Flying High with Charlie Gasmire: Lessons from the Cockpit and Beyond

Join us as we soar into the world of aviation with Charlie Gasmire, the brain behind Airplane Academy. With a family legacy of aviators, Charlie’s journey from a young boy inspired by his grandfather and father to a successful pilot and entrepreneur is nothing short of inspiring. In this episode, we dive deep into Charlie's experiences, discussing the ups and downs of becoming a pilot, the importance of mentorship, and the entrepreneurial spirit that drives him to create valuable content for aspiring aviators.

Charlie shares his insights on what it takes to own an aircraft, the process of buying a 182, and the joys and challenges of flying with family. From the thrill of soloing on his 16th birthday to the practicalities of aviation ownership, Charlie's story is a testament to the dedication and passion required in this field. We also touch on the importance of creating community and encouraging others to pursue their dreams of flying, making this episode a must-listen for anyone with a passion for aviation.

Whether you’re a seasoned pilot or just starting out, Charlie's experiences and advice provide a wealth of knowledge and encouragement. Tune in to discover how you can embark on your own aviation journey and perhaps find your own place in the skies.

Takeaways:

• Becoming a pilot is a journey filled with adventure, and it's essential to embrace the process, taking actionable steps towards your dream, just as Charlie did from a young age.
• Owning a plane like the Cessna 182 provides flexibility and freedom, allowing spontaneous trips and memorable family adventures, reinforcing the joy of aviation.
• The transition from renting to ownership comes with unique financial realities, where the unexpected costs can be daunting, but the rewards of flying make it worthwhile.
• Charlie emphasizes the importance of sharing mistakes in aviation to help others learn, showcasing the value of community and support among pilots.
• Airplane Academy is not just a business; it's a passion project aimed at inspiring others to pursue their aviation dreams, emphasizing that anyone can become a pilot.
• Having a mission, whether it's flying for fun or taking friends up, helps maintain enthusiasm for flying, even when busy schedules try to hold you back.

Episode 338 of the pilot to Pilot Podcast takes off Now.

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My name is Charlie Gastmire, I'm a commercially licensed pilot and aircraft owner here in Dallas, Texas and I host a YouTube channel called Airplane Academy where I share the lessons I've learned along the way.

AV Nation, what is going on?

And welcome back to the Pilot the Pilot Podcast.

My name is Justin Seams and I am your host.

Today's episode is with Charlie from Airplane Academy.

What a great domain.

We talk about how he just randomly googled is like what's available and he found this one and here we are.

Charlie who I have been following for a little bit now, he has some great content.

He talks about mistakes, he talks about things that he wished he would have done differently so you have the opportunity to learn from them.

We have great talk about entrepreneurship, we have a great talk about businesses, we have a great talk about 182 is buying airplanes, aviation, all the things.

I think this is a great episode and very impactful.

Charlie makes some really cool flashcards.

If you are in training or if you just want some aviation flashcards to help study for, pick them up, read them, learn some more.

Go check out his website, we'll have links down below so you can go check those out.

If you enjoy this podcast.

Like I said the last couple of days, really, really, really pushing for a thousand comments on Spotify and on itunes.

So if you haven't left a review, please go do so.

Let me know what you like about the podcast.

We're also pushing for 4,000 total subscribers.

I know it's a little bit of different goals there as well, but just starting to get into the YouTube game and would love to get more people listening on YouTube and watching on YouTube.

So if you're a YouTube podcaster, then go ahead, check out Pilot to Pilot on a podcast and on YouTube and just hit subscribe.

AV Nation.

I hope you're having a great day and I really hope you're going to enjoy this podcast and I know you will.

Without any further ado, here is Charlie from Airplane Academy.

Charlie, what's going on, man?

Welcome to the Pilot, the Pilot podcast.

So good to be here, Justin.

I'm a fan of your show, so it's great to join.

Thanks.

Yeah, dude, it's awesome to have you on.

I do want to tell you that just looking at you, the very first thing I see is Chris Palmer.

Has anyone ever told you that before?

Have you gotten that?

Are you the lower 48 Chris Palmer?

I've had several people have full email conversations with me that then they realize at the end, oh, you're not Chris.

I'm so sorry to let you down, but I'm a big fan of his too, so it's an honor to be mixed up with.

Yeah, it must be the beard.

I think it's a beard.

You know, Chris is growing out his beard.

You know, maybe he's trying to look like you, if anything.

And you guys had a meetup together, right?

We did.

I thought maybe like, for the.

For the people that came.

I thought if you can just see a side by side, you'll see like the subtle differences, you know, and those people, you know, won't be confused anymore.

How'd that go?

Did that play out well for you or like identical twins?

Yeah, yeah.

I don't.

I don't know if we resolved it for everyone, but if you look closely enough, you can tell us apart.

I love it, dude.

Well, like we talked earlier before, also, huge fan of your content.

It's.

It's really cool to see one.

It's like super hard to grow on YouTube and you have managed to do that.

So I look forward to talking about kind of the business side of what you've been doing, what you've been doing to be successful, how long you've been going after it.

We can get into that a little bit later because at the beginning, I really kind of want to focus on you and your, your just overall reason of why you're a pilot.

So why don't you go ahead and tell me why did you want to become a pilot in the first place?

Yeah, so I am lucky to be a third generation pilot.

So my dad's dad was a pilot just recreationally, you know, logistically, kind of for fun.

And then my dad was and is a pilot.

And so I grew up just with aviation being normal.

My dad was taking a little bit of time off of aviation while I was real young.

But I grew up just listening to his stories.

Like my bedtime stories were him talking about when he got stranded in a Cherokee in this random town he'd never heard of and stuff.

And I always just thought like that is the American dream to hop in your airplane with your kids in the back and just end up somewhere and navigate weather and you don't know where you're going to be for the night.

Like I just thought there was something, I mean even when I was little, I just thought there was something so adventurous and romantic about that.

I knew I wanted to do it.

And when I was like 14, I got to start taking flight lessons.

And my dad was a good friend with a guy high up in Southwest who got us into the training simulators in the 737.

And that absolutely blew my mind.

So much so that like in middle school when you get your first locker, you know, most, most kids are, you know, putting bikini models and stuff like pictures of that in their lockers or whatever.

Ask Jeeves at the time.

I've like pictures of 737 cockpits and I would print them out on our, on our printer and then I'd like taped them up in my locker.

Everyone thought I was so weird, but I was like, I'm going to be a pilot one day and if I just, I've just always been just so in love did flight sim as I was, you know, when I little, when I was little and as so many pilots I know on your show can, can attest to like flight simming, just like really help them get bit by the bug and stuff.

So I've always just been enamored with it.

And I got to start when I was 14 years old, which I was really grateful that my parents were supportive of that and enabled that.

And I've been flying ever since.

Yeah, similar ish kind of story.

I never knew I wanted to be a pilot.

But I'm also a third generation pilot.

My grandpa was an airline pilot.

My dad was an airline pilot.

Excuse me, My dad was an airline pilot and one day he called me up, I think I was 18, getting ready to go to college, getting ready to play football.

And he called me up, he's like, hey, I had the late Sims.

They finished up.

Can you come tomorrow at like 1am and you can come fly the 737?

And I was like, cool.

I mean, why not?

Like, yeah, I got nothing else to do.

And I did it.

And I was like, oh, wow, I could actually do this.

And I was like, I mean, they, you know how they always like, oh, you can fly better than the person that we train, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff.

And it's like, I believed it.

I was like, oh man, maybe, maybe this is an opportunity.

And then a couple years later, when I finally realized, hey, football, maybe not might not be my thing anymore, I was like, I remember flying and I was okay at it, so let me go do it.

Took a flight and I was like, all right, cool.

This is my career now.

I'm doing this.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like if you, if you have the bug, you have the bug.

And I meet so many people all the time.

They're like, they're in their 60s and they say, hey, I've wanted to do this since I was 12 and just now doing it.

But you can tell how pumped they are to like finally go for it.

It's like if you know, you know.

Absolutely.

And with this dream of yours, was this a I want to be a 737 pilot for Southwest or was it just I want to be a pilot in general?

Yeah, it was a little bit of both.

I mean, in my, you know, as best as I could tell, when I was 14, I thought I wanted to be a Southwest pilot.

But as I got older and went through high school and went to college, like, I really also fell in love with business.

Like, I've always just, I was starting lemonade stands and had a little shoe shining business that was pretty lucrative for like an 8 year old.

Oh really?

Which is fun.

So that' that's a good one for real young listeners.

But I've always loved business and so I studied that in college and like, I just, I didn't, I didn't want to go full airlines.

Like, I loved business a ton and started starting businesses in college and stuff.

And so, yeah, like, there's definitely a part of me that still would love to go to the airlines.

Like, I'd love to fly a jet.

Of course I'd love to fly a jet.

But I have a lot of interest, other interests too, namely like business and startups and Internet marketing and stuff.

And so I feel like it's been a really cool thing.

I think God has enabled me to just a really cool opportunity to combine a lot of the things I'm passionate about between aviation and encouraging other people and Internet marketing and entrepreneurship.

Like, I'm getting to do all of that at Airplane Academy.

So I'm super grateful to do that.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, there's, as I've talked about in all the episodes I've done, there is just a path for anyone in aviation.

Whether you're doing it recreationally, whether you're doing it for fun, whether you're doing it for career.

And a career could mean what you're doing.

A career can mean being a CFI.

A career could mean going to a 121 or 135 and flying your whole career.

There is, is a very much encompassing factor of aviation jobs that you can do.

And it doesn't have to be flying for Southwest, doesn't have to be flying the airline.

So it's really cool to talk with people that have an interest.

Like we all have the same interest, right?

We're all interested in aviation, but we may be able to make money off it or make a living off it.

A little bit different.

Yeah, I mean, it's a big world and it's the American dream, you know, and it's broader than just the American dream.

But you know, we're here in America, so like to celebrate that.

But yeah, there's tons of ways to do it.

And if you love flying, there's.

There's always a way to find a way to, to do that.

Yeah.

So tell me about 14 year old, you know, you're hanging up pictures of a 737 in your locker.

You're walking around telling people, I want to be a pilot.

Now there needs to be actionable steps rather than just saying, because as you talked about, someone in their 60s like, Man, I've always wanted to be a pilot, but they've never taken the steps to do it.

So what steps did you take to go do that?

Yeah, so about that time, my dad bought a Super Cub and I started training in that.

They had some land that they were developing down in the Texas hill country.

And so whenever we would go down there for the summer or during holidays and stuff, we met a really good flying community down there.

And I had such a great mentor, guy named Bob Snowden, and he's one of my favorite people in the whole world.

And he taught me to fly.

And he would come, you know, fly down the Runway at the ranch and stuff and my dad would wake me up and say, hey, your ride's here.

You're gonna go for an hour lesson.

And I would take lessons with Bob in the Super Cub.

And I was so, so bad at it.

Like I was so bad at flying a Super Cub, but it was, it was a lot of airplane to handle, you know, for anybody who's new, but particularly 14 year old Charlie, like, I had no clue what I was doing but like lesson by lesson, you know, started getting better and stuff.

And so I was learning in the Super Cub and then, and then my parents were just so generous towards me and allowed me to take lessons at Addison Airport.

I'm based here in Dallas, so I was learning under the class B, which is stressful place to learn, but so glad I did because then, you know, you're really not afraid to fly anywhere because you've been in the thick of it.

Yeah.

And so I was learning in a 172 there at American Flyers.

And so I was kind of doing like 172 lessons here and there.

And then whenever we were down in the hill country, I was flying the Super Cub.

So I was real confused, like, am I a nose dragger or a tail dragger?

But it was great training and did all that and ended up soloing on my 16th birthday.

And it was really funny the way that it worked out because my birthday fell on a Sunday and so the DMV wasn't open to get my driver's license that day.

So my parents drove me to the airport and I soloed the 172.

And then the next day they drove me to the DMV and I got my driver's license.

So technically I legally flew by myself before I legally drove by myself, which is a funny way that it worked out.

And then I got my, my, my private certificate a little bit after I turned 17.

Got it.

And then what was the plan after that?

Was it kind of I'm going to go to college, I'm going to see what I want to do, I'm going to go to aviation college.

Me through your next thought process there.

Yeah, like I mentioned, I really fell in love with entrepreneurship.

My dad's been a long time healthcare entrepreneur and so I was watching him start and run businesses and I started a barbecue sauce business.

When I was 18 or 19 and it failed spectacularly.

Sauce, Big bear barbecue sauce.

But I learned a ton.

And I was just so enamored with, like, how do you take an idea and bring it to life and make money doing it?

My mind just felt equally blown by entrepreneurship as it was with aviation.

And I loved both of them.

And so I really wanted to go to college and study business.

And so the plan for, you know, for flying, I didn't fly a ton during that.

During that time, I rented 172s a little bit whenever I had money.

But then mainly whenever I was, you know, home from college in the summers, I'd fly the Super Cub.

And I was always really nervous at first because I hadn't flown it in a little while and stuff, but that's kind of how I.

How I stayed active while I was at school and things.

And then.

But we can get to that.

But, yeah, I mean, it's not a.

It wasn't like a perfect path to, hey, I learned.

And then I was always current and it was always easy, and it was always affordable.

It's like, no, I went through all these ups and downs of I didn't fly for six months or a year or whatever because I couldn't afford it, or I didn't have access to an airplane or whatever.

And you just do the best you can to try to, you know, try to stay involved in it and stuff.

And then once I bought my own airplane, you know, that's when I had a lot more, obviously consistent access to be able to fly whenever I wanted.

But up until that point, I mean, it was definitely bumpy.

Pardon the.

Yeah.

What school did you end up going to?

Went to Baylor.

Okay, nice.

And Baylor has an aviation department, don't they?

A pretty big aviation school.

They do, yeah.

It's.

It's grown a ton.

And I.

For whatever reason, I don't know, maybe I was just naive or something, like I should have had some sort of aviation minor at least or something, or been involved in the aviation club.

And I was just so involved in other things and in the business school, and I was starting businesses and staying up most of the night trying to start businesses, and I was just so in love and, like, just kind of captivated by that.

That's what I was spending most of my time on.

But little did I know I could have been pretty involved in aviation at that point.

And.

And I wasn't.

Could have been a Southwest captain by now.

You never know.

Right?

I could have been your whole life.

Yeah, I could have.

Could have got that cockpit I was always in.

Yeah.

Right.

So you've mentioned a lot about.

You love business.

I've started a ton of.

Ton of businesses.

How many businesses would you say you've had your hand in or try to start?

Yeah, I mean, probably like 10 or 12.

I mean, and some of those have just been pure, pure experiments.

Like, hey, let's, let's do this thing and see if we can get it to a couple thousand dollars in revenue or something.

Some things we started and then just never could find customers for.

And then others have done a lot better than that and stuff.

So it's all kind of varying degrees.

But I would say, like, in terms of businesses that really started and actually got traction and stuff, I've been involved in three ones that like, actually kind of went somewhere.

And the others have been.

Have been experiments.

They're all experiments at the end of the day.

But yeah, it's good fun.

What would you say is.

So I'm gonna ask you a question, and you obviously ask your question at the podcast.

Right, but what would you say?

You have to answer it.

It is one business that maybe has been either the best for you or profitable wise, whatever you kind of would label as the best.

And the other one that's been like the one you learned the most from and that didn't work out.

Yeah, start with the one that didn't work out is probably.

Well, I could choose several that didn't work out.

I'll choose a more entertaining one.

In college, I took a class where we got a few thousand dollars to start a business and try to make it profitable in a semester.

And my friends and I teamed up and we thought, we thought we could drive leads in the wedding industry.

We thought, hey, a bride.

And all of us are single dudes.

In college, like, well, brides need, you know, a cake and flowers and a deejay.

I was like, if we can just help pair together brides, and all these people will make a ton of money.

So my friends and I, we started this business called my Wedding Connector.

And I can't believe I'm even talking about this on this podcast, but the short version is we went to these wedding conventions and we were trying to sign up these vendors and we threw a launch party and it, like, at this wine bar and invited all these people and, like, two people showed up and like, the business Just never went anywhere because we were three single dudes in college that.

That knew nothing about.

About weddings.

And so that was a great example of just like, not knowing your customer, not understanding, like, the pain point you were trying to solve.

But we tried.

I think I still got an A in the class, but it failed spectacularly.

Yeah, an A for effort.

Right.

But I'd say, like, the best one.

Just.

Just in terms of.

Of.

Of.

I mean, kind of what I'm doing now is Airplane Academy.

I think Airplane Academy is the first business, and it started as a YouTube channel and a blog, and now I sell my own flashcards and I'm working on some other products and things.

But I'd say Airplane Academy is the first business where I have been my own customer.

Like, you hear a lot of these stories on Shark Tank or whatever, and it's people that are solving their own problems.

I got tired of mowing the lawn this way or my hose wouldn't connect the right way.

So I just built something that fixed it and I found out my neighbor needed it too.

And here we are in Shark Tank.

And that's kind of like, not that I'm going to be on Shark Tank or something, but like, oh, you have.

To now, but we're speaking.

But that's kind of been the path with Airplane Academy.

It's like, okay, let me try to build things that solve my own problem.

So it started with content of like, hey, I don't see people writing articles.

This is years ago, but I didn't see people writing articles to address really basic questions of pilot training.

So I spent a long time writing like, dozens and dozens of articles to see if I could rank them to try to help people.

And then I.

Then I started making videos of like, hey, a lot of people are doing the fly with me stuff, which is great.

I'm a big fan of all that.

But I don't really hear a lot of people just kind of sitting there sharing all the mistakes they've made.

And I'm like, well, I've made a lot of mistakes, so why don't I sit here and share my mistakes and maybe it can help somebody, because that's what I need.

And then, same thing with the flashcards of, like, well, like, keeping all of this stuff in your mind for years and decades is really hard.

You have to be fluent in a new language.

And, you know, it's been really difficult to do that.

And so I was like, well, what if I take a while to build my own flashcards the way that I Want to use them and make them really high quality.

Maybe it can help other people.

So I think, like, I didn't start Airplane Academy to try to become someone or be an influencer, although I think the channel and the brand have grown now to have influence.

But I'm not trying to be somebody.

I'm literally just trying to, like, help more people get interested in aviation and solve the problems either through content or through products, like, the problems that I myself have experienced or are experiencing.

So that's been a really, really fun, you know, business and thing to work on, just because I'm.

I'm.

I am my own customer.

Yeah.

When would you say, you know, like, everyone kind of has the moment where they realize, like, you know, whether they made it, we can talk about doing content.

You know, all of a sudden you're like, oh, wow, I have 100,000 subscribers on YouTube or as a pilot.

You're like, wow, I finally made it to the regionals.

I finally made it to the majors.

Like, I finally made it.

And what was your kind of, like, moment where you realized you were building something?

That, one, I mean, maybe not the most important thing you talked about, but, like, I can profit off of, and two, I can actually have the influence and help people the way that, like, you said that I would want when I was going through that.

It's a good question.

I. I don't think I've ever really had a moment of arrival.

There's been little moments that feel really validating, like, even getting to talk to you on your podcast, and you have a great show, and I feel very humbled to be here.

Like, it.

It.

I just thought for a moment before we started recording, I was like, this is.

This is.

This is very rewarding for me, and I'm grateful for it.

Appreciate it.

But, like, to me, I've always been the same person, just sitting in my office or sitting my airplane flying.

Like, I haven't really changed, but the brand has grown, the channel has grown and stuff.

And so, like, if I'm being totally honest, like, I don't really believe it.

Like, I look down, I'm like, oh, you know, it says you got 126,000 subscribers on YouTube or something.

Like, well, I'm the same dude.

Just talking about lessons I've learned.

Like, I haven't changed here, but, like, the stats have changed or the.

The growth, you know, the.

The reach has changed and things like that.

So there's little moments of feeling like, you know, you know, you're making progress, or little mini moments of arrival.

But I really think that.

And I don't do a good job of this.

I think you, whether it's in business or in your aviation career or whatever, I think you kind of have to force yourself to stop and create that moment for yourself and enjoy it.

Be like, hey, if it's your first flight in the regionals or you're getting to go get.

Get typed in the jet, you're learning, like it's the first day of ground school, like that can be a moment of arrival.

Like, maybe you haven't, you know, flown your first, you know, real jet yet, but like, you're at training and you're sitting there like, pinch yourself and say, man, like, it would be easy to miss this moment.

Like, I'm just starting.

I'm just starting the, you know, the type training.

But like, that's a really cool moment of arrival if you'll pinch yourself and try to enjoy it.

So for me, I've had to.

I've had to kind of try to pause and reflect and realize those moments and be grateful them for them, just like I've done before we started recording.

Yeah, I think it's important because sometimes you're going to look back and you're going to miss the moment you were in.

But in that moment, you might have been thinking about, you know, I'm going to fly a jet one day.

You know, you could be.

I remember having this moment specifically flying an arrow, and I was doing my commercial training, and all of a sudden I see a Challenger taxi by, and I'm just like staring at the Challenger.

Like, man, I want to get paid to fly.

Like, when is this going to happen?

Like, it just seems so far away.

But in that moment, I kind of had this, like, I looked at my arrow and I was like, you know, I'm actually having a lot of fun flying this airplane.

I'm doing something that a lot of people can't do.

And I was like, I don't know if I'm ever going to fly ga again.

You know, you talk to captains, you talk to pilots and at airlines, not everyone is going to come back to general aviation.

So I kind of had this moment where I was like, I don't know if I'm ever going to fly an arrow again.

So I should probably smile and have a good flight today and enjoy it.

And I went up and did like Shondell's and 120° in North Carolina and was just burn, no air conditioning, you know.

But I have.

I try to have as much fun as I can.

So I think it's really cool that you have that perspective.

And I think it's really cool for everyone to kind of understand that.

Try to enjoy what's going on right now.

Try to enjoy the cool things that you're doing in your life because you're going to look back at them and you're probably going to wish you enjoyed it a little bit more than you did lately.

If I've ever felt frustrated with even like making flashcards or studying flashcards or, you know, different things that can be challenging in becoming and staying a pilot.

I really have tried to pinch myself.

I'm not perfect at this, but I've tried to pinch myself and say, just for a second, like, reflect on the fact that we live in a really unique 100 or so year span of human history where this is even possible.

Right.

Like for hundreds and thousands of years, people have looked up at the birds and said, I want to do that.

And they would never come anywhere close to living to the year where that's possible.

And now it's possible.

And so like, yeah, now I feel like we've kind of like our perspective is too small.

Like, oh man, I got to memorize weather theory.

It's like, well, you didn't have to invent it.

Someone else did the hard work of discovering it and now you just have to memorize it.

And now you get to go fly your Cessna later today.

Like, I think it's all perspective thing, you know, like to your point, it's like, well, you can be upset that you're flying the Arrow and not the Challenger, or you can be like, oh my gosh, like, I live in a free country where I get to do this and the skies are mine.

I can go fly the Arrow Even though it's 120 degrees and I'm bouncing my brains out like anyone in human history would trade places for me in an instant.

And so I try not to lose that perspective, even though it's easy to in today's age.

But I think it's important.

What other ratings do you have right now?

Did you stop at Private or are you still working on some.

Yeah, I've got my private commercial instrument, multi commercial.

I've got my private seaplane rating, just my single engine C and then my tail wheel high performance.

So I fly my182 our family super Cub.

And then our family also has a Kodiak 100 that I got checked out in a couple years ago and have 100 and something hours in it that's been my first turboprop experience, but it really is just like a big super cub.

It's amazing.

What do you use a Kodiak for?

What's that?

What do you guys use the Kodiak for?

So my dad really wanted kind of a unicorn airplane.

His average mission is like a couple hundred nautical miles, but he wanted to fly 160 plus knots.

He also wanted to be able to carry like eight or 10 people if he wanted to.

He wanted to fly a turboprop.

He wanted me to be able to get checked out in it and they wanted to be able to land on their property.

It's like, well, that's a pretty narrow bullseye and the Kodiak is probably one of the only airplanes in the world that'll do that.

And so it's just, it's one airplane that fits pretty much every mission that, that I have and my family has.

And it's just a ball to fly.

And honestly, it's a lot easier than the Cessna 182 to fly.

It's just a, it's a really well made airplane.

It's really simple and it'll do just about anything.

Yeah, I, I've got, I should probably look it up.

So similar platform, similar style airplane.

I think the Kodiak 100, it's like their, that's their smallest one, right?

Am I right?

Yeah, they've got the 100 and the 900 and the 100 is, is real comparable to a caravan.

They're just, they're built for different missions.

The Kodiak is basically the more bush cousin of a caravan.

Right.

Which is awesome.

Bush planes are awesome right now.

Right.

Like, I feel like everyone and their mom wants a bush plane and moving out to Utah to be Trent Palmer or to be Carson to do what they're doing.

So why not?

That's right.

Yeah, it's.

I mean, it's been a dream to fly.

I feel very fortunate to get to be in one and I just can't say enough good things about it.

It's amazing.

Yeah, no, that's cool.

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When did this fall in the timeline of like private instrument commercial seaplane rating Because Dallas, you know is a great place for seaplanes.

Right?

Like just talk about place for seaplane.

Yeah, right.

Talk about kind of your timeline of training.

Yeah.

So I had my private for for a long time before I got anything else.

I have to go back and look.

So a lot of people say oh commercial super easy.

It's just mostly review from your private.

That is true unless you had 16 years between your private and your commercial in which case it's like doing private all over again.

So I had a pretty big gap and a lot of it's been just based on need.

Like when I had my private I just didn't have money or the airplane to go do instrument stuff or commercial stuff and I wasn't doing it for a living so it filled my needs.

The seaplane thing was just a fun.

It was a fun vacation for me and my dad.

It was a very generous gift of his but we went to Alaska and learned to fly Super Cub on floats up there and it was still is the coolest 5.7 hours in my logbook.

I've since flown a little bit more seaplane but still don't have very much time in them.

But it's an absolute ball.

I'd love to own one one day.

And then the commercial stuff was honestly for prereq for my CFI and so I really want to work on my CFI and get CFI and double I next year.

But obviously you needed the commercial and stuff before so I got to work on that and got that knocked out, and here we are.

Yeah.

What was.

I mean, you mentioned kind of like why there was the gaps, but was it just you wanted kind of priorities were in other businesses?

Did you finally decide, like, all right, I need to be an instrument pilot?

Or was there any kind of thing more deeper to why you took either.

What was it, six years and 16 years between private and commercial and private and instrument?

Yeah, it's a good question.

My instrument.

So there was a. I'd have to go back and look at my logbook, but I took like a little bit of time off and I was.

I was working in the corporate world and I had a really good buddy that I met there at this company, and we were talking every day and I found myself telling him a lot of flying stories you just couldn't believe.

It's like, oh, you went to this place and that place, and you can get in a small airplane and go do that.

So he was just really interested in flying.

And so I'd like.

It was like a daily thing to tell him flying stories and stuff.

And.

And eventually he's asked me, he's like, dude, you talk about this all the time.

Like, why aren't you still doing it?

And I didn't have a good answer for him because at that point then I had the money to go back and fly and stuff.

And I was like, you know what?

You're right.

I'm going to do it.

And so I used getting the instrument rating as a way to just get current again and kind of get back in the system and everything.

I was like.

I worked a couple miles from the airport and I did all but one of my training flights for instrument.

I did it at night, so I just work all day.

Wasn't married at the time, didn't have kids.

And so I just.

I just go train after work, which is great.

The weather's bad and it's dark outside.

All the better.

You're training for that anyway.

So I did most of that at night, got my instrument, and then I was running planes for a little bit.

And then mainly just because I wanted to fly more and I could afford it.

I was like, it's time to buy an airplane.

I ended up getting my 182.

And then the commercial was.

Was kind of a similar thing of just.

It was kind of based on need.

I was like, I really, really want to become a flight instructor.

And that was, you know, obviously prerequisite and stuff.

And so it was just hard to, like, get around to finishing your commercial because it's not all that exciting.

I mean, it's.

It's exciting in the sense that we're blessed to fly and it's fun to fly, but it's not like there's just.

It's not like in your seaplane rating, you're like, oh, my gosh, I can't wait to go do this training.

Commercial's a little bland in the scheme of.

You know, in the scheme of things, but don't want to lose perspective on it.

So it was hard, but the point is, it was hard to prioritize.

And so eventually, like, I started it a couple times and then stopped because life got in the way.

And my wife is so much smarter than me, and she just sat me down.

She's like, look, we both need to just, like, dedicate a season to this.

And you knock it out because you've tried a few times and stopped, and you keep saying you want to do it.

Like, let's just carve it out.

You have my support.

You can study in the evenings.

We won't say yes to many things.

Just get it done.

I was like, okay.

So I finally kind of did a focused sprint, and I was flying a lot and studying a lot.

Like, that's when I was able to knock it out.

So that's my plan for how to approach CFI as well.

Have you told her that?

Have you been like, hey, we need another season of life where all I do is study?

Yeah, I think she knows it's coming.

Honestly, she's been wanting me to do it for forever, so I'm in my own way on that.

Like, no, but I got this going and this going, whatever.

So she's like, you need to do it.

Gotta love it when you got some support at home.

Right.

It makes things a little bit easier.

Yeah, I've been very, very blessed with my wife.

Good example of marrying up.

All right.

Exactly.

Yeah, I agree.

I did the same thing.

There wouldn't be a podcast on my wife.

I told that story a couple of times.

But, yeah, this.

I would still be playing video games.

I'd probably be a twitch streamer playing Call of Duty or something like that.

Talk about the 182.

I mean, anyone that's listening to my podcast for probably a while would be like, man, Justin used to always talk about wanting a 182.

The problem was I started talking about this, and prices just went through the roof.

And I just cannot justify spending, like, $250,000 on a straight tail 182.

Now, I don't think those are 250 grand.

But you kind of get my drift, right?

Super expensive to get into the 182 market.

So I would love to hear timing of when you got in.

What made you finally kind of.

Because everyone says, I want to buy an airplane one day and half the people actually do.

Not even half.

Probably one fourth of the people actually do.

So I want to hear about kind of the reasons why you actually bought it and just hear the story.

Yeah.

So I always knew I wanted to buy an airplane.

It was just a timing thing.

And I was renting one for a little while.

But then in retrospect, I look back and I talk about this on the channel.

I think it came down to three things.

It.

And I kind of think about it in terms of like, freedom, frequency, and finances.

And if at some point all three of those things lean more towards buying, then I think you've got the green light.

Like, I didn't have enough freedom.

The freedom that I wanted when renting, like, it was only available at the last second, you know, in the evening or something.

It's like I couldn't.

I couldn't plan a weekend trip even if I wanted to in a renting situation.

So I didn't have the freedom I wanted in terms of frequency.

Like, I wanted to fly enough to where owning actually would be cheap.

If I.

If I could fly as many hours as I actually wanted to, it would actually be net cheaper to own.

And so, like, the frequency kind of leaned towards now I'm flying enough that owning makes sense.

And then the finances, you know, that's going to be a little subjective for everybody, but I felt like I was in a position where it made sense.

Um, and so those three things kind of pushed me over to buying an airplane.

I had mostly 172 tied a little 182 time at that, at that point.

So I was like, do I get a 172 or A.

Some sort of Piper or something?

And my flying mentor, Bob called me and goes, look, I just really want you to trust me on this.

Buy182 if it's the only airplane you ever buy, you will never regret it.

Just like, stretch a little bit and buy more airplane than a 172.

And so I took his advice and I was like, great, let's start looking for one.

And the next day he found it.

And he goes, I'm calling you back.

I found your 182.

And he goes, and if you don't buy it, I will.

Because it was like A new engine, recently updated panel, newer paint, like all this stuff.

And it was, and it was under market priced and we did a whole pre buy, did everything.

Like there wasn't anything hidden on it.

The guy was just getting out of aviation and wanted it sold.

And so we got it.

And like a week between me deciding, okay, I'm going to buy an airplane, I want a 182.

A week later it was in the hangar.

And so it was kind of, it was kind of whiplash in that way.

But I think the Perks for the 182.

I'm a huge believer in the 182.

And just briefly, I would say that it's really not great at anything, but it is good at everything.

Okay.

I was like, that's not how you sell an airplane to someone.

We're saying it's not great at anything.

It's not.

But that's its superpower.

I really do.

I can say that with confident.

So, like, if it's not the best bush plane in the world, it's not the highest useful load, it's not the most efficient fuel burn, it's not the fastest.

But if you want to rank like economical airplanes that carry a decent amount, go decently fast, can land short, don't burn a ton of fuel, like, the 182 would probably be in your top five or at least top 10 airplanes and all of those lists.

And it's probably one of the only airplanes that would be in all of those.

You know what I mean?

And so, like, if you want something that's just going to be like a good Tahoe or like a Jeep, where you're like, it's going to be good at a little bit of everything.

It's not going to be, you know, leading in any one category, but it's going to be respectable.

Like, the 182 is your airplane.

So I figured if it was the first and last airplane I ever bought, it would allow me to do a little bit of everything.

And that has not failed me.

Do you mind if I asked what you bought it for?

Yeah, I got it for $93,000.

I know.

And, and even then, I mean, prices were a lot lower back then, but even then it was, it was under market.

But yeah, it's really unfortunate what's happened with all the pricing.

Like, I don't.

Yeah, my, my airplane has appreciated in value, but I don't win on that because one, my insurance costs have just gone up because I have to insure it for more and then two if I ever want to, like, switch it out with anything else.

Like.

Well, the replacement costs also went through the roof.

So unless I was just going to sell the airplane and never buy another one and just get out of aviation, like, nobody wins on all that appreciation.

So it's.

It's unfortunate what has happened, but I was really lucky to get mine when.

I did what you mentioned, how to upgrade a panel.

What kind of panel are we talking about?

So it's kind of partial glass.

It's still got a vacuum system things in it, but at some point, I'd love to rip all that out and, you know, go, go full Garmin glass and everything.

But it's.

It's got.

It's got a lot of what I need.

Like, there's a few things missing, but it, you know, in general, it's like, it's been a.

It's been a solid panel.

But then, like, when I'm just flying my airplane, I'm like, it's a great airplane.

It's a great panel.

I'm really.

Or you watch, like, YouTube and you see Aviation 101, and you're like, wow, I want that.

All right.

I know.

It's all.

It's all a perspective thing.

It's so sneaky, you know, Perspective.

What's the mission for you?

182.

What is.

What's, like, a flight look like?

What's.

I mean, like, a month look like with this airplane?

Kind of talk about what you guys use it for.

Yeah, you know, I take it on a few long trips a year.

Like, I just took it to Oshkosh and back, which is really fun.

I've flown it to Idaho a couple times and back.

I've flown it to Tennessee and Florida and Colorado and different places, and so I'll do that a handful of times.

But what I love about it is, like, it'll.

It'll get you to all of those places if you're willing to just sit long enough.

It's not slow by any means, but it's not a speed demon.

But it's comfortable and so it's good for those kinds of trips.

But if you want to just go do pattern work, you totally can.

And it's not that expensive.

So, like, it's, it's, you know, it's a range.

Like, I'll sometimes do those long trips.

Sometimes I'm just flying to get gas for fun.

Sometimes I'm flying a couple hundred miles.

It.

It really just depends.

Like, I have, I have a lot of my friends have kind of dispersed across Texas.

Texas is a big state, so it's not uncommon to have friends that live like a six hour drive away from you.

And so that's been really helpful that I can go get early breakfast with my friend in Austin or College Station or something and fly home and work most of the day and stuff.

So I've been able to use it, I feel like, in a pretty functional way.

Yeah, that's good.

And wife, kids, they like to fly in it.

They do.

You know, so we, our kids are 13 months apart, so we were in, like, baby phase for a while, and it was a lot.

We're very blessed.

We got a three and four year old and they love airplanes.

You know, we haven't flown a ton together, but they really love the Kodiak because they can, like, walk around in the back and spread out and stuff like that.

I wouldn't love a Kodiak.

Yeah.

But they do love flying.

I'm really, really excited for them to get a little bit older and then for me to be like, hey, the weather's great.

It's a Tuesday.

Let's fly to Arkansas and I'm gonna take y' all camping just for tonight.

We'll be back tomorrow.

We're gonna give mom the night off and I'm gonna take you camping.

And I can't wait to do that because that's not something I got to do growing up.

Like, I didn't.

My dad didn't get back into aviation until I was in, like, late middle school.

And so I didn't get the elementary school years, like, in aviation.

And so I can't wait to hopefully, hopefully give that to my kids.

Yeah, we're probably talking about, like, northwest Arkansas, like Bentonville area, I'd imagine.

Yeah, yeah, dude.

Super underrated.

Part of the country.

Like, I, when I grew up in North Carolina, I think Arkansas, I mean, I think of Arkansas football.

I do not think of Bentonville or northwest Arkansas.

I think of, like, Mississippi type stuff.

But northwest Arkansas is actually pretty sick.

Like, I mean, I, I don't Ever think I'd move there?

But if I ever found myself in a situation where I had to live there, I don't think I'd be that angry.

Like, it's like, it's kind of nice.

Arkansas is such an underrated part of the country.

Because you're right, I like you don't really associate it with like, oh, it's gorgeous and there's a lot of cool flying there.

But northern and northwestern Arkansas is a really, really great place for aviation.

Fly oz or just flyoz.com, they've done a really good job of just documenting.

They've got like this really cool helicopter with an amazing camera on it.

So they've documented all these really cool strips that you can go to and stuff up there.

So there's a lot of good flying.

And if you want to learn, you know, basic backcountry stuff, it's a great place to do it because there's some short strips if you want them.

But a lot of them, a lot of the really cool ones are still 3,000ft long.

So they're long by backcountry standards.

Yeah, they're pretty cool.

And you don't have the density, altitude in the high elevation and the terrain.

I mean, some of them have a little bit of terrain here and there.

But like the two times I've gone to Idaho, like probably one of the, maybe the coolest place in the whole country in my opinion, to fly.

But it's very intimidating and it's very unforgiving.

I think Arkansas is like a perfect warmup for that.

If you want to learn how to fly near trees and, you know, land, land short and stuff.

Like, it's, it's.

I don't know.

I'm a huge fan.

So I usually go out there a few times a year.

It's like a seven hour drive from Dallas, so I would probably never do that.

But it's like a two hour flight and a really pretty flight at that.

So it's become a really special place to me.

Yeah, absolutely.

No, it's a, it's a cool place.

I haven't been there with the current job, but my last job, we would go in and out of Bentonville and fly certain families around and do their, do their thing.

But it was cool.

Let's talk about YouTube and the 182.

Was that kind of the precursor for your channel was like, I'm buying a plane, let's document it.

Or were you doing stuff before then?

Actually, the precursor for the channel was Airplane Academy was originally a blog.

Like, it was a, you know, I talk about different businesses I've started, how they're all an experiment.

At the time, I really, really wanted to learn SEO and blogging and stuff for various reasons.

And so I wanted to pick a topic.

Like, I had started other niche websites and boating and model rockets and different things.

And I was like, this is cool, it's working, but I really want to blog about something that I really care about.

And I really care about aviation.

So I was like, I really want to start an aviation website and try to help people.

And so I was trying to think of what to name it, and I was shocked that airplaneacademy.com was available.

And I was like, well, that's perfect for a blog.

I'll do it.

And I didn't really think very.

I didn't really think very hard about it.

I was like, I really love that domain and started blogging.

And then I've always been interested in video and like making things, but I never really had anything to make a video about.

Like, I don't like in a video myself putting gas in my car or something.

It's like, there's nothing.

There's nothing there.

But I thought, well, I've got an airplane and I want to, like, help people and spread the word and stuff.

Like, maybe I can document some flying stuff.

So it's all just an experiment.

And I started and it was a.

It was a lot of videos before it really got any meaningful traction.

But I just really loved the idea of putting a video together.

Like, it was a fun project.

And I was like, I kind of know what I want to make, but I don't know what it's totally going to look like, but I want to do it to find out.

And that was kind of my motivation for.

For every project.

And I was like, and if it helps somebody in the process, then like, awesome.

And so just kind of do that.

And little by little, and it kind of grew from there.

What was the first video like?

Like, do you ever go back and watch the first video and you're like, whoa, what the heck was I doing?

It's like, no wonder why people weren't watching it.

Or was it just kind of like, ah, this is cool.

Like, I love seeing, seeing how I started.

Yeah, I haven't deleted a single video on my channel, so you can go back and look and look at all my cringy things.

It was all big experiment I mean the first things that I posted were just like I had just gotten back from Idaho and I just stuck, you know, a single camera set up, you know, looking out front of the plane.

And so I was like, well I've got some cool landings going into some of these cool places.

I'll just trim that down and post it and see what happens.

Like here's what it looks like going into Sulphur Creek or whatever.

So I did some of that and then I really wanted to do some things where I was just sharing my advice because again I was just meeting so many different people just as I got older that couldn't believe my co worker Paul who just couldn't believe that you can own an airplane and go on these adventures and stuff.

And I was like, man, I'm so grateful that I grew up where that was normal, you know what I mean?

But to most people it's not normal.

So all the lessons that I've learned, all the screw ups I've had, not to my credit but those are probably helpful to someone not because I'm a genius but because like well I've screwed up.

So if you want to know what the screw ups are, here they are so you can dodge it.

Like I've always found that content and all the business content I've ever consumed, I have always found it more valuable to hear people's mess ups than people's triumphs because triumphs are not always relatable.

It's like well good for you, I'm glad that worked out but that's not my situation, you know what I mean?

But screw ups are relatable.

I'm like oh I've done that or I can, I can know, okay, I'm going to try not to do that.

So those have always really resonated with me.

And so that's kind of been my perspective on the channel of like I don't think enough people share, share their mess ups and, and you know, I'll, I'll try to get vulnerable and share those in case it helps you.

And so that's kind of what I started doing on the channel.

Just filming, you know, here's, here's, here's my experience and stuff like that.

And yeah, the production was terrible.

I was in like a little echoey room in our house and like it was horrible like in retrospect and, and like the first video I ever had that like went you know, viral in, in you know, according to me like in my scope like the room was super echoey and I Got so many rude comments and I was like, why are people being mean to me?

This is crazy.

Just trying to help them, you know.

And then, and then as it got more traction, I was like, I probably need to like buy better microphone and buy better lighting.

And you just start to kind of level it up over the course of time.

Yep, absolutely.

Specifically about the 182 though, did you kind of post about.

Because it doesn't sound like there's many mistakes made in this purchase.

Like it almost sounds like it was just like perfect, you know, like perfect timing in the sky.

Like, hey, you need to get a 182.

Like, oh cool, yeah, I'll get a 182.

Hey, guess what?

I found you a 182.

You know, it's like, how did you kind of introduce that content into your, your channel?

Yeah, that.

You're right.

That part was definitely smooth.

And when I say sharing my screw ups is probably, I mean, I've definitely screwed up some on the ownership side, but more like here's a really dumb mistake I made in the mountains.

And not because I'm trying to get attention for it, but because like, I feel like I've healed from it and I can look at it objectively.

So I want to share it with you now so you don't make the same mistake.

Those are a lot of the videos that I reference.

But yeah, like in ownership, I've definitely shared a lot of things that, like, hey, here, here are ways that I spent way too much money in early airplane ownership and stuff.

And I've like gotten such mean comments.

Be like, can you, can you believe you did that?

I'm like, yeah, that's why I made the video.

Like, I regret doing that.

Like, come on, I'm an idiot.

I know, I'm calling myself.

I know.

Like, you don't have to rub it in.

That's the point of the video, man.

But yeah, just kind of mistakes.

And enter.

But then I've been able to also share like things that they went well and I'm like, I'm really glad it happened this way.

So I encourage you to do the same.

Like, one of the early things that enabled me to get an airplane was finding a hangar before I had the plane.

Because hangars are just so hard to find and we were able to get a hold of a hangar.

I was like, well, I don't have an airplane, but I have a hangar now, so I can go fill it with something.

And so I tell people, I'm like, you know, people will Send me, you know, a listing of like, hey, this airplane's really cool.

What do you think about it?

And I'm like, I think you might have missed the line at the very bottom that it comes with the hangar.

So I would get it, get the hangar and sell the airplane, then go buy the one you want.

Like, just trying to help people understand that.

Like, I'm really glad that's how it worked for me.

So I'd encouraging you to do the same, you know.

Yeah, I.

So I called around where I live in North Carolina and I was just like, hey, I want to be on put on the wait list for a hangar spot.

And they're like, okay, cool.

What is your tail number?

I'm like, I don't have a tail number.

I want to go on the waitlist.

Like, well, now you can't even go to the wait list without having a tail.

And it's like, holy smokes.

Like, why is it so hard to get this out?

It's like, I don't want to buy an airplane and then not have a place to put it.

Especially some of the airplanes I'm looking at.

If they're fabric, it's like, I'm not trying to have it sit outside the whole time.

So.

Yeah, I agree with you there.

If you ever see an airplane that comes with a hangar, buy it so you can have the hangar.

Like, just get it.

The hangars were 10 times more than the airplane.

You can sell the airplane.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

Having a hangar be cool, you know, having like a hang.

Like right now I'm just in a guest room, but if I could put this all by an airport, that'd be pretty sweet.

That's the goal.

Definitely.

With my airplane in the background.

Right.

Instead of this wall with a blue light on it.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, dude, that's cool, man.

Just having 182, having the ability to go do that.

I see what you want to do with your family and your kids when you go fly.

I'm thinking myself, I have a 3 year old.

If I could fly him to the beach just for the day and then we fly back, you know, it's like, hey, dude, guess what?

Don't tell anyone, but we're not going to school today.

We're gonna go to the beach, you know?

Yeah.

How often?

That'd be the best absent, like, absent excuse ever.

Like, oh, we flew to the beach.

He's like, what do you mean you flew to the beach?

Like, I got it.

That's what we do.

Yeah, I went to the beach, people.

Our family does, right?

Yeah, we fly to the beach.

Beach, yeah.

It's crazy, but people can do it.

That's what I'm trying to share on YouTube.

I'm like, a lot of people, golf is their thing or cooking is their thing or whatever.

But, like, if you want getting an airplane and flying to the beach to be your thing, like, you can do it.

It's kind of expensive, and it's going to take a lot of work, and it's, you know, you got to, like, put some effort into it, but it can be your thing.

And I think a lot of people, like, it takes them hearing that a few times before they're like, oh, wow, that could be my thing.

And I think.

I don't know.

That's just the perspective I've taken on YouTube of, like, more people need to hear that this could be your thing.

And if they believe it, then I think, like, more.

More people are going to become pilots, which is going to make it better for everybody.

So I'm real passionate about that.

Yeah, absolutely.

What would you say is one or two things that surprised you about aircraft ownership?

Maybe for the good or for the worse?

One big difference from renting was, like, the timing of expenses, and just.

You just have to be prepared for that mentally.

And what I mean by that is, like, when you rent, one of the downsides is you say, cool, I'm gonna go watch the sunset tonight.

I'm gonna take my wife or my girlfriend or whatever, and you're gonna go watch the sunset, which is great.

You have a great time.

And then when you land, you get a bill on your credit card for, like, $600.

And so you, like, side by side, you immediately compare.

Was that experience worth $600?

And sometimes you'll say yes, sometimes you'll say no.

But, like, there's a one for one comparison to it, which.

Which can be really demotivating sometimes in airplane ownership, it's the total opposite.

Like, there's some flights where my airplane was already full of fuel.

I got to go fly for a few hours, came back, never saw Bill.

The whole thing felt free somehow.

And then the opposite is also true where the airplane's in the shop for a few weeks.

You know, you got to change a cylinder or something.

Then you get a cold, and you don't.

You know, you're on this.

All this cold medicines, you can't fly.

Then the weather sucks, and you're like, I haven't flown in two months, but I have all these bills.

Like, the hangar's still getting billed, My insurance is still getting billed.

I got a shop bill.

And you're like, I didn't.

I don't have any.

Any, you know, flying to show for it, but I spent a lot of money, and you just have to be kind of prepared for that.

And for me, it's always been worth it because I'm like, those days that feel free are like, some of the best days you can possibly have.

And you just need to be ready to stomach the times where you're not flying, but you're paying for a lot of flying, and it's just a lot.

A lot different than renting.

So that was a.

That was a new experience for me, which took.

Took me a few years to, like, get really used to and.

And ready for.

But I try to warn, you know, upcoming owners about that new reality.

Has there been a year or month or kind of a time period where you're like, ah, man, maybe this plane just isn't for us anymore and I need to sell.

I mean, I'd be lying if I said that the thought hadn't crossed my mind.

I mean, sometimes, like, when you.

When you go through those periods, like the last.

The last couple of years, I've just been working a lot.

I've just been working a lot.

And so there's been times where it's not as enticing to say, I'm gonna go fly 10 miles to another airport and go get gas and come back.

I'm like, Well, I live 30 minutes from the airport, so, you know, I'm a dad of two little kids.

I got a business I'm running.

You got things going on.

I'm like, am I really gonna take half the day to drive down the airport, fight traffic, get in the airplane, go fly 10 miles away, get gas, you know, do the whole thing.

And like, a lot of those.

A lot of those days I'm just like, it doesn't feel worth it today.

And then you kind of do that and you're like, cool, I'll just go next week.

And the next week the same thing happens.

And like, before you know it, you haven't flown that much.

And there have been times where I'm like, man, like, I gotta fly more if I'm gonna own this airplane.

Now, obviously there's years where I fly a ton, but, yeah, I mean, that happens.

Like, I think, like, I'm human.

And everyone has ups and downs where times where you're like, man, this is really expensive.

This is not as fun or, you're not flying it as much where you're, you know, might be on the chopping block.

But for me, I'm like, I, I just kind of end up coming to.

I, I want to fly for as long as the Lord will let me.

Like, I want to fly.

I'm willing to pay for it.

I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to pay for it.

I want to fly until I can't.

Yeah.

And, and the risk that comes with that and the financial burden that comes with that, I'm okay with.

Because I would rather, I would rather live a life like that than a life without aviation in it.

And so for me, it's, it's always been worth it.

What can you change to make it easier to go do those flights?

Is it working less?

Is it bringing family with you on those flights?

Like, what would be a way to not have that kind of come up with, like, oh man.

Like, gotta make the excuse of not going to go do it.

I think for me it's been really helpful to have missions.

And so a mission could be simply, hey, I'm taking a friend flying.

He's never been flying before and finally mustered up the courage to go.

Cool.

I'm going with him Wednesday.

Unless the weather sucks.

Like, we're going have stuff on there that isn't as fragile as I'm just gonna fly and get gas and come home.

Because that's super exciting at the beginning.

Don't be wrong.

Like, I used to clear my calendar to just go do that.

Cause it was noon, it was novel.

And once you've done it a lot, just like anything else, like it doesn't, it's not as exciting as it once was.

Even though it's still awesome that we get to do it.

Um, and so I have found that just having, having important missions on there, like even, even, okay, I've got, I've got some filming I want to do.

So like that's on the calendar.

I'm doing that.

Or I'm, you know, just like find reasons to go that, that aren't as fragile as I'm just flying 10 miles away for fuel.

You know, as your family, whether it grows or as your kids get older, is kind of wants and needs change.

Do you see yourself keeping the 182?

Do you see yourself looking for, you know, a six seater?

Are you like, hey, that Kodiak 100 is kind of cool, dad.

Like, what's your plan there?

You know, like, kind of talk about what you kind of see for your family either in the future or just kind of plans that you have?

It's a good question.

You know, I think airplane ownership all comes down to mission.

Unless you have infinite money, which nobody does, it's all about, what airplane do you need for your mission?

And right now, the 182 is, like, perfect for my mission.

I could see a world in which having a 206 makes more sense one day because you can carry more, you know, go higher, faster, like, turbo 206, still go back country.

Like, backcountry is still my favorite thing to do, even though I haven't done nearly as much of it as, like, Trent Palmer, you know, some of the other guys.

But, like, it's still my favorite type of flying.

So I really want to own an airplane that.

That can do that.

Like, I don't think I'll ever own a cirrus because of that, even though those are really cool airplanes.

So I think, like, a 206 might make sense one day, but it really kind of depends on what our family and up doing with the Kodiak, because right now it's a lot cheaper to buy fuel in the Kodiak than it is to sell my 182 and buy a newer 206, you know, so.

But, like, the days that I'm like, man, what are.

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

The family grows.

I'm like, again, it all comes back to perspective.

I try to pinch myself of, like, the.

The fact that, like, that's the.

The.

The thing on my mind that day or something that I'm stressed out.

Like, what are we gonna do with 182?

It's like, man, I'm so blessed and so fortunate to even have that be on my radar.

Like, if I can step back, like, it.

It just makes me so happy to have the 182 that I do and gives me a lot of patience to not really need to change anything for a long time, you know?

Yeah.

What's.

Obviously, you mentioned that a panel, right?

Like a full g new garment panel probably needs to happen, right?

You know, I'm going to push you for this.

I'm going to text you randomly, like, hey, dude, you need that garment panel?

It's like, come on, man, I want to see it in the next video.

But any other upgrades that you want to do to it, anything else, you can make it your own or you kind of happy with what you got right now?

Yeah, it's a slippery slope on the panel because it all started with.

I would really Love a stronger autopilot that can also do to altitude changes and things.

And so I really love the Garmin autopilots and stuff, but I start to run into some compatibility issues with my Aspen and different things.

And so it's a slippery slope of like, okay, well, if you want the Garmin autopilot, then you need a Garmin pfd.

And if you're going to do that, then you might as well change this.

And if you're going to change that, you might as well change this.

Like, and then the airplane's going to be down for a while because you need to build new panel and put it the shop and like, eventually it's worth just, just doing the whole thing, you know what I mean?

And so I think if I'm going to touch the panel, it's going to be kind of an all or nothing thing.

And I, I love Garmin.

Huge fan of Garmin.

Have some Garmin in my airplane.

And so I think that would be a really fun dream thing.

But then at some point, like, I'm kind of a, I'm kind of a nerd for branding.

Like, I went through a whole rebranding with Airplane Academy last year to make flashcards look the quality that I wanted them.

And I just, I loved that process.

And so I thought it'd be really, really, really cool to repaint my airplane in the new Airplane Academy paint scheme and fly with that and have the logo on it and stuff.

And I think that would be really, really cool because I'm going to need new paint at some point.

Yeah, my interior in the Texas sun is just really, really dried out.

So it, you know, eventually I could see going all in on the 182 and just like redo the whole thing.

But there's not, there's not that content too.

Yeah, it'd be fun.

It'd be such a fun thing to do.

So, you know, we'll see.

Yeah, that's cool, man.

Talking more specifically about Airplane Academy, you talked about the rebrand, you talked about the flashcards, you talked about the want and need to make more products.

Are you able to share stuff that you're working on that you want to do stuff like that, or are you kind of happy with where it is right now?

Yeah, still, still working and, and trying to find the balance between, like spending time on everything.

Like, I, I don't want, you know, anyone listening.

Be like, man, Charlie's just working hard and everything's working.

It's like there's a lot of good things Happening.

I'm very blessed.

But like, I'm human too.

I struggle to balance my to do list every day.

I have kids.

I want to be a good dad.

I also want to be a good business owner.

It's like not everything's perfect behind the scenes, you know what I mean?

But trying to split my time between being consistent on content and making YouTube content and working on showing up more on Instagram and email and things.

But.

So that's kind of my first priority is content and then trying to find more ways to get the word out about flashcards I think can really help people because it's been really helpful to me.

And then I'm also starting to work on instrument flashcards for the instrument rating and like, I could probably hire some CFIs to do that for me.

But like, I'm.

I'm pretty detail oriented and I just like, I really, really want to get in the weeds and build all the cards myself.

I still want to have a lot of oversight from CFIs to check in and give me input and stuff.

But like, it's more than just a product for me.

Like, this is like I.

Like I said I want to fly for as long as I can.

And so I want to go through the process of having to build these cards so I can.

So I can relearn all this stuff for myself and like in more deeply ingrain it in myself.

And to do that just takes longer.

So I don't know when those are going to be ready, but I'm.

I'm doing it the hard way.

But the first set were really high quality, so I have no doubt the second set will be really high quality too.

And then there might be subsequent flashcards after that for commercial or CFI or whatnot, but definitely private and instrument.

And then I'm working on.

I'm not ready to like announce all the details of it yet, but I'm working on kind of a unique way to digitize them at some point in a way that I'm really, really excited about.

It's going to take a little time, but I'm working on it.

So I mean, at the end of the day, like, I'm trying to grow it to help more people, but like I mentioned earlier, like, this has been a really fun business and project and vocation to work on because I am my own customer.

So I'm just thinking, okay, I'm a pilot trying to be active.

I'm an airplane owner.

Like, what pain points do I have for that?

And is that something I could solve?

Because I know if I have that problem, other people have that problem problem too.

And so it's not just a money grab of like, what could I sell people?

It's like, what problems can I solve?

How can I be helpful?

Because that, that's what I want my brand and channel to be known for, is helpfulness, like, encouragement and authenticity and helpfulness.

And I want my products to, to be the same.

If you could look back, he kind of answered it, but try to change it with this question.

If you could look back, let's say in 50 years, you know, you're re listening to this podcast, podcast, and whatever it may be, but you're looking back on Airplane Academy, kind of your career, what you've done, what would make you most proud with Airplane Academy.

Looking back in the future.

I think personally, if, if my kids, they don't even have to be pilots, like, they can do, you know, whatever they feel like the Lord is calling them to.

But like, I think if, if they can grow up saying, like, man, our dad was always very encouraging of what we wanted to do, whether that was aviation or beyond, and we got to take cool trips in his airplane and go camping together and catch fish, that would be more meaningful to me, I think, than any, any business accomplishment, just for my kids to know how much I love them.

But then, like, on the business side, I, I can't really quantify this.

Maybe I should at some point as a, as a stretch goal.

But like, I just, I just decided a long time ago, like, if I could in some small way help there to be more pilots in the world, like, I would be deeply honored to play that role.

Like, like, I, I just would.

And so I don't know what that looks like in terms of, like, right now on the channel.

I've got flashcards and I've got hopefully some encouraging content of, like, if you want to do this, you can do this.

Yeah.

Right now, that's kind of the way I'm trying to do that.

But I think if, if I could just help more people go from the, oh, one day, that would be fun.

And that's been my childhood dream to I'm actually doing it.

I don't even know what number that would need to be.

If it's one, it's worth it.

And I think if I, if I could help more people become pilots and provide for my family along that process, I can't think of many things better than that.

Well, I'll give you a chance right now.

What's your elevator pitch to someone that is in that situation that's like, hey, Charlie.

Hey, Justin.

I want to be a pilot.

You know, like, I want to do this, but I just don't know if I can or I don't know if I should.

Should give me an elevator pitch right now of why.

Why you do that.

So I had a really meaningful conversation with an Uber driver the other day, and a lot of wise advice came from him, a kind of unsuspecting source.

He mentioned how he had a barbecue company, like, a barbecue restaurant.

And I was like, man, I love entrepreneurship.

I was like, that's awesome.

That's so cool.

How's it going?

And he goes, well, not good.

I'm actually closing it because I couldn't get it to make money.

And I, like, it was like, oh, my gosh, I feel so stupid, right?

And I said, oh, gosh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to hear that.

And he smiled really big.

I'll never forget.

And this.

This applies to aviation.

He goes, no, I'm.

I'm so happy.

He goes, I did it.

And now I know.

And I won't be an old man looking back, wishing that I had done that, I did that.

And I thought that was so profound.

And I think it applies to aviation and beyond of, like, there's so many people that have this bug in them, or they're like, anytime the air, you know, an airplane flies over the soccer field, the rest of the dads aren't looking up, but they're looking up, right?

Like, he has the bug.

And if you're listening that.

And you're like, that's me.

You have the bug.

And.

And I think, like, you have two.

You have two options.

Like, Max, my Uber driver, said, you can either go for it and it might not work out.

You might fail, whatever failing means to you, but you'll know, and you'll never have that regret, and you'll never carry that burden of, like, what if.

What if I could do this one day?

I still want, you know, you could either go for it, or the.

The that burden and that regret of not doing it yet will only grow and it will only compound.

And those are the two routes you have.

And so if it's something you know you want to do, which route do you want to go?

And so I try to encourage as many people as I can to pick door number one.

Love it.

That's a great answer.

Great question.

Great way to.

To give that outlook on it, because you are right.

I mean, we talked about this earlier.

We talked about how there's so many people that will come up to you.

You know, you say you're a pilot, like, oh, dude, I always want to be a pilot.

And you're like, well, all right, you're, you're 35.

Why don't you go to a pilot?

Like, why don't you go do it?

And it's like, ah, you know, I got this, I got this, I got this.

But yeah, when you phrase it that way, it's kind of like, well, I mean, what do you, when you always want to look back on it and be like, I did that.

Like, you never know.

Someone could take a lesson.

Listen to this.

Go take a lesson.

That could be fine for United or American or who may, who, whoever it may be, living a new dream that you never thought that you could have have.

So go do it.

That's all we got to say.

Just do it.

Nike had it right.

Don't sue me, Nike, for using your slogan, but just do it.

Couldn't agree more.

Yeah.

Well, Charlie, I appreciate you coming on the podcast.

It was a lot of fun to talk with you.

I really look forward to, to seeing your channel grow.

I look forward to seeing your business grow and other businesses as well.

I wish you the best and hopefully, you know, one day you'll be in your Kodiak 900 or whatever, PC12 doing whatever it is you may be doing, flying all over the country and all over the world, whatever it is.

But I appreciate your time and thank you so much for coming on.

Thanks for having me.

It's been great to talk with you.

Absolutely.

Aviation, that is a wrap on today's episode.

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast.

I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, please leave us review Spotify iTunes, go to YouTube, drop us a follow up because we're trying to grow our YouTube as well.

But Avia Nation, it was cool to hear someone buy an airplane.

You know, every time I hear that, I'm just like, gosh, my, I need an airplane.

And I've been talking about getting an airplane.

This is probably not the year to get an airplane just with things going on, but one day there will be an airplane.

You know, we'll get pilot to pilot on the side, we'll do in flight podcasts and pretty cool.

We'll make it happen.

But aviation, I hope you are having a great day and as always, happy flying.

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