If you could fly any person, who would you fly?
Justin Bieber.
Hey guys, we are here with Mr. Danny. Mr Hollywood is his nickname, apparently, I just found
out. But, Danny, do you mind introducing yourself to the folks back home and just letting us
know how long you've been flying for and how long you've been with Maverick?
Well, my name is Danny Hodges. I have no idea, but my first day at work, Dwayne, our director
of training said, "Hey Hollywood, go preflight an aircraft", and the name just stuck. So
yeah, I've been flying for five years now, and it's going great. This is a great company
to work for.
With National Aviation Day coming up, that was a holiday that was originally proclaimed
by FDR. It's really just celebrating the progression of aviation since then. So if you could fly
any aircraft, what would it be and why?
I have had a dream to fly an Airbus product that is just like this. Here, I actually have
it on my phone. It's my background.
It's your background. Oh, man.
Yep. So I'll show it off. It's the H160.
Oh, wow. H160?
It's brand new. Yeah, Isn't that beautiful?
Wow.
Primarily, from what I'm getting, they're going replace the Dolphin, and the Dolphin
has been used in a whole plethora of search and rescue missions, primarily with the Coast
Guard. Flying the 130's are cool, too. They're beautiful helicopters. Airbus is my favorite,
personally.
We love Airbus, obviously. Clearly that's the only helicopter we fly, right?
That's all we got.
Do you have a dream aircraft that you would love to fly someday, or are you living the
dream now?
I mean, this is a good step, but I'd like to eventually fly the Skycrane, fighting fires.
Ooh, what's that?
It's a pretty massive helicopter. Yeah, I'd just fly that doing firefighting.
I think K-MAX helicopter. They use it for utility a lot. I've seen them in fighting
fires, but they're really rare, really rare. So they're just dual rotor heads intermeshing.
They're weird looking.
They only have two rotors?
They have two rotors. They're like a V shape. So one on each one.
Probably a Black Hawk.
A Black Hawk?
Yeah. It's a big military helicopter.
Oh, okay.
That or Chinook. Same thing, military, but I didn't go in the Army, so I couldn't do
it.
Every day is living the dream. So I feel like as soon as you fly the next thing, you'll
just miss the good old R22, what you started in.
Oh, is that what the starting helicopter is for a lot of people?
For most people it is, yeah.
What is an R22?
It's like a lawnmower they turned into a helicopter.
Then compared to what you fly now, if you had to make kind of like a similar parallel,
you started in a lawnmower, so what are you flying now?
It's more like a sports car.
Nice, upgraded.
Yep. Most people want to fly the really big stuff. But I'm like, why do I want to fly
a school bus?
Well, because there's a whole show on that, the Magic School Bus.
Oh yeah, that's true. I never thought of Miss Frizzle as a pilot.
She is.
Yeah.
Whoa. We're making discoveries here on National Aviation Day.
A jet pack would be cool.
A jet pack? Is that an aircraft? That would be pretty cool.
Yeah. Why not? It's carrying me, and it's a craft that flies through the air.
It's a craft that flies through the air.
Probably a UFO.
A UFO. Are you going to be at the Area 51 raid? So for people that don't know, could
you just tell us a little bit about the aircraft that we fly here at Maverick?
The helicopter we fly is an Airbus H130, formerly Eurocopter EC-130. That's what the EC stands
for. They are pretty amazing machines and about 742 horsepower. We can carry up to eight
people, including myself. A fairly modern design of helicopter, and they get the job
done. Air conditioning, we have all the bells and whistles, I guess you could say. Carpet,
leather seats, all that stuff you'd put in a sports car.
Luxury.
It's kind of like a flying sports car, yeah.
A flying sports car that you could fit a bunch of people in.
It's the ultimate all-terrain vehicle is what I say.
There was actually an article that was put out. It was put out in Hawaii, and it was
interviewing one of our helicopter pilots over there. He was saying selfishly, one of
the reasons why he wanted to work for Maverick was to fly our ECO-Star. So yeah, I got to
ask, what makes our ECO-Star so desirable for pilots to fly?
Okay, so the biggest deal is comfort. They are a very comfortable ship. Any helicopter,
the way I liken it is like an airplane is kinda like a Bentley. You get there in style.
It's smooth. It's cool. But helicopters are forever the motorcycles of the aviation world.
They are so agile, and you can put it anywhere you want. We land in the Grand Canyon. There's
no runway. There's no site. It's like landing on a dime, right? So what they've done, what
Airbus has done, is created a platform that is entirely comfortable for the passenger
and likewise for the pilot experience.
If you could fly anybody in a helicopter, who would it be?
Morgan Freeman, but he has to narrate. Or Dave Attenborough.
So are you just going to give him a script or something like that?
Yeah, just give him a script.
Instead of you talking about the Grand Canyon and giving all the facts, you're just going
to have-
They're going to tell me.
You're just going to have them tell you.
Right.
That's a good new one. So, Morgan Freeman, if you're out there, we invite you to come
on one of our flights, particularly Matt's.
Absolutely.
If that ever happens, please let me know because I need to hop on that flight.
You'd be the first to know.
Okay, cool. Do you have like a dream passenger? Previous pilots have said Will Smith, Morgan
Freeman, except to make him narrate instead of ...
Oh, yeah, I would probably fall asleep with him talking about,.
Oh, no. No Morgan Freeman on Jarrett's flight.
Probably Tom Cruise. That would be-
Oh, that would be so trippy.
Yeah. There's a lot of people I would definitely enjoy flying, but Tom cruise would be a huge
hit given-
That's a good one.
... everything he's done.
All right, Tom Cruise, if you're listening. You flew Mandy Moore?
Yeah, she's amazing.
Oh, wow.
She's really friendly. Super nice.
I'm so jealous. That's so nice.
I do like Floyd Mayweather though. He's a cool guy.
Oh, that's cool. Our Vegas native. He lives here, right?
Yeah. He has a jet out here, I believe. I think he's a really nice guy.
I've always been a big fan of Edward Norton. I just think he's fantastic. It's kind of
a random thing.
That is. That's interesting.
But I think he's a really good actor. But I think that Tom cruise would also be awesome,
too, because he's learned how to fly, and he was in Top Gun, so that's pretty cool.
He can actually fly?
Yeah, he got his pilot's license. In this last movie that he did, he actually learned
how to fly a helicopter, so it'd be fun to fly with him and talk with him about that.
I think it would be pretty comical and cool to fly Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln?
With his top hat on.
With his top hat on?
Yeah.
Well, how tall is Abraham Lincoln? If he's a million feet tall, plus he has his hat,
how far would he have to bend over to get into the helicopter?
I would feel really bad after awhile, especially with a top hat on. It'd probably be crushed
around his ears.
What would you have been talk about with Abraham Lincoln?
I'd have him tell me his Gettysburg Address over and over and over and over.
Yeah. You'd just be like, can you do that one address one more time?
What's that again?
The four score part.
Say four score again.
Ah, man. I'd say probably Will Smith or a Justin Bieber.
I'm sorry. You're going to have to expound on that.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. You can't go wrong with that, right?
Are you going to have him sing the theme song to you or request that?
No, I'm going to sing it.
You're going to sing it to him?
Yes, yes.
You're going to perform for him.
I will.
So, Will Smith, if you're out there, this is your invitation to come fly with us because
Matt will give you a special performance.
Yes. I know all the words.
Are you going to perform for Justin Bieber as well?
He's a good performer, so I'll just sit back and watch him, yeah.
Okay. What's your favorite Justin Bieber song?
Probably One Less Lonely Girl.
Good one. That's a good one.