners no longer around now, that was the editor by the Great John Proctor, uh, who took some fabulous pictures and I talked to him at many airline convention shows and that was a real fascinating historical thing, uh, to, to read. And it was always good'cause the airlines come out with new things and it passed airlines. And airways, I wanna say they're still out there. Um, you can get those and, and, and just, you know, if you're interested in aviation, you got children interested in, uh, aviation, boy start'em out. And, and then there's unlimited road. Or what you can do. I still find out new things every day and sometimes we'll be in discussion in between flights and I'll go, hang on a minute. Lemme look that up. Look that up. And I say, oh, I didn't know this. I didn't know this. And so you start tracing back the history. You go, this goes back to the twenties. It's endless. It's great. It's fantastic. You know, you and I in great conversations back in the day like that. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's great. Yeah, that, that, I don't know why that conversation we were talking about and when I brought up Ray, Rick and Becker, but I know one of the stories he talked about, you know, in the twenties. He'd ride along with the male carriers. Yes. You know, flying around basically in Jenny's,'cause they were two seaters. Mm-hmm Sometimes he'd fly em the himself, sometimes he was a passenger. And that might've been kind of like back in the day, it might've been kind of like an Uber or Lyft.'cause if you had an airplane and somebody wanted to pay you to take him somewhere, they would. And that kind of might've been part of the origins for the airlines as well. Yeah, I think that's a good, a good, a good starting point that says, hey, we can, this plane Hall's Mail, but I can put six people up above it, charge'em back then.$30 to send them 200 miles away and they don't have to drive. Yeah. You know, and see, and that's the fascinating part about, uh, about history and all the different airplanes. I mean, there was passenger planes in overseas and some here. Um, the numbers, I can't off the top of my head, but the pilot would be in an open cockpit, like a biplane, and he'd have 10 people underneath him and all kinds of weather when this guy's flying. An open air cockpit biplane with 15, 20 people, uh, underneath it. He may have some mail in the back, but look at what they're doing. And somebody, somebody said, oh, we can all make a living doing this. And so it's so, Hey, listen, this gotta start somewhere. Yeah. So, and that's, that's a big intriguing part of aviation history that I enjoy a lot right there. It wasn't the safest thing to do back in the day though. No, it was not. No, no. Some, you know, back, back in the day when you saw your pilot getting on in the cockpit with a parachute because that's just what they did back then, you kind of think, well, where's ours? You know what I mean? Where's ours? But they were learning and, and air travel is still real safe today. Despite some of the tragedies in the last four or five years. It's still safe, a lot safer than driving down the interstate. Yeah, driving down 24, if you live in near Nashville, you know that's not safe. No. Uhuh, no. And so the open air cockpit guys, well that's what they wore when they were flying in World War I. So, you know, and it's evolved over that, where you don't need to do that anymore. I was speaking of, uh, you were talking about the hat and the Ring Gang logo. Actually, when I was at the, uh, United States, um, I think it, he said it was Wright Patterson. It's in Dayton. I think they changed the name to the national. Museum of the United States Air Force. I wanna say they changed the name to that they might have now. Yes. But they have a, they have a Spad, which is one of the airplanes he flew in World War I. He has the, they put the logo on there. Mm-hmm. But if you go to another hangar, they got an F 2 22 Raptor. Um, it was a prototype and for some reason that's also on there, probably recognition or just say, Hey, listen, thank you Eddie, for all you did, but. It Early war aviation. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's a, it's a respect, a badge of honor. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, I have one of his patches in my collection and, uh, I never had put it on anything. I just kept it in my collection. Oh, yeah. And'cause it's just, I saw that at a airline show and I went, well, that's Eddie Ricken Blocker's logo. Mm. I definitely want that. I paid like a dollar for it, you know, because if you don't know, you don't know. No Uhuh. He, I know one of his, uh, squadron roommates said, Hey, let's, what about we're, when we doing, they drove World War I, it's like, Hey, we're throwing our hat in the ring. Like, y'all deal to wrestling and boxing back in the day. Mm-hmm. They, you know, on those shows, the boxer, they'd asked, Hey, who wants to fight this guy? And somebody would throw their hat in the ring saying, I'm gonna fight him. Exactly. Yeah. And that's where that logo came from. Yep. Eddie Rickenbacker was all in, didn't matter what. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I guess I should tell everybody right now, we're into what you call your hangar here in your basement, and you've got a lot of memorabilia here. A lot of airplanes even got a really awesome looking propeller over here. And I wanna talk about people in general. They've always been fascinated with transportation. Like even way back in the day, native Americans made toy canoes out of wood, and then in 18 hundreds. Yeah, every kid had a toy train set. Oh, yes. Everybody was fascinated with transportation. And this is just the next generation of that. Everybody's fascinated with these airplanes, and there's so many different ones of them, and that's why we're so fascinated at as you are, and this is why you collect so many of them. Yes. It's, um, you, you're fascinated by all, all modes of transportation, like you just said. Uh, trucks, buses, uh, cruise ships, and I, if I go on a cruise. When they have a q and a with the, some of the crew, I like to find out what kind of contingency plan they have in case they hit weather or anything.'cause you know, the airlines have to have a diversion airport. The cruises have a diversion port as well. And they have a, a, a game plan to stay out at sea if they need to. And the fascination with me with not only transportation, but with aviation. Is just the way the planes are been, the way the planes are made, and they look, they're, you know, they're engineering marvels, their works of art. Um, I can look at a 7 3, 7 200 and look at a 7 3, 7, 900 max. The, the concept's still the same, but the engineering beauty has been enhanced and bigger, better, faster. Saw three 51,000 that Airbus makes the other day. Holy cow. That is a cruise ship with wings. It's huge. I mean, it, it barely fit on the taxi away in Nashville. It was a diversion from Atlanta for weather. Uh, they had to close off the taxi away so that monster could sit out there. And the, and the triple sevens I've gotten to fly on 7, 7, 7, the 6 7, 400, 1 of my favorite long haul birds in the world. And they, there's, they're. Th they're pretty we'll, we'll see'em at the airport or at some of the shows we go to and say, man, look at dead beauty. You know, man, look at it. That's a gorgeous, that's a gorgeous flying lady right there. The 7 47 was the queen of the skies, you know, uh, the L 10 11, which was looked similar to a point to the DC tm. The LT 11 to me had smoother lines, and that was a lockey product. Had a great safety route. Um, I have quite a few of those in my model collection, but it, to me, it had smoother lines. When you look at'em and you, you, you, you look at lines. I could do cars. When they first put the wing, its on the 300. That 300 was set. It just looked like it sat lower than the 700 and is, but when that plane would taxi buy us, when they put the winglets on it, that was nice lines. And to have people like us, that's a fascination. Um, I know the people listening can't see this, but you look on that wall right there and there's two World War II planes that were involved in Reno air races, and that's a buddy of mine's, uh, plane, the Texan in front of, of, of his nemesis who actually won that race. That's not a fast, sleek jet. That's not a 7 47, but that's gorgeous. That's a gorgeous line. And, and, and the sounds each, you know, you hear a max spool up brother, you know, you got a max out there. Um, I had to drive by British Airways last night in Nashville, deliver bags to Iceland Air. And I had to wait because the triple seven was coming in and those were Rolls Royce engines, but oh, you knew something big was in town. Well, that's just, you look at it, just go, well, that's gorgeous. That's beautiful. It really It is. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I, I, I don't, there's some planes out there that might not should have been made, and a lot of'em weren't, but there's still a little bit of beauty in each one of those. Mm-hmm. And, and, and you learn from, and you learn from that. You know? And now you say like, either they're made for a weapon, like for in wars. Mm-hmm. Or either made for transportation. The people making these planes, they weren't setting out to make something to look good. They made something to for a job. Right. And they just happened to look the way they do and they look amazing. And, and, and that's the engineering all the way around. The, the people at Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed, um, the EST people in World War II Consolidated, which became conveyor. Conveyor, made a great jet airplane, the eight 80 to nine 90. Who man, they were rocket ships, you know? Yeah. We get to see airplanes every day, which is awesome. But, uh, I know there's a lot of cool museums out there that know that you've been to. Is there any, uh, ones you wanna recommend to everybody out there? Oh, gosh, there's thousands of'em, right? Uh, Wright Patterson, which they, they, uh, you said just recently changed the name. I think they might ever changed the name to the, just the, just United States Museum of the Air Force, I want to say. Yeah. Uh, which wouldn't surprise me. My, my late father-in-law's got some pictures up there. He was crew chief for 30 years. But that, that, that's another show. I'll tell you something about that sometime. Um. There. Oh, uh, the Smithsonian. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's everything. If it flew, it's, it's, it's in there. And they, and Uvar, hazy hangers at Dulles, if it flew, the Memphis Bell is there. Hmm. Um, the, the space shuttle, there's a, there's a Concord there. Um, if you're up in the Pacific Northwest, by all means go to Boeing Field, go, go tour one of the long haul plants. They're, they're, they're fabulous. There's Georgia's got, Florida's got several of'em, you know, just. People if you just Google aviation or air museums, and even if it's a two room small one and go, go to it.'cause there's something good in there. Sever Tennessee, um, near Gatlinburg, that's a great small museum. They have a MIG in there. They're Russian mig, they have an albatross, they got a, they got a P 47 Thunderbolt. Um, it's just down the road from, from kn, from Knoxville and Burg, you, you would think. Why? Well, there's a little airport there, but does a lot of Tennessee aviation. There's, there's some Piedmont Airline stuff in there too. And, um, it's just, and, and the, and the models, like you just mentioned a moment ago, a lot of those are made from actual blueprints. And the people that make'em, they, they make'em to specs and they look, they look fabulous. And, um, as you can tell, when you came in here in my hangar room, I got a bunch of'em and a bunch of'em. I don't have displayed my wife. Uh, 30 something year veteran of the airlines, Piedmont Continental United. And, um, she goes to the shows with, with us, and I'm going to shamelessly plug one here real quick coming up. Uh, a good friend of mine, uh, Robert Palermo does these, it's in Cleveland and it's the Cleveland Airlines collectible show, August 23rd at the, um, oh, what's the name of the hotel? Hang with me folks. The, the best way. Plus in Strongsville, it's a newly renovated hotel. Fantastic. Joan. It takes her an hour to get past the first table because it's mostly Piedmont people that are there and they, and they love to see her. And so you wanna learn about aviation history or get started in it. Go to these shows. They have'em in Chicago, LA, Atlanta. They had one in, they had convention in Atlanta at the Delta, uh, air Center, which is a Oh, Atlanta. That's a great museum. Oh, hang. Hold the phone folks. You need to go there. But, um, and, and, and all these people are, there, are, are airline enthusiasts or historians or their former employees or all three. And we can sit the, I used to sit down with John Proctor at the conventions and we talk for two hours, you know, and, and you can come up and get your kids involved. Your wife's involved. Just if you want, I wanna learn something about aviation. By all means. Go there. I collect postcards and stuff and, um. One day, Anthony, I want you to take your show to Cleveland and sit down and talk to these people here. I'll be there. My wife will be there. Good friend of ours. Nick BOTAs. Yep. That's a shameless plug. He'll be there. Mm-hmm. You know, and aviation's fun. Yeah. It it, it's tough. We get beat up out there. The passengers lose their patience and, and when us people below the wing don't see that, we see'em with their 99 overweight pound bags with broken zippers. That's the frustration we get are working three or four flights back to back. It's 110 outside, poor people above the wing when a flight's canceled and it wasn't them, and people screaming at'em. We've seen it on videos all the time. Folks, please give those people a break too. Hmm. You know, they're, they're, they're trying to help you as much as possible, and their frustration level is the same as yours. They want to get you out of the airport into where you're going and yeah, pack your patients old cliche, but. It, it, it's gotta, it, it's just gotta be done that way. And everybody, everybody gets frustrated. It's just, Hey, just take a step back for a second and go, this, this is not this, you know, this customer service agent's fault or supervisor. It's not. It's like screaming at the waitress when your steak's not cooked. Right? No, she didn't cook it. She just brought it to you and. It is just Anthony, you know, this wasn't anybody traveling is stressful. Mm-hmm. Airports are ever since nine 11, it has not been the same. It's not been the same at all. And it's stressful on the businessman, the casual flyer, the family of four, taking the kids in the little suitcases and the in the car seats all the way through all these busy airports and getting on the airplanes and you have to gate check your stuff and you say, Lord, let my stuff get there. And. Lord knows, we try every now and then we don't get it all there. And I do humbly apologize and feel bad about that, but they don't have a stress-free trip until they get to where they're going. They got all their belongings and you gotta give them some leeway and just go, you know, Hey, my wife and I, we travel very well together. And sometimes I just go, huh? And she'll say, it's all right, or she'll go, I, it's all right. But that's just, we understand the business. But I was, I see so many people, I just wanna go over and say, Hey, can I help you? I know what you're going through. You know, and it's, it's, flying is not as fun as it used to be. Being in the airplane, in the air take off landing. That's fun. Getting to and from. Well, that's a real pain. And you know where, mm-hmm. And that's, that's just the world we live in. It's probably not gonna change unless you fly into Cody, Wyoming, which is a Hallmark airport. They got three flights a day and they have a deer and an elk in the front. Mm-hmm. You know, that's a great little airport. I love that airport. Mm-hmm. But you fly into Nashville, which is a destination city, JFK O'Hare Atlanta, where you're from, you know about, it's a whole nother animal. Mm-hmm. Um, it's just. Boom. Yeah. You know, you just gotta pack your patience. And folks, if you have a late flight, don't sit in a bar too long, get you something fun to drink, something to eat some water, cup of coffee, and then go back out and sit by your gate. Don't stay in there because you will not be traveling. Yeah. I know you say like how stressful it is these days. You know, I, on my podcast, I focus on the best aerospace era, which is 1903 to 1975. And during that time we went from, you know, flying, running. You know, airplanes that were just made of wood wire and fabric to fly around in luxury. You look at these old air old pictures from mo uh, the old days, like Pan Am and Eastern, like we talked about before. They're flying around. It looks like they're in a luxury jet. Mm-hmm. But these are, these are just, these are coach seats. Yeah. Know these and everybody's wearing suits. It looks at rice. You know, I used to wear suits when I kid find with my family. Yeah. Like that. But with you, like you talk about in 1970s, something kind of changed there. Right? Obviously something changed during nine 11, but. You know, 1970s things kind changed. The Air Airlines were deregulated, and that's a whole nother show in its own right, right there. But, uh, it went from luxury. Like, you know, you sit and coach, I sat and coach when I was a kid and thought, man, it's the biggest seat in the world now. It's saving money on weight and, and, and fuel, and. Like out the airplane, let's cram as many people as we can into it, and then they try to readjust the seats to give you like two and a half more inches of leg room. I mean, I understand that, but still, if there's somebody in front of you that leans your seat all the way back and your tray is right here against your chest, it's, that's, that's not a lot of fun, you know? Um, and, and, and, and that's just the way it is. I mean, the old 7 3 7 200, our version, the Southwest version. Um, seated 122. Well, there's, there's seven three sevens out there. That seat, I don't know, a hundred eighty, a hundred eighty five. And I flew, I flew to Houston from Panama City to Panama this year on a max nine. And I was comfortable. It was a little bit tight. I was ready to get outta that thing when I finally landed'cause it was five hours, but. You know, I can imagine my wife, if she was here, she could tell you a story about riding in the middle of the back row of 7 57 to Paris from Newark. Hmm. Yeah. You'd need to sit her down one day. Let her tell you the story. Be on the air or not, I don't know. But, um, then I had the privilege of being up front and in long haul flights, uh, with my wife, and we had to cease lead all the way back. And just the evolution of. Even just the airline seat alone has changed. You look at some of the old seven oh sevens back in the day, heck, they got speakers in'em, you know, speakers and, uh, it was before really headsets, but you, they were right here by your ears. So yeah, it was definitely a different time. Yes, it is. It definitely. And so it's, it's a whole, there's a whole lot of working parts in aviation, just like there is in the railroads and trucking and bus. But man, there is a whole lot of work in parts, and these air spaces are so crowded. I don't wanna give a shout out to the air traffic controllers because ladies and gentlemen, those people are under a lot of stress. When we're on the ground, we got people's lives in our hands, moving planes around, man, they got thousands of lives a minute in their hands. So anybody out there that knows somebody or is in air traffic control, God love you. I mean, thank you for the job you have to do. Thank you. Yes. Well, I want to thank you personally also for being on the show. Oh, definitely. Definitely. When I wanna do it again. We didn't get to your HR story. I'm sorry. Yeah, if you wanted to share that real quick, I'll save mine for another show. Well, I was gonna say, I, I had an HR up there in Indy where I worked now, and this is definitely different hr. We have HR before. There's someone who, you know, died in service possibly, or somebody who, you know, died of old age later on. But this HR actually came from World War ii. Someone found a, uh, the body of a Bombardi deer all these years later. Someone DNA found did a DNA test on him, on the body that they found somewhere in Germany, and contacted the family over here and flew him all the way back here over to Indy. And I saw some of like, I think it was his nephew, the, the man who died. I don't know his name. I didn't want to pry or anything. Right, right. But his nephew was there. Fascinating. Yeah. It's just like, yeah, where some of the people from World War II were still finding him and bringing him home. I've worked several military hrs with my crew, and, uh, it gives you a, it gives you a feeling. And, and that, that, that's a great story. I mean, that's, that's, I, I'm glad they found these remains. That's part of history. You helped bring back, you know, that man's a hero, just like. The people are heroes to this, to this day. Mm-hmm. And, uh, that's, that you could add that to one of your shows. You, your, your show has a lot of room, Anthony. It really, really does. And, and I'm proud to be your first guest and I hope to be a guest on here again too soon sometime, because this has been a lot of fun. And I get, you can't see me, but I move my hands around Anthony. I move my hands around a lot, but I could walk around a room for two hours and talk about just one type of airplane. You. That's true, that's true. We walked around Tee Point there many times doing that. Yes, definitely. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much. Definitely. Thank you. And uh, everyone out there, I hope you enjoyed this and, uh, we'll see you next time. And remember there's always a light at the end of the runway.

Paula: 35:45

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