I have always had a passion to be pilot since I can remember my first thoughts.
I was surrounded by airplanes since I was a baby
and I grew up with airplanes in aviation family.
Passion is the perfect world to describe it.
I sometimes wonder how in the world did our parents let us do this.
A lot of my friends that fly these, we're all around the same age group.
A lot of us grew up with our dads doing this and we all became pilots, as well,
flying those airplanes.
It's not an obsession.
But the passion's always been there.
I was a kid who instead of thinking the greatest moment of my life might be game 7 the World Series,
ninth inning, bases loaded and of course knock it out of the park to win the series.
My version of that was always coming down the chute racing arena,
and the first time I saw an air race that was my dream moment.
I was fortunate to accomplish that in 2009,
and the passion for aviation, it just seems to grow and get stronger, gets more real.
It evolved into something else.
It's where I am the most serious at any given time in my life.
Every time all the kind of jokes go out the window and you focus on your environment,
there's something incredibly rewarding about having that total focus and achieving that.
It's incredible feeling to light up an engine.
It's bulging some smoke out and we're all in a big game standard propeller out there.
When the airplane comes alive it's an incredible feeling.
Be into that careful eagerness of wanting to go out and use all your faculties
to do everything correctly,
especially when you gotta stay focused and everything go horribly wrong at wrong at any moment,
and be ready for that so you can never get to smiling,
having too much fun and giggles cause it all could turn.
I can tell you that I have over eleven people still in my cell phone that aren't with us anymore.
I do fear getting killed in a plane crash.
Chances are it means, I just did something stupid, I did something wrong.
It's a constant stare, it's not something you can focus on, dwell on,
you just, that's the whole point of preparation.
That's the point of proper maintenance, that's the whole point of
being responsible when operating the airplanes,
and that is being able to put it all together and be safe.
Feeling a better compliment,
there's a lot of really, really good pilots out there and there's a lot of talent for sure.
But I think every one of us feels
one of greatest accomplishments, when, when somebody you admire or respect,
shows that same gratitude for your ability to be safe.
I've spent a lot of hours burning light through midnight alone at the airport, trying to get things done,
I mean inside of it, it's really just ongoing it's
figuring out all the little bells and whistles and gizmos
and how they operate hands-on, has been very rewarding for me,
it's always been the time when I do the most soul-searching.
There's times, when it's lonely.
There's times when you're burned out.
There's times when you're frustrated.
There's times where it's just, just fun to work on them with your friends.
There's times when it's his peaceful, relaxing.
Things sometimes take as long as they take to do it properly,
and that in itself has its own sacrifices with spending time with your family or not being able to.
A lot of times the rewards are what you reach yourself.
People aren't there to see this.
And they don't see all the work and preparation
and hours spent and the bloody knuckles.
The safety wires stuff that we all know so well, it's, it's a pretty incredible environment to be in.
I have a lot of other interests that I really enjoy that help me through the wintertime.
Motorcycles are another thing, you know, these are all things,
that I share with my kids which are important to me.
There's so many people that I've seen in this industry that pigeonhole their entire lives
just to that type of flying and that leaves a lot of people in your life out of passions in your life.
And that's why I think it's important to be well rounded with that.
There's no way you can share flight, my son's been flying on my lap since he was a little guy.
If my son had the love for it, which he definitely shows symptoms of being hooked,
then you gotta support that path for people, that goes for everything.
I'd be very proud, very proud, but always scared.
I'm really happy that we have other passions and things that we like to do,
and that still give me that sense of achievement.
This is all cool, but none of it will ever replace the love, that I have for my wife and my children.
It's just they're all of privilege to be able to fly.
Being a pilot is just something that if you were a pilot you just need to fly.
If you have that passion it just needs to be fulfilled.
I do it cause I love it, I do it because it gives me a sense of satisfaction and happiness
and I think a chemical release in my body that always puts a smile on my face.
I enjoy the challenge of it,
enjoy when things just go right.
it's a lot of fun.
And then again, at times I've had things go wrong, those are probably rewarding experiences,
was handling it appropriately and that's a pretty preening feeling.