April 28, 2025

Beyond the Cockpit Door with Captain Ken Petschauer (Part 2)

Beyond the Cockpit Door with Captain Ken Petschauer (Part 2)
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Season 6

What really happens beyond the cockpit door?

In this captivating second part of our conversation with Captain Ken Petschauer, we reveal the realities of life in the pilot’s seat—from the intense preparation required to fly safely, to the leadership, split-second decision-making, and resilience needed to handle high-stress situations.

Captain Petschauer shares hard-earned insights from his 30+ year career as a pilot, including how aviators manage emergencies, stay medically certified, navigate changes post-9/11, and maintain calm in the sky and on the ground. He also clears up some of aviation’s biggest mysteries—like why your seat needs to be upright for takeoff and landing, and whether leaving your phone on really impacts the flight.

Key Highlights:

  • Managing High-Stakes Pressure: How pilots are trained to stay calm and make critical decisions even under extreme circumstances.
  • The Path to Captain: What it really takes to move from co-pilot to captain—and the unexpected emotions that come with it.
  • Behind-the-Scenes Secrets: Fascinating details passengers rarely hear about flying, airplane design, and cockpit life—including why those little airplane rules actually matter.
  • Career Lessons: Ken’s advice for aspiring pilots (and anyone navigating tough career moments).

Whether you're a frequent flyer, an aviation enthusiast, or someone chasing a dream of your own, Captain Petschauer’s story is filled with incredible insights, humor, and inspiration. ✈️


To discover more episodes or connect with us:



00:00 - From Nervous Captain to Confident Leader

10:13 - Medical Requirements and Pilot Restrictions

16:35 - Emergency Landings and Flight Attendant Tears

22:52 - Career Transitions: TWA to JetBlue

30:10 - Behind the Cockpit Door

37:41 - Emergency Procedures and Passenger Safety

WEBVTT

00:00:02.786 --> 00:00:08.449
I remember, like the first time you're a captain, you got this hundred million dollar jet right, you're signing a book and you're the captain.

00:00:08.449 --> 00:00:11.903
And here you are and you feel like you're borrowing dad's car for the first time.

00:00:11.903 --> 00:00:15.612
I briefed the flight attendant about what's going to happen.

00:00:15.612 --> 00:00:17.588
Everything's going to be normal, it's no big deal.

00:00:17.588 --> 00:00:19.400
We're just going to touch down a little bit faster.

00:00:19.400 --> 00:00:23.530
You probably wouldn't even notice if I didn't tell you, but you're going to see the emergency equipment out there.

00:00:23.530 --> 00:00:25.432
Just in case you know, our brakes overheat or something.

00:00:25.432 --> 00:00:30.045
Okay, no problem, ken, you know it's all good, captain, we're fine.

00:00:30.045 --> 00:00:35.164
And then, like 20 minutes later, I get a ding from the flight attendant in the back and she's like in tears.

00:00:35.164 --> 00:00:40.481
You could ask any pilot in that cockpit and go the engine quit right now.

00:00:40.481 --> 00:00:41.063
Where would we go?

00:00:41.063 --> 00:00:43.307
And they're going to know the answer immediately.

00:00:43.307 --> 00:00:45.030
I know exactly where I'm going.

00:00:45.030 --> 00:00:46.192
I don't even have to think about it.

00:00:46.192 --> 00:00:47.374
We always know that.

00:00:49.740 --> 00:00:52.228
Why does my seat need to be in the upright position?

00:00:54.539 --> 00:01:03.783
How real is it that I have to make sure that my cell phone and my computer is off on takeoff and landing, and then why can I turn it back on when we're at 35,000 feet?

00:01:03.783 --> 00:01:04.525
And then why can I turn?

00:01:04.525 --> 00:01:05.665
it back on when we're at 35,000 feet.

00:01:05.686 --> 00:01:08.048
Hello and welcome to the Career Journey podcast.

00:01:08.048 --> 00:01:09.188
No Wrong Choices.

00:01:09.188 --> 00:01:14.192
This is part two of our conversation with Captain Ken Petschauer of JetBlue Airlines.

00:01:14.192 --> 00:01:18.736
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to be joined by Tushar Saxena and Larry Shea.

00:01:18.736 --> 00:01:31.887
Before we rejoin the conversation, please be sure to like, follow and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening right now.

00:01:31.887 --> 00:01:33.471
We now pick things up with me, asking Ken about the lifestyle of a pilot.

00:01:33.471 --> 00:01:35.075
What are the physical requirements of the job?

00:01:35.075 --> 00:01:49.859
When you and I did a pre-call before the interview, we talked a little bit about some things that surprised me in terms of the number of hours before you can have a drink and then fly, not being able to take NyQuil drug testing.

00:01:49.859 --> 00:01:57.953
I'm sort of curious about all that stuff, like what are some of those requirements and conditions that you have to satisfy in order to fly?

00:01:58.902 --> 00:02:02.893
So to maintain your license you also have to have what they call a medical certificate.

00:02:02.893 --> 00:02:06.831
So ultimately you need to have passed your FAA medical.

00:02:06.831 --> 00:02:11.792
The FAA medical itself is not some strict super thing like the military or whatever.

00:02:11.792 --> 00:02:13.425
It's basically a screening.

00:02:13.425 --> 00:02:15.487
You know your blood pressure can't be above this.

00:02:15.487 --> 00:02:17.807
Your vision has to be this blah, blah, blah.

00:02:17.807 --> 00:02:19.286
You know vision can all be corrected.

00:02:19.286 --> 00:02:22.229
You know your hearing has to be a certain level.

00:02:22.229 --> 00:02:23.621
Of course you can wear hearing aids if you need to.

00:02:23.621 --> 00:02:23.700
The.

00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:24.701
You know your hearing has to be a certain level.

00:02:24.701 --> 00:02:25.804
Of course you can wear hearing aids if you need to.

00:02:25.804 --> 00:02:26.383
The problem is medications.

00:02:26.383 --> 00:02:29.867
If you take NyQuil, technically you can't fly, for I think it's 60 hours If you take.

00:02:29.948 --> 00:02:32.911
NyQuil, you can't fly for 60 hours afterwards.

00:02:32.931 --> 00:02:33.812
Correct, I think it's 60.

00:02:33.812 --> 00:02:35.614
It's either 48 or 60, something like that.

00:02:35.614 --> 00:02:38.240
Either way, that's a hell of a long time Exactly.

00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:40.364
And doctor friends of mine are like why?

00:02:40.364 --> 00:02:42.426
I guess it's because of the antihistamine.

00:02:42.426 --> 00:02:46.935
If you take Zyrtec you can't fly, for it's really high too.

00:02:46.935 --> 00:02:49.087
It's like 48 hours or something.

00:02:49.087 --> 00:02:51.487
So you have to be really careful about that.

00:02:51.487 --> 00:02:55.229
So it's not something we really, you know, bitch and moan about.

00:02:55.229 --> 00:02:57.004
Really, Pilots whine about everything.

00:02:57.004 --> 00:02:58.787
Right, we whine worse than the jet engine.

00:02:58.787 --> 00:03:02.546
But the difference between a pilot and a jet engine you can shut the jet engine off.

00:03:04.651 --> 00:03:05.353
Airplane humor.

00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.967
Yeah, I got a thousand of them, but you just have you know, accept it.

00:03:10.967 --> 00:03:12.469
It's just like we talked about.

00:03:12.469 --> 00:03:14.954
You can't have, you know, DUIs.

00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:16.381
I would hope so.

00:03:16.420 --> 00:03:24.794
Every time you do your medical you have to attest that you have any convictions with your licenses or driving or anything.

00:03:24.794 --> 00:03:28.099
Have you had any convictions with your licenses or driving or anything?

00:03:28.099 --> 00:03:30.485
So it's pretty strict with that.

00:03:30.485 --> 00:03:33.000
But it's always been, at least in my world, because it's all I ever wanted to do and my whole life is dedicated to it.

00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:34.626
It's just always been that way.

00:03:34.626 --> 00:03:49.353
So it's not really restrictive, but you do have to be really careful and if you have any problems that come in the future as you get older you know high blood pressure or anything like that you can absolutely mitigate those with normal medications.

00:03:49.353 --> 00:03:55.191
But they are pretty picky about certain things like heart attacks and people with stents and stuff like that.

00:03:55.191 --> 00:03:56.300
They're very, very strict.

00:03:56.300 --> 00:04:03.889
But there's a very strict protocol to go to and there's people to help with that with the union, like our aeromedical committee and stuff like that.

00:04:03.889 --> 00:04:04.871
They're excellent at that.

00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:08.241
All right.

00:04:08.241 --> 00:04:14.122
So I've got a couple of questions I want to ask you, the first being well, if that's the case, I mean, do you know many pilots who've had their license stripped, unfortunately?

00:04:14.263 --> 00:04:21.704
most of the time, uh guys medical out, so they either get some disqualifying heart issue or is that?

00:04:21.783 --> 00:04:22.185
is that maybe?

00:04:22.185 --> 00:04:24.230
Is that an age thing too, or or no?

00:04:24.430 --> 00:04:24.971
well it could be.

00:04:24.971 --> 00:04:31.966
I mean, if if the heart thing is age related, but I know so you do an ekg every year and you do your first one when you're young, you don't have to do it.

00:04:31.966 --> 00:04:38.649
You do your first one, I believe, at 35 as a baseline, and then, once you hit 40 years old, you have to do an ekg every year.

00:04:38.649 --> 00:04:44.466
We've actually had guys that are pretty young and it turns out that they've had an issue that didn't show up because they've never gotten an EKG before.

00:04:44.466 --> 00:04:55.641
It's either repairable or they're out for a while until it gets repaired, which a lot of things are, but there are some disqualifying ones and unfortunately they just can't fly, all right.

00:04:55.661 --> 00:05:01.040
So then I guess the flip side to that is then how easy or hard is it to then get reinstated?

00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:08.153
If you had your license stripped tomorrow, could you then, if you had the problem fixed within a month, then the next month, start flying again?

00:05:08.153 --> 00:05:15.040
Or is it like, okay, you got it stripped on tomorrow, well, you can't fly again for six months, something along those lines?

00:05:15.081 --> 00:05:25.612
Yeah, Head injuries are a big one TBIs, traumatic brain injuries or people who, if you get knocked unconscious or something, you have to go through a whole program and you're out.

00:05:25.612 --> 00:05:27.524
I was told this hadn't happened to me.

00:05:27.524 --> 00:05:30.603
I don't know, but you're out for at least a year or something like that.

00:05:30.603 --> 00:05:32.548
Wow, so they'll make your way to you.

00:05:32.548 --> 00:05:47.668
And it's frustrating because the FAA is way behind with getting these approved and people have had their paperwork in for months and months and months and they're just waiting for their waiver to get signed or whatever to go back and get their medical ticket so they can start flying again.

00:05:47.668 --> 00:05:50.369
So that part is pretty frustrating.

00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:53.930
While we're on this particular subject, I would think it would be very stressful.

00:05:53.930 --> 00:05:55.704
I mean, you're in charge of a lot of lives.

00:05:55.704 --> 00:05:59.545
You know lives at stake, and safety is, of course, a main issue.

00:05:59.545 --> 00:06:02.627
Do you get stressed, and how do you manage that stress?

00:06:02.627 --> 00:06:06.269
And have you known other pilots who've just it's become too much for them?

00:06:06.649 --> 00:06:09.887
Yeah, you know I get that question a lot also.

00:06:09.887 --> 00:06:18.226
You know all the responsibility and all that, but it's you know again, flying from such a young age and knowing it from the beginning, it's just, it's just something you accept.

00:06:18.226 --> 00:06:26.173
And you know, I have to say, as I got older you think about it more you go wow, there are a lot of people back there, we're counting on you, man.

00:06:26.173 --> 00:06:30.307
Yeah, exactly, it's universal across the board.

00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:49.891
We're always told like hey, don't worry about the people back there, worry about yourself, worry about keeping yourself okay, because if I'm okay, they're going to be okay that standards are so tight that you're nowhere near having an accident, incident violation, whatever you want to call it, or bending metal, you know, or injuring somebody, you know that's the biggest thing.

00:06:49.891 --> 00:06:51.327
Oh God, you don't want to bend metal.

00:06:51.327 --> 00:06:51.831
You know meaning.

00:06:51.831 --> 00:06:53.661
Oh, you're taxiing in and you didn't see something.

00:06:53.661 --> 00:06:54.685
You hit the wing, oh whatever.

00:06:54.685 --> 00:06:58.622
But you know that's embarrassing enough, but God forbid, you would actually injure anybody.

00:06:58.622 --> 00:07:00.225
You know that's our biggest fear.

00:07:00.225 --> 00:07:16.329
But I don't think we feel stress that way, for I'm sure some people may and maybe when you first start doing it, I remember, like the first time you're a captain, you got this a hundred million dollar jet right and you're signing a book, and you're the captain and here you are and you feel like you're borrowing dad's car for the first time.

00:07:16.329 --> 00:07:18.487
And I remember, like, is that light supposed to be on?

00:07:31.733 --> 00:07:34.937
You know I don anticipated present themselves once in a while.

00:07:34.937 --> 00:07:44.555
Can you share with us an example of a flight where something went really wrong and you had to work your way through that?

00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:45.942
I've had some issues.

00:07:45.942 --> 00:07:48.651
You know nothing, my hair's on fire, doing mop too, or anything.

00:07:48.651 --> 00:08:00.624
I've had a couple of times where, like, the pressurization went out and, as opposed to the masks dropping, I actually was able to descend quick enough that the mask didn't drop, because that would really freak people out back there.

00:08:00.824 --> 00:08:02.088
I've had several of those.

00:08:02.088 --> 00:08:15.425
I've had a specific one where it was a newer airplane and for some reason there was an issue with the flaps and the flaps and flats would not come out, so I had to land with a clean wing.

00:08:15.425 --> 00:08:19.713
That means touching down at a very high speed, holy cow.

00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:21.605
And a very different attitude.

00:08:21.605 --> 00:08:25.127
And I had cleared an emergency, of course, and called out all the equipment and the trucks and attitude.

00:08:25.127 --> 00:08:27.536
And I had cleared an emergency, of course, and called out all the equipment and the trucks and everything.

00:08:27.536 --> 00:08:29.776
And, yeah, I briefed the passengers and everything.

00:08:29.776 --> 00:08:40.014
And it's kind of ironic because a lot of our training is, of course, threat, neuro-management and leadership and communication and managing stress, fatigue and things like that.

00:08:40.014 --> 00:08:47.164
I remember on this one occasion I knew it was going to happen for a long time because we were on a long flight I briefed the flight attendant about what's going to happen.

00:08:47.164 --> 00:08:50.886
Everything's going to be normal, it's no big deal, we're just going to touch down a little bit faster.

00:08:50.886 --> 00:08:56.972
You probably wouldn't even notice if I didn't tell you, but you're going to see the emergency equipment out there just in case you know, our brakes overheat or something.

00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:17.816
Okay, no problem, ken, you know all good, captain we're we're fine, and then, like 20 minutes later, I get a ding from the flight attendant in the back and she's like in tears, oh geez, she's all freaked out and I'm like what did the other boys here to tell you?

00:09:17.816 --> 00:09:18.477
I was like, okay, come on up here.

00:09:18.477 --> 00:09:20.261
I brought her up into the jump seat, sat her down.

00:09:20.282 --> 00:09:23.389
I was like hey it's okay, we actually trained for this.

00:09:23.389 --> 00:09:26.687
This is one of the things we actually trained for, so it's no big.

00:09:26.687 --> 00:09:31.243
And then when she saw how we were all good and all was going to be okay, everything was fine.

00:09:31.243 --> 00:09:38.009
But she had never been in any even minor incident, so it just kind of freaked her out a little bit.

00:09:38.250 --> 00:09:38.491
All right.

00:09:38.491 --> 00:09:44.125
So obviously, now as a captain, you are the leader of that aircraft, whichever aircraft you're on.

00:09:44.125 --> 00:09:45.989
So I want to talk a little bit about the transition.

00:09:45.989 --> 00:09:50.923
As you said, you started as a flight engineer to a co-pilot and then obviously now to a captain.

00:09:50.923 --> 00:09:52.567
What's that transition?

00:09:52.567 --> 00:09:56.625
We're talking about hours and flight time, stick time, et cetera.

00:09:56.625 --> 00:09:58.611
What does that transition look like?

00:09:59.234 --> 00:10:01.821
It's mainly a seniority based system.

00:10:01.821 --> 00:10:12.961
Typically, you're going to start out as a first officer, of course, but there's no minimum amount of time beyond like a few hundred hours with the airline before you could upgrade to captain.

00:10:13.182 --> 00:10:17.501
It's not as if you'll say you had, I have a thousand hours and now I am a captain.

00:10:17.741 --> 00:10:33.774
It's just when there's another slot that opens, you're eligible, correct, and if you're senior enough to hold it you know, except for the fact that if you're like brand new with the company, they don't let you upgrade to CAP until you have like 500 hours or something like that, and then when you do that, you go to CAP school basically.

00:10:33.774 --> 00:10:38.018
So you know, it's additional leadership training and, of course, airplane training.

00:10:38.018 --> 00:10:51.682
On the airplane you're going on whether or not you're going to switch airplanes or you're just going to move your mag over to the left side on the same airplane, but it's a full course of training from the left seat and a bunch of additional like leadership training and the like.

00:10:52.565 --> 00:10:57.647
We've really jumped off the career journey path a little bit, so I just want to, I want to make sure we cover it, you know.

00:10:57.647 --> 00:11:00.980
So TWA to JetBlue was there anything in between?

00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:04.044
And how does that JetBlue job become available to you?

00:11:04.426 --> 00:11:05.828
That was kind of like the biggest.

00:11:05.828 --> 00:11:09.053
You know, I was going to say turbulence, Clever huh.

00:11:09.053 --> 00:11:10.726
We don't use the word turbulence, by the way.

00:11:10.726 --> 00:11:12.407
It's always bumps, just so you know.

00:11:12.407 --> 00:11:14.826
And it's never thunderstorms, it's showers.

00:11:15.548 --> 00:11:15.830
Right.

00:11:17.660 --> 00:11:18.625
That's part of captain training.

00:11:18.625 --> 00:11:20.667
So I was with TWA.

00:11:20.667 --> 00:11:26.729
Everything was going fine, and then there was a huge downturn in industry, of course, after 9-11, which was a tragedy.

00:11:26.729 --> 00:11:29.933
And then American Airlines acquired TWA.

00:11:29.933 --> 00:11:39.285
In that acquisition I basically lost a bunch of seniority.

00:11:39.285 --> 00:11:40.890
So when the downturn in the industry happened, I got furloughed.

00:11:40.890 --> 00:11:47.431
So I went from being in the right seat of a 767 flying overseas to being furloughed on the street in just a few months.

00:11:47.431 --> 00:11:48.962
So it was pretty devastating.

00:11:48.962 --> 00:11:52.711
The good thing is I was on the street only for eight months.

00:11:52.731 --> 00:11:56.027
I got hired with JetBlue, which was growing like crazy.

00:11:56.027 --> 00:11:58.941
So that was great because you gain a lot of seniority.

00:11:58.941 --> 00:12:03.400
Of course, in order to get hired with them, I already had all these years experience Back then.

00:12:03.400 --> 00:12:05.484
You can get hired with 1,500 hours.

00:12:05.484 --> 00:12:11.514
Most guys then had 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 hours already, so it kind of stunk.

00:12:11.514 --> 00:12:12.400
I had to start over.

00:12:12.400 --> 00:12:23.249
But the good part about that I was with a new, young, growing airline and I got to be captain pretty quickly because they were getting airplanes like crazy.

00:12:23.249 --> 00:12:33.491
And it also gave me the opportunity to get into management and become the fleet captain on the new fleet of airplanes that they had, which was an incredible part of my career because it was extremely educational.

00:12:33.491 --> 00:12:36.230
A lot of work, but extremely educational.

00:12:36.230 --> 00:12:37.475
That's basically how that works.

00:12:37.475 --> 00:12:43.721
So I switch airlines and you start all over as far as seniority, of course, but start working your way back up the ladder.

00:12:44.062 --> 00:12:45.907
And how many years later are you still there?

00:12:46.950 --> 00:12:47.552
22.

00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:49.265
It sounds like a nice ladder to me.

00:12:52.306 --> 00:12:53.368
Yeah, it's been great.

00:12:53.368 --> 00:13:03.513
I was so lucky to have the excitement of doing the whole management fleet captain thing and upgrading early and doing all kinds of fun stuff and being involved.

00:13:04.140 --> 00:13:06.008
What does it mean to be a fleet captain?

00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:09.229
So it's a very technical job.

00:13:09.229 --> 00:13:10.759
It's not like a chief pilot.

00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:17.366
Chief pilots deal with, you know, guys who come into the office and have days off and vacation issues and all things like that.

00:13:17.366 --> 00:13:18.985
Chief pilot is more administrative.

00:13:18.985 --> 00:13:20.109
Fleet captain is more technical.

00:13:20.109 --> 00:13:30.107
So you're in charge of all the basically the procedures, manuals and the checklists and the check pilots and training the check pilots and working with.

00:13:30.107 --> 00:13:31.519
Well, that's like a perfect job for you.

00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.368
Oh, my god, as a geek, yeah, I was like in my glory.

00:13:34.368 --> 00:13:37.628
I was down in brazil a lot because it was embryo airplanes that we had gotten.

00:13:37.628 --> 00:13:42.484
Uh, I got to work with the manufacturers and with maintenance and it was.

00:13:42.484 --> 00:14:00.331
It was an unbelievable experience and education, like you wouldn't believe, which has really served me well in my career because I understand how this all works, because I've written some of the manuals and written the procedures and got to do a lot of neat flying with brand new airplanes and stuff we don't normally do or we wouldn't do with passengers on board.

00:14:02.801 --> 00:14:11.203
You know, earlier you referenced 9-11 and I think we would be remiss, you know, if we didn't ask this next question.

00:14:11.203 --> 00:14:12.929
You've been flying for a long time.

00:14:12.929 --> 00:14:15.518
You flew before 9-11.

00:14:15.518 --> 00:14:17.581
You've flown after 9-11.

00:14:17.581 --> 00:14:24.269
We've all, as passengers, seen the universe flip upside down because of that event.

00:14:24.269 --> 00:14:28.232
Seeing the universe flip upside down because of that event, as a captain, how has your life changed?

00:14:28.232 --> 00:14:31.677
And you know what are the emotions around that.

00:14:31.677 --> 00:14:36.321
You know.

00:14:36.321 --> 00:14:36.865
Do you look?

00:14:36.885 --> 00:14:38.500
at your flights and look at the experience differently than you did before.

00:14:38.500 --> 00:14:40.562
Yeah, you know, 9-11 changed everything.

00:14:40.562 --> 00:14:46.413
It changed the industry a lot as far as security and all the issues that go around with that.

00:14:46.413 --> 00:14:59.581
Other than that, I mean, there's just more of a feeling of wanting to be safe and knowing that the whole mentality in the back of the airplane that no one's going to ever let something like this happen again.

00:14:59.581 --> 00:15:01.826
I guess we all feel more secure.

00:15:01.826 --> 00:15:02.407
It was just.

00:15:02.407 --> 00:15:11.337
It was a very tough and somber time that they would hit us, because the industry took it very hard, because it was like they were attacking us.

00:15:11.499 --> 00:15:12.019
You know what I mean?

00:15:12.019 --> 00:15:13.604
I mean no, it was everybody.

00:15:14.285 --> 00:15:22.312
Everybody took it very, very seriously, and what's funny now is so many of the younger flight attendants we fly with now and a lot of young pilots.

00:15:22.312 --> 00:15:32.620
They were very young when it happened, or not even born, so it's almost like we're forgetting, but those that were there and lived through it will never forget that.

00:15:33.563 --> 00:15:40.506
I guess we've kind of we've covered a bit about how the industry has changed, change gears a small bit and talk about staffing right.

00:15:40.506 --> 00:15:49.544
This notion of you are the captain of a crew, so is it typical for you to work with a similar co-pilot crew as first officer, or not?

00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:11.727
especially if it's a guy who also likes to fly three and four day trips, chances are you're going to get a few of them together.

00:16:11.727 --> 00:16:14.148
So you typically fly with the people from your base.

00:16:14.148 --> 00:16:18.144
As far as flight attendants go, that you just never know when you're beginning a trip.

00:16:18.144 --> 00:16:22.620
At the beginning of a trip, you're probably going to have Orlando based flight attendants, but when?

00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:32.248
If I fly, so, pilots yes, more, yes.

00:16:32.368 --> 00:16:35.611
I mean, yeah, we'll fly, but it's not always the same guy.

00:16:35.611 --> 00:16:36.392
Sometimes you see a guy.

00:16:36.392 --> 00:16:37.374
You don't see him for years.

00:16:37.374 --> 00:16:39.775
You see him walking down the trim like hey, I haven't seen you for years.

00:16:39.796 --> 00:16:40.236
Where have you been?

00:16:40.236 --> 00:16:40.356
And?

00:16:40.376 --> 00:16:44.741
they're like oh, I'm bidding this now or whatever, so you don't get to see them, right.

00:16:44.741 --> 00:16:50.734
But the thing is, no matter what pilot you fly with, everybody does it exactly the same.

00:16:50.734 --> 00:16:52.736
There's always some tiny nuances, right?

00:16:53.278 --> 00:16:54.820
So bring us behind the cockpit door.

00:16:54.820 --> 00:17:00.177
What's something that the normal passenger doesn't know about flying in a commercial aircraft?

00:17:00.644 --> 00:17:04.576
People always wonder that, like what goes on behind the door On takeoff and landing.

00:17:04.576 --> 00:17:05.787
We are very busy.

00:17:05.787 --> 00:17:09.075
Our busiest time is when they close that door right.

00:17:09.075 --> 00:17:10.137
The cabin door closes.

00:17:10.137 --> 00:17:17.067
She comes up, says cabin is secure, captain, and slams the cockpit door and we are really busy.

00:17:17.067 --> 00:17:25.066
From pushback to takeoff, probably up to at least 10, if not 18,000 feet, we're very busy.

00:17:25.066 --> 00:17:28.255
We're talking, we're running checklists, we're starting engines.

00:17:28.255 --> 00:17:30.967
A lot of times you know it's going to be a long taxi out to save fuel.

00:17:30.967 --> 00:17:32.849
We'll start one engine and have to start it.

00:17:32.849 --> 00:17:33.911
We have to time that.

00:17:33.911 --> 00:17:45.226
And taxiing in today's modern airports can be very challenging, especially in like O'Hare Kennedy.

00:17:45.226 --> 00:17:46.650
We know them like the back of our hand but the threat there is.

00:17:46.711 --> 00:17:47.634
We know them like the back of our hand.

00:17:47.634 --> 00:17:48.536
I may have taxied out.

00:17:48.536 --> 00:17:52.267
You saw that not too long ago that American airplane taxied across the runway.

00:17:52.267 --> 00:17:56.155
They had probably taxied at kennedy a thousand times.

00:17:56.155 --> 00:17:59.001
But you have a, you know, an expectation bias too.

00:17:59.001 --> 00:18:04.964
You know that we're going to get this taxiway to that taxiway, blah, blah and, and you know you have a brain fart or whatever.

00:18:04.964 --> 00:18:07.670
So we're backing each other up with that.

00:18:07.670 --> 00:18:10.174
So very, very busy during those times.

00:18:10.174 --> 00:18:14.252
And in cruise, you know, you know obviously the autopilot's on all the time.

00:18:14.252 --> 00:18:19.388
In cruise we are monitoring the instruments and if we're international, then we have a little more work to do.

00:18:19.388 --> 00:18:22.752
If we're over the water, we have to make position reports, believe it or not.

00:18:22.752 --> 00:18:27.217
Still, over HF radio on a lot of the airplanes, yeah, dander, dander, right, right.

00:18:28.005 --> 00:18:39.881
It's like Rangoon, rangoon, which just shocks me still but, we do have Datalink in some of the airplanes and SATCOM now, but some of the airplanes still they're using HF radio.

00:18:39.881 --> 00:18:44.194
So we're monitoring our progress far more closely, because we're out over the water.

00:18:44.194 --> 00:18:46.131
We don't have navigation fixes out there.

00:18:46.131 --> 00:18:48.691
Of course we're all GPS, but the problem is what happens if they fail.

00:18:48.691 --> 00:18:52.790
Yeah, so we're not nearly as talkative while we're in cruise.

00:18:52.790 --> 00:18:55.415
We're just monitoring the instruments and trying to.

00:18:55.415 --> 00:18:57.461
You know, look out the window.

00:18:59.086 --> 00:19:09.921
So you mentioned going over the water before and I'm just going to give you, like the normal passenger thought that I always have when I'm driving a car and something goes wrong, I can pull over to the side of the road and deal with it.

00:19:09.921 --> 00:19:17.605
When you are over the ocean hours from anywhere to land, is this an irrational fear that I have?

00:19:17.605 --> 00:19:18.669
What do you think about that?

00:19:18.669 --> 00:19:21.836
As a pilot, we are hyper aware of that.

00:19:21.915 --> 00:19:26.012
When we're out there, right, we literally have exact, specific procedures.

00:19:26.012 --> 00:19:41.833
So the worst thing that you would think of you can always think of the worst things but like we're cruising along, we're going from Kennedy to Barbados, whatever, four hour flight out over the middle of the marina triangle, middle of the night, thunderstorms around, whatever, and the engine quits.

00:19:41.833 --> 00:19:55.372
Right, we'd say, oh my God, we never dispatch okay or go out there that we can't get on one engine to airport within an hour and we're specifically trained.

00:19:55.372 --> 00:19:57.307
If that happens, man, we're going to snap into action.

00:19:57.307 --> 00:20:06.309
We're going to turn 90 degrees off the airway or a 45 degree angle off the airway to where so many miles displaced so we don't run into any other airplanes because we're going to have to start down.

00:20:06.309 --> 00:20:07.795
You can't hold altitude at one engine.

00:20:07.795 --> 00:20:09.326
High altitude.

00:20:09.326 --> 00:20:11.009
You can go down to like 20,000 feet.

00:20:11.009 --> 00:20:15.507
You can't be in the 30s Trying to get a hold of ATC, to get the new clearance.

00:20:15.627 --> 00:20:17.676
We already know where we're going At any time.

00:20:17.676 --> 00:20:20.607
You could ask any pilot in that cockpit and go did you put right now?

00:20:20.607 --> 00:20:21.210
Where would we go?

00:20:21.210 --> 00:20:23.416
And they're going to know the answer immediately.

00:20:23.416 --> 00:20:26.392
It's in the box, we have it programmed and anytime.

00:20:26.392 --> 00:20:36.027
We hit that with a full equitime point where it's okay.

00:20:36.027 --> 00:20:37.373
Am I going to Bermuda, or am I going to Provo, which is Provenciales?

00:20:37.373 --> 00:20:39.162
I know exactly where I'm going, I don't even have to think about it, we always know that.

00:20:39.162 --> 00:20:47.372
And then the guys that do like over to Europe, where it's further, they may be allowed to go up to two hours away or longer, depending on the airplane.

00:20:47.372 --> 00:20:52.249
But that airplane they're trained for that and the airplane is certified for that.

00:20:52.249 --> 00:20:59.144
It goes through some more testing and stricter maintenance and stuff like that, so that you never have to worry about we always know where we're going.

00:20:59.144 --> 00:21:01.851
That's basic irrational fear of mine.

00:21:01.851 --> 00:21:03.694
Yeah, basic airmanship.

00:21:03.694 --> 00:21:07.960
Yeah, I should be able to have a passenger call up and you could call and go hey, where are we going?

00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:08.805
I'm going to the bermuda.

00:21:11.028 --> 00:21:19.892
all right, so I guess, uh, one question that we've seen recently is this notion of airspace, especially over yeah, I know, and DC issues yeah.

00:21:19.892 --> 00:21:21.729
Over busy airports.

00:21:21.729 --> 00:21:23.092
Sure, the DC issues.

00:21:23.092 --> 00:21:25.176
Obviously Is there too much air traffic now.

00:21:25.545 --> 00:21:25.987
Not really.

00:21:25.987 --> 00:21:28.414
It's not any worse than it has been forever.

00:21:28.414 --> 00:21:31.894
The problem is we do have some staffing issues with ATC.

00:21:31.894 --> 00:21:34.311
That's been going on for many, many, many years.

00:21:34.311 --> 00:21:35.114
This is nothing new.

00:21:35.114 --> 00:21:39.066
There's a whole thing of how they were training controllers and hiring controllers and all that stuff.

00:21:39.066 --> 00:21:40.169
That's been going on forever.

00:21:40.169 --> 00:21:46.711
So there are times now where we even get delays, like before I even leave New York to come to Florida.

00:21:46.711 --> 00:21:54.135
It says any aircraft crossing this line they show you on there it's going to be delayed 80 minutes, 91 minutes, whatever due to staffing.

00:21:54.135 --> 00:21:57.365
They show you on there is going to be delayed 80 minutes, 91 minutes, whatever, due to staffing.

00:21:57.365 --> 00:22:02.892
And that's because one of the centers somebody has whatever.

00:22:02.892 --> 00:22:06.085
A staffing issue means that they have to delay the flights and space them out further so they can't be 10 miles of trail.

00:22:06.085 --> 00:22:10.513
They may make you have to be 20 miles of trail so they have to space everybody out.

00:22:10.513 --> 00:22:17.135
So the airspace now is not really any more crowded than it's ever been.

00:22:17.576 --> 00:22:19.308
Everybody's worried about the DCA stuff.

00:22:19.308 --> 00:22:22.945
That was very unique with the military flight, which they've now canceled.

00:22:22.945 --> 00:22:26.894
They've canceled those routes actually that they don't exist anymore.

00:22:26.894 --> 00:22:40.901
But as far as how crowded the skies are compared to how they've been in the past, it really hasn't changed very much and we have some great technology on the airplane and in air traffic control to mitigate those risks.

00:22:41.545 --> 00:22:42.608
Speaking of air traffic control.

00:22:42.608 --> 00:22:47.816
Am I the only one who doesn't understand a word that's being said when they play that on my television?

00:22:48.925 --> 00:22:50.593
It's like your own language or something.

00:22:50.593 --> 00:22:52.387
Yeah, well, we definitely have our own language.

00:22:52.387 --> 00:22:56.336
Yes, my wife, I can, and I'm also really good at listening to like three or four things at once.

00:22:56.336 --> 00:23:01.835
It's just something that you pick up, like when you first get in you're taking flying lessons, you're like what.

00:23:01.835 --> 00:23:12.529
But once you practice and learn and new pilots like private pilots they actually have online training for that where you hear tapes and you just start to pick it up because you kind of know what to expect.

00:23:12.711 --> 00:23:13.731
Tushar, you should do that.

00:23:13.731 --> 00:23:18.217
I'd like you to learn that language and tell us a story once in a while.

00:23:18.297 --> 00:23:21.400
There's a lot of cursing, but I'm perfect.

00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:23.448
No, yeah, my wife.

00:23:23.448 --> 00:23:24.612
She's like are you listening to me?

00:23:24.612 --> 00:23:28.115
I might not have heard her, but I can read back exactly what she said.

00:23:28.115 --> 00:23:34.211
You know, and she's like you don't really know what they said.

00:23:35.211 --> 00:23:38.173
I'm always like I'm glad they understand that, because I have no idea.

00:23:38.173 --> 00:23:41.237
But then again it's usually played during a crash situation.

00:23:41.237 --> 00:23:43.680
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Maybe things didn't go well.

00:23:44.220 --> 00:23:44.901
Internationally.

00:23:44.901 --> 00:23:45.740
It can be a challenge.

00:23:45.740 --> 00:23:46.321
I'll tell you that.

00:23:46.321 --> 00:23:51.669
You know we fly the Dominican Republic and other places like that.

00:23:51.669 --> 00:23:56.178
Sometimes, or when I used to fly to Europe and over to Cairo and places like that, sometimes you're like what did he say?

00:23:56.178 --> 00:23:58.593
As a matter of fact, they sent me down.

00:23:58.684 --> 00:24:05.192
I was down in Brazil bringing an airplane back you know a brand new airplane when I was the fleet captain and they said, hey, can you take so-and-so with you?

00:24:05.192 --> 00:24:12.070
You know he's very new on the airplane but you know you're a Czech airman so you can let him fly and he gets some experience, experienced, you know, sim instructor and all that stuff.

00:24:12.070 --> 00:24:13.652
But he speaks the language.

00:24:13.652 --> 00:24:14.973
Even he's really going to help you.

00:24:14.973 --> 00:24:16.315
And I said, great.

00:24:16.315 --> 00:24:18.236
So we got down there and we were getting a clearance.

00:24:18.236 --> 00:24:20.377
I said, well, you get the clearance because you understand that.

00:24:20.377 --> 00:24:23.902
And the guy reads off the clearance and his Portuguese accent.

00:24:23.902 --> 00:24:28.487
And I'll never forget the look on this kid's face.

00:24:28.487 --> 00:24:35.339
He looked at me with all the blood draining out of his face and he said what the F did he just say, and I just started laughing.

00:24:35.339 --> 00:24:41.289
I'm like they sent you down to me because you speak the language.

00:24:41.309 --> 00:24:43.074
You know, it was just so funny, I didn't expect it to be that way.

00:24:43.074 --> 00:24:47.050
So quick, quick one here before we get to some advice and some other fun stuff we have here.

00:24:47.050 --> 00:24:53.310
Have you ever gotten into a fight with another pilot like and had to resolve something like while you were in the cockpit?

00:24:53.611 --> 00:24:54.813
No, no, no, no.

00:24:54.813 --> 00:25:02.451
There were stories of guys arguing over politics or religion or whatever, but that's extremely rare.

00:25:02.451 --> 00:25:05.039
We pretty much police ourselves very well.

00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:06.905
It's a very small field, I joke.

00:25:06.905 --> 00:25:10.817
You can't talk bad about anybody because somebody will say, oh, do you know, captain Sozo?

00:25:10.865 --> 00:25:14.296
And I go oh is that jerk and you're like, oh, it's my dad, that kind of stuff.

00:25:14.296 --> 00:25:17.961
Do you know who the bad pilots are too, though, and can you point them?

00:25:18.042 --> 00:25:20.172
out, so I'm not on that plane next time.

00:25:20.192 --> 00:25:21.234
Yeah, yeah, yeah right.

00:25:22.605 --> 00:25:24.051
And we'll make them wear our red leggings.

00:25:24.051 --> 00:25:26.392
Make them wear that scarlet letter.

00:25:26.392 --> 00:25:38.976
All right, so I have no idea what they said.

00:25:38.976 --> 00:25:40.648
How many languages can you speak?

00:25:40.910 --> 00:25:42.534
Yeah, I only speak English.

00:25:42.534 --> 00:25:50.848
I do speak some German, but the international language of aviation is English, so all air traffic controllers are required to speak English.

00:25:50.848 --> 00:25:59.076
And it can be challenging with the accent sometimes and you have to ask them to repeat and repeat, but most of the time we already know how they're going to clear us.

00:25:59.076 --> 00:26:03.195
We have the approach plates, we know what the names of the fixes are and stuff like that.

00:26:03.195 --> 00:26:10.169
So you have a lot of help with that and, quite honestly, once you fly to a certain place and listen to it a little bit, you actually learn to pick it up.

00:26:10.789 --> 00:26:13.375
Why do all captains seem to have the same voice?

00:26:13.895 --> 00:26:21.269
You know, the same soothing voice, we'll be flying at 35,000 feet.

00:26:21.269 --> 00:26:24.040
Actually, you know, and believe it or not, that's something like we practiced from a kid when he first started flying Right.

00:26:24.040 --> 00:26:26.147
But there is actually some truth to that.

00:26:26.147 --> 00:26:29.596
So everybody says to, like when I make my PM, like, hey, folks, welcome aboard.

00:26:29.596 --> 00:26:32.028
Like, like, you got that pilot voice down.

00:26:32.028 --> 00:26:37.265
You know, it's funny because ski patrol, like you have to talk on radios too, and they're like man, you got that pilot voice on the radio.

00:26:37.265 --> 00:26:38.307
Everybody knows who you are.

00:26:38.307 --> 00:26:42.096
But part of that too, on the airline is that background humming.

00:26:42.096 --> 00:26:42.526
You hear?

00:26:42.526 --> 00:26:45.071
That's another good question, that's a great question.

00:26:45.071 --> 00:26:46.355
Yes, absolutely.

00:26:46.355 --> 00:26:47.498
You know what that is.

00:26:47.498 --> 00:26:50.250
That's 400 hertz, 400 cycles.

00:26:50.250 --> 00:26:55.499
So most power is 60 cycles in your house, but airlines, airliners, run on 400 cycles.

00:26:56.125 --> 00:27:02.516
So that's what that sound is Okay, now, I know, now I know that sound is yeah, and it helps your voice and a lot of scotch.

00:27:03.885 --> 00:27:06.394
Why does my seat need to be in the upright position?

00:27:07.027 --> 00:27:07.951
In case we got to evacuate.

00:27:08.025 --> 00:27:08.990
Okay, fair enough.

00:27:10.047 --> 00:27:15.606
So if we're on takeoff and we reject the takeoff or something happens, we slide off whatever we got to evacuate.

00:27:15.606 --> 00:27:18.916
You don't want the seat down because you won't be able to egress.

00:27:18.916 --> 00:27:26.294
Also, this is kind of cool If you ever sit in the exit row right, the seats in front of the exit won't recline because they don't want them coming back to block the exit.

00:27:26.294 --> 00:27:30.794
But also, if you look at your and this is secret you can win some money with this if you have somebody.

00:27:30.794 --> 00:27:36.006
If you look at the tray table, it has the little knob you turn to drop the tray.

00:27:36.006 --> 00:27:39.489
If you look at the ones in the exit row, they're blocked from going one direction.

00:27:39.489 --> 00:27:46.443
That's in case you're egressing the airplane that you don't accidentally pop the tray table down and block the people flying.

00:27:46.529 --> 00:27:48.538
I would never have thought of this in a million years.

00:27:49.652 --> 00:27:53.519
I got lots of them, if you ever see the little triangles up above the window, above the wing.

00:27:53.539 --> 00:27:53.779
Sure.

00:27:54.089 --> 00:28:10.872
That's where, if I had a problem with the flaps and slats and doesn't know what position they were in, I would tell the flight attendant to go to and look out that window and it'll tell me what position the flaps and slats are in because it's marked on there.

00:28:10.872 --> 00:28:13.289
So if you look next time you see the flaps and sort of slats down in the back and the flaps you can see marks and it'll say 30, 20 or something like that.

00:28:13.213 --> 00:28:14.027
Is it still glamorous to fly?

00:28:14.027 --> 00:28:19.811
We always hear stories about people getting in arguments on flights and not not pilots I'm talking about like passengers, right?

00:28:19.811 --> 00:28:23.617
Is it still as glamorous to fly as it once was I?

00:28:23.617 --> 00:28:27.103
I remember when my father would take us, the family, flying.

00:28:27.103 --> 00:28:27.983
He would wear a suit.

00:28:27.983 --> 00:28:28.945
Yeah, yeah.

00:28:29.570 --> 00:28:31.037
No, it's not as glamorous as it was.

00:28:31.037 --> 00:28:35.241
I started in 96, so I missed the real heyday of all that.

00:28:35.241 --> 00:28:39.250
But it was a lot different when I commuted, because I commuted at TWA.

00:28:39.250 --> 00:28:41.571
I lived in Florida and had to go to New York to fly.

00:28:41.571 --> 00:28:44.432
We still had to wear a sport coat when I commuted.

00:28:44.432 --> 00:28:47.074
You know if I wasn't in uniform.

00:28:47.374 --> 00:28:51.655
So, but it seems like it's not just this happened in aviation, this has happened everywhere.

00:28:51.655 --> 00:28:53.557
Everything has just changed.

00:28:53.557 --> 00:28:59.739
That way it is less glamorous, but everything is, I guess is the right answer.

00:29:00.138 --> 00:29:01.079
That is the right answer.

00:29:01.079 --> 00:29:11.403
Okay, once a plane has firmly landed on the ground, the correct thing to do as a passenger is applause or no applause.

00:29:12.624 --> 00:29:13.664
You know what's funny about that?

00:29:13.664 --> 00:29:24.711
All of a sudden that's coming up and people didn't really ever clap unless it was like a really bumpy flight or a really bumpy approach and they were just happy to be alive Alive.

00:29:24.711 --> 00:29:26.219
Really bumpy approach and they were just happy to be alive alive.

00:29:26.219 --> 00:29:32.628
But when we fly to, like puerto rico, san juan, they'll clap every single time of course they're going someplace nice.

00:29:32.669 --> 00:29:35.096
You're taking them someplace nice every time it's a culture thing.

00:29:35.096 --> 00:29:39.359
There's no doubt it's a culture thing, and we can hear it a lot of times too, so we like it.

00:29:39.460 --> 00:29:43.051
So yeah, do it right, okay, what is your favorite airplane movie?

00:29:43.051 --> 00:29:49.176
I don't mean the comedy airplane movie, although it could be your favorite, but any movie about flying or planes.

00:29:50.092 --> 00:29:51.416
I guess it probably is airplane.

00:29:51.416 --> 00:29:53.115
I like airplane.

00:29:53.630 --> 00:29:55.074
Surely you cannot be serious.

00:29:55.394 --> 00:29:56.519
Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.

00:29:56.638 --> 00:30:00.496
Don't call me Shirley, and have you been to Macho Grande?

00:30:00.737 --> 00:30:01.640
Absolutely Airport.

00:30:01.640 --> 00:30:07.798
All those movies are good but like people can't, like my wife can't watch an airplane movie with me because she's like all he does point out all the errors.

00:30:07.798 --> 00:30:14.019
You know I cannot do that well, ken, this has been um.

00:30:14.780 --> 00:30:16.443
It's such a great conversation.

00:30:16.443 --> 00:30:17.530
You know we talked to so many.

00:30:17.570 --> 00:30:19.214
Another two hours worth of questions.

00:30:19.255 --> 00:30:27.709
Yeah, hey, bring them on, bring them on we do, which is why I'm trying to point us towards an exit, because this could go on for another three hours.

00:30:27.729 --> 00:30:27.910
That's it.

00:30:27.910 --> 00:30:29.194
Let's talk about flying cars.

00:30:29.194 --> 00:30:29.596
Here we go.

00:30:32.671 --> 00:30:45.746
So, ken, somebody who wants to get into this business today, who wants to follow in your footsteps and of course it's difficult to do that because the footsteps always change, industries change, etc.

00:30:45.746 --> 00:30:52.462
Etc but a young person who wants to get into flying, who wants to become a pilot, what advice do you have for them?

00:30:52.730 --> 00:30:54.076
First of all, make sure you really want to do it.

00:30:54.076 --> 00:31:00.711
It takes a lot of commitment and a lot of time and a lot of money, unfortunately, to get into it, so make sure you want to do it.

00:31:00.711 --> 00:31:08.183
If it's somebody who's not sure, go to your local flight school, take what they call a discovery flight and go actually fly with a flight instructor.

00:31:08.183 --> 00:31:12.519
It'll actually let you manipulate the controls and fly around and make sure it's something you really want to do.

00:31:12.519 --> 00:31:16.921
The Experimental Aircraft Association also has free flights that we do for kids.

00:31:17.101 --> 00:31:25.770
The biggest unfortunate block is financially and the best thing probably to do is go to a flight school that just teaches flight school pilots.

00:31:25.770 --> 00:31:29.728
And if you have probably to do is go to a flight school that just teaches flight school pilots and you know, if you have the resources, definitely get some kind of degree.

00:31:29.728 --> 00:31:42.653
If you can go to like a school like Emory Riddle, obviously if money's not an option, that's the way to go or to one of the flight schools that you go to that just teach you the flying part and get you all the way through.

00:31:42.653 --> 00:31:47.382
Just you know you got to commit to it because it's really hard to start and stop and start and stop.

00:31:48.303 --> 00:31:52.136
I had one I wanted to wrap up with and you gave me another one real quick to pop in there.

00:31:52.136 --> 00:31:53.681
Are you ever too old to fly?

00:31:54.210 --> 00:31:57.393
No, so we have to retire now at 65.

00:31:57.393 --> 00:31:58.734
It used to be 60.

00:31:58.734 --> 00:31:59.516
Now it's 65.

00:31:59.516 --> 00:32:00.195
We got no choice.

00:32:00.195 --> 00:32:02.198
You got to retire at 65.

00:32:02.558 --> 00:32:03.400
Let me, let me change that.

00:32:03.400 --> 00:32:05.402
Are you ever too old to learn how to fly?

00:32:05.902 --> 00:32:19.155
No, I taught a guy who was in his 70s when I was a young flight instructor and he just always wanted to learn and he did fine and you can fly.

00:32:19.155 --> 00:32:20.019
So private flying is very different.

00:32:20.019 --> 00:32:21.105
You don't need the same medical standards.

00:32:21.105 --> 00:32:23.211
You still have to get a medical, but it's not.

00:32:23.211 --> 00:32:30.696
They call it basic med now and you can actually go to like a regular doctor and then the FBA can sign off on it just to make sure you're not going to have a heart attack or something like that.

00:32:31.298 --> 00:32:36.741
I say this because now you are inspiring me to fly to go back and maybe learn, take lessons again.

00:32:36.821 --> 00:32:46.262
Have you ever been?

00:32:46.282 --> 00:32:46.963
well, you say you've.

00:32:46.963 --> 00:32:49.171
I know we're gonna, we've got it, we've got to wrap up.

00:32:49.171 --> 00:33:00.913
But I got one more question how real is it that I have to make sure that my cell phone and my computer is off on takeoff and landing and then why can I turn it back on when, the when, when we're at 35 000 feet?

00:33:01.355 --> 00:33:04.181
so there is a real problem with the cellular phones.

00:33:04.181 --> 00:33:16.675
Okay, I could hear, like when I back when I flew the MD-80, much older airplane we could actually hear in the radio and you'll hear it sometimes in your car or if you have a like a radio around and your phone is laying next to it, like that beep beep, beep, beep, beep sound.

00:33:16.675 --> 00:33:25.002
That's that sound of the cellular and you can actually hear it in the radio sometimes and in the older airplanes it would actually affect our compasses.

00:33:25.150 --> 00:33:30.083
It would actually make them turn and jitter, that point I understand, but now more the modern craft.

00:33:30.670 --> 00:33:40.781
Yeah, so the modern ones have all had a modification done and testing done to make sure that it doesn't interfere with the aircraft system.

00:33:40.781 --> 00:33:55.038
That being said, a lot of the airlines just institute policies like that because they don't want people either talking on their phone or using it at certain times and they just want everything stowed in case of an emergency and stuff like that.

00:33:55.038 --> 00:33:59.215
So it's more safety and a lot of airlines can make up kind of their own rules with that.

00:33:59.215 --> 00:34:10.976
So you'll notice some airlines make you do things a little bit different than the other and you know the FAA requires certain things but the airlines can make up pretty much whatever they want and it's you know most of it has a safety aspect.

00:34:11.478 --> 00:34:12.579
Ken one more.

00:34:12.579 --> 00:34:16.795
I'd be remiss if I didn't ask it what's your most memorable flight and why.

00:34:16.795 --> 00:34:17.858
That's a good question.

00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:19.871
Probably my first flight as a captain.

00:34:19.871 --> 00:34:22.492
It's like the culmination of your career.

00:34:22.492 --> 00:34:24.775
Like you know your career goals From where to where.

00:34:24.775 --> 00:34:27.318
It was from Orlando, from Kennedy to Orlando.

00:34:27.318 --> 00:34:27.978
It was with JetBlue.

00:34:28.619 --> 00:34:37.606
Similarly, your first podcast experience will be something that you remember forever and hang on to Never forget it.

00:34:37.606 --> 00:34:40.297
As we've refused to let you leave.

00:34:42.751 --> 00:34:46.438
Because this has been so incredibly interesting.

00:34:46.438 --> 00:34:55.422
Thank you for the time, thank you for the look inside of I think, what, to a lot of us, is a very mysterious industry.

00:34:55.422 --> 00:35:06.961
It's sexy, it's interesting, it's exciting and in a lot of ways, it's mysterious, and you gave us a look that you know not a lot of people have been able to get their hands on, so to speak, or their ears on.

00:35:06.961 --> 00:35:09.418
So thank you so much for joining us.

00:35:10.391 --> 00:35:11.856
Well, thanks very much for having me.

00:35:11.856 --> 00:35:13.074
I like what you just said too.

00:35:13.074 --> 00:35:17.199
It's nice to get this stuff out there too, because there is like a lot of mystery behind it.

00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:18.891
It's not that mysterious, it's just.

00:35:18.891 --> 00:35:22.742
It's good to have interesting conversations that people would be interested in.

00:35:22.742 --> 00:35:30.373
So, got any other questions at any time, you know, just hit me up.

00:35:30.373 --> 00:35:31.315
I'll answer them all I might not all be right.

00:35:31.335 --> 00:35:32.356
But if I don't know the answer, I'll just make it up.

00:35:32.356 --> 00:35:33.619
But they'll be entertaining.

00:35:33.619 --> 00:35:36.630
There's no question about that, Ken.

00:35:36.630 --> 00:35:37.954
Thank you so much for joining us.

00:35:38.396 --> 00:35:39.460
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

00:35:40.132 --> 00:35:58.862
So that concludes what I consider to be a fantastic and really riveting conversation with Captain Ken Petschauer of JetBlue Airlines, giving us, in a way, a look inside of a very mysterious and unknown world that not many of us get to look into.

00:35:58.862 --> 00:36:01.237
So I'm very appreciative for that.

00:36:01.237 --> 00:36:03.398
Larry Shea, what are your takeaways?

00:36:04.250 --> 00:36:07.036
Yeah, I absolutely love this conversation.

00:36:07.036 --> 00:36:08.059
I'm going to be real with you.

00:36:08.059 --> 00:36:17.358
I'm a scared flyer, so I don't know if this gave me peace of mind or what, but I'm always fascinated with just big metal boxes hurtling through the sky.

00:36:17.358 --> 00:36:19.123
I mean, let's just start right there.

00:36:19.123 --> 00:36:30.199
And I can't imagine how powerful you must feel behind that windshield and the sense of responsibility, knowing that you have a full passenger deck behind you.

00:36:30.199 --> 00:36:33.137
You know so so many nuggets.

00:36:33.137 --> 00:36:38.150
I mean all the little stuff about like if you take NyQuil you can't fly for 60 hours, and stuff.

00:36:38.150 --> 00:36:41.360
Like I mean, it's so many fascinating little pieces of information.

00:36:41.360 --> 00:36:48.179
I found his advice to be quite interesting Just make sure you really want to do it and you've got to commit to it.

00:36:48.179 --> 00:36:53.902
I mean, we could say that for a lot of professions, but I think he hit the nail on the head when it comes to this one.

00:36:53.902 --> 00:36:59.255
So yeah, a lot of fascinating little nuggets and just a great, great conversation and a great guy.

00:37:00.036 --> 00:37:06.826
I'm flying JetBlue all the time now, or at least the flights that he's on, that's for sure, that's right.

00:37:06.826 --> 00:37:12.983
I got to tell you is that, you know, I was so surprised by how candid he was, which is one thing.

00:37:12.983 --> 00:37:20.101
I didn't think he'd be as candid as he was and, let's be honest, I mean, we really did have at least another three hours worth of questions.

00:37:28.170 --> 00:37:30.235
If he wanted to stay on, we probably could turn this into a 10 part, a 10 part interview.

00:37:30.255 --> 00:37:31.097
That's absolutely like a mini series.

00:37:31.097 --> 00:37:32.340
Absolutely a whole season could have just been good.

00:37:32.340 --> 00:37:37.677
Pilot um yeah, I mean, shay, you kind of hit the nail on the head is that you know to, to pretty much know, when you're a, you're a child, that this is what you want to do for a living?

00:37:37.677 --> 00:37:39.291
I mean, that takes a lot of focus.

00:37:39.291 --> 00:37:45.282
And not only does it take focus, but to make that, make that dream a reality, is just as impressive.

00:37:45.503 --> 00:37:55.251
I think you're right in saying that I would be far more comfortable with having pilots like him in the cockpit, knowing how serious they take their job.

00:37:55.251 --> 00:38:01.577
We all kind of wonder why they all have the same voice when it comes over on the radio to tell us that we're at 35,000 feet.

00:38:01.577 --> 00:38:10.610
We all kind of joke about stuff like that, but there really is a mentality to being not only a pilot of such a craft but being the captain of that crew.

00:38:10.610 --> 00:38:14.961
And look, I am happy that Ken Petschauer is the guy in the cockpit.

00:38:14.961 --> 00:38:25.463
He obviously will make life easy for all of us knowing there and you're right, shay, from here on out I will be looking for Ken Petschauer on the flights that I take down to Florida and take that flight only.

00:38:26.710 --> 00:38:30.081
You know I feel really lucky that we had Ken on today.

00:38:30.081 --> 00:38:49.492
I forget who brought the idea forward of getting a pilot Larry Tushar, one of you and Ken popped into my head right away because I remember meeting him a long time ago and my memory was of this really, really funny guy and he certainly lived up to all of my expectations.

00:38:49.492 --> 00:39:01.143
Today, in terms of the conversation itself, you know, to me a big takeaway is lean into your mentors they certainly had a big impact upon Ken's career and also keep an open mind.

00:39:01.143 --> 00:39:03.773
Grab the opportunities that come your way.

00:39:03.773 --> 00:39:26.224
I think one of the stories he told was of working for, I guess, a television station in Orlando as the traffic pilot and you know, it might have sounded sort of silly at the time, he might have wondered why he was doing it, but in the end it's crystal clear that that was a really smart choice and it led to incredible things on the other side.

00:39:26.224 --> 00:39:40.469
So great stuff there and I guess, in terms of opening my eyes to the industry, I can now say I understand why my seat has to be in the upright position and I now know why I have to turn off my telephone.

00:39:40.469 --> 00:39:47.030
So, ken, thank you for all of that and thank you for joining this episode of no Wrong Choices.

00:39:47.030 --> 00:39:49.096
We also thank you for joining us.

00:39:49.617 --> 00:39:54.155
If this episode made you think of somebody who could be a great guest, we'd love to hear from you.

00:39:54.155 --> 00:40:00.436
Please reach out to us through the contact page of our website at norongchoicescom to let us know.

00:40:00.436 --> 00:40:04.530
While you're there, check out the blog for a deeper look at our takeaways from each episode.

00:40:04.530 --> 00:40:04.856
You can also connect with us on social media.

00:40:04.856 --> 00:40:05.675
We you're there, check out the blog for a deeper look at our takeaways from each episode.

00:40:05.675 --> 00:40:08.300
You can also connect with us on social media.

00:40:08.300 --> 00:40:12.072
We're on LinkedIn, instagram, facebook, youtube and X.

00:40:12.072 --> 00:40:16.523
On behalf of Larry Shave, tushar Saxena and me, larry Samuels.

00:40:16.523 --> 00:40:18.333
Thank you again for listening.

00:40:18.333 --> 00:40:21.983
We'll be back next week with another inspiring episode.