Soaring Over the North State: BJ Hubbard on Learning to Fly in Susanville

Speaker 2

[00.00.01]

 That's great. So okay so BJ Hubbard Summit View Aviation got 

Speaker 1

[00.00.05]

 that right. Yeah. So so summit view is my my own business I work for Susanville Aviation. So it's a little confusing okay. Um but yeah both things that we can dive into that at some point. 

Speaker 2

[00.00.17]

 Yeah, yeah. Okay. Excellent. Well, yeah. So I just had lunch with a contractor that's doing work with us. They flew in in a Barron. Okay. So it's not very often that I get to talk about aviation stuff, so I'm pretty excited to talk to you. 

Speaker 1

[00.00.32]

 Yeah. This is going to be awesome. 

Speaker 2

[00.00.34]

 I don't know many I mean, some people know, but maybe some people don't. I got my pilot's license when I was in college, so. Okay. Absolutely dead broke. Uh, paying for school. Um. Newly married. Uh, you know, all those things and just trying to rub, you know, a little bit of table cushion money, whatever you could to put together to go fly. And so I'm really dating myself here, but that 

Speaker 1

[00.00.59]

 was. Yeah. So what what what was the cost per hour? Yeah. So I was just getting ready to do that. So. So this was 1990 and they had a couple of Cessna F-150s okay. In fact, they had a 152 Arabsat uh, which was, which was an awesome airplane, 90 horsepower. But that plane, both of those planes were $32.50 wet. Wow. 

Speaker 2

[00.01.25]

 That was fully fueled. 

Speaker 1

[00.01.27]

 Yeah. And then 

Speaker 2

[00.01.29]

 the instructor was $20 an hour, which we thought was just outrageous back at the day. Just an absolute rip off. So kind of contrast now what today's pricing is and kind of familiarize the audience a little bit with, you know, entry level and then, you know, for seat airplanes and kind of let's do that just a little bit just. 

Speaker 1

[00.01.48]

 Yeah. So, so I mean, if you were to look at like construction rates now. So the plane that we typically use is a little four seater. It's a Piper Warrior 160 horsepower, which it does really well up here because we're at a higher altitude. So having a little bit of extra power because you were doing your your training was down in the valley somewhere. Right 

Speaker 2

[00.02.07]

 down the valley. Yeah. Orland. So yeah. Sea level. Air. Sea level. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.02.11]

 Right. So so 100 horsepower, little Cessna 150 does great down there. Cessna 150 up here doesn't do as well. Right. So so having that little extra power. So we've got 160 horsepower. Piper warrior. It rents wet for 165 an hour. 

Speaker 2

[00.02.27]

 Okay. It's actually still a great price. It it is. So if you were to compare that, if you were to compare that to. Reno or any of the the places down in the valley, down in, you know, Chico or Redding or anything like that, you're going to be spending closer to 180 to 200 per hour, 

Speaker 1

[00.02.44]

 right, for the airplane. Um, we charge 60 an hour for instruction. Okay. Um, anywhere else around here is, you know, 80 to 100 bucks an hour 

Speaker 2

[00.02.55]

 for instruction. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say 75 would kind of be the low end of everything I've heard of. So you got your like that. You're at 60 is great. That's 

Speaker 1

[00.03.03]

 awesome. Yeah. So I think I mean it's flying is expensive, right? I mean, there's nothing about aviation that's cheap. But for people looking to learn to fly, Susanville is a great place because it's economical price wise and we're not busy. Right. So one of the biggest things with flight instruction is that, like if you go to Reno and you're at a big school there, you start paying for the airplane as soon as that prop starts spinning. Yep. Well, you might sit on the ground for 20 or 30 minutes before you actually get to take off. And you've paid for all that time? Yep. Here you fire up, we go out to the runway, and we're off and running. Right? So it's economical both in the cost, but also the way in which we're able to be more efficient with your time. 

Speaker 2

[00.03.50]

 Yeah, absolutely. You're getting your training starting virtually immediately. So my youngest son. So my oldest son has his pilot's license. Isaiah. Okay. My youngest son got all the way through solo and then was graduating college. And then it's been time broke ever since. Hasn't picked back. 

Speaker 1

[00.04.07]

 Yeah. Life happens. Doing it in Boise and, uh, heavily towered airport, you know, two miles of runway, right? You can't taxi faster than 15mph. Sure. And he said, dad, it's like 35, 40 minutes before we even line up to take off. Is is gone. And it used to just frustrate him so bad because, uh. Yeah. So anyway, that's a that's a great point, BJ, that you're bringing up. So if, if someone is interested in flying, here's, here's one of the things that I want to tell everybody from my perspective. Is, I always tell people if it's something you've really wanted to do. These people, people wrongly get the assumption that if I'm going to do it, it's thousands and thousands of dollars. It's a, you know, which it is. But what I, what I really want to remind people is that I always tell people, if you have an itch really, really bad, they'll do 2 or 3 lessons. Sure. I promise you, at the end of three lessons, if it's something, it'll be 1 or 2 things. It'll be like, hey, that itch has kind of been scratched. Um, I, you know, maybe I'll go until I get to solo. Just because maybe that's a bucket list thing, you know? Sure. Or the flip side, which happened to me, uh, is like, I have to do this, or I might die. Right. It's 

Speaker 2

[00.05.27]

 literally, you know, it's one of two things happens. And so I'm like, what is the commitment you're talking about here? Go do your three lessons. And, you know, I think, don't you guys offer an introductory flight? That's pretty innocent. We do. 

Speaker 1

[00.05.40]

 So we. Yeah, we offer a discovery flight for $100 flat. That is. That is an hour worth of time with me, basically. Right. So we spend about 20 minutes on the ground. We talk about the airplane, we go over some aerodynamics a little bit. Just a small ground lesson. Right. And then we hop in the airplane and we get to spend about a half hour in the air. And that's time that if somebody wants to continue, they get to log that in their logbook. So it's not it's not wasted time at all. Right. And for some people, uh, I just had a discovery flight this last week. Uh, the gal has lived in Susanville for 34 years. And she we go up and she's like, I have never seen our area from this perspective. Right. Right. It's so I mean, you know, this area in Northern California is probably one of the most beautiful places you can fly in the United States, hands down. We have the desert, we have the mountains, we have lakes. We have, I mean, just all sorts of super cool 

Speaker 2

[00.06.39]

 stuff. Yeah. No, it's. And it's so beautiful to fly over, uh, in those crisp, cool mornings. Oh, yeah. I know I get to fly quite a bit for work. And, um, there is never a time that I feel more blessed a to just be alive. Number one. Number two, to live where we live and get to work, where where we live is just, uh, an incredible blessing. And nowhere is it more revealed more quickly than in the air of an airplane. Totally. 

Speaker 1

[00.07.11]

 I agree. Incredible. I agree. You know, and you brought up another point is like. So if somebody has thought, hey, I really want to get into flying, right? It's never too early and it's never too late. Yes. I had a kid just today, 18 years old, past his check ride. He is now for the rest of his life, a private pilot, Right. If he doesn't continue on with anything else, which he plans to. But if he doesn't do any other ratings, he now has the privilege for the rest of his life to get to go fly. Yeah. You know, and then I have somebody that passed a check ride last year. 68 years old. He had taken a couple of flying lessons when he was in high school. Could never afford it. Got into a career, worked for 40 years. And then he went up with a friend, a neighbor, and he thought I forgot. I really wanted to learn how to fly a long time ago. So he buckled down and he did it at 68. So it's never too early and it's never too late. 

Speaker 2

[00.08.08]

 Yeah. No, that's a that's a great message. And you know, so yeah, my my oldest son got his pilot's license and that's what I told him too because he was just really worried. I mean, he's kind of in that broke stage of his life. He's building a new, new business. All of his money, every penny is going into, you know, making that business grow and trying to sustain that. He doesn't even own a house yet. You know, and so he's how can I he's he's just killing him that he's not flying. And I just reminded him kind of my journey, which was I got it in college which. So the pros and cons. Right. The the pro. Is when you're broke. Uh, oftentimes the, um, the double edged sword is that you're you're broke, but you have a lot of time. And flying to do it well requires time. Yes it does. Then you fast forward, and most of us, how most people's lives go, they have more money, but they don't have any, you know, very little to no time. Right. And so he was blessed like I was when I was young. He had time, but not a lot of money. And you scraped through and you put money together and you do whatever you can and you get it done. And I just reminded him, you can always go back once you have that license, you can't be taken from you. And yes, you don't. Just ten years of no flying. Go get in an airplane to take off. Hey, nobody that insures you is going to let you do that and be nobody with a brain is going to do that. You're going to go do some currency stuff, get instructor. But in a few hours now you basically have that license to learn again to continue to grow. And that's exactly that's the other thing I'll tell the audience is that, you know, once you get your pilot's private pilot's license, it's really a license to go learn. Yes. You don't have it all figured out. You're not you're not a guy that's, uh, you know, can go conquer anything. And let's take all my buddies and let's go through flight, through weather. Let's go do some crazy stuff. Anybody that's gone through and gotten a license respects the the challenges and the dangers and the, you know, the calculated risk that you're taking. Um, but there's nothing more rewarding, um, in my mind. So, so now let's get back to somebody wants to do it there. In the greater I know how far. First of all, you have people coming long distances. Let's talk about your your radius. That's pretty 

Speaker 1

[00.10.25]

 circle. Circle. Yeah. So let's remove 

Speaker 2

[00.10.27]

 that excuse for people right now. 

Speaker 1

[00.10.29]

 So right now we cover anyone that's flying out of Quincy, uh, like Portola near Reno, that area Chester, uh, up to where you guys are at, like fall River Mills. Bernie, I have a guy that lives in Aden. I've worked with people from Alturas. Uh, we have a couple people come from Lovelock. I have one guy that comes from Reno. I have a guy that comes from Truckee. So we cover all of northeastern California, plus a little bit of Nevada. Um, and I think a big reason to that is because there simply are not a lot of flight instructors in these rural areas, right? Most, most of the time, a flight instructor job is, for most people, a stepping stone of some kind. Right? It's kind of your first. Option of being able to make money in aviation. Most of the time you get your commercial rating, you get your flight instructor rating, and now you're doing it so that you can get another job someday. Right, right. In aviation, it's all about your hours. So 1500 hours is like the mark where now you can go to the airlines, or you can work for a charter company or do something. Right? Right. That's where most people go. I've got almost 3000 hours. I've been flight instructor now for three years, and I love it. So I'm, I'm I'm a little bit different than most of the flight instructors that you'll find at a big school. Because number one, the big school is not going to hold on to them because they they have to rotate people 

Speaker 2

[00.11.58]

 through. Right, right. 

Speaker 1

[00.12.00]

 Um, in order for the new people to have a job and and so because I've been doing it for quite a while now, uh, we've been able to grow our business from outside of just Susanville and reach people that are in these other areas. And I think a big part of that, too, was that when I first got here to Susanville as a flight instructor, we've lived in Susanville for about ten years. But when I came back as a flight instructor. I was also fueling airplanes and working at the airport on the weekend. So I was meeting people as they were flying in and out. Right. And I like to think of myself as a people person. I like to talk to people. I like to do all that kind of stuff. So. So I just made it known that when people were flying in, hey, if you want to have a biennial flight review, which is something that pilots are required to do, come to Susanville, we can do that for you, right? And so that has helped grow business. Um, and and aviation is fairly small. So a lot of times if somebody has a good experience, they'll tell their friend or their hangar neighbor right down the down the road and say, hey, I had a good experience with this guy and go see him. So that that has really helped us. And that's why it's not only Susanville. Yes, that's where we're based, but we're hitting a lot of areas. 

Speaker 2

[00.13.15]

 Yeah. Well, you touched on that continuity. Uh, so my youngest son, that was one of the that's one of his biggest frustrations at the time at Boise too, is big flight school. Same type of deal. And, you know, it seemed like every three weeks they're sticking somebody new with him. And then that guy or gal was like, well, I'm not really sure what you can do. So you need to go show me that you can do all these things. And it's like two steps forward, one and three quarter steps back. You know, it's kind of just how we felt all the time. And it was super frustrating. So that continuity that you're talking about is huge. Huge. Yeah. Huge deal. So give let's just talk about I know many people don't do do it in minimum hours, but just give people an idea of minimum hours and kind of a rough ballpark cost if you know. And then yeah, what the typical person how long it takes them to complete that if you're going to take a section of people that have done it and checked the box. 

Speaker 1

[00.14.11]

 So, so the FAA has minimums for your private pilot. It's a minimum of 40 total hours of flight time. You have to have so many hours that are so low, so many hours with an instructor, night time, these different requirements. Right. If if you were to actually do it in those minimum hours, um, you'd probably be somewhere around 9000 to $10,000 roughly. That's between the rental of the airplane, the flight instruction. You have a written test you have to take a medical to get right. So those those things have some cost to them. Yeah, I would say on average, most of our students getting their private pilot. Fall somewhere between 50 to 60 hours. Yeah. Um, I think the national average is about 75 hours right now for somebody to get their private. Yeah. 

Speaker 2

[00.15.02]

 Say your continuity and how well you do, because obviously I know two people very well. One of one of them is my business partner. Uh, Weston Hutchings. Right. So he's flown. He's working on his instrument with you, which is awesome. And then, uh, my best friend on the planet, uh, Travis Carter, who's the best man in my wedding? You just helped him get his check, right? Yep. You know, his late 50s. He was somebody that started with me in college, and then life got in the way, and he didn't finish. So you helped him get finished, which was just incredible. So, anyway, thank you for 

Speaker 1

[00.15.35]

 that. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a privilege. I mean, every every person that I have the opportunity to work with. It really is a privilege and honor because, uh, when I really step back and think about where I'm at. Right. Aviation is something that I always wanted to do. It's not something that I've always done, though. And so now I have this opportunity to be able to not only call this my job, but I get to meet super cool people and build these friendships and and see other people progress and do something that they now love. And uh, and so anyways, so, so going back to the question. Right. So. Really right now, if you were to come and rent the airplane from Susanville Aviation, uh, pay for my time and your written test and all your stuff, you're probably going to spend about $13,000, roughly. Okay. Some people, uh, are are natural when it comes to flying. Yeah. If you've if you've operated equipment where you're using your hands and your feet. Right, right. It comes a little more natural to people. Um, what I have found is that the younger the person, typically the better they are at naturally flying the airplane. Okay. But the downside is, is that they suck at 

Speaker 2

[00.16.47]

 studying. Right. Right. 

Speaker 1

[00.16.49]

 So there's a lot of aviation. Is bookwork. Right. There's a lot of knowledge that you have to gain a lot of things you have to remember. And most of my young students have a really hard time being dedicated to studying and getting the book work done. When I think back to my 68 year old student, the flying portion took him quite a while. It's a lot of coordination. It's something that was very unnatural to him, but he was committed every day to studying and it showed. Right. So yes, the flying took a little bit longer, but he was really heavy into the books. So. There's maybe a happy medium somewhere around 30 years old. I don't know exactly where somebody is kind of right in the middle. Um, I think the fastest that I saw someone do it, he was able to fly four days a week. Uh, his job was kind of cyclical. Seasonal, I should say. Right, right. So he was in the off season so he could commit four days a week to flying. Wow. He started and then took his check right in two and a half months. 

Speaker 2

[00.17.52]

 Wow. That's incredible. The longest person that I've seen has taken two years. But that person also was only able to fly once every other month. Sometimes once a month, sometimes once a week. Right. It was very up and down. Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.18.09]

 So there's a lot of there's a lot to be said about being consistent. Right. I tell people, if you can fly once a week, it's probably going to take you a year. 

Speaker 2

[00.18.17]

 That's what I was going to say for. For me, it was once a week. Yeah. That's what I could afford. And my instructor was super great. He would mark down like point eight hours and only charge me with the plane tachometer was even though he's spending time with me. Okay. After, it was just a real gift. He just can't get away with that nowadays. But, um. Yeah, it was, uh, that once a week thing was incredible because what we found is there was very there's virtually no going backwards. Yes, exactly. If you're if you go longer than that, then you're, you're it's a I tell everybody that it's a, uh. Oh, gosh dang it. Um. The word is drawing a blank right now, but basically a skill. Oh, it's a perishable skill. Oh, yeah. Totally. It's a perishable skill. And people don't understand that. And they're like, uh, probably the time that I felt the least safe. Flying is early on in my career, when I was only able to fly 30 hours a year. And, you know, I'll tell you, there'd be a nasty crosswind at the local airport and a little bit of weather, and I'd be like, yeah, I'm not going to fly today, right? Uh, no. And you know, and then or those days that you're like, hey, I'm going to go fly anyway because I really want to go fly. And then it was, it was kind of a lot of fear around it, which, you know, I think I think aviation requires respect. And, you know, fear is probably the wrong word. But, you know, basically being ready, uh, and recognizing you don't just want to walk into it, um, lackadaisical and. Yes. And with a lot of, uh, um, complacency because you're going to get humbled quickly and, uh, so, uh, but now, um, I fly a lot and, uh, we have a very capable airplane and fly a lot. And I don't think I've ever felt more confident in the airplane. And then then you've got to fight the Confidence not becoming arrogance. Right? Yes. Just because then you're going to get bit. When you think you have it all figured out, then you're going to get it the other way. So. 

Speaker 1

[00.20.24]

 Yep. Yeah. One of the things that we teach people about is is the five hazardous attitudes, right. And we don't have to go through those. But but yeah, some of them are on the one side where you don't feel confident and you just kind of give up and. Right. And the other side is overconfidence and feeling like I'm invincible. Right. And so yeah, we you know, aviation is interesting because you brought it up earlier. I mean, there's risk in everything that we do, right? There's risk in getting in your car and driving. There's risk in putting a piece of food in your mouth. You might choke, right? There's risk in everything. Yes, aviation does have some inherent risk involved in it. That's just simple. You can't. If something were to happen, you can't just pull over on the side of the road. Right. Right. But what I tell people is when you get your private pilot's license, what you're really learning to do is you're learning how to look outside the window and fly the airplane. And how do you handle emergencies? How do you handle a situation that may not be the greatest, but that you can hopefully be able to walk away from? Right. Those are the really the two main things that you're learning. You have all these maneuvers that you have to learn how to do and all this stuff to be able to show an examiner that you have control of the airplane. But really, how do you look out the window and fly? And how do you handle emergencies? That's what we're learning. Yeah. No. And you know, one of the things I used to tell, obviously, when you fly a lot, you're taking people that are that are real nervous, right. And then they you say, have you ever flown before? Um, you know, they'll say, not not in a little plane. That's. I get that a lot, you know. And, uh, 

Speaker 2

[00.21.57]

 as they're walking up to the plane, especially if there are people that just have no clue, they'll look at like a 182 and go, oh, are you kidding me? I little plane to them is like the 707 size. 

Speaker 1

[00.22.11]

 Sure, sure. 

Speaker 2

[00.22.12]

 That's where big King air. That's a little. That's a little plane to them. Right. When we see this 182 or whatever you're climbing into and they're like, yeah, uh, I'm absolutely freaked out. And one of the things I used to tell them is, you know, yes, there are a couple things that could potentially be beyond our control, you know, engine failure right after takeoff and really, you know, difficult places. But that's what's great about Susanville. Susanville, some great fields. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, a lot of good options. So I would tell people a lot that, you know, if if we die, it's going to be because I messed up, not because we can't put this plane down somewhere and walk away from it. And so I don't plan on messing up because I want to live. So so I'm telling you, we're we're going to fight it all the way. And I'm telling you, if I do my job, we may be scraped up a little bit, but we're going to walk away. And so, um, that's one of the misnomers, I think a lot of people that I'm talking to about learning to fly, they're like, if the engine just quits, you're 

Speaker 1

[00.23.09]

 just dead, you know? Right. Yeah. Yeah. They think it's a rock, right? 

Speaker 2

[00.23.12]

 Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So talk a little bit about that and what a plane can do. We won't. And then we need to get back to kind of how you got to aviation. Sure, sure. Geeking out on the aviation stuff because I love it. But yeah, we can go back to your journey a little bit, which I'm excited about too. 

Speaker 1

[00.23.26]

 Um, yeah. So, so, you know, in a, in a movie, a lot of times you'll see an airplane that loses the engine, and now everyone's plummeting to the ground and all the people are screaming in the back. 

Speaker 2

[00.23.39]

 Yes. And that that's just not realistic, right? There are moments. Where you can get yourself into a dangerous spot. But airplanes are built to fly, right? So? So if if the engine were to quit on the airplane that I train people in, we now just become a large glider, right, a heavy glider. So the airplane that I fly, we have what's called a 9 to 1 glide ratio, where for every 1000ft that I'm going to move forward, or excuse me, for every 1000ft that I'm going to lose vertically, I'm going to be able to move forward 9000ft. Right. 

Speaker 1

[00.24.21]

 Right. So I have this big long glide. So for example, if I was flying around Susanville, maybe the Standish area kind of by Honey Lake. Yep. Let's say I'm at 7500ft. That puts me at like 3500ft above the ground. Correct. Right. Yep. When I am descending with no power, I'm only losing 500ft per minute. Yeah. I have 3500ft. Right. So now I have, like, six minutes. Seven minutes, roughly that I'm going to be just gliding. That's a lot of time to be able to troubleshoot. So I can I can try different things. Maybe I can get the engine to turn back on. Um, I can pick a really safe spot to be able to land. I can set things up. I can make my radio calls, and I can be very prepared to make this landing if it comes to that. Right, right. Um, and it's very controlled. So every, every time I do a first lesson with somebody not, not necessarily the discovery flight, but the first lesson. Yep, yep. We go we go through two things. And the two things that scare the people, that scare people the most about aviation are, like you said, an engine failure or something like falling out of the sky. So we go through a simulated engine failure, and we just show them what it's like to glide the airplane. Sure. The second thing that we talk about and show is a stall. So a lot of people, when they're looking on YouTube and they're like, oh man, what do I have to do to learn how to fly? Right. Well, stalls are one of the maneuvers you have to do, and that's simply where the wing is not creating sufficient lift. To be able to hold the airplane, right. To be able to continue to maintain that altitude. While these airplanes are built to fly, they're built to be very stable. So what will naturally happen is if you pull the power back and you bring the nose up and it stalls, it's going to naturally try to lower the nose on its own and gain airspeed and gain momentum and be able to then gain lift again. And it will do that all the way to the ground on its own, without you even touching anything. And so, 

Speaker 2

[00.26.25]

 so just to be clear, because I have this come up with people a lot, they say, oh my gosh, stalling the airplane. They think they, they tie that with the engine stalling. And really it has nothing to do with the engine. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.26.37]

 It's not like your dirt. It's not like your dirt bike with the engine stalling out your old Volkswagen. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's not the deal. Yeah. The engine is still producing power, right? Right. What's happening? Is that your your wing? I wish I could show you back over here, but. Yeah. Yeah. Your wing is producing lift by having a high and a low pressure as the air is flowing over and underneath the wing, it's creating these areas of high and low pressure. That's what's creating your lift. Well, as you start to increase your angle relative to the wind, that air can no longer be laminar or flow evenly over and under the wing. And so therefore you're not producing the lift you need to. So all that needs to happen is you just need to lower the nose. You need to decrease your angle of attack. And now you're flying again. 

Speaker 2

[00.27.21]

 Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. That's great. That was a great explanation. And because I people are like, oh my God, I have to go up and stall the airplane. And. Right. But I promise you it's not it's not bad. In fact they're actually really fun when they are. Yeah. Really fun. It's a great time. So okay. So. Not everybody wants to be a pilot. So that's shocking, I know, shocking. I know you don't understand it. Can you take us through? Just a kind of a maybe the cliff note version of. You know what I loved about your story and your story. Your actual story now is that you weren't always going to be a pilot. You were doing other actually high level work and kind of made the pivot. So can you talk us through graduation and uh, and then kind of where you went to work and then when you kind of had the epiphany and then I got to imagine that epiphany was terrifying to make that pivot. So talk us through that just a 

Speaker 1

[00.28.18]

 bit. So, so let's just step back really quick to to 14 year old me. I'm in. I'm in Boy Scouts. Uh, I grew up down in Gardnerville, an area just south of Carson City, down there in Nevada. Beautiful 

Speaker 2

[00.28.32]

 area down there. Oh. It's awesome. We had this cool opportunity as our Boy Scout troop to go out to the Fallon Naval Base, where the Top Gun School is. Wow. So we pull up in the parking lot. I'll never forget this. We pull up in the parking lot, and there is a search and rescue helicopter hovering. These two guys rappel out of the helicopter. They come over, they shake our hand, and they say, Welcome to Top Gun. And I'm like, this is the coolest thing in the whole world. I'd sign up right away. Hands down. Yes. Yeah. We got to go up in the tower. We saw the jets take off. We went in the hangar. We talked to the Top Gun pilots. I was sold, I was like, Aviation's the coolest thing. I don't know how to do it, but I want to fly. That was at 14. Now, fast forward through the rest of high school. None of my family flies. I don't have any friends that have family that flies. I don't know anyone. I knew that there was an airport in Minden. I didn't even know how to get there. Right? So I worked at golf course. I did all these random things, and I moved on. And I always thought about aviation. I always knew that's what I wanted to do, but I had no idea how to do it. There was never anyone in high school that said, yeah, this is an option, right? Nothing. Right. So I, I served a church mission for two years down in Dallas, Texas. And when I was down there, I met some really great, influential people in my life. And one person in particular was asking me like, hey, you know, what do you want to do with your life? I wasn't really sure. A lot of my family is in education. And so I kind of thought, well, maybe I'll maybe I'll be an educator. Right. Well, this person suggested going to a business college and getting a, you know, like a business administration type degree and see where it takes me. So that's what I did. I moved home. I actually moved out to Salt Lake City, Utah. There was a good business school out there that I wanted to attend. Okay. And, uh, my wife and I got married during that time that I was out there. We had met. She's actually from Susanville, so we had met before my church mission anyways. But, uh, so we're living out in Salt Lake. I'm going to business school. I was actually getting an accounting degree, and I kind of liked numbers in finance. Yeah. And so we we wanted to start a family. So we said we want to live close to home. So let's move back to Susanville. And at the time I had actually started working when I when I first moved to Salt Lake, I got a job with U.S. Bank and I started as a part time teller. I spoke Spanish and there was a lot of Hispanic customers in that branch, so it worked out really well as a part time teller. I moved to a banker where I was doing car loans and, you know, credit cards and all that stuff, selling things to people. Right, right. Uh, I eventually moved up into management. And so when we moved to Susanville, I was the assistant branch manager for the local US bank branch. That's how we got. That's how that's what got us here. Wow. Um, and and with within that. Right. I was basically responsible for the operations of the branch to make sure that we were ready for audits and that we were doing things properly. Um. Well, then the city of Susanville, I knew somebody there, and they said, hey, we have this great accounting job, and you're getting a degree in accounting, so why don't you come work for us? So I said, that's great. So. So now I've got this job, I'm doing accounting, I was doing payroll and these different things. And I found very quickly that I was bored out of my mind 

Speaker 1

[00.31.52]

 because in, in banking, I got to talk to people in my little tiny office at the city of Susanville. I just crunched numbers all day and I am a people person. I need to have interaction. So so I quickly after about a year and a half of that, I said, this is not for me. And there was another bank in town that's that's no longer here. But there was another bank in town that was hiring for an assistant branch manager position. So I said, I'm going to go do that. And that's what I did for a couple of years. 

Speaker 2

[00.32.21]

 Okay. 

Speaker 1

[00.32.24]

 Then I was kind of in this crossroads. And granted, all this time I've been complaining to my wife because now at this point, I'm probably in my mid 20s, I have a couple of buddies who are actually flying for the airlines, like they became flight instructors and and I had no, like I didn't know why these people were interested, but I had some people that I knew very well that were actually flying. And I thought, man, I'm kind of jealous, right? Like, I felt I felt this jealousy. And I hate to say that, but I really did. Yeah. And and I'm like, okay. Well anyway, so so then I have a customer come in at the bank, uh, a good friend of mine, and he said, have you ever thought about law? And I was like, no, I haven't thought about law at all. He's like, well, I think you'd make a great lawyer. And I'm like, I'm like, well, you got a job for me. So. So he offered me a job and, uh, and I started online law school. 

Speaker 2

[00.33.21]

 Unreal. 

Speaker 1

[00.33.23]

 I hated it. Oh, 

Speaker 2

[00.33.25]

 yeah. I was gonna say, buddy, come on. This is. Seems like more of the same of the. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.33.29]

 Okay. Right. So so I start I start online law school and I, I actually really enjoyed there were facets of law that I really enjoyed. Um, I enjoyed the people aspect. I enjoyed going and being in the courtroom. There were some really fascinating things. Um, but just to be completely honest. Right. Susanville, as an attorney, criminal law, family law. Those are your main bread and butter things. Yeah. After a couple of cases, I realized, like, I can't do that my whole life, that I would just be I would just be upset. I can't I can't do that my whole life. Right? 

Speaker 2

[00.34.05]

 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.34.08]

 So by that point we had we had three kids, our two daughters and one boy, and then the high school locally, the high school district had a position open for their human resources manager, and it was a really good fit because I had a legal background in the banking world. I had been hiring and firing people, right. I'd been doing that kind of human resources stuff, so it was a really good fit. And. At that point, I had actually started my private pilot's license because I think my wife had, uh, heard me complain enough and she said, yeah, you know, figure this out. We were we were making enough money to make it work, right? I was flying once a week, once every two weeks, something like that. 

Speaker 2

[00.34.56]

 And where where were you flying? 

Speaker 1

[00.34.58]

 Here in Susanville. Okay. In the. In the airplane that I teach people. And now that's me. Um, so anyways, I went to work for the high school, uh, for a while and doing their human resources at that same time, we were selling our house. Um, this was this was after a year or so, we were going to sell our house because we'd outgrown it. And we loved our little house up in Lake Forest, but we were going to sell it. Yep, yep. So we started looking for other homes and we could not find one that felt right. We you know, it wasn't necessarily the financial aspect, it was just the actual feeling like none of these homes seemed to fit and we couldn't figure out why. Well, the time came, like we sold our house and now we're now. Now we're living with my in-laws because we don't have a house, 

Speaker 2

[00.35.47]

 right? Right. And all of a sudden it kind of clicked to both my wife and I like a big portion, a big reason why I never wanted to make the leap into aviation, like all my buddies were doing, is I didn't want to take the risk financially. It's expensive, right? To go through all of my ratings and get to a point where I'm actually making money in aviation. It was very spendy. Yeah, and I didn't want to take out additional debt. I'm kind of risk averse in that. Right. And so all of a sudden we had this, this money sitting in our hand from selling our home. And we thought, this is the time to do it. So I quit my job. We moved to Idaho because, well, 

Speaker 1

[00.36.34]

 so my wife has some family up there in the Boise 

Speaker 2

[00.36.36]

 area to help with the kids. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, and it was a big school. It was going to push me through all the ratings faster, all this different stuff. And so I thought this is a good opportunity. So we went and did it and I thought I'm going to get a job at that flight school. There's probably no chance we're ever going to come back to Susanville because there's just not I didn't think there was a market for it. Right. Um, so we were planning on leaving. Unfortunately, we loved this area, but we left and we thought, man, we're going to be gone forever. It took me nine months to get through the program, and Steve called me up. Actually, I called him and I said, Steve, if there's anything I can do at the Susanville airport, 

Speaker 1

[00.37.19]

 please let me know. And he said, actually, my flight instructor is leaving. Do you want to come back? Yeah. And that's how we ended up back in Susanville. But but I basically there was there was a ten year span. Once we were married and I was working where aviation was always in the back of my mind, I knew that's what I wanted to do. I just couldn't figure out how to make it work. I couldn't figure out that I could come out here and get my license. I couldn't figure out right there. There just seemed to be no guidance on what to do. Yeah. And now that I'm on the other side of that, that's like one of my biggest goals and passions is helping people realize that it is an option, that there are ways to do this right. You can be creative with your finances if you have to a little bit. You can be devoted with your time. You can do things to get into it, whether it's for a job or whether it's for fun. There are ways to be an aviator and. You know, there have been times where I've looked back and been like, man, I wish I had done it earlier, and I kicked myself a little bit. But then I stop and think. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunities because I've learned so many things from those other jobs. Right? That I've kind of I've kind of set myself up in a sense. To be able to run my own aviation business. I have a financial background. I have human resources, right? I understand contracts and legal jargon and those different things. Yeah. And aviation is something that I'm passionate about. And so all of those things combine I feel like man. How lucky am I to have this experience? I didn't just do one thing. I've done a bunch of things and I've learned from all of them. And I think it's really cool. Well, yeah. Everything you just said there is absolutely true. One of the things that I just want to circle back to that I heard is how incredible your wife must be, because 100%. 

Speaker 2

[00.39.26]

 Right. So you had I'm going to just backtrack it here. But at the time that you were living with in-laws, house was sold. So you're effectively homeless. How many do you had it? Did you have at that 

Speaker 1

[00.39.37]

 time? We had three kids at the time. Okay, 

Speaker 2

[00.39.40]

 so three kids at the time. And your wife says, you know what? I think this is the time to go. To go all in. Take this money. Throw it at something that's very expensive. You have nothing to show for it. If you don't continue that career, you can't get 

Speaker 1

[00.39.58]

 back, right? 

Speaker 2

[00.40.00]

 Right. So. And then. So you better be serious about this, and you better figure it out. Yeah. It's just an amazing, uh, partner you have. And. Yeah, really blessed to have somebody that believes in you, like, hey, this is something. And then also saying this is a passion of yours and you need to pursue it. Right. Put the whole family at risk for you to go obtain it. At this point of your lives, most people would have just played it safe and just said, hey buddy, you missed your opportunity. We got three kids, we're getting a house and we're gonna I'm not gonna I'm gonna have a roof over my head. So it's amazing. That's absolutely incredible. 

Speaker 1

[00.40.39]

 You know, and and it's it's interesting because she she has supported me through all my crazy ideas. Right? When I said, hey, I'm going to start law school, she's like, okay, let's do it, you know, and uh, and I man, I'm just so grateful that I have somebody that that is on my team. Right? And that pushes me to be better and to strive for more. Yeah, yeah, my wife is definitely my secret weapon as well. It's, uh. Without. It's amazing how much harder I push to not let her down than I ever will push. Uh, just for me, you know. And, uh. But, yeah, that's amazing that you have a partner. Same thing in a different scale. I mean, in business, running your own business. Just massive amounts of risk and. Yeah, we we do okay now, but there was times, you know, we thought we were gonna lose the whole business. And, you know, when you sign all those bank docs away, um, you know, you're personally guaranteeing everything. So if it goes bad, they, they take your house, they take everything, take your retirement 

Speaker 2

[00.41.42]

 accounts, take everything. And so it's just a very scary thing. And it takes the right partner. Yes. And I'm always telling my kids, you know, 90% of your happiness or conversely, misery in your life will come from the one decision of who you decide to spend the rest of your life with. Totally. And thank God for me. I married out of my league and hit the lotto on that one. It sounds like you had a very similar, similar wife, so congratulations. Thank you. How long have you guys been married 

Speaker 1

[00.42.12]

 now? We've been married 13 

Speaker 2

[00.42.13]

 years, and I think he told me five kids under ten. 

Speaker 1

[00.42.18]

 We have five kids. Yeah. So our oldest daughter, she'll be ten in July. Our youngest boy just turned two. 

Speaker 2

[00.42.26]

 Yeah. You need to have your. We need to have your wife on the podcast. She's the MVP of 

Speaker 1

[00.42.29]

 the family for sure. Yeah. And not only not only does she, you know, take care of him, but we actually decided a couple years ago that we wanted to homeschool our kids. So she she's teacher, she's mom, she's chef. She's all the things. Right. And she does awesome. 

Speaker 2

[00.42.44]

 Are you going to have you made up your mind if you're going to continue homeschooling all through high school or at some point, will they be? You know, we we've 

Speaker 1

[00.42.52]

 thought about that and, you know, we've we've thought about it and we're we're not 100% sure, I would say safely right now that if if things kind of keep going the way that they're going, we probably will just homeschool all the way through. Um, they're they're very involved in extracurricular activities and dance and sports and piano and all these different things. And so we feel like as far as, like the social aspect and all of that kind of stuff, they're very involved. So I don't think they're really losing out on anything from there. Yeah, yeah. But uh, I think personally, I think that the program that they're using right now, like the curriculum that my wife has for them, is really, really good. And and part of it is that, you know, we're we're pretty religious and Christian, and we wanted God to be more a part of the education. Right. Right. In public school, you unfortunately don't get that. And we wanted to help our children realize that, you know, God is a big part of our lives. That's why we honestly, just the other night, we were having a conversation that, like, the whole reason that we're back in Susanville, the whole reason that I have been able to flight instructor for three years now as a full time job in a small, tiny town is because of God. Like, that's that's really the only reason that this has happened. 

Speaker 2

[00.44.13]

 Yeah. Well, yeah. Absolutely. I'm going to give you the God thing, but you have to be a pretty dynamic person and great with people and a good flight instructor. Um, all those that don't, don't. Those are all things that are very important to us. So don't sell yourself too short there. But. Well. Thank you. Yeah. You guys have definitely been blessed. And, you know, I. I'm also a Christian, and that's, uh, that's that's awesome. I'm glad to hear that. So here's the one thing I will challenge you with. It sounds like you guys are are, um, doing a great job of of getting them that social, that social interaction. Right. And so I would just say that, you know, life is not, um. Life is challenging. You know, there's a lot of conflict and there's a lot of challenges. And, you know, I would say that, uh, you know, homeschooling is a is is an amazing first of all, the kids will be light years ahead academically. And, you know, when you can homeschool, you typically can travel more, you can see more things. Um, but I would consider maybe doing high school and having more organized sports, maybe having some of the chaos that they're going to be exposed to in life and where where they're experiencing that when they still have you guys at home to to come home and go, man, I got my butt kicked today. Mentally, physically, I just I have this terrible interaction with this cult, you know, with this peer and this teachers being really hard. Whatever, whatever it is. Yeah, right. And they're not, they're not I've, I've had some friends that have homeschooled all the way through massive success. So you guys are I'm sure you guys are amazing. Parents would probably be super successful. And then I've also had, uh, friends that have done it and then their kids, finally they go out and start working. They don't. They can't deal with that difficult coworker. They just melt down. They can't. And they. Their lives just kind of the kids lives just kind of spiral because they haven't had that pressure, that external pressure where mom and dad are helping them figure it out. Yeah. So anyway, that's just I'm going off on a tangent here, but again, your wife's the MVP for also being the teacher and all those things. And that's just that's absolutely incredible. Good for you guys. I'm looking forward to meeting some of your kids at some point. I haven't. Yeah, I've got to meet any of them 

Speaker 1

[00.46.33]

 yet. Yeah. You know, they they come out to the airport and we ride bikes around and we go flying and we do different stuff, but it's usually when it's pretty low key out here. Right. Try not to. 

Speaker 2

[00.46.42]

 Right. Right. In a way. Not not ripping through the taxiways with airport airplanes. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's cool. Okay. So, um. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Your kind of your message about taking you ten years to finally love. So, so let's just talk about. Let's talk to the 14 year old you. Yeah. I want you to tell that 14 year old right now. What they can do and what would be the path that knowing all that you know now, if you really want to be an aviation and you have don't have a family with uh, uh, economic, you know, big economic means, you know, um, struggle for money, like, like pretty much all of us have a do or have done in our lives. And and then secondly, you don't have a family that, you know, hey, my uncle is a pilot. You know, there's most people that start in aviation don't have they're just like you. They don't have people that they know in aviation. So how what's step one and what advice would you give them right 

Speaker 1

[00.47.43]

 now. Yeah. So I, I would say step one would be go to the airport. If there is an airport, which there most likely is. Right. There are airports in every small town just about. Yeah. Uh, 

Speaker 2

[00.47.54]

 that's a great advice. First 

Speaker 1

[00.47.55]

 step is go out to the airport and say hello. Go shake a hand with somebody and just introduce yourself. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there and just go talk to some people. If I looking back, if I had done that, if I had shown up to the airport at 14, 15, 16 years old. There would have been people that would have been willing to say, hey, hop in, let's go for a ride. Right? Right? Or hey, are you looking for a job? We need somebody to fuel the airplanes, right? I just I just didn't know that. So, number one, go to the airport, wherever you are, and just go say hello to somebody. Great. Love that. The second thing I think that would be important is ask them at the airport if they have any programs for kids. Um, here in Susanville, every, uh, the first weekend of June, every year, we have our airfare. It's not an air show. There's not a lot of flying and stuff going on, but it's an airfare where everybody pulls airplanes out of the hangars. They have them as a static display out on the ramp. And we have, you know, there's one hangar that a guy has a flight simulator set up in, and there's another hangar that has a craft booth going on and all sorts of stuff. Right. If there are activities or programs like that at your airport, go and attend them. Right. Go to the airfare. The second weekend of June every year, we hold what's called the Young Eagles program. That's for kids that are ages 8 to 18. They can come out. They could do it every single year from 8 to 18. They could do this for ten years. They get to go up with a local pilot for a free flight, and then after that they get access to, uh, sporty's, which is an online ground school. They get access to that for free. It's like a $250 program. If you go buy it, they get access to it 100% free just by coming out and being a part of this Young Eagles program here in Susanville. It happens once a year. Some places they do it once a quarter, once a month even I've heard of, you know, so you can go up with somebody that's from your local area and go fly your first flight for free, or ten flights for free, right? If you do it once a year. Right. So get involved, go out to the airport, say hello. Ask them if they have something that you can get involved in. Um, that's where that's where I'm at right now, is I'm trying to let our community know that there are opportunities to come out to the airport and to to learn. Right. And the coolest thing about aviation is that you don't have to just be a pilot. You don't have to just fly. Yeah. Right. I think I think when I was young, I looked at I had watched Top Gun. Right. And then there was that movie The Guardian. I don't know if you ever saw that. It's like the Coast Guard version of Top Gun. Oh, it's so it's so good. 

Speaker 2

[00.50.43]

 It's a good trip. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.50.44]

 Uh. I don't remember where I was going with that. I had seen those movies. We were talking 

Speaker 2

[00.50.52]

 about pilot, and pilot is the only. Yes. Yeah. I thought that was like the only thing, but. But in aviation, right. We've got mechanics, we've got engineers, we've got air traffic controllers. There are people that design airplanes. There are people that design and use mathematical equations to create instrument approaches to safely get people in. We have meteorologists, we have business managers. We have all of the things. Right. Aviation is such a huge industry that you don't have to just be a pilot. Yeah. If there's if there's something that you like to do, say, say that you grew up working on the ranch with your dad and you like working on stuff. We have a major shortage in the United States of aircraft mechanics. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.51.38]

 We cannot find enough people to come and work on these airplanes. 

Speaker 2

[00.51.42]

 Yeah. Right. True. And there's tremendous opportunities in that. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[00.51.46]

 And tons of opportunity 

Speaker 2

[00.51.47]

 for rewarding because you get to work on something. And then when you sign it off, you it's a it's you saying that plane is 100% air worthy. Right. And my stamp of approval is on it. And it's a really, really important job because it's it's keeping, you know, the technology of a lot of these airplanes is, you know, 40, 50 year old technology or more, right? And it's amazing how well they're maintained. People don't understand. They just think, you know, we used to own a 1950 818 Cessna, 182 straight tail. Okay. Yep. Incredible airplane. Um, it was like a 1958. I'm not going up in that thing. I'm like, are you kidding me? It's been in the same hangar maintained by the same mechanic for 33 years. There's probably not a safer thing to get in than this airplane, because that that mechanic has loved this airplane, and people don't understand how much attention to detail goes into these annuals. The planes have to go from every single year and they have to be signed off. That guy is putting his guy or gals put in their license on the line that they say that plane is safe and flight worthy, and a lot of people don't understand the responsibility. There's no car mechanics that are doing that right now, I promise you. So, uh, that's that's a great point that you brought 

Speaker 1

[00.53.08]

 up. Yeah. So I just, you know, if I, if I were to go back and and talk to myself at 14, I would say go to the airport, I'd say get involved in some kind of a program that they have. Almost every airport's going to have something or at least be able to tell you an airport that does have something. Right? 

Speaker 2

[00.53.25]

 Right. Um. There are really cool programs through the Civil Air Patrol, like in Reno, and I think in Redding, there are Civil Air Patrol units where high school kids can work on getting their license, and they can be observers and they can do these different things, right? I mean, there are so many different things out there. Um, and then the other side of aviation now that's that's becoming bigger and bigger is the drone side, right? Uh, for kids, for kids nowadays that maybe grew up playing a lot of video games, I did not myself. But, uh, flying a drone would be extremely natural. Yes, yes. And and drones are used across almost every industry at this point. You know, we have drones that are used in law enforcement, in first responders, right? And all those different things. Forestry. Uh, you guys use drones in your business for taking pictures or doing surveys or different things like that. I have a friend who he got into flying drones as a police officer down in Texas. Uh, his, his department wanted to create a drone program, and he signed on. He was like, yeah, I really want to do this. So he ran their drone program. Then a large oil and gas company came to him and said, hey, we want to inspect all these pipelines using these drones. Can you come run this for us? So he left his job as a police officer and went and ran that. He did that for a couple of years, and now he's running his own very large drone business, um, flying really nice equipment, doing tons of work, both in the vertical world for inspections, uh, doing solar stuff. He's getting into spraying agricultural fields with drones. I mean, there's there's endless possibilities right now is 

Speaker 1

[00.55.14]

 in both the fixed wing world airplanes, the rotor world, which is helicopters and the drone world. Right. Just tons of opportunity. That's 

Speaker 2

[00.55.24]

 incredible. Yeah, I'm really glad you brought that up because, uh, uh, drones are just blowing up everywhere, and and. Yeah, maybe it's hard for young people to really think about, you know, I'm going to be a pilot of an airplane, but every single one of them can get behind the thought of flying a drone. Right? Uh, step one as 

Speaker 1

[00.55.41]

 a minimum. So. Yeah. That's amazing. Good. Good catch there. Okay, so, hey, I see we're getting closer to our kind of wrap up time. So, um, as you know, this is kind of this is the North State Rocks podcast, right? So, you know, one of the things that we obviously were fired up about aviation in Northeastern California, and we talked a lot about that, but so kind of talk me through a few things that, um, you love about where we live. So you you grew up in Gardnerville, which is, which is also a beautiful area. You've got the Lake Tahoe backdrop right 

Speaker 2

[00.56.16]

 behind you, right? Um, just a beautiful scenic view. So, you know the beauty of this area, um, you've seen that. You've seen this area. Um, what do you guys do? Um, you know, when friends come into town to to show them and be proud of our community. Talk them through that a little bit. Yeah. So. So, you know, you brought up Tahoe. So I grew up mountain biking and road cycling. I did triathlons in high school, that kind of stuff. And the area that I grew up in was awesome, but it was also completely overrun with people. Yeah, right. So if you want to go mountain bike up at Tahoe, you're going to you're going to interact with a lot of people on the trails, right? In Susanville Ranch Park, we have trails that are pretty much equivalent to Lake Tahoe status. And you might see one other person the whole time. I love the fact that I can go out with my dog. I can have him off leash, and we can go for miles and miles and miles and be completely uninterrupted and just have nature. And the beauty of it all to myself now. That's amazing. That's that's selfish a little bit. 

Speaker 1

[00.57.22]

 But yeah, that's one of the great things about this 

Speaker 2

[00.57.25]

 that you're sharing it. You're sharing it. So yes, 

Speaker 1

[00.57.27]

 yes. Come out and ride. You know so so our family loves to get outside. We love to hike. We love to bike. We love to go to the lakes. Right. So all of those natural, beautiful things that we have here are one of the huge reasons that we love this area. Yeah. The second thing that we really like about this area is that yes, we have actual family, right? My wife was born and raised here, so she has siblings that still live here. But. I can't ever go to the grocery store and not run into somebody that I know, and I love that I love. Again, it goes back to my people, person, personality. I absolutely love running into people at the grocery store or online, at the bank, or at the gas station and getting to talk to them and catch up and, and be able to see how their family is doing or what's new in their life. So that's something that I completely love about this area. I know that that's true for where you guys live. It's true here in Susanville. You could go to Alturas, you could go to any of these places and run into people that you know, and they're so kind. Yeah. You know, most of the people that I have ever interacted with in these small towns are genuine, kind, just great people. And I love that. I love living somewhere where people are good. 

Speaker 2

[00.58.49]

 Yeah, I, I couldn't say that better. Um, and I echo that. I just, uh, we are so blessed. And, you know, we talked about it on a couple other podcasts, but just. And then that whole you have a, you have a much bigger network that's protecting and watching out for your kids, your family, for your business, for your, your, your friends. Um, it's just, uh, I don't know, this rural northeastern California is special. Uh, right. I don't feel like there's. My wife and I have traveled quite a bit. And every time we come home, I'm like, man, why did we leave? This is. Yeah. It's so, so beautiful here. People are so kind. And, uh. Yeah, we're just very blessed to live here. So. So thank you. So is there anything that we haven't covered that you think is important that we cover? Egypt. You know, I would just I think I think something that I learned and it took me a long time to learn this. I had heard it as a kid, and I hear people tell this to other people. But when you're looking to figure out what you want to do. Right. And I'm talking to people that are maybe in high school, uh, maybe in their early 20s, all the way through their 30s, if, you know, if possible. Uh. If you're not doing something that you really enjoy, maybe you should make a change. Or maybe you should find something that you really do enjoy and spend a lot of effort and a lot of time going towards it. Right, right. I spent I talked about, you know, I am grateful for the ten years that I spent doing other things. Yeah, because I learned a lot. But I always knew in the back of my mind what I wanted to do. Yeah. 

Speaker 1

[01.00.32]

 And I just invite people to go after it. Right. Like there. I don't know if you've ever heard the song. There's a song called Burn the Ships, and it's kind of a Christian song, and. And there's a story that goes along with it. Right? But the whole idea is like, hey, I'm, I'm coming to this place and I can't return because I'm going to burn these ships, right? 

Speaker 2

[01.00.53]

 I burn the ships. 100%. 

Speaker 1

[01.00.55]

 Yeah, I think I think that is wildly important. And I think the younger that you can realize that the the more opportunity that's going to, that's going to come your way. Right. Dive in. Find something that you love. And I understand, like, not everyone has a passion that they can turn into a full time job. But find a way to be able to have that passion be a huge part of your life, right? Whether that's just a hobby or whether that's just, you know, something, even if it's not your job, make it a big priority in your life because you're going to be so much happier. 

Speaker 2

[01.01.29]

 Yeah, and I'm going to tag on to that. So and I have a slightly different perspective, but I want to share it. So. Sure. One thing, you know, we put a lot of pressure on seniors in school. Like, you know, where are you going to college or where are you going to work? Where are you? What trade school are you going to? What? You know, what is your plan? And I remember being a senior. And the only thing I knew for certain as a senior in high school, absolute certainty, is that I would not be in construction. There's one thing I knew for sure. I'd seen my dad just absolutely kill himself. And he loved it. He ate. Breathe, slept. It just. It was his hobby. It was his passion. It was. It was. It was everything to him. Sure. And I was like, I could. I could never be him. I, I just, I just don't see a place. And he he'd go to work. You know, one of these guys that's at work at 4 a.m., 430 in the morning, get home at 8:00 at night. And I just I remember thinking, man, I want to have a bit more of a life than that. You know, all this stuff. And so, anyway, uh, fast forward to, you know, I'm trying to. I was an egg to begin with, and then I was in civil engineering for a while, and, uh, and then what I realized is, uh, I wasn't good at any of those things. Okay? I wasn't good an egg. I wasn't good in civil engineering. Uh, and I was just, you know, I don't know, kind of just checking the boxes, uh, phoning it in, I guess. And. And then got exposed to the construction management program at my, my college and, uh, talking to some of the students that were in that and took a couple classes and I was like, wow, this is so easy for me. It's, uh, when it's been around you and been around your family your whole life, there's just, uh, just how quickly you didn't realize how much you just soaked up being part of it. And then, so what I'm telling kids now is, is passion is important. And if you're lucky and you're BJ and you can align your passion with a skill set, obviously that's that's number one if you're not lucky in that. Find something that you're really, really good at, and then passion builds from that because you're good at it. And so for example, the example I use, I can't hold the tune in a bucket. I have no musical talent whatsoever. Uh, if I wanted to be a singer in Nashville, it doesn't matter how much passion or how much time into it, I could promise you, it's never 

Speaker 1

[01.04.01]

 going to work out for me. Never. 

Speaker 2

[01.04.02]

 Right. And I think one of the things that we mistakenly tell kids is follow your passion, which, again, if you're lucky and you have a passion that aligns with talent, obviously there isn't anything better than that. But I think sometimes we give up too early, not realizing that, man, I'm really naturally good at this and let me pursue that because I, you know, call it, uh, God whispering to you, you know, or call it, uh, you know, whatever you want to call it. But I think we need to listen to those whispers a lot more. And then when you're good at something, you start to build passion for it. And that's how I love my job. Now. I can't imagine doing anything other than construction. And I'm just so blessed that I. And also realizing you don't have to be whoever it is that you've put on a mantle. You know, it's like they have it all figured out. You can be you and still be in that business. And so anyway, I think that's an important message for kids, too. But, uh, man, BJ, I'm excited to meet your wife. I'd like to meet your kids at some point, so. Yes. Make that happen sometime. And, uh, I'm really grateful. Thank you for being on the podcast with us. Uh, I could talk airplanes and aviation with you all day. 

Speaker 1

[01.05.18]

 Oh, I know we we we would bore people to death, so we should 

Speaker 2

[01.05.22]

 probably stop. I think we did a good job of kind of showing the pathways and. Right. And so we're going to we're going to get off with you telling me I got last question. Give me your, like, top dream airplanes that you've gotten to fly or that you really want to fly. Just, uh, let's kind of finish with the aviation theme here. 

Speaker 1

[01.05.41]

 Yeah. So so, uh. Man. A dream airplane I have. I have so many dream airplanes, it's hard to pick something. I think something of the right. We always want to fly something bigger and faster. Uh, and so, I mean, right now it would probably be something like a PC 12. I know that's kind of something that you really want to fly. I was talking to Travis. Right? He really wants to fly one. I think that would be really cool. Yeah. Um, I think the perfect airplane for my family would be a Cessna 208 caravan, because we have. 

Speaker 2

[01.06.19]

 A ton of weight to fit everything in there. We bring 

Speaker 1

[01.06.22]

 all the bags, all the people, and just go somewhere. They're not. They're not fast. Uh, but we could haul a lot of 

Speaker 2

[01.06.28]

 stuff. You can take your whole family and everything in your house with you. Yes. That's right, that's 

Speaker 1

[01.06.32]

 right. If it fits, it goes so amazing. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I have a lot of different dreams of flying, different things, but I think realistically, you know, something, something like a PC 12 would be would be awesome. 

Speaker 2

[01.06.46]

 Yeah. So he's talking about Pilatus PC 12, which is a it's a turboprop. So it's got a 1200 shaft horsepower jet engines turning a prop? Yep. Very much like the Cessna 208 he's talking about. It's also a turboprop that can pack a lot of weight, but it has retractable gear. And then. So it can take off with an incredible amount of weight. Has this big, huge barn door that called a barn door that will take like a whole crate, a whole pallet, right? A whole pallet to go in the airplane, which is amazing, right? And yet it'll seat around ten people depending on how they're configured. 9 to 10 people. And, uh, yeah, but they're spendy and, uh, 

Speaker 1

[01.07.25]

 yeah, they're very handy. I've thought about flying for an aeromedical company, um, because they fly a PC 12 all the time. They do? Because of that door that you were talking about, right? They can load people very easily in and out of that for for medical stuff. Um, and we won't get into all that, but, uh, I don't feel like commuting anywhere that that I would be flying for that job, but the airplane is really tempting. Yeah, absolutely. Great guests. Thank you so much for joining us. It was awesome having you on. Thanks for having us. All right. Have a good day. Hey. You too.

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