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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!
How's it going, everyone? Welcome back to the show. This is the Tailwinds and Sunshine podcast. I wanna thank you for allowing me into your space. It is always a privilege to spend some time with you.
Manny:Today is part 2 of a 3 part series with my friend, Mike Strawser. If you haven't listened to part 1, go ahead and listen to that one first before you jump into this one so you can maintain some continuity. But just a little recap of episode 1. We, we kinda catch up with life. We hadn't seen each other since training.
Manny:Mike and I were sim partners, in in captain upgrade, and we were just catching up with life, sharing our experiences during training, and we jump into Mike's journey, aviation journey from fixed wing to rotary to back to fixed wing and everything in between that
Manny:he did, including firefighting and flying helicopters all
Manny:over the world. Mike is based in San Francisco. He also lives in Las Vegas, like I do, and we are both living that commuter life. Anyways, let's go ahead and jump into part 2.
Manny:From the Baltimore Studios in Colorado Springs, Colorado, this is the Tailwinds and Sunshine podcast. Wow. That's crazy. You know? And to go back to your dream when you initially were kind of, disillusioned with the idea that you probably not gonna be a pilot because you had to wear glasses, I had a similar experience when I was younger because I had I wore I wore glasses when I was younger.
Manny:I had to wear glasses. I got LASIK, PRK, technically, PRK when I was in the military. But back when I was younger, I was like, I knew that I you know, at first, I was like, oh, I wanna go to the Air Force Academy, and I wanna fly, you know, fighter jets. And that dream went out the window because at the time, they said you cannot have your your vision cannot be corrected. It has to be 2020.
Manny:And, obviously, they changed that over the years. But what really it was it was really funny and just shows you my, how naive I was at the time. It was just like, and I think maybe English was still not the best for me because that, you know, I was still in English. But I was reading all these, like, qualifications to be an airline pilot, and I think it was either American website or United website or whatever. But it said, like, you need to be able to manipulate all so your your basically, your body dimensions or whatever.
Manny:It's like you have to be able to manipulate all the controls and buttons on the on the airplane. And I'm like, wait. They're expecting me to know every single airplane in their fleet to be a pilot with them? Like, I I thought I had to, like, know that's the the Boeing 73, the Triple 7. Like, man, that that seems so daunting that it actually crushed my dream for a little bit.
Mike:Like, I'm
Manny:like, I can't believe this. I'm like, I can't believe I have to learn everything. That is so much to do. And obviously, that, you know, that once, I down down the line, I come to, oh, nope. That was stupid.
Manny:I was just reading it wrong. You know, I didn't understand it. But, yeah, don't don't follow the advice from people that don't know or they're not in the business because you're gonna get, sidetracked with, you know, false information. So get it from a source. You know, get it from someone like Mike.
Manny:Get it from someone like me. You know, if you wanna know what your career, you know, should look like or what you someone to give you guidance, reach out to someone that's already done it, especially someone who's been in the carrier for 20 plus years. You know, like Mike has been doing helicopters. He's done it all. Right?
Manny:Firefighting, actual doing helicopter stuff, fakes wing. I mean, he he does it all. So he has all that experience. And now, just really off topic, but I remember you said that you flew the 747 version of helicopters. What is that?
Manny:That's the yeah.
Mike:The Boeing shit. The Boeing Chinook.
Manny:The Boeing Chinook. Is that what it is? That's what that's the the the queen of the skies when it comes to rotary wing?
Mike:Pretty much as as far as, you know, helicopters, there's so much different stuff going on in EMS and offshore and but for the utility side, that we flew, we call it utility flying, we're at lifting stuff and and construction and fire, and that's all falls in the same category. And for us, it's the because it could just pick up the most the the most amount of, weight, and and it's one of it's one of the biggest helicopters. Right? So that's what Mhmm. That's what a lot of a lot of guys are striving for.
Mike:Oh, wow. Helicopter is unique because they have so many different missions, right, versus the air jet usually has just one one mission is that's Yeah. Bring people.
Manny:Yeah. It's cargo or
Mike:passengers. Yeah. Yeah.
Manny:Yeah. Yeah. And go fast.
Mike:Yeah. I'm gonna be. So
Manny:Yeah. I mean, I feel like, so when it comes to, you know, can it when I was a kid as well, you know, I wanted to obviously fly the biggest, meanest airplane ever, right, either the triple 7 or, you know, I wanted to fly a wide body when I was a kid. So do you think that, like, kids that are, like, looking towards helicopters, oh, I wanna fly the Chinook. That's what I wanna fly. So I like kinda like, is it the same kinda like, the airline world where, like, people wanna fly?
Manny:That's kind of the aspiration of most kids that they wanna fly the biggest airplane?
Mike:I would say so.
Manny:Do they do it with the it's kind of the same. Yeah.
Mike:Yeah. Got it. And they're they're such because they're allowed to make a lot of wind, you get close to them, the Chinook and the sky crane. The sky crane with the long legs, it looks like this gigantic mosquito red and it's loud. You see it?
Mike:It has a distinctive sound. Right? You can see it coming from from a far distance away and and it's gonna win. Because you wanna go and the chinook is the it's a it's a big fat lady. Right?
Mike:And it's it's the people think, oh, yeah. You know, this this and it's kinda a little bit like the queen in disguise. It it it will surprise you how fast this thing goes. It does it does not look like it looks like, you know, with this the saddle tanks on the on the on the side, but it it outflies almost every helicopter. It's super fast.
Mike:It Wow. It's faster than the Hawk has, this the Black Hawk has a hard time catching up in some of the attack helicopters. Right? And it's Really? It's a and it's a transporter.
Mike:So, and on the fire, I mean, this this thing can can run up and down the hill so much faster than any other helicopter. So everybody loves it, and, of course, the customer loves it. Right? Because he can carry so much carry so much water. Yes.
Mike:It's, there's a lot of giggling in the cockpit. Let me tell you
Manny:that. Oh.
Mike:Like, when when we when the fire goes out, you can watch a fire go out. Sometimes with a small helicopter, there's a big fire, and it's like, well, that did nothing. But let's let's keep let's keep, let's keep at it. And the Chinook is like, wow, that actually went out. That was pretty cool.
Mike:So We didn't think it
Manny:was gonna go out and it did. Yeah.
Mike:Yeah. So.
Manny:Yeah. Well, that's cool.
Mike:Makes a difference. And,
Manny:I mentioned earlier that, Mike is a renaissance man because he's done helicopter. He's done the rotary wing. He's he's done fixed wing. He's been all over the world. But, also, he actually with him and his brother, came up with a what would you call that?
Manny:I mean, a comic or what were you like, a comic strip? What would you what is the the proper title for for it?
Mike:Good question, right? Because it's a it's a niche it's a niche market. It's a it's a cartoon, a cartoon, a comic about chickens flying airplanes. And just a Yeah.
Manny:There you go. Chickens. Yeah.
Mike:It's just the dumbest idea ever because
Manny:Hey. You guys made it work, but they've been doing this. It's called chicken wings comics, chicken wings. It says chickens flying airplanes. And they've been doing this for over 20 years, and they, have really, lovable characters.
Manny:And as far as the the characters go, did you guys base these characters on actual people?
Mike:Yes. Yes.
Manny:Yeah. So who's Chuck?
Mike:So Chuck Chuck and and Julio. So Chuck is the the pilot, right, and he's a very positive Mhmm. Was very positive. The world gets him down because he's not he's very motivated, he loves the the business, he gets up every day and loves flying and everything about it. He's just not very good at it.
Mike:Right? And, and and then he's always big mouth, big watch, always wearing sunglasses that the this typical pilot. Right? And we've even had
Manny:Typical Chad typical Chad pilot. That's what we sometimes call it.
Mike:Right. Yeah. We even had when we're at air shows or, other aviation events, we had people go, do do you know my uncle Benny? And I don't know. Yeah.
Mike:He's from from Kansas. And and because he's got a Cessna 172, and he's just like Chuck. I'm like, well Yeah. Because a lot of guys are just like Chuck. Right?
Mike:And the name came from, have you ever seen the the the Red Bull helicopter, that that did Yes. The loop de loops? My friend
Manny:my friend,
Mike:Chuck Aaron, did this. He we got it he got it going. And I remember translating the I used to work for him part time, and I was translating some of the maneuvers because they were all nobody did this in the States. Right? Doing doing loops and stuff.
Mike:So the maneuvers are written in German because they that helicopter is a German air force helicopter. They they were training training aerobatics with that thing. And there was a a thing every morning. When Chuck came in, he parked his truck in front of the hangar, and it was always in the way. And every morning, somebody would yell, move the truck, Chuck.
Mike:Right? Because it rhymes and also was in the way. And for some reason with that, combined with knowing all these pilots and Chuck is also like a bigger dead life renaissance man, spinning the movies, he's got the Red Bull project. He always had something going on. And and somehow that, that that's where that name comes comes from.
Mike:But it's a combination of me and Sure. All the pals I met and working for Chuck Chuck Aaron, and he ended up having our character always on. If you look at the Red Bull Hell Cup, the original ones, they had the, the little our Chuck character on it on the side.
Manny:That's awesome.
Mike:This had the, and it says captain Chuck underneath. And so That's so cool.
Manny:That's so
Mike:cool. Where that came from. And and Julio was also a mechanic that, I worked with, when I was working. He was one of my mechanics on on some of the, the fire contracts. And, yeah.
Mike:So all these characters come from from from from working at a small flat People. Yeah. You. Yeah. And and people I knew it.
Mike:Right. It's not exactly always that guy but, you know, it's it's Sure. Because chicken wing started out just as a joke and, some comics that we passed around your office are hung up, Yeah. It's just 3 panel strips, you know, kinda like our field of Snoopy and just hung them around the office. Something that was like really office related.
Mike:So a lot of these names initially, we changed some of them, of course, you know, for obvious reasons. Right? But,
Manny:they were not, politically correct.
Mike:Politic correct and they probably don't always wanna use the real names and and but that's how it started out. And and then, people said and this was pre this was pre websites and pre social media and people said, well, you guys have to have a website. And our first website was literally was just a picture that my brother drew and, you know, website. There was no Google even, you know, when we first started. I'm kinda dating myself here, but and then it kind of evolved.
Mike:We were just doing things that would suggested by us from people who knew our, work. Right? And and then snow bought from there. Next thing you know, we got 6 books, 7 books, coloring books, website, and then we start just now starting to do animation.
Manny:Yeah. Says that's with your with the entire cast on on the side of it. I've seen the plane. Yeah. Yeah.
Manny:The We
Mike:have the chicken Yeah. The chicken hawk. Yeah. I used to be a Cessna 175 captain. Now I'm a ERJ 175 captain.
Manny:That's so cool. You know, and it's, so all the characters are pretty relatable, you know, especially if you've gone through, you know, flight school, you know, like a little flight school mom and pop, you know, it's like, you know these characters. You've seen them. They're really relatable, and it's, it's, yeah. I I think it's really cute.
Manny:I like that. But, you know, another thing is that how big it got is that you guys I remember you telling me that you got offers from, like, airlines to be part of their inflight magazines. Tell me a little bit about that, how that came about.
Mike:We have people we have people come to us, all the time or we go to them. We were working on we even had, like, an animation deal as, halfway sick. This was o eight, kinda ruined that deal. We had, there was the, former Disney employees involved, and and we were up in that big black tower, you know, in Hollywood where they make the deals, and we thought we had it made. And then things you know, the money fell through, and they already fought over, like, who gets the rights instead of the thing that we got off the ground.
Mike:So we kinda started over a couple of times. We had, we were in talks with, Cartoon Network at one point. And, they decided there's a yeah. They passed on us because they were only doing things about school and with monkeys. So I forgot what their reasoning was.
Mike:I have to look that up. But
Manny:Okay.
Mike:And then the airlines, yeah, when when in flight air air what do they call it? In flight magazines were still still big. And I think the airline is not around. What's the what's the airline called? They had that that Blue Cross or the, was it US Airways that looked a little bit like the Greek flag?
Mike:That had the blue kinda version of the I think it was called US Airways. Got bought by, I wanna say, American. The It was American. It was US Air. US Air.
Mike:US.
Manny:Yeah. US Air. I mean, I don't remember their in flight magazine, but I know that US Air got bought out by American.
Mike:And, and that one, that one fell through because they, they said, do something funny, but it can't be anything that may puts the airline in bad light. It can't be anything about maintenance because it's gonna freak out the passengers. The pilots can't mess up because we don't wanna freak out the passengers. We don't wanna offend any passengers. Don't make fun of anybody that's scared of flying.
Mike:And there was just so many rules that at the end was it was after 2 weeks. Freaking heartbreaking. It's like, well, if we can't make that's where most of that humor come from. Somebody gets scared or or Right. Something breaks or somebody said something funny.
Mike:Let's face it, some of the some of the humor, you can't be funny and never offend anybody, right? So we have to apologize and say, sorry. We we can't come up with we can't, like, be funny and not make fun of the airline, the passengers, That's true.
Manny:That's the
Mike:point of they make.
Manny:Yeah. This is the point of the comic, you know. It's like of the, you know, this is what it is. So yeah. But, you know and you guys decided to step away because you're like, well, I don't want to be kind of because if you start accepting because I know that when you start accepting certain contracts from certain people or even sponsorships.
Manny:Right? So now they got a say in what you can produce because you have to meet their basically, their guidelines for them to actually write you a check. Right? Because now they have some control over your creative process to be able to do that. So sometimes you just have to walk away.
Mike:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some something will come up again. I mean, in the in the meantime, it's it's not like it like a boring. So but there's always there's always something happening.
Manny:Yeah. That's true. And so what about your your brother? He's, your brother Stefan. He's, he's still back in Austria?
Mike:Yeah.
Manny:And he is the the,
Mike:the
Manny:the artist. So he's the one that writes all this up. Or he draws all this stuff.
Mike:Yeah. I'm more the no shit who I was flying upside down through a snowstorm with my long lying on and the bucket kinda storyteller. And he is the he's the he's the artiste. And sometimes he has an idea, and he's like, how do we make this an aviation idea? Or I have an idea, and then we, we we do those, comics together.
Mike:And and, we write it out like a script because we used to just tell stories and laugh about it. Next morning, we've got what what this was all about. And then we Yeah. We're gonna be smart about this next time we we take notes. And then we just took little notes.
Mike:And then next morning, we look at it and go, Julio Broom. What's what's so funny about Julio and the Broom? We're laughing we're laughing really hard. Hadn't a bottle of wine or something and next morning What what was Julio and
Manny:the broom? Of course, they have
Mike:some more. Yes. We're Austrian. Yeah. We're awesome.
Mike:Eventually, we wised up. We write it like a movie script and like picture 1, picture 2, picture 2 and the next morning, we can go, oh, I don't know why we thought this was funny. Mean, not all of our ideas come from drinking. Sure. Sure.
Mike:But we we write it out. Wink wink. Wink wink. But, yeah. So, we just just write it out and then my brother draws it.
Mike:And then and then a lot of times my brother has, he's more I'm with the, you know, the talk in front of the crowd and quick, quick humor and and, dish it out as fast as, I get it. My brother's a little bit more, I don't say introverted, but, he has a fine sense. He does a lot of he draws a lot of in the background when he sits to by himself at night and draws something. Right? And next thing you know, he made it funnier when there's things in the background you see happening.
Mike:And, we he loves it, especially when people sometimes they catch it, sometimes they don't catch it. Right? So there there's a lot of, stuff going on in the background, actually, at chicken wings that that that you don't that you don't know about or see right away. But a lot of our readers must read these things.
Manny:Your fan base pick up on these little things.
Mike:Yeah. And it's always neat when they find Yeah. Little Easter eggs that my brother lives.
Manny:Yeah. I remember that you told me that, you got complaints from fans that they were saying, well, the Cessna, I think your brother drew a 6 cylinder Cessna or something like that. And, you know, people started complaining. It's like, that's not accurate. So he had to go back and fix it or something.
Manny:So now and they had to, like, depict the actual, size of the engine for the airplane.
Mike:Yeah. Yeah. Most most of our guys are most of our fans are they're aviation enthusiasts. Right? So most of them were nice about it.
Mike:Did we miss something that we're still by another plane that we, that we, did did we miss a couple of strips and maybe they got an upgrade on the engine and nope. Nope. We messed up. We just my brother accidentally threw the the plane with 6 cylinders. It's 6
Manny:cylinders. It's a v 6 now. Yeah. Instead of an inline 4. But that's, Yeah.
Manny:That's funny. But it's something, like, you know, you said it started as a joke. And when did you guys started feeling like, man, this could possibly be get something bigger? I mean, when did when did you guys realize that this could possibly be something bigger than this just being a joke in the at flight school?
Mike:We I think that was when it's like one of the guys so his dad was, was, worked for Disney, and and he said, man, did you guys really got something here? And he's gonna help us, you know, develop this into something something bigger. And I think that's when we actually tried to promote it a little bit more, you know. And then they said, well, you need to have a book. You can't just have like a couple of loose papers with some chicken straw on it.
Mike:And so so we got into the book and the website and another book. And chicken wings, it just really came. It was just it was my mom's birthday. Everybody was out late, and we were up late. And it started out on a napkin.
Mike:And that's where the name came from. Because we initially, it was like little little persons that he that he drew. And then do you remember the show Wings? This was like now I'm really dating myself, like, in the, was that the eighties show?
Manny:The shows that I watched as a kid, whereas Knight Rider and the other Sky Wolf, I think, or I forgot what it's called. Air Wolf. Yeah. That show where the helicopter, that was the most badass thing ever. Like, You remember the the the theme song, but I remember that.
Manny:That's the only thing I remember. Yeah.
Mike:Oh, we haven't done that. We haven't done that strip about Airwolf. That's
Manny:Oh, you guys did one?
Mike:We haven't, but we need to. But that's one of the reasons why, Chuck's flying the Hughes 500 because that that was the magnum PI helicopter. Right? Everybody, that was such an iconic such an iconic airplane when we when we grew up. So but that's how just so we drew the people, and that's it.
Mike:That is so much like that show Wings. We don't wanna be like a comic version of the show Wings. And I don't know, somehow chicken wings came up. And so let's call it chicken wings and draw birds. And because it's not like the showings, what we do, but we didn't want it to and, yeah, and then that's that's kinda what a name could I don't know how that popped in our head, chicken wings, and that may turn it into birds.
Manny:Chicken wings.
Mike:And that turned it into, what what it is now. Initially, they weren't even supposed to be chickens either. It was supposed to be, like, parrots or something, and then ended up with the name chicken wings. Yeah. It's it turned into into chicks.
Mike:Because it's funny. Right? Because a chicken doesn't fuck that much. It's scary enough.
Manny:Whatever he said, chicken wings. Oh, like chicken wings, I thought of the food. Yeah.
Mike:It was it was a interesting process that that's a a comic episode in itself is trying to trademark chicken wings. Right? Because everybody's like, we can't trademark chicken wings because it's a basic food staple in the states. Right?
Manny:Yeah. It's like calling something apples, people, or something. You know? Apple cutters. Are you gonna trade me?
Manny:Yeah. That's true. Never mind. Touche. Touche.
Manny:Yeah. Never mind. Yeah. But yeah. It's like yeah.
Manny:That bite when you first told me, I was like, I think I've heard it before. And, but the first thought that crossed my mind, I'm like, the food? You know, I was like, you guys are a comic about chicken actual chicken wings by them. That was man, no. No.
Manny:Not at all. So I started looking into that, and I was like, oh, nice. Yes. And I do remember in passing. And because you mentioned and I'm probably seen it.
Manny:The reason why I probably seen it in the past is because you mentioned that you guys were in some, government publications. I think you said the FAA used some of your your material to include into Oh,
Mike:yeah. Yeah. The FAA uses us, the the the Canadian, even the Germans, the the, for safety, for for what not to do. Right? So to loosen up the the, we used to be in trailer plane as well.
Mike:I think we're on still online, but remember that yellow paper that was everywhere at every airport you flew to, for for, trading airplanes, EA Magazine. We still we still do, the civil air patrol. So you you see and people cut them out and then post them at at little airports. We're we're more
Manny:Yeah.
Mike:And I've seen to a big flight school and you go straight to the airlines, you're probably not not as, you don't not as exposed to it, but, the people at the air show people and then the private pilots that go to little airports and the $100 hamburger people. That's a little bit more of our customer base, which doesn't mean we can't.
Manny:Mhmm.
Mike:We're trying to get Chuck Chuck into the airlines, you know, because now I have a couple of airline stories, but he's just not good at it. So I'm not sure if the airlines are gonna hire him. Well, this is gonna Right. And they become like your kids. Right?
Mike:Where you go like, ah, Chuck wouldn't do that or Chuck would do this. Yeah. And, our fans are the same way. Like, this is not very Chuck like that. I thought it was a comic recently.
Mike:Let me I gotta think of it, but I'm like, this is not like Chuck would be doing this and when I read the the blog comments, I started thinking, you know, you're right. This is way more well, maybe it was Julio. One of the so this is out of character for this character. I was like, you, you are totally right. That is not that's not the way Chuck would do that.
Manny:Yeah. You know, maybe maybe you should start, like, maybe the school now gets, like, a a a citation or something. Yeah. You know, and then they start flying a citation and just kind of, you know, spearhead off of that. Now he's, like, getting bigger airplanes now.
Manny:Oh, we're gonna go off, fly the Citation or the Learjet or whatever. You know, kind of, not necessarily go straight into the airlines, but kinda go into that. You know, he'd not went from a Cessna as an instructor. Now he's gonna start flying a little citation or even a turboprop and start going off that direction. You know, that that'd be a little bit more in character.
Manny:Right? Because if you just all of a sudden goes and starts flying airlines, like, my that seems kinda
Mike:weird. Of course, true true chicken style. They're gonna buy the tug first before they buy the airplane.
Manny:You see? The juices are pouring already. Well, this is a crew this is a creative process, everybody. I'm being, I am part of this, new direction that Chuck is gonna take in in his flying career. But, you know, you answered my question because I was gonna ask you now that you're an airline captain.
Manny:I was like, maybe Julio is gonna take a different direction in his career, you know, and, you know, it's gonna go some and start flying bigger airplanes or something and doing his his antics, with bigger airplanes.
Mike:Yeah. We'll we'll we'll we'll see what takes us. If there's there's a couple of things that, for example, Chuck's always working on that course there and then Warbirds when this first started, one expected. Now you can now you can't announce a rich people game. So we have to work on unable how Chuck can keep affording working on his because he he always works on this Coursera that they never finishes.
Mike:Right? So, but 20 years ago, this was a whole different ball game working on an old warbird versus, versus now. Right? So Yeah. So there's a couple there's a lot of the landscape has changed.
Mike:The Chickoinks is trying to navigate. Right. The new landscape.
Manny:We gotta adapt to the new, we gotta adapt. That's why we're
Mike:moving towards the animation too. Right? Because, because, you know, people read less books. Everything is online now. So
Manny:social media. Yeah. It's all about social media. Yes. You also have a business on the side on besides chicken wings, besides being an airline captain, you also have an online store, and I still need a patch from you that I remember you showed me a patch.
Manny:I'm like, I must have this. Okay. Because instead of patch something around, like I said, what happens in North Las Vegas stays
Mike:Oh, yes. Okay.
Manny:And it's like this. Hey, little alien. I want that patch. I want it. It's so cool.
Manny:So what is so tell us about your online store. What is what is this store for? What do you sell there?
Mike:So this was funny because we had an online store for chicken wings, and and then, there was a guy. He was also a airline captain, and he was doing he was one of our customers. And what he made with Aviator website, he sold aviation Christmas cards. It's like funny funny aviation Christmas cards. And he wanted to get rid of the business, and we thought it was a really good idea because that that name's been out there.
Mike:And my brother drew all this designs. So we basically bought back because he kinda owned the rights because they're not chickens. Mhmm. And then they would call it they would call it Santa's Adventure. So it's Santa kinda.
Mike:He flies with the airlines and he gets, and then they turn into Christmas cards, a single picture cartoons, and he gets he gets stuck at TSA or he lost his he's in lost luggage with the with the Santa, you know, the sack that he has. And so and a really good idea. So we basically bought back our own designs and used the name, and then they via the website now sells chicken wings. But, through that store, we got approached by by, another store that makes patches, but they didn't have any artists, and they liked our artwork. And, what they did, they were looking for artists, to, design patches.
Mike:They had the the business. They had the squadrons. They had the the thunderstorms and a thunderstorm. The thunderbirds? Thunderbirds and the, Blue Angels on the account and they said, well, they they they had the, the ideas.
Mike:We're gonna patch with this and he's always struggling to find artwork. So my brother did a bunch of art for them and that gradually worked its way into, this, Aviator website. So we started selling up other things than just Christmas cards and and chicken wings, and we started these patches. Another thing we just fell into, by accident. And because so the squadron goes to, which is called squadron flight shop for but they don't they don't sell to public because they just don't wanna deal with this.
Mike:And we have an a retail store, and then we do the artwork for the Thunderbirds or for whatever squadron, the aggressors. All the Nellis guys come to us and and, not all of them, but some of them. And, and then we get whatever is left over or get to sell a couple online and, for, like, Janet and and and Nela's stuff, and that we just just fell into this. So so so now now we do this and it became a great business and it it's, it's a lot of fun, you know. Chickawings is fun.
Mike:It's one crowd and then the patch people is a whole another, a whole another crowd. Right? Like, meeting all this, talk with all these squadrons and all these other aviator stuff. It's a whole new world because I was not really in in this whole, like, defense and and and military, world ever. And it's fun talking with them and designing, designing cool stuff for them.
Mike:And and this whole got combined in this, Aviator Aviator website. So that's that's that's then also the name of the website, Aviator website.com. For your listeners, check it out.
Manny:So that that, that link is gonna be in the shown us along with the chicken wings as well, and there's so you can take a look. Yeah. But I've been, yeah. When I saw the patches you showed me, I was like, they're really cool, especially that North Las Vegas one because I know exactly what they're talking about. You know?
Manny:So for those that you don't know, North Las Vegas or the north side of Nevada is where Area 51 is at, and there's a lot of missions that go out there from Nellis. You know? They fly out there. They do, what's it called, red flag. They do a lot of stuff out there, and so everyone knows area 51 is synonymous with alien activity.
Manny:So he showed me this little patch, and it's like this little alien that says what stays in you know, what happens in North Las Vegas stays in North Las Vegas, and I thought it was pretty clever. So it's it's a it's a really nice, really nice design. And have you guys had any other new projects going on?
Mike:Yeah. We a lot of these patches, we don't ask questions. Right? They they say something, and only they know. And we know not to ask questions.
Mike:But, no. We haven't started any any new we're working on new patches, and there is probably a a transfer for ownership on one of the the Patchmakers going on. So that that's in the works. Still trying to catch up from, you know, doing the upgrade. And, actually, this whole airline transition kinda on my side let the, chicken wings fall a little bit on the wayside.
Mike:But now that that's kinda completed now, it's been a long 2 years. Right? Because 2 years actually, yeah, 2 years ago, I started my my a t almost a t p, right, after transitioning to the, fixed ring set and, or ATP CTV school. Right? So now we're here.
Mike:Mhmm. And it was a busy 2 weeks. So 2 weeks, 2 years. So we're, yeah, we're working. I'm working now on on catching up.
Mike:My brother had, 2 toddlers at home, so that didn't didn't help either. And, one of the problems with chicken wings is it's such a niche, right, that when you approach cartoon people, they don't know about aviation. And when you approach aviation people, they don't know about animation or cartoons. So we're kinda, like, cutting our own path there. So it's a lot of, work that we're we're doing, having to do ourselves.
Mike:Right. And, you know, then you get sidetracked with it, you know, because flying from Emax money and my brother, designed in websites and and other projects. He my brother does, he, designed, like, entire, books for, like, a a business magazine or a business, like, an entire cartoon book, which takes a long time. Or, he's he's got a lot of he does a lot of work for firefighting, structure firefighting magazine and stuff as well because we're both grew up firefighting volunteer department. That's how we fell into this.
Mike:So so that makes that immediately pays the bill. So some of the the projects that we wanna do with chicken wings, so now our spare time, which there wasn't a lot lately. So we're hoping it'll catch up on that Right. Here shortly because it is it's a fun and then the COVID, of course, you know, we had this great book coming out, Moments in Aviation History, and we're gonna release it in the biggest, show in in in Europe called Aero. And we had a booth, and the booth was great.
Mike:It was right next to the extra booth, you know, extra to the aerobatics planes because they always hang, like, the planes from the ceiling. So everybody, like, gets drawn to that. We're, like, so excited about this. April of 2020. Right?
Mike:So you know what happened in April of 20. Oh. Yep. So still trying to catch up from then for a year or 2 years. Nobody even met.
Mike:There was no air shows or trade shows. So trying to reconnect with everybody, trying trying to get back back into that, you know, work out my new schedule being at the bottom now off the seniority list.
Manny:Sup, nerds? Before I let you go, I have a task for you. I have a challenge. If you can go to the platform where you're listening, this podcast and then go ahead and leave a review. Just tap that star.
Manny:Whether it's a 5 star, I like that very much, or a 4 or a 3 or 2 or a 1. It doesn't matter as as long as you leave a review and some criticism so I can improve this podcast because I want the Tailwinds and Sunshine podcast to be your podcast. So go ahead and leave that review now. I also wanna give a huge shout out to my friends and coworkers for sharing the podcast with their friends and family. That means the world to me.
Manny:Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Also, if you wanna be part of the show, go ahead and hit me up. It doesn't matter where you are in the world. We'll make that show happen. We'll make you a friend of the show.
Manny:Until next time, wishing 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.