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Maya Shpak, CEO of SkyPath, shares her journey from a military helicopter pilot to leading an innovative aviation technology company focused on turbulence reporting. With a unique app likened to "Waze for turbulence," SkyPath empowers pilots by harnessing real-time data to enhance flight safety and comfort. Maya discusses her passion for flying, the thrill of helicopter aviation, and the importance of teamwork in the cockpit. The conversation also highlights the challenges of introducing new technology to the traditional aviation industry, emphasizing the need for collaboration among airlines to share valuable turbulence data. As the episode unfolds, listeners gain insight into the future of aviation technology and how SkyPath aims to serve both commercial and general aviation pilots.
Takeaways:
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.
And I'm Maya Spock.
I am the CEO of SkyPast for
the last few years and I'm loving
it.
Hey, Maya.
Welcome to the Pilot, the
Pilot podcast.
Hey, Justin.
Great to be here tonight.
Yeah.
I'm happy to have you on.
I have one I want to like,
Fangirl a little bit, because Fanboy
doesn't sound as good, so I'll
say Fangirl.
But Skypath has been a really
cool app that I have.
And a lot of airline pilots in
my former life at NetJets have had
the opportunity to use just, I
mean, like I said, finger a little
bit.
Just how easy it is to use the
presentation of the data.
And my favorite part is when I
can see if I'm going to spill my
coffee or not, because the
airline pilots, that's the most important
thing, right?
Do I need a top for my coffee?
Should I drink it later?
But I wanted to start off by
saying thank you for everything you
do for that app, because it's
really cool and it's really awesome
just to see new technology,
enter aviation and what you can do
with an iPad and the chips
inside is crazy and something that
we never thought we'd have, so.
Well, we'll dig deeper into
skypath in a little bit.
I want to start with you.
I want to start with Maya in
aviation and kind of talk about why
you even got interested in
aviation, how you ended up where
you are now, and kind of start
from the beginning about initial
love of flying and aviation.
Perfect.
I think it's a great start.
So, you know, Justine, I've
started my aviation career as.
I wouldn't say teenager, but,
you know, I'm living in Israel.
In Israel, where, you know,
all of us are going to the.
To the army, some of us are
going to infantry, some of us to
the air Force.
And as a child, as a grownup,
you know, I was really interested
on what you may call military flying.
You know, most of my friends
were going to do some tests for becoming
a military pilot, and I
decided to try and nominate myself
to the flight academy.
Here I was.
I didn't have a lot of
knowledge about aviation back then.
No one from my, you know, from
my family.
It wasn't family things.
No, no.
One of my acquaintance was a pilot.
But, you know, it basically
something that, you know, I had some
attracted attraction to it, or
I was attracted to it since I was
young, you know, was drafted
to the Air force, was basically went
through the flight academy,
which I'm currently flying there
as an instructor, finished the
Flight academy as a helicopter combat
helicopter pilot.
And I think, you know, that
I'm emotionally invested in aviation
since that point, more or less.
That is one of my favorite
things, flying.
Yeah, it never stopped,
stopped exciting me like every time
it's like the first time.
This is something I'm trying
to teach my students, you know, to
actually enjoy and love flying.
Even when it's tough and
challenging, you know, really to
open the eyes and enjoy it.
So, you know, and I have the
privilege to do it even now like
20 something years after that.
So that's awesome.
You know, as we had a previous
conversation a couple weeks ago and
you mentioned something that
you love helicopters.
You are a helicopter girl girl
and you love helicopters so much.
Have you.
Do you have an experience in
fixed wing versus helicopters or
is most of your time just in helicopters?
So I have to say that most of
the my time is helicopters.
You know, this is my proficiency.
This is what I know.
You know, this is not what I
know best.
I did, I, I do have, you know,
some or a few flight hours on fixed
wings mostly, you know,
basically just regular GA planes
like 172 or stuff like this.
Mostly for fun, which is, you
know, it's fun but you know, that's,
I would say that's not more
than a few, few dozens of hours.
Not, you know, I have
thousands of flight hours in helicopters.
So, you know, it's not
comparable at all.
And it's not the same.
Some of it are similar, you
know, some of it is different, but
yeah, most of it is.
Helicopter flying.
Yeah.
What do you love about
helicopter flying?
I think that the best thing in
it in my own perspective is the ability,
and this is something that is
common to GA as well.
You know, the ability to
really enjoy seeing the landscape,
feeling close to earth, you
know, the ability to fly low and
really connect with, you know,
the scenery and, you know, and all
of that.
And this is something that is
common to GA as well because most
of, again, in my experience,
most of G flight is VFR anyway.
So, you know, it's very, very
different from commercial flying
and IFR flying.
So, you know, in that sense
it's similar.
I love the fact that you can
basically land anywhere.
You know, it's kind of a, you
know, it's kind of a hike that you're
doing.
This is also something that
it's true, you know, this is also
something that is neat.
So if you want to land and
open a bottle of, I don't know, coffee
or tea or anything like that,
that could happen.
Which is also really nice, you
know, taking all of this experience
into a road trip or something
that you can, you know, actually
divide into pieces.
It's not about, you know,
having the necessity to depart and
land in an airfield, you know,
which frames the entire experience
or an airfield at the end.
So this is also something that
is differing from fixed wing, I guess.
I think this is the most of
it, you know, and also.
But this is also something
that is quite common.
It's different from maybe, you
know, what I'm remembering from combat
flying, but, you know, the
fact that it's a team, you know,
you're doing it together.
But that's also, you know, in
commercial flying.
And I really love the fact,
you know, that you are at least two
people.
In my own experience, by the
way, I know that helicopter flying
in the States is some
sometimes or in a way, commercial
helicopter flying, sometimes a
single pilot operation, but mostly
where I fly as a team of two,
which is also something that is really
nice.
And I really love working as a team.
So this is also something that
I think is representing my emotions
around that, definitely.
And it's nice to work as a team.
I've flown single pilot, IFR
and some.
And a Pilatus PC12, a Cessna
Caravan flying freight around.
It's a heavy workload, so it's
nice to have it divvy up.
And it's nice to count on
someone that, you know, is qualified
and trained and.
And can be a second set of eyes.
Because I'm sure even in a
helicopter, it's like that power.
Power line's kind of close.
Like, oh, yeah, those are kind
of close.
All right, let's.
Let's stop the center.
Just.
Yeah, you just have someone
else to help you out, which is awesome
for me in helicopters.
I've never been in a helicopter.
I'm sure once I got in, I
would like it, but to me, they just
don't make sense.
Obviously, I'm used to having
a propeller on the front, engines
that propel you forward.
And I know you can kind of go
forward in helicopter, too.
But the whole hovering.
I think if I was just hovering
in a helicopter, I would feel really
uncomfortable because I'm
like, how are we staying here?
You know, that reminds me of a story.
We'll go back to it maybe later.
But the founders of Skypas,
the founders of the company that
I'm managing, three, let's
say, well, experienced pilot, combat
planes pilots, commercial pilots.
That was where the idea for
Skypers was born.
So it's basically Pilots
initiating the entire concept.
But the reason I'm mentioning
that right now is that when initially
when they recruited me, my
initial position was the company
coo.
And when they recorded me,
they had a joke where they were saying,
well, we were looking for
someone with the understanding of
management and commercial
flying and in general in aviation.
And we were also, the
preference was that he or she will
be a pilot.
So we didn't made it in your case.
And they were joking about the
fact that helicopter flying didn't
make sense to them.
So, you know, helicopter
pilots are not actual pilots because
this thing, you know, is not
meant for flying.
But, you know, that's, you know.
Well, again, you know, taking
it back to the fact that it doesn't
make sense.
But you know, when you look
at, when you think about the physics
of it, it actually in my mind
makes more sense than fixed wing
because you, you know, you
basically, you basically control
your own lift and drag.
You know, you have the ability
to actually control it.
No, you know, with no
correlation to, I don't know, to
speed or, you know, those
constraints that you have on a fixed
wing.
And it's, you know, it's the
same concept, you know, of creating
lift on a wing, you know, but
as a standalone.
So, you know, that is the,
maybe in a very, very high level,
the story of helicopters, you
know, you know, trying to simplify
it to our listeners audience.
But that's the, you know, that
is how I teach that and how I see
that.
You know, when another thing
that kind of.
When I was flying my previous
company, I remember I was flying
somewhere randomly in the
United States and there's a helicopter
doing pat work.
And all of a sudden I look out
on the corner of my eye and I just
see it like dropping from the sky.
And I was the guy, I was like,
oh my gosh, they're doing auto rotations.
I was like, that looks
terrifying from the outside.
What's it like, what's it like
inside a helicopter when you're preparing
for auto rotations, preparing
for simulated engine failures?
I'm guessing as an instructor
it's got to be quite fun.
But I'm also guessing your
first time in a helicopter, it's
got to be quite nerve wracking
to try to manage that energy.
That is correct.
Again, it's, it really depends
if you're flying a single engine
or dual engine helicopter.
But let's assume that you
know, your train and most of the
training helicopters are
single engine.
You know, even in commercial
aviation, you'll train on an R44
or an R22, which is single
engine, or, you know, if you're going
for the, for the largest
helicopters again as a student, you
probably will go to one of the
bell 505 or 4.
So those are all single engine helicopters.
So you have to master your way
in auto rotation and you know, and
as you say, it's an acquired
capability and also, you know, the
inner feeling around that is
becoming more, less and less scary.
But I have to tell you that
first time someone actually, you
know, closed the throttle and
demonstrated, demonstrated an actual
authoritation with, you know,
where CD the engine needles goes
down and you hear the horn,
that's terrifying, I have to be honest.
But when you understand, you
know, to take it to the more of a
professional, and this is how
we teach that.
When you understand that, you
know, if you, if you understand what
you need to deal with the
potential and the energy, the helicopter
is flying, you know, it's
flying, you can fly it till the ground.
You just need to understand,
you know, where you maintain your
energy and what kind of
maneuvers will kill the energy.
And in that case you're in a
problem, you know.
So the way we teach that is
that we don't actually close the
throttle all the way, you
know, we basically, you know, close
it to the point where the
engine can recover if you do the
procedure in a way that is
basically wasting the energy and
you don't have any energy to
finish the procedure.
This is, you know, this is
more or less how you train with it,
but it's.
For helicopter pilots, it's a
common training, you know, it's like,
yeah, it's like training in
landing, you know.
How many, how many landing did
you do?
Thousand.
Million.
Exactly.
So many.
Exactly.
So, you know, in helicopter, I
probably did a million auto rotations,
you know.
Yeah, that's, that's part of
their routine.
You know.
What personally was something
that was hard for you in helicopter
flying?
Was there anything you
struggled with particularly?
Was it just a lot of fun and
you just kind of put your head down
and worked as hard as you could?
Kind of talk about anything
that you struggled with or there
are things that you even liked
about the training?
It's funny because I think, I
think that, you know, the, when you're
a student, it doesn't matter
if you're trained as a soldier or
as a civilian.
I think that whenever you
train also in a fixed wing, you don't
have a lot of bandwidth to
enjoy the process.
You're so much invested in the
process and it's so much challenging.
Everything seems so challenging.
Whereas now when I have more
perspective, I'm saying it wasn't
that bad.
It was just, you know,
stressful and challenging and there
was so much things you had to
learn, you know, the theoretical
part and the technical part
and the flying part.
I don't know if I really enjoyed.
Enjoyed that back then.
Now I enjoy every minute of
it, you know, even the, you know,
even the, let's say, the more
complex or difficult parts of training,
which you always need to train about.
You know, you're never too
good to train, in my opinion.
You know, it's.
You're never too experienced
to actually, you know, train your
skills and maintain your
skills and maintain your professional
ability to fly this thing.
It doesn't matter if it's a
helicopter or a fixed wing.
I really believe that it's a
profession, you know, it's not something
that you're doing, you know,
on the way.
You know, if you want to be
able to fly a bird of any kind, you
need to be able to understand
that that's going to be something
that is part of your, I would
say, normal routine because you have
to maintain your, your skills
and your edge, you know, in your
knowledge.
So in that sense, now I enjoy
it very, very much.
And to your, to your question,
Justin, I think that the most challenging
thing I had to do was
formation flying at night, which
is really challenging, you know.
Yeah, I think, you know, if
you look at the tip of, you know,
the tip of the, let's say the
tip of the, the things that they
had to do would be formation
at night.
You know, we're using night
flying goggles in order to do that.
That was, of course, you know,
part of my military training and
not my commercial flying,
though I missed that.
I wouldn't mind flying
information in commercial flying,
but that was really something.
Although, you know, again, in
a certain point, after extensive
training, you know, that
becomes part of your standard routine
like flying weather or
whatever pilot needs to be qualified
to flying something.
You know, that was the normal
routine, but yeah.
So flying helicopters for you,
Is it strictly military?
Was there some commercial
flying you did as well or kind of.
Where is the experience post
military or what you're doing right
now?
So, you know, I, when I
departed from the military probably
13 or 14 years ago, I still, I kept.
And I'm still flying in
reserves, as I told you.
I'm teaching the flight
academy, but that's the Air Force
flight academy.
As a reserve pilot, this is
something that we do most of us,
you know, part of our reserve service.
And I do fly, you know, from
time to time, but just as a hobby,
you know, just on weekends.
Not something, not commercial flying.
When I left the Air Force I
went more for the, you know, I would
say the OEM parts of aviation.
I started with a company that
manufactures mostly head up displays,
enhanced vision systems, you
know, things that support SCAD3 lending
very, very innovative and
visionary stuff, which I believe
very much.
And there's, you know, there's
doing they providing a lot of added
value to commercial flying in
terms of what it, you know, what
it enables the pilots to do.
Technology.
So this is what I did for a
few years and I kept flying, you
know, in reserves and on weekends.
Not something very, very
specific and that happens, you know,
before I proceed to Skypath.
But no, I'm not dealing with
it, you know, as something that is
more routine commercial flying.
As a pilot anyway.
Is there like a dream
helicopter that you'd like to buy?
You know, one that you could
have personally fly around or is
that in the hopes and dreams
of kind of Maya, either now or in
a couple years?
So I would say, I would say
that it wasn't when I finished flight
academy, it wasn't that common.
It wasn't that common that
female pilots finished their flight
academy year in where I live.
And in my specific class we
were, there were two of us, two out
of, I don't know, 52 female
helicopter pilots, which is really
rare.
You know, two female
helicopter pilots will finish the
academy in the same class.
We're still in great
relationship and we had, I guess
we have dreams since we were
20 to have a Jet Ranger.
You know, it's not something very.
Yeah, just a Jet Ranger,
that's all.
Yeah.
Without doors.
Because it's like a cabaret
Jet Ranger.
There is a model like that
flying around here, just having fun.
So probably my first private
helicopter is going to be a Jet Ranger.
That's the plan.
That's awesome.
I can't wait to see it happen.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah, I'll call you, Justin.
I'll call you and invite you
to fly with me.
Let's do it.
That'd be my first helicopter ride.
That would be amazing.
You kind of touched on it a
little bit.
Talking about just women in aviation.
I don't remember the exact
percentage, but in the United States
I think it's something as low
as 6% or 8% of all pilots are females.
What can we do to get more
girls in aviation?
Because it's not A guy's job, right?
Anyone can do this job, anyone
can be trained to do this, fly airplanes,
do it confidently, make tough decisions.
What can we do more?
I think Instagram, I think
social media has really helped to
just show that girls do this
as well and having younger girls
look up to them.
But what else can we do?
I think the magic lies with
educate, educate, educate, educate
from a young age.
It's not necessarily flying.
It's so many things in our
society, you know, basically demonstrate
whoever is listening that, you
know, there's no, well, there is
a limit.
But you know, most of the
things we're doing are not limited
to one gender specifically,
you know, and it's a social thing.
We need to educate the
generation that, you know, at least
women can dare dreaming or can
they doing stuff that, you know,
in a way they may not believe
they're able to do and at least try,
you know.
So whenever someone is asking
me, Justin, and of course you're
not the first one that popped
this question, I always say, you
know, because that's something
that goes with me since, you know
that there been 20 years, more
than 20 years since I finished flight
academy.
We were the first helicopter
female pilots here where I live,
that was a thing.
And we always, you know, I'm
saying you need to educate women
that they can there doing
whatever they like and if they'll
be consistent and if they'll
be determined and if they'll be good.
Because you need to be good.
It doesn't matter if you're a
boy or girl, they will make it, you
know.
Yeah, that's my, at least
that's my message.
I agree, I totally agree.
So I can't say it better myself.
Thank you.
Let's get a little bit into
kind of skypath and how you got to
Skypath.
You mentioned that you got
involved with OEMs, heads up displays,
some other cool stuff with manufacturers.
Was Skypath more of a
headhunting thing?
Was it something that you saw
somewhere, friends and were just
like, oh, that's kind of cool.
I like the idea of a startup,
so talk a little bit about that.
So I've been with, you know,
I've been with, I would say corporate
industry for a while back then
it was 2019 and I was actually looking
for someone, something else.
It wasn't very specific, but I
was, you know, looking for something
that is not that corporate,
not that huge way to make more impact
on the overall process and not
necessarily on the limited scope
of work that I am doing.
I'm sure That I don't know if
you can relate to it, but in the
United States is also in the
aviation industry, huge OEMs.
And sometimes it's very
difficult to really influence a process
or a vertical or something
that you want to promote because
those are huge companies.
So I was looking for something
in the industry that is, I can do
more in it.
And that was really the early
days of Skypas.
Skypas was founded, as I mentioned.
Skypas was born as an idea in
the mind of an airline commercial
pilot captain and line check
airman that was seeking for a solution
to the turbulence problem.
And while he was looking at
the charts in the iPad, you know,
basically trying to figure out
if the, it was a real time issue,
you know, the turbulence that
he's encountering is actually in
the chart somewhere.
You know, he had kind of, kind
of an idea that if he's looking at
the iPad to figure out how to
deal with the problem, he may be
able to use that to create a
solution for the problem.
And it was really early days,
you know, and they were looking.
But he was an airline pilot,
you know, he had a work.
He couldn't be completely
devoted to founding this or pursuing
this idea.
And all of the founders of
this company had what we call a day
job, or most of them at least.
So they were looking for help
to take this idea to the next level,
to actually mature the product.
And they were seeking for
someone with an aviation background,
as I told you, that knows his
way in aviation and management, but
is also a pilot.
May I remind you that.
And yeah, yeah, this, this
specific joke is, will go with us
probably a long time in the company.
And they found me and they,
they asked me to come for an interview
and I, as, as an aviator fan,
you know, I listened to the idea
which was really, really the
baseline of what you're doing now.
Not even the baseline.
And I told them, listen, I
think it's wow, I think it's brilliant.
It's a brilliant idea.
You know, it's basically.
And again, I don't know if the
audience is familiar with what we're
doing, may want to maybe
elaborate about that a bit, but it's
like waze for turbulence.
You know, that was my initial
thought about that and I thought
that if it's going to work, it
would be amazing harnessing the part
of the, of the crowd, the two
pilots, everything that's flying
an airplane with an iPad to
create a global map of clear turbulence.
Most clear turbulence.
Not necessarily.
It's, you know, it's something
Else and I joined them.
And all the rest, as we say,
is history.
I guess when we, When I, when
the airline pilots, when we look
at Skypath and see, you know,
the beautiful app that it is today,
the information's presented
really clearly.
What.
How many iterations has it
taken to get to where we are today?
Because obviously we see the
final product.
We don't see kind of A, B, C,
D, E.
You know, what was.
What's the differences, I
guess, between what you started out
with when you got hired versus
where we are now?
I would say, you know, a
bicycle and a Porsche.
Wow.
Wow.
I'm sure that if I would show
you the early stage, you won't even
recognize or say, okay, that's
Skypas app.
No, we started with an mvp.
We've hired someone to
basically just put things on an app.
And we gave.
The way we created Skype as
algorithm is that we utilized all
of our pilot friends to fly
with this MVP and write on a note
whenever they encounter
turbulence what the.
What their presumed intensity
of or the severity of the turbulence.
And we started to measure and
compare notes and you know, the accelerometer
signals that we got from the
app, that was the early beginning.
You know, we tried to put our
hand on how we can determine that
something is actually turbulence.
And that cost us or.
But it took us probably
thousands of fly hours and three
years of development to get
the algorithm right.
From that point, although we
are continuously improving it and
using all the data that we
have to continue and refine it and
tweak it, there's a lot of.
We normalize the turbulence
intensity per aircraft type.
So whenever we have a new
model, a new aircraft type.
Joining the Energet, by the
way, was really a challenge because,
you know, most of our
customers are airlines, airlines
flying, you know, they have a
range of aircraft, but, you know,
most of them are pretty,
pretty obvious.
You know, the 320s, the 703,
the 777, 7 8, you know, more or less
that trains the ATR, the
Embryers, but that's more of it.
You know, more or less the types.
And then NetJet joined in and,
you know, there was a diversity of
airplane types and sizes and wingspans.
And, you know, we did a lot of
work which was very good for us to
refine what we are doing for
each and every aircraft type.
But it also gave us, gave us a
lot of confidence and experience
on the process, on our
approach to doing so.
So now to add another aircraft
type to the system is much easier
for us.
Because we understand more or
less what needs to be done in order
to do it right.
But the app is.
It's something else.
And by the way, I want to tell
you that it's also changing as we
speak.
We have a new version coming
out next month, which also.
Oh, cool.
I'm not sure you're going to
recognize it completely after we
launch this version also.
That's awesome.
I'm looking forward to it.
One thing I think is really
cool, and this kind of relates to
anyone starting something, right?
Like, skypath was just an
idea, right?
It was just some pilots that
had an idea.
Just like any pilot can have
an idea, but the idea has an action,
and the action is trying to
figure out how to do it.
And in this case, they just
went to their buddies and essentially
were like, hey, let's mark
down what your turbines actually
was.
And then we'll kind of record
the oscillations that we have.
I think you said mpv.
Is that what you said you used?
And then we'll compare it, and
then you get the data which creates
the algorithm.
And obviously, you need some
really smart people.
Most pilots don't have the
ability to do that, right?
I mean, maybe they did, but
me, I'd be like, oh, there's data.
Okay, cool.
Same year.
But you get really smart
people to kind of analyze it.
Be like, all right, well, we
see trends based on what we're comparing,
and we feel confident to label
this as light, moderate, severe,
whatever it may be, and create.
And create an algorithm for
that, which is amazing, but it's
just cool that it all started
as just an idea between pilots and
ones that happen in cockpits
all the time.
You're like, you know, this
would be really cool.
And it's like, all right,
well, just try and do it, you know,
figure it out.
So I think that's really cool
that they're able to just come up
with an idea and actually make
it happen, because that doesn't happen
very often.
I agree.
The courage to take an idea,
you know, and actually take action,
you know, execute it.
It's really awesome.
You know, I really appreciate it.
And, you know, I.
You're saying about, you know,
people having an idea and doing this
smart thing, and it made me
think, you know, at the end, I think
that my.
Our most precious assets in
the company are the team, the people
that are building the product,
the people that are running the algorithms,
the people that improving the model.
And, you know, those guys in
skypath are, you know, they're literally
an A team.
You know, they're doing
marvelous work in customer support
and trying to fulfill all the
new ideas that we have or customers
have sometimes.
And that's, I think that's our
huge asset.
The people that are in the
background and they're great.
What's been the most difficult
part about helping build this company
and getting it started and
getting it rolling?
I think it's still a bit difficult.
I think that, you know,
although I've been with this aviation
industry for some time now, at
the end, and I'm saying it as part
of this industry, this
industry is extreme.
I would say, I wouldn't say
maybe traditional, but, you know,
it's really difficult to
present new ideas, you know, to the
aviation industry, innovative ideas.
And we get, you know, we get
why safety is number one priority
of, you know, of this industry.
And everything that is
presented, you know, needs to take
consideration on how it's
going to affect safety.
We can do anything, you know,
we're trying to enhance safety, but
you know, on the other hand,
we can't embrace anything that for
some reason would, you know,
harm the delicate balance of maintaining
safety in the century.
So the most difficult thing I
think in the beginning was basically
educating the industry or
presenting the industry the concept
of learning about turbulence
from an iPad device, you know, a
commercial off the shelf iPad
device, and also to make them share,
although, you know,
anonymously make them share their
data.
You know, because when we
start, when we initiated the idea
of crowdsourcing, you know, of
sharing observation between airlines
as one that works in an
airline, you probably know that the
data of an airline is
something that needs to be kept within
the airline.
And we came with an idea and
we say, but you have valuable data
that can help other airlines
and other airlines has valuable data
that can help you.
So if we'll all share the,
what we call Skype as observations,
the reporting of the iPad, and
you're gonna be an aircraft that
is following another airline's aircraft.
You're going to get value from
their reporting and vice versa.
I think that when we pass this
point, and again, Justin, just to
be very, very clear,
everything is anonymous.
There's nothing that implies
on who's flying the aircraft or anything
like this.
It's basically general
information that is common in flight.
Rather 24 plus turbulence
report, which is, you know, related
to a specific geolocation most
of the time, because we aggregate
those reports that could be a
turbulence report that is made out
of 6, 7, 10, 30 different
aircraft that is aggregated into
a single tiling time tiling
space and time.
And no one knows what exactly
is the aircraft that reported that
because, you know, it's a
specific geolocation.
So when we passed that point
where we.
I wouldn't say convinced, but
when we got to the point that the
airline embraced the fact that
if they share information, they'll
also get information, you know.
So if you're flying to.
I don't know if you're flying,
for example, to Thailand, and, you
know, Thailand is covered with
reports that are made by a Thai airline,
and you have a lot of
information on the way to Thailand
and on the.
Around the water bodies around Thailand.
So you can gain from their information.
And when a Thai airline is
coming to the US they can gain from
your domestic flights and from
your information.
That was the idea, and I think
that was the most difficult part.
When it passed this point, it
became much easier to implement the
idea and the concept.
Yeah, aviation.
I mean, the way you explained
it in the beginning, aviation seems
like a pretty hard industry to
break into as a newcomer, Especially
when there's such big
traditional names that have, whether
it's EFBs, whether it's just
contracts with airlines, relationships,
just starting as a new
company, starting as a new brand,
and presenting a new idea can
probably be pretty intimidating.
And I'm sure airlines are
like, oh, we already work with someone.
But then they're like, no, no,
wait, wait, wait.
See what we're doing?
See what we're doing?
It's different.
This is something you don't have.
Turbulence is bad.
We can help you avoid it.
And they're like, oh.
Oh, wow, that looks cool.
Yeah.
Okay, this makes sense.
So I'm guessing just
convincing that first airline to
say yes, which was probably
just amazing when they finally said
yes, or multiple airlines, was
definitely had to be pretty, pretty
difficult.
But you guys, it seems like to
me almost everyone uses it in the
airline world, including
NetJets and then as well.
So you've done a great job at
convincing them and showing them
that your product is worth using.
Yeah, I would say that most of
the US Major carriers are using that,
which is great because, you
know, for the smaller ones that they're
using that, you know, they
have a very good starting point on
initial coverage, you know, so
if you look at United, which were
our first customer, for
example, they were the first one.
They were highly.
Yes, they were highly invested in.
In turbulence integration, you
know, and I think that they found
what we're doing as innovative.
They were always early on
embracing innovative technology,
you know, and given some room
to Those kind of concepts.
So they were really a great
launch customer, and they helped
us perfect what we were doing,
you know, within time.
So a lot of what you've seen
now inside the application are actually
requests that were made by the
pilot we enable.
I don't know if you've seen
that, but we enable direct feedback
from the app to our product team.
And every feedback is
registered as a ticket, which someone
in the product team is looking
at, and figure out whether it's a
good idea and if it's a good idea.
Sometimes we implement that as
part of our next version.
So many things.
Many improvements that you see
on the app right now are, of course,
also suggested by other
customers, but the initial progress
was made by the extensive
support and backing from United,
which was amazing.
What exactly is it using in
the iPad to help with the algorithm?
Is it an accelerometer?
Is it a chip?
What is it registering to
match with the algorithm inside the
iPad itself?
So the technology relies on
the accelerometers that resides in
the iPad itself.
I think that what is actually
patented, what actually counts as
algorithm, is our ability to
actually differentiate between what
is essentially turbulence and
what is a tapping or shaking or dropping
the iPad, you know, or writing
an email.
It's not only, you know, we're
not only looking at the independent
iPad.
So if we have two iPads in the
airplane, we will compare those,
you know, on the server level,
and we'll figure out if they're reporting
the same.
And if not, you know, there's
a way that the algorithm states what
would be, you know, what would
be the correct report, let's say.
So we mesh those reports.
We filter out noise or some,
but at the end, we're using whatever
is provided within the iPad.
And I think that is, you know,
what is so exciting in this technology,
because you are not required
to install anything on the mainframe.
You're not required to buy any
additional hardware and install and
integrate any additional hardware.
And you have the ability, if
you're looking at mass scale, I'm
not.
You know, we also have
Microfleet and single and private
aviators that are using the service.
But if you're looking at mass
scale, you have the ability to deploy
technology with the entire
fleet within a day.
You know, and that is
something that was never done within
this industry.
I've never seen technology
that were implemented within a day
on an entire fleet.
You know, and this is one of
the advantages, that it doesn't require
any additional effort from the customer.
You know, there's of Course,
there's always effort, there's training
and you know, there's paperwork.
But I'm saying if you're
looking from a installation and maintenance
perspective, that's really
easy for the customer and that's
really nice.
You know, maybe the tour I've
been taking from this head up displays
and this complicated Design
Insurance Level 8 technology which
I was dealing with, which was
challenging in terms of installation
and implementation to what we
are doing right now.
So also appreciate the
difference between those two technologies
resides on the same aircraft.
Yeah.
When was it realized that an
iPad had that capability?
Was it always kind of like a
hope that the iPad would be able
to do it?
Was it kind of right when the
idea was born?
I know you mentioned using
different equipment for it, but when
did the iPad kind of come in
with it?
Was it a certain year,
generation or did it always have
the capability?
I would say I'm not sure.
We had a clue.
You know, it was a journey.
For now we're completely
confident in that.
And also we're generating
machine learning prediction or AI
predictions of turbulence
based on the data that we take out
of the iPads, which is the
next level of what we're doing because
we complement observations
with forecasting that is made not
in a physical or not in a
completely physical meteorological
way, but is done with machine
learning technologies that we embraced
in the last few years.
But at the beginning we had a
lot of doubts and I think that only,
you know, you hope it's going
to do whatever you expected it to
do and whatever the test and
the statistics and the trials that
you took, you know, you hope
the technology will prove that it's
working.
I think in a certain point
when we started flying with United,
which was our launch customer,
we already understood that the technology
is working, but it still took
us some time to refine the algorithm
in terms of severity.
You know, we knew it's
recognizing turbulence in a good
manner.
We knew that we are close by
to the severity.
But the normalization
paragraph type and really putting
the finger on the right
intensity of turbo lens because we
need more data, we needed more
data to validate what we are doing.
And also just I don't know if
you remember, but I was saying I
joined the company in 2019.
What happened in 2020 is that
Covid hits and it shut down most
of the, you know, most of the
flights in, in the world.
So it was a year after we
started and we basically had a shutdown
of the entire industry, which
was also a journey.
It was also challenging, you
know, continue doing and maintaining
this operation and developing
the product when nobody is flying.
So basically you can test your
assumptions as you were saying, if
it works or not.
But it's a good product.
There are some, a few smart
people behind it that did great job.
It takes a whole village.
Yeah, it takes a lot of people
to put together an awesome product.
Yeah, true.
It's cool.
Like I'm guessing with United
it was more or less you guys reaching
out to them and I'm guessing
now you're having airlines reach
out to you, which has to be
kind of a different feeling, right?
Like it's got to feel better.
Like, oh wow, this is cool.
We got like a backlog of
airlines are trying to upload and
unload.
Just the differences in that.
And a young company, right.
Like 2019, you're talking
about when you came on.
Like it's pretty cool to see
how quick it's been implemented,
how the idea has kind of taken
fruition and where it is now.
And I think it'd be really
cool if you guys could ever show
off like the differences of
what the version look like and just
show how much strides have
been done and what is going to come.
As you said, there's going to
be another launch here soon, so I
look forward to seeing that
one as well.
I got a couple more questions.
One, I mean you can kind of,
this is about a few, like future
Skypath, so you don't have to
give away everything.
But there's a lot of pilots
that don't ever make it to the airlines.
There's a lot of pilots that
don't make it to corporate, that
make it to fractional, where
turbulence is a big deal.
There's a lot of pilots that
are married to husbands or wives
that don't like turbulence and
don't want to fly in small planes
because of turbulence.
And I could see a place where
this could be very valuable to smaller
airplanes.
172s, SR22s bonanzas.
I mean any plane lower than a
private jet or even all the private
jets.
Right.
So is the future going to
focus on GA as well?
Is it going to be more airline tailored?
Do you guys have a plan for
that or anything?
So currently most of what
you're doing is.
And then I'm saying most of
it, most of what you're doing is
around BA and commercial
flying because we have a lot of data
in those altitudes to support
the users.
You know, whether it's
observational or predicted, there's
really good coverage to
support that on the lower altitudes
for GA mostly and V4 offline mostly.
Not necessarily.
I would say that we still have
the technology supported because
we have the prediction
capability that is tailored to what
we're doing and there is an
ability, I think that there is an
ability to access and acquire
the service for our website.
I'm not saying I'm thinking.
I know most of the single
operators that are flying with us,
you know that they did their
own onboarding, they went to the
website, you know, they
decided what kind of package they're
tailoring and then they're
using the application.
I think that GA most
definitely can value what we're doing
because again when you are
flying something that is a bit more
light and smaller, sometimes
the impact, it's much more severe.
I think that since again we
are a young company, as you mentioned,
we just didn't have the
bandwidth to educate the GA industry
and to reach out to all of
those pilots and to explain to them
what kind of benefits our
service is bringing.
I wish we had more bandwidth
to do that and we can harness the
GA industry to use it as well
because at the end we are trying
to enhance safety.
This is the service, this is
what we're trying to do.
So yes to your question.
Yeah, I believe that Skypers
can leverage those pilots.
Of course, as someone who's
listening to this and is like oh
wow, I had no idea this was an option.
I had no idea that I could do this.
Whether they're flying a
bonanza or their own jet, where could
they go?
You mentioned your website is
their app store.
Kind of talk them through how
to download, how to get what they
need to do in order to have
this capability.
So the easiest way would be to
type in SkypasIO and reach out to
the website and basically
learn on what we're doing from the
app set.
It's really user friendly.
There's videos and all the
packages and a simple self onboarding.
After someone decides, I
didn't mention, but there's also
a free trial for months so
someone can start using the service
for a month.
Then basically the site
doesn't want to use it or it doesn't
see the value in it and
basically drop it, drop out.
So it's not, you know, long
lasting commitment.
We really believe in the value
we're bringing.
So we enable everybody to
basically try it before they acquire
the service.
After he gained the, you know,
after he's basically doing the self
onboarding, the application is
available in the app store, Basically
type in SkyPath, download it
from the App Store and in order to
get a user and a password, you
know, he needs to do the self onboarding
in the SkyPass IO website.
But the app is in the App Store.
So just, you know, downloading
it and that's it.
It's, you know, kind, I don't
know, simple as.
Yeah, Spotify, I guess.
I love it.
The same idea.
Spotify is crazy easy to use.
So it's a good way to put it.
Right.
Good example.
You're saying.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Well, Maya, that's really all
I have for you.
If there's anything I missed
you want to touch on, we can talk
about that as well.
But as I said earlier, skypath
has been great.
One thing that I mentioned
before is just how easy it is to
use.
I mean, I hardly ever need to
type in my airline my flight number.
It's like, hey, are you on this?
And it's like, yeah, that is me.
You click ok, then your
route's uploaded.
It tells you if it's going to
be a comm 4 flight, moderate turbulence,
are you going to spill your
coffee or a rough ride.
And then just having that data
to help make decisions.
Right.
It's another tool that pilots
can use to help make the flight as
smooth and as good and as fast
as possible.
So kudos to your team, kudos
to you, kudos to the people that
had the idea.
It's great to talk to you and
share this idea because I know as
we talked about a couple weeks
ago, it's just some people don't
even know about the app.
So just getting it out there,
away from just the airlines and netjets
and fractional and opening up
to everyone that this is an option,
I think it's going to be
really cool to see how it can be
used and I can't wait to see
future iterations and to see what's
next.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate you invited me.
I really enjoyed our conversation.
You know, that was really eye opening.
Yeah, a lot of fun and I
really appreciate your time.
I hope you have a great day.
Thank you.