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Welcome to an aviation podcast that caters to all aviation enthusiasts, ranging from pilots to airplane spotters. Our show covers a wide range of topics, including private pilot training, airline operations, and the latest aviation news. Our knowledgeable host, an experienced airline pilot with eight years of flying under his belt, is thrilled to share his own experiences and offer valuable advice to help you pursue your aviation dreams. We are here to support you on your journey, constantly wishing you Tailwinds & Sunshine!
Rachel Part B
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Manny: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Tailwinds Sunshine podcast. This is part two of a three part series with my friend Rachel Mason. If you haven't listened to part one, go back and listen to that one and then come back and listen to part two so you can maintain some continuity or do whatever you want. I can't tell you what to do, but just to recap what happened in part one introductions, how Rachel and I met and she discusses how she stumbled upon the aviation industry and how she ended up falling in love with it.
She discusses all the positions she's held in aviation and how she ended up where she is at now. Rachel is currently a Customer service representative for her airline at Denver International as she's also at the same time working towards getting her dispatcher's license So that's really exciting. She also did Told us that she is toying with the idea of getting a position in the training department, which is Even more exciting for me, because as you all know, I am an instructor for my airline at the training center.
So it'd be really cool to share, you know, kind of swap stories. I [00:01:00] also have a really big announcement to make in this episode. So stay tuned for that. And I want to thank all my listeners throughout the world. Thank you so much for listening. It's really heartwarming and really exciting to see people from all over the world listening in and subscribing.
So thank you so much for that. Also want to thank all thank all my homies here in the United States and every state in the country. So I really do appreciate it. Also want to give a huge shout out to those that joined the Instagram live on when I was having the conversation with my. Friend, Rachel, you guys pointed out and I didn't have the foresight of inviting her to the live event.
So she, you could have, you could have heard both sides of the story. So the ones that joined just saw me talking into a microphone and you were, you were, you had no idea what was going on. So I really do appreciate pointing that out. I was having some technical difficulties also, cause I couldn't see your questions.
Because typically it auto scrolls. So I, you know, the latest question or I can see the conversation kind of scrolling up live, but I didn't see that and I forgot about it. And I wasn't looking at your your questions. So my apologies for that. But [00:02:00] next, next guests I have on the show, I'll be sure to invite them to that so they can collaborate and you can Take part in the conversation anyways, I'm going to start, stop talking.
Let's get started with part two of this three part series. Let's go.
Hey folks from the flight deck. This is your captain speaking. Welcome to the tailwinds and sunshine podcast, where we talk everything aviation. I am your host, Manny Ramirez. It's always a pleasure to have you on board. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Yeah. And that's a really good point that you make because I. I feel like some people when they're going through Through their careers, I feel like sometimes they feel obligated to say yes to everybody in expectation that they're going to [00:03:00] get a raise or they're going to get a promotion and stuff like that.
But you know what? That is not always guaranteed because I've seen people kill themselves to impress their bosses and then they don't end up getting the position. Someone ends up getting it and then there's this resentment, you know, because I was supposed to get that position. I was supposed to get that job and now you're angry and now you're.
becoming caustic and you're, and it's not a good position to be in. I don't think it's really, it's not a way, it's not a way to live life with hating your heart or something like that. So it's very important to always keep yourself, keep prioritize yourself and be a, you know, use no when appropriate, you know, I was like, no, I'm not going to do it.
Even with your friends, you know, like sometimes I think friends and family can take the I definitely sacrifice for them. Like you mentioned, Hey, I'm going to get probably maybe two hours less asleep. But I'm going to hang out with these friends that I haven't seen in a while, or I'm going to hang out with my mom or my dog or whatever.
So I think it's important to do that.
Rachel: It's the memories though to lock the memories that come along with that You don't want to lock look back and be like man. I [00:04:00] was going to be in those pictures or whatever
Manny: It might be but I was I was stuck. I was stuck working, you know So I I was stuck in the office or something like that, whatever job is that you have but it's important to prioritize yourself and Yeah.
So for your mental health and to just keep yourself happy. Speaking of which I have a big announcement, big announcement that I wanted to do. Yeah. Yeah. But so as you know, I just, as I mentioned to you before, but and all you listeners out there I've been an instructor for SkyWest for almost my entire career, and I've actually decided to step down from my position as an instructor because of just, you know, it was just a mental health situation because I felt like I was Yeah.
Clap. Round of applause. But it was, the reason being is I love instructing. I thoroughly, thoroughly love my job, but it's it was just where I was now commuting to three different cities instead of just one or two maximum. I was commuting to three different cities. I was having to pack every, every time I went to Denver for the and, and Skybus [00:05:00] is very graceful to give us hotel rooms, which is really nice.
And they provide you a hotel, no questions asked. You say, Hey, I'm going to be working from this day to this day and they'll give you a hotel, no questions asked, which is really cool. But for me, it was just like every day, every time I went there, I have to pack. Food, not only clothes, but food and I have to plan specifically what kind of clothes I'm going to be carrying with me, what kind of shoes or a belt or something, just because I want to make sure I have the right uniform for the, for the day and it just became so stressful and then I have to drive down to the Springs to do laundry or whatever and it was just, it was becoming a little too much and also I had a little chat with one of my, my, my best friends and mentors Mr.
David Davis and he, we had a chat. It says, Hey, listen, we want to progress in our careers. And the only way you can progress in aviation is to fly. And it's too fly to do that while they're being instructors, a good, you know, resume builder is something that is it's not going to get you to progress somewhere else if you, if that's the end goal, but right now sky West, I love it.
It's just that the instructor side, it was just something that I was [00:06:00] becoming more, more of a stressor for me now, you know, because I go to instruct and I'll go teach and I love it. Sometimes I'd go in and I'd be like, Oh, I don't feel like doing this today. Or, you know, I felt like. Maybe cutting corners.
But as soon as I sat down with the students, I forgot all about that. And was like a hundred percent like I really, because I really liked doing it and I can't, I just don't see myself cutting corners and certain things. I'm like, nah, I'm just going to do it, you know, and I'm going to do it well. But yeah, that's my big announcement.
I'm no longer going to be an instructor for SkyWest. I'm going to go out and fly the line. So that was it. Mental health. Hell yeah.
Rachel: I think you're going to feel like a whole different, like I literally just posted like before and after post of like just a few months difference, like a couple of weeks ago.
And I'm like, this is what stress does to you. Like this. It's what stress does to you. It like blows you up like a balloon. You get out of like these unhealthy habits like I have to work out to feel good like for my mental health. I like crave working out and I was like this is not okay like what is stressing me out because I [00:07:00] need to get rid of it and then your time off did you turn into a hermit like I don't care about the laundry.
I don't want to do anything because you were drained because your body is. Stress. I think until you go through that, you don't comprehend what it feels like. No. Because nobody's going to point it out but you. Like you're going to see it in yourself and in your home and in your tech, like your text messages, the way you talk to people.
You're like, that's weird. I'm not like that normally. Yeah. You're like, you pick it
Manny: out in yourself. But people think like, my mom thinks I'm lazy. It's like, why aren't you doing anything? It's like, that's all you do. Like you used to do this, this and that. I was like, mom, I'm just don't want to like, and even sometimes traveling, like if I'm going to go travel.
I'm not even excited about that because I'm like, Oh, I'm going to be in a plane again. You know, I was like, I'm going to be in a plane. I'm going to go through an airport again. I'm like, Oh my God. And I have to do it and I have to go through all that. So I want to dissociate myself with airplanes and, and, and and airports when I'm at home.
So I usually, I'm like either, either on my switch or I read or I just kind of hang out at home, just chill and I try to avoid. That's that was for the most, [00:08:00] I mean, I don't think it's for the most part, but it does happen. But you know, I do travel and stuff like that. I try to get out of the house because I'm not, I'm the type of person that needs to be like kicked in the butt to do stuff sometimes.
Like I'm not the person who's like, I'm like, I'm not the type of person that's like, Oh, I want to go see a movie. Let's go to the theater and go watch a movie. Usually people invite me and say, Hey, we should go to the movies. I'm like,
Rachel: I'm the same way with movies, though, because I'm like, I'm going to fall asleep.
If you let me sit down for three hours, because movies these days are, what, like, 18 hours long? Like, if you sit me down for three hours and I'm not doing something, I'm going to fall asleep. Yeah. Because I don't sleep as it is, right? But, no, I can't do movies. But you tell me to go hock, let's go. Yeah,
Manny: but sometimes like, you know, and, and, but then when I get to the movie, I really enjoy it.
Like, Oh, that was a really good movie, you know, or, or people say, Hey, we should go to this place. Like I forgot the last place I was out overseas was probably. Italy. And I was just or any place I go really, I, I'm just like, yeah, whatever. I, I know I'm not excited. I know myself already. I'm like, I'm, I'm not excited [00:09:00] about it now.
Cause people like, I'm like, I'm super excited. We're going to go here. I'm like, eh, okay, whatever. You know, that's cool. Yeah. But then I get there. I was like, yeah, I have, you know, I have fun and actually enjoy myself, but it's just, yeah. But with all the stress that happens, all that traveling back and forth.
Yeah. I get home and I almost don't want to do anything. Yeah. And for a while, And for a while, I mean, I, I think I posted a episode. I hadn't recorded anything to the show for like six months almost. Cause I was just like, yeah. And I was like, I need to get back into it. Cause that's just something I want to do.
And I'm finally doing it. It's your
Rachel: happy place, right? It brings you joy. My happy place. Yeah, it does bring me
Manny: joy, especially when I get to share with people like you, you know, it's like, it's really, this is really what I want to do is I want to share this with other people, not only just pilots, but other people that are that are passionate about aviation, whether it's, you know, they were, you know, Passionate when they were kids, like I was, or passionate.
You found your passion once you started
Rachel: working that way in life. Yeah. It's almost like not even six years ago. Yeah. So I find myself in the same way. I'm not, I'm not a [00:10:00] pilot. I will never, I support my pilots a hundred percent. All of them. All of them, because without pilots, we don't have an airline. But no, I'm the same way.
I'm like, I love teaching people about this industry. I'm like, there's so much cool stuff. Like I just geek out on it
Manny: all day now. Yeah, absolutely. And I was I think you mentioned you're getting your dispatcher's license. And I, I always said that if I ever lose my medical, I'm going to go be a dispatcher.
I'm going to do something with an airline. I'm going to be, I'm going to be a dispatcher. It seems like a cool job. You know, and is you're certified and everything. It's pretty cool. It looks like a cool job that I would deal with. It just
Rachel: opens doors for you. Like you don't even have to be a dispatcher with the dispatcher license certificate, whatever you want to call it.
But it just kind of like bumped you up the list on things that you qualify for just by having that certification. We talked
Manny: about, you know, your time at the at the Ram Tower in Denver. We talked about mental health, about being very important now. So when did you start modeling? Tell me about that.
Rachel: Oh my God. This is the weirdest story. Cause like [00:11:00] this was never in my like forefront, nothing. So this all started like last December, November, my friend who is a flight attendant. He also does like modeling and he's an actor. Okay. He was like, Hey, I'm doing this event in March. I'm going to send you all the information and so on and so forth.
I was like, okay, so I'll look at it. And I'm like, LA fashion week. What? What? Not me. Yeah. I said, I'm good. He goes, no, no, no, no, no. Just do it. And I'm like, just do it. And I was like, fine, I'll do it. Right. Like, I'm kind of like becoming a yes person and trying those things I've never done. But I'm like, I'm old.
Like I can't, I can't model, I'm not 12. So I go into the email that he sent to me and I fill it out. And the next day it was like, Oh, you're invited to a zoom call and I was like, okay. So I get on this zoom call and they're like, congratulations, you're walking LA fashion week. I was like,
Manny: hold on. [00:12:00]
Rachel: Time out.
I didn't do anything. And they were just like, no, like you're in, we like your social media. We like this. We like that. And I'm like, And we're all black. Like I don't know this thing.
Manny: We're matching today. We're matching.
Rachel: I'm wearing black t shirt. My whole mouth is black. But yeah, it started with L. A. Fashion Week. And apparently I did good enough at L. A. Fashion Week. They invited me to do New York Fashion Week. Which was just a few weeks ago.
Manny: Very nice. Congratulations. Thank you. It seems like there's a theme to your life.
Like you didn't foresee yourself doing this and you just kind of fell into it, right? So, for example, you say you were a dental assistant and then you fell into aviation because you applied somewhere. True. And then, and then you fell into, into modeling. Yeah. You know, so who knows what's more coming up coming up in your life.
I mean, that's really exciting. I mean, I think that, we're going to stay
Rachel: tuned because it's like a reality show over here, so God only knows what's
Manny: next. You're like in [00:13:00] a house, a big brother house, anything can happen. Right. Let's go. Thank you And I want to share a story with you. Speaking of like Serendipity is speaking of just things coming to your life unexpectedly.
I want to share a story and I think I told you as I want to share a story with you that when I met you, so I had something in my pocket that I was going to give you, but it seemed like it was kind of not. It was a little, a little, a little bit more personal that I wanted to kind of just share with you instead of just with my coworkers.
But so what I do, I'm a firm believer in. Manifestation in manifesting things that you want or, you know, just kind of, kind of trying to be positive minded about certain things or your life, the
Rachel: power
Manny: of positive thinking. Exactly. And so I usually, what I do is I like to manifest, or I like to manifest coins, finding coins on the street or wherever I'm at, if I find a penny or a quarter or a dime or whatever the coin it is, if I find.
Find it because I'm not actively looking for it. If you're actively looking for something, you're not going to find it. So, so what happens is that the day [00:14:00] before I was in Fargo, before I, before I met you, I was in Fargo and I think on on the way to the hotel, either, I think getting in the van or something, I found a coin.
I forgot what the coin, I think it was, I think it was a dime and I found a dime and I put it in my pocket. And I have a habit of anytime that I pick up a coin, I pick it up. I say, thank you. And I put it next to my chest kind of say, thanks. And I put it in my pocket in that to me, when I find something like that is kind of like whatever you want to call it, God, the universe, the universe, the cosmos, whatever it's there, it's their way or is the universe saying, I got you.
There's one store. There's one store where this came from. I'll lock, I'm here for it. Right. But it's, I'm like, but it's not, it's not necessarily just about money. It's about opportunities. It's about just changes that are happening and all positive stuff. Right. And I put that in my pocket. Right. And then when I went to Denver the next day, when I met you, I thought of that coin.
I said, this was Rachel. This is what was going to happen. This is a [00:15:00] positive thing. And then our conversations we had afterwards and the conversations we had and how you helped me out was just a, a a What is it? What is that? What I'm looking for? It was like this is this was it. This was that coin was there for that reason.
And that's why I found it. And then I met you. And then it's just there was that I was going to give you that coin. I was going to say this is yours. And next time I see you, I'm going to give you a coin. I don't know. I don't have a specific coin, but I'll give you a coin. I wanted to. And I was thinking of that when we were walking around the tower.
I was like, this is amazing. Like it all came together, right? Yeah, it all came together. How it all came together out of nowhere. It just fell on my lap and certain things just kind of fall on my lap sometimes. And I go, wow, how did I work out? Because I sometimes just manifest myself in those situations and it happens.
And I mean, if you're, I'm a firm believer in that. And for those of you, it really is. You just manifest and just kind of vision yourself for where you want to be. And somehow you don't even have to worry about the details of how that's, we're going to work out. And I see, I see Christians say this, like, Hey, let, let God take care of it.
Or Jesus. [00:16:00] Yeah, it's the same
Rachel: thing. I'll say Jesus take the wheel all the time, but I'll say it in like weird situation,
Manny: but if you don't have to be religious, you can be just something like, you know, believe in the cosmos or the energy or your grandpa or your grandma or whatever, it's just. something that, you know, you don't have to worry about every single detail of your life because some of this stuff is going to be taken care of on its own.
It's just going to happen. And for me, it happened and I was like that coin. And I think I found a couple more over the last few days, but I always do that. I always pick up the coin. I say, thank you. And I put it next to my heart and then I put it in my pocket just as a reminder that I'm like, and I have like a tray full of those coins everywhere.
I have so many funny stories of finding coins somewhere. Like I remember I was doing we were walking with a crew in Birmingham and I was telling the flight attendant this, you know, story about how I manifest coins and I'm talking about that. And on our way back to the hotel, both the flight attendant and I found each other, like we found like three coins, like each of us, so we're just walking, talking, you know, we're talking and stuff.
And I was like, Oh my God, there's one, you know, just like picked it up and then we're [00:17:00] walking. Oh my God, there's another one. You know? So. She was just manifesting this out of hearing my story, so I was pretty fun. I love this So I love it. Yeah, it was really cool. So now one, another thing I wanted to ask you, actually, I'm going to backtrack back to tower because that's pretty much where I know you from.
I remember you were telling me that There's two sides to that tower, your city, and there's the company, right? So how does that work? Why, why, why do they do that?
Rachel: So I haven't had the opportunity yet to visit all of the other towers. So do not quote me verbatim on this, but from my understanding, our tower in Denver, Denver does stick out because we do have to coordinate.
So the company I work for, we operate. The B concourse, and then the city is taking control of traffic on the A concourse, C concourse, and they're also doing cargo. So but then when we leave at night, the city takes over and they're fully functioning everything. Of course, coordinating with ground as well.
Right. So, I [00:18:00] don't know why they do it like that in just Denver versus other stations, but it does provide an extra challenge. We're also a tower where we're not just like your pushes approved contact ground. We're actually sequencing traffic from hotel to Kilo.
Manny: When do you guys close? What are the normal operating hours for like the B concourse controllers?
Rachel: So now I believe it's until midnight, but usually it was like nine 45, 10, sometimes 11, it changes seasonally. Summer hours are longer than
Manny: everything else. Okay. Did you ever train with any other controllers, any other ramp controllers of other airports or something like that? Did you guys like cross train or anything like that?
Rachel: No, so the way it works is it's a 90 day pass or fail on the job training and basically a certified like a signed off controller is who is mentoring you through that. So I had four trainers, one of my trainers I was with for six weeks and I mean he signed me off on. Almost everything. A lot of stuff. So him and I are like two peas in a pod.[00:19:00]
Manny: What's the biggest challenge you feel like it was controlling the tower?
Rachel: I don't, this is not a question I'm very good at answering. Like for me, the biggest, so actually no, I can't answer this because I literally got the recordings for this is when somebody had a hot mock and what was a stuck mock technically, but it wasn't just a regular stuck mock ended up being a maintenance issue for an hour.
An hour. I could not move any of my traffic. You could hear everybody go stuck, mock, stuck, mock, stuck, mock. And you hear that guy going, I know, but I know you can hear him, but like, I can't talk to y'all. So every once in a while I can go to suck mock or whatever it may be. So my city copart, his on at the same time.
And he, I remember him going, Rachel, can I do this? I'm like, it's your, it's your ramp. I can't do anything. I gotta suck my, so that was challenging because I have, we're not having to tell big tower, we need you to hold our planes. We have a set mark. We can't [00:20:00] get any planes on or off the ramp. We have zero communication, but it's also talking to your city code part because.
You know, Graham can tell them to contact him if needed, as long as that's communicated. So that would probably be my most challenging was just getting that ramp cleared up and getting it cleared up safely after, because it's like I had three banks at once after that all got cleared up.
Manny: What do you mean when you talk about banks?
So
Rachel: a bank is a term. So at certain times of the day, it's where we have our most flats. So in Denver, you're going to see like a whole bunch of planes push around. 637, again, these change based on the time of year. There's like, we have a good like 930 to 1015, like it's basically everything arrives and departs at the same time.
So you can have 30, 40 planes that you're trying to, you know, coordinate your coordinating gateholds. You're coordinating them, getting in, out, all that good stuff. So when I say bank, it just [00:21:00] refers to a whole bunch of arrivals and departures.
Manny: I can imagine how difficult that even it's the, the complexity it adds when like, let's say during winter ops, for example, even during the summer where thunderstorms, right?
So now when one, when one bank like kind of shoves into another bank, right? Become
Rachel: seven banks at one time. It gets delayed. You're bored for seven hours. And then that eighth hour comes in eight hours turns into like 12 hours or I mean, it's not really 10 or 12, but it turns into like. This constant, you know, just like whip it out.
Manny: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's that's important of just people don't understand the general public to understand that sometimes that delays that happen because that's something that people need to understand is that weather can have a severe impact on not only just the air, you know, airplanes having the ability to take off, but also now you have all those airplanes that were not able to leave and now.
People like Rachel have to go there and, you [00:22:00] know, manage all these aircrafts because the airplane that had a gate no longer has a gate or that that airplane has to be sitting out somewhere and now they have to move these all these, not just one or two, but dozens of airplanes that have to move around the airport to just kind of move them around and figure out what they're going to do because now they were supposed to get these 20 airplanes out.
But because it was, You know, thunderstorms or whatever, they were not able to move them. But guess what? Here comes a five o'clock bang. Now we
Rachel: have your diversions. You may have diversions coming in. You have your medical. So you get a medical call, right? Everything stops. That medical is number one. And if your ramp is a mess, you better lock, be real quick to think and work with your city co part, because you're just.
It's not just you working with your airline, you're working with your coworker and coordinating with their traffic, which is, you know, every airline you have cargo, you have American Southwest, every airline that exists in Colorado, we're dealing with on the ramp and coordinating with the big tower at the
Manny: same time.
So it's very important to just remember when you're traveling, if you have some type of [00:23:00] delay, know that there's a lot, there's a lot of pieces to the puzzle, not just the airplane, not the pilots, the flight attendants, but there's also ground, the rampers, another one, the rampers. If we have lightning within a certain distance, they have to go inside the building.
So I actually got stuck a couple months ago. I got stuck on the ramp because all the ground personnel had to evac, not evacuate, but they had to take shelter. And so we had to wait until the alarms went off and we had to, so that created a delay. So just be kind and just know that some of your delays are a delay, just the snow.
Do you see a little bit of snow or something that can, that can have. An effect everywhere, not just even other airports, you know, because sometimes you'll say, Oh, it's a weather delay, but you don't know that the weather currently at your destination is getting crappier by the minute, or perhaps there's a squall line of thunderstorms in the Midwest that you can cross.
Now we have exactly,
Rachel: you know, so that's, that was the most. It's black. That's the one thing you always hear. They're like, they're going, say they're going [00:24:00] like Denver to Chicago and they're like, well, my family lives right by the airport and it's sunshiny and I'm like, I bet it is. But what does the weather look along the way to Chicago?
What is it like 34, 000 feet in the air lack? Can your family get up 34, 000 feet and tell us what to
Manny: do? Get a balloon and some oxygen. I mean, I've done, I've done stuff like that where we have to the, the most extreme one was when we had to fly, where were we? I think we were in Huntsville, Alabama, and we were supposed to fly back to Denver.
And we. First got held in Huntsville. Say, Hey we were supposed to depart at 2 PM Huntsville time. And we got a message saying, you're not leaving until 8 PM. And we're like, what the, so we're like, okay. So, but then we managed to reroute ourselves and they actually released us a little bit early, but a flight that usually takes two and a half hours, took us four hours and 15 minutes to fly.
Cause we had to fly all the way South. South of San Antonio and then go north to, to avoid this [00:25:00] storms because there was a line of thunderstorms that started from Canada all the way to Mexico. So, so it's it's a very so be kind when you have delays, cause right now, based on the delays that we have nowadays, it's, it's, it is a.
It is a wonder of the world to be able to get that many airplanes on time just because it's the complexity of the system air traffic control, ram, ground, airplanes, crew, everything. So it is so
Rachel: many moving parts and it's like those certain things you wish a general population knew that there's so many.
So many moving parts, and it's like when cruise time out like that has nothing to do with the airline. That's all, you know, top of the line. That's all f a a and comes down and it's just we have to abide by those rules. Hey,
Manny: fellow aviation enthusiast, before I let you go, I'd like to ask you for a huge favor.
If you could please go to the platform where you're listening this podcast in and leave a review some feedback and some comments. I really do appreciate that. I wanna make the Tailwinds and Sunshine podcast. Your podcast. I also want to give a huge thanks to my friends and coworkers [00:26:00] that have shared the podcast with their friends and family.
That means the world to me. I really appreciate your support and your subscriptions. If you want to reach out to me, you can email me at Manny, the CFI at gmail. com. Or you can message me directly on Instagram at Climb VX. That's C L I M V as in Bravo, V as in Victor, X Ray. You can reach me there with your suggestions or any feedback.
Once again, thank you for the bottom of my heart. I appreciate the support. And until next episode, I wish you tailwinds and sunshine. See you. The statements made on the show are my own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.