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Join Ben Todd, student pilot and competitive bodybuilder, as he documents the journey from flight training to professional aviation, while pursuing peak physical and mental performance.
Each episode of The Performance Pilot dives into the parallels between flying and fitness: discipline, precision, mindset, and continuous improvement. Through personal stories and conversations with industry professionals, Ben explores what it really takes to perform at the highest level — in the cockpit, in the gym, and in life.
Ben Todd (00:00)
The only thing I can do, and this was emphasized to us on our call this week with the coaches is the only thing that we as competitors can do. We can only focus on bringing our best, our personal best to the stage. We can't worry about this guy over here and how big he is or this girl over here and how shredded she is or whatever the case, right?
We are only in control of what we bring and the rest we have to let go of. So that's gonna be my focus.
Ben Todd (00:49)
Welcome to the Performance Pilot Podcast, where aviation meets athletic ambition. I'm your host Ben Todd, student pilot, competitive bodybuilder, and a lifelong learner, sharing my journey from the gym to the sky. Each episode will explore the habits, discipline, and mindset that it takes to perform at your best, both in and out of the cockpit. Let's get airborne.
All right, episode number three of the performance pilot podcast. Happy to be back with you guys. I am recording this episode on a Saturday. I am starting the school semester in four days from right now. The episode, once it's released, it'll be released on Monday, which means that I will be one day away from starting the school semester. So
What I want to talk about in this episode is just giving an overview of what my expectations are going into the semester starting flight school, as well as giving an update about what's new in the world of bodybuilding with me, which some pretty exciting news there. We'll start with school. So, expectations for this semester.
Let me give a brief overview of how I'm approaching my training. And then I'll kind of get into what my expectations are. So I had mentioned in the first episode that there are many different ways that you can accomplish flight training. There's not really a one size fits all approach.
really individualized, really just depends on the person and their personal learning style and what is going to work best with their life and their lifestyle. I mentioned in the first episode, there is two different ways of accomplishing flight training. There's part 61 flight training and part 141 flight
And these refer to the different sections of the Federal Aviation Regulations, or the FARs. Without going too deep into 141 versus 61, that'll be a separate episode. Part 61 is less structured than part 141. Part 61 is what I was doing earlier in 2025, working with a private flight instructor. There's no official syllabus.
There's no specific structure or there's no order necessarily for how each lesson needs to be accomplished. It's really up to your instructor, but you and your instructor to determine what you want to work on for a specific lesson. In a part 141 environment,
that has a specific structure to it. There is a rigid curriculum that you have to adhere to. Each lesson has a specific goal or objective that you must exhibit proficiency at in order to move on to the next lesson. So in a nutshell, those are the differences. There's a lot of other nuance, but for simplicity's sake, those are the differences. So the program that I am starting,
is a part 141 program that's affiliated with a community college. Within the part 141 structure, you can go to just a specific flight school that only focuses on just getting your ratings as fast as possible and getting you through to the next phase of your journey. That's one facet. There are also part 141 programs that partner with
colleges and universities to give you either an associate's or bachelor's degree depending upon what type of college you're going to. And not only will you accomplish your flight training, but you'll also come out with a specific degree, something aviation related. Usually it's aeronautical science or there's a handful of different degree titles that these fall under, but.
You come out with your flight training done as well as a college degree.
Ben Todd (05:22)
So the route that I'm choosing to take is to enroll at a local community college in pursuit of an associate's degree and working on my flight training in conjunction with that degree. So with that degree there are obviously you know class requirements that are essential and part of the degree program as well as the flight training portion.
Fortunately for me, I have a lot of previous college credits that I took in previous years as I was going through this existential crisis of, don't know what I want to do with my
Ben Todd (06:06)
So fortunately for me with all of the previous college classes that I took, all of my Gen Eds have been taken care of with the exception of a communications class, which I'm taking this semester. But aside from that, the only classes I'll need to take are actual flight curriculum classes. And that's what the caveat of me staying in the college program. The flight school that
partners with the college, they have their own fast track program that they offer themselves. So you pay them a sum of money, they get you through the program in a certain amount of time. No college classes required, it's just flying and just flight ground school. Those are the only requirements of that program.
As a student of either program, either the college program or the fast track program through this specific flight school, you have the ability to switch from one to the other one time. So what I'm going to do this semester as I go through the private pilot course is I'm going to assess how easy and or difficult is it for me to
get through this material either fast or slow? And depending upon that answer, I may or may not elect to switch into the accelerated program once my private pilot course is completed to finish up my instrument training, commercial training, and CFI training. We'll see. I'm trying to remain open-minded.
going into the semester. The semester as itself, the Associates program is a two year program.
it's six total semesters. So for me it'll be spring, summer, fall, spring, summer, fall, ending in December of 2027, next year. The Fast Track program will more than likely get me done if I were to switch into it after my private. I would most likely be done sometime next summer-ish.
So I would save myself six-ish months where I could be instructing, making money, building more flight time, et cetera. All of these factors I will consider as I get going this semester in the private pilot course to see not only how the flow is through this school, but how my aptitude is to learn things at a quick rate. Usually,
Historically, I'm a pretty fast learner in most situations. So I'm going to assess and see if and how that applies in this particular environment. And I will then make a determination from there.
One thing that's going to benefit me specifically is the current flight time that I already have. I have 55 total flight hours in my logbook that I've already completed.
I completed my first solo, which required me to be semi-proficient in all of the private pilot maneuvers. I also completed a cross-country flight with my old instructor from Deer Valley here in Phoenix out to Carlsbad, California. We went to a pilot mentorship conference out in Carlsbad last summer.
So I flew, I did the flying from Phoenix, Deer Valley out to Carlsbad. Got some really valuable experience in doing a cross country trip like that.
So with those experiences, I'm coming in to the private pilot program with a good head start. I'm going to venture and say that most of the students that I'll be in class with and that'll be going through the private program with me, most of them probably do not have any flight experience and they're coming in brand new.
So the fact that I'm going to have previous flight time will be significantly more helpful to hopefully advancing me through the Private Pilot program at a faster cadence. And hopefully I will be able to pick up on all of the concepts that my instructor will be teaching me and I'll be learning in ground school because I've gone through them before fairly thoroughly.
And I'm in the process right now, just this past week of doing a very thorough review of everything to brush up on my knowledge, refresh myself, and also try to give myself a leg up and a head start for when I'll actually be paying for all of this instruction.
In addition to all the previous flight time that I just referenced, I also completed a flight this past week with Colin, who I interviewed last week. We had briefly touched on this at the very end of the episode that we were going to fly the DA40, the Diamond DA40 this past week. He is a co-owner on that aircraft with a handful of other people.
So we went and flew that on Tuesday, just in an hour, a little over an hour, but that was such great experience for me. It had been almost seven months since I had actually flown prior to that. So to get that experience, we just went up to the practice area, did some standard maneuvers.
We did slow flight. I did a power off stall, did some steep turns, all basic private pilot maneuvers that are required of all private pilot applicants.
did those, executed them very well for not doing them in seven months. And it was really good. It made me feel a lot more comfortable going into this new training environment with having that refreshed experience under my belt from this week. So all that to say, I'm really looking forward to getting started on training this week.
and I will certainly provide updates as I continue to go forward in that training.
Switching gears now to bodybuilding. I have some very exciting news to share on the bodybuilding front that was just determined a little over a week ago. When I spoke in the first episode a few weeks ago, I had mentioned that...
Tyler and I were planning on doing a show this year in 2026. At the time, we didn't know what show we were gonna do. The schedule hadn't been released yet for Texas. The schedule is now out, released actually New Year's Day.
And so we have selected a show that I will be competing in. First show ever.
July 11th, Austin, Texas, the NPC Republic of Texas. This is actually a big show in Texas. I'm very familiar with this show. It's on the schedule every year. It's on the NPC schedule every year for Texas.
The promoters who run the show are very well respected. They run a handful of other shows across Texas during the year. They do a really good job. And the show draws a good amount of competitors across all divisions.
A lot of people want to compete in this show. It's a competitive show. It's also a Pro-Am show. So there is the NPC amateur component. And there's also an IFBB professional component.
the top of my head I don't know which divisions I know for sure men's physique in the IFBB there will be competitors for I don't know what other divisions off the top of my head the IFBB offers for the pro component of the show but nonetheless for the NPC version there's every category bodybuilding classic physique men's physique bikini wellness figure all of the normal divisions that you'd find in any show
So as we speak right now, I am a little under nine weeks out from starting prep. And I'm going to run a 16 week prep, which puts me a little under 25 weeks out from the show, 25 weeks today actually.
We had a zoom meeting this past week with the couple of coaches for the bodybuilding team that I'm a part of, as well as all of the athletes who are competing this season for our team. think we had 30 plus athletes this year from our coaching group that will be competing in various shows ⁓ all over the year.
And the Zoom meeting was to discuss expectations and prepare for the upcoming competition season. There was a handful of us on the call that this was our first show and several other people who have competed previously and have several shows under their belts already. And so it was this really good informational session on
what to expect, what the philosophy is of, the coaching standpoint of sending somebody through prep.
And from the competitor standpoint, it was more just about expectations and really trying to figure out what the process is actually going to entail. And I've been to enough shows, I've been around the bodybuilding world enough for the last several years to have a pretty decent idea of what it's going to be like. I actually did, Tyler and I did a
mock bodybuilding prep two years ago.
where we did a 12 week cut. I had been bulking for, gosh, almost nine months, eight, nine months, I think. And by the end of the bulk, I just felt awful. It was not an ideal bulk. It wasn't ideal for what I wanted to be doing. It did put on a decent amount of muscle mass on me, but...
By the end of the bulk, think I was eating 4,500 calories a day, really high fat content foods. And I just didn't feel good. felt just awful. Actually, I felt just bloated and gross and it just was not a fun experience. So after that, after completing that, that long bulk, we did a 12 week cut where we simulated
bodybuilding prep. It wasn't exactly the same. Obviously we didn't have a show we were targeting. It was just this, let's pretend we're doing this kind of thing. And I took it seriously because I wanted to test myself and see, give myself a good idea of what this is actually going to be like when I do compete for the first time. So that meant at a certain point, I think it was six weeks out from the end of the cut.
⁓ cheat meals got cut out, ⁓ anything off plan got cut out. And so it was really trying to simulate you getting close to a show, you know, within five or six weeks of a show and doing that gave me actually some good experience. And I was able to persevere and push through and yeah, it was.
hard and I think by the end of it I think I was doing almost 60 minutes of cardio a day which I was just ripping into one session I was just doing like 60 minutes on the stairs or 55 minutes on the stairs whatever it was and that was tough that was a lot and hard ⁓ but I know that going to this prep the same requirements are going to be necessary
Couple of things I wanted to mention on this is I've been doing this whole regimented diet training protocol thing for many years now. And so I'm personally not concerned that I'm going to struggle or have cravings or temptations or things like that because I'm generally pretty regimented and I do a pretty good job of adhering to my protocols and staying on the plan.
So I'm not necessarily concerned that I'll have issues staying on plan or I'll have temptations to cheat or whatever the case, because I feel pretty confident in myself that I'll be able to handle that.
I'm going to need to be really intentional as I go through this process, specifically regarding prep, because I will have to balance school and a new job that I'm, we'll be starting here in, in a week or so.
And it's going to require some a lot actually of lot of preparation, which again I've done before working from home for these last three years was been has been really convenient and it has saved me a lot of prep work.
So I will need to go back to what I had been doing several years ago when I was working in the office, taking three or four meals with me throughout the day that I'll have to eat at various times between class or between flights or before work or whatever the case. It's all just about preparation and it's all about
understanding and planning for what you're going to need to be doing on a specific day. And so that's really what it comes down to is just planning, just preparation. And so I'm going to need to be really intentional with how I do that and how I structure that because missing meals is not good. Not having food to eat and being having to scramble to try to find something is also bad.
So it's really gonna be on me to plan and prepare accordingly for prep as I have these other responsibilities to juggle.
I'll be competing in the men's physique division, which is what I've been planning to do for ever since I started this whole journey of trying to compete.
And even though I have made significant progress and added significant size to my physique over these last, we'll call it three or four years or so. I know going in that I'm still going to be most likely undersized for the division and my height. I'm six foot one. A of these guys in Texas, they're just big. They're just.
Big dudes. Now a lot of that goes, can go into the fact that a lot of them are cycling multiple PED compounds at one time. I am not. I am on a prescription dose of testosterone, but I am not and have not cycled any other performance enhancing drugs.
So while I know that going in, right, that I'm going to be up against these guys that are going to be significantly bigger than me, they're going to have significantly more mass.
And that's just kind of the reality of the situation. There's nothing I can do about that. The only thing I can do, and this was emphasized to us on our call this week with the coaches is the only thing that we as competitors can do. We can only focus on bringing our best, our personal best to the stage. We can't worry about this guy over here and how big he is or this girl over here and how shredded she is or whatever the case, right?
We are only in control of what we bring and the rest we have to let go of. So that's gonna be my focus. I already know I'm not going to be the biggest guy on stage. So my focus is going to be bringing as much conditioning to the stage as possible. So that's where I'm going to try to separate myself and...
The goal is to hopefully place in at least one class. So place top five in at least one class, whether that be true novice, novice, most likely not the open, but one class I want to top five. And I think I should be able to achieve that because I am not like the smallest dude in the world. If you asked me three years ago to step on stage, I would have laughed in your face and said, not. But I think...
That is realistic for me to achieve, although I know going in, am I going to win the open and get nationally qualified? Most likely not, so I already know that.
So it's going to be exciting. This has been something I've been working towards. And I think I mentioned this on the first episode. I've been at this for six years, January, 2020. Started this journey, it's January, 2026. So we are six years in the making of doing this. And I'm finally doing it. It's finally happening.
Which is why it makes no sense for me to spend all this time prepping for this six years, right? And then get to prep and I'm like, ⁓ you know, I can have this little snack over here. I can have a couple more, a couple more almonds. know, Tyler's not gonna, Tyler's not gonna know. Like, if somebody invites you out for a burger, like, I can do that. You know, I've been doing my cardio.
No, that doesn't make any sense for me to have that thought process, that mentality when thinking back to the six years of burying myself under weights and bringing cold turkey and rice on airplanes and having my family make
diet friendly things for me when I'm at functions, right? So all of these things factored in, all these sacrifices that I've made and have been made in conjunction for me or in with me for the last few years, doesn't make any sense for me just to write all that off and say, I can kind of do what I want. So that's going to give me the motivation and the discipline for me to hit all my protocols so I can bring the best package.
two stages possible.
Since I have nine more weeks to go until I start prep, my personal goal is to add at least five more pounds on my frame.
I weighed in this week at 175. I'd like to get to 180 ideally before I start prep. We'll see. ⁓ We've been keeping my diet pretty clean and I'm only in a slight calorie surplus and my workouts are usually pretty intense. So I burn a lot of calories just in the day in general. I'll get 10,000 steps, two plus hour workouts. I burn a lot of calories.
So the 37 or 3800 calories that I'm eating right now are most likely, mostly going out. So we'll see if I can add another five pounds or so. I would like to, I'd like to get up to 180 before I start prep. I'm anticipating that stage weight will probably be 160 or below, which I haven't seen 160 in a long time. So seeing that is going to be a weird number to see on the scale, but
I'm excited for the journey and will certainly continue to provide updates as I get started on that. So to wrap up, we got school starting this week. We're nine weeks out from starting bodybuilding prep. I should have my private pilot certificate done by May. That is with how the semester is laid out and you got to have the, your check ride taken before the end of the semester and all these things. So with the semester ending early May,
I should have my private pilot certificate by then. And depending upon if I elect to go with the fast track route to finish my training or just stick with the school route. School route, I will start instrument training in the end of May for the summer semester. I think it's a 12 or 13 week semester for summer classes. If I go fast track, I think the next
Instrument Fast Track course starts in late June, so I'll have a little bit of time off in between ending private and starting instruments. So we'll see how that goes.
And in terms of bodybuilding, am just continuing the slow build for the next nine weeks. We're not going to do anything crazy. I, as far as I know, Tyler's not going to just start adding calories upon calories upon calories to my diet. I think we're going to kind of just keep the way that it's been. It's been working well for me. I feel good. I'm not adding a ton of excess garbage weight.
and the mass that I'm adding and building is good quality mass. So I think the status quo is going to be continued on until I start prep in mid-March. And I'm also about to begin a new job as a bartender at a new Latin restaurant that's opening in Scottsdale. I've got a service industry background from when I had my existential life crisis.
about not knowing what I wanna do in life many years ago. So I am going back on that experience and picking up this bartending job to do while going through school. One, because life is expensive and costs money. So you need money to pay for life. And two, I'm going to need something to occupy myself.
that's not school and that's not working out. So it's going to serve a couple of purposes, but mostly because you need money to survive. So I'm going to have to add that into the mix as well with balancing flying school classes and working out. Not to say that I haven't done that before because I have, it was a lot, but got it done. And I think
anybody out there needs to do what they need to do in their life. Right. So if that means you got to work a job, work a couple jobs, still work out school to school, work full time, go to school, whatever that combination of things is for you. It's just what you have to do for a little while. And I know that going in that, especially bartending, I really enjoy bartending. get me wrong. It's been a few years since I've done it, but this is just a temporary stop on the
on the road, right, to get to my future self. So I'm just looking at it as a temporary thing to have to do for now while I'm in this phase of life. But I am excited to kind of get back and going on that. So.
To kind of conclude, it's in my best interest, at least in my opinion, it's in my best interest to really buckle down and focus on the things that I'm going to have going on for the next couple of years, right? Between school, bodybuilding, working, flight training, because when it's all said and done, this is gonna cost me over $100,000 to do this and to get these ratings and certs and...
get all my training done. So it is expensive. It is a lot. It is a cost that I'm going to be taking on myself. And so that is going to require a level of focus and commitment because I don't know about you, but $100,000 is a lot of money. So I don't want to squander that and just be reckless and careless with not taking it seriously because that's a lot of money.
So that's one avenue. The second avenue is bodybuilding. Because this is a combination and a culmination of six years of hard dieting, hard training, sacrifices, all these things. Just the day in, day out grind of hitting protocols and just doing the thing. Six years is a long time. So I'm gonna get to prep in nine weeks and it's gonna be 16 weeks of
just grinding. It's going to be 16 weeks of not letting up. It's going to be 16 weeks of making sure that I hit every protocol. hit all my cardio. I hit all my training sessions, don't have any cheat meals, whatever else the plan is going to call for. That's going to be required of me because again, like I referenced before, six years is a long time. And for me just to disregard the last six years of all the work I've done leading up to this makes no sense. So I'm going to
do the best I can to stay on top of everything.
and bartending, working just because again, life is expensive, need to make money. And so I can't neglect that because that is also an important component to this whole situation. So definitely going to continue to provide updates to all of those endeavors as I get going on them. It's going to be a wild ride and I am really excited to be sharing the journey with you guys. So with that, thank you for turning into this week's episode. If today's episode brought you any value.
please share it with somebody who is chasing their own version of high performance. And don't forget to follow the show. So you never miss a flight. Fly safe, everyone. We'll see you next time.