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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.
Episode three fifty seven of the Pilot the Pilot podcast takes off now. Did you know that eleven percent of accidents happen while taxiing? A Vemco insurance company believes education and awareness make a real difference, which is why they support safety programs and reward pilots who stay sharp. Pilot to Pilot podcast listeners can save 5%. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297 dash owner for aircraft owners and visit avemco.com/4297- non owner for non owners today.
Speaker 1:Premium credits are subject to underwriting guidelines, including Avemco recognized training and memberships, and the source is a VEMCO insurance company claims data 2023. Again, thank you so much VEMCO for being a sponsor. Please help the podcast out. Give them a call. Visit the website.
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Speaker 2:My name is Evan Davis. I'm a medevac PC twelve pilot in Northwest Alaska, and I live in Wasilla.
Speaker 1:Hey, V Nation. What is going on? And welcome back to the Pilot to Pilot podcast. I wanna go ahead and do something that I haven't done before. And, well, there are only two magazines or coffee table books as we are now calling them, but I wanna release one of those audio podcasts for everyone to hear because I want you to see the quality.
Speaker 1:I want you to see the type of stories that we have in the magazine. So this one is with my good buddy, Evan Davis. I flew with him in a 182 a long time ago. We've been following each other's careers, calling each other, texting each other. But this story is a very powerful story.
Speaker 1:It's called how flying saved my life, and I really want you to give it a listen. If you like what you hear, subscribe to the magazine. There's more stories that are equally as great. Well, maybe not equally as great. This one's pretty powerful.
Speaker 1:But I really want you to hear Evan's story. He recently just bought a one eighty near me, and he's restoring it. So go follow him as well because he's gonna do some cool stuff. But I mean nation, I don't wanna keep you much longer. So any further ado, here's Evan Davis.
Speaker 1:Evan, what's going on, man? Welcome to the Pilot to Pilot podcast.
Speaker 2:Good morning. What's up, dude? Good afternoon.
Speaker 1:Yeah. For me, afternoon. For you, it's morning. You are in Alaska, which is crazy to say and to hear because what most people don't know because we haven't... That what we...
Speaker 1:Our little excursion we went on, with the OG influencers of drizzle and stabilizer motion. If you don't know who they are, you missed out on the prime time of aviation Instagram. That was the peak ever since there. It's been going downhill. Shout out to Drizzle and Stabilizer Motion.
Speaker 1:But, we rented... No. We didn't rent. Wow. Silly me.
Speaker 1:You have a one... You had a one eighty two. You came and picked up Christina and I at bravo Juliet Juliet, Worcester, Ohio, and then we flew somewhere else in Ohio. I don't know where we flew, but then we went to go fly gliders. If you're reading the article, probably...
Speaker 1:I'll probably throw up a picture of that. We have some stupid pictures that that are fun. But that was awesome, man. That was kinda what set me on the path of wanting to get an airplane and wanting a one eighty two. Now, still don't have an airplane because since then, the prices of one eighty twos have just skyrocketed.
Speaker 2:And I did sell mine at the peak.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And you texted me like, hey, dude. I'm getting ready to sell it. Are you interested? I'm like, not at those prices.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But you got it and you sold it, which is amazing. And it was such a great airplane. And what you did with it and the fun you had, was really cool. So you did kinda set off a little spark in me for wanting to buy an airplane, and I will one day.
Speaker 1:I promise. I know I've been saying it for, like, six years now. Yeah. One day.
Speaker 2:No. You will. One day. I know you will.
Speaker 1:It's gonna happen. But I'm very excited to have you on, man. We've talked about this for a while. We've been texting for what now? Like, seven years?
Speaker 1:Like, that was, like, six or seven years ago. We always check-in with each other every once in a while, and it... It's just... I've told you just on the phone when we talked the other day that it's really cool to see you living your dream and what you want to do. Because I I specifically remember I was still at Priority Air Charter.
Speaker 1:I was flying a PC 12. I was helping my friend's kids. We're babysitting for a day. You call me on the phone. You're like, hey, man.
Speaker 1:I really wanna fly PC 12. How do I do it? And we're talking about how you can get to priority air charter. And now here you are later and you're doing what you wanted to do. So I think that's really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's been it's been quite a journey. I... Yeah. I started out, well, you know, as a kid like most kids that end up flying airplanes as adults.
Speaker 2:I was kind of obsessed with airplanes and everything about them and, you know, took a little... You know, I thought I was gonna go to the Air Force Academy and be a fighter pilot. My grandfather was a fighter pilot in World War two. And, you know, I I kinda got off track for fifteen, twenty years, something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was drinking a lot and doing a lot of things I shouldn't have been doing and ended up going to get my... I I was set up with my instructor and ready to solo. I had about eight or ten hours in in a Cherokee getting my flight instruction. This was back... I'm 43 now.
Speaker 2:So this would have been back thirteen years ago, something like that. And he was like, hey. You need a medical. I'm like, oh, yeah. Medical.
Speaker 2:I've heard of those. He he said, you need to get a medical so you can get your your official student certificate. And so I go to get a medical, and in the questionnaire, there's a lot of questions about, you know, your your history, like arrests and drinking habits. And, you know, I had been struggling with with wanting to quit for a while and I was like, man, I'm just gonna be honest because every time I I lied about anything, I got caught. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was honest about it and filled out the questionnaire like everyone tells you not to, you know, when you're sending information to the FAA. And it was like a cry for help, and I went out and let it all let it all hang out. And they came back, and they said, we're not giving you a medical. You know? You...
Speaker 2:You've got a drinking problem. And...
Speaker 1:Did he flat out say that to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, my my AME, he's a he's an army guy, an army helicopter guy, and he, you know, he's pretty blunt. He he said, man, this just doesn't look good. Like, there's there's probably almost no way they're gonna just give you a medical or or, you know, let this let this slide and let me give you a medical. I can't do it, he said.
Speaker 2:I can't give you medical based on this stuff. We have to send it off to Oklahoma City. And we sent it off... Sent the information off and he said, look, if you're willing to do the work, I will, basically sponsor you in the HIMSS program if they'll do that. And it required some extra steps on my part.
Speaker 2:I had to get a breathalyzer, like Yeah. My own personal breathalyzer.
Speaker 1:Jeez.
Speaker 2:I had to blow in it three times a day at first for the first six months, and it takes your picture, and you gotta do it. You gotta hit your times, you know, like 8AM, noon, whatever, 7PM or 10PM, whatever you set up. And it was demoralizing, like... But I was motivated, you know, because I wanted to fly airplanes. And so I got the the thing and did all the things and I had to go to AA.
Speaker 2:I had to get a sponsor and it was very humbling.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And about two months into my sobriety, I slipped up. I was in a... I was working in the oil and gas business as a land man, and I think a lot of people probably seen that new that new series
Speaker 1:on Is it pretty accurate?
Speaker 2:No. I mean, yes and no. I mean, we deal with a lot of problems as land... Landmen, but, you know, working between landowners and government and
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The company. But it was a it was a great job. I loved it. But, yeah, I... Where was I going with that?
Speaker 1:Talking about sobriety and a slip Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I I was going to Florida, to Naples, Florida to meet with a landowner to sign a pipeline agreement, and it was a lot of money. He wanted to take us take me out to dinner and his family, and he... I mean, it was this really nice steakhouse in Naples, and he bought this like $400 bottle of wine. And poured a glass... He, you know, he...
Speaker 2:They poured a glass glass in front of me. I didn't... I was like, oh, here we go. This is the situations they talk about. And I was just like, well, can't say no.
Speaker 2:You know? I can't say no. So I did. I took a couple sips from the wine to, you know, blend in and do what I have done... Had done for the past thirty years and, you know, kinda escape.
Speaker 2:You know? Like, I don't know how to, you know, really... The best way to explain it, but for lack of fortitude, I guess, I just took a few sips, and I was like, oh, I just I just effed up. Like, this is bad. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And I called my girlfriend. I got back to the... I didn't drink I didn't even drink the whole thing, you know. I was... I didn't get drunk, didn't, you know, I just...
Speaker 2:I was... I just felt awful. And I should have been happy because this guy was important. You know? We needed him for this pipeline.
Speaker 2:And went back to the hotel room and called my girlfriend, and I was like, I just messed up like bad. And this was on Valentine's Day of all all So... Yeah. So my sobriety date is February 15 and yeah, I've been sober for thirteen years now, twelve years.
Speaker 1:Looking looking back on kind of before you fill up that paperwork, would you have in that time called yourself an alcoholic, or was it just you recreationally drink, or kinda talk about that?
Speaker 2:No. I remember reading a book called... And don't... If you're having trouble drinking, don't read this book. It's called Almost Alcoholic.
Speaker 2:And it's basically an excuse, you know. It's it's like, oh, you're not that bad. No. I was an alcoholic. For sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, I am an alcoholic. I can't ever drink again. Like, it's just... I have an addictive personality. I mean, look, we got two airplanes, hangar house.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's it's real. You
Speaker 1:go all in. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I go all in, buddy. Like, I don't I don't mess around. Right. But that also, what I found out about alcoholism and alcoholics is that they have power. We have power that others don't.
Speaker 2:And if the power is harnessed, you can literally do anything. Because the way the brain works, you know, done a lot of research about it over the years. And, you know, the way the human brain works is if if you can... It's like, you know, like autistic people that are geniuses, you know. I'm not saying it...
Speaker 2:I'm not comparing.
Speaker 1:No. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm far from a genius.
Speaker 1:I'll say I've mentioned before. I know you're not a genius.
Speaker 2:I'm kidding. Not a genius. No. But, you know, if you harness it, it it's very powerful. And willpower is a lot, having a good friend group structure in your life.
Speaker 2:You you have to cut people out, right, like when you're making big changes like that. And my old friends, you know, they might watch this. They're still my friends. Yeah. I just had to move on like because that lifestyle could not be for me anymore, you know?
Speaker 2:But yeah, I got a sponsor, went to AA. Still do AA. It's important and the FAA knows, like this was their mandate, like you have to go to AA and they know it is the only thing that works, 12 step programs for drugs or alcohol. It is the only thing that works. Sheer willpower will not do it.
Speaker 2:And you know, I had... Not to get religious, you know, but you have to... Part of the structure of it, and you know, we're not... I'm not even supposed to talk about AA, right? Like, that's one of the things.
Speaker 2:You're not supposed to talk about it. But I think it's important for people to hear, you have to turn your will in your life over to a higher power. It could be God, it could be your group, it could be, you know, anything. It could be the outdoors. But you have to believe in something bigger than you.
Speaker 2:And, you know, I wasn't ready to go back to the the God thing at the time, you know. I I was I wasn't an atheist, I just wasn't I wasn't there. And I just, you know, just I just agreed to myself that there was something bigger than me out there and just went with that. I mean, I didn't I didn't fight it. A lot of people fight it.
Speaker 2:Like, don't believe in God. This isn't for me. I can't do this, you know. And and it works, man. You know, look at me, thirteen years sober.
Speaker 2:And I still have like someone... You know, a lot of people ask me, well, can can you ever drink again? No. I can't ever. And I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2:I mean, I have a great life, and I wouldn't wouldn't change a thing.
Speaker 1:When you mentioned how you had to cut friends Mhmm. I mean, I've seen... I mean, I'm... I've seen, like, people go down bad paths, and a lot of times, it's the people they surround themselves with. And like you said, those are still your friends.
Speaker 1:Those are still... Like, you have fond memories with them. Like, I'm sure you can go still hang out with them, but there just comes a point when who you surround yourself with every day, day in and day out, who you text every single day, what you do on Friday nights, you know, it changes a little bit, and you can get dragged down into something you don't wanna do anymore, which in your case would be go to the bar and drink or just kinda live that lifestyle. But how difficult was it to walk away from that life? Because, you know, those are those are people you had so many experiences with.
Speaker 1:Right? Like, you've done so much with them. And now to just be able to to walk away to improve your life, how difficult was that?
Speaker 2:Oh, it was hard, man. It it was something that it's not natural, you know? You have these people in your life and, you know, people you grow up with or, friends you make when you're in high school or out of high school, and I was in my... I had my first drink when I was 12 years old, the first time I got drunk, you know, and that went on until I was 30, or yeah, 30, 31, and you know, there was high times and low times, you know, where the drinking was worse than... But, dude, I can remember one moment when I I I lived in Central West Virginia right up against the mountains, and I was a forester for a sawmill, and I was hungover.
Speaker 2:I had been out at the bar. You go out at... You know, go to the bar after work, hang out with the people at work, go to the bar, have dinner, drink, drive home, drunk, you know, oftentimes, most of the time. And I was driving to work, and I had a pounding headache. And here I am living in the mountains where I wanted to live, and there's a beautiful sunrise, and I'm so miserable.
Speaker 2:I can't even appreciate it. And I remember thinking, man, what is wrong with me? Like... And and that was, like, three year... Two, three years before I ended up stopping drinking, and, I just knew there was something wrong.
Speaker 2:And, you know, there was some stuff going on at work at the time, that I was just... I knew the people that I was around were not good for me. And and that, you know, I had a... It was a small company, had a close relationship with my boss and coworkers, and it was... I just knew I had to move on.
Speaker 2:This was not who I wanted to be. Right? I spent my weekends drinking in a beautiful state where there's lots of recreation and, like, I I was like, oh, I need to go fishing, you know. I want... I love fishing.
Speaker 2:I wanna go fishing. And I would just get drunk. And, like, it was such a waste, like such a waste of ten years in a spot that I love still to this day. You know, I love that part of West Virginia and the people and I just, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just wasting my life and I knew it. But I didn't know how to get out of it until someone said, you have to go to AA if you wanna get better.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And, you know, obviously the rest is history, but... So moving on from people that I cared about, even if they were bad for me, you know, or you know, I wasn't who I wanted to be around them, The... Initially, it was hard, but I wanted more out of my life, and you have to make that decision. Like, you have to do it. Like, you just have to do it, and you don't have to be mean about it, but basically, it it just turned into me slowly working my way out of those relationships.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Keeping in touch. Right? Like, you don't have to kill people in in your life. You know, you don't have to completely cut them off.
Speaker 1:Kinda putting limits on them.
Speaker 2:Right? Like, this is
Speaker 1:this is what boundaries. I can do with Yeah. Boundaries. Putting boundaries on what you do with that person. It's like, alright.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And we can still talk. We can still go get lunch. But it's like after, like, 6PM, you know, it's like, not going to the bar, not doing this. You guys have fun. Don't drive drunk.
Speaker 1:Call me. I'll drive. Whatever. But like Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's definitely boundaries and limits to what you need to do. I mean, kudos to you. That's tough. It's not easy. I mean, we all have friends that we've grown up with.
Speaker 1:Right? And we've seen them go down a path, and it's easy to to find yourself with them if you don't have the the willpower to to say no. Because you wanna be friends with people. You wanna have fun. But I wanna kinda transition a little bit to the new...
Speaker 1:When you got that news, when he was like, alright, man. I cannot give you this. What... Or even when the FAA came back, it like, we cannot give you your medical. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Did you think about just being like, alright. I tried to be a pilot. It's just not for me.
Speaker 2:Oh, for sure. Yeah. Initially, they wanted three years of documented sobriety, which means letters from a sponsor, proof that you've been going to meetings, you know, obviously no know, no issues with the law, which I didn't, you know, there was only a few times I got in trouble with the law, but but yeah. So I was like, wow, this is not like three years. I wanna fly airplanes right now.
Speaker 2:Like, I'm ready to do this. And... But I... You know, up until that point, like, I had still... Like, I'd slowed down on drinking a lot, but I was still drinking, right, until they said this thing.
Speaker 2:And the... I I asked my AME, I said, hey, like, can we do something to make this go faster? You know? Like, can... And and that's when he offered the HIMSS program to me, and that was huge.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, so long and short, I spent the next... Rather than three years, the FAA Oklahoma City agreed to do that, to do the one year thing with documentation, with the the... They called it Soberlink, the breathalyzer, and they said, yes, we'll revisit it in a year. They didn't guarantee me a year, but they... So it was like a leap of faith, you know, that they were gonna, that this was gonna happen.
Speaker 2:I was like, well, that's, you know, a third of the time, I'll do it. You know, I'll do it. And and, dude, the the year was was great. Like, it was hard, you know, I didn't fly much. I was...
Speaker 2:I tried to stay current with my instructor, you know, and go up and take the plane up, but I saved so much money, like, because I was focused now, like, I wasn't spending it on flight training. I was making really good money as a contractor in the oil and gas business, and so I just banked money and flew my flight simulator at home rather than going out. I'd go to my meetings and then I'd go home and sit on my flight, you know, 30 years old on my flight simulator. But it was like something to focus on. The flight simulation was something to focus on.
Speaker 2:And I flew all the places in my simulator I wanted to fly in the future, you know? It was great. And I had enough money at the end of it to buy an airplane, so I just folk... You know, I just didn't spend any money at all. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And bought an airplane at the end of the year.
Speaker 1:I mean, it worked out. Right? It did. It seems like when you're when you're faced with bad news, right, fight or flight. You can choose two paths.
Speaker 1:You're like, you you can fight for what you want, or you can just be like, alright. This isn't for me. I'm gonna just go on to the next thing, or I'm just meant to be in the oil and gas business, and that's just it. And you just kinda walk away from it. But you chose to fight, and I'm thankful that you did because one, you're sitting with where your dreams are.
Speaker 1:You're sitting where you wanted to go when you're you're reading books when you're younger. So it's possible... Anyone that's that's struggling with something, it's possible to overcome, and it's still possible to get to what you wanna do. So kudos to you. That...
Speaker 1:That's amazing. When you finally got the news... So let's let's talk about your year into this. Submitted all the paperwork. You're just waiting back for the FAA.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Was there a lot of anxiety around that? Was there a lot of, like, alright, like, built up, like, blood pressure is getting skyrocketing because you're waiting for them essentially to control your life for the next two more years. Right? Like, we can either...
Speaker 1:We're gonna give you this piece of paper that says you can solo and this is your student pilot certificate or you can't do it until we see more progress.
Speaker 2:Well, let me back let me back up one because remember I messed up. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I I drank that one time. Yeah. And I went back to my sponsor and I said, look, I messed up. Like, do I tell them? You know, because I was two months in or three months in to being sober, and he he's he's a professional.
Speaker 2:Like, he is a... My sponsor is a... He's in the medical field, and he had his certificates taken away from him at one And he was like, you have to be honest. Like, this is what this program is, is about being honest. I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know. I try to always be honest, right? I was taught that at an early age. So that was freaking scary. I just told him I was gonna be sober and do all these things, and this was before the Soberlink thing also, right?
Speaker 2:Like that was in process, like all that, you know, Oklahoma City, you gotta send letters. Like you can't call anybody, you can't email, you know, maybe that's changed, I don't know. But then it was just letters, you had to wait. So I was in this waiting period, and yeah. So I went to my AME, I said, look, dude, I messed up.
Speaker 2:You know, I gotta... You know, I I know I have to tell him about this. And he's like, yeah. He's like, send the letter. I'm sure it will be fine.
Speaker 2:Like, he's like, there's a chance that it won't be, but he said honesty is the most important thing. So I sent it off and they said, look, thank you for being honest. Don't do... Don't ever do that again. And, yeah, obviously, I didn't,
Speaker 1:but... Jeez.
Speaker 2:So... Sorry. What was your question?
Speaker 1:I was just talking about kind of the the the waiting to actually get the okay. Yeah. We will give this to you.
Speaker 2:So it was roughly a year. And the way the the system that I had set up with them worked was that the monitoring was getting less and less. It was like the first six months, you had to do it three times a day. You know, eight months in, were doing it twice a day. Then at the end, you could just do it, I think, once a day.
Speaker 2:So I like, yeah, the anticipation was building. My flight instructor would call me and say, hey, how's the medical coming? And I think it was, yeah, almost exactly a year after we started, we resubmitted another request via mail, you know. And they came back and said, you've done all the things. You you have to keep going to AA.
Speaker 2:And then I had to do like monthly or... Yeah. Monthly letters for another year. So I was... I had a special issuance medical at that point.
Speaker 2:And it may have been a special issuance for two years. I can't remember. But... So, yeah, it was all contingent on me staying sober for that three years. And, yeah, it was like it was like hitting the lottery, man.
Speaker 2:When that letter came through, like, it was like from someone who didn't really achieve a whole lot. You know, I dropped out of college, barely passed, you know, barely graduated high school. A lot of... Not many wins, right, in life at that point. And to get this was like the biggest confidence booster, the biggest achievement my, you know, at that point in my life.
Speaker 2:And, you know, and I had bought bought my airplane while I was waiting, right, bought a tailwheel. It was a Zlin Savage Cub. It was like a... Anybody who's on Microsoft Flight Simulator knows what a a Savage Cub is, but I I ended up buying one of those, and it was sitting there waiting for me when I when I got my my license. And so, you know, it was like this was all building, and then when it all happened, it was just like the greatest moment of my life.
Speaker 2:It's like now I can go get my license and become who I wanna become. You know? It's it's just... But it was all part of that, you know, the bigger picture and process.
Speaker 1:When when you got that news that you can get your medical, when you got the news that this is a dream that you can pursue, Was it, I'm just gonna get my private. I'm gonna do this, or was kinda your mindset, alright. Let's see how far we can take it?
Speaker 2:No. It was just my private. That was all I was after. I just wanted to do it for fun, recreation. You know, I had thoughts in the back of my head that maybe it might turn into something one day, but I wasn't...
Speaker 2:Dude, I was a loser, like, up into this point. You know? Like, the thought of becoming a professional pilot was like you know, mentally, I've grown so much in the past twelve or thirteen years. Like, I've become an adult, you know, because with addiction, when you're medicating, self medicating, you're stunting your emotional growth. So I took a drink at 12 years old, and emotionally, I stayed as a 12 year old until I was 30.
Speaker 2:You can read books about it if you wanna know more. But... So I had a temper, know, I was angry, but it it was like, finally, you know, things were looking up for me, you know? But I was doing it. It was all it was all me, you know?
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And yeah, it was it was great to finally be achieving something.
Speaker 1:How did you manage working and flying and kinda maintaining your sobriety when you actually got the ticket? Because sure there's stressful moments with work. There's stressful moments with flying. There's probably problem moments where you're like, I I don't know if I can be a pilot because I can't figure out how to do this or that or this, and you're just like, it's not worth it anymore. So how did you how did you manage all that together?
Speaker 2:Well, I had a job. I was a contractor, and I was a contract landman through another agency. So I made my own schedule. They give us... They would give you like a list of files, you know, people you need to talk to about pipeline projects, and you set it up.
Speaker 2:It's all on you. And I think at the time, yeah, at the time I was I wasn't manage... I was man... I ended up managing the office, the the landman office later on, but at the time, I was just a contractor, and I could make my own schedule, so I could schedule flight lessons in the middle of the day if I wanted to. I had stuff I needed to get done as long as it got done.
Speaker 2:And most people, when you're meeting with people in their homes, it's in the evenings or in the mornings. So I had a lot of free time. I wouldn't say a lot of free time, but I could make it work and you know, ended up... That worked out great. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That part, dude, this was like the most stress free, I wouldn't say stress free, but it it was like, I felt so free at that time in my life. Like, I'm finally, like, I figured this problem out that I've had for thirty years, you
Speaker 1:know? Yeah.
Speaker 2:And dude, I was on cloud nine. Like, nothing was hard at that point, you know? I just worked. I just I just worked. I did the work, you know, and whatever needed done, I just...
Speaker 2:It's like, you just... Like, how do you eat an elephant? You know? You take one bite at a time, and and that is how everything in this aviation game... You know, I'm getting ready...
Speaker 2:I'm going in two, three weeks to go get my ATP, you know, to do the ATP CTP course, you know. Thirteen years later, right? So... And I didn't have... I never had a defined path here.
Speaker 2:Like, opportunities came to me, and when opportunities come, you have to make decisions, and it's easy to sit back and not do the hard thing, not make the decision, and I was so hungry, I just... I turned down a lot of opportunities and and found out that opportunities were not for me when I did want them, you know, because there I did apply to jobs and tried to do things, and I just factored it in that this is not for me. Yeah. Like, and that's fine, and I just moved on. Like, don't harp on it, just...
Speaker 2:So, you know, back to your question, I did not have a path. I started off with a private private certificate, and I was like, oh, you know, there's some guys flying some corporate stuff around. Maybe I should get my commercial. Well, I should get my instrument first, you know, so I can do the, you know, the instrument and commercial checkride at the same time, or or, you know, get signed off as a commercial instrument pilot. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So I... Next thing you know, a couple years later, I start on my instrument. And I'm a weirdo, I guess. I love... Instrument was my favorite, like my favorite rating, and I did that and then went and a year later did my commercial and started doing some corporate stuff on on the side between my real job.
Speaker 2:You know, there's some guys managing airplanes at our local airport for, you know, business owners that had airplanes, but no pilots And, yeah, we would we would do corporate stuff. Flew an Aerostar and Malibu, and we got a little King Air time. Nice. That that was good.
Speaker 1:When would you say your addictive personality really kinda took off with aviation? Was it early on, but while you're still waiting for your medical? Was it when you got your medical and you're doing your training and you're like, alright. Like, kinda like you said, you are not gonna take extra work. You're just gonna fly.
Speaker 1:You're just gonna do this.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was... I was obsessed about it. You know? So, yeah, back up. You know, as a kid, I was obsessed about it.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And then that that spark, that fire kinda died out, you know, in my teens and twenties, and then all of a sudden, you know, that spark was relit. I you about it, but I was watching an episode of Mythbusters where they... This guy in the Super Cub had his airplane torn apart by a bear, and they duct taped... He duct taped it back together to get home out of the bush, you know?
Speaker 2:And I was like, oh, man. And they flew this little ultralight plane, and they tore all the fabric off of it in this episode and then wrapped it with duct tape and flew it duct taped, you know? Yeah. And I was like, oh, an ultralight. Like, I could probably afford an ultralight, you know?
Speaker 2:So I started looking into that and then it was like, you know, firing like, oh, well, maybe I should just get a sport pilot license. And then everyone's like, yeah, don't do that. Just get a pilot's license. I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess I could do that. And dude, from there, it was like, and here, you know, here I am still obsessed with it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, the addictive personality is a benefit, you know, when when you harness it and put it to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I bet.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'm I'm I'm sick with it.
Speaker 1:With... This is probably the last question kinda like on the past of... With addiction. But if you could tell yourself, you know, let's say, time machine, you go travel back when you're 18 or just like a moment in your life where, like, you didn't know where you're headed, what would you tell yourself? Like, what would you tell 18 year old Evan where you are now?
Speaker 1:Or someone right now that's that's might be struggling themselves that was in your shoes, what would you tell them?
Speaker 2:Nothing is going to change until you make the decision. Nobody can... Nobody is holding you down. Nobody is making you pick up that drink. Nobody other than you is capable of change.
Speaker 2:No... Nothing... No pill. No... There's no Ozempic.
Speaker 2:Maybe... I don't know. Maybe there is for drinking now. I don't know. But, you know, there's no magic pill that's going to change your life.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're the magic you're the magic pill. You have to have the willpower, and a lot of times it's, you know, it's not even not even willpower. You've gotta get out of those situations that that you you can't say no to. You know? And for most people, it's walking into the room of an AA meeting.
Speaker 2:I mean... But it could... It it may not be addiction for some people. It may be, you know, a a bad home life. You know, it may be an abusive spouse or fam...
Speaker 2:You know, family member, but you have to pull yourself out of that situation. Like, you cannot stay there. Yeah. Because nothing good comes without change, nothing that is good is is easy. Like, nothing that's, I know, I shouldn't...
Speaker 2:Maybe you shouldn't say that, but things that are hard are worth it. Always. Like always hard work is always pays off and it... You may get your teeth kicked in from time to time, but as long as you get back up and keep moving forward, you know, you cannot be stopped.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Love it. What's going on guys? It's Justin. You've spent years building your wealth, but how much time have you actually spent figuring out how that turns into income later on?
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Speaker 1:If you want a clearer picture of what that plan looks this is worth your time. You can register at allworthfinancial.com/justin. That's allworth financial dot com slash Justin. As you're moving on in your flying career, you know, off airport gear started. You had a little merge company when I met you for the first time.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. You're flying the one eighty two. Talk about that experience and how that was gonna help lead you to where you wanted to go. Because remember you had the Idaho video. You're flying west.
Speaker 1:You're doing some really cool things. But talk about just pursuing this for fun, but also pursuing it and the goal to get to where you are right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the Western the Western United States is, you know, big open country, big mountains, you know, lots of land, lots of public land, and obviously, everybody knows now, I think, that backcountry flying... You know, backcountry flying's really taken off, and, you know, I had ninety hours in my logbook. And I had started this company off airport gear. That's my Instagram handle.
Speaker 2:And, you know, that was something that started while I wasn't flying too. I kinda forgot about that. You know, I was obsessed. I wanted to make some merch, you know, that showed airplanes and mountains and all the stuff that I loved. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I made it myself and, you know, started selling it.
Speaker 2:It was something to focus on, you know, while I was waiting to get my medical,
Speaker 1:and,
Speaker 2:you know, I've kinda let it go at this point. I I haven't really done much with it over the last few years as far as merchandise is concerned, but it was a good thing to focus on and and keep me motivated, and I I'm like, oh, I got this this company, you know? I need to like need to have some street cred, you know? Like, so me being me, I loaded up my airplane with camping gear and launched West ninety hours in my logbook into one of the most desolate regions of the Lower 48 into the Frank Church. There was a fly in going on out there, and, you know, I had been talking to some friends online, and I wanted to meet up with them and see the backcountry and made a video about it.
Speaker 2:And to this day, it's still my most viewed video. Yeah. I did kinda like a documentary style and narrated it, you know, wrote a script and kinda told the story of my journey and, you know, scared the hell out of myself a few times, which I think is probably pretty normal. But I didn't do... I I didn't push my skill set, you know?
Speaker 2:I flew with people that were experienced, and I didn't, you know, I wasn't out there bagging airstrips, you know, trying to land in all these crazy places, you know? I just wanted to experience it and be in that place and and experience what this was all about to me, and and I documented that and and made a video about it. And, yeah, I came back, and I remember coming back home and just, like, I couldn't believe I just did that. You know? Like, I'm living my dream, you know?
Speaker 2:Like, this is what I always wanted to do, and it was, you know, it was kinda sad landing back at home, you know? I'm like, man, I just wanna go back, and I had, you know, always dreamed about Alaska and ended up visiting here in 2017. Had a friend up here and and stayed with him, and we did some flying. And it was winter. It was like February.
Speaker 2:It was the worst time to be here.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a terrible time to go visit Alaska. Jeez.
Speaker 2:And I was... Honestly, I was like, man, I don't know if I wanna live here, man. It's cold. There's a bunch of snow, and I just... Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the Idaho thing was was huge, and then I ended up changing jobs. I was still in the landman business, you know, doing... I was working on a project over in Eastern Pennsylvania, and I still had my Cub, and I had flown it over there, and it was like a six hour drive, six and a half hour drive, and in the Cub, it was like three, four hours to get there, and I was like, man, I need another airplane. I need something fast. Something that can still do everything I want, but faster.
Speaker 2:And I really want, still to this day, I still want a one eighty, Cessna one eighty, but one eighty twos were in that... My price range. So I sold the Cub and bought the one eighty two, and then I used that one eighty two to commute back and forth to work, and I ended up flying that thing all over the country. I mean Yeah. Maine, Florida, all the Western States, Texas.
Speaker 2:I I flew... And and that's how I built my time for what was coming, you know, where I'm at now. Yeah. I ended up flying that airplane six, seven hundred hours.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Maybe not that much, but getting enough time to get a job, basically, recreationally, you know, flying.
Speaker 1:Fast forwarding a little bit to... So we're talking about the one eight two. We're talking about the Cub. I wanna talk about getting to Alaska because Mhmm. Like you mentioned before, that was kinda what you always thought and what you thought was calling you for a career where you just needed to be.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that you went up to Alaska. And in the story, you mentioned that when you were up in Alaska, I don't know if it was the same time, but you actually were... You went to go hang out your resume and you're like, hey. This is me. Like, I wanna fly here.
Speaker 1:I wanna fly here. I have heard that that is a good way to get your name out there because I'm sure they get a bunch of resumes, but showing the initiative of actually showing up puts you... Lets you stand out and putting a face to a resume really does help. But you also mentioned that there was a gentleman there that was like, alright. Well, let's go do...
Speaker 1:Let's go get... Let's go see how you fly. Yeah. Well Talk about that.
Speaker 2:So 2017, I came up here, visited with a friend. I was, like, on the fence, like... Because I was in a relationship with a gal who wasn't real interested in being in Alaska. And I had come up here, and I was like, I don't know. I don't know if this is for me.
Speaker 2:You know? Was kinda the worst time of year to to visit. So, you know, all the low time flying jobs that I could find were here. Right? Like, with the amount of time that I had, I needed to come here to fly, to get, you know, to get a job.
Speaker 2:And I thought, well, maybe I can do it seasonally, come up in the summers and fly, which is viable. I mean, that's a thing you could do. But where my relationship was, it wasn't... That wasn't really gonna work. So in 2019...
Speaker 2:Or no. Twenty twenty twenty one after COVID, after all that garbage, you know, that happened with COVID, I decided, like, I'm sick of all this. I wanna see Alaska, like, in a good time of year. And so I rented rented an RV or, like, a... It was an old Dodge truck with a camper on the back of it in Homer, Alaska.
Speaker 2:Rented that and flew to Homer, and my plan... I brought a bunch of resumes with me. My plan was to drive that truck from Homer to Talkeetna and visit places in between and catch up with some friends that I... Instagram friends, you know, that people I'd never met, you know, strangers on the Internet, you know. And so I I got the truck and was milled around in Homer for a little bit, and it's like, oh, Homer's really nice.
Speaker 2:And there's some jobs there, you know, some postings. But I didn't drop any resumes off, and I just drove north, went to Anchorage, dropped a few resumes with some operators at Lake Hood, but I didn't know anybody there. Ended up going to Talkeetna, you know, because there's a lot of air tours. You know, that's that's the entry level job is an air tour, you know, tour pilot, whether it be, you know, glacier viewing, flying to Denali, or going and seeing bears from home... You know, fly from Homer to land on the the beaches over at Katmai, and, you know, bear viewing.
Speaker 2:And and then in Anchorage, they do a lot of it, a little bit of everything. They kinda go down to the South to Katmai and up to Talkeetna and North to Denali and and over the Alaska Range and whatnot. So but I wasn't really sure where I wanted to be. I liked Homer, so I ended up back at Homer to drop the truck at the end of my trip and stopped in to an air tour operator who also had a mail schedule, and they flew to all the villages around Homer across Kachemak Bay. And I walk in there.
Speaker 2:My friend, I had a friend that worked there, Brittany, you interviewed her.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And met up with her, and we went to the office, and I took my resume in, and the chief pilot, I think he was the chief pilot, was in the back, and they took my resume back, and he saw my address at the top of my resume, and he goes, Lowell, Ohio. He's like, who is this person? They're like, oh, he's outside if you wanna talk to him. And it turns out, I owned an airstrip.
Speaker 2:I had bought an airstrip, an old rundown place, and he flight trained there
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:At the place that I bought.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:So networking is everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was kinda by chance, but every... Basically, job I've gotten has been through networking. So long story short, back to your question, he said, well, do you wanna go fly? Like, do you wanna jump in the two o... Because I had a little bit of two o six time.
Speaker 2:I had flown some skydivers in West Virginia. And, of course, high performance Cessna time in my one eighty two. So we flew to a couple different villages that they they fly mail to. One of them was Nanwalik, and it's this... Dude, it's like like the coolest airstrip.
Speaker 2:Like, it's on a beach or right above a beach. It's a gravel runway, and it just has a... It's like a banana. And you come in over the the town, and you land on this, like, you know, turning runway, and, you know, it wasn't my greatest landing, but, you know, I nailed it. And we went to Seldovia after that, And I was a little concerned flying over all that water in a single engine Cessna, you know, piston Cessna Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you have to cross Kachemak Bay, and I was like, I don't really love that. But they offered me a job, and I said, yeah. I'm not... You know, I'm I'm here, but I'm not living here yet. You know, I need to move and, like, sell everything, you know, in my mind.
Speaker 2:Sell every... God. There's so much... I was like, was it... Tentatively, yes.
Speaker 2:I want the job. But this was for next season, you know? So this was in September, and they are hiring right now, you know, September, October for their seasonal business next spring, and that's how it goes every year up here. I I saw someone asked a question on one of the forums on Facebook about getting a job and like showing up, and it's like, you need to be up here right now Yeah. To get your job for the spring.
Speaker 2:So anyway, ended up going back home, and I'm like, I was like, oh boy, I got a lot of decisions to make here. I mean, and spring's coming up, you know? And on my way home, I was like, I'm doing it. You know, I was on the plane flying back to Ohio, and I was like, man, I'm doing this thing. I'm I'm gonna sell everything and figure it out.
Speaker 2:So in the meantime, I had reached out to my friend who I visited in 2017, and he says, oh, yeah. I'm gonna buy a $1.35 operation.
Speaker 1:That's a thing.
Speaker 2:I'm like, what? Like, my... His name's Jeremy. He's... I call him an international man of mystery.
Speaker 2:He's always into something new, something crazy, but he he's like, dude, I'm buying this certificate, me and my partner, and it's in the Brooks Range. And, you know, we... He's like, do you wanna fly? Like, don't take that job in Homer. He's like, come work for me.
Speaker 2:And the Brooks Range is like... It was my first home in Alaska. It ended up... I ended up taking the job. And, you know, the books that I read when I was a kid were...
Speaker 2:The guy that wrote them was based in the Brooks Range and and North of The Arctic Circle. So it was a no brainer flying a two zero six on wheels, and they had float planes, and, you know, I needed a float rating. And anyway, I ended up there in Battles, of all places, one of the smallest villages in Alaska. So... Yeah.
Speaker 2:What was
Speaker 1:it like? I mean, people think of West Virginia, they think of remote, but I'm guessing that kind of remote is not anywhere in the same world as the remote in the villages that you're talking about in Alaska.
Speaker 2:No. Battles is North of The Arctic Circle. It is... There's no roads to it. They build an ice road in the winter.
Speaker 2:You know, with the snowpack, they compact it. They run equipment, dozers and stuff over it. And then, you know, the ice freezes on the rivers, and then you drive over the rivers, you know, through the tundra on this ice road to get to Betels, and that's how they haul a lot of stuff in, you know, to to these places. Mhmm. But Betels is basically any other time of the year is air travel only, and it's right at the base of the Brooks Range.
Speaker 2:About in the middle of the... The Brooks Range spans from basically the border of Canada all the way to the Western Coast Of Alaska, and it's huge. And it goes in... It continues into Canada as well. So it's a huge mountain range.
Speaker 2:It's not the tallest mountain range. I think the the highest peak's around 12 or 13,000 feet, but it's cold. A lot of bugs, and it's as remote as you can get. I mean, once you get... You know, they do drive...
Speaker 2:The the Haul Road goes to the North Slope, but... Sorry. My dogs are barking.
Speaker 1:No. You're good.
Speaker 2:They they do drive the Haul Road, and and you can take... Like, you can park it. Sorry. Can we stop for one second?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Absolutely. Sorry.
Speaker 2:I'll be right back.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No worries.
Speaker 2:Alright. Sorry about that.
Speaker 1:No. You're good. I had to go to the bathroom, so it wasn't worked out perfectly. I like, yeah, dude. Go.
Speaker 1:Go. Cool.
Speaker 2:Alright. Continue whatever. Yeah. So... Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's... The Haul Road goes basically from Fairbanks to the North Slope where all the oil field production is, and that's really the only road in that part of the world. And they're... Trump just signed an executive order to authorize this this... It's called the Ambler Road, which is a proposed road that goes from the existing Haul Road over about 212 miles to the west right through...
Speaker 2:Right north of Battles and through all this pristine country, but I don't wanna get into that. That's a Yeah. It's a sore subject up here, but...
Speaker 1:I bet.
Speaker 2:So yeah, everything is... All the villages are basically airplane travel. Yeah. It's remote. I mean, it's it's the best.
Speaker 1:Was it hard to get adjusted to that? I mean, you... I mean, obviously, we talked about West Virginia. You you feel like you're remote there. So you had an idea of what it was like to to live remote.
Speaker 1:Right? But Mhmm. I mean, like you said, this is very different. You can't just order Amazon and get things in two days. You can't just do whatever you want.
Speaker 1:I'm sure even Wi Fi was a little bit different. Now Starlink is is probably changing the game for you guys, but Mhmm. It's just way different way to live your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We didn't have Internet that first summer. There was... We poached some Internet off of the the neighboring lodge that was next to the airstrip. But, yeah, there was no Internet, no phones.
Speaker 2:You know, being a pilot in Alaska and having an airplane is you hold the key to the state, you know, and that's why there's so many pilots here because to to access this place either requires a boat or an airplane, and an airplane is the ultimate, you know, key to unlocking everything here. So, you know, as pilots, we were like, yeah. I mean, we can go. We can go if we need to, you know, and we would make occasional runs to Fairbanks to get things and our... What's now the sister company to the company I was working for has, you know, like 20 something caravans.
Speaker 2:So there was caravans coming and going all the time, and if you needed something, you could get it. Yeah. But, yeah, it was it was interesting. And and but being able to travel was... With an airplane is is huge.
Speaker 2:I mean, it it really takes the remote field down a notch. You know?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And just expand your world. Right? Like, you're not actually limited to that. You know, alright.
Speaker 1:If I need to do something, I can go fly. I can get there.
Speaker 2:Yep. Yeah. I need to get out of this village, I can jump in the airplane. And Cabinets were Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was what was nice is, like, I did get to go every, you know, almost every day and Yeah. Get out and do something. Because I was an air, basically an air tour pilot in Battles. I was taking, you know, they have this thing the national parks does called the, I think it's called the National Parks Passport, and so you get all these people, they show up, and they wanna get their passport stamped with each national park, and so we had a lot of, we call them park collectors. You know, a lot of older people that are, you know, kinda fulfilling their life dream to, you know, get all the parks, see all the parks, and, you know, we kinda joke a little bit.
Speaker 2:It's kinda silly, you know, they're flying... They're paying thousands and thousands of dollars to get in an airplane to set foot in the park for twenty minutes. You know? And it's like Yeah. You're not really getting the full experience, But we also had people that we would drop, and they would float or hunt or...
Speaker 2:And I would do on demand charters too. You know, phone company... The phone company needed to go from this village to that village, a lot of remote mining exploration, which is what that road is for that I was telling you about. So that was a double edged sword, you know, you're hauling these people out. They're giving you a job, right?
Speaker 2:This is the this is the crux of being a pilot in Alaska. You love this place. It's so remote and so untouched, and then a lot of your work comes from people that wanna exploit it. So Yeah. You know, it's like
Speaker 1:It's tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and it's... These guys are just doing their job. Like, they're... They they love the place as much as we do, you know, but it's kind of a double edged sword when it comes to development.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But it does provide a lot of work for us as pilots.
Speaker 1:Can you talk about what it's actually like flying? Like, weather. Like, I mean, any any person that's in the Lower 48, know, you they're always told Alaska is just different. Like, weather changes faster. Things get worse a little bit quicker.
Speaker 1:This... The overall winds are just insane all the time. Can you talk about the ex... Just how long it took you to feel comfortable, if you even feel comfortable with some of the conditions that are up there, and just kinda talk a little bit and give some insight on that.
Speaker 2:After, you know, three years of it, I'm getting more comfortable with it. You know, you always have to every good pilot knows that you've gotta be humble and you've got to always appreciate the weather and, like, what it's capable of. And I would say the main difference here, if I could sum it up quickly, is that in the Lower 48, weather moves differently. It's it's... I feel it's way more predictable, you know, like, we have fronts that come from west to east or from Southwest to Northeast or...
Speaker 2:You know? And then you get the occasional hurricane that comes in on the East Coast and kinda disrupts that flow of weather moving from one side of the country to the other. And here, man, it's like with the the Polar Region, the way weather moves is so weird. Like, I remember looking at the weather map one day, and there was, like, eight low pressure systems over Alaska. Like, just like just...
Speaker 2:Because there was, like, no wind, no no fronts coming through to move this stuff out or high pressure systems, and things just move differently here. There's a lot of mountains, and most of the time, there's a lot of flat too. Like, Alaska is probably more flat than it is mountainous, at least the, you know, the Northern part of Alaska. Basically, from the Alaska Range North, it's it's like flat with little bits of foothills and then it... Not not big mountains, and then you get to the Brooks Range, and then it's just like a wall of mountains.
Speaker 2:And then it's the art... You know, the Arctic Slope, which is just tapers off from the mountains down to sea level. But, yeah, weather just moves differently here. It does change fast. It's very extreme.
Speaker 2:You know, Fairbanks, where I worked for a year was... Or a year and a half was very extreme. It would be 90 degrees in the summer and minus 50 in the winter. Fairbanks doesn't get super windy, but where I'm at now on the West Coast Of Alaska, it can get very windy and stay windy for days, you know, 40 plus knots. Work in...
Speaker 2:My base is currently in Kotzebue, and they have an evacuation order right now. We've moved all of our airplanes, four airplanes... Or sorry, three airplanes and, you know, 20 people because of the... This typhoon moved up in the Bering Sea, and it is pushing all the water inland, and they're flooding.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So the airport's closed right now, and, you know, 40, 50 knot winds put... You know, pushing all that water on on land. So am I comfortable with it? I I think you adjust to it, but with respect. Right?
Speaker 2:Like, you have to respect it. And, you know, I'm old enough... I feel like I'm old enough and wise enough that I have no problem saying no to stuff now, especially when it comes to aviation, and being up here, you see a lot of stuff and things that happen and crashes and, you know, poor decision making. Aviation's so vital to life here in these villages that you have to respect it. I mean, you...
Speaker 2:And you have to be able to say no. And, you know, I I fly medevac now, so saying no is hard sometimes because people need us. But if we don't make it to get them, it does them no good. It doesn't do any... Do do us any good, and we have to be available for the next person too.
Speaker 2:You know? Like, okay. People need need us. The weather's bad. Let's just wait.
Speaker 2:Because most of the time, if you wait... And it depends on the situation, you know, as far as how critical, we don't know how critical the patient is, right, when we make our decision. That's very important, you know, to the sanctity of the mission, but yeah, it's it's hard to say no, but sometimes you just have to.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No. You definitely do. It's essential, and I always say learning how to say no in aviation is one of the the greatest things you can ever learn. I mean Mhmm.
Speaker 1:It's just you gotta learn to to stick up for yourself, and you gotta understand what you're comfortable with. Now there also is a time and a place for for for maybe you to realize that you... You're capable of doing more. You're capable of flying into more, but that could be with someone that's more seasoned. It's like someone that's new pops up and like, alright.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're not necessarily comfortable or, hey, you haven't done this before, we're gonna go throw you with Evan, and Evan's gonna kinda walk you through how this happens. So when you do it, you can feel more comfortable. So there is a time and a place for a referred no, and there's also a time and a place for like, I don't feel comfortable, but I feel like this is everyday life and I need to I need to learn how to be comfortable doing this.
Speaker 2:Yes. Absolutely. And we fly with two pilots.
Speaker 1:Oh, The
Speaker 2:p c 12. Yeah. And, you know, at first, because I've been doing single pilot stuff up until this job, and at first, I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna like that.
Speaker 1:I don't need someone else.
Speaker 2:I don't need someone else. But having two people in the cockpit is awesome. Yeah. It's it's a game changer. And and, also, we're taking lower time guys that are sitting in the right...
Speaker 2:And girls, they're sitting in the right seat, and they are seeing the decisions we're making as PICs. And, you know, these people are going to be... They may be low time, but they're getting to see things that a lot of people never see in their aviation career, you know, and the way the decisions are made and how we handle situations at airports when we land. Like, you know, ice is a huge problem on the runways in the wintertime, and wind, you know, you get a 20 knot crosswind and a p c 12, and the runway's icy. I mean, that could be a no go depending on how bad, how icy it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, 20 knots in a p c 12 is is a lot anyway, but you throw wind and and... Or ice into that. It's just a
Speaker 1:Game changer.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It could be clear and blowing, but Yeah. You may not go because of that.
Speaker 1:Do you have a... Like, I'm guessing, you know, how everyone has a story. Right? They have a weather story. Do you have, like, a welcome to Alaska story?
Speaker 1:It could be a moment where you're, like, you're in the plane, you're like, I should not be here, and, like, how fast it might have happened.
Speaker 2:Probably when I was doing doing air tours. I I I think one of my favorite stories is I had been flying all summer doing these these park tours and it's a long flight. Like, it's two hours in a two zero six to get from one one park to the other. We're doing Gates Of The Arctic National Park and then Kobuk Valley National Park. And in Kobuk Valley, we land on these sand dunes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Sand dunes in the middle of the tundra in Alaska. And we have to cross a, you know, a wide... And there's no weather reporting there. I mean, there just isn't.
Speaker 2:It's it's battles with a weather station, and then the next one is the village of Kobuk, and it's got an AWOSS. And there's nothing in between. And there's a continental divide that runs through the... You know, from point a to point b, you cross the continental divide. And what I learned was, like, if weather is stacking up on the divide, you've got two options to get through...
Speaker 2:To get... You know, there's, like, there's mountains, and then there's a valley, and then there's a smaller set of mountains, and then there's the Kobuk Valley, and you can usually get through one of the two valleys. And and if if it's stacked up, you're not getting through. And, yeah, I kinda got into a little little pickle when I figured all this out and, you know, had to turn around in pretty low viz, low level. And, yeah, obviously, I turned around and and I made it, but, you know, it's like...
Speaker 2:I think what I learned through that was, like, the conditions were okay when I left, and then they... It just kept getting lower and lower and lower. And, you know, next thing you know, I'm 500 feet off the treetops and... Which is legal. Right?
Speaker 2:That's minimum in in Alaska. And it just... It was it was like an moment. Like, man, you just gotta just turn. Like, it was getting worse.
Speaker 2:Why did you keep going? You know? And... But I think everybody has... Probably has that store...
Speaker 2:Same story. But my favorite was after a season of flying, there was this front coming in, and it was bad, and I knew the winds were bad, and it was gonna be turbulent the whole way. Like, and this guy had his family with him. It was, like, six of them, and I could only take five in the two zero six. So four kids and the dad.
Speaker 2:Right? And he was like, oh, we've flown all over Alaska in airplanes. He's like... I was like, dude, it's gonna be turbulent. It's not gonna be fun.
Speaker 2:I was like, it's probably plugged up at the Continental Divide, and we probably won't get through. And I was like, let's just wait. Let's just wait a little bit. So we waited till like noon, and he was like, well, what do you think? And I was like, well, we can try it, but it's not gonna be fun for anyone.
Speaker 2:And he's like, yeah, let's... We're good. Let's try it. Man, fifteen minutes in, that guy was green and puking. And his kid...
Speaker 2:His poor kids
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Were just like... Just they had their heads down, and I was like, I told you. I told you. We talked about know it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it was nothing dangerous.
Speaker 1:It was
Speaker 2:just rough. And, yeah, he wasn't getting back in an airplane for a while after that. But
Speaker 1:Do you do you think you could ever move back to the Lower 48? Or, like, once you experience what you're experiencing, once you're doing the flying that you're doing, is is it just not comparable and not possible?
Speaker 2:No. I think I could. Yeah. I love it here, but I also love the rest of The United States, you know, and I grew up down there. So...
Speaker 2:Mhmm. No. We've talked about it. You know, we built built this house and, know, obviously, it's a hangar house and it's great, but there'll come a time, I think, when we both wanna get out and... Yeah.
Speaker 2:I I totally would move back, but I think I would also also try and keep a place here of some some sort because it's just too... It's too good. It's hard living up here, man. It's dark. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I work in Kotzebue two weeks a month, and for four months, it's dark, man. Like, you know, you're not getting any vitamin d, and it's... It takes a toll on you, especially working night shift because we do, you know, split shifts, work twenty four hour availability. And last winter, you know, spending the whole winter up there, I I did extra night shifts for some reason. There was a scheduling deal where we had to get new pilots online and one of them flying during the day.
Speaker 2:So I ended up taking some extra night shifts. And, yeah, there was... Like, the darkness is a real thing. And it's cold and it's windy and you get... You know, there is twilight in, you know, in that region, but the sun, you know, it just kinda...
Speaker 2:It kinda comes up like this and then it goes back down.
Speaker 1:That's
Speaker 2:crazy. So you get, like... The sun's over here. You get, like, twilight, twilight. The sun just peaks above the horizon, and then it just goes away.
Speaker 2:So for four hours when I'm sleeping is when you get a little bit of light and then you wake up and it's dark. Yeah. And it's hard. Definitely. I mean, anybody that says it isn't might...
Speaker 2:Is probably lying.
Speaker 1:No. Yeah. It takes a toll on everyone. That... Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, this is on a much smaller level, but when I went to Ohio State for college and just how much darker it is and how much more... How many more clouds there were in Ohio versus North Carolina, it's like, yeah. It's real. Like, vitamin d deficiency, seasonal Yeah. Depression it can be a real thing when when you're not used to it.
Speaker 1:Right? Then you acclimate, and it gets a little bit better. And I'm sure, like, it's just it's just a way of life. It just is what it is. But that is on a whole different level and just something that I can't comprehend.
Speaker 1:Like, just seeing the sun just, barely come up. Oh, hey. I'm here. Okay. I'm gone.
Speaker 1:It's almost like a tease. It's like, I wish you just wouldn't come out because Yeah. Then I know what I'm missing. It's like, how dare you?
Speaker 2:Can Getting out is important.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Getting out is important.
Speaker 1:Like A 100%.
Speaker 2:Hawaii or Southern US.
Speaker 1:Lots of sunshine. Sunshine. Yeah. Lots of sunshine. In Ohio, it was nice because I had...
Speaker 1:I was a flying airplane, so I had the ability to go see the sun because it was up. It was just under that little, like, 3,000 foot layer of small clouds. But you could poke through, be like, alright. Cool, sun. Alright.
Speaker 1:Go back.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Yep.
Speaker 1:To to wrap this kind of up, because there's obviously more in in the written article as well. Mhmm. But for someone that is reading this, for someone that had the same kind of idea that you have had of, you know, Alaska is where I wanna be. Alaska is where I wanna fly, or this is what I wanna do. What's your advice to them for making that jump, for making that move?
Speaker 2:It would be, you know, get whatever experience you can and the type of airplane that you're probably gonna be flying, which would most cases, a starting job up here is in a two zero six or two zero seven or a Saratoga single engine piston airplane. Get as much experience as you can in that type of airplane, you know, where you're at. And, you know, obviously, you need to be here to get a job. I think showing up and letting people see you and know what kinda... Because one of the big things about living and working up here is how you live with people.
Speaker 2:Because we live in a village two weeks out of the month with our coworkers, and if you can't get along with anyone, it could be a problem because there are all different types of people here, and and I would say prepare yourself mentally for that. Obviously, the weather is what it is. I mean, it's Alaska. It does crazy stuff, and, you know, you gotta be prepared for that. But showing up, resume in hand, this is who I am.
Speaker 2:This is... Like, you have to want it. You have to want to be here. And you may get here and tour around a little bit. I would recommend doing what I did and just checking the place out first and make sure this is what you want because a lot of people, I think, find out...
Speaker 2:They're like, I wanna go to Alaska and fly airplanes, and then they get here, and it's like, ugh. I I... This is not what I what I was expecting. And then Yeah. You know, to be cooped up in a house for two weeks at a time or sometimes people, you know, a lot of the tour operators have you there for the whole summer, and you've gotta be able to live with other people and, you know, cohabitate with people that you may not like.
Speaker 2:And... But most everybody that's here, what I found does wanna be here, and we're all in it together. I think there's there's that sense of, you know, kinship. Right? Like, we're all in this together.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a team. Yeah. It... Yeah. It's very...
Speaker 2:It can it can be very... We have a great group of people that I work with and, know Good. It's a very... Yeah. Cohesive group.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, you... Basically, if if you can't get along, you don't. You're gone. Like, it's just we... It's so hard enough.
Speaker 2:Like, you know, we don't need that in our lives.
Speaker 1:About that is that I I honestly think that's, like, standard in aviation. Like, if you if you just can't get along with people, you're not gonna work out. Mhmm. So you really gotta check your attitude, and you really gotta... To be a team player, and you just need to...
Speaker 1:I mean, honestly, just be someone that you can have... Want to still go out to dinner with after an eight hour or or eight hour flight. You know?
Speaker 2:I think I've seen some people online that are like, oh, I just can't get a job anywhere. You know? And I think a lot of that is they need to look internally, Like, look at who... I said, all these other people that I can't get along with? Like, take a look in the mirror.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Please. For our sake. Please. Take a look in the mirror.
Speaker 2:Maybe you're the problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. It's not me.
Speaker 2:Maybe you can't get a job because it's you. And it has nothing to do with... Honestly, a lot of times, you can have great pilots, awesome sticks, and they can't get along with people. Nobody wants to work with them, so they're Yep. They hit the road.
Speaker 1:Yep. I actually lied. One more question. What what makes a good Alaskan bush pilot? What are some traits?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know. I'm not a bush pilot.
Speaker 1:What makes a good Alaskan pilot?
Speaker 2:Alright.
Speaker 1:You guys are all bush pilots to me, by the way. Anyone in Alaska is a bush pilot to me. I know I'm probably got the truthers out there.
Speaker 2:Well, if you ask us, all the bush pilots are dead or almost dead, the real bush pilots.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:True. We do fly to the bush, and we work in the bush, but the pioneers are
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All but gone. But I would say that what is the... So the question was what is a trait?
Speaker 1:What are what are some traits that make Alaskan pilots since I can't say Alaskan bush pilots?
Speaker 2:I would say a sense of adventure. Someone that that... Most all of us have a sense of adventure in our blood. You have to enjoy the suck, I guess. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like
Speaker 1:Embrace the suck.
Speaker 2:Embrace the suck. Like, it's... It it... It's it's challenging. It...
Speaker 2:The... All of aviation is challenging. There's always some challenge, some new challenge no matter where you're at. The challenges here are different. A lot of it's mental.
Speaker 2:You know? I think it is mindset more than anything, and I think we all love it. Like, I really think, like, coming up with solutions to weird problems is one of the most fun parts about it. Like, you know, you always hear about bush fixes, you know, how things get fixed when you have nothing, you know. Like the guy duct taping his airplane, you know.
Speaker 2:It's like, it's not legal, but the guy needed to get out of there and that's what he did. I don't know if the guy got in trouble for it or not, but probably... They probably would have said, well, you should have hooked it to a helicopter and flown it out. Anyway, I think just having that pioneering spirit and sense of adventure and, yeah, just being able to work in austere environments, and I heard something actually about a lot of the contract pilots in Afghanistan, a lot of the commercial guys that went over to do contract work. This was told to me by a guy that worked over there.
Speaker 2:He said that anytime someone from Alaska applied on their resume, they knew that they would be a good fit because working in a war zone in Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever, they knew that the people that had experience flying here would be a good fit because it's hard here. It can be hard here. And obviously working in a war zone is hard and austere, and I thought that was pretty cool, like a pretty cool testament to, you know, what it is we're we're doing. Like, we're not heroes. Right?
Speaker 2:We're just a bunch of crazy people that enjoy this kind of thing. You know? But it's... Yeah. You just have to wanna be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, Evan, I appreciate it, man. Long time in the making. The Evan Davis story.
Speaker 2:Well, I I finally feel like I might be worthy of a podcast now. I've got a little bit of a of commercial experience now. I'm still learning every day, man. It's a it's a very humbling profession. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. But I appreciate your time. I think this is gonna be a well received story because I've never really said... Told anything or had the opportunity to share a story, like yours. So Mhmm.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm very excited for it. And if you wanna hear more about Evan, if you wanna follow Evan, do you want... I don't even... Do you want people to follow you? But whatever.
Speaker 1:If you wanna plug your Instagram, maybe you can bring your merch back. Alaskan Yeah. Non Bush Pilot. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. Yeah. My Instagram is off airport gear, and I had... Have a website for the the merch, but it's kinda... It's in a state of flux right now, so I don't need...
Speaker 2:It's not it's not active at the moment, but... Yeah. I don't know what'll happen with that. Maybe it'll turn into something different, but... Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's... That's me.
Speaker 1:Also, if anyone has seen Mindy's airplane, he was the OG. See Your colors.
Speaker 2:Right? Oh, Mindy. Yeah. Yeah. Schmindy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Schmindy. If anyone's Schmindy airplane. It's not Everybody thought it was the same airplane.
Speaker 1:You are the OG. You had that first.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'll say it.
Speaker 2:A little more popular than I am. But... No. No. We texted back and forth about that, and we got a kick out of it.
Speaker 2:Everybody thought thought it was my airplane. But
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. Well, cool. Hey, Evan. I appreciate your time. I hope you're doing some fun in Alaska, and, I hope you're gonna have a great day, man.
Speaker 1:I can't wait for this to come out, and I'll make sure to send you a printed copy of the magazine once that's released as well. So I appreciate Sounds good.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's good to good to see you and talk to you again, buddy.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap on today's podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. If you haven't checked out the magazine or if you have and you know friends that would like it, just just send it to them, you know. I think they'd love it.
Speaker 1:What I mean, send it to them send them the the website. Just be like, hey, dude. This is the best magazine. Cancel all your other subscriptions and make sure you follow this one. The aviation, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. As always, happy flying. 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.