The Pilot to Pilot podcast is a place for aviators to come for inspiration and encouragement. We aim to help all types of aviators to continue pursuing their aviation dreams, whether that be flying commercially or flying for fun.
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Not ones are one harder than the other, but would you say they're very similar in how they kind of go through mentality of working you out and pushing you as hard as you can? Okay. So the military is harder. Like, especially for me, like, I'm not a real bulky person, you know, like, I I women are not built to, you know, hold as much weight physically as men. So, like, me throwing on a £100 pack and trying to walk around for 5 hours, it's gonna be a lot harder than a guy who's £240, like, doing that, you know, just, like, mathematically. So I definitely think harder. The thing with the military that was really good for me and what I realized is, like, as an athlete, yes, we did hard things and we pushed ourselves and, like, we were uncomfortable. We were in pain. But there was still this element of, like, you can take care of yourself afterward. You you always did it hydrated. You always had some level of enough sleep. You know, like, in the military, like, I've been awake for, like, 3 days at a time, and you just get to this point where and the biggest, like, lesson I got from the military is just like, you're gonna be fine. Like, you you can handle way more than you think you can. And that was really good for me because I kinda needed that. Like, I didn't realize how much I was kind of, like I don't know if the word's, like, privileged or, like, I had it easier than I thought I did. When I got to the military, it's just like, we don't care. Like, you're sick. We don't care. You know, like, you're hurting, walk it off. Like and that was actually really good for me because you realize, oh, okay. Actually, yeah. I mean, I I can do this. It just sucks. You know? So you do all the harder things. And also, like, I think I was at a level that I really shouldn't have been either in the military. Like, I just kinda pushed myself to be able to do some of the, you know, training and things that I did with the guys and you know, some of the different schools and stuff like that. It was hard, you know, and and I just pushed myself to a level where I was, like, able to complete it. But you do it without water, without food, enough food, or good food, without sleep, and you just kinda go to another level psychologically, the
You know, there's been some softening in the Chinese markets, which have historically been very strong for shipping. We all know about how how many goods and services are produced over there and are sent here to the US, And a large component of that involves air freight. You know, not all of it's on shipping and and and, you know, and a lot of it does come on air freight. So we've seen some softening there and that even a small move there can have a dramatic impact, you know, on all the freight carriers worldwide. So, yeah, you know, I I don't know. It does seem like we're in a little bit of a of a shakedown, you know, or shake up, I guess. The, the other piece is the airline industry in general is a leading economic indicator of a downturn and a and a lagging indicator of an upturn, which is sad. Right? Because it compresses our prosperity. Our business cycles are are compressed compared to other industries. We're not seeing that so much on the passenger side anymore because of the ancillary income, which we've talked about before and the and the ways airlines make money now. But we we certainly you know, the freight carriers can't really do the same thing. Right? I mean, an airline can charge for a baggage fee or a seat convenience fee or first on. You you know, there's certain things we're experimenting with on the freight side. You know, if you wanna get it there before 8 AM, you know, you can pay a little more or whatever. So there are you're seeing some of that ancillary type of income, but they don't have the opportunity just structurally that you'll see on the passenger side. And so, yeah, I I do think we need to fasten our seat belt for at least a little while. And, I again, I don't think, you know, FedEx is not in danger of being insolvent by any stretch. They're gonna be a major player for years to come. From a pilot perspective, I think you can anticipate a little bit slow movement for a while. But eventually, that'll pick back up just like all the other airlines, especially when retirements, you know, kick in and the other fundamentals start, you know, reaching, where they are forecast to be. Yeah. And I meant and I'm glad you mentioned ancillary ancillary fees. Right? Ancillary? Yeah. Ancillary. Yeah. Ancillary. Yeah. Fancy word. I'm glad you brought that up because American just changed how much they're charging for bags.
I'm at the REA booth around Oshkosh and, just pretty much being the voice, I feel like. Any anytime when you have a question, I always call Gary, and he's a huge help. So this is gonna be very informative. We're gonna kinda just dive right into, what to expect as an airline pilot, what to expect as a career. You know, we're gonna go in, what hiring looks like, how hiring has changed. Even so in the next, the last time doctor Jim Higgins and I talked, it's a little bit different than than what it is, or it's a little bit different than what it was when we first had our podcast a couple weeks ago. So it changes fast. I think both of you will agree that this is a very fluid industry and things change before you can blink an eye. And right when you think that the ups are gonna stay for as long as possible, they, we get a little shocked at once a while. So, if you guys don't mind, we'll just kinda dive right in, and and we'll talk about what's going on with the hiring world and what you could expect right now getting into the aviation industry, and trying to get that dream major airline job. And and, Jim, we'll kinda start with you with, any late latest news that you might have. Well, you're probably familiar with the fact that some of the airlines now have or more airlines now have announced a little bit of a slowdown in their hiring. Alaska and, United, being the 2 that have come on. Of course, they're being impacted greatly by what's going on at Boeing. And for those of you that don't know, there's not some good things going on at Boeing right now. They're having great difficulty with their MAX line, particularly their MAX 10. And also just just some bad a bad news cycle for them with some of the various issues. So as a consequence, we always you know, I know this is sometimes considered a controversial term by some. We talk about a pilot shortage, but, now we're certain a new type of concept known as an aircraft shortage. And, again, this is not something that anyone has calculated into their models for, you know, hiring and growth. We've always just kind of assumed that Boeing and Airbus and Embraer, 3 of the major manufacturers
Coming on. I wish you the best of swing sesh. It's a pretty cool product. Check it out. And also, if you're into it, you might wanna get one because I'm pretty freaking super. But aviation, that's all I got for you right now. So without any further ado, here's Brad, marine pilot and also owner and creator of Swing Sesh. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. I'm excited to have you on. We talked a little bit before in the DMs about, what you do, and it's just so crazy how this worked out. I I think I literally just liked a a video, and you probably saw pilot. You're like, oh, let me follow pilot. I was like, yo, dude. Your swing set your swing set is awesome. I want one of those one day. And then you're like, yeah. I'm a pilot too. And I was like, no way. So, here we are. Yeah. I'm probably one of the, I'm a one of 1. You know, you can find a few astronauts here and there, but, there's very few dudes that, have gone from military aviation to, swing set manufacturing or fitness playset manufacturing. So I think I'm one of 1. Yeah. 20 years ago when you joined the marines where you're like, yeah. My end game is to create a swing set where I could also work out. No idea. But but, yes, I'm always willing to have a good time and play along the way. So Cool, man. Well, hey. We'll get to the swing session later. We'll talk more about aviation now. So, first question I see everyone is why did you wanna become a pilot? Yeah. So, maybe a little jealousy. I don't know. But, my sister and when she was in 2nd grade, I think I was probably 5, or so, she made a video called My Dad the Pilot. And I was out at the airport watching. And, I had kinda sat around when he was doing some flying lessons and things like that. Just watching him do that, I think it I don't know, it just gets in your blood. And, from that, I knew, I wanted flying to be a part of my life. I didn't know what that meant exactly, but I just knew that, you know, flying was gonna be involved whether it's for pleasure or for, you know, for work. So And how old were you when you did that? You said your sister was in 2nd grade, but how old were you?
Grow from it on on my stuff. So, yeah, I I I got with him, and I couldn't afford anything. I'll I'll be honest. I I was I tell people I worked 40 hours a week for 1 hour of flight of flying for a decade, You know, just constantly building my way through it. And Gary worked with me as far as, you know, he knew that I could fly maybe once every other week. So he gave me homework to do. He get and then being at a flight school or working at working out of flight school and pumping gas, it was really helpful that I could watch other students going through the same stuff I was going through. Going to a community college and their aviation program was really helpful because I had you know, I I didn't realize it at the time, but I was building up a network of people that I could work off of. It's fun to this day. I still have those connections. We still help each other get jobs. Yeah. The the network you build as a pilot, I think, is you you know this. Like, you never know who you're gonna be standing next to, who they may introduce you to in the future. You know, your student could be your captain at the next job. And so, that was STEWS. Immensely helpful. I kinda went off the rails after after my private pilot training because I got in working at a maintenance shop as an apprentice mechanic because I wanted to learn more about air airplanes. And I started working on my instrument rating with one of the mechanics there. And my instrument rating took me, like, 3 years. It just was absolutely ridiculous. And part of that was me. I did not like being under the hood. I I learned how to fly because I wanted to go out and see the world, not because I wanna look at the instrument panel. And keep in mind, on those days, like, we didn't have, GPSs. So I think my first 20 hours of of instrument training was to try to figure out where the heck I was. And usually, that was where I was, like, 10 minutes ago. So Starting to look at Mexico right now. This isn't good.
