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Pilot to Pilot is the podcast for anyone who flies — or dreams about it. Host Justin Siems sits down with airline captains, bush pilots, CFIs, and everyone in between for honest conversations about the path to the cockpit, the grind of the career, and the love of flying that keeps us coming back. Whether you're a student pilot chasing your first solo or a captain with 20,000 hours, there's a seat for you here. New episodes weekly.
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JP:Hey. I'm JP, and, I build airplanes and take them on crazy adventures all around the world.
Justin:AV nation, what is going on? And welcome back to the Pilot to Pilot podcast. My name is Justin Siems, and I am your host. You might notice a little bit of groggy voice. It's been a lot of flying going on recently.
Justin:It's early in the morning. We're trying to get this intro out so we can get this podcast out for you because it's a big one. We have JP on the podcast. You know JP from Instagram. You know JP from YouTube.
Justin:He's flown across the world. He's built a sling. He's done some cool stuff. And in this episode, we really get to know JP. We met at Oshkosh this year.
Justin:It's been a long time coming to get him on the podcast, but, we made it happen. And we also recorded a second episode of him flying across the world, and it's just for the magazine. So you're gonna be on the lookout for that. It's gonna be sick. JP, thanks so much for coming out.
Justin:If you haven't checked out the magazine, go to pilotthepilothq.com/mag. Volume three is available and we are almost done with volume four, which is crazy. That's the fourth one. Awesome. Thank you so much for your support.
Justin:Couldn't do without you. Evernation, I wanna keep you any longer. Without any further ado, here's JP. JP, what's going on, man? Welcome to the Pilot the Pilot podcast.
JP:Thanks for having me, dude. Stoked to finally be doing it.
Justin:It's a long time coming. Right? We've been chasing after this for a while. We finally met at Oshkosh about a month ago and we're like, dude, we're gonna make it happen. Know, it's always great to be in person.
Justin:Always great to kind of talk about what we wanna talk about and then get us get us scheduled.
JP:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was it was good to finally meet you in person because I'm I'm, you know, hesitant with podcasts. I'm quite a naturally shy person and so, yeah. You you're a cool dude and I'm excited to do this.
Justin:Well, appreciate it. I some people don't believe when I say this, but I am a introvert as introvert can be. Like I prefer to not talk to people. Yeah. When I started this, was like, I hate public speaking.
Justin:I hate the way my voice sounds. I never wanna be on camera. So why would I do this? I was like, you need to do it. And then for some reason people just kept listening.
Justin:I was like, alright. Well, I can't stop now because people are still listening.
JP:Yeah. It's funny. It's a lot of people are like that. A lot of people in the YouTube space and including myself, like, are introverted, you know, these platforms tend to I mean, they're also pretty lonely experiences, you know? We're sitting on our own, like, able to, you know, manage everything, but then also it it is strange how a lot of introverts tend to have careers on this modern media, you know.
Justin:Yeah. You bring up a good point. I mean, like, there is a very lonely feeling of just staring at a camera and talking to it. Right? Like, it's like I mean, there's always a part of being embarrassed of doing it, especially in public, and getting over that is one thing.
Justin:But just looking at the camera and and knowing that, like, no one is around experiencing what you're experiencing, but still you're letting people in on the Internet. You're letting people in on YouTube, Instagram, whatever it may be, your audio as well.
JP:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of directors have always spoken about how everybody's got their own individual relationship with a camera. And personally, it's a tough one. It's it's not an easy relationship.
JP:I struggle talking to camera. Yeah. But I enjoy telling stories, so it kinda yeah.
Justin:Yeah. Balances Well, you can't tell that you you you struggle with that because when you watch your videos, they're some of the most well put together and done videos on YouTube or Instagram. So kudos to you for that. I've always enjoyed watching your videos. And I was looking at some of your your videos this morning and last night and I remember watching that kinda like full documentary you did on that build and I was like, I've never sat down and watched a YouTube video for more than twelve minutes.
Justin:I mean, I used to watch Casey Neistat's videos all the time. So my brain is trained for what, like, minutes, twelve minutes, ten minutes. But, like, for that video, I was just locked in. I was like, dude, this is awesome. Like, it felt like I was in a movie.
Justin:It was crazy.
JP:I appreciate it. Yeah. I mean, I I poured my heart and soul into that. And it's also inherently an exciting thing to do, you know, build an airplane. I think the pace that I built it at kinda made it a bit easier to condense it all into something watchable, but, yeah, it's yeah.
JP:I just wanted to share the romance of of that part of aviation, and it's it's something I'm so deeply connected to that, yeah, I love doing it. So I appreciate that.
Justin:Yeah. Well, let's take it back, man. Let's take it back to young JP. What was it about cameras that really kind of attracted you to to doing this? Is this something you always did?
Justin:Did you gravitate toward cameras? Not necessarily like picking up filming yourself, but taking photos or recording stuff like family videos or anything you thought was cool.
JP:I've never really I've never really thought about that. I think it's I've always been nat I grew up in a a very conservative society, but not in the way that people think here, just like very like, arts were not a part of public conversation, and there was no art class in school. So there was just no creative empowerment. Like, there was just no creative outlets in my childhood. And so I always grew up building stuff, you know, fabricating, building cars with my grandpa from a young age.
JP:And and and then I had a pretty sizable RC airplane career career, for the lack of a better term. Yeah. But that involved a lot of building, designing and building airplanes from scratch, and and it was a creative outlet. And then photography kind of fell in with really was a parallel to my love with flying because I I didn't get to fly that much as a very young child. I grew up very poor, and so the kind of flying that I was introduced to was like real, like, riggity, sketchy, weight shift micro lights, and that was the majority of my young flying career, but that is such a visceral way to fly.
JP:It's such an it's the closest thing to being a bird that you can ever be, and I always just felt so privileged to be able to experience that, and there was just this inherent need to capture it. And so I would always sneak my dad's camera out of his, you know, cupboard and and go out and take pictures. And, yeah, it it really was my love of flying that made me wanna exercise that, and then it was also a creative outlet.
Justin:Yeah. I mean, totally understand that. Growing up in Namibia and New Zealand, as you mentioned before, would that the flying experience start there? Or I guess where what country did you start flying? What country do you have access to those flights?
JP:Namibia. So I yeah. I was born and raised there. I lived there for the first seventeen years of my life, and I never left Namibia until I moved to New Zealand. It was I, you know, I didn't even get to go to actually, that's not.
JP:Yeah. I didn't even get to go to South Africa on a holiday or anything growing up. So, yeah, I was all in Namibia, and it was I I had a very, like, role a raw aviation experience growing up. It was never big fancy things. The closest things I ever saw to an airliner was once a week, we had a a London to Johannesburg flight that used my grandparents' little town as an as obviously a Navaid or there must have been a VOR or something around there because they would pass over once a week, and I knew it was there, and I would always go and look.
JP:And and so it was always just real real airplanes. Well, not real airplanes. Sketchy airplanes. And, yeah, low level over the the, you know, the African landscape and a lot of game counting and looking for animals. It it was really for a lot of people in Namibia, flying is a tool.
JP:It's a bit like Alaska where, you know, you use it to keep an eye on the land and to go to town and stuff like that. And so and then there's also the adventurous side of it.
Justin:Would you say there's a decent GA community than than than down there? Since you mentioned it's it's a part of the way of life. Right? Like, it's it's a tool used for accessing towns. It's a tool used for making sure no one's breaking your land or you have all your game or you have all your animals.
Justin:Would you say that it's pretty accessible? I mean, I noticed that you remember you said it was this kind of sketch and it's not like a one seventy two or one eighty two, but, is it more common down there to to go fly at all or not really?
JP:It felt pretty common to me, but I think that's just because my dad and my granddad were always involved in aviation in some way, whether that was, you know, the my grandparents used to run the local flying club for many years. And, you know, my granddad was a glider pilot and RC pilot, and then my dad flew micro lights growing up. So, I mean, personally, I I know for a fact that there is a very vibrant GA community in Southern Africa. It surprises a lot of people. It's a bit like Brazil where people just don't expect there to be a big GA community, but there is, and yeah, I mean, it's we also have this weird thriving, like, microlite weight shift community, and we had quite a few manufacturers in South Africa making these these light lighter under 600 kilogram airplanes.
JP:So, yeah, it was weirdly accessible for for a place that didn't have a huge economy.
Justin:Yeah. It's cool to hear. I mean, being from America, right, like, I mean, of general aviation outside of The States is hard to do for most people here. They just assume that it's either the exact same or there's nothing. Like, there's no between.
Justin:But there clearly is an in between. Right? But that's really cool to know that there's that opportunity, that you had that opportunity and you were able to take it. When you're growing up, was aviation something you felt was aviation something forced upon you at all? Like, I grew up with an aviation family, but I never took an I never took a GA flight till I was 21.
Justin:I never went into a small aircraft. Both my my dad and my grandpa were airline pilots, but it was something that they did. It was never anything that our family did. But it sounds like when you grew up, this was like this is what the family did. Like, we go fly planes, we go to the airport, we go on small planes all the time.
JP:I mean, it was it was not quite that way. It was more like an aspiration for my dad, you know, as soon as he started to make I mean, it's it's really hard to explain without, know, getting into the economy and and just how, like, little money you tend to have in Namibia compared to anywhere else. The the money just doesn't go as far. So my dad, you know, loved flying and really wanted to fly, but it was, you know, he bought like the equivalent of like a $2,000 micro light, and that's what he learned to fly in. And so there was this, like, the weather always had to be perfect, but then there was also this fundamental lack of comfort in the airplane.
JP:So for the majority of my childhood, I didn't actually get to fly much. Like, it was really up until about I was about 10 years old where I started to be able to fly with friends of my dad, who then started to teach me how to fly. And and then I was just an airport rat, you know, I was just a hangar rat. I lived and breathed the airport growing up, and and that got me rides and opportunities and things like that. The the the love really just started I think it's my fascination with engineering that really, like, I always wanted to understand how the world worked, and airplanes were the first, like, really mystical thing.
JP:Like, I at eight years old, seven years old, I could tell you every component of a car, but I and how how they drive, how they work, why gears are, you know, ground in a certain way and all that stuff, but airplanes were mystical. They were this, like, total mystery. And so, yeah, I was really drawn to that.
Justin:Yeah. Do you have a favorite flying memory of being in Namibia, that one that you, like, always look back at, whether it's, like you mentioned, the the love game or just like a a memory with your dad or your grandpa?
JP:Yeah. I have a few. Oh, man. I think there's I think my first ever flight was was like just the most spiritual experience. It was it was with my dad's instructor in the back of my dad's MicroLite, like a windless if anyone's watching this and wants to Google it, it's a Solo Wings windless trike.
JP:It's like when you look at it, you don't know how people get in that stuff. Like, it's it's pretty terrifying, but it's it was crazy, and there was no headphones, so there was like tapping him on the shoulder and telling him I'm good or bad. And but it was just the the wind, the the being able to see stuff from the air was pretty pretty phenomenal. And then my first ever flight in an RV seven. I had a flight where a friend of mine, Rudy, took me up, and we you know, the speed of that airplane, the way that it was so nicely coupled and felt on the controls, and then it was a perfect I love late afternoon flights.
JP:There's just something about the light and and the calmness, and it was one of those. And we were able to cover so much ground, you know, do some light aerobatics along the way. It was a pretty special one.
Justin:Yeah. And young JP, did he have any goals or I guess the better question is, looking at where you are today, was this like the plan? Was the plan to see where flying could take you? Was the plan to to make it to America? Or was it just, you know, we're just gonna go day by day and see what opportunities we have?
JP:I always I've always got a plan, but it always changes. Respect that. I've always had a direction to go into, and then at some point it changes. And yeah, I I never I never really I mean, I never dreamt of ending up where I am now. But, weirdly, I kind of, in hindsight, I always knew I would end up somewhere here.
JP:I would make I always knew I would make an unconventional living out of aviation. They would it wouldn't it wasn't gonna look like anything that anyone knew. I knew it was gonna adventure was gonna be the core of it, and I didn't up until I left Namibia, I did not expect my life to ever reach beyond. I dreamt of going to Oshkosh once in my life. Like, the the dream was to be able to save up money, and maybe by the time I'm 40, to go to Oshkosh once.
JP:So I think that, you know, is a is a probably a big reason why I never expected to be where I am.
Justin:And what was the next steps to get out of Namibia? Was it family? Was it your your dad or people wanted to move and give you a new opportunity? Was it just you wanting to see what else was out there and New Zealand just just fit in?
JP:It was really driven by my parents, my dad. He he just he knew there was a better life out there. And it's not that Namibia is a bad place or, like, we were fundamentally unhappy there. It was just there was just no opportunities. And we moved to New Zealand when I was 17, and that was a a, like, total paradigm shift.
JP:Like, the the cultural breakdown like, just breaking down everything you know about life and then having to restart somewhere else and the, like, little nuances in how you interact with your high school friends and how society works is is was really important because if I hadn't done that coming from Namibia, I would have just been fundamentally incompatible with the rest of the world.
Justin:Yeah. It's interesting to see. I mean, here you think of, like, moving and new opportunities or is it like going to a new high school, you know, like trying going to a different city, going to a different state. Relatively same culture identity as, you know, United States or the the district you're in, whether in the Southeast or the Northeast, whatever it may be. But, you know, going from two different continents, going from two different countries, yes, they both speak English.
Justin:Right? But probably very different slang, very different things they do for fun. So I can't imagine. Was this were you in high school still or primary school? I'm not sure what they would call it, but were you still in school or you graduated
JP:from high school. Yeah. Yeah. And and English was not English is my third language.
Justin:Oh, dang.
JP:Yeah. That was another big part of it was just trying to communicate in a a language that I knew fairly well. I I taught myself English from Discovery Channel at, like, eight years old. I had I had I was always the better English speaker in the class. But, yeah, I I mean, I thought in German my my whole life and and partly in Afrikaans, and then and even Herero to to a degree.
JP:And then moving to New Zealand, it was all English. And, yeah, that that was a big it was a big challenge. And, it was a very formative time in my life. It was a wonderful time in my life, but very hard, very tough. But it enabled so much, like everything I you know, I started like, when I was around probably between 13 and 15, the the seed got planted to fly around the world at some point, and then I I really wanted to be the youngest to do it, and and moving to New Zealand was such a key part of that.
JP:I would have never I would have never been able to make that happen had I not lived in yeah, outside of Namibia.
Justin:I was gonna say, I was about to ask a question. Do you think you'd be where you are today without making that move? And I'm guessing your answer to that question would be no.
JP:Probably, but I the one to give myself some credit, I'm pretty resourceful. Like, I I I've always been, you know, I I grew up skating, and I was thinking about it today, like, in Namibia, skating, there's just no we didn't even have a skate shop growing up. But I remember back then making these little skating videos in my backyard, branding them, like, with, you know, flip skateboards or independent trucks or whatever, and sending these videos to these companies in America, and they were so stoked with it that they wanted to send me like, you know, products, essentially sponsor me. I was a terrible skater, but I already understood at that age that, you know, like I can make I can connect to this this broader world through through what I do, and and I could probably use it to accomplish what I wanna do. So, yeah, I I maybe maybe I would have made it happen.
JP:I don't know.
Justin:Maybe you're a pro skater.
JP:Maybe. That was never my I yeah.
Justin:Skate across the world.
JP:I'm I'm a little too tall and lanky for that one.
Justin:Right. Hey, you were taller than I thought you were gonna be. I'm not gonna lie. So Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's good or bad.
JP:I'll take it.
Justin:Yeah. That's that's crazy that you had, you know, just growing up, you're like, I'm gonna fly across the world. What was the the inspiration behind it? I mean, obviously, it was it was driven internally. It was something you wanted to do.
Justin:But was it how are you aware that that was a thing? How are you aware that being the youngest is kind of like a a title out there?
JP:The seed was planted in '99. I my dad was obviously a part of this weight shift micro light flying community, and and we we knew that there were these two guys coming through town on a really big expedition in in weight shift microlights. And my dad's instructor knew who they were and stuff. And so we went out to the airport to have like a little gathering. It was like 10 people were waiting for these guys to arrive.
JP:And and I remember when they rocked up, they were I mean, they were like, you know, our guys that climb Everest or, you know, do these crazy mountaineering things, they're like, they're wind burnt and like a little bit crusty and, you know, clearly haven't shot in a while. And that were these guys. Like, they got out, and I ended up meeting them. It was Olivier and Mike Blythe and a Frenchman and a South African, and they were flying these weight shift trikes from the Southern tip of South America all the way through The Americas over the North Atlantic, and then through Europe, and through Africa back down, and they were just about to finish. Like, our town was one of their final stops along the way.
JP:And meeting them at that age, I was just so drawn in by them. I was really inspired by who these guys were. I had no concept of what the world was. I had no concept of where they had just come from. I expected it to be a little bit beyond where my grandparents live.
JP:But but I knew that whatever that was, I wanted to do. Like, you know, whatever that level of adventure and exploring was, I wanted to do. And then Mike Blythe, the guy that I met that year, I ended up, you know, his name was just ingrained in my brain, and we had these magazines growing up, the essay flyer and the African Pilot, and I would read them every time, you know. And that's why I'm so, like, enamored by by this guy. Because I I have a deep love for magazines, and I would I would always look for his name, and occasionally he would pop up because he was a world champion trike pilot and would I I don't know if he actually won the championship, but he would perform every year, and he was a well known MicroLider.
JP:And And then around 2007, I saw that he'd started a company called Sling, and he building this airplane, and so I started to follow their progress. And then in 2009, out of nowhere on this forum that I used to, like, live on as a kid called avcom, they posted a thread that they were gonna fly this thing around the world. And and that to me, like, I couldn't compute. I was like, this, like, tiny 100 horsepower two seater, you're gonna fly that around the world. And it pulled me back to meeting him originally, and I was just so inspired by the guy, and then him and his business partner did it.
JP:They flew that thing around the world. They went to Oshkosh, and I followed every second of that trip, and that was it for me. Like, I just knew that that was something I had to experience.
Justin:I mean, two things here. One, like, what a full circle moment for your life, like considering what you are flying and kind of the the opportunity to see that as a kid and be inspired to do what you do. And now you're flying his airplane. Right? And owning that airplane, which is is completely unreal and probably something you never thought could come true when you were a kid.
Justin:And then two, did he know he probably didn't, but at the moment, did he know kind of the effect he had on your life with just doing what he was doing, with just being a pilot, with just being on a mission, just doing something cool? Did he know at the time? Or I'm guessing he does now because I'm guessing you have a personal relationship, but did he ever know at a young at your young age that he was affecting you in such a way that he would go on this path?
JP:No. No. And it was one of the most one of the more beautiful stories of my life was getting to get, like, reconnect with him and get to know him. And I I I mean, first time I met him in person since '99 was in 2015 because I was doing a trip with my good friend Louie, Fun for Louie on YouTube, and we were doing that in a sling too. And so that was the beginning of my relationship with Sling Aircraft, and it was the beginning of my relationship with Mike.
JP:And and, I mean, I was I don't get starstruck at all, but I was just more just like really impressed by the guy. Like, just really drawn in by a couple of things, the authenticity. Like, the the sling guys in general in South Africa are the most authentic people, warts and all, you know, like and and that for me, really, it's something that I've tried to live my life by as as closely as possible, and so that was really drawn to me. But also just the the resourcefulness to build what they did in in South Africa, of all places, was really inspiring. And then the aching for adventure, they they love it, and they live it, and they breathe it.
Justin:You know, I'm I'm drawn back to our conversation that we had on Oshkosh when talking about flying, and you're like, you asked me, it's like, when's the last time you've been on a GA adventure? You might have worded it a little differently, but I was just like, oh, never. And you're like, I I can tell. You didn't say that, but you're like, yeah, you need to. It's like you need to do it.
Justin:And I've thought about that a lot. I've always wanted to get back into general aviation, but you know, when you progress like as a professional pilot and go not not saying that like other people aren't professional pilots, but when you go down the track of airline pilot or corporate pilot, whatever it may be, sometimes you get removed from general aviation and you either think it's not not safe enough or you think it's too expensive or you're just too burnt out and too tired from the grind of of flying, whatever it's whatever jet or prop you're flying. But, I just keep thinking about that. I'm like, I do need to get back to general aviation. I do need an airplane.
Justin:So I do wanna let you know that that conversation has stuck with me and I think about it all the time. It's like, alright, JP said I need to do this adventure. I need to do adventures.
JP:Yeah. I mean, we need to do it because it's I mean, it's it's a lot of what I try and do through my content is I I do I struggle my heart breaks when I look at the state of aviation at the moment, or just really the trend over the last thirty, forty years. I wish I'd I wish I was alive in the sixties, fifties, you know, that era. Like, it was just such a exciting time to be a a GA pilot. And but it also we're we're kinda living in a strange golden era right now too for for it.
JP:It is obscenely expensive, but I think most people have lost or aren't really embracing the romance of flying. Like, it is such an incredible thing that we get to do, and it is I mean, we're we're in the timeline of human history, we're we're, you know, we're this glimpse, but we're we're living it, and it seems to be disappearing at the same time. At the very least, this real free flight, like being able to go out and soar, it's disappearing, and it I think it's worth celebrating, and and most people have never actually truly flown. Like, people have gotten in an airplane and, you know, been on an IFR flight plan going from one place to another, and that's cool. I love it.
JP:Don't get me wrong. But it's it's not the same. And I think a lot more people would would would be like, I don't know. I I wanna reignite people's passion or at least instill it for that kind of flying because it's it's the really special
Justin:Yeah.
JP:Corner of aviation.
Justin:Agreed. I totally agree. And the cool thing about that is my wife sat me down probably two weeks after that. She was like, alright. You're not gonna believe what I'm gonna say.
Justin:Was like, I'm nervous. I don't know what you're gonna say. And she was like, I think we should get an airplane. I was like, let's go. Hell yeah.
Justin:Let's do it. So I don't know when, but probably between now and the next six months to a year, hopefully, there'll be an airplane in our future. So, we'll we'll see, man. Hopefully, those adventures will be happening. Maybe we'll be in a sling just like you or also we're looking at like a bonanza e 36, kind of like a family plane.
Justin:So who knows, dude? But the adventures will be coming.
JP:I I am not paid by Sling at all, but I think you should get yourself a Sling TSI with a parachute and a nice Rotax. And, yeah, your family will be nice and safe and you'll have the best flying experience of your life.
Justin:Yeah. Well, I am paid by Textron, so I feel like I have to say I should get it out of bonanza. But no, the slings are cool, man. It's between you and, what Josh, what I've seen, those are really the two people that I've seen have a sling and experience what the process is. It seems from the outside looking in and from what we are shown that it's just a great experience and a great company.
Justin:So kudos to them for building that. I mean, I feel like they've done it in a short time and reputation's getting out there and the reputation continues to get to improve and and just show that they got a really good product. So it's really cool.
JP:Yeah. And they have a twin coming that's gonna be really cool and, yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff coming from them.
Justin:I love it. Well, dude, let's let's get into more of your flying too. So we're talking about moving to New Zealand. You have this this audacious plan. Right?
Justin:Like, fly around the world. Right? So what happened from, you know, you met the guys that that showed you this is possible reading the Avcom website to actually letting you do it?
JP:Well, it started with having to get my license first. I I was pretty lucky from a young age. Started to cop rides with friends of my dad, and few of them were, like, really, really capable pilots and instructors and stuff. So I I had just amazing mentorship and, you know, from about I started taking the controls at about 10, and I could probably take off and land comfortably six months later. And then by the time I was 13, they you know, I could pretty much fly anything I got into.
JP:But I didn't have a license, and I didn't have a lot of loggable time. And so it started from an entrepreneurial standpoint, like just trying to make money wherever I could, and that included, like, I used to free dive for for crayfish, like rock rock lobster, and sell that to restaurants. I used to No way. Sell snake venom. I used to restring tennis rackets.
JP:I I mean, I've I've found like anything that I could within my world that made decent money, and just started trickling away at at the license and getting that. And then it was it was really a lot of trying to understand how the world worked, trying to reverse engineer other trips to see how do these people afford it, how do you know, where does the money come from? Because the weirdly enough, that was the number one hurdle. It was it was being young and not being taken seriously was one of the bigger problems. And then just money.
JP:Just trying to figure out how do you even, you know, put together money for a trip like this. And and so a lot of it was leveraging filmmaking, photography, and trying to bring brands on board, and yeah, all of that.
Justin:Was this in New Zealand when you were you were getting the ratings, or is this back in Namibia?
JP:The PPL was in Namibia. It was a Namibian part, and then the ratings and the real pursuit started in in New Zealand. And I even, you know, out of, like, desperation and just trying to start the project going, I started building an RV 14 in New Zealand as, like, the airplane to take around the world. And the reason I did that is because I could start with the empennage kit and then wing kits, and, you know, so it wasn't an all in right away kind of thing. But, yeah, it it was sort of both.
Justin:Yeah. What was it like getting the PPL in Namibia and then going to New Zealand? Did you have to get it transferred? Were you able to fly off that? Or did you have to get the kinda do a check ride in New Zealand to get that all taken care of?
JP:It was it was pretty much a license from scratch. I had to actually do that. I actually didn't do it in New Zealand. I ended up I ended up getting a sport license in New Zealand, and that was just like, you know, I didn't really need to I needed to go fly with an instructor for an hour, and then I had it. But I went to Canada to to go do my PPL instrument rating, CPL, multi engine, all that stuff.
JP:I all did I did all of that in Canada. And the reason there's a couple reasons for it. Was strategic because having a Canadian license, could do it with my German passport, but also it's easily transfer transferable to every country, so including The US, because it's the easiest pipeline to get a US license if you're not a US citizen. So, yeah, I mean, it was it was it's a very different way of flying. And I still, to this day, like, I I'm really nervous on the radio.
JP:I because I just didn't grow up talking to people on on the radio.
Justin:Right, dude.
JP:Yeah. There's a lot of layers to it.
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Justin:They are the airline industry experts. Download your free copy of the case study, allworthairline.com/justin. That's allworthairline.com/justin. Yeah. I mean, like, I think about my training.
Justin:You know? I I trained at a Delta Air class Delta Airport, and I was even nervous seeing about going to a Charlie Airport or a Bravo Airport. And then now, you know, all I do is fly from Bravo to Bravo, Bravo to Charlie, and then occasionally I'll go to Charlotte to Myrtle Beach and we'll land after the tower closes. I'm like, alright, Uncontrolled comms, here we go. Let's brush it off.
Justin:I'm like, November? Like, do I say my airline? Do I say November? 20 mile final.
JP:Yeah. It's a it's a it's also so, like, there's so little many little nuances between countries
Justin:Yeah.
JP:That I still struggle with that, you know.
Justin:Oh, dude. Yeah. I mean, just flying into Canada and seeing, like, the chart differences and what they do and how they place their charts, like I mean, it's not overall drastically different, but just the little things that they do, it's different. Some of it's cool. Like, when you look at the approach minima and you can see kind of like where the obstacle is on the glide slope.
Justin:Right? Like, I think that's really really helpful. But then you get into, alright, in Canada, you have to cancel IFR and search and rescue. And then you fly to Eastern Canada, on my last job, we were we were flying to Nova Scotia and we're like 300 miles away at 43,000 feet and they're like, alright, IFR is cancelled, go straight in, follow the arrival. We're like, what what?
Justin:We're like an hour and a half away. What do you mean it's cancelled? Canceled? So, So, it's it's cool how they do it. There are things that you really need to read before you go and make sure that you know everything you're getting into.
Justin:I think another one was when you're cleared back onto it, like you're always on the arrival in Canada, they don't have to clear you back onto it. So you're always expected to meet every single restriction. But there are some some little minute differences that you have to be on the lookout for.
JP:Yeah. Yeah. I know. And and the VFR world is also like a whole other layer.
Justin:Yeah.
JP:You know, the IFR world, you can kinda get by, and that's a a good workaround flying anywhere in the world is just go IFR. But, yeah, VFR is a whole other thing.
Justin:Yeah. So get your ratings, fly around the world. What's the timeline for that? Is it pretty compressed or is there you know, you got your ratings, you kind of just flew around, had fun, planned, and then went? Or was it like, ratings, boom, I'm doing it?
JP:Well, the plan was to be the youngest to fly around the world. And then that didn't happen because of funding. I just couldn't get things going, and then it was just still such a dream that the goal was to finish building that RV and and fly it around the world. But, yeah, then it just, it kinda dragged on, and I ended up going to university. I studied architecture, and then while at university, I got a job at A New Zealand as like a, you know, just a college job, but it was also kind of a foot in the door to try and entertain the idea of flying for them.
JP:And, yeah, and then I I ended up getting into content a little bit, especially on Instagram. And then I I met a guy called Louis Cole, Fun for Louis, and that was my life changed in a day. Like, was it was the most pivotal it was like the answer I needed to wanting to live the life I've always wanted to live, and and I could not imagine ever going back to a normal life.
Justin:Two things. One, I don't not many people know this, but I don't know if this is around the same time when you're working for New Zealand. When I graduated college in 2012, all I wanted to do was move to New Zealand Australia, specifically New Zealand. But I applied to every aviation job I could find and they're all like, hey, cool man. Love that you love New Zealand, but like you need to get a work visa to get a job and you need a job to sponsor your work visa.
Justin:And I was like, that doesn't sound like it's ever gonna happen. So I gave up pretty early. But who knows? There could have been a time frame where we could have worked at Air New Zealand at the same time.
JP:Yeah. Yeah. It literally could have happened. Yeah. Yeah.
JP:I was was set on that too for a while there. I was like, I'm just gonna finish my degree and then go fly. But but it never really, like, you know, the airline world never fully appealed to me. It it was always a band aid, like Mhmm. You know, if this doesn't work out, then I'll go that way.
Justin:Which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. I think you can use what the airline can give you to enjoy in your time off. Right? Like, I think there's a lot of people that fly for the airlines to fund their their flying life or to fund their their family life. And I think that is also, you know, we get in the conversation of some people kind of missing out on the love of flying if if you just use it as a job and kind of don't view it as the love.
Justin:Right? So you just do it for the money. Sometimes that could kind of take it away. But there are people that I've talked to that are like, I just do this job because it pays my bills so I can put fuel in my one eighty two or so I can fuel up my sling. Right?
Justin:Which I think is really cool. There's not many jobs that can do that other than than being an airline pilot. Mean, there are others, but airline pilot's one of the ones where you can make a good amount of money and still have a good amount of time off.
JP:Yeah. No. It's it's a it's a good career for sure. It's I don't look down upon it at all. I I Yeah.
JP:I think I would have probably quite enjoyed it had I gone down that route. I mean, I'm I'm now, I'm I'm moving to doing some corporate flying, you know, and and it's appealing to me. I mean, The US corporate sector is also so unique and so exciting, and it's a it's a nice world to be in. But yeah.
Justin:Yeah. The second part I wanna talk about was when you say that you meant Louis, was this kind of like all your work put in? Like, know, everyone needs luck. Right? Everyone needs that, like, rare opportunity to make this happen.
Justin:But was this because of the hard work you put in with socials, with posting content that this was able to happen, or is it just like by happenstance, you know, you're walking around, you're like, hey, you have a YouTube channel that really like, what's up, dude?
JP:No. It it was actually a pretty I mean, in hindsight, everything in my life kinda led to that interaction. But it was it was totally random. Me and my friend, we were, you know, we really admired YouTube. We watched a lot of YouTube at that phase of our lives, and we we were also, like, obsessed with cameras.
JP:So we we would hang out and make videos and films and stuff together, and we would obsess over, like, the the leaders in the the space, the filmmaking space. And Devin Supertramp was I think Devin Graham? I I forget what his name is. But he he had the one of the biggest channels in the world, and he was he always shot on Reds, and, you know, which at the time was just crazy to think about on YouTube. And then he he went he went to New Zealand to do a a, like, basically with travel, tourism board of New Zealand, a whole set of videos everywhere.
JP:And and he needed people to show up and come do cool stuff, and me and my friend were like, yeah, let's just go, like, hang out, we'll do some sand boarding, and we'll we'll get to see how this guy makes videos. And then we were just on the sand dune, and Louis was there. I I already had an idea of who he was. I I loved his travel videos because they had that real spirit of adventure that I admired about Mike. And but I yeah.
JP:I mean, we just can we just ended up walking up the the sand dune together, and it was quite a climb, and we just started chatting. Just and it was just like instant I don't know. It's just an instant friendship. And Yeah. I mentioned maybe like two hours in that, you know, we started talking about what what I do and what I'm doing, and I spoke about the plane that I'm building to fly around the world, and he just immediately, like, locked in.
JP:He was like, I wanna do that with you, and can't how how can we make that happen? And yeah. And I mean, I wasn't trying to be the youngest person to do it anymore, so having a friend along didn't didn't matter.
Justin:You know, there's one thing about, like, meeting someone like that and hearing that. Getting you know, you get excited. Right? You're like, oh my gosh, this is gonna happen. And then life happens, they go their separate ways, but you guys actually made it happen.
Justin:How did you guys do that? Like, was he just so stoked? He's like, no, really, we're gonna do this, and you guys are just from then on out just just took it and ran, or did it kind of fizzle out a little bit?
JP:No. I mean, we we we stayed in touch. He was in New Zealand for a little bit longer. And and then I told him to come to, you know, my town, and we'll go for a flight in the one eighty two. And and, you know, we can chat a bit more about whether this is actually a thing or not.
JP:And we just ended up hanging out for three days before he left, and we, like, we had sponsor he already had sponsors, like, that were trying to do something cool with him, and he was like, this is perfect. We'll make, you know, we'll involve them and we'll make this happen. And then immediately, the plane was too small. So, you know, then we started thinking about taking a Kodiak around the world and maybe with floats so we can go and island hop, and, you know, this sort of young naivety of wanting to make a project way bigger than it needs to be. But, yeah, we we ran with it.
JP:And we even signed with Discovery, like, a month later, and, like, there there was a big it was a big announcement. It was a there was a lot going on around this thing. And and then for a variety of reasons, actually, it was a there was a Cirrus that was on its way to Hawaii, and it it was running out of fuel, and the coast guard showed up
Justin:Yeah.
JP:Early and was able to film the whole parachute pole and everything. It was all over the news. And our sponsors looked at it, and they were like, we don't really want our logo on the side of that plane, you know? And I'm like, well, it's not gonna happen, but
Justin:In the back of mind, you're like, I
JP:hope What if it does? So, yeah, they pulled out and that was that put a big halt on the trip for two years.
Justin:Oh, they actually pulled out?
JP:Yeah. Yeah. Was 2015. We were we were set to do it that year.
Justin:Oh, wow.
JP:And and we just and then we couldn't get money together to do it.
Justin:What was the cost of it? Do you remember? Like, did you get the numbers of like the actual cost of it in that?
JP:The actual flight or the whole production? Because we also ended up, you know, making a documentary and stuff.
Justin:I'd say just the flight itself.
JP:The flight itself was probably God, I'd be maybe 75
Justin:Okay.
JP:At the time. Yeah. It's not that anymore.
Justin:Not bad anymore, but I'm guessing it's more than that too. And plus, there's a little bit more of kind of geopolitical stuff going on too, so it might alter how you flew. I'm not really, I don't know. But yeah, that's it's crazy to think that they pulled out, you know, being so close to having this and have it taken away. Man, that just must have so frustrating.
JP:Yeah. Yeah. It was it was crazy too because it was like, you don't just get on the plane and do this, you need to prepare. And so I was in Canada, living in Canada, trying to, like, still plan everything and get everything together to make this happen, and then the money gets pulled, but we're kinda confident that we can still, you know, get someone to invest in this. We had to deal with Discovery to make a documentary and everything, but it just, yeah, it just didn't happen.
Justin:What do you think got the sponsors back in? Was it just being persistent, and then they kinda forgot about the actual video of the serious pool in the shoot?
JP:I mean, it was it was never really the sponsors never really enabled the the final trip. It was it was just deciding, both Louie and I, that we're all all in on self funding and actually doing this. And then we crowdfunded a part of the documentary, but it ended up costing way more than we were able to raise. And it was just like a real, real passion project. It it needed to happen.
JP:And I think Louis, in hindsight, also knew how much it mattered to me, and and he, you know, he was always like this big brother figure in my life, and he he pushed quite hard to to to make it happen, you know. He he was at a fork in his life at that point. You know, he was he knew that family and stuff was down the line, and and that taking an adventure of this kind would probably not happen again. So
Justin:Yeah. That's something that doesn't come up all the time. Right? Like the fact that you you had it and it got pulled away, and the fact you still did it is awesome. And a testament to to him too, like he said, he knew how important it was to you and he was a man of his word, it sounded like.
Justin:He's like, hey, dude, we're gonna do it together and you guys did it. And I wonder if, you know, having the self fund and being invested more financially, if that kind of helped it succeed more rather than being fully sponsor led. I don't know if you feel one way or the other if it would have been the same, but I imagine having your own money into it. You're like, well, dude, this really has to go well. Right?
JP:I mean, I put a lot of pressure on things. I I probably viewed a few a couple of different ways now where and that's just because of hindsight, you know. But I think the pressure really helped raise me, if that makes sense. Like, there was a lot of emotional immaturity still lingering, and and I, know, it just kinda there's a couple of things that really put the pressure on it. The first was the the the fact that, you know, our own entire existence was on the line, like, financially and our our actual souls.
JP:And and then also, it was the first time in my life where I was genuinely responsible for somebody else's life. Mhmm. And and I'd never felt that kind of responsibility or weight ever. And there was the the component of naivety as well because Louis was not a pilot. And and he tends to look at things, you know, with rose tinted glasses.
JP:He's a very positive, optimistic guy. So I knew from the beginning he wasn't fully grasping the weight of what we were doing. And and that just upped the the ante for me, you know. It's like I had to bring this guy home. It was really important.
Justin:Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine doing that with someone. Well, one, when you're you're so financially, emotionally invested in something, and then when things go wrong to to kind of not given a hazardous attitude, that could pop up to like, oh, we gotta finish, we gotta finish, we gotta finish. But then also you have someone that doesn't understand what those hazardous attitudes look like, doesn't understand the the real severity of, you know, what seems to the the layman's person to not be a big deal, but like, hey, man, like, Louis, this is a big deal. We can't do it.
Justin:Like and he's probably like, what do you mean we can't do it? Like, yeah, you can do it. That had to be really difficult too. And I'm sure there's some some tense moments possibly of explaining like, hey, man, I know we gotta do this, but like, I want to live and this is dumb.
JP:Yeah. No. There was a lot of tense moments, and I think it came out of survival just me understanding the sort of the binary nature of decisions, a lot of decisions. Like, we do that, we die, we do this, we don't die. But my inability to convey that, my inability to process my own emotions about why I'm making this decision and then convey that effectively to him led to a lot of confusion.
Justin:Mhmm.
JP:And so in hindsight, you know, I could do it a lot better now because I could better explain why we're doing things or was my my the only way I knew how to deal with stuff was like stoicism, just like complete, you know, locking in and doing what I needed to do. It took a lot of the joy out of it though. Like it it was not a particularly fun experience.
Justin:When you have when you're in the same airplane with someone for that long, I mean, I was watching you I was watching the video this morning about you guys flying from Hawaii back to San Francisco and it's like fourteen hours in a two ten. And you made the joke like, oh, dude, I gotta take a dump. He's like, what? Can't go back there. But you're just, like, so close to someone.
Justin:Like, was there moments where you guys just like, dude, need a break from you. Like, I love you like a brother, but, like, we need we need a break. Like, I I can't do this right now.
JP:Yeah. Yeah. We had I think there was two points, but there was one. We had a straight up argument in flight, like a multi hour shouting argument flying from Fiji to Kiribati. And then, yeah, the the the like, you know, in my youth, like, the total, like, tantrum, dismissal, like and then we just sat there silently, like, avoiding each other for the remaining, like, six hours or whatever there was of that flight.
JP:It was was brutal, but it was a lot like, you know, a family argument where afterwards you're both hurting and you said things you wish you didn't say and and then, you know, you try and mend things, you know.
Justin:Yeah. What's the relationship like now? Is there is there still a relationship or is it like, you we always have this this trauma bond essentially? Like, we went through this really, really crazy thing together, and we always have that in common, but we kinda want our own separate ways.
JP:No. I mean, we're we're still friends. We just we haven't had the opportunity to really hang out much since. He's a family man now. He's got two kids.
JP:He's married and building a big place in Costa Rica, but we I mean, I still he's still one of my favorite people ever. Like, he he he's the first human being to ever believe in me, like, really believe in me. And the impact of that, I can never quantify. And so, yeah, I I feel a sense of calm when I'm around him. He's he's like a real big brother figure in my life, and I I am confident that we'll, you know, once I have kids and stuff, we'll we'll we'll start to have adventures in a different way, so.
Justin:Isn't it cool what someone believing in you can do? Someone being like, you know, you should do that, like, go do that. For me, it was definitely my wife, like, telling me to do this and and, like, not letting me be like, I can't do that. As we talked before in earlier in the podcast, like, I don't like to talk. I don't like to hear my voice.
Justin:You know, I'd get up and read. I was always the one, like, stumbling in class, and you play popcorn, read. I was like, I never wanna do it. I never wanna be the one to volunteer to read. But having someone and knowing them that someone believes in you and they care enough to see it happen and show you that you can do something that they know you can do but you don't.
Justin:It is Yeah. Remarkable what it can do for someone. And I think it can change pretty much anyone's life. You just have to find that person which and let them show you. Right?
Justin:There there's some people that have an ego and they just don't ever let it happen. But being able to to let someone come in and be like, dude, get out of your comfort zone, go do this so we can do this.
JP:Yeah. And he was also the first person who, like, made it okay to be clumsy, like, and and imperfect and fail, and, like, I think he his energy was just that I would eventually make it. It wasn't gonna be the you know, I I was gonna eventually achieve what I wanted to achieve, But it didn't need to be the first time and the only time. And that matters too, you know? Like, if you grow up really restricted and sort of closed off, it it takes a lot to to come out of that and to prosper and to to learn how the world works.
JP:And it's clumsy along the way. Yeah.
Justin:And and we relate that to making content or putting yourself out there. I think it's also cool with the community that you build for people to see you get better too. Right? So just go make the product, go try it, go do it. Yeah.
Justin:Your editing might suck. Yeah. You might sound like an idiot, but, like, continue to get better. Continue to get better and people will kinda buy in. Right?
Justin:They're like, oh, wow. He's actually getting better. He's putting the time and effort in. He actually sounds pretty good now. I'm gonna continue to listen Yeah.
Justin:Or watch. I think there there's something to that too.
JP:No. Absolutely. People wanna see a a story arc, and there's no arc if there's no bottom. So
Justin:Right. Yeah. When you look at flying around the world, it's obviously something you have completed, but young JP, you know, the the one that wanted to be the youngest, that wanted to do it, so so bad. Do you think he comprehended either how hard it was gonna be? And another side of this question is, was it everything you thought it was gonna be?
Justin:Was this like you finish and you're just like, oh my gosh, I did that. Or was it just like, alright, what do I do next?
JP:I had no concept of what it would actually take. I knew it was gonna be hard. I've never been afraid of things being hard, so that that was never like a a concern. But the way the the way that it what it required for me was unexpected. Like, it it yeah.
JP:It was really, really it was one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And, yeah, I had no concept of it.
Justin:Yeah.
JP:I I forgot what the other question was, sorry.
Justin:No, that's good. I I can tie tie in another one. My I've always struggled with this, where, you know, I I look at my life and I think I've done some cool things, but I struggle with, you know, accepting that that's cool, if that makes sense. Like, I'll do something big and I'll just be like, oh, well, and let's try to move on to the other thing. Do you struggle with that too?
Justin:Like, you able to view this and be like, wow, that was really cool. That's awesome that I did that. Like, be proud of it or do you just kinda like, what's next? Like, what do I do now? Or is it something that you can think of and look back on and be like, wow, I'm like, I did that.
Justin:That's really cool.
JP:I I've had a lot of complex emotions about that trip over the years, and it's evolved and changed. And, you know, there was even a a time when I was resentful of it, which is crazy for me to think about. But, I mean, I I I think I do I'm definitely able to, like, celebrate it as, you know, it was incredible, but more in the way that I I want that again. Like, I want there there there are components and moments when you do something like that, and it doesn't have to be flying around the world. It you know, I also have done big cycling trips in my life, and and, you know big road trips and like there's a you know big sailing trips whatever it is, but there's a there's a there's stuff you get to experience when you really push the boundaries that is so visceral and iridescent and it's a layer of living that you don't get anywhere else.
JP:And I I miss that and I want more of that. And and so I I've never I've never looked at it as something that I wanna point at and be like, yeah, I'm that guy, you know, it's not like it's not in my Instagram bio, you know, that I I've done this and that and this, I might share what I'm doing now, and that's the extent of it. And that's really what I always wanna be doing is I'd like to be doing the good stuff the whole time.
Justin:Yeah. When you look back on it, do you miss the actual doing it? Like the grind, you know, like you said, like the shouting match, like the the the stressful moments. Do you miss the actual grind of climbing up the mountain? Or when you look back on it, do you view more of like the celebration and just like the weight lifted off your shoulders when you touch down?
JP:Yeah. I mean, I I miss the grind. It is I mean, I've experienced it in so many different ways. I've experienced it with a lot of pressure and a lot of especially financial pressure. I think a lot of people see my aviation trips and think that, you know, they've always been well funded and that, you know, I'm not trying to do it on a dime, but, you know, the stuff is extremely expensive and and there is a lot of financial stress along the way.
JP:And and those tend to be not enjoyable. The most enjoyable ones are where I yeah. I just you know, I know that everything's gonna be okay for the next little while, and let's just focus on the flying and the adventure and trying to find fuel wherever we land, and make friends with the customs officers, and, you know, like, that kind of thing. That's that's what I love. It's a challenge.
JP:It's tough, but it's it's it's it's pretty special too.
Justin:Yeah. What is like what does creativity look like for you right now? So obviously, you know, you have this big this big around the world, you build your own plane. Like, those are two massive achievements and two massive kind of really cool things to do as you mentioned. Like people are drawn to kind of those big moments.
Justin:But when you're not I'm not trying to say you're not doing anything big right now, I'm not trying to minimize anything, but where do you draw creativity from to create the next thing, come up with the next thing? Is it pressure to to continue? Is it pressure to do weekly? Is it pressure to do monthly? Or is it just, you know, I'm just gonna go out to the airport and just try to enjoy it?
Justin:And if it's cool, it's cool.
JP:I mean, that's all it's been by far my biggest challenge. It's probably why I haven't been able to build a proper career out of this because I don't I refuse with every fiber of my being to do the, like, a weekly video. Like, I'm here to tell heartfelt candid stories and and they don't happen with any sort of frequency or in any sort of cadence. It's just it's the real stuff and you don't know when that's gonna happen. And so it's hard to do that and try and, you know, make a living out of it, so I've never really been able to do that.
JP:But
Justin:for
JP:me, creativity is such a complex thing. It it I need to foster the right environment for it to happen, and and it actually comes from the quiet times. Like like, I really value the the the quiet times, the the the calm before the storm kind of thing. That's when I try and realign. It's when I take in a lot of inspiration.
JP:That's when I build what the next thing is gonna look like. I know I'm not making, like, Hollywood movies or anything, but for me, it's always been trying to evolve my ability to express myself, and that is also in the technical side of things, and and even down to the technicalities of storytelling, like that's a it's a it's something that I didn't grow up. I was never taught how to do this. I need to find source material. I need to, you know, watch everything I can to try and understand and reverse engineer how these things are done.
JP:So it's a very unconventional approach, and and I have ambitions to make the most romantic flying films out there, you know, and and it's a process. It's it's imperfect.
Justin:Yeah. But I I mean, I I feel like people pick up on that too. Right? Like the authenticity and the romance in it. And think there's something that's refreshing to not have every week.
Justin:Right? Like not necessarily you're waiting for and you're like, you want more, you want more, you want more. But it's like refreshing to know that it's not forced. It's a story you wanna tell. Because people can tell.
Justin:Right? Like, I mean, when you when you watch weekly videos or I'm sure even podcasts when they're daily or high frequency, you can tell when when someone's phoning it in. Right? You can be like, alright, well, he's doing that to sell this or, oh, wow, Justin really wasn't into that today. You know, it's like you can tell.
Justin:And I think it's I have a high level of respect for people that do it on their own time and that do it when when it feels right and when the moment feels right. So kudos to you. That's that's hard to do.
JP:Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. I like, I just realized I think a part of it is I've been trying to spend my whole life trying to be me as much as possible and as authentically as me. And every time I've tried to make a video that didn't align with that, I felt like I'm taking a big step back.
JP:And so I think that's been a big force for that. It's hard to work with brands when you're like this, I'll be honest. And it's hard not to let them down Yeah. Because, you know, the frequency isn't there, and there are people who are quite robotic and able to repeat it. And and I struggle with that content because I just don't see soul in it, but for a lot of the the market, you know, the audience, it's it's good enough.
JP:And yeah. I don't know. It's it's a tough one because Yeah. I also obviously want as many people as possible to see what I make, but I'd rather be sure that I'm telling something that I wanna be telling.
Justin:And I think it's when the right brands come in too. Right? Like, are some brands that, you know, maybe work short term but don't work long term, but there's something too like a long term relationship with with your fans, with with viewers, with a brand that really like, hey, whenever the video comes out, we know it's gonna be a banger. Or whenever the podcast comes out, we know it's gonna be great. So I think it's just waiting for the right time and the right the right people too to help you do that.
Justin:Yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah. So what do you do I guess the better question is talk to me a little bit about the sling. How did that come in to the picture?
Justin:I know that we kind of kinda went around. Right? You know, we talked about when we met met him and and have the impact down in your life and then we came to the point of like, yeah, then I built the sling. But talk about why a sling?
JP:I mean, it it started in 2015. I I was at the factory and getting the Sling two that I was gonna take on this trip getting worked on. And I I remember talking to James for a while, who's the co founder of Sling, along with Mike, and and just, you know, mentioning that I plan on flying around the world at some point, and, like, and what the perfect airplane for for me would be, and it just came down to a high wing immediately. It's like, I need a tail dragger and I need a high wing. And and Mike mentioned that he'd been thinking about it for a while already, and it'll probably happen at some point.
JP:And then in 2019, I got to see some really early drawings of of the of the high wing, and I immediately I insisted that I be the first one to build it. Like, I I needed to I needed to be a part of that project because I knew that is going to end up being the perfect airplane for what I love to do. And so, yeah, from early two thousand nineteen, I was involved, and and the plan was to be the first to build it, to make content about it, and to take it around the world, but also to to have influence on the design and to make sure that it it, you know, it's sort of a Swiss army knife. It's trying to do a lot of things really well, and a lot of airplanes that tend to wanna do too many things really well tend to do none of them well at all. Mhmm.
JP:And so, but that's where Mike is just remarkable as a designer, and he was able to design an airplane that does does it all. And then plan was actually to build it in 2020. And my kit, I I got my hangar in New Zealand ready, I was gonna build it in New Zealand, and my kit, I was on FaceTime with the guys at Sling, and my kit was getting picked up. And then they I think DHL called, and they're like, we're not taking packages. And that was the, you know, the beginning of everything we know now, but that stalled it for a while.
JP:And then in twenty twenty twenty twenty two, the plan was to just go to South Africa, build it there. There was no build manual for the airplane yet, so part of the idea was that I'd build it. I've got a lot of experience building, so I'll build it and I'll help make the manual better. And and then, yeah, take it around the world.
Justin:It's crazy that you've had two really big projects be promised, essentially promised and then taken. Like, I don't mean to laugh, I'm just kind of laughing because I don't know else to do. But like you had the you had the around the world video, you had the around the world fight, you had it all set up ready to go, boom, pulled. Took another two years. You had the sling build, boom, pulled.
Justin:Took another two years. Like, it's just really interesting, like, the highs and lows that some people don't necessarily know or get to see, the behind the scenes. Like, all they know is that JP has a sweet sling and he built it. It's like, yeah, but, like, it took forever, and it wasn't always amazing.
JP:Yeah. No. And and with that also comes a bit of the sort of illusion of unreliability because, you know, both of those things are involved around or involved making content leading up to the first attempt, and then it doesn't happen. And often, you know, because of the inner workings of things, you can't disclose why something hasn't happened. And so, yeah, it, you know, especially the first time, people stop taking you seriously after that, And it makes it a lot harder to actually come back and do it again.
Justin:Yeah.
JP:Because you you need people to support you to to be able to pull that off.
Justin:A 100%. When you look at making content now, like, obviously, it it feels like everything shifted. Right? When Reels, TikTok really came on, like, much more clickbait. I mean, YouTube definitely trended toward clickbait before all TikTok and Reels, but even more so now.
Justin:There has to be some kind of big reason to watch the video continue, you know, you gotta suck them in somehow whether it's the the title, whether whatever it may be. How do you battle that as a content creator? How do you stay true to yourself? How do you, you know, make a two hour documentary in a moment and at a time when everyone just wants to watch six you get three seconds and they swipe? Like, how do you combat that as someone that makes content for a living?
JP:I guess I guess I haven't been making a living out of it for the last three years because of that. Because it's it's you're chasing your own tail. It's like this this because there's a lot of the the the people who are and I'm I'm pretty lucky I have a community of creators outside of aviation as well, and some of them are very, very prolific creators and and, you know, get the numbers that we all dream of. And so I I know how it works behind the scenes. They're all companies now.
JP:You know, they all have fifteen, twenty people working there, and a lot of the work is trying to watch content, but also trying to understand algorithms and reverse engineer storytelling and what actually matters and and how to cut stuff to to satiate these metrics that are required to have stuff be seen, because having a, you know, this subscriber base means nothing anymore, hasn't for a long time. And so it's always changing, and and it's so much energy goes into that. And I'm still like, I would consider myself up to date now on what is required on Instagram, not so much TikTok, but YouTube, and and to be seen, but I'm not really creating content right now. I mean, I'm filming behind the scenes for stuff coming, but I'm not actively editing and publishing right now. But it's still a full time job of, like, trying to understand what is required, and it's changing every couple of weeks.
JP:The way to deal with that and try and make it authentic is to understand the fundamentals and to try and like strip out the because you'll see a lot of stuff that goes viral for the wrong reasons, and so you you try and strip out that stuff and just try and fill your sphere with positive stuff, like or or stuff that you would wanna you would wanna watch and then reverse engineer that. So you're you're not like, you know, you're the skeleton of what you have isn't contaminated with the the negative stuff. And and then it is, unfortunately, a terrible ROI. Like, the amount of time you have to invest in content to get something good, and it's just I mean, you end up working for like a $0.5 an hour, really, you know. It it just isn't there and it's it's a tough world right now for for creators, especially people who have already established a brand or a way of storytelling because you you have to change so much that you'll probably end up alienating your current audience.
Justin:Yeah. But you also have to grow. Right? It's like, gosh, like, you it's such a catch 22. I know we talked at Osh at SOS Bros, when we're hanging out in the back because we're introverts and don't wanna be around a bunch of people, which was awesome.
JP:I had a good time.
Justin:That was my perfect SOS Bros. But we were talking, you know, the reason I did the magazine is I just had this this overall feeling and just maybe just I wanted to get away from digital. And what I mean by digital, mean by scrolling. I mean TikTok. I mean Instagram.
Justin:Not necessarily get away. That's the wrong way to put it, but get back to holding something physical, watching something that's longer, having an attendance span of more than twelve seconds. Right? Like, I I really thought that that needs to come back. I don't know if it will come back.
Justin:I think it's coming back a little bit we talked about, but I think I hope I do hope that, you know, it's more turned away from clickbait titles, and it's more turned to creativity and artistic vision and kind of the actual product itself.
JP:Yeah. I mean, it it it really is the theme of my thoughts lately is, like, my insistence to do something because it's it's meaningful and it's good and not because it's maximizing profit or views or and I think that that we should celebrate that. Like, I think, like, the magazine, for example, is like, I'm so stoked to have a good magazine in my sphere again. And that is I think it's important. It's important to the human experience.
JP:Not not to get all meta and all that, but like our fundamentals are at, you know, at risk at the moment because, you know, we're what we do every day, the stuff that gives us purpose is is being threatened by AI. And so I think it's important to have real stuff, and I think that that's worth making. And and so that for me is just driving force. I think it'd be really cool to to try and create a platform or a sort of sub ecosystem of stuff and content that is filtered and healthy and and works in organic ways that, you know, something like word-of-mouth for content still works instead of just the algorithm decides. Because think it's important that we have that.
JP:Yeah. I think it's important that we have meaningful meaningful things.
Justin:I wish we could go back to I don't remember exactly the time frame, but like peak Casey Neistat daily vlogs. I feel like that was like great YouTube. Yeah. Then ever since then, I just been like clickbait, clickbait, clickbait.
JP:2015, I it was the first time I met him, and I got to go like, we hung out at his studio all day and stuff, and it was it was really really cool to see the behind the scenes of of how this is working. And and I, you know, I knew it was an exciting time, but I had no idea that we was really standing in the golden era of YouTube, you know, like this was it was a pretty remarkable time for it and and also so empowering because as as people, we were exchanging information directly with each other and there was no filtering, there was no curation, there was no control, And it it was the first time where there was, like, decentralized information. It was really cool. And and I I would like some of that back.
Justin:Yeah. Agree. Next segment, I'm gonna put these on for.
JP:Oh, yeah.
Justin:For the whole parts.
JP:Talk about stuff that has meaning or tries tries to have meaning.
Justin:What's, for the audio, I just put on my brand new sunglasses that, JP has made and created. I remember reaching out to you. I was like, dude, tell me this is your own brand because I don't wanna just like buy another brand that you're just ever like You know, I was like, I I really love people that create something. Like someone that has taken the time to see a way to make something better or has just a vision of something that they love. And, like, I can put my money behind anyone that's passionate about something.
Justin:And I love the sunglasses. They are they're awesome. I haven't flown since I got them, but I'm gonna bring them first time I go out. But tell me a little bit more about the sunglasses.
JP:Oh, yeah. Thanks for thanks for getting a pair. And Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it goes back to trying to make stuff that has meaning, you know, and and isn't trying to maximize profit.
JP:It I mean, it sparked out of, first of all, just not being able to find a comfortable pair of glasses that I wanted for flying, but also everyday life. And then, you know, I love designing. I love CAD work. I love I'm fascinated by manufacturing. And then, you know, during the pandemic, I had a lot of free time.
JP:And so it stemmed out of that, but then it also stemmed out of finally understanding just how much a conventional pair of sunglasses costs to make and realizing that pretty much every pair you ever buy costs less than $10 to make, even when you pay $350 for it. And then me feeling inherently really uncomfortable with that. Like, I just really struggled with the idea of trying to promote and sell a $200 product to someone that only costs $7 to make. Like, it just ethically, just couldn't justify it. And so I was like, what if I just made the best possible glasses?
JP:Like, what if we went out and spared no expense, but also just optimized and went for the the like, what if we went back to the seventies and made a pair of sunglasses? Because somehow Ray Bans from that era are still amazing. Yeah. You know? And this was it.
JP:This was the the result, and they are they're made to last. Every pair is handmade. They have German Zeiss lenses. They use real Italian Mussocelli acetate, and and they're just, I don't know, they're just really good sunglasses. And with the temples, considering we still have a wire core, we try we made the thinnest possible temples for something with a wire core, and and so that they can, you know, while they're amazing for everyday wear, you can wear them in the cockpit.
JP:And then the lenses are are the reason we went with Zeiss is because they don't color shift, and and they're the right tint to where they're not too dark. Because when you're in a cockpit, you're looking outside inside the whole time, you know, you need something that's just right. And so Yeah. I I believe they are that. We are a new company.
JP:We're, you know, got a lot of ambitions. We're growing. We're working on a lot of exciting stuff. And, yeah, I just really believe in it.
Justin:Well, I love it, dude. I love the sunglasses. They've been great. And hearing you talk about, your company, it just reminds me of what it me and my magazine. Right?
Justin:It's like the same thing. It's like how do I make the best product ever? And how do I make sure someone's not know, same thing. I mean, magazines are $200, but it's like some of these magazines can be a little bit cheaper to to you're making a lot of profit. But this one, you hold the weight, you feel it, you smell it.
Justin:Oh, it's almost like you get all five senses when you touch it. But I can feel the same pride that you have for your sunglass that are with the magazine, so I love it. Go ahead and, you know, give us a website. Give us a place to buy. So hopefully someone can be like, dude, want the same sunglass.
Justin:And this is also the first time I've ever wore sunglasses on a podcast, so maybe this will be my thing.
JP:I mean, it's a good look.
Justin:I mean Right.
JP:Yeah. I it's otavi.co, and we sell them there. We also sell them on the Wayworthy store now. Carson is giving away a plane this year, which is amazing. Crazy.
JP:We we collaborated, and we've we've got the the sunglasses on his store. And so if you get them through his store, you get entries to to win the plane. Yeah. And $15,000 from Diamond Doors, which you can if you have a license already, you can spend that on whatever you want, or if you don't have a license, you've got a license.
Justin:Which is crazy because I bought them through your website. I did not buy them through Carson. So I don't get any entries on the airplane, but it's okay. Someone else can run the airplane. I'm okay with Yeah.
JP:I think I think if we know Carson, we should probably not be the ones with
Justin:it. Yeah. I did joke with him. I was like, hey, man. What happens if I win the airplane?
Justin:He's like, I'd be excited for you. It's like, no, you wouldn't you'd be like, this is rigged.
JP:Yeah. No. I wouldn't I would probably wanna pass it on to someone else. Yeah. Yeah.
JP:I mean, I I Dude, I love the I love the magazine. It's Again, it's like It's also a magazine that I know I can like put in a drawer and it'll be really good still in thirty, forty years from now.
Justin:Yeah.
JP:And and that matters too because it's it's stories are being printed and and not lost in the ether of time because, yeah, the Internet's forever, but also we tend to focus on stuff made now and not stuff made ten years ago. So, yeah, I'm I'm I signed up from the beginning and I love it.
Justin:I know, man. I saw I saw your order come through and I was like, hell yeah, dude. That's awesome. I was like, appreciate that. I appreciate that.
Justin:I noticed, man. I do notice. So anyone out there that hasn't ordered that I do know, I notice.
JP:You got a running list of the
Justin:Yeah. Yeah. I got I got a list in the background, you know, that I I constantly think of. But kidding, kind of. But, dude, it's been fun to talk, man.
Justin:I know we didn't touch fully on the around the world flight, which, we are gonna put in the magazine. So if you still have time, we'll we'll talk about that shortly. Yeah. So anyone listening to this, unfortunately, for now, that part will be in the magazine. But I do every once the magazine's out for a year, I'm releasing the audio of it all.
Justin:So you will have the ability to listen to it for free if you do not wanna buy the magazine. But you just have to wait a little bit. But, JP, man, this is as good as I thought it was gonna be. I appreciate your time. I appreciate just being honest and just just having a talk, man.
Justin:It's great.
JP:Yeah. I Thanks for having me and I hope I didn't make a fool out of myself. I just kinda let the guard down and I realize I've been speaking in a really monotone voice for an hour and a half, so I hope people aren't asleep. But
Justin:yeah. You know, some people do say they fall asleep on podcasts, so maybe you just help them fall asleep
JP:I mean, I'm guilty. I'll be honest. I I hate admitting it, but I love a good podcast to fall
Justin:asleep So Yeah. My wife does the same thing, I fall asleep to podcasts all the time, but it is what it is. You know, if you let it play for a while, it's just more play count for me. Right? So it works.
Justin:There
JP:we go.
Justin:Alright, dude. Well, we'll talk soon. Alright?
JP:Sounds good. See you later.
Justin:That's a wrap on today's episode. Thank you so much listening. I appreciate your time. I got my buddy here with me. You wanna say happy flying?
JP:Happy flying.
Justin:See you guys. The Pilot to Pilot podcast is brought to you by Ground School from the finer points, the indispensable training app for new and experienced pilots. Visit learnthefinerpoints.com backslash Justin to save 10% off your first year.