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Welcome to an aviation podcast that caters to all aviation enthusiasts, ranging from pilots to airplane spotters. Our show covers a wide range of topics, including private pilot training, airline operations, and the latest aviation news. Our knowledgeable host, an experienced airline pilot with eight years of flying under his belt, is thrilled to share his own experiences and offer valuable advice to help you pursue your aviation dreams. We are here to support you on your journey, constantly wishing you Tailwinds & Sunshine!
Rachel Part 3 of 3
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Manny: [00:00:00] Hey, fellow aviation enthusiasts. Welcome back to the tailwinds and sunshine podcast. This is a grand finale. Part three of three of the conversation with my friend, Rachel Mason. I want to thank all of you for listening and being part of this little community for reviewing the podcast. If you haven't done so already, I appreciate if you go to the platform, you're listening to this podcast and then go ahead and leave a review.
I really do appreciate that. Or leave a comment if you want to be more direct. Hey, hit me up on social media. You can go to Instagram or you can email me that those notes or that email is in the show notes. Also, if you want to be part of the show, I know I've been told before that I, Hey, you should talk to this person or, you know, this person wants to be on the show.
Well, just go ahead and go, go to the link. It's on my Instagram under the links link tree or it's in the show notes. You can go ahead and book your appearance there. It's not, it's not a solid date. So don't be scared. We can, you know, massage it around. I usually reach out and talk about, you know, have a discussion about what you're planning on talking [00:01:00] about, you know, what we were planning on doing during the episode.
Anyways, I'm going to stop talking. Let's go ahead and get the show on the road and hope you enjoy.
Hey folks from the flight deck. This is your captain speaking. Welcome to the Tailwinds and Sunshine podcast, where we talk everything aviation. I am your host, Manny Ramirez. It's always a pleasure to have you on board. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Rachel: Yep.
Manny: That's how it is. And we have to just be kind and remember this. It's not a straight shot. You know, it's everywhere you have, there's a lot of moving parts you know, there's a lot of coordination involved there's hundreds, if not [00:02:00] thousands of people behind the scenes to get you from that point A to point B.
So I'll be very thankful for that. And if your flight is on time, that is a very good thing. And that means everything is working well. If not, just because something kind of maybe one of the wheels. Fell off or something. We're trying to fix it. So it's but for the most part I think
Rachel: it can be anything.
Anything. It can be anything. Detroit tr air traffic control was closed yesterday for a little while because they lost air conditioning. So yeah, it's just all kinds of stuff. But yeah, just yeah, fly early in the day too. Like I tell people all this time, I get it, it sucks to wake up early, but take that first flat out.
It's so worth it. Flat early. Yeah. Fly early. Earlier
Manny: the better. Yeah, I know earlier is becoming just because of the volume of traffic. That's you know, that it's a, what was considered earlier, probably maybe 10, 20 years ago is no longer early, early as we're talking about four o'clock in the morning, you know, a flight is departing super early or the red eye that departs at midnight you know, but it's not, it's obviously it's not going to work all the time, but try to the [00:03:00] biggest I think is Wednesdays, I think Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Probably are going to be the best time where there's less traffic Mondays, no Thursdays, no Friday, Saturday. No, there's really only two days of the week. They'll kind of work out really well. That that worked out pretty well. And then our early in the morning or late at night is when you're going to be your best chances.
And also if you can avoid it Don't, don't check bags, take, carry on with you, you know, carry on. Or check
Rachel: it at your gate. We're always wanting to check your bag at the gate.
Manny: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I tell people, it's like, yeah, just take your check. Just don't, just check it, check it in check it at the gate, you know, so you see people with 50 pound roller bags,
Rachel: you know, as they're checking in, it's like, yeah, well.
Try not to do that, but yeah. No, no. I
Manny: do not condone that. But, you know, I've seen people do it, but I typically try to, you know, carry because it just cuts that will cuts one layer of the complexity, right? Cause now you separate yourself from the bag. And if something happens, I was telling Rachel earlier today, my mom is on her way to Mexico, right?
Well, she's on standby, but she didn't make it on the flight, but the gate agent actually [00:04:00] transferred her reservation or her stand standby status to the next flight later in the afternoon. And what is going to end up, the bags actually. Are gonna go and go and arrive in Mexico without her so that can that can present itself as a you know, a situation now You can you know It's like let's say you're traveling Europe writer and then you make it by your bags Don't if you get on the plane with your bags, that's guaranteed.
They're gonna get there with you, right? So just don't you know, try whenever possible not to check bags and that you'll save yourself I mean with some airlines you're gonna save yourself some serious money because they They will they will they will charge you an arm and a leg to get those bags on there And I just guarantee so pack light.
And I think that's one of the pack light. Cause you're going to be hauling that back everywhere you go. Pack light and try to keep it keep it on board with you. So that way you guarantee it's going to be with you. Yeah, so that's pretty much it. Any, any travel tips from, from you
Rachel: travel tips? Yeah.
I mean if you want to upgrade your seat, I was asked to stay a flat. You can ask at the gate. You can ask at the ticket counter. [00:05:00] I had a Hawaii flat a few years ago. The girl was in economy and she was like, what's an upgrade? And I was like, I don't know, let's take a look. And she got Polaris business class for 149 from Denver, Honolulu.
Yeah. I was like, girl, I would take this. I said, I'm not, I'm not even kidding. I still like St. Louis, Chicago would be 29. For first class. I mean, it's a 45 minute flat, but yeah. Oh yeah. What? So I wanna ask for an atla. See what you can pay for an upgrade same day. Uhhuh tss A precheck Glock. Just get it . Wow.
Please get
Manny: TSA precheck scheck. Pre check is pretty good. Yeah, I have that. Just get it. I have that through through credit card, so it is well worth it to do that. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I use K C M most of the time for a known crew member for airline employees. Correct. However actually flight deck and in cabin service.
I don't think that they offer it to everyone, but anyways but yeah, well worth it. If you have most credit cards nowadays have some type of credit, they can give you to your credit card. If you sign up for a TSA pre or [00:06:00] clear, some of them offer clear
Rachel: as well. I don't know enough about clear to say if that's good or bad, but I think the biggest thing is just get to the airport early.
Like an hour is not enough time. I don't care if you're domestic or international because those security lines can back up. Very fast. Yeah, that's true. You're not there early airlines will not wait for you or not required to wait for you But yeah, you've got to get there early. I know it's boring you get through security It's a good day and you're at your gate three hours early, but an hour from now that line could be three miles long
Manny: Yeah, that's true.
And that one thing I wanted to touch up on and you actually good point about asking, and you shall receive, you know, ask, Hey, what was the cost to upgrade? You know, if they can say, Oh, sorry, there's no upgrades. Okay. Well, there's no upgrade. But if you, in this case, you know, you got Polaris to Hawaii for 120 bucks, hell yeah.
I'll pay for that. You know It's better than having to pay whatever it is a cost for Polaris. You know, when you buy the ticket, which is probably thousands of dollars probably to do that, [00:07:00] but if you get at the gate, you might, you know, it depends also I'm guessing who you get. Cause some gate agents might be like, Hey, you know, they're just, or they're super busy, but always ask if
Rachel: they're super asleep.
Oh yeah. Always ask. Like it's never, sometimes you have to stand in line for a hot minute, but definitely it's always worth the ask always. Yeah. Or a volunteer list. Like put yourself on the volunteer list. Like worst case scenario, you're going to get bumped to a flat that takes off two hours later than your original one, but chances of you like getting some sort of like mileage or like some food vouchers, stuff like that, or like even an upgrade to a better seat can happen when that happens for a volunteer list.
So like over sales aren't as bad as they used
Manny: to be. Yeah. And I would see what was the oh man, we have a bunch of people saying stuff over here and I haven't even been paying attention to them. So I'm just paying attention over here. So, I was let me see oh yeah, no some people are saying her audio is not coming through.
Well, no, it's not, the audio is not coming through because it's not connected to, it's going through my headphones. I'm using an app to record, so they can't hear it. But, so. Like I should make it to where [00:08:00] they're able to see it. I don't know, but I don't have the technical savviness in my room. So we talked about this.
Yeah, no. So this is like, yeah, that's a, this is makes for an awkward interview to watch. Yeah, it's still no audio. Yeah. So they're saying that, but yeah, so we're going to have to figure this out. Yeah, trial and error, trial and error. Yeah. So I do let me see. Oh yeah. There's a question here from Victor.
He's on Instagram and this is for you Rachel. This is a one or best tip about dealing with a yelling or an angry person.
Rachel: Kill them with kindness. I mean, they are not mad at me. Like, they're literally not mad at me. So I never assume that somebody's taking something out on me personally. I don't judge them for it.
I don't know what they're going through. I don't know what their last situation is. I had a passenger the other day that she was just not in the mood to check her back. Like, she wanted to. She, like, she came down. I was looking, she came up. She came up. I was looking for [00:09:00] volunteers. And she's like, well, I'm not checking into my final destination.
I said, well, why not? Are you not going? And she goes, well, of course I'm going. I said, so why would you check it to your final destination? She's like, well, you'll lose it. It'll miss my connection. I said, well, that's our problem. But I said, I will tag your back to your final destination. I said, you just need to leave it at the end of the jet version.
We'll take care of it. She was like, Oh, really? I was like, yeah. She's like, nobody's ever explained this to me before. Yeah. She just needed somebody to take 30 seconds to explain to her how the process works. Yeah. She thought she was gonna have to leave the airport, grab her bag. I was like, Oh no, fuck that's messed me up rampages.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh no. That's crazy. Just be nice. I'm just nice. I smile. I'm never. I'm
Manny: like, it's fine. And sometimes I think it's a really good yeah, it's just understanding and kind of taking just a few seconds to understand the person's problem. I recently had I don't know if I already told this story, but I had a.[00:10:00]
Recently I had one of the flight attendants came into the flight deck. We were, we were boarding and the flight attendants like, Hey, this lady is not being noncompliant. Like she has this child, this toddler that's been running amok, crying, he's crawling all over the seat. He won't stay in his seat.
Passengers are beginning to complain because they said that this is the reason why they took longer to board because of this child and his mother. And so the flight attendant seemed upset a little bit and she's like, well, she wanted to have the captain deal with her. You know, I was like, deal with her, deal, you know, I don't know, you know, she's not comp, she's not complying.
She's not keeping the, the child in the seat with a seatbelt. So, and I, and my first, my first. Words to her was like, well, can you ask her if she's okay? We haven't asked her if she's okay. Is she okay? Does she need anything? Is that, can you ask her if she's okay? Maybe something's wrong. And he's like, yeah, well, she's like, she's crying.
And you know, she looked, I'm like, we'll ask her. It was a while. I don't think I can talk to her. I'm like, well, why? So I think, I don't think she speaks English. I'm like, Oh does she speak [00:11:00] Spanish? I'm like, and she's like, I don't know, go talk to her. So I went and talked to her and and she, yeah, she spoke Spanish and I wanted to talk to her and it turns out that this woman and the way they were dressed, it looked, they haven't changed clothes in a few days, which means that probably they've been traveling for a few days.
And she told me, she's like, we have not eaten in two days. No. She's like, we have not eaten in two days. I don't have a dime. I don't have anything. And she was just, her eyes were red. She was stressed out. She was just, she was done. She was done. And the poor kid was just crying and it's like, yeah, he's just really hungry.
He's really hungry. So I have them move seats because they were not sitting they were she was. This toddler was, I don't know what they put as a lap child, but anyways, I have them move them to a different seat. There was two open seats. I have them move to next to each other. And I told the flight attendants, just give them food, whatever you have, just give them food.
And that's how we medicated. But we would not have found that out if we had not asked if there's something wrong. We just assumed that we're being noncompliant. And then we make things worse by saying, ma'am, ma'am, I told you to keep that child in your [00:12:00] lap. Crap. Yeah. Right? So we, we make it worse instead of just asking, is everything okay?
And they, they let out and say, Hey, no, there's something wrong. Okay. Now we can deal with the problem. But it's, it's very important to just be kind and you know, just yeah, just be kind and ask questions and
Rachel: ask questions, be kind and don't listen to the news because the news is always going to make a story sound worse than it actually was.
Yeah, that's
Manny: true. You know, fake news, fake news. But yeah, no, I think it's a. Yeah, but I think it's but yeah, like you mentioned too is don't take it personal, you know, like these people are not really, they don't know your life, you know, they don't know anything about you. So they just kind of see them as a, you know, just be kind to them and try to try to explain something to them.
And yeah.
Rachel: I tell people all the time too, my favorite thing to tell people that have no experience in aviation is this industry will make you or it'll break you and if you are going to be one of those people where you let every single word get to you, you're going to, it's going to break you and this is not going to work.
And I mean that from a very loving place. Yeah. Because you do have to, you just have to have like, [00:13:00] you just kind of have to know when to be kind, but you also just cannot let, cause they'll yell at you, but you just have to just be okay with it. Just know it has nothing to do about you. It sucks, but it has nothing to do about you.
Right. That could be going through a divorce, loss.
We're all humans. We're not perfect. How many times have we been in a restaurant and you're like, I ordered this, not this. And it's like, yeah, humble yourself.
Manny: Yeah, that's true. And yeah, but it's, it's very important to speak humility. Haven't just humble yourself a little bit too, and know that, you know, it's not a world.
Our society is becoming a society of, of just me. And well, you know, it's, it's about us, you know, it's there's, there's people around you and we have to be considerate of each other so we can live in peace. But if you just kind of be about your needs, your needs, your needs you're going to go through you're going to go through life a little bit.
It's going to be a rough life. I'll tell you that right now. It's So you want to make it fun. Not a fun ride. You want to make it fun. Yeah. Yeah. So last so we've been here sitting here for [00:14:00] about an hour and three minutes, Rachel. So what I want to do is ask you just one last question. Why do you, why do you hate Palomas?
And for those that don't know what Palomas are, it's just basically tequila with, like, squirt. So it's like, you know, since you're a tequila connoisseur, right? I love tequila. Yeah, but what's up with the Paloma? Like, what, what, what's what's what's wrong with that one? It's not your taste?
Rachel: I don't like, I don't like grapefruit.
Don't like it. Okay. Cool. I'm just not a grapefruit person. And then, but one of my friends recommended to me just last night, he was like, you should just do tequila with just straight grape juice, the grapefruits, the grapefruit juice, grapefruit juice. Like you don't have all that extra like sweet stuff in there.
Just the straight tequila. He's like, I bet you change your mind. And he goes, you can have like your own version of a pool. And I was like, I'll try it. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll try it that way.
Manny: I'm going to try that because, you know, typically what how I take tequila is now I take it just straight on the rocks.
That's [00:15:00] all I do. I want to do tequila. I just got on the rocks, right? Because it's already sweet. It's a very sweet liquor. It is. Yeah, it really is. I think it's got its own sweetness in there, right? So I. I used to do it with Coke, but that's just a little too sweet, too much. So what I would do typically I would take like seltzer water.
So I do some tequila, some on, on the rocks, a little bit of seltzer water, just a splash of Coke. Maybe that's the most I would do. But definitely on the rocks. I enjoy it that way. And I'm getting a taste for it. Like my mouth is watering right now.
Rachel: Like tequila is a whole different, whole different.
But if you don't like your tequila, like room temperature, just. Right? Then you need to try it chilled and I promise you, you're going to like your tequila bottom shelf. Oh yeah. Buy your bottle of tequila. Just throw it in the freezer for a little bit.
Manny: So I'm going to try that. I'm in fact, I'm going to go after this.
I'm going to go buy myself a bottle of tequila. I'm in the fridge. It better
Rachel: be good tequila too. Like I'm going to get
Manny: weak stuff. Oh no. Okay. So, okay. Let's talk [00:16:00] about, okay. Now it's getting deep. Now it's getting deep about tequila. So now we're talking about what's. Considered good to you. Okay.
Rachel: So if I'm taking shots I can do like Patron or like a Don Julio Blanco, but Don Julio Blanco is also really good in margaritas.
If you really want to go up there, 1942 is a wonderful sip in tequila. 1942, 1942. Sip tequila. It's a good sip in tequila. Another one that a coworker told me about is Codigo. It's George Strait's tequila. And he has like a rosé tequila, which is really good at chilled or on the rocks. But he also has like a Blanco that's really good sipping, but it's really good to mix with tea.
Huh. So those are my
Manny: go to's. You know what's one years ago. And I was kind of, it kind of was a slap in the face to me because I was like, it was really funny because years ago when we went out, coworkers and I went out and we went out to [00:17:00] this bar and out of all places, we went to Salt Lake city, Utah, and then we were in Salt Lake city at a bar.
Right. So we're like, what the, like, you know, we were there and we decided to do a taste test. So my coworkers, my coworkers is a, Hey, so we asked the bartender to serve us Pretty much a flight of of tequila shots without knowing what, without knowing what company or what brand it is. It's a blind taste test, a blind taste test, and we decided, and we decided to do, Hey, you know what we're going to do is whatever you like.
So I started taking these shots where I started tasting this stuff and I'm like, I like, I really liked this one. I really liked this one. Right. And it ended up being Patron and I was like, you gotta be kidding me. I thought it was going to be like a higher end, like something like, I was like, what the hell?
And I was just like, man, I liked like the basic of tequila. Like I liked the Patron stuff and I was like, wow. But I suggest that if you really want to find don't I think another thing is that don't let anyone tell you what you should like, you know, it's like whatever you like is whatever you [00:18:00] like, right?
So do a taste test, go to a bar with your friends, have a good night and just have a blind taste to say different shots of different tequilas and then just taste them and see what you like. It might come out to be really expensive though, especially if you're, you know, they're doing top shelf stuff, but that's kind of the way to
Rachel: do it.
If you're going to do the top shelf stuff, do it like in a taste test and that, because if you buy a whole bottle of it for a lock. Hundred bucks. You're just out 600 bucks if you don't mock it. Yeah,
Manny: yeah, that's true. So, but it's but yeah, just do that and taste us. But I, I like another thing that I found that I like better, 'cause I'm not a vodka person.
I don't, I don't like vodka. Yeah. So I, but Tequila Red Bull Tequila. Red Bull. Like if you want tequila,
Rachel: I've never done that. Get out.
Manny: Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tequila Red Bull, you know, that's what I did this last New Year's, that's what I was, I was, you know, we were trying to sample
Rachel: it. I bet it does taste, did you do like a Blanco or did you do like a Reposado or like an Anejo, so like a darker tequila?
Manny: I, I, the, so typically the Blancos, I leave it for mixing. Yes. For mixing or [00:19:00] for like, you know, for example, in this case it was a red Bull, right? So mixed with Red Bull. Yeah. But if I'm gonna be sipping it, it's gonna be either a Reposado or it's gonna be , so it's gonna be the darker ones. Yeah. I like, I don't like darker stuff, like even beer.
I'm not a big, dark, no beer guy. It's too rich for me. I like my palate. It just kicks my ass. So I, I typically steak with something in the amber, so like the laggers and for beers. But maybe ado. Would be pretty good for me. I do some sipping with that one, but if I'm going to be mixing it, definitely a Blanco.
Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel: Good choice.
Manny: You know, but here's the thing though, like I used to work at a liquor store when I was younger too. So I kind of have a little bit of liquor knowledge. Yeah, but I mean, I'm Mexican. I'm tequila, man. I gotta be, I gotta be a tequila guy. I'm like every once in a while, some whiskey or stuff like that, but tequila has always been my go to.
I love it. Have
Rachel: you ever had cut waters before? Which one? Cut water? No. It's always a canned, it's a canned. I think they have more than tequila, [00:20:00] but I buy their tequila, like they're margaritas, but they have like Palomas every like, wow. Right. They have literally everything. And but what I lack about them is.
It's like your line. Margarita is perfect. It's 12 and a half percent alcohol and it is not a seltzer.
Manny: Oh wow. Okay. What was
Rachel: it
called again? They're just canned margaritas, but I promise you it's the best canned margarita you've ever had in your life. Cut
Manny: water. C U T, right? Charlie Uniform Tango. Cut water. Yeah. I wonder how about. Okay. So this is what I'm going to do after this recording. I am going to go to the store, I'm going to buy myself some tequila, I'm going to buy some cut water and I'm going to send you a picture and I'm going to be like, look, look what I got.
Cheers. You know, so I'm going to drink
Rachel: that cut water, super cold, pour it on us, whatever you have to do. But just the margarita is super good. I've had their matzah. They have a Paloma. It's really, really, really good. I swear by them. Like if I'm going to a big event, I'm bringing the cut waters.
Manny: Nice. Very good.
Now I'm going to [00:21:00] keep that. in mind. I'm going to do that. Well, Rachel, thank you so much for being here. I Love having you on, on the show. And you know, once you have more experience, cause I know I've seen your stories on Instagram. I'm going to have Rachel's Instagram on, on the show notes. Her Instagram is runway Rachel and it's spelled R W Y Rachel.
So R as in Romeo, W as in whiskey, Y as in Yankee, Rachel all one word. And that's her Instagram. You can follow her there. And as far as the live stuff on Instagram, I I'm dumb. I should have known that, you know, there's no audio here. So I'm going to have to figure out a way that I can kind of split the audio so they can hear it makes her a really awkward, it makes her a really awkward interview.
And probably people are you listening to? What the hell are you listening to? Like, yeah. But yeah, there was like a few people on board and I was like, and then, and then it wasn't, it's scrolling and I wasn't able to see the pictures until the very end. Oh my God. Let me see. Victor said, Oh man, you have to [00:22:00] go to Tequila, Jalisco.
Oh no, I have been to Tequila. Victor, I have been, I've done Tasted. So I've been to the actual town in Jalisco called Tequila. Just give you a tequila tour so you can go and you, you go there and you come back super drunk. It is really awesome. That sounds
Rachel: like my kind of, I've never been drunk though.
Mm-hmm. But that sounds like my kind of place.
Manny: Yeah. I mean, you don't have to be completely backed. I mean, you can have a good time, you know, responsibly. I just feel like if you're res, I mean my safety first, I irresponsible days. My responsible day, my, my irresponsible drinking days were left behind on my toys while actually , maybe one, maybe last New Year's, I kind of was a little too much.
Rachel: But yeah, have like one every six. It's fine.
Manny: Or, or probably, you know, like yeah, something like that. But anyways yeah, definitely a town to go to as it's pretty cool. You see, because all the tequila has to come from Mexico, it's made in Mexico, but then it's sent out throughout the world and then bottled and, and that's where you have like George Clooney and you know, other movie stars that have their own brands because they just bought, they just buy a reserve from a particular distillery and then they just [00:23:00] bottled it under their label.
So in some cases you might have, and some, I mean, sometimes you may have you know, the same tequila that from different people might be from the same distillery as well. So just a heads up, but anyways, thank you so much, Rachel, once again, for being on the show. I'll stay in touch with you, you know, and we're going to be talking later on.
So anyone. Let's do it. Yeah, so guys, thank you so much for being part of the show. Thank you. Thank you Once again for letting me letting me and Rachel into your home and on till next time wishing you tell was in sunshine See ya. The statements made on the show are my own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer