Evan Luft joins us on the podcast today, and he's here to share his unique journey through the world of aviation as a contract pilot. One of the standout points we discuss is that you don't have to follow the traditional path of becoming an airline pilot to enjoy a fulfilling and lucrative career in aviation. Evan's experiences flying over the stunning landscapes of Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to sunny Mexico, showcase the adventures that await outside the airline cockpit. We dive into the importance of networking, building relationships, and how being personable can open doors to incredible opportunities in the flying world. Whether you're just starting out or looking to carve your own niche in aviation, Evan's insights will inspire you to embrace the journey and explore the vast possibilities that come with it.

Takeaways:

• Evan Luft emphasizes the importance of networking and building relationships in aviation, as many opportunities arise from personal connections.
• He shares that flying in Canada offers unique adventures, with stunning scenery and diverse flying experiences not typically found in the U.S.
• The podcast highlights that you don't need to be an airline pilot to have a fulfilling and financially rewarding career in aviation.
• Evan discusses the flexibility of contract flying, allowing pilots to enjoy their work while exploring incredible destinations like Banff and Mexico.
• Justin and Evan agree that being a personable and friendly pilot can significantly impact job opportunities and client relationships.
• The episode showcases how technology, particularly Garmin avionics, enhances safety and efficiency for pilots flying in challenging weather conditions.

Episode 337 of the pilot the Pilot Podcast takes off Now.

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Okay, so I'm Evan and I over the last five years I've kind of document I've been flying airplanes for about 20 years now.

I started flying when I was 15.

AV Nation, what is going on?

And welcome back to the Pilot to Pilot podcast.

My name is Justin Seams and I am your host.

Today's episode is with Evan Luft.

He is a current pilot in Canada where he's flying Conquest all over pretty much North America.

He specializes in Canada and he is flying over the Rocky Mountains, out to British Columbia, he's flying down to Mexico, the US and he's really carved out such a cool lifestyle and such a great way to enjoy aviation.

And you can see that he really has a passion for what he does, which is awesome because part of this podcast is just showing you different ways that you can become a pilot and that you can make a career.

And Evan has definitely done that for himself.

You don't have to be an airline pilot to enjoy your life as a pilot.

You don't have to be an airline pilot to make good money.

As Evan will tell you right now, he is doing exactly what he loves and what he thinks he should be doing.

So shout out to Evan, I appreciate you coming on.

He's also a fellow Garmin ambassador, so shout out to Garmin.

I got the Garmin swag on today.

I also have a hat on rocking it backwards because I can't pull off a flat bill anymore.

I think once you turn 35 you got to turn the flat bill backwards.

You can correct me in the comments.

Maybe I shouldn't even have a flat bill at all.

I should probably have a dad hat, but.

Oh, man, getting old.

But anyways, I hope you enjoy this podcast.

If you do, please leave us a review.

We're so close to a thousand reviews on both itunes and on Spotify.

I want to see which one can get a thousand reviews first.

But if you haven't left a review, please do so and let me know what you like about the podcast.

AV Nation.

Hope you're having a great day.

And without any further ado, here is Evan to talk about his aviation career.

Evan, welcome to the Pilot to Pilot podcast.

Man.

Hello.

What's up?

Thanks, man.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, appreciate you coming on.

It's me.

A lot of fun.

We kind of mentioned before, I haven't interviewed too many Canadian pilots, so I'm really interested to kind of get a better understanding what general aviation looks like in Canada, what you're doing.

I can relate to the single pilot stuff.

You know, I was doing single pilot freight flying a PC12 in a caravan all over Canada, all over North America, down into Mexico.

So I know the single pilot life, man.

It can be very interesting sometimes.

I learned so much about flying from my single pilot days and weather.

And you're doing it in the Rockies and the mountains with weather, with icing.

So you're doing it in a very, very interesting place to say the least.

Yeah, I can relate to pretty much everything you said and a few things.

Yeah, right.

Well, I always like to bring it back to the beginning.

So tell me originally, what was the original inspiration for you even to want to be a pilot or get involved with aviation?

Well, when I was 14.

So this would have been 20 years ago.

21 years ago, actually.

I just went to my local flying call.

Well, it wasn't even a College.

They had three airplanes.

It was actually the guy that started WestJet, he started up a small little flight school called Morgan Air.

And I think that was.

I don't know if that was sort of, you know, a backup plan, as if WestJet didn't really work out then the flight school was still there.

I'm not really sure how that, you know, came to be, but the fella had a flight school as well.

And some the instructors there were all charter pilots working for this other company, so they had a lot of experience.

And there was this.

This lady that offered to train me to fly, basically you just walked in.

No one wanted to be a pilot 20 years ago because there were no jobs.

So they would literally give you the airplane and you could build hours for extremely, like for next to nothing.

Right.

And this, yeah, this kind of inspired me to.

I'm going to do my private license.

And I never really wanted to be necessarily a pilot because I thought, well, it'd be more fun just to fly for fun.

So, private license.

And then kind of worked my way through all the other ratings and stuff.

And then flying became pretty cool to me.

Like, I liked more of the mechanics behind the airplanes and stuff like that.

So for me, flying was only part of what I really wanted to, what I was really interested in.

And then flying up here in Canada, obviously the scenery is amazing.

It's long distances between airports, so it's, it's not like, like on your 300 nautical mile cross country.

I think you have to do that in the States to get your license.

It's literally like to go to an airport is, you know, 100 to 300 nautical miles sometimes.

So that is, there's nothing in between.

So.

Right.

That was, you know, the training here really kind of got your mind going on like how adventurous you could be with an airplane up here in Canada too.

So.

Yeah, so I was really inspired.

I owe a lot of it to my flight instructor.

She was a huge part of, like, why I even got my license.

So when I finally finished my commercial and everything, I tried to find a job and there were no jobs.

Like there's.

There was nothing no one would hire.

There were so many pilots out there already that were way more experienced than me.

And so I just kind of started networking with other individuals at the airport.

Wasn't really looking for a job, you know, that kind of.

I think there's a thing where it's like, as soon as you're really looking, pursuing something, it seems really hard to get.

And then as soon as you stop paying attention to it, all of a sudden all these opportunities are coming.

Where were you five years ago?

It's like, what the heck.

Yeah, so I've only done contract flying, so my first gig was this fellow that I knew who was doing the same work I'm doing now.

He was managing a couple of turbo props for these private owners.

And he said, hey, like, I'm going to get into helicopters now.

Here, how about I know this young pilot who's, who's pretty good and he's a fun guy.

And what, you guys just hire him for a little while and then, then I can go fly helicopters.

And so that's how I got my first gig.

And I was way under qualified.

I don't know how the insurance company even passed me because I had maybe 50 hours of turbine time to my dang dude.

That was it.

And the insurance like was the easiest thing ever.

They just said, yep, yep, he's good to go.

Like, if you say he's good, he's good to go.

So then my first time flying private clients was my first time.

Well, that was, you know, my first day on the kind of the job was just by myself taking people out to Vancouver and, or, you know, to Kelowna.

Like it was just right into the work.

So.

And then since then I just kind of learned how to do it myself and that was.

It was all single pilot operations for the most part.

We do fly two pilots a lot of the time now, but still it's depending on the availability of pilots and stuff like that.

I've had to find some other ones that are kind of here and there, but a lot of airlines, I've had to pull some people from the airlines obviously that are sort of like semi retired now and they're pretty, you know, because they want to do this contract flying as like.

But I've done that ever since and just managed the airplanes and provided the, the crew and then obviously done a lot of the flying myself.

So.

Yeah, and it's led to so many cool opportunities.

Like I don't do I say, I'd say It's kind of 80, 20 rule.

Like 20 of it is flying.

80% of it is.

Well, all the other extra things you get to do when you arrive there and you get usually spend a few days at your destinations and it's all great because it's.

You're still working.

As I say, it's like you get your work or you get paid to be there as a pilot, not necessarily to do the duties of a pilot.

Yeah.

So yeah.

So it's been, it's been a real blessing, I have to say.

This is.

This has been a pretty cool opportunity.

So that's hence why I haven't moved from this.

It's just been too awesome.

Was there you mentioned you never really wanted to kind of like be a professionally.

You didn't say professional pilot, but like do it for a living.

Was that necessarily just the side of airline pilot per se?

You were always kind of interested in see how you can make money off aviation.

I needed, I wanted the flexibility of being able to fly.

Well, first of all, the people that I'm flying.

Like I know most of them.

So unless they're new coming onto the airplane or their friends I haven't met before, most of them I've known.

So there's that personal connection.

Like I could hire someone that's 10 times the hours as me and they'd still look and be like, but he's not Evan.

So it's just that there's that connection as well that I have with the people that I'm flying.

And then also it's, you know, like this kind of flying allowed me to do a lot of other things as well as keep my aviation passion going.

So like I might fly maybe one hour for one day and then have two days somewhere and then, you know, but in between that time you're, you're either scheduling the next stuff or you got downtime to, you know, I can do a lot of my other work as well.

So I, once I kind of fell into that life, that sort of lifestyle of having or having the opportunity to work on multiple projects at the same time instead of flying, you know, 12 hours a day with turns here and there.

And this lifestyle was totally, it just allowed for different things.

So it's not like, you know, you're not busy because it does get crazy busy.

But it's just, it's just, it, it's a lot more flexible.

Oh, for sure.

And I mean when you say you can fly for one hour and then be in a place, you can be in Vancouver for three or four days, you know, it's like kind of like a no brainer or bamf.

I think you, I don't, I think you posted about Banff recently or just something that reminded me of bam.

Yeah, So I live, thankfully I live pretty close to Banff.

Oh dude.

So we're just like an hour drive there.

So it's like a, we'll even go out there just for the day.

You just drive out to, you know, dream destination.

I need to make it out there.

It is, I remember like doing lots of traveling to like, well when I was in New Zealand one time and then because I went there for the mountains and then I was getting all these advertisements like come visit Banff and you're like, man, I just, you know, so yeah, so it is, it is awesome to be up here and there's so many cool places in, you know, North America to.

It's just up here is unique because there's so much less population density or like the population density is a lot lower here.

So if you want to go into the mountains, and you can easily just get lost by yourself and not see anybody for thousands of miles.

Yeah, it's.

It's pretty very Canadian.

Right.

I remember the first one flew.

Flew to St. John's and I think it was like 300 miles from my destination at like, 43,000ft.

And ATC is like, all right, we're canceling your eye far.

You're going VFR now.

I was like, wait, what do you mean?

It's like, I still have like an hour and a half left on my flight.

Like, I'm not going via.

Yeah.

Or they hear you.

Just go direct to.

And they'll figure it out.

That's crazy.

Like, see, like, new, like, say, Newfoundland.

I haven't.

Canada is so big.

I've actually never been to Newfoundland.

Like, there's so much I haven't seen yet of Canada because it's so far away that it's.

Yeah, it's.

It's.

Now I think I'm like, maybe I should go to Newfoundland now that you said.

Yeah, like, maybe I should book a trip right now.

Yeah, all right.

I'm going to go.

I'm going now.

Apparently, there's a really nice golf course out there.

I don't know if it's called, like, Hawkesbury or whatever it's called, but in that area, there is.

We've flown to this really tiny, uncontrolled airport that is.

It's by this, I guess, where the water.

The seas, like, come up really fast and they go.

I can't remember exactly what it's called, but we didn't get to see it because obviously my last job they ran is pretty.

Pretty ragged, but we flew there all the time.

There's tons of jets there, too.

And it's like.

Like, how do one.

How do people find this place?

And, yeah, it was just really cool to see.

So you should go.

You should definitely.

I think, right after this podcast, you should go.

Take off.

Yeah, yeah, just go.

And so, yeah, that.

That was kind like the lifestyle fit for me.

And I've even thought I'm like.

Like, it would be.

I've got lots of friends that fly in the airlines, lots of friends that fly for all sorts of different things.

And, yeah, it's always been a passion of mine.

Like, I, you know, it's just different.

Like, there's so many avenues you can take in aviation that this was the path that I sort of stumbled upon.

You know, it wasn't intentional at all, but here I am, and this is what I've come to really really enjoy.

But I think that's what's kind of the best about aviation is there is this, like, wide range of paths that you can go down.

Usually people see cfi, they see regional, they see airline pilot, but there are so many people.

One of the things I realized from this podcast is like, yeah, there's a straight line to a career, but I mean, you're going to have options presented to you that you can take you all the way off course where you think it's off course, and you can eventually wind your.

Myself back up to the airline pilot.

Yeah.

So I always tell people, never say no to things.

Like, you might get this really cool opportunity to fly aerial survey, and you might get to build your hours that way.

Or you could go fly in Canada, they could go fly with you.

You could do so many different things and you might end up back to the airline side.

Or you might be like, I kind of like this.

Like, I have the schedule flexibility.

I'm making enough money to do what I want to do, and I fly cool planes and do cool stuff.

And I mean, as a pilot, the dream is, for me, at least I say my dream is to go fly somewhere, hang out for 24, 36 and do like one flight back.

It's like, I don't want to fly five legs a day.

I want to go with the freedom of it.

And you can have that with a lot of aspects of aviation.

Yeah, totally.

And that's kind of where, you know, that's exactly where I'm at now.

Is that the, you know, the flying is the easiest part.

It's just the, you know, the, the managing of people and scheduling and that.

Or I shouldn't even say scheduling.

It's just, you know, you have to wear many hats doing this kind of work because you are kind of a one person operation.

So that's why, you know, like, even like using a lot of the Garmin stuff was actually really important.

Like I would, you know, especially with the Garmin pilot app, that kind of stuff.

When I talked to Kyle, they were really kind of pushing the, this new app.

And I was like, okay, Well, I use FlightPlan.com all the time because I was crossing the border like every several times every week.

And so I was like, okay, well, this is probably something I can switch to.

But it was hard for me to go from, you know, one app to another.

But when I used it, I was like, man, this, like I was flying a single pilot airplane or, you know, turboprop single pilot with people in the back that want to drink.

And it's just you.

You're going into the mountains and then all of a sudden the weather's crappy.

And also it like, that kind of stuff was a big part of what makes this possible.

Yeah.

Is the technology that you use in the airplane.

Because it's like, I always tell people this.

I'm like, hey, no matter what, we are landing in exactly five hours because that's when we run out of fuel.

So if we don't figure out our stuff within that amount of time, we're landing.

So, you know, the technology, especially, like, what.

Even like what Garmin's done has been revolutionary.

Especially in the last, like, three years.

Yeah.

Crazy how fast that stuff has come.

There's been a lot of advancements, and what they've been able to bring to GA has just been incredible.

And the safety, whether it's auto land, whether it's just enhancements to safe taxi, any.

And Garmin pilot itself, there's just so many cool things that can really just help you out.

You know, especially when we're going to big, major 121 airports and not be able to look at my avionics and be like, all right, there's this taxiway, there's that you look down at Garmin pilot and you can see all right.

Visual notams.

I know that's closed already.

So what they've been able to do has been really cool.

And it is definitely handy with you, too.

And then you add having weather on there and having weather on your avionics.

Having weather on Garmin pilots, it can help you make a really good.

And especially.

Especially I find, well, that everything is.

Is all the garment stuff is like, they.

They do a lot of, like, they come up with new stuff all the time.

But it's very similar to the previous.

Like, it's like the ergonomics are the same.

So you can literally come into, like, a new avionics system.

I don't think I've ever opened up a.

Like a manual on how to operate.

You should open up manuals if you want to fly the plane should open a manual.

You should read it.

But yeah, I don't think I ever have.

I've always just sat there and just figured it out.

Because Garmin stuff is so easy to like.

Oh, for sure.

How it works.

Yeah.

That it, like, you don't have to.

And that's always been one of the biggest things.

Why I always thought like all the Garmin stuff was.

Why it's so popular, too, is because it's.

They've designed it really well in how you.

You know, how you utilize it.

So it's efficient.

Right.

It feels like it was designed for pilots.

Right.

Like it feels like it was designed by pilots for pilots.

And you.

Yeah.

Pretty much figure your way around and do everything.

Yeah, for sure.

And I've done that before and I've tried other, you know, I've used Collins stuff.

Lots of different types of avionics systems where there is a bit of a learning curve.

But the Garmin stuff is just like.

Like, it's just so easy.

And there's, you know, there's.

There's.

There's teams, you know, for each brand of avionics and stuff.

But I think that's why you see every airplane now is equipped with, you know, that's you.

When you see an airplane for sale, that's usually one of the first things they mentioned before.

They even mentioned the engine times.

It's like Garmin upgrades.

Yeah.

What avionics?

Like, yeah, don't worry about the engine.

We can go past tbo, but what avionics.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is funny because the most, you know, that avionics turnover pretty quickly.

So still, especially in the airplanes that I'm flying, you know, the vat.

I mean, the whole value in the airplane is really in the engines and the autopilot.

So we have all the Garmin autopilots now in these airplanes.

And then obviously the touchscreen displays are pretty important, but that's it.

No one cares about the interior.

No one cares about the, you know, the airframe tire.

Like, icing on the cake.

Right, the interior.

Yeah.

I mean, if it looks nice, looks nice, but, like, get me there.

Yeah.

Give me this.

We want engines and gone.

Yeah, that's it.

What kind of planes are you flying?

So the ones I've always been flying are Cessna conquests.

There's.

They're 425, so they.

They're called the Conquest One.

So they're awesome little twin turbo props.

They're kind of like a King Air, but a little bit narrower or.

Sorry, not narrower, but they're narrower on the top.

But they have, like, just incredible performance capability.

They burn very little fuel and everybody wants them right now.

So I've.

I've sold or had one airplane that sold, and it was like, immediate, like, asking price.

They didn't even Do a pre buy.

They just picked it up, so maybe.

Oh, my gosh, that's crazy.

I don't know.

Cool.

Yeah, sure, you can take it.

Yeah.

But these airplanes have been incredible machines and especially flying up here in Canada because a lot of the runways are shorter.

So we're, we operate on of, you know, there's lots of 3,000 foot strips that were there from, you know, when they were, when the airports were built.

Whereas you go to the United States and it's like you go to a small town, they got a 7,000 foot.

Runway, nicely paved with an ILS and RNAV.

Yeah, yeah.

Or, you know, I mean, there's lots of small airports with short runways, but there's always an option to go to like a, you know, right next door.

There's usually a Runway that's, that's fat and long and easy to land on.

There's airports everywhere.

Everywhere.

Yeah.

So.

So up here the, those airplanes are, are essential.

Turbo props are great.

The jets, obviously they can go to the big airports, but once you have the turboprop capability, and that's why a lot of the owners that, that I've been flying around, they've either come from flying, you know, from flying in jets, but now they want to go, you know, they have fishing lodges in different places, or they want to get into these other smaller airports that give them access to where their business is.

And that's the capability that these, these turboprops offer is that.

But then also they can go long distances.

So it's not like, you know, you're restrained by the speed or anything like that.

Because like these, these airplanes, they, they, they, they're very niche.

Like, they, they're fast.

But we can also get them into some pretty small, tight little airports and stuff.

And do they have Garrett's?

They run Garrett engines?

No, there's a Conquest 2, which does have Garrett.

It's like a stretched version.

I have literally zero experience flying those airplanes.

I've always stuck to the 425.

So they have the, the Pratts on them.

Give me a Pratt, man.

Yeah, I'm a frat guy too.

They start easy up here.

Yeah, I mean, it's Canadian too, right?

Pratt.

It is, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm pretty sure they're still Canadian.

I don't know if the ownership is, has changed since.

You never know.

At one point it was a Canadian brand, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think the only conquest that I've seen because I feel like they're not very common.

Right.

Like you're not going to see it.

You see a King Air, you'll see pretty much any kind of multi engine turbine other than a Conquest, wherever you go.

And the only one that I have seen has been a Garrett.

I just remember the, the, the propellers and how loud that is and it's like, why would you want to fly that?

But this is the first time I've actually had any kind of insight into what a Conquest can offer.

And it does.

It sounds like a great airplane.

They're an awesome airplane.

The nose is long too, so we always throw skis and I always put paddle boards in there.

So if I'm flying somewhere like this coming week, it was just a short flight with a client that I go pretty much every week with and we do an hour flight down to Spokane and then I throw paddle boards in the airplane.

Then we'll go and you know, while they're doing their thing, I just hit the river and chill out.

And then the next day we fly home.

So it's like, yeah, it's pretty, it's a pretty capable airplane.

And we, we can load the thing up with fish when we do fishing trips.

We can, you know, fill the passenger seats and still go, you know, just over a thousand nautical miles.

We've taken them to Mexico, across the Gulf.

Like it's, it.

They're awesome little airplanes.

And once it's, I think once, once, once an owner like, and usually like these, these aren't owner flown airplanes necessarily.

I mean none of the ones that I fly are.

They're, you know, the owners aren't pilots.

So they're just sitting in the back paying the bills.

All they care about is the, you know, the, the reliability of the airplane and how much it costs and, and they all love these airplanes.

I've had, I had one owner that he, he had a CJ3, I think a CJ older citation.

He had a King Air, a Cessna 340, like one of those small little piston poppers.

And then he had, he had a Cheyenne, he had a, another King Air F90.

He's on like every airplane in the book.

And then he bought one of these conquests and he's just like, no, this is hands down the best airplane.

He's just the guy that sits in the back, pays the bills.

So yeah, I'll take it.

So that says a lot to me because it's not like necessarily it's a fairly easy airplane to fly.

But you know, it's different when it, when a pilot says I really like this airplane because I think every pilot, if they're in an airplane, they learn to love it.

Exactly right.

You learn to love the quirks of every airplane that they have.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm gonna.

You're kind of be a Canadian ambassador right now.

A lot of people that I list that listen to this podcast are probably going to be in the lower 48, and they're only going to know, like, the airports that we go to or the cool places that we fly to.

And on top of that, the people I've talked to in Canada, they are usually kind of east of where you are.

Where you fly is probably some really cool scenery, some really cool small airports.

Yeah.

Can you give me a top five of.

Or top three, whatever you want to do of, like, places that anyone should like, put on their.

Their airport goal list or places to fly list where you live and where you fly.

Really cool place is in western.

Well, it's actually kind of on the eastern part of the Rockies.

It's in.

It's actually in British Columbia, but it's called Fairmont Hot Springs.

Okay.

Yeah, it's in a place called Invermere.

There's a few airports kind of in the valley there.

But the south of there is an airport called Cranbrook.

And if you just go north of there is a.

There's an airport called Fairmont Hot Springs.

And that, to me is.

It's just a really cool spot because you kind of get a combination of like, lake life and all that sort of stuff.

But you get to fly through the valley and they.

I think they do like a little fly in every once in a while.

I've gone to one of their pancake breakfasts where it was like eight airplanes showed up and that was it kind of thing.

But it's a beautiful spot to like a incredible place to.

To fly.

And it does have a couple of IFR approaches, but they're, you know, it's limited.

Like I always say, if it's.

If an airport here has IFR approaches in the mountains, you basically like.

The IFR approach is at VFR minimums in a lot of cases because you have to do like a shuttle dist.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Totally understand that.

But that'd be one of them, obviously.

On the coast, there's a place called Haida Gwai.

It's a.

The islands just south of Alaska.

Lots of big fishing camps up there, some known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.

There's a place called Sands Pit, which is a pretty cool airport to fly into.

And then for more challenging strips, a place Called Nelson, British Columbia, Canada.

A lot of them are in B.C.

but there's so many cool places.

Like if you have a float plane up up here, there's unlimited lakes.

Like, just go to a lake and build your own little cabin and I don't know, you can probably name the lake if you want.

And people.

It's as easy as that, right?

Just build your cabin.

This is Evans Lake now.

Yeah.

Because Canada's so vast and airplanes play a huge role in.

In, especially in the north for how people get around.

But those would be some really interesting airports that I've been to.

If you go further east, there's some really cool places in Manitoba, Northern Manitoba, especially once you get further north on the.

On Hudson's Bay, where you can get into kind of polar bear territory.

But that's, you know, a little bit more northern Canada.

Yeah, you got to have the, the, you know, you want to have the knowledge of how to fly up there.

Yeah.

And some fuel.

Because not all.

Every airport you fly to is gonna have the fuel for you to get.

That's a problem.

That wanted to go up there and he wanted to buy or he wanted to take a. I think it was a.

It was some sort of cool.

It was a cool airplane, but he wanted to fly it all the way up to Baffin island, which is north, North Canada.

And the problem was Avgas.

And he had it all planned out.

And then I was like, man, like, I don't think you can get AV Gas fuel up there.

Like, they might.

They might drop a drum or two at certain airports.

And that was the problem that killed the trip because he's like, shoot, I didn't realize that there's no fuel at a lot of these airports.

It's like, what do you mean there's no fuel in an airport?

Yeah.

And up there you have to plan ahead.

Sometimes you have to make sure that there is actually going to be fuel there.

Because I know when I was learning to fly, I'd fly to some airports that.

Where you land and there's literally nothing like, yeah, this airstrip.

And.

And it, like, it'd be in a place where there's a town and everything.

But it's like, well, you.

If you want to get any services, you better walk to town and get somebody, you know, walk to the gas station and get a connection there, and they could come and help you unlock the fuel, you know, to get fuel.

Right.

That's funny.

Whereas.

And that's one nice thing about flying in the United States is that everywhere you go the service is like, top.

Like, it is top notch.

Like.

Yeah, there's always a place where someone will be able to help you or.

A phone number to call, and someone will be there in 20 minutes.

And you'll.

And the services are like that.

It's like, you know, in America, the people are ready to supply the airplane with what you need, and they're ready.

To take your money, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, they will.

But then, like, some of the best deals I found found in the States.

Yeah, that's true.

Sometimes in Canada, you come here and you go to an FBO and you realize you're like, man, they did nothing.

Like, they did absolutely nothing.

And they sent you a 600 bill.

Yeah.

And they charged you the most.

Yeah.

Canadian.

Gotta love it.

One of my Canada stories of flying.

I got de iced in a hangar one time.

That was the first time ever that ever happened.

They didn't have type one.

They only had type four.

Yeah.

So they didn't.

We put us in before it started snowing, and they're like, all right, we're gonna throw you some type 1 on real quick and make sure it fits your hold over time.

And you go out and you take off.

It's like, all right, well, I guess that that works.

But it was in our.

Was in our aom.

It's like, this is acceptable at these certain airports.

It's like, okay, this is a first for sure.

But yeah, it's just different.

Yeah.

And like, I've always found up here, too.

I. I mean, just because the airports are so kind of.

I mean, there's a lot less airports that your options are.

Are limited, too, so you have less competition.

I mean, there's some airports, I know that they, you know, the.

There's only one FBO within.

You know, like, all the other airports don't have services.

And then the one airport that is really busy only has one fbo, so you know that when you land there, you're going to pay, you know, premium, 30, 40% higher fuel rates there.

And, you know, they're.

They're sitting right next to a refinery.

I know you get this cheap.

It's like, what are we doing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Canada's a strange place.

We're a little strange up here.

But it's a.

It's a beautiful place to fly.

Totally worth it.

The other strange thing you guys do is the mandatory frequency.

That is not something.

That's the United States.

And I feel like that.

Yeah, that trip some people up, that's too.

You know, we.

We owe Credit to our lack of just hiring air traffic controllers, but yeah.

So there's lots of airports where they'll have, like a. I don't even know what you call it.

This was flight school stuff.

But a guy or a lady in the control tower that does no controlling.

They just relay messages to other airplanes and provide traffic updates, which is more comforting than talking to pilots, because sometimes, you know, when you're.

I don't know, maybe you can relate to this when you're flying.

And it's just nice to hear because you feel like they're, like, helping you out even though, you know you're still in control of the plane.

It's just.

Yeah.

Thing to know.

Like, there's times where you're flying and you don't talk to anybody for, like, 20 minutes, and then you're just like.

Then you hear someone on the radio.

You're like, oh, hey, yeah, there's someone there.

We're still here.

Yeah.

We're not in a simulation anymore.

All right, cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, and it helps you.

I mean, there's been times where, you know, you line up on final and you look five miles out and you're like, wait, there's an airplane landing the opposite Runway.

It's like, mandatory frequency.

Can.

I mean, I'm guessing it can still happen, but it is.

It makes a little bit of safety in there, right?

Yeah.

They use it at airports that don't really require the need for air traffic control, but they're, you know, they have enough traffic going on that they need someone to help.

Help delegate or, you know, to help organize what's going on and provide information.

And like I said, like, I remember, I flew into.

Was it Palm Springs, and it was the worst airport I ever flown into my life.

It was so disorganized, and the sort of audacity of some of the pilots there to just literally, they don't make radio calls and they land on runways and the people are yelling at each.

Like, pilots are yelling at each other.

And as a Canadian being in that and seeing how that worked, I was like, why isn't there a controller here?

Like, they got the.

The airport's big.

Like, they got, you know, 20 airplanes trying to get IFR clearance and trying to do circuits.

And then a jet comes in and he decides, no, just going to land on the opposite Runway.

Which is literally what happened.

And everybody was all.

And I was like, this is.

You can't do that.

This is, like, this is just a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Yeah, absolutely there.

But it was Like, I.

As soon as I left that airport, I was like, no, never again.

If anyone wants to go to Palm Springs, like, I'm not doing it.

I'm going to get someone else to fly that trip.

I'm not going.

I'm out.

Like, I'm busy.

I'm going to pick a different.

So I. I have a lot of experience flying in that area.

It's a very popular area.

In my previous job, Palm Springs itself, the main Palm Springs airport.

Great.

Highly recommend.

Love it.

Air traffic control.

Two airports south of there.

Absolute dumpster fires.

Bermuda Dunes and Thermal.

It is.

Thermal is.

Probably needs a Delta tower.

It is very busy.

Thermal.

That was the one I was at.

Yeah.

Thermal can be a hot mess.

And then Bermuda Dunes is just north.

There 1.

It's impossible to find.

It's extremely busy.

And it blends in with the road.

And then you can't even go on the taxiway because there's literally houses that have this.

They're like hangers and garages that go over the taxiway.

It is a wild, wild place.

Just go to Palm Springs, pay the extra money and go to Palm Springs.

Yeah, I think that's what I'll do next time.

Because I didn't enjoy that.

And I think when I got.

I was like, it's just me.

Safer if we just take off.

VFR and I flew through some restricted airspace, and it was a disaster.

I'd never do it again.

The la.

You know, the LA airspace can be kind of.

Can be a little complicated, especially LA itself.

I remember we were taking off at a Van Nuys one time, and it was really early in the morning.

The guy's like, all right, fly to this radial the next.

This radio on this radio on this and this.

Like, bro, it's 20, 24.

Like, can we knock at GPS points right now?

It's like, it's 4:00am no one's out here.

Just give me the departure.

And it's like, oh, sorry.

That's how we always did it.

It's like, fine.

Yeah, See?

And like, I learned to fly at a.

At Cat.

Like our.

Our main international airport here.

So really busy.

And you'd be like the little 172 squished between, you know, all the bigger jets and stuff.

So I always found big airports were easiest for me because I'm like, if you're just good at just doing what someone says, you're fine.

Like, you can fly into a big, busy airport.

Those were the easiest for me.

Like Vancouver National Sea Tac.

All those airport or you know, anything where they have the big air traffic control, it's like you're.

You're set up everything.

You know what you're gonna do about, you know, 100 miles before the airport because you have to fly the arrivals.

You have to fly this, and then they just vector you for an ils.

I was like, it doesn't get easier than that.

It's.

With the challenging part up here, it was like, okay, now you have an airport where there's no air traffic control.

It's ifr.

And now there's two airplanes arriving at the same time.

Just two airplanes.

And one wants to do an ils, and the other one wants to do a visual or something like that.

And then center just says, all right, like, you're cleared for this approach.

And then you might have someone doing circuit circuits in the.

It's like, that's where it gets really challenging because now you got to figure out, okay, well, how do I do a.

You know, how do I manage this all?

Like, now I'm responsible for, you know, for making sure that I don't collide with one other airplane that's flying around.

And.

Yeah, and so that.

That was always the challenge.

And actually, you see it here a lot.

Like, students will get, you know, they'll.

They'll practice at the.

The air.

At one of the airports here that has air traffic control, and it's busy, and they get really good at that.

And as soon as they're at an uncontrolled airport, it's like, okay, well, like, what do I do?

Who do I talk to?

You know, so you have to manage it.

And that could be a lot more.

I find it's more workload flying into an uncontrolled airport if there's traffic in the area than flying to a busy airport where at least you have, you know, some sort of air traffic control service that can, you know, they tell you what they.

They can see everybody.

That's.

Yeah, for sure.

It can get hectic, obviously.

Like, I think, like, once you land, that's this.

The.

The hardest part is trying to figure out your way to where you need to go and stuff and thank God for safe taxi.

But that's, you know, that's kind of how I learned, you know, flying in busy airspace was always a little bit.

It was easier for me.

So I would always prefer to go into, like, a busier airport than to go into an uncontrolled airport, because to me, there was a lot more risk in flying into an uncontrolled airport or a Place that doesn't have facilities.

Yeah.

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No, I totally agree.

And I think it has to do with what you're used to, right?

Like what you.

You brought up in training.

I did my training at a Delta airport.

It was relatively busy but like I felt comfortable with that amount of traffic with those instructions.

And then you go to like, like you said, you go to an uncontrolled field and there's not many traffic in there.

There's not much traffic in the area.

You just go in and you go to a busy and controlled field and it's a hot mess.

You know, you're just waiting for someone to hit you.

You, you don't trust the person.

You have to count on this someone being courteous eventually to let you in or to extend final expend, extend their base or you do that for someone else.

And then you go to a Bravo airport and you might think it's the most intense place in the world.

I remember when I was young, you probably don't know.

Do you know where Fort Wayne, Indiana is?

That was like a big airport people went to for Charlie airports.

It's in Indiana.

It's really dead.

Okay.

Yeah, but just the idea of going to a Charlie airport, having to talk to approach, having to get talked to clearance when you come out, like that idea I'd never done before.

So I thought it was just like the most crazy thing you could possibly do in a 172.

But now I'm with you, it's like, my favorite place to fly is New York.

I love the New York controllers.

You listen to what they say, and you do it and you do it right, and everything works out.

As soon as you do something wrong, they'll cut down your throat and they let you know.

It's like, I like having my expectations, like, you need to do this right now when I say it.

And that's how you do it.

It's like, done.

Thank you.

Please, let's do it again.

Yeah, that's the thing.

I. Uncontrolled airport.

If something doesn't, like, if something's.

If.

If something's incorrect, it's 100% your fault.

Yeah, Right.

Doesn't matter if there's another pilot that does something messed up, it's still your fault because.

Or, you know, it's both of yours fault because you're both supposed to coordinate.

So it's like, you know, I had an airplane once literally line up to take off down the.

We were ready to go, and he pulled out of the Runway, and we were going to take off in the opposite direction.

And it was like, if I wasn't like, hey, man, like, what the heck are you doing?

Do not take off off, then, you know, it would have been a. Yeah, not good.

Would not have ended well.

But that was an uncontrolled airport.

And the people there, when I talked to them after, they're like, well, yeah, you know, okay, we'll let them know.

I was like, I don't think you get the gravity of, like, how serious that could have been, but, you know, the responsibility is still shared.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I had that happen at.

Where were we?

David Hooks.

It's.

It's near Houston.

It has a water Runway, and it also has a normal Runway, but the tower is closing.

And some guy just.

The tower closed right after we landed.

And he was like, all right, everyone that's taxing, make sure you let this jet.

They can only turn off on this one taxiway because it's the only one that supports their weight.

And this is at a previous company out.

The company out now.

And he was like, all right, guys, I'm out.

Make sure that jet goes where it needs to go.

And everyone's like, all right, all right, all right.

And this one plane just, like, comes out of the hangar and just, like, turns onto the Runway.

And like, bro, you're literally right where we need to go.

Like, get out of here.

I'm getting ready to take off.

It's like, do you not see the Jet that's literally in front you of you.

And he's like, oh, what do you want me to do?

It's like, get out of our way.

Get out of the way.

Yeah, just stay where you are a little longer.

Yeah.

So, yeah, uncontrolled airports, man, it's just like, it's crazy.

I, yeah, it can be the wild, wild west.

So there's a lot of times you go from one control uncontrolled airport to another uncontrolled airport.

Yeah, the whole process is sometimes you don't talk to anybody.

So, yeah, absolutely no one can be very quiet.

Talk about kind of any challenges you had in your flight training at all.

Yeah, when I first started flying.

Well, obviously, I think nowadays the big challenge is cost for most people.

They have to, like, there's substitutes that I've known that have taken on a lot of debt to become a pilot.

And I think they get.

I think there's sort of a kind of tunnel vision towards like, okay, well, if I, I like, I'm going to become this kind of pilot.

And I've actually, I've got friends that are like that, that are learning to fly right now and they're like, nope, this is like exactly what I want to be doing.

And which is, I guess maybe that's not a bad thing either.

But my experience was totally different.

It was like I didn't know what was in store for me.

I just know that all the licenses are the same.

So whether you're going to take this career path or this career path, you still have to get the, you know, all your licenses and ratings things the same.

So just focus on that and don't get too like.

I think the big challenge is just figuring out how to do that in a timely and cost effective manner, which for me was picking a time in my life that would have been, you know, where I could focus on that the most but also be able to support that.

Because now is more important that people can still, you know, fund their flight training and not get in too deep with like, hey, now I've got all this debt now how am I, like, I need to get a job, right?

And yeah, and obviously it was different for me because I like the flight training.

Wasn't this, like, near as expensive?

I think, like, my private license cost me like $7,000.

Oh, dang.

People are gonna be so sad.

They're gonna be like, what the heck?

And you could rent a twin for 150.

I was renting a, like a, like a little twin for 150.

Bucks an hour.

Like, do you remember what's that?

Was it wet or dry?

Well, that was wet.

Yeah.

And they would just sometimes the owner of the plane, of the flight school, he'd be like, yeah, just take the plane and like, you know, go pick up Jim.

We got the, you know, another 172s broke down.

You'd go pick up the instructors right at this airport and be like, sweet, I can log three hours for free.

You know.

But now I think it's more important, you know, the challenge, the big challenge that I didn't have was obviously how expensive it is now.

And I think there's, this is a reality right now is that there was the whole perception of a pilot shortage, which there still is right now.

But it's not for new pilots.

It's for up here in Canada, for sure.

It's for pilots that have, you know, maybe a thousand hours of, of PIC time.

Right.

It's the captain positions that they're short of.

So, and I experience that right now, like I can find, I could get, I could throw a job ad out and get probably hundreds of responses, but that would be, you know, there, there wouldn't be enough qualification to do this job.

It'd be like, hey, yeah, I want like I got 400 hours and you know, I just got my commercial license.

I got four, maybe 500 hours and I've got maybe 20 hours of multi time.

Right.

But then it's that the poor, you know, great, we got lots of pilots there now.

But it's the, you know, thousand hours of PIC time pilots that are missing and that's just going to take time.

There's, there's still that gap, I think.

Yeah.

And I know so many people right now that are trying to find contract pilots and they're like, they'll pay literally, like they'll pay a lot of money for these people, but they just don't exist.

Those pilots aren't there.

There's.

They're scooped up doing, you know, doing other things and they're or they're just not, they're not there yet.

So there's still a pilot shortage problem.

It's just, it's not in new pilots.

It's now like that, that that deficiency is kind of.

Or that deficient part of the pilot.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

It's kind of like the gap where everything is.

Yeah, absolutely.

Trying to find that is challenging.

Yeah.

Do you think there's ever a world where you would find yourself finally thinking, you know, maybe the airlines are the way to go?

You know, maybe.

Yeah.

And actually so my, my brother's a pilot as well and him and I have, actually we're very close.

So we talk a lot about what the, you know, what we want to do with flying and whatnot.

And he, he learned to fly after me and it was kind of, it was great because like him and I could then, you know, I trained him on these airplanes and we both do contract flying together, but we talk all the time about like, well, what is like the big maybe we want to fly airplanes in the future.

I've always left it open, you know, fly airline stuff in the future.

And I've always left it open because I have no idea, like, I don't know how I didn't think I'd be doing this contract plan for this long, but I love it.

The money's great, flexibility is incredible.

The adventures have been awesome.

So I don't know.

And I, I, I look at some of my airline friends and I'm like, man, that would be pretty cool to be able to fly across the ocean.

But then I'm like, man, every time I've flown across the ocean, whether it's for, you know, to go for fun, you know, I don't know if I'd want to sit in an airplane for 12 hours and that, that's just not my lifestyle, I don't think.

And so, yeah, so it's, it might come in a different point in my life, but I think, I think being more open minded makes you kind of a little bit more accepting of, of more opportunities.

Oh, for sure.

100 just having like, if I was just focused on, okay, I want to, I want to do airline flying.

And then, you know, and then if that wasn't something that I ended up in was, I'd be disappointed.

So I, so I've tried to be really open minded with like lots of.

So my dream would be like, hey, if I get a float plane job, I've even looked like jobs that would generally perceptually be considered, you know, going backwards in your aviation career.

Like, I'm like, man, it'd be fun to just go fly float planes out.

Yeah.

You know, Tofino in B.C.

on the ocean.

And like that sounds awesome to me.

I'm like, there's a place in, there's.

Every retired airline pilot will do.

Yeah, no, once they retire, they buy a little airplane, they fly it around and, and no.

And you know, in the wilderness, a.

Lot of them do do that.

There's a place in Florida, it's called Tropic air.

And they just go to and from the islands.

They go in caravans, and they just fly to the Bahamas and then they come back.

You know something I don't think.

I think they fly, like, a lot of legs a day.

But, I mean, it's kind of fun to go land in the water.

And my buddy was the chief pilot, and he was, like, just posting up in the water, just like, swimming next to his plane.

He's like, all right, now we're gonna take off and do another leg.

I was like, that sounds.

Yeah, sick.

Like.

And I would have loved to build my time that way.

It's like, I don't want to make that my career right now, but one day, you know, that could be a cool option.

Well, and that's the thing is, like, for some people, that is a great career.

Yeah.

And it's a very rewarding career.

I just have.

I just know some people that do that, and they're the happiest.

You know, they're.

I mean, in more way.

You know, in more ways than just just the flying part.

Like, they're.

They're physically strong.

They're just like.

Because they're out and, you know, their.

Their work is more physically demanding.

Right.

Like, they're.

They're just.

Because of the environment they're in.

And.

And I think it just serves their.

Their.

You know, it serves their body and their mind.

They're just happy, really.

They enjoy doing that kind of stuff.

And so.

And so the airlines just don't really fit me yet, but I have a huge appreciation for people that do do that because.

Because it's an essential thing.

And, you know, you have to have brilliant people behind the scenes and flying the airplanes, mechanics, air traffic, it's a.

It's a.

It's the biggest part, I think, of the industry, I think.

But I just haven't got there yet because this is what I love.

I love the adventure part.

And I. I just can't find that in big airports and hotels.

There's.

It's a different kind of adventure, for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's great that you have.

Have an open mind about it, because, I mean, I was like, for sure.

I was like, I would tell everyone, even on this podcast, you listen to one, like, three years ago, and it's me being like, I'm never going to the airlines.

Like, this is maybe not three years ago, probably like six years ago, because it definitely did sway at some point, and people could probably pinpoint when it did.

But, I mean, I was just like, this is all I want to do.

I'm never going 121.

And then as we talked about before, it was just kind of like I started seeing people, you know, some of my friends, they're upgrading their captain.

I was like, well, what's their pay?

And I was like, holy smokes.

They're year three captain and they're making more.

More than what, like a year 10 captain makes at where I am at, and they fly so much less.

So at some point it's like, all right, well, better quality of life.

They could have more money.

And they only fly like two legs a day where I'm flying like five legs a day.

I was like, what am I doing?

Like, why am I working so hard and not making that much money?

So there definitely comes a point where it does look advantageous.

And you hope, hopefully, if it ever does happen, you're in a position where they are hiring and they need pilots, because there are some times that might click and you're like, dang it, there's no hiring, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

Well, and that, that was the, you know, I, I found up here, like, there's, you know, I've never made a resume except for once.

And it was like, flooded with like, I got.

So I had so much opportunity to go fly for.

I mean, up here, they, they would literally strap you to an airplane if they could.

And you know, they, some of the, some of the airlines were, were very, very eager to hire people.

They'd hire you over the phone and, and contract flying.

There's another fellow that I, I got the pleasure of meeting.

We kind of got connected because he flies like, he does contract work as well.

And it was his, his life was like copy paste mine just in a jet.

And that's the one thing that I, you know, I, that I, you know, I'm really fortunate that this is kind of the pathway that I've taken because I think contract flying is one of the most.

It's for the amount of time and work you put in.

It's one of those lucrative flying gigs you can, you can get just because of, you know, the, the necessity that, okay, someone needs to, if they, the owners need to fly somewhere, you're the guy, right?

If you're not there, nobody flies.

Right?

And they're not just gonna, you know, they can't just go and hire someone because you're the, you're the guy they know, you know, the airplane.

And so the, you may not fly a lot, but the, you know, it's not based on how much you fly.

It's based on how much time you're available.

That, that, that's where the compensation comes in.

And you can set your own rates.

Like I've got a guy that he won't fly unless he makes.

I mean he makes more than he does flying for, for the airline that he does.

And he's been a, you know, you know, I think he's like a seven year captain.

And he, he just comes, he's like, he's like, I like hopping in the conquest.

So he's good to fly like two hours to this place and hang out, go have a beer and spend the night.

And then next day it's like, oh, we don't fly till the afternoon.

So you know, he might go hit the beach for a bit and then fly two hours to come back home.

And he likes that as you just little side side gig kind of thing.

But, but yeah, like the airlines, I'd never cancel that out necessarily.

But when I, as soon as I hear, I'm like, oh man, I like I, you know, I'd have to leave the people that I've got here as well.

Kind of strange.

Both.

You never know.

Yeah, so be that guy.

Flying big jets would be super cool.

Yeah, I love to do that.

It's definitely different than flying little planes.

The site picture got me for a long time.

You know, landing the latitude was a lot longer, lower than landing 737.

So I'd be like, all right, my wheels are boom.

I was like, yeah, I gotta figure this out.

And there's a guy that I got, I hired him, not well, it'll be a couple years ago.

And he, he was like a 25 year triple seven captain.

Oh, dude.

And he would go from that to the 425 and it was like he had somehow he could just do it like that seamlessly.

And he, it wasn't like any change at all for him.

Like, oh yeah, yeah buddy, I got this.

And he'd land silky smooth.

And then he'd go and hop in the triple and like, see you.

Same thing.

Well, I've never flown with him in the triple, obviously, but, but I'm assuming it's silky smooth because he's one of those people that some people just got it.

It's flying like he's flown everything you can imagine.

Yeah.

And, and so some people are just really, they're just born to be pilots for sure.

Tell me, tell, give me one story.

And we're gonna go from each side of things.

Give me like the best day of your work.

So a quick story in that and kind of like the worst day you've had at your work.

Yeah, so I'd say the best day is.

I've had lots of great days.

For me, it's.

It's all about, like, the people I'm flying.

Like, if we do fishing trips, I love those because there's get paid to fish.

And sometimes it's just a matter of, like, the, you know, the.

The guys I'm flying, they'll get.

They'll get this idea like, hey, we want to go here.

We're gonna go.

We're gonna go to the lodge and, you know, we're gonna go salmon fishing for three days.

And then.

And then you get there and you spend three days fishing, and then they're about to go home, and then you come up with this wild idea like, well, you guys all have your passports.

Like, we could go to.

You guys want to pop on down somewhere?

It's just kind of a pie in the sky idea.

And then the owner's like, that's a good idea.

And then everybody else is like, where are we extending the trip?

And then it continues on from there kind of thing or whatever.

And a lot of it, the flying is for work.

But, you know, they always get the.

I always like the kind of the unknown element.

So usually, like, if I've done trips like that, there's kind of a component of.

Of.

Well, we could just.

Where.

Where should we go next?

Like, right.

Got the.

We got all the friends in the back, you know, their friends in the back, the plane, and they go hang out somewhere else.

Yeah.

So like, when we do Mexico trips, that's usually kind of how it.

Like, we get down to Mexico.

And then coming back, they just pick spots like, hey, we'd like to take.

Let's stop here and let's hang out there and go.

Go poke around, you know, Reno for a bit.

Oh, I haven't been to Reno.

Oh, we haven't been to North Dakota.

Well, I can tell you there's nothing in North Dakota.

Not in the winter time.

Yeah, definite not.

Nothing against North Dakota.

It's a. Yeah, it's a powerhouse for, you know, the oil business.

So.

So you gotta, you know, it's an important place, but in the wintertime, it's cold, so.

But, you know, stuff like that where you just kind of.

The unknown parts have been some of the best days ever.

Because you're, like, sweet.

Like, I don't know where we're going.

We don't know what's here.

But we're gonna try to fly there and see where we're gonna have fun.

Yeah.

And then the worst days have always been and not.

I love all the weather flying.

So for me, like if it's.

I always like flying to the coast because there's.

The weather's more interesting there.

If it's like a blue sky day like it is today here in Calgary, I. I'm not as interested because to me it's just not as exciting.

So.

I like the mountain flying.

I like the, the weather flying.

I like the.

I like the elements of that.

Especially in the winter up here because it gets really cold.

But for me it's.

The worst days are always when it's.

When it's heavy snow and you're stuck at an airport up here and it's minus.

Well, I guess would it be in Fahrenheit to be.

But.

Well, Celsius would be like minus 30 and you're stuck on a ramp and it's snowing and the snow is kind of like, you know, like it's cold but it's like, like, you know, it's sticking to the airplane, that kind of stuff.

And it's night time and then you got passengers that aren't showing up on time and.

Yeah, yeah.

That stuff just.

Oh, just.

I just, I hate that because.

And then once you're in the air, you're like, like, yeah, finally.

I mean, the flying's the easiest part in doing anything like this.

It's all the stuff before that because you're always worrying about.

Okay.

And sometimes like the worry.

These are simple little things like, you know, okay, did I like, did I forget to book rental cars for, you know, someone or you know, like stuff like that that doesn't really apply to actually flying the airplane at all.

So.

Right.

It's like you're like a travel agent.

It's like the complete trip.

Right.

Like you gotta, you gotta do everything.

Yeah.

Sometimes.

Yeah.

And then most of the time they do have like, you know, they have their assistants that will line that stuff up.

But sometimes, sometimes they just look to you because they trust you and they're like, Evan, like, line us up a rental car because this is going to be a fun trip with me and the wife and these other people that are coming along and you're the guy.

Right.

And they also might just include you in everything too.

Which sometimes.

Which works too.

You want to go do your own thing, but they want to include you like, no, we got dinner plans tonight.

We're bringing you like, like, we'll meet you here at seven.

You're like, darn it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kind of good though.

You have to be a good people person.

Yeah.

And it's surprising how many pilots aren't don't like people.

Yeah.

You're not wrong.

You're not wrong.

Like, you know how to handle personalities.

Right?

You got to understand how to, how to talk to people.

Yeah.

And, yeah, exactly.

And, and somehow, you know, make them always feel comfortable.

But then.

Yeah.

Light hearted fun is, is always important when doing this kind of stuff.

Well, as you know, like flying for netjets, you probably, probably had lots, I mean, you deal with lots of people, like face to face, right?

Yeah, yeah.

If you're diverting, you have bad news.

It's just one of these.

You're like, hey, we can't get in, the weather's bad.

You know, you don't have a door in front of you.

It's face to face.

And you see them get angry and you see their wheels turning and where's my car?

How do I get there?

What about my food?

What about this?

What about my meeting here?

They're on the floor phone.

It's like, all right, dude.

Yeah, we actually can't get in there now either.

We're going somewhere else.

And like.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I've had people like, well, there's one fella and he just sit in the back and he'd just throw mints at you when, when the cabin was too cold or something like that.

You throw mints from the back and then, you know, like stuff like.

But those people I've learned to love, could and appreciate because they're obviously, they're all brilliant people.

Yeah.

And they've, they're all totally different from one another.

But you know, you learn a lot from those people.

And they're, they're, they're airplane owners.

They, they are, their whole purpose is running their business.

And you know, they've all got families too.

So I, I, you know, you can relate to, you know, their passion as well.

It's like they're passionate about other things just as much as I am about airplanes and doing flying for them.

But that's, that, that's what, that's what I love about this job is, is being with those different types of people.

People.

And when we, when we finish a trip and they're all happy, like, yep, see you, like next weekend.

Like, it's like, that's good.

That's what makes me feel good about doing it.

Yeah.

And they trust you.

The trust is.

They don't have to tell you that.

You could just tell, like, they trust you a lot.

Yeah.

Especially when they load the plane up with their family and stuff and you're like, yeah, absolutely.

It's a big deal.

And then, you know, that.

That means a lot to me.

So that's one of the reasons why it's hard to.

To go to something else, because I feel like I would miss that a lot, and I wouldn't.

I'd be jealous if someone else came and took my spot, to be honest.

That's.

You know, I feel like I've worked.

I've worked a lot of.

Absolutely.

You know, just to.

To build that up.

And I didn't even know I was.

Because I was enjoying the flying and.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's amazing.

Business now is.

How'd this happen?

Yeah, it's.

It's kind of like.

Yeah, it's like anything you put a lot of effort in, if it's something you love to do, you could put a lot of effort and time into it.

And you don't realize you put a lot of effort and time into it, which is good.

Yeah.

So I got.

I got one more question for you.

We kind of talked about it, but you can kind of sum it up in one thought here.

If someone's listening to us right now, they're like, man, I don't really want to do the airlines either.

I don't want to do this.

You know, your style or what you have created is what I want.

Give me three tips on what you'd recommend.

Someone starting out that's just getting ready to get into the contract world or getting into.

Into the single pilot world.

What would you recommend for them to be successful and what you do.

Awesome.

So there's a video on my channel, and when I made this video is about how to get your first pilot job.

And when I made the video, I thought, oh, like, I kind of talked very vague about details, and I sort of just talked about, well, you got a network and all this other kind of stuff that seemed a little cliche and whatnot.

And it was crazy how well received that video was.

And there were so many people that were like, oh, man, I got my first job, like, doing this exact same thing.

So it was the complete opposite, what I thought.

And I almost didn't release the video because of that, but it was.

I talked a lot about, like, how important it is to get to know people, and that is still the biggest thing.

And, you know, contract flying, this is kind of a lucky Thing, but airlines, the exact same thing.

I know a guy that was.

He did a career change.

He was 40, I think mid-40s, and he just got his commercial license.

And he knew a guy really well that was operating a international medicine medevac, flying a G, G100.

So a little Gulf stream all over.

All over planet Earth.

And he got hired at, I think it was just under 400 hours via FO.

And he basically check marked planet Earth.

Like, you see, like, where this guy flew, picking up pat, you know, patients all over the world.

And he'd been to like, every.

Every country I can think of.

And, And.

And that was all because of just a good connection and that connection that he had had.

I ended up being friends with him as well.

And he's provided so many opportunities for me, most of which I just couldn't take because of my current job.

But that was probably one of the best examples.

I was like, if you want to.

If you want to fly a certain type of airplane or go into a certain career path, you can definitely, probably make that happen.

You just got to get to know those people.

And not in, like, the way that's like, hey, I'm just trying to build an opportunity for my.

Myself, like putting the hours just to become good friends with those people.

So, like, for me, the clients that I have, they trust me a lot because.

And they hire me because of not necessarily my piloting skills or, you know, like, that's obviously required.

But they hire me because, well, I go and I sit with them.

We talk about things completely irrelevant to that.

I'm not just, like, digging for opportunity from these people.

It's like, I genuinely put the time and effort in to go and this sounds bad, but, like, you know, sit with them and.

And get to know, go for dinner with them when they have their business meetings and, like, hang out with them, right?

Because then they're just like, well, this Evan guy, like, he's.

He just likes us.

And it's true, because I do.

So I think, like, if new pilots, if they want to get into a career right out of the gate and have a big advantage, manage, is to start networking with people and get to know them at, like, a friend level.

That's so important.

And it's the same thing with.

I think that with any job, people always hire.

They hire people that they know before anything else.

They always pull from that pool of people that they know.

Right?

And I think having a strong resume is important too.

But also having, like, good, good quality hours in airplanes is important too.

So I think if you get some time, even just sitting right seat, that says a lot on a resume, too.

Like, hey, even if you sit in the right seat of a King Air and you see what's going on, and maybe you can't log the hours necessarily, but that experience is still something you can showcase, right?

Yeah, because I think it's.

It's out of touch a lot, you know, for a lot of new pilots to just go and say, well, okay, I need to get some.

You know, I need to log some hours in a King Air.

We can't necessarily.

You can't rent those hours.

But if you can get experience, tag along, hang out at airports.

Like, it's just amazing how many times I've.

I've gotten free rides with people just because other owner operators are proud to.

People that have airplanes love showing off their airplanes.

So you can go to any airplane.

It could be a.

You can.

I've hopped on rides on jets just because you just go and you talk to the pilots, and then the owner's there and he's like, yeah, I want you to hop on.

And then you just hop on the airplane.

I.

That's in Canada.

I don't.

I imagine in the States, it's probably the exact same thing because there's 10 times more airplanes.

Right?

But you just got to be a likable personality and be fun and.

And that's.

I. I think everybody is kind of in the same boat, whether they own airplanes, whether they have a lot more money than you, whether they have.

Have, you know, fancy airplanes or.

Or they're just flying the airplanes.

They're like.

Everybody just wants friendly people around them.

So you can be a friendly personality that's eager and that shows enthusiasm and loves flying, has a passion for not just flying, but also like the mechanics of aviation.

There's so many ways you can build your own resume up without having to put it on paper and make opportunities for yourself.

Yourself, for sure.

And, I mean, there's a lot to say about just being a likable person and coming in with a good attitude, because end of the day, they're gonna.