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The episode features an engaging discussion with Hagai Makov, the Vice President of Business Development at Skypath, a revolutionary application designed to enhance the aviation experience through innovative technology. Makov shares his personal journey, revealing how his aspirations shifted from joining Special Forces to becoming an attack helicopter pilot in the Israeli Air Force. This transition laid the foundation for his subsequent endeavors in the aviation industry, ultimately leading him to Skypath. The conversation provides a compelling narrative on the importance of resilience and adaptability in pursuing one’s passions, as Makov reflects on the pressures and challenges he faced during his military training.
The dialogue transitions into a detailed exploration of Skypath's functionalities, particularly its ability to provide real-time turbulence alerts to pilots. Makov elucidates how this feature greatly enhances flight safety and passenger comfort, allowing pilots to proactively manage turbulence during flights. The discussion underscores the significance of effective communication among flight crews and the role technology plays in facilitating these interactions. Makov emphasizes the app’s unique capability to integrate seamlessly into existing aviation workflows, ensuring that pilots, dispatchers, and cabin crew are all aligned in their efforts to create a safe and enjoyable flying experience for passengers.
As the episode draws to a close, Makov offers insights into the future of Skypath and its aspirations for growth within the aviation sector. He expresses a commitment to continuous improvement and innovation, highlighting the company's dedication to addressing the evolving needs of the industry. This episode serves not only as an exploration of Skypath’s technological advancements but also as a reflection on the broader implications of personal growth, teamwork, and the relentless pursuit of excellence in the aviation field.
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 334 of the pilot the
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Hagai Mako I Skypa Business
Development VP not the easiest name
to say Hagai In Hebrew it's Hagai.
But I'm sure we'll make it work.
AV Nation what is going on?
And welcome back to the Pilot
to Pilot podcast.
My name is Justin Seams and I
am your host.
Today's episode is with Hagai
from Skypath and what an episode.
Just great energy, a great
conversation and just awesome to
dive in to.
One Getting deeper into what
truly fuels Skypath as a company
and why they're creating, why
they're going after everything and
why they're just so successful
and just the personal side as well.
Just figuring out who Hagai
is, why he he operates the way he
does, and just how he goes
about his daily life.
I think there's a lot of good
in this episode that came out of
it.
Whether you're a pilot,
whether you're just going throughout
your day, and whether you just
want to be successful in life.
I think this is a solid, solid episode.
So Skypath thank you Hagai.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
But AV Nation Hope you enjoyed
this episode.
And if you do, leave us a
review on Spotify or Apple Podcast
and make sure you drop the
Follow or Subscribe button.
I know that sounds very cliche
to keep saying that, but Spotify
is letting me know and doing a
much better job of knowing how many
people are following or
subscribing to your podcast.
So go ahead and follow there.
Leave a comment as well while
you're there and say that I sent
you.
That works too.
But aviation.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
It's always fun talking to
Skypath, so make sure you download
their app.
There will be a link in the
description as well as it's truly,
truly, truly my go to app for turbulence.
And if I were to fly ga, I
would have this as well.
Just because it'd be.
I know Christina would be in
the back, be like, yo, why is it
bumpy?
Tell me that.
And she could just see it, be.
Like, look, there's bumps.
Go away, go around.
But AV Nation, I hope you're
having a good day.
And without any further ado,
here's a guy from Skypath.
You have a lot of confidence
in me, man.
You know, Americans are not
good at difficult names.
Or not even difficult names,
just names that aren't Chris or Justin.
So if I butcher your name, I
do apologize.
No problem.
I used to.
I lived seven years in the US
and when I ever go to Starbucks,
I use Joe because there was no
chance that anybody will get right
the Hagai, Mako or any
combination of those two.
I love it.
That's so funny.
Joe.
Joe.
Now, whenever I hear the name
Joe at Starbucks, I'll probably go
to Starbucks after this, honestly.
But if I ever hear name
someone say Joe, I'm going to just
automatically assume that's
not the real name.
Exactly.
I assume there are a few Joes
in Starbucks that are asking their
coffee.
Yeah, probably.
Yeah, I know a couple Joes.
So probably.
But now it's ruined for him.
It can't be Joe anymore.
I'm just going to come up with
a new name for him.
I'm going to call him Hagai.
How about that?
Sounds great.
All right, well, Hagai,
hopefully I said it correctly, but
welcome to the podcast.
This is another skypath episode.
So if you haven't listened to
any of them before, we have.
We have two other episodes.
One with Maya, one with Guy.
They've been fantastic episodes.
They've been well received.
My editor has always liked it.
He's always enjoyed listening
to these, and everyone that we've
had on has Always had
questions about Skypath.
So any chance I get to talk
about a really cool app?
We always try to have it come on.
We always try to show the cool
stuff in aviation that's coming out.
But we will get to Skypath later.
What I really wanted to touch
on and what we do at Pilot to Pilot
is tell personal stories as well.
So I wanted to share more
about you and you and aviation.
So why don't you go ahead and
tell me how you got in aviation and
from what I've gathered and
what I've heard, it's not necessarily
the standard two year old,
three year old looking up the sky
be like hey airplanes, I love airplanes.
Yeah, it's actually quite the
opposite on that part I have to say.
So I did, like many of the
pilots and employees of Skypas, I
did the flight school and
flight academy in the Air Force and
that was my segue to aviation.
However, before I joined the
army, I actually wanted to go to
the Special Forces and not
actually the Air Force.
In Israel the Air Force has
priority so they have the first filter
to choose from the people that
go into the army in general.
And if you either not, not
relevant, not fitted to them, obviously
you will be out of that pool
or if you fail any of the testing
on the way.
So again, unfortunately I
passed some of those tests before
the service and I got into
flight school and still I had this
bug into the Special Forces.
And I can tell you a story
that I think at flight school.
At flight school the, the
first cutoff is the basic flight
testing.
That's okay.
My time was done on a Piper,
on a small Piper and, and, and I
remember my saddest day in, in
flight school was actually the day
I passed those testing because
I thought that again they will kick
me out.
You know, I was sure that I'm
going to fail.
I was sure they would kick me out.
And then I said okay, I forces
eventually I passed that and as a
competitive person that I am,
I continued, continued the flight
school until I completed as an
attack helicopter pilot.
Oh my gosh.
I just can't imagine you just
being like I hope I fail these so
I can go do what I want to do.
But you just can't let
yourself fail from what it sounds
like.
I remember I called my parents
and I remember I had tears in my
eyes during that time, you
know, just because I passed and nobody
kicked me out.
So I, you know, took the
decision for me.
You know, sometimes it does
help in life.
That's really funny.
Most certainly, yeah.
It goes to show that
sometimes, you know, someone has
other plans for you.
And it turns out if you're
looking back, you're probably not
as sad about what happened now.
No, not at all.
Yeah, not at all.
What was it like flying a
Piper for the first time?
Was it for someone that didn't
want to get in aviation?
Was there fear at all?
You know, a lot of people look
at small planes like, I'm not getting
that.
Or was it kind of like, it's
kind of exciting, there's an engine
on there, so some wings.
Let's go do some fun stuff.
Yeah, no, no, it was.
So the other nice thing that I
actually enjoyed, I have to say,
those testing.
One of the challenges in
flight school and flight academy
in the Air Force is the fact
that everybody is having their eyes
on you and testing you all the time.
Right.
And that usually creates a lot
of pressure.
And beside the fact that
affect your performance, it's also
affect the enjoyment that you
have from that experience in life.
And I have to say I actually
quite enjoyed my first Piper flying
again, not that I excelled
there, I wasn't that amazing, but
the experience and I didn't
felt any failure feeling or something
like that, or any high stress.
I just enjoyed, you know,
seeing everything from above like
that, you know, getting my
checklist done and succeeding in
some of the drills and skills
that they ask us to do.
And it was, it's quite a.
It was a fun time for me.
That again, maybe that was of
a reason I passed, you know, to a
certain level, but I wasn't
suffering that much.
Even though you're had a
spotlight on you and everybody's
testing you and giving you a
grade for anything you're doing,
that's part of the challenge
of, of being a pilot in the Israeli
Air Force, you know, in
general, I would say yeah.
And you sound like a guy that,
that likes the pressure, that likes
the challenge.
You know, some people don't
want to be between a rock and a hard
place.
It sounds like you might
thrive in those situations.
Has it always been that case?
I don't know if I thrive, but
I can compete, let's say like that.
And I push myself in those situations.
I would say it like that, you
know, it bring you to the edge.
So.
And a lot of the time that
edging part brings the best of you,
right.
And that's what you want in
those kind of situations.
Do you think that was a
learned skill or is that something
you're born with?
Good question.
I think it's Both, I think you
have to have like a baseline in your,
like, genetics, in the skills
that you grew up with.
But I think, and I can tell
you quite honestly that flight school
changed a lot in me, right?
It's kind of re education to a
certain level, the whole Air Force
experience.
And it's something that I take
all the way today, right, to my job,
to my hobbies, to my kids, you
know, to analyze whatever you're
doing, to find what you're
doing good and what you're doing
bad, to learn how to improve
it efficiently, right?
Because one of the things,
everybody can be a pilot, right?
Everybody can be a pilot in
the Air Force that's like that.
Besides, everybody can be a
pilot, but everybody can be a pilot
in the Air Force.
The issue is how quickly can
you learn and how quickly can you
improve, right?
And will your.
Will you do again mistakes or
errors that you did in the past,
right?
Because you want to learn and
improve from them.
And I think that's a challenge.
Eventually you want pilots to
get better and better and better
all the time and achieve and
not get to their ceiling so quickly.
And that's part of the things
flying an aircraft, basically, it's
not the biggest challenge in
life, right?
Everybody can do it.
Absolutely.
And I think part of the issue
is just the mentality that you have
when you're in there flying, right?
You have to be able to not be
afraid to make mistakes.
You can't be.
You can't be hesitant.
You just have.
Sometimes not making a
decision is the worst decision you
can make, right?
Like you act, you make a
decision and you rely on your training,
you rely on your cfi and you
figure it out.
This is something you gotta do.
And that's something that
isn't easy for everyone to kind of
wrap their brain around.
And another one is
constructive criticism.
Understanding that
constructive criticism will create
a better pilot, a better
person, more competitive in.
You don't take it the bad way.
If someone has a.
If you have a bad flight
lesson or your instructor lets you
know about it, you just got to
take it, right?
You just got to sit there, you
got to, you know, just take the beating
up.
I don't have a better word for
it, but take the beating and just,
just come back the next day
and realize that it's not personal.
They're just trying to get the
best out of you.
And it's going to help you in
flying and it's going to help you
in your personal life.
But a lot of times, just
figuring out a way to navigate criticism
and navigate suffering and not
doing great and adversity will help
you become better.
And you, you'll do better in
those situations when the more adversity
you face.
No, I totally agree with that.
Totally agree.
Also, what to focus on, right?
In.
In same.
Like again, when you did your
pilot training, you had a bunch of
errors, right?
But you need to understand
what should you focus for the next
slide, right?
What was the three things that
you can correct that will make you
much better?
Because you have probably 20
things that you have to get them
better or do them better.
Right.
And that's also something that
you understand very well in, in the
Air Force, in flying in general.
What do I focus on?
What do I look at at any time?
What do I do at any moment?
Right?
It's true for flight, right?
The issue, the challenge is
what do you do in every segment of
the flight?
What is the correct action I
need to do?
You know, and then I think it
helps you become a much better pilot.
Yeah, totally agree.
Now, for you, you sound like
someone that likes to have more than
just one thing to be fully
satisfied, right?
Like where you are at Skypath
now, what was it or how was your
kind of progression into getting.
Not even getting to Skypath,
but just you.
When you're in the army, when
you're in the Air Force, when you're,
when you're doing your
training, what was your mentality
like?
Were you, you weren't
satisfied with just flying?
What were you wanting to do?
What was kind of your brain like?
What.
What was a guy thinking at
that time?
During.
After flight school, you mean?
Yeah, after flight school.
Yeah, after flight school,
you're flying the helicopter and
you're just sitting there and you're.
You.
This isn't what you want.
Not all that you want.
You want more, right?
So what, what was coming next?
So again, I think I'm.
I'm a person that likes to try
different things and experience different
things.
And that was part of my
service experience.
And so I started first of all
at Cobras, and then I really wanted
to switch to a more advanced
helicopter, the Apache.
And that's something that affect.
And I had also other hobbies
that I wanted to try and actually
try them after the end of my service.
So, for example, transition
into Apache.
I did it as a reserve pilot,
and that's really rare.
It's a, you know, hard
transition to do when you are actually
reserve pilot coming usually
once a week, twice a week.
Now you need to commit
yourself for a few months and and,
and transition to whole
different aircraft while you are
working, while you have
family, while you have other obligations.
And so that was one challenge
that I took and, and again helped
me fulfill my life.
And the other thing, I had
other dreams.
I actually, I had the long old
dreams of farming and wrenching that
I tried after the service.
Yeah.
And so I did some wrenching in
Australia while I was there.
Yeah.
And I did a few working
vacation, I would say like that during
my backpacking.
So I did the wrenching and I
did the dive master and dive instructor.
And by the way, one of the
things I learned, I love the wrenching,
but I found out that I enjoy
more working with people.
Right.
And those creatures that walk
on four, although they're amazing,
amazing to grow an amazing
experience still, you know, I, I
needed the communication, right?
So.
So that's, for example, one
thing that pushed me to my current
career.
And even when I started to
work at Elbit System, which is a
defense industry company, I
started as a system system engineer.
But try to touch all the
different segments or different portions
of, of any kind of business, right?
From development into testing,
into a teaching, into marketing and
opportunity again to touch all
these different aspects of any good
business.
And, and that helped me find
out what will work better for me.
I would say that the biggest
transition for me was at when we
moved, my wife pursued their
PhD and we moved to the US and then
I actually transitioned from
Elbit System Israel, small but nice,
to Elbit US again, the same
company, the subsidiary, the US Subsidiary.
And again seeing the US
organization the way that they work.
And also that was my first
role as a business development manager.
That had me the opportunity
again to do exactly or part of what
I'm doing now, understanding
what hurt people, what affect people,
and how can the product and
the solution come and solve those
problems and be direct with
people, see what annoys them, what
they require in order to
improve their operation.
And yeah, it's exactly like that.
So those transition between
the cattle, between the other diving
instructor had the opportunity
again to touch all these different
aspects and find my way into Skypas.
Yeah, What I think is really
cool is, you know, when you're young,
you see social media, you see
YouTube, you see Instagram, and you
think that these people got,
whether it's fame, whether it's money,
whether it's success, you
think it happened overnight.
And I'm guessing that if
someone was to look at your Instagram,
if you had one when you were
ranching, your life would look much
different than it does.
Right now.
So what I'm getting at is you
took kind of every opportunity to
kind of mold yourself into who
you are now, like a well rounded
person, you took all these
different experiences, which some
might not want to do ranching,
some might not want to do this, but
the point is, is that you
were, you kind of took every opportunity
you had and you learned from
these experiences and you built this
wealth of knowledge.
You know, you might take
something that you learned from ranching,
you might take something that
you learned from diving, whether
it's to communicate with
people, whether it's teamwork, whether
it's building.
I mean, when you're, when
you're with the, a bunch of cattle,
you got to figure out a way to
get things done.
You can't talk to them like
you said.
So sometimes you're gonna have
people that you don't might necessarily
connect with, but you still
got a way to get it.
You have to get the job done.
But you were able to use all
these experiences to come.
And what I'm getting at is
when you're 18 years old, you're
not going to be as successful
as, I mean there's this one off 18
year olds, right?
Whether they come from the
right family, whether they just had
the right opportunity, but you
have to kind of put in the work and
you have to enjoy the grind.
Sounds like, I mean, I
guarantee you if I asked you if you
enjoyed everything that you
did, you'd be like, it was the best
time of my life.
I love ranching, I do it
again, all that kind of stuff.
But you have to enjoy the
grind, you have to enjoy the process.
And don't be afraid to say yes
to something that maybe isn't going
to be the normal decision.
Right.
Like I'm guessing all your
friends didn't go ranching as well
in Australia or become dive masters.
But don't be afraid to say yes
to those kind of decisions that not
everyone's doing.
And you never know what
opportunities will come up in your,
in your life and how it's
going to be able to improve yourself
and just become a better person.
Whether it's 5, 10, 15 or 20
years down the road.
No, no, totally.
And every experience take you
to the next one.
Right.
And one example that relates
to aviation, I told you I did a transition
as a late, in late age to the
Apache, which is an advanced helicopter,
glass cockpit, different
armament equipment, different systems.
A huge change for me, you
know, and, and going back to a student,
I was almost 30 at that time.
Going back to Be a student,
you felt like you're going back to
flight school.
Now, that's already a
mentality that put you on the edge,
right?
Put you in a corner.
Because, wait, I'm experienced
pilot, you know, I did a lot of things,
you know, so now I'm back to a
student that somebody, the younger
than me tells me how to fly
now and things like that.
So, so, but, but those are
experience that, that happened to
you in life, right.
I moved to the US I had now a
new company to work with, new people,
new mentality, new culture.
This is a new change.
You need to learn how to
adapt, how to fit yourself to those
kind of environment.
And just that fact of changing
an aircraft, to me, it was a similar
transition.
Like that, learning how to
adopt myself, how to adjust myself
to that new situation, to that
new mentality, by the way, without
affecting my success.
Because becoming a student,
you can also become, you know, the
small student that's, you
know, focused on the smallest drill
and skill that you need to do.
But you need to look at the
bigger picture.
Right.
You need to look, how do you
get yourself better without, by the
way, doing a safety incident?
Yeah.
Because that's always in
flying, right.
That takes you back.
Every safety event that you
have, you need to do to beat me or
a bit more cautious now to
take your, your, your spares.
And that's part of the challenge.
And that's a lot of things I
learned again, just from transitioning
from one aircraft to another
and at the an older age and, and
seeing how that experience can
affect other parts of my life.
Absolutely.
I'm sure that was pretty
humbling too, when all of a sudden
you got this 21 or 18, how
were they old?
They are teaching you how to
fly something.
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I got experience.
You come to this new airplane,
you switch airplanes, and whatever
worked in the last airplane is
not going to work in the new airplane.
You know, you're just kind of
like, this is how we did in the old
airplane.
We're like, well, hey, old
man, this is how we do it in the
new one.
All right?
Correct.
It's humbling and it's important.
Like you said, growth is huge.
You know, if you're not
growing and someone else is getting
better than you.
And we used to say, I played
football in college, American football,
I should say, not soccer.
But we always said that if
you're not getting better every day,
you're technically getting
worse and someone is getting better
than you as well.
So if it's important for you
to grow.
And if that's a goal that you
want, there's nothing better to do
than change airplanes, change
scenery, choose the hard subject.
Choose something that's difficult.
It gets you out of your
comfort zone and puts you in a fight
or flight mode and see how you
do totally.
And also enjoy the road.
Right?
That's another thing.
If you only think about the
peak that you will get eventually,
most of the time you're climbing.
Right?
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See you there.
And now back to today's episode.
I want to talk a little bit
more about Skypath now.
So how did Skypath come about?
Like you mentioned, you're in
the US your wife's getting her PhD,
you're working here.
Was it just like someone was
like hey, a buddy from the military,
hey, we got this new app
working on, you know, it's aviation
and technology.
We would love to have you here
or how did that all come together?
So I think again at that time
we returned to Israel already.
My wife finished her PhD and
started position here in Israel and
I started to work back in
Elbit system Israel and I was managing
now the international business
development for the rotary wing division.
So I was in charge on a lot of
new business and I had a good experience
on that part and I felt like
I'm missing a big chunk of business
that I'm not experienced.
At that time Elbit had some
organization change and Maya rco,
she and I served together in
the squadron, had the opportunity
to work in LB together.
So we knew each other for a
while and she convinced me that's
a great timing, a good
opportunity and did that leap as
well.
And I said it's now, never
right to a certain time time.
And I tried and I have to say
same same as my other experience.
It's incredible experience to
work in this kind of Industry, you
know, a bit more cutting edge
technology, apps, you know, the whole
concept of software as a
service, it's something that doesn't
happen so much in the military aspect.
Right.
In defense industry.
So this is aspect of the
market that I was exposed to and
in this organization that I
wasn't exposed in elbit.
And that's part of the reason
I decided to do this kind of transition.
What excited you about Skypath
or my ecology?
What was like kind of, not
necessarily what did she say?
But was it the app, was it the technology?
Was it just the fact that
you've been an aircraft, whether
it's a helicopter, whether
it's an airplane and you had turbulence
and you're like, wow, I really
wish I knew when this tournament
was going to happen so I
didn't have to come through this.
What was it?
I think like every good
business, first of all I saw a problem
that needs to be solved.
That's the first thing you
like to solve problems, right.
If it's just for the fun of
it, it's not the same.
So I saw first of all a
problem that needs to be solved.
Secondly, I saw actually a
valid solution, a very good solution
patent, a unique solution that
can actually, with the right distribution,
with the right development,
can actually solve the problem big
time.
And that's what the, the
second part and the third part, it
was related to aviation.
So for me it was a transition
was very natural, you know, to this
aviation segment.
Again, different, not the
defense industry, but still aviation,
still related, still talking
about, with pilots, still talking
about flying, still talking
about your day to day experience.
And, and I think that was the
third part that connected me or hooked
me into Skypus.
Yeah.
And how long, how long ago
have you been there?
When, when did you make the
transition to Skypath?
So I'm now closing three years
in SkyPass.
Yeah.
So there is a while.
And, and we grew up quite
dramatically in the last few years.
Yeah.
And we've been able to first
of all grow in the commercial market.
Major carriers that started
using us more and more and understood
the value that we can provide
them in a very easy and seamless
way.
And recently we are also
growing on the business aviation
market.
Corporate aviation or business
aviation that again, maybe they don't
experience the same incident
or the same amount of incidents that
happen in commercial aviation,
but their overall flight experience
to their passengers, to their
customers is crucial, maybe even
more than, you know, in
commercial aviation.
And that's part of the service
that we provide or can provide.
Yeah, well, I mean Just
speaking on a previous life of mine.
My last job that I was at
Fractional, you know, mentioned the
company.
But it's.
How do you make it the most
personal flight possible?
Right?
Like, how do you put the
personal touch on it without going
too far?
Right.
There's a common line that you cross.
But just being able to be
like, oh, my iPad says there's gonna
be turbulence in 15 minutes.
Instead of just hitting like a
seatbelt sign, you could be like,
all right, you know, I'm gonna
go back and talk to the passengers
real quick.
Hey, this is Pre Turbulence in
15 minutes.
We recommend you go to the
bathroom now or you sit down, put
your seatbelt on.
And that just helps out a lot.
Or if you know, you have a.
If you know that the passenger
doesn't like turbulence, then you
can route around it and you
don't have to say anything and you
make it as seamless and as
easy as possible.
And the best part was using
SkyPath is we talked about this before
we started recording.
As you look down, it doesn't
take long to interpret what's going
on, right?
You're like, oh, red's bad,
orange bad.
You know, it's like, let's go
away from that.
So the hexagonal squares make it.
Or circles, the hexagons makes
it very easy to look at and deduce
the color and see what's going
on and be like, that's bad.
Let's go around.
One of the best stories I had
during again the short time I hear
we started with one of again
of the bigger business aviation company
in the US Working together
with them.
And I think a few weeks or two
weeks before the Super Bowl.
The super bowl is always like
the busiest time of the year for
those companies.
Insane, insane, insane.
And we had a random call that
we talked about total other stuff.
And then one of their chief
pilot told me, listen, you won't
believe what happened in the
last week or two weeks.
We started getting tons of
phone calls from our passengers verifying
if their crew for the flight
to Vegas.
At that time the super bowl
was in Vegas has Skypass app.
And for me it was incredible, right?
The busiest time of the year.
That company is getting phone
calls from passengers and customers
telling them, please verify
that Skypas is part of the, you know,
of my crew there or supporting
the crew that's gonna fly me.
You know, there is nothing
better than that from our perspective.
No, I agree.
I mean, and it just goes to.
We talked about in previous episodes.
It's just for A pilot.
And for decision making, it's
the overall toolkit.
Right.
And adding another tool to
that belt just makes things even
easier.
There can be an infinite
amount of tools that you have.
Being able to use the ones you
want in the right time and be able
to deduce information very
quickly makes it very important.
So that's what Skyp does.
Yep, exactly.
I asked, I asked Guy this question.
I liked his answer.
I want to see what you do as well.
It kind of put you on the spot.
But let's say I'm a airline
executive that you in skypath have
been trying to kind of get
after and be like, hey, you know,
you need this app.
This is why you need it.
This is whatever.
But what is we're stuck in an
elevator, we'll say we got like three
minutes.
What's your elevator pitch to me?
How would you sell it?
I get it a lot now.
The elevator speech is a big
thing now to say.
Yeah.
So first of all, again, I want
to verify that you have a problem.
Right?
That's the first thing I want
to say, that I'm solving something
for you.
I will first verify that you
experience what I assume is the problem.
You know, that's the first part.
Time start.
Are you suffering right, from
those incidents, from those injuries,
from that downtime, you know,
from that flight experience, from
your passengers?
Again, verify that that's what
you have.
And then the second part is,
what do you say?
If I can improve that
dramatically with basically a download
of an app?
That's it.
That's what you need to do, right?
Download app, improve your
life, get the best information you
have in advance without you on
the way at all.
And that's part of the thing.
Our app is doing the work for
the pilot.
You don't need to hold or move
the iPad and verify that the iPad
measured correctly, you can be
totally busy with anything else.
And the app will notify you
when you are encountering turbulence.
So that was the two part, from
my perspective, verifying that you
actually suffer from that
problem because otherwise I'm not
solving anything for you.
And then the other thing, tell
me that's the distance.
It's downloading an app and go
and try it.
And this app will change your
life on that turbulence mitigation.
But that's the thing.
You have to be ahead of the
curve with this kind of situation.
Right.
You have to envision where
will the solution will be in one
year, in two years, in a few years.
And I think that's part of the
vision that we try to present to
our customers and prospects as
well, to show them that we are expanding
more and more, that we are
improving our solution more and more.
You said about football, right?
You can't stay the same every day.
If you did a practice and you
didn't get better, you basically
got worse, you know, and
that's same with our solution.
If they pass here a day and we
didn't get better with more data,
with more capabilities, with
more redundancy, with more automatic
and more AI involved in that,
we got worse.
And that's all of us.
When we are coming here to
work every day, we are trying to
get that better and better.
And eventually I think our
customers sees exactly that.
They see that we are coming to
work, we are coming to improve that,
and we are coming, even the
minor errors to correct and get them
better.
Other.
Yeah.
As someone who, in a.
As a company that's doing very
well in their space, do you find
it that you all compete
internally to try to create the best
app or is it like an external
competition that kind of drives and
makes you guys want to be the best?
I think, right.
You have a few people from the
Air Force here, so obviously we compete,
Right.
That's the first thing.
We compete in everything.
Even in our, in our, you know,
fun days that we have outside of
the office.
There is some, some kind of
competition involved there.
Yeah.
So we compete, but we keep it,
I think healthy competition.
Right.
And not a bad competition.
I think that's a secret.
And by the way, that's true
also for flying, right.
You want to be better or you
want to even, even from your co pilot,
for example, you, you want to
be better from him, but you don't
want to ruin his flight or
damage his.
Whatever he's doing in order
for you to look better.
Right.
So you need to find that right
combination, still be competitive.
And that's.
We can't go around it, but
have it a healthy competition and
not something that will
backlash to us and eventually affect
the product and affect the
overall company.
Yeah.
What's been your favorite kind
of from the three years you've been
there, what's something that
makes you the most proud looking
back on?
Is it, I guess give me two
answers because I feel like you're
going to say people wise,
because it sounds like you like people,
you like communication.
So I figure there's going to
be kind of a personable story there
and then also kind of a
company technology or software story.
I would say two things that
I'm very proud of first of all, we
joined the rtca.
Rtca, Are you familiar with
that organization?
Is that the Rotary?
I think maybe.
No, I don't remember the abbreviation.
But they basically defined
global standards for the FAA and
for the Eurocontrol.
Actually, actually.
Oh, cool.
And one of the things we did
in two and a half years ago when
I joined here, we actually
joined their Turbulence committee
and be able to share and
improve safety for the overall community,
you know, and again, as a
business, it's not straightforward
to do something like that.
Right.
Because you're wasting time
and effort.
Nobody pays you for that.
Right.
You're wasting a lot of time
and effort and trying to help everybody.
You are sharing a lot of your
secrets and a lot of what you're
doing.
And for me, getting there and
being involved there, it's a huge
success.
Being a crucial.
I think we are a crucial
member of that committee, the two
committee that I'm a member in.
And for me that's something we
are very proud of that movement and
that fact that we didn't look
at ourselves, didn't look purely
at the business success and
wanted to share our knowledge, our
information, our vision with
the global community, whether they
are Europe or us.
I think that's one crucial part.
I think the other part that
I'm proud, the fact that we are transitioning
now or exposing this solution
to the business aviation, corporate
aviation market again in
commercial aviation, there was other
solution.
You could install on the
aircraft the software that will do
very similar to what we are
doing, but that require an actual
software installed on the aircraft.
Okay.
And for the business
cooperative segments, it's totally
irrelevant with all the
different aircraft they have.
So for me, that the fact that
we open that market that we are exposing
us of and the feedback that we
are getting from customers, like
that super bowl story that I
told you that for me, the other major
success that we be able to
shift this boat a bit to that market
as well.
And again, not look at the
pure revenue line, but look at the
overall advantage that we
provide the community again, whether
they are pilot dispatchers or
even the regulator as the faa, air
traffic control and so on.
So that's part of the change
we are trying to bring.
Yeah, sounds like you started
with the gold airlines.
Right now you're a business
aviation corporate.
And then there's also a huge
market of ga.
Whether GA and general
aviation maybe is more an American
thing than is others, but
there's still some GA out there elsewhere
and there's still very
valuable resources and people.
I mean you can probably agree
to this.
Not all pilots love
turbulence, right?
It doesn't matter what you're flying.
If you're flying a Piper, if
you're flying a 747, you know, over
the ocean, it's like you want
a smooth ride.
If you ask any pilot, they
usually want the most boring flight
possible, and that's a smooth ride.
So if I'm flying a Sirius, you
know, it'd be nice to look down at
app like, oh, turbulence,
let's go this way.
So it's really cool to see
what, what all you guys are doing.
What would you say is your
favorite feature to use on the app
whenever you get the chance to
use it?
The favorite feature, I would
say, again, the number one feature
is the notification.
From my perspective, first of
all, again, because the expectations
is for a pilot to be, you
know, to know everything around him
and be on top of that and be ready.
But part of the advantage with
today tools that, you know, the pilot
can do whatever he needs to
do, and the solution or whatever
system can actually notify
him, alert him at time and, you know,
at the right moment in time.
Right.
We talk about it in the start.
You need to know what you're
doing in each moment.
And the notification feature
that we have, automatic notification
without the pilot involvement
working even in the background, to
me, that's the most crucial
feature, you know, because eventually
the fact that the data is
there, it's one level, but you want
to bring the data into the
pilot eyes, into the pilot view and
verify he's aware of them and
act accordingly.
Right.
And to me.
So that's the best and most
important feature, that notification
that we have.
Yeah.
And talking with guy, talking
with Maya, talking with you, knowing
that it's just like an overall
team app.
Right.
So you can have dispatch, you
can have pilots, flight attendants,
maybe even.
I don't, I don't know for sure
if there's a passenger version, but
I feel like I remember hearing
something about passengers as well.
So now maybe it's not best to
give the passengers all the information.
Right.
But having the ability to know
what, what they went through or what
was right there or the
decision that was made, you know,
but it's an essential safety app.
Right.
Like we mentioned, the toolkit
and the tool belt for multiple people
to look at, have eyes on, to
make sure what everyone wants when
they fly commercially or
whenever they fly private, is to
have a safe flight and land at
their destination.
So it's just a great tool to
have and to be able to use.
Correct.
No, no, I agree.
It's.
And I think passenger is, is
on the roadmap.
It will get there.
It will get there.
No doubt about it.
And I think you said something
very true.
It's you need to bring the
right information to the right person.
Right.
We talk about pilot, flight
attendant, dispatchers.
They don't need the same information.
Right.
They don't need the same notification.
But each of them needs
different aspect of the information
and in the right timing, in
the right method.
And part of the challenge is
not only, again, not only presenting
the data, not only bringing
the data, but bringing the data at
the right time at the right
level to this specific Persona, you
know, and that's what we are
trying to do with all our solution.
And that include again the
pilots, the cabin crew, the dispatchers
and hopefully to the
passengers very soon as well.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, yeah, when you talk
about what dispatchers need, they
could be like the amount of
flights have deviated off this course,
you know, then they can make
that all right.
Well if there's 20% of flights
are deviating, we should probably
go somewhere else.
And pilots need to know what's
happening now, what's happening in
15 minutes and the dispatcher
can help look down the road as well.
So like it's a team effort and
just having the ability to have multiple
eyes on safety just makes a
big difference as well.
Correct.
If we talked about
notification in the notification
feature for pilots we give
something like about 10, 15 minutes
notification, right.
And that's a reasonable time.
They need to take a decent decision.
But for the dispatchers, when
he's maybe effective planning, we
give up to one hour notification.
That allows him plenty of time
to decide do I change route, do I
notify, do I verify if the
crew is aware of that or not and
things like that.
So again, fitting whatever
solution you are providing to the
right person in the right
time, I think that's a crucial part
of any good solution.
Absolutely, totally agree.
And I think it's really cool
what you guys have done.
You know, I have been a fan
since I've used it.
We talked about it before, but
Skypath's great.
I love to continue to see it
get bigger, to continue to grow.
And as I mentioned, just
seeing it in everyone's iPad, right.
Like whether it's GA and
they're serious and they're, they're
152 whatever they're flying
around, you know, I think it's me
really cool to use as a tool
or even in check rides, you know,
hey show the examiner be like
hey look this is what our, our route
is going to look like.
This is what the turbulence
looks like.
Just ease of mind for everything.
Checkride, flight, anything.
I think it's a, it's just a
must have.
But yeah, I appreciate you
coming on.
It was a lot of fun to talk
with you and share your story.
I can tell from right away
like you and I are very similar,
competitive person.
You sound like the closer.
You sound like Maya calls you
and be like he's like a guy.
We need you.
Come on in.
I'm gonna fly to Dubai to talk people.
We need to make this happen.
But I appreciate you coming on
and your story is awesome and I love
how well rounded you are and
that you weren't afraid to say no
to certain situations like to
go be a rancher in Australia.
Which when I was leaving
college I wanted to move to Australia,
New Zealand so bad.
Not necessarily to be a
rancher, but just to be a part of
the culture and be down there
and maybe surf a little bit.
But it was really cool to to
hear your story and talk about Skypath
and I can't wait to see where
it goes.
Same here.
I appreciate the talk and all
the good questions.
AV Nation that's a wrap on
today's episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
Like I said earlier, if you
are not following, if you're not
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You know, maybe they need some
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I said as well as a lot.
But I think it's time to go.
It's 10:46.
We just had to move back into
our house after I was hanging curtains
and a pipe burst.
Yeah, not a good story story
for another day.
But we had to get our floors
redone to say the least.
So Avia Nation, I hope you're
having a great day and as always,
happy flying.
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