18. Flying Planes, Getting Your Dream Audi R8, and Bodybuilding w/ Ben Falk

Hello, and welcome to the Minnoxide Podcast. Today, we talk to Ben Falk. He is an airline pilot, he owns an R8, and is a bodybuilder.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to episode 18 of the Minnoxide Podcast, here with my co-host, Sean. It's going great, thank you for asking. And then we got our wonderful guest, Ben, AKA Fit Pilot Talk. I mean, you are a man that's involved in many things. You fly planes, you drive cars, you do some breathing, you know. I mean, you're a very talented man. So we'll just kind of jump right into it. So I met you at a MOLA last year. I basically ran up to you, and I'm like, oh my God, hi, it's me, Minnoxide. And then you basically had to go. But it was basically, I met you through your R8, and I got to know that you're a very well-versed individual. So yeah, tell us a little bit about yourself. Let's just kind of jump into how you got the R8.

Yeah, no, we met at the MOLA last year, and I think the way we connected was probably through one of our other buddies with the RS5.

Oh, yeah, yeah, Derek with the fastest f***.

Yeah, Twin Turbo RS5, I think is what he's got. That thing's been in the shop, I think, for a couple months now, and he's not too happy. But yeah, I bought the R8 last year, around June, July time, and it was my dream car. Bought it down in Arkansas and drove it up about 10 hours. Supposed to be 12 hours, but you know. Traffic was light, you know.

Yeah, sure, that's what it was.

Yeah, so got into that, and then, yeah, I met you at a Mola, and it's been fun to own that thing since, so it's finally nice to get it out of the shop and out and running this year.

How long has it been now since you picked it up? When did you pick it up last year?

June, yeah, June last year, so kind of.

Okay, was it a weekend?

Yeah, I was at a wedding the night before, and I left first flight out, so I'm an airline pilot, so basically I can just jump on a flight and get to where I need to go, so took the first flight out at like 4 a.m. after a wedding, took two flights to get there and then down in Arkansas and checked it out. Everything was good, we agreed on a price, and I was out of there.

I'm just curious, the only reason I ask if it was a weekend is because that same weekend, a lot of s*** happened, so Eric with the McLaren, he picked up his McLaren that weekend, my dad picked up his AMG, and then Chaz picked up his Porsche. So was that, do you know if it was the first weekend of June or you wouldn't remember?

I think it was, it may have been close. I feel like it was like June 10th.

I think that's the weekend, yep.

I believe it was June 10th.

So you guys all rate the same weekend as everybody else got their s***.

We're all just bringing all these nice cars to Minnesota.

Dude, you know, this has been a great year for people bringing new cars to the scene. Like for example, that orange R8 that's on bags that just came.

Yeah, I saw that in your story. Was it two weekends ago?

Yeah, no, about a month ago now. Time flies. So I actually shot with his son, the Viper that I just posted. So that's his son. So I've known his son for a few years. We've chatted here and there, but somebody figured out or tagged him. So I'm like, oh, this is the nicest R8 in Minnesota. You know, just kinda, you know, posting. Hey now. Dude, AJ from Eurocharge. He's like, bro, come on. Cause like his R8 is fricking sweet too. But I posted that and within like an hour, somebody like tagged Travis. And then he's like, yeah, that's my dad's. Dude, the car community is fricking wild. Like everybody knows everybody, but I had all these photographers like Harris, do you know who that is? Cause like I usually know who it is. But I was like, nope, not this time y'all. So yeah, pretty sweet, dude. R8s will always have a special place in my heart. So I'm really happy you got that. What year is yours? We had that question earlier.

Yeah, it was 2011. So R8 is my dream car. It is.

Ironman?

A little bit Ironman, but I think it was more so like Need for Speed video games back when I was 10, 12 years old. And it was just like that was the car that I always wanted to go and drive on the game. But then I was never really a big gear head or anything. When I was growing up, I was too involved in sports and stuff, wasn't really wrenched on stuff. But hopefully that will change here in the next few years with the R8.

What a perfect car to wrench on. Speaking of wrenching on the R8, dude, it was hilarious. So we went to go do our test video slash photo shoot or whatever. And you missed out on this, Sean. I think you might have been out of town or something. I can't remember. Sean wasn't around. Otherwise he would have been there too, because the area we were hanging out from, we were at the gas station up the road when we filled up the R8 with diesel.

The diesel swap R8.

I saw that. I'm like, this guy's such an idiot.

We were bored. It was such a great idea.

Dude, I never failed to come up with the stupidest ideas. And it's great. But no, so that was the night where... What happened?

We were sitting in the parking lot of Eden Prairie Mall, and we had our lovely security guy come up and ask us if we were part of that radio station.

Yeah, so this guy was basically like, you guys can't be... Well, you didn't sound like that, but he's like, you guys can't be here. You can't be making money off of this. We were just like both chuckling. I was like, I'm not making any f****** money.

Meanwhile, there's like five other people sitting there taking pictures of this snow mound. And yeah, he's like, are you guys part of a radio station? I'm like, no.

It was freaking wild. And then all of a sudden, it started misfiring.

Yeah.

Like it was just idling. And then it just sounded like it lost eight cylinders.

Yeah, so what happened was, we were sitting there, you were shooting, and all of a sudden, you're like, we're both turning. And it's like, hey, what's going on? So go over there, and they got an ESP fault, and some other check engine lights on. I'm like, what is going on? Like it was just sitting there, I was doing nothing.

Dude, the funniest part, and I thought to myself, I'm like, oh boy, I hope he doesn't floor it. And first thing I did, he comes back with the window open, and he's like, dude, I'm flooring it. He's going like 10 miles an hour.

Yeah, I didn't want to go over 2000 RPMs, and I'm like, oh, this is not going to be fun. Like, what a great start to the season, right? So we turn it off, turn it back on. I let it sit for a minute, turn it back on, and then it's not misfire anymore. It's working fine, but I just have a check engine light. So I'm like, all right, well, we'll see how this goes. But yeah, no, nothing. I went and brought it to the shop. They're like, yeah, we don't see anything wrong with your engine. Like, everything's good. We'll clear it, and just let us know if it happens again. I'm like, okay.

I almost wonder if it was like the leftover winter fuel, because you didn't even fuel up right away.

Yeah, no, I left. I had full fuel before it. I put it up for the winter. And then, yeah, that was the first basically time running it, except for, unless you count the garage laps I've done at my condo, so that's about it.

Yeah, no, I like it too. It's a wrap on it, right? So I wonder what it looks like underneath.

I'm kind of curious too, but I'm also kind of scared. I'm like, what if it's got a little bit of janky paint job underneath?

Oh, did you not put the wrap on it?

No, no, bought it with the wrap.

Yeah, you have no idea what's underneath there. But it's a clean title, at least.

Clean title, yeah, clean title.

Freaking love it, dude. Real quick, Sean, do you want to just get a little more centered with your mic?

Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, it's just like talk into it. Yeah, we're trying out a new setup, so usually I'm on that side and he's on this side.

Yeah, he took my spot.

Yeah, but since we now have video and we're able to rock the... Do I have it set up to change pictures on the website?

No, I changed it. This is your client's photos.

Yeah, I updated that a little bit. But yeah, those are some of those are old, dude. But no, so obviously I can't have him running the TV and just breaking his neck over here, so I'm pretty stoked to have a video. Yesterday, I basically blew up all my subscribers, and I shouldn't say all because it's not a lot, but I checked this morning and I lost subscribers because I'm small enough to notice, right? Because I blasted all 17 as videos yesterday, like as audio versions. But I'm just like, oops, sorry, fellas, don't want you here anyway. But yeah, no, we're pretty stoked to have the old TV here, so we will probably pull up some fun stuff. No, dude, I'm super stoked that you're in a fun car. I mean, do you have any plans with that thing in the future? I know we talked about a few things that have potential to happen.

You know, I think one of the first things I'd probably, you know, realistically do in the near future, maybe toss in some new exhaust. But, you know, I get so much pressure from you guys, like, oh, you got to put a twin turbo, you got to supercharge it, you got to do something. You know, and part of me wants to do it, but I think probably in the next five years or so, I think we'll probably start throwing a little something at it.

Well, you could probably agree with this, Sean, is the second you start adding power, especially a lot of power, that's, you know, you have to be ready to play. It's pay to play, for sure. Especially with twin turbos on R8, it's the minimum power that, you know, you typically see out of a twin turbo kit on those. I think it's about 800. That's like waste gates pretty much. But, you know, I think it comes at a price tag to just get it, but then forget about it when things start going wrong.

Exactly.

That's the thing that people forget about. It's like, oh, I spent, you know, whatever, 10, 20, 30K on this build. We're good to go. Psych.

Yeah. Well, that's the one thing, too. If I go through and decide to toss something into it, I want to be involved with the build, because again, I didn't grow up wrenching on cars. So it's like, I want to understand what exactly it is that I have.

Right. And that's the whole part of the process of upgrading your vehicle is learning about it even more through the limitations and the power that comes with it. Could the V10 handle twin turbo? Obviously, yeah, it's a V10. Yeah, it's been done before. So it's a proven platform. It's a supercar. It has a tough engine. So it could handle.

That is 100% true. And I'm also in the camp of, f*** that, because I have seen people, and I have friends that, again, it's one thing to install your own exhaust, suspension, all that stuff, but when you start messing around with self-tuning, or not even self-tuning, but installing turbo builds and setting up your own flow and all this stuff, I feel like I have friends who have not driven their cars for years, because they just can't figure out what the f*** is going on, even with the help of experts. For example, we were watching the podcast with Aaron Miller from Enthomoto, the one that Cooper or whatever did, and he's basically talking about, we'll work on your cars that you've done, whether it's other tuners or whatever, but it's like we'd prefer not to, because at the end of the day, a shop wants to supervise all the work going on in those cars. So that said, they'll let you watch for double the shop rate. They'll be like, okay, Ben, put that there.

Hey, turn this bolt this way.

It saves also a few bucks on the bill. You come and help out. I'd always take that deal. I don't know about you. You hate working on your car.

No, I don't mind working on stuff, but at the end of the day, I'm an excuse maker. I'll do my oil change. I'll do basic stuff, but at the end of the day, I'll let a pro handle it. Once I have the amount of free time and the money to allow for f*** ups, and also the thing is, this is my only car. If I had a second car to dick around with, cool, I'll have to worry about getting to work. Could I get a second project car? Sure. Sean and I have talked about some stupid ideas, too. What was that last one? I think it was a Mark 2 Golf. I think it was $2,000 or $3,000. It would be a fun little project car. I love Mark 2s.

We'd have to keep it here, and then it would just sit, because you have no time to help me with anything.

It would literally never see the light of f****** day.

No. It just turns into one of the, oh, I can't wait till next year, and then it will be off the jack stands, and it's still on the jack stands.

Well, the thing is, the older I get, the angrier I get. For example, there's some tech issues that I've had on a podcast, right? And I'm like, oh, we got Thunder now. This is our first Thunder podcast. Hopefully it doesn't pick up into mics. But if I have any tech issues, if it's too hot in my room, I'm just like, f*** this. So I can't even imagine how angry I would get working on a car. So it's a later problem. I think if I turn into the next Adam LZ or something and I have my own garage condominium, unlimited free time and money, sure, I'll start wrenching.

Your wrenching turns into your content, which is your money. So that is your job, is to turn a wrench. And then basically you turn into a mechanic for YouTube.

Do you know who Adam LZ has been? Nope. So Adam LZ is basically like this... Well, f*** it, I'm not explaining it.

Car YouTuber?

Car YouTuber, I was just calling it.

Yeah, it's easy. It's not that complicated.

Dude, I don't know what's going on with me today. But basically he's doing this crazy world tour now. So he's doing four big festivals or events in four different countries around the world.

Is it like a Forza-style festival?

I don't look into the specifics of it, but basically it is a festival-style sort of thing. So I'm just thinking, dude, wouldn't that be the dream? Just do YouTube, run f****** events around the world?

That'd be solid. That'd be a lot of fun.

Hey, Sean.

Hey, Harris.

Do you need a roofer?

I could use a guy.

Well, I'm glad you agree. I saw your roof. You definitely need a roofer. And guess what? I think we know a guy. Do you remember Eric from the podcast like a million episodes ago?

Yeah, of course.

Well, guess what? He is the Twin Cities finest contractor. All right? He'll get you taken care of because this summer, Minnesota being Minnesota, it's going to throw hail at your roof. It's going to have tornadoes throwing shingles off your roof. You know what? You don't know what's going to end up up there. And he's going to get you taken care of because when you Google Solaire's Roofing, you're going to see five big beautiful yellow stars, and they're going to be telling you that he does not take a no when it comes to perfection. So you're going to reach out to him, either going through Google or you're going to go to solariscos.com. And let me tell you something, Sean, are you going to reach out to him?

I'm going to reach out to him today.

Well, I'm glad you answered that way, because buddy, you need a new roof. I don't know, I can rant all day long, but let's talk about planes.

Yeah, talking about traveling.

So as we alluded to earlier in the podcast, our boy Ben here, he flies planes. And not just little props, but you do that too.

It's been a while, but...

You are a legit, we may see you on a Delta flight kind of guy.

Absolutely.

Let me know if we have anything to cut at any point.

Nope, nope, you're good. So I'm an airline pilot, I'm a captain at Endeavour Air, so it is one of Delta's regional carriers. So I've been with them for, what month is it? Yeah, about five, just shy of five and a half years. So I've been a captain for the last year and a half. Also been a SEM instructor, pilot recruiter, I used to conduct interviews for new pilots coming in. So, with inside of being a pilot, I've done other plethora of jobs with inside my company. But main job, captain of 76 passenger jet, all around the country, I fly a CRJ-900 for any aviation nerds or anyone that understands.

We have a few of them.

What I'm talking about, yeah?

Yeah, no, I mean, there's a lot of car people that also, like, car people are already hobbyists. So, like, then they have a second hobby, whether that's guns, airplanes, whatever. Like, people get, they have, there'll be a few airplane nerds out here. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, yeah, and it's, you know, with airplanes too, they, you know, they're finicky just like cars, right? Things break, and the thing with being a pilot, you know, I don't need to be an engineer and figure things out, you know? So talking about like my R8 with the misfire and turn it off and back on, I've done that plenty of times with my airplanes and things are fixed.

You know, I don't know if I want to hear that.

Well, it's usually just, you know, some, again, not an engineer, but usually some type of fault that just can't clear, turn it off, back on, system runs through its tests again, and then the fault clears. But then a lot of times we got to write it up and it comes out and they do their thing and do what we need to do.

Yeah. What's the worst thing that's happened to a plane that you were supposed to fly?

Supposed to fly or was flying?

Let's do both. I want to hear, because I've sat in a plane and then they turn it on and then they're like, it's actually going to take us a couple hours. We're getting the mechanics out. They're going to take a look at the engines. And it's just like, this is misery.

Yeah. And then they put like speed tape on the Collins of the engine and stuff. You see in like those pictures on like Spirit flights, they're putting the tape in the engine together.

Yeah, it's not duct tape, it's speed tape.

No, the stuff actually works really well. But...

Hold on.

Disclaimer, disclaimer. No.

Wait, what's speed tape? Can you explain that part to me?

It's essentially like, it looks like duct tape, but it's super adhesive and like they put it on and it can withstand up to, you know, five, six hundred miles an hour.

Yeah, it's like FIA approved.

Yeah, yeah. It's again, not engineer, so I don't need to worry about it. I just need to know, hey, it's there and it works, right?

OK, that's already making me nervous.

No, it's well, that's cool that it works, but it's like, well, the mechanics are the ones that sign off on it, and as long as they do their job correctly, I can do my job correctly.

But think about who was the first person to come up with that, right? Like, LOL, duct tape.

Duct tape times 10, right? Speed tape.

Oh, my gosh.

There are all over these planes.

Oh, my God, it's all over the wings.

Oh, that's an Australian airline you can see with the kangaroo on the tail.

Spirit of Australia.

Dude, look, it's like chicken pox.

Yeah, that's a little excessive.

That's like...

See that? Dude, that's the whole door. That's some legit actual speed tape that is in its place properly. That's not excessive like that one.

I'm not flying ever again. No, that's crazy that it works, though. But at the same time, if you think about how strong tape is, it is pretty gnarly in the fact that this is duct tape times ten.

Or it's not used to hold pieces of the airplane together a lot of times. It's just for rivets that were just freshly put in and they want to make sure that they stay, but their plane can still fly.

In case they fly.

Yeah, it's not that bad. No, but to answer your question, Sean, so nothing crazy has happened on any of my flights as an airline pilot. Had my first engine failure my first week as a flight instructor. So freshly signed off to be a flight instructor and had an engine failure. So I was living down in Tampa instructing students down there, and we were in a multi-engine twin, so just two props on each side. Took off out of Tampa or St. Pete Clearwater to be exact. We're coming up, engine cut off, came back on, I'm like, oh, that was kind of weird. Let's keep going. And then about 10 seconds later, cut off again. I'm like, all right, I took the airplane from my student. Engine came back on one more time, then it cut off. And I was like, all right, we're going to shut it down. So we shut it down. So all jets, all airplanes, multi-engine aircraft, we can fly on one engine all day. Like my jet right now, if I lost an engine, I could cruise out at 15,000 feet and be chilling, be no problem. So that's why we got two engines.

Yeah.

But yeah, shut it down, turn back around, landed. No issue. Got to the ramp, kissed the ground. And then I didn't fly the rest of the day. I was like, nope, I'm done for today.

Dude, it's freaking gnarly. So I was watching like, I think it was like the machines that built America or whatever on like History Channel. And I can't remember, I think it might have been, was it an Airbus at first, like the first plane to take off with one engine? Maybe I, I can't remember who it was, but either way, like that was one of the requirements that the company had. It's like, hey, we'll buy all your freaking planes, but you have to show us that it could take off with one engine.

Interesting. I mean, is the only thing that's required for takeoff is a certain amount of airspeed and a certain amount of lift to get off the ground. So a lot of things that we train, we call it V1 cuts. So we have what's called V speeds. So they're all the speeds at which certain actions happen. So V1 is like the airspeed when we're taking off. If sands or butts were going in the air, no matter what, after this airspeed. And then we got VR, which is our rotation speed. So it's a call out, pilot monitoring, or the person that's not actively flying calls out, hey, rotate. Then we pull back on the yoke, and we're up and out of there. So we do what's called V1 cuts in the training. So basically what happens right when you hit V1, instructor in the simulator kills the engine, and then you got to maintain directional control, because if you lose your right engine, left engine's got power, it wants to bring you off to the right. So what will happen is you'll cut it at V1, and then you got to control it and be able to take off and maneuver the airplane properly without crashing into the ground.

And you do that in a sim? Oh, no, not in the real thing.

Yeah, with passengers too, we do that.

No, I'm so glad I watched that episode on the History Channel, dude, because it's not that sketchy s*** they used to do with airplanes. They're like, oh, throwing some passengers. Yes, yes, yes, too. But hopefully by the end of this podcast, people feel safer flying, because I went on a flight, I think shortly after you taught me some things, and I was like, all right, I feel more comfortable flying. The one that's always scared me, or not scared me, but made me nervous, was turbulence, for example. I think that's everybody who's ever flown, ever. The turbulence can get sketchy, especially that video that came out a few months ago, where basically everybody was shaking, not stirred.

I think it was a flight coming from Hawaii on United or American, or something like that.

Typical. But no, it was freaking nuts. But then you sent me a video on YouTube, right? And it's like, do they bend the s*** out of those wings?

Yeah, the wings literally, they stress test them, they go through so many procedures, that's why the planes cost so much. My little 76 passenger jet's a $50 million jet brand new. You look at your 320s, your 737s, you're upwards of $100-plus million per plane.

My gosh.

Yeah.

That's freaking nuts. And then, do you know how many are in the fleet? Do you have numbers of that?

For my airplane, or for my company, we used to, or maybe still do, have the largest CRJ fleet in the world. But we just, last week, retired our CRJ 200s. So if you've ever been to, like, Sioux Falls or some of these smaller airports, a CRJ 250-seat little jet, and you walk in, and you're like, wow, this is an airline. What am I, like, you've got to walk through, like, shoulders crunch forward, head down. Especially for you, you'd have a tough time on that plane.

Yeah, I've been in some of those small planes, dude. I'm a big f*****.

But yeah, so we just retired all those, and that made up a good portion of our fleet. But now we have the CRJ 900 and 700. But yeah, I'd say we have at least 100-plus jets at our airline with 1700 pilots. And then Delta mainline, they're at about 15,000 pilots, and I couldn't tell you how many planes I have.

Oh my gosh.

That's freaking nuts to think about. I mean, each of those is like 50 mil minimum.

Yeah, the Delta jets, their bare minimum price for jets probably on their property is probably 75 million plus.

Yeah, because Delta has some of the nicer, newer jets. Or do they just take the older ones, and then they strip out the interior, put all new furnishing in it?

Exactly.

Okay, yeah, that's what I thought. Because there's no way they could justify spending 75 million on a new jet when they just bought one like 10 years ago for 50.

Exactly, exactly.

Well, isn't there... There's some new ones on the horizon coming too, right?

The Maxis are probably what you guys have been hearing in the news and whatnot. All the 737 Maxis.

That one, but then wasn't there like the replacement for the 747? Is that it or something else? Nope.

So no passenger airline will have any 747s. The last four-engine jet will be the 380, and Emirates are the only ones that fly those with passengers.

Yeah, because wasn't there something like a 767 coming up in the next decade or so?

They're always working on something.

Always something.

They're trying to get more fuel efficient and things like that because, you know, after paying the pilots, the next most expensive thing is usually fuel.

So how much is the aviation fuel? It's not like regular gas.

You got jet A is what it is, and then I don't. I just fly the airplane. But yeah, it's expensive, you know, so.

Yeah, you don't have to pay for it.

So like my jet burns about four thousand pounds an hour. And so depending on which aircraft, airbuses usually pretty fuel efficient. But yeah, depending on which airplanes you go to that you're looking at anywhere between five to two thousand pounds per hour. So it's a lot of fuel. So airplane like my airplane can hold 18,000 gallons, 18.5, I believe.

All right. Here's a question for you. What happens when because like. All right. When you go over there and they are like, hey, your bag is like two pounds too heavy. All right. And I can't remember which comedian did this joke. I think it might have been Bill Burrow or whatever. But it's like, what about so like, listen, I'm 240 pounds. What about this big f***** next to me? You know, that's like, you know, whatever. Like I have a buddy that's, you know, clocking up there. All right. And maybe 100, 200 pounds heavier to me. How do they account for that? Like, is there like a number? Does that burn more fuel? Obviously, when the plane's heavier?

Yeah, obviously. Yeah. Yeah.

Like how big of a deal is it? Like when somebody gets the extended seat belts, for example, like how much trouble are we in when we get like, you know, let's say we're coming from Florida.

Well, that's probably going to happen to like one person per flight.

No, no, I'm saying like, okay, I'm not sure who the fattest state is here. Let's say you're flying back from Texas. All right, let's say you're flying back from Texas. Like how much more fuel are you burning, big guy?

So there's an average pound that we use for people, you know, because most people would probably not be too happy if they scan their boarding pass. Hey, step on the scale as either you're boarding or you're playing, right?

You're going to pay an extra $100.

No, so during the summer months, for crews and passengers, they have a certain weight that everybody is. And then so obviously you're a little bit heavier during the wintertime because more heavy clothes, winter clothes, things like that. Okay. And you're different. And so we'd use an average pound. Last year, the year before, I forget, they came through and re-weighed all the crew bags because they wanted to redo the numbers. So I believe our weight has gone up as our average for us Americans, which, you know, for the crew members, crew members and passengers, I believe.

Oh, yeah. Obviously passengers. Yeah.

So just like the general sense of like, as a whole in this country, we're just a little bit heavier on the heavier side.

We don't have to beat around the bush. We know we're number one in that field.

I mean, I just definitely know. Like, yeah, I doubt anybody listening to this would even get sensitive about it, because we know. Whether it's, and to be fair, we have some of the most muscular, heavy people here too. Like, if you look at an NFL linebacker compared to even a rugby player, it's like, Jesus Christ. So planes, typically when you're loading, they have some sort of scale too, right? Like how much payload or whatever.

Yep. So, I mean, obviously we weight fuel. We, you know, all the bags are weighed. And then obviously if they're overweight, you know, and then they have the exact pounds and stuff.

They can adjust for it.

Exactly. So when we get all the numbers, so when I say numbers, when we get passenger count and all the bags, that weight is all calculated, and then we get our takeoff numbers and a bunch of other information that we need prior to departing.

Oh, interesting. I never even thought about that. Yeah, they check in everybody. They get all the bags. That makes total sense. And then that's how they probably calculate how much fuel you'll need.

Well, fuel is usually already calculated because we usually have a rough guesstimate of what our weight is going to be. And it's usually before passengers and bags and stuff are loaded on. Again, we use those averages. So it usually gets us pretty close, but then we get the exact numbers once everybody's on, all the bags are loaded on and things like that. So obviously, different bags and different cargo compartments will change our center of gravity. So our center of gravity could be more aft. It could be more forward of the aircraft. So it just kind of depends on who shows up that day and how much crap they want to bring with.

Can you define aft?

Back.

Back? Okay, cool. I like to ask questions like that.

No, you're good. You're good.

Because if I don't understand it, somebody else might not, too.

Do you guys use the same lingo as ship captains?

A little bit different. I'm not sure exactly. But we use alphabraba, Charlie. We use the phonetic alphabet. We like to abbreviate a lot of things that we say. So instead of saying Roger, say Raj. A lot of things on the radios we'll say. We'll say, see ya. Just kind of weird, quirky things. So every time I text you and you're like, hey, we're going to be here at this spot, and I'll just text you Raj.

Yeah, I noticed that. Yep.

That's just what I do. It's just one of those things that kind of carries over into real life.

This is why you got to talk to everybody, man. If you're friends with more people that do different things, you just learn these quirky things. I don't know. Again, when you sent me that video, the wing being tested, it was literally like 90 degrees. They could literally bend that wing, and it looks like... Have you ever seen a barn swallow fly? When their wings go way the f*** up here, that's what they're able to do with those planes.

They literally bring it all the way up there, and they drop it, and it goes back and forth, and then it studies out, and it's right back where it's supposed to be.

It's crazy how far it's come. Even since, like, you're... When did they stop smoking on airplanes? I think it was like the 60s or something.

There's still cigarette compartments in the flight deck.

Oh, yeah, because some of those planes... How old's your plane?

Well, some of them... We have brand new planes, but we also have planes that have been around, and they've got tens of thousands of hours on them. So you're looking at planes that are, you know, 15-plus years old.

Well, it's not too bad for airplanes. Yeah, planes back then, they didn't have jet engines on them. They all were propelled.

Do you know when they switched from propeller to jets? Guestimate?

That was probably around the deregulation time, was right when they were having jets, and if my history serves me correctly, which please don't quote me on this, because I'm terrible with history and dates, but I want to say it was either around in the 70s, maybe the 60s, if I'm not mistaken. We could do a Google search.

Should we do our first verification?

Yeah, let's do it. The year of deregulation.

I can't wait to start calling people on their s*** on this podcast. It's going to be great. We can just ask when it went from propellers to jets.

78. Nice, that was close. Basically, prior to deregulation, it was all government-regulated, and they basically had the say of what to do. And then after deregulation, private companies like all the companies you see now can...

Switch it back to dark mode, by the way, because the camera is freaking out when it's bright like that. Look at that, it's crazy. All the little quirks we're figuring out.

I'm just your little guinea pig. That's all it is.

He was my first YouTube video. He saw the YouTube video. He was my guinea pig for that, too.

Really?

Yeah, so I just love...

What was that video?

That's probably your last one, yeah?

Yeah, look at that. Just a blast.

Oh, there you go.

Right here, meet the owner. That was the snow mound.

Yup, so we're going to get a little bit more of that going, too. I really like this camcorder we picked up for the podcast. It's perfect.

Look at that handsome devil.

Dude, I can't wait to be like... I can tell when I get fatter, because my face just looks rounder.

When you cut and you bulk and stuff like that, I'm well aware of all that.

Because if you look at Meet the Owner, the one I did with Alex Sajadi years ago, I think I was about 30 pounds lighter in that video. So it's like you can even tell. I think that's a good... We'll come back to the Plains at some point, but let's transition. You do a little bit... Well, not that type of transition. Hi. Let's talk a little bit about your bodybuilding. So you're just getting into this, but you've definitely... I mean, compared to most newbies, you're doing pretty well, I'd say.

Yeah, I mean, I've... So when I upgraded to captain, I also became a sim instructor, and our sims are over in Eagan. So for the last about year, almost year and a half, I basically got to be at home every night, which is not very common for pilots. So I was getting really bored. I didn't... I'm like, well, I'm working out, and I don't... It was during tail end of all the COVID stuff, and I'm like, well, let's do something that's productive. So I got into bodybuilding. Did my first show last year in October. Took fifth in the open in my class. I was out of, I think it was 12 of us, if I'm not mistaken.

Okay, so top half. I like it.

So brought a solid physique. You know, your first show is always kind of like a stab in the dark. It's basically a science experiment of how your body reacts to everything we're throwing at it. You know, growing up playing sports, obviously athletic, but when I was going through flight training, I didn't see a gym for probably about two years until between 2016 and 2018. But yeah, so got that first show done and out of the way with, and we've added another coach onto my... So I got two coaches, guy for nutrition and one guy for all my lifts and working out and stuff. So they work together, so they're a great team. Three of us are, you know, I love the dynamic, and it's been a lot of fun, a lot of learning. So next show is coming up end of October, and that'll be in YZZ, if I'm not mistaken.

Okay, are these like local shows for the time being?

Yep, so the last show I did was in... It was actually down this way. It was the Heritage Center.

At Mystic?

No, not Mystic.

Because I know they had a couple bodybuilding things, too.

Yep, they'll have one here in a couple months, the NPC Twin Cities. So different federation, bunch of different federations with inside bodybuilding. So I'm in the natural federations, so no steroids over here and all that because it'd probably get me in trouble with the FAA if I decided to start juicing up and whatnot.

Oh yeah, true, because you'd get tested like a m*********** if you're flying planes.

Yep, so we got to go through medical testing once a year, get our medical renewed, and then we're subject to random DOT drug tests, but I don't think steroids are on the random DOTs, but they could pop up in the medical, and I could get my medical taken away if I am not healthy. But yeah, so next show is coming up October, November. So we're getting close to the tail end of this bulk. Nice product placement.

I would love to have them as an official sponsor. I'm going to do the affiliate program with Jaco. Yeah, because it's a product I love to do or drink. I use not just the energy drink, but I also do the protein shakes. I'm still up in the air about the pre, just because there's certain things I look for in a pre. But we'll see what happens. But back to bodybuilding. And that's not a shout out, because I don't make money.

But yeah, so it's been fun. We're putting on some tissue right now. So a bunch of muscle tissue is the game plan, and we're sitting at about 190 pounds. But yeah, the category I'm in, men's physique. So you got three different categories, men's physique, you got classic physique, and then you got open bodybuilding. So open bodybuilding just gives as big a muscle as you possibly can.

Right, that's the one where you can just throw the kitchen sink at it.

Exactly, and then you got men's physique where it's your Hollister model type of look is what they're trying to go for.

This is a Calvin Klein table, sir.

Exactly.

God Hollister, geez. I'm aging myself right now, aren't I?

You're so aging yourself.

No, I remember that, dude. I had all the models hanging outside. I don't want to go in there. I'm too intimidated.

How old are you?

I'm 27.

We're the same age.

Boomers.

Yeah, so then men's physique is basically you want to be symmetrical. Symmetrical as in your front part of your body is pretty equal to your backside. And then within each side, and then we only wear board shorts, and then each category, you know, classic physique, you get a little bit shorter and open body belt, and you're just wearing the old G-string and flaunting as much as you're allowed to show.

I would love to see you in open body, Ben. No, it's freaking wild, man. I remember I was watching a lot of stuff last year, or earlier this year. Was it last year with Chris Bumstead? I think he just won again. But no, one thing I've heard from people, especially that I've been doing it for a long time, is max out your natural capabilities first, and then decide if you want to go into steroids. Whereas nowadays, especially with social media, people just are like, LOL, let's do some trend, dog. And then they will, that's how you get injuries and all that stuff, too. It's a good to see you on the clean path.

Yeah, and I don't necessarily see myself going, it's called the dark side, getting over into some juice. I don't necessarily see myself doing that. If the possibility of like, hey, you've got an Olympia potential physique, then I'll think about it. But with my job, my health needs to be where it needs to be, and I can't, I need to have my job to be able to pay for the bodybuilding.

Like, especially, well, forget the, I mean, even if you don't include the two trainers, then you also have all the food, food, I mean, you eat it, and like, especially when you're on a bulk, like a clean bulk is expensive, dude.

Yeah, 4,000 calories a day of clean bulk is a lot of trips to Walmart and Cove Foods.

All right, well, yeah, I mean, then imagine if you're like a Whole Foods shopper.

Oh, I should probably get a Costco membership.

You don't have a Costco membership yet? Dude, it's, dude, I think it's a lifesaver, like, especially if you, there's like these things that we get, it's like a big plate, like slabs of like meat or whatever. And it's like thin, it's already pre-cut thin stuff. And it's like, it's pretty inexpensive for what you get. And, you know, I mean, granted, if you're doing 4,000 calories a day, maybe one of those a day, but yeah. But no, it's freaking, dude, I will always tell people to go to Costco, or at least Sam's Club.

Yeah, I just been, I need to, I just been lazy about it.

I think it's like what, 100 bucks a year?

I think it's two.

For a membership? Oh, 200 bucks?

I think it's 200, yeah. I might be wrong on that, but I do remember people b******* about it getting more expensive at one point.

Well, I'll jump on it one of these days when I've got a little bit of time, but, you know.

Yeah, bro, let's go right now. Forget the podcast, let's go to Costco. So get some more, like, half-off TVs.

25-pound bagger rice, and that's, I'll just stack up on those. 100 bagger, 100 pounds of rice probably last me five months, maybe? If I'm lucky.

If you're lucky. No, yeah, I'm glad that, I mean, like you said, you have a career to worry about, so it's like, you know, yeah, I have friends that are in debt from it. Like, it's freaking wild, like how expensive it is.

Yeah, no, it's definitely worth it to, you know, be in good shape, and it's definitely a very rewarding experience, because, you know, it's one of those things, it's delayed gratification, right? You know, I'm putting in all this work, and like, I'm not, quote unquote, seeing any, like, results that I'm going to see in, you know, six months from now. But, you know.

There's a disciplined nature to it.

Absolutely.

It's a little crazy, like, even today, we went to go get brunch, right? He got f****** fruit instead of the wheat toast, and I'm like, oh, I know why.

Yeah, hash browns, eggs, and a little bit of steak, and I'm like, yeah, that's my cheat meal for the week, so I get one free meal every week.

That's his cheat meal, Sean.

Well, that's something like a pretty cheatful meal. Like, what would you normally get? Just a big piece of steak?

Honestly, it's gotten anything from like an entire pizza to myself to full-on steaks that, you know, go to Pittsburgh Blue and get a fat steak and a big potato or something like that. But yeah, no, it's a very disciplined sport. And if you're, you know, you can have an off day here and there, but it's a very difficult thing to do, especially with me being on the road and things like that, packing all my food and back.

Yeah, that's got to really up the difficulty since you travel so much. I feel like that's, you know, probably a reason why most people would just like miss the gym is because they travel so much. And, you know, but you said you got some downtime now, so it's like you can fill that with working out and bodybuilding.

Yeah, so yeah, it's kind of, well, the gym is since I started this whole journey is kind of engraved in my lifestyle. So it's like when I go on trips and I'm working, like, I don't look for where I'm going to go eat that night. I'm looking at which gym is close by to the hotel that I can go check out, because hotel gyms, you can only do so much, you know.

How many memberships do you have now?

Three.

That's less than I thought.

Yeah, so I got a gym membership close to my place, and then I got a gym membership for where my coach is at, and then I've got a, quote unquote, traveling gym membership that my company provides that allows me to access gyms around the country.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, so basically you get free day passes or free memberships to all these different gyms, your Planet Fitnesses, your Anytime Fitness, things like that. So it's a lifesaver.

Yeah, I mean, it's better to nothing, too. I mean, Planet Fitness makes it a little bit difficult given how few things they have there.

I make it work. Sometimes you got to get a little bit creative. So it's like, no, I've got a program. I've got to set things I'm doing on certain days. And so you get a little...

You plan around it?

Yeah, I plan around it. It gets frustrating sometimes, but for the most part, I usually have an ability to make things pan out for myself.

Dude, one of my favorite videos that he posted on his Instagram was... Where were you? Punta Cana, I think, or something? Like some tropical place?

Nope, I was down at Tulum.

Tulum, that's what it was. And this dude, I swear to God, looked like f****** Fred Flintstone working out because he had these wooden dumbbells. It was like a wooden gym. That was super cool.

Yeah.

Was it something that you made or they just had?

No, it's the Tulum Jungle Gym. So it's like a world renowned gym in the jungle.

Was it something you made? Like he f****** crashed the plane. All right, you got to make my gym now.

Can't miss a day.

Stuck on a deserted island, what's the first thing you do?

Make dumbbells. Instead of making a big SOS and blowing smoke in the air. Nah, that's got to make my f******...

Gains first.

Gains first, dude. That's awesome. I mean, the perks of being able to fly wherever the heck you want. I mean... Oh my God, imagine... I'm sure there's trouble you would get into, but imagine just being like, all right, guys, we're not going to Baltimore. We're going to Hawaii, boys.

Yeah, when I was as an FO, as a first officer, when I was based out in New York, when I first started, there's plenty of times where I had finished a trip, like work trip, and I'm like, all right, where am I going to go? So one of the first times I did was I was going to go to Paris. I want to go see the Eiffel Tower. But I was only going to go there if I could get first class, and I didn't get first class. I'm like, all right, I'm going to go to Brussels. And I went to Brussels, and I got a waffle.

Nice. So do they comp you the first class, or is that like heavily discounted?

Free.

Free? Oh my gosh.

So I get Delta 1, so only if they're available, right?

So how long did it take you to become a pilot? All on a free flight to Paris? Geez.

All encompassing from private pilot all the way up to my last flight instructor, if you count it together, it was probably about two years and some change from zero to being an airline pilot.

So you're telling me I could go like sign up right now, allegedly, and I could be doing what you're doing in two years?

If you work your butt off and you're getting stuff done super quick, absolutely.

All right, so let's say it's a half-assed job.

And you're three years for sure.

Who the f*** is going to college?

Well, so what is the hiring right now for like all these airlines? Because it wasn't too long ago, a lot of pilots were either being fired or not being hired.

Yeah, so if you have the flight time on a pulse, you're hired.

Oh, really? Okay, so the hiring is back on.

Well, there's a huge pilot shortage right now.

There is.

Yep, so a little bit self-induced, like Delta during, I hate to bring up COVID twice in the same podcast, but they offered a bunch of early retirements. And so those early retirements, and then with a combination of pilots not flying. And so if you don't fly, if you don't do a takeoff and landing in three calendar months, so 90 days, you have to go back and re-qual, basically get re-certified to go fly the airplane again, because they say if you haven't flown in three months, then you need to go to the sim and make sure that you know what you're doing, essentially.

Yeah, you don't want to be like, smack the plane off the ground a little too hard. Oh, I'm a little rusty.

It still happens, you know. It happens to the best of us. But yeah, so that on top of more demand, people wanting to travel and stuff like that, it's in company projections of what they're trying to do. There's a big need for pilots. So if you want a good career and good benefits, travel, things like that, being a pilot's a phenomenal direction to go.

So what was the step one?

Step one, discovery flight. Discovery flight, yep. So discovery flight and getting your medical are the first two things I always tell people. Because I've mentored a few pilots since I've gone through the process myself. People always have a lot of questions, so I got no problem mentoring people. Honestly, it's a fun time, and I enjoy doing it. But yeah, so discovery flight. You pay $100, you go up with a flight instructor in a single-engine prop airplane, a little Cessna or a little Archer or something. You go up for an hour, and they usually let you handle the airplane a little bit and see if you like it. And if you like it, then you go. That's kind of how I got started. I went into discovery flight, and I'm like, oh, this is awesome. And I just never looked back since.

So that's like a total noob gets on an airplane. They just give you the controls for like 30 seconds or something?

Yeah, more than that. I used to do discovery flights with potential people that wanted to get into it, and I let them shadow the controls on a lot of things. So like on my takeoffs, I'm like, just have your hands on the yoke and just kind of play along with me.

I think Terry might have did that or done that. So I went on a flight with him and somebody else on like a little Cessna or whatever. I was on the rental planes at Eden Prairie. And I think he gave Terry the controls just for a little bit, like, all right, up and down.

I mean, there's definitely some times where you're sitting there talking to someone beforehand, like, yeah, they'll probably be pretty good. And I'll do everything, but I'll let them pull back on the yoke with me. And actually, I do the takeoff just so they have a feeling of like, oh, this is sweet. But yeah, discovery flight and your medical. Those are the first two big things, because one, discovery flight, do you actually like this? Is it something that freaks you out, or is it something that you're kind of like, yeah, this is pretty sweet? And the medical is the other thing that you need to get past. So your first medical that you do is like very, not intensive, but like a lot of questions that they need to ask and do a lot of...

Psych eval?

The medical examiner, part of their job is to ask you questions to make sure you're pretty much a sane person.

Yeah, like emotionally and physically.

Exactly.

I would not pass. I'll be like, so what if I just, you know, landed on the f****** highway?

The intrusive thoughts leaking in.

My filter would be going freaking crazy during that. Because he'll ask me a question, and I'll just be like, yeah.

But yeah, those are the first two things, and then you're going to go after your other ratings. So your private pilot is the first thing you're going to get. Basically, once you pass that, we call them check rides, so you do an oral exam, and then you do a flight exam, essentially, is what it is. So the oral exam, they ask you a bunch of questions about the type of flying you're doing, certain maneuvers and certain rules and regulations that you need to abide by for being that type of pilot. You also have a written exam that you have to do prior to doing that as well. So a lot of exams, a lot of check and balances that you need to pass. And then you go up and do a flying portion, you do certain maneuvers, landings, certain soft field landings, so like pretending to be on a grass strip, short field landings if you're pretending to land on a very short field, and obviously normal landings.

And then other stuff like, for example, like killing the engine and all that stuff, like stalling the plane and all that.

Yep, stalls, stalls are fun. That was a good time.

We did that when we got taken up in the little bucket. Yeah, it was funny. We did a little bit of zero-G stuff, and that was wild, and then he asked us if we wanted to do one of those like coming out of the sky ones, and I was like, nope, hell no.

I think I might have shown you a video of me doing spins before, but...

You showed me a lot of videos.

I've done some fun stuff in planes. It's been a good time. But... Minnoxide hair growth? Is that what I just said?

Yeah, so he misspelled Minnoxide, and it pulled up Minoxidil or something.

Oh yeah, that's a good time right there. So I used to do this a lot.

Once it's up after to fricking add, but... No, so, okay, so this is what we're seeing as a spin, 20 turn fully developed spin in a Robin aircraft.

Yeah, look at this.

I would upchuck.

Oh yeah, that's a good time right there. Dude, yeah. Engine just stopped. Oh yeah, they cut the engine.

I love the little gauges freaking out.

This guy right now is like, I'm scared.

It's really good training now.

Can we stop doing this?

100%.

This is not natural. And then he tells them, hey, put your hands up.

Oh my god.

Smile for the camera.

You neutralize the controls, immediately the airplane stops, and the engine is back running, and you're good to go.

Okay, let's take this another direction then. Obviously, airliners have a lot of safety features, and it's pretty freaking hard. But then at the same time, those big propeller jets, or not jets, but the big propeller planes, like the one that crashed a few months ago, right?

Which country?

I think it was in the Middle East. Where was it?

Probably.

It was one of those...

It was probably a Dash 8 or something. You get the wheels on the side, and the engine is right there, and you can see the propellers right outside your window.

Right, so it was a propeller one, and you might have seen the video at some point. Basically, it stalled out. It was going too slow.

Again, if one engine quits, as long as you handle it properly with the other engine intact, you can fly all day on that single engine. Well, on propellers.

Back in the 40s during World War II, bombers would have three of their engines shot out, and they would just be coasting, praying that they could make it back to their airstrip.

Yeah, so, you know, I don't want to play, you know, Monday morning quarterback with what they should have done or should not have done, you know, but, you know, engine shuts off, and there are some other speculations that they were doing some training things or something like that, I believe. I don't know. So, other countries have different regulations that they abide by. In the United States, the last fatality crash that we had was back in 2009, and I believe it's 2009. But ever since then, you know, aviation in the United States is extremely safe. So, you know, we have all these checks and balances. We have systems, and we have backup systems for that system, and then we have a backup system for that backup system, you know.

So, yeah, redundancy is key.

Tons of redundancy. And, you know, our procedures are in place for reasons we do things in certain order, so we don't necessarily forget things, but we do things in proper order, and we have certain SOPs that we need to follow to make sure that we are conducting safe flights. And so, as an instructor, you know, like, I'm kind of like a, you know, I'm that guy that's like, hey, you kind of did that wrong, but I don't want to, when I'm out on the line flying, I don't want to be like that know-it-all, like, hey, this is how you do your job.

Well, you're on the stutter, jeez. You're on the nicer side. You'll be like, hey, man, you f***** that up, let's do it again, but you're not going to be like somebody that's super annoying. For example, when you get your license the first time driving a car, it's like, hey, you almost killed us all, you know? But you'll be on the nicer side.

There's times, because again, in the sim, we have time to pause the sim, and let's try this again, let's try this technique this way.

That's the whole reason why you're in there.

Absolutely, but out on the line where I'm at now, there's no time to, hey, let's try to do this a little bit better. There's some times where, hey, I need to take the plane, or I need to do this, or I know a trick to make this work in the navigation system, things like that. It works out really well. The FAA is really good in certain ways, and they could use some improvements in some other areas.

As with any governing body.

Yeah, so we won't speak on that, but it's... For what the... How do I put this? For where we're at in our current environment with aviation, we're in a very safe and efficient area of it, I guess.

I don't even know how I'm supposed to word that. That's a good way to put it. We're in safe hands, basically. You're in good hands. Or no, what is it? Are you in good hands? I don't know. Who cares? No, yeah. It's really awesome to see that that's the case. It's constantly improving, obviously. I love talking to you, because it's made me so much happier with flying. I wasn't necessarily scared before, but when we had turbulence, we had some gnarly turbulence coming back from Jacksonville. Twice, actually, dude. It was the worst turbulence I've had in my life. I was like, oh, s***. I'm glad I talked to Ben, but oh, boy.

If I'm sitting in the back, turbulence rocks me to sleep when I'm just sitting there. You'll hear people give a little gas, and I'm just like...

Just slumped.

When I'm in uniform in the back, people tend to, when things like that happen...

They'll look to you to see if you're nervous.

I feel the eyes just kind of piercing in on me.

They're like, shouldn't you be flying the plane?

There's some funny responses that we... It's like, oh, no, we're doing a beta test where we fly it from back here.

Really?

I'm like, no, I'm just kidding. There's a lot of good... Because I'm a young guy, when I was 22, I was getting looks all the time. How old are you? My mom signed the after school work permission slip. So there's always good fun responses that make people feel a little bit more at ease.

So you started when you were 22, right?

Yeah, I started flying jets when I was 22. It's been a long time.

That's freaking nuts. Because obviously you have to pay to go to college. What's the expense?

What's college?

I couldn't tell you. What is the expense to get into flying planes? To start again from ground zero, to get to where you're at.

So that's changed in the last five, six years. Pricing has gone up tremendously. There's a lot of different avenues that you can take. We abide by different parts of the FAR, so the Federal Aviation Regulations. Wow, look at me go. I know what I'm talking about sometimes, the FAR aim. The FAR aim, there are the rules and regulations that we have to abide by with regards to aviation. So the part, the direction I went, I went on part 61, which is like, I don't come out of it with a degree. I don't have to go to college. I just have to pass certain exams and tests and things of that nature to get my certifications, because in the regulations, you have a list of requirements for each rating that you need to do that you need to abide by. So it's like, hey, I need to have this many hours, I need to do this type of flying, this many lanes, et cetera. And as long as I do all that flying stuff and I pass the knowledge exam, the written exam that you take on the computer, and you go take your checkride like we were talking about earlier, you're good to go. So that's part 61. Then you have part 141, which is you go the college route. So there's different college routes that you can go. So you can do a four-year degree where you come on with a bachelor's, or you can do a two-year degree where you get an associate's. So there's advantages and disadvantages of both. Because after high school, I played junior hockey. So I didn't go straight from high school to flying airplanes. I played a little bit of junior hockey after high school. So if I would have gone to college, four-year route, after I was done with juniors, I would have been trying to look for a job in 2020 at the airlines, and that wouldn't have been too much.

Oh, yeah, that would have been a rough time to find a job.

Yeah, so that's when they weren't hiring and whatnot. So very blessed, very fortunate to have gotten in when I did in the path that I took. So different paths and different financial situations for everybody. So I had to take out a private loan for my Part 61, because it was not a type of after school. It wasn't a tech school. It was, hey, I'm getting my flight ratings. So because of Part 61, I had to go take out a private school loan, mom and dad, co-signers. So big high interest rate on that bad boy. So since I have refinanced, it's good now. But I believe for my instrument rating, so the instrument rating allows you to fly in the clouds. From my instrument rating to all my flight instructor ratings was probably around this $65,000 mark.

That's not too bad, actually.

But from zero to hero, we call it, from your private pilot all the way to your flight instructor ratings, which your flight instructor ratings aren't really required of you to get, but it is a very good useful thing to have in your back pocket, because you can always teach people how to fly.

And make some money doing that.

Absolutely. You can't really get too many jobs with such low hours. So it's like 250 hours is what, bare minimum amount of hours you need to be a commercial pilot. So again, the term for commercial pilot is compensated to fly. When we hear commercial pilot, what do we think? Airline pilot, right? So commercial pilots are, I can just be compensated to fly. So there's not too many jobs that you can get with 250 fresh wet hours that they're going to hire you to go fly at anything. So flight instruction is always a good useful thing to have. Nowadays, you're probably going to be looking upwards of, for part 61 routes, $70,000 to $90,000, is what I would say. Again, rough guesstimate depends on who you go through and the type of aircrafts they have and things like that.

So it could end up being as much as a college education.

That is how much a college education costs.

Well, it depends where you go, right? Because if you go to f****** Mankato State, you'll be out of there less than $50,000 and some STDs.

Allegedly.

Or whatever it costs. I know it's on the cheaper side of schools, and they f****** denied me, but that's a different rant.

You didn't have any STDs to bring to the table.

No, but I had a f****** AC. So here's the deal. Just quick tangent here, because with Mankato State, right, I blew the f****** doors off on the ACT front. The minimum ACT that's required to get in there is a joke. I think they just raised it like a year or two ago or something like that, but I was well past that because I actually started giving a s*** about school. But my GPA wasn't good enough. I think the minimum was like 3.0, and I'm like, I would have had that if I didn't do any stupid a** AP classes. But if there's ever a high schooler listening to this, f*** the college classes. They're so, unless you do like a PSCO program, it's so worthless. First of all, the AP stuff, I don't know if either of you took AP classes.

No, too dumb.

No, I was too, evidently. But basically, if you get like, let's say, AP scores are on like a 1 to a 5, right? And if you get a 3, that equates to like a C in college. Well, that brings down your overall GPA and then your options for scholarships and all that. It brings a way down. So unless you get a perfect 4 or 5, and a 4 is a B, if you're trying to be an A student, that's unacceptable. So it's like you do, you pay for all these extra things, and if you don't absolutely crush it, it's worthless. College class is a little bit different, but way better. But I will forever tell people, f*** AP classes, because it would have been a difference between me saving, you know, however many thousands a year in scholarships.

Thank goodness for those AP classes. Otherwise, you might not be here, and you'd be down in Mankato.

No, thank God I'm dumb as hell. Let's put it that way. You know how dumb you have to be to make a podcast?

I was going to say, you know how dumb you have to be to not make it into Mankato?

Yeah, but... God damn. But okay, so it is more on the expensive side, but as long as you get loans and stuff, and it has to be something you want to do, but the perks, I mean...

Yeah, I mean, the loans that you take, you're going to pay off, you know, with this career, and they've been just throwing money at us left and right lately, because retaining pilots is one of the most difficult things for an airline to do. Southwest just did a funny meme a few months back where they were the pilot portal for Delta, and they've spent $2 million plus on pilot training for pilots to finish training at Southwest, and then all of a sudden they get a call from Delta once they're done. So it's like all the low-cost carriers are kind of the, you know, they have to deal with the...

Front door. Yeah, exactly.

Just the revolving door for them is all they are.

It's rough. Yeah, like Southwest in particular, didn't they just have like a big technological catastrophe a few months ago? Do you want to touch on that at all?

I mean, I know a smidge of what the issues were. Basically, their scheduling system just, it went out the window.

It's like a 30-year-old system, right?

Yeah, and the funny thing is like they're getting the fingers pointed at them while most of the other airlines use pretty similar systems.

Yeah, that's how it would be.

Well, it's hard because, you know, they can't just shut everything down to work on it for a day. Same thing with like banks, right? I have a buddy, he works for Wells Fargo, and he's like, yeah, we got these systems that are like 20, 30 years old, and it's like, he can't tell me whether or not he can go out to lunch because he's like, it depends if everything's on fire that day. Because somebody has to always be supervising, and nowadays, it's like, dude, this laptop could run, well, not this laptop, but it would be able to run Wells Fargo, you know? It is kind of crazy to think about.

Yeah, so it's, you know, aviation itself in some instances is a very fragile system. First flight of the day, it doesn't get off on time, it affects the last flight of the day, you know? It just kind of throws a wrench in the schedule.

Yeah, because it stops, right? There's like a certain time of day, like flights stop going?

It depends on certain airports, like certain airports. Like Japan? Maybe. I don't fly international, so I can't really touch on that subject. But like, you know, certain airports in Canada, like Toronto, Montreal, they have curfews. You know, because people decide to build houses next to the airport.

Like 10 p.m. or something.

And they're like, hey, it's too noisy. It's like, well, why did you build a house next to the airport? You know, it's like, what do you expect is going to happen?

I want to live next to the racetrack. Why is it so noisy next to the racetrack?

I'm going to complain.

Dude, like our rally last year, right? There's a noise restriction, right? So we had two or three people get flagged, and they told us this would happen, because you only get two or three warnings. But basically, it's like, if you exceed a certain decibel limit, we're going to kick you off the track for the day. And it's like, dude, this is a freaking racetrack. And it's like, yeah, people live nearby. And it's like Sean said, it's like, okay, it's like the classic meme. It's like, oh, well, there's all these street racers. Where can they go? So they build a racetrack. And then suburbia comes next to the racetrack. And it's like, why is it so loud? You know, because of the fricking racetrack. So then you shut down the racetrack. Oh no, what's wrong with all the street racers?

Just a constant problem.

It's a stupid cycle. I think that's what's happening down to Houston Raceway. I believe that's going to be a suburbia now. But yeah, same thing with airplanes. Yeah, because I didn't even know that airports had curfews until I heard. Not all of them.

Well, it sounds like Canada, but I can imagine California is like, we're not shutting this down. We have flights coming from everywhere.

Yeah, certain ones.

Yeah, well, all the cargo aircraft, they usually fly at night, like FedEx, UPS, all those big names. They predominantly fly during the night hours, one, because it's not as busy, two, your packages, that's when they're traveling. They're traveling at night.

Yeah, I got to get my Amazon packages next day, or else I'll riot.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's freaking gnarly, dude. That's nuts.

Yeah, it's a fragile system, but as long as everybody does their jobs correctly and everyone works together, things can work out really smooth, which 95% of the time, things usually work out pretty smoothly.

Oh, now I just remember why I was thinking of Japan. So this is actually a story a month ago. Basically, they were arriving too late to Japan before the curfew, and they had to turn the plane around.

In the land?

Land somewhere else or go back to origin or something like that. Again, it was a big news article or whatever.

Do you remember which airline?

Somebody way the f*** out there. You can actually probably pull it up on Google, Sean. Let's see. Yeah, check me on my BS here.

Well, because Delta just started direct flights to Japan. Oh, Japan.

Yeah, here it is. February 24, 2023, Japan Airlines Flight JL331 left Tokyo for... I ain't saying that. Fukuoka on February 19th with a 90-minute delay due to a plane switch. It was just minutes from landing when it was turned away by the airport for missing the 2200, 10 p.m., cutoff time. The plane then had to circle until it found an airport that would receive it.

That's hilarious. Yeah, I mean, like, you...

Take it, Darkmoor.

Yeah. You have a game plan of, you know, hey, this is what we're going to do, and then all of a sudden, you know, hey, you can't land here anymore. So it takes time for us to figure out, hey, this is where we got to find a spot for us to go. So when those things happen, right, we have, you know, dispatch, which every flight, you know, has three required crew members. You got your pilot, and the flight attendants too, but you got your pilots, and then you got your dispatchers. So your dispatchers sitting at HQ on a computer watching you, doing whatever you need to do, and then it's like, hey, if things hit the fan, like they're there to support us and give us options of, hey, how about we go here? How about we go there?

Yeah, what was that? The one that was in the river, remind me what it was.

Sully.

Sully, that movie. So like, for example, I love that freaking movie, because did you see his movie, Sean? Yeah, like when they're like, they have the computer figuring it out. You know, it's like an immediate option. And then basically what they're getting at in the movie is like, well, yeah, but you have to allow time for human reasoning to figure out where you're going to go.

And what's going on.

So like, yeah, exactly. So ultimately, he made the right decision. Spoiler alert, by the way. He made the right decision to land in the river because after that, you know, 20, 30 seconds of deliberation, you know, that's the only way to go about it. Because like in the movie, the premise is basically like, if you told the computer to wait 30 seconds to figure everything out, it wouldn't have landed.

Yeah. Well, that's one reason why you probably, at least in our lifetimes, you will never see pilotless airplanes. Like that's a thing that, you know, because again, we talked about earlier, right? What's the most expensive thing on the plane? Pilots and then fuel, right? So if you can take at least one pilot out of the flight deck, which again, that will never happen because it keep everybody in check. German wings flight, 1938, I believe, is the flight number. German wings flight that crashed in the mountains. I'm not going to get into details on that, but basically pilot left the flight deck and other guy was having some mental issues.

Oh, yeah, that one happened in the last decade, didn't it?

You said that was Germany?

German wings or German wings flight, 19 something, I think, is the flight number.

Yeah, I heard about this one.

Yeah, so German wings flight. Yeah, so they had different procedures than what we do. So for us in the United States, always have to have two people in the flight deck. So I got to go to the bathroom. So I go out, flight attendant goes in, locks the door. I don't think that's against SOP for me to say.

Maybe it is, no. I've seen it happen. I've seen where the flight attendant, they'll take the drink cart, and they'll kind of barricade themselves between them and the cockpit.

Double check it, though, and then I could worry about editing it out.

Cool.

I don't think that's against SOP.

I doubt it would be, because we all know what happens.

So we always have to have two people in the flight deck. We don't trust the other person, but with aviation, it's always trust but verify. So it's like, I trust what you did, but let's double check it. So that's why we always have two people. Germany, UAE, Middle East, they all have different rules and regulations that they abide by. So for German, that flight, they didn't require a flight tent to come in exchange. But anyways, so that's one reason why you'll never see only just one pilot. But even though FA and companies are trying to push for it, technology is there for pilotless airplanes.

Yeah, right. If you see it in drones.

Yeah, exactly.

You have one operator for 10, 20 drones or whatever, just sitting at their computer at home.

But are you going to get on a plane without two pilots? I'm not.

Well, if they tell me, then probably not. Otherwise, I'll just keep going on as business as usual.

Yeah, so where were we going with this?

That's a good question. I do not know. Squirrel, yeah. No, I was going to ask you, because a large portion of your job, there's so much tech involved. So it's like, realistically, you don't even have to fly the plane for the most part, I think, right?

So if you want to do the bare minimum, say, early flights, like, all right, it's early, I don't want to hand fly. So earliest that we can put an autopilot on is 600 feet. Depending on the type of approach, the latest that we can take it off is at about 80 feet from landing. So 600 feet, take off, autopilot on, 80 feet, or 100 feet, excuse me, 100 feet, depending on the type of approach, is when we can turn the autopilot off.

Huh, yes. That's freaking crazy.

But again, we're manipulating the autopilot. We're telling it what to do, how to fly, and like... So my jet, we don't have autothrottle, so I have to physically move my thrust levers to where they need to be. Your A320s, your Boeing 737s, they all have autothrottle, so you basically plug in an airspeed, and then the thrust levers move on their own. So different technology, nicer planes, my little CRJ, she's a nice plane. She's got some power, though.

Yeah, it's freaking sweet, dude.

It's kind of like the difference between driving an automatic and a manual. The CRJs, you got to really be there and drive it or fly it. And then the big 737s, you put it in cruise control and you just let the lane control just keep its distance, all that.

It's a very good analogy. I'm good at this.

I'm good at this automotive stuff. We find these connections between everything, whether it's the watch market, we can kind of tie into the car market. It's just the strings are attached somewhere.

I think so. Any hobby.

I'm so new into the car scene. I'm still learning so much stuff. I've been listening to some of your other podcasts. I've got to pause and I'm like, what does that mean? Okay, all right, play.

He's definitely talking about Dave Rasmussen.

I think I pause that one a lot.

I should probably re-listen to that one and just learn some more things. I love having the different types of people on this podcast because, again, like I told you today at lunch, we start with cars. We finish somewhere else. The same thing happens at car meets, right? You go to a car meet, I'll be like, oh, hey, man, cool R8. Ten minutes after getting to know you, it's like, so what do you do for a living? You start talking about that. Nice watch, man. We start talking about watches. That's just how it's going to go. I think the car community is just the perfect what's it called?

Jumping off point.

But I was going to say like a melting pot of just all these different types. For example, at my job, they think I'm going to pursue auto shops. I'm like, no, no, no. That's probably going to be the least of it, because I know so many people that are car enthusiasts, but they own different types of businesses, right? Because I work for an accounting firm. That's the type of people I'll pursue. It's like, yeah, we'll start with cars. That's the jumping off point. We'll see where we end up. I love it, man. I think I learned a lot. We'll probably start winding down here, but is there anything in particular that you just want to talk about?

No, I mean, it's, you know, I popped my Cars and Coffee cherry today, so that's off the bucket list of like, hey, it's finally got to do with Cars and Coffee. Didn't get a chance to get out in any last year because work and whatnot got in the way. So I did that this morning, and then Raven's doing great and she's been running fine.

Yeah, that was the question I was going to have schedule-wise, because I think we've talked about this before, pilots have a really interesting schedule. Your weekends are very different to how a normal person has time off in weekends. So tell us about that, Alou.

Yeah, so we bid for our schedules. So we have some say in what our schedules look like month to month. So most airlines, you get your schedule at the beginning of the month, and then at some point midway through, you'll get your schedule for the following month. So let's say I have a wedding or I got a bachelor party next month, which I need to go bid for my schedule after I get home today. I got my cousin's bachelor party next month that I need to bid off for. So June 16th through the 19th or whatever the dates are, I can put preference on, hey, I want these days off and put X amount of points towards, hey, I want these days off. Or I want weekends off. So this month I've got most weekends off, so because that's what I wanted to do this car shows. Yeah, exactly, car shows. And then a lot of other things because I commute out to New York. So commutability on my trips is something that's huge for me, which this month was terrible with commutability, so it's been a pain in my butt. So I like my trips to start after, you know, 2 p.m. and before 3 p.m. So I have the ability to jump on a flight from New York back to Minneapolis. So I'm based on New York, but I live here. So having that flexibility is nice, but, you know, commuting is something that we most past try to refrain from doing because it's just, it wastes so much time.

That's so crazy. Your commute is so different from like most commuters, where it's like, I live 30 minutes away from the city. You live an hour away from New York, where you have to fly back and forth. That's your commute home.

Yeah, my 20 minute drive to the airport and then an hour and a half, two hour flight over to New York. Yeah, so it's a pain in the butt, but, you know, different airlines have different bases, so a lot of people's career decisions are based upon where they want to live. Because commuting is just not, it's not fun.

So wait, explain that to me. So basically, for example, I have to go to St. Louis Park for my job, right? Is that what you're saying? So you have to hop on, commute over to New York, and then you start your day.

Correct. Yep. And so I'm not paid while I'm commuting to work. So it's like on that flight, I'm not guaranteed a seat either. So I'm only guaranteed a seat if there's open seats. So let's say there's a day where things are kind of going crazy and seats aren't open. Now I've got to get a little bit creative. So obviously we have the jump seat available to us in the flight deck. There's a third seat that pops out, and sometimes two seats up there, two extra seats that we can jump on, and they allow us to sit up there in the flight deck with the other pilots while they're flying. So that's always an option. Not the most comfortable seats, but you know.

Is it like you're going to sit down, or is it like you're strapped into the wall?

Well, it's basically a seat, flat, flat. It's not the most comfortable thing. You have harnesses, obviously, it's a five-point harness that we have up in the flight deck, as well as jump seats. But yeah, so if I don't make the first one, they will positive space us on the next one. So let's say the next flight is, you know, not quite oversold, but it's like, you know, there's like no seats available. Well, they'll positive space me, they'll put me on that flight. And then that's when you hear, hey, offering $500 to take the next flight out because they have to get me to work. That's just some of our commuting rules that we have.

Does that happen often?

Once in a while. I've been lucky for the most part. I usually have not had too many issues, but it's just our commuting policy. It allows us to have that second option available to us if we don't make that first one.

So then you'll basically commute out to New York, and I will stay, well, not stay, but like that's your base for a while. So you just chill out there for like, what, is it a week or two?

No, so then I'll start my trip. So we have, you have what's called flying the line or you're on reserve. So reserve, that's when you're like, you need to be in position, ready to go, and they'll call you, and you need to be at the airport, and you know, usually it's about an hour and 45 to two and a half hour call, depending on where you're based for our company. And then we will, so I have a line. So my line when I fly is like, I do, all my trips this month are four day trips. So they start in New York, and then the trip ends in New York. So again, I just have to get myself out to New York. So when I'm doing that, I have all overnights in a bunch of places. So I don't even know where, I haven't even looked at my schedule for when I have to leave tomorrow. So I think I go to like Bangor, Maine for an overnight. I think I go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for an overnight. And I forget where the other one is. I can't think of anything off the top of my head. But yeah, that's we have all those overnights and a lot of my legs. So when the legs like a flight from A to B, we do like three leg days. I think I have a four leg day in there and that's a really long day.

It's a lot of like days, bro.

Hey, there it is.

I had to.

Absolutely.

Is that a common joke amongst you pilots?

Not too much. You know, the athletic ones. Yeah, athletic ones. Yeah, you know, that's one thing in the aviation community, especially with airline pilots, you know, we're not the most fit because, right, there's we have fast food available to us and we're sitting, you know, ten and two, you know.

Right. There's no stand up desk.

Exactly. Exactly. That'd be fun, though. But yeah, so, you know, health is super important. You know, we have, you know, there's a I got a buddy of mine. He's got about the same amount of followers as you do, but he does all like aviation themed fitness content and stuff like that. So I've been on his podcast about a year or so ago and talked about a bunch of fitness stuff and things like that. So it's been it's been fun because I do have a decent amount of people that reach out like, yo, what are you doing? Like, I'm like, I'm just really good at doing what I'm told. I have no idea exactly how the science and stuff behind staying fit and flying really goes. So but I'm getting better at it and I'll probably you know, we'll see if I decide to go down the avenue of getting some more knowledge and certifications in the fitness industry or what I decide to do. So we'll see what happens.

Sweet, man. Well, exciting stuff. We're coming up on an hour and a half here. So might as well. I think now is the perfect time to wind up with our usual question.

Yeah, I want to see. I want to do like a little twist on it, though. You can pick three planes. that you can fly, one that you could show off. And I don't know how about this? We got how to rephrase this for you.

A career jet, the one I'd like to end my career on. A personal plane and then a military plane.

OK, yeah, that's great.

Do you like that?

I'll do that.

We'll do our regular question after that.

Yeah, we'll do that. Because I've been thinking hard on that one lately because I'm just like what do I got to do? Because I'll probably have a different answer than most of your other guests that have been on here.

Well, they've all been so different. I mean, yeah, don't worry about it.

So end career plan, I like to go on to be the A350. So the Airbus 350, it's the largest fleet in Delta's arsenal that they have.

Is it like a double decker?

No, it's not double decker. So it's just it's the biggest twin turbine aircraft that is out there for commercial aviation. I believe, don't quote me on that. But it's a very big aircraft. I think 300 plus passengers, I want to say. Yeah, the A350, 900, yeah, things. Gigantic.

Sweet. All right. And then let's do, was it a daily plane?

Yeah, so one I'd like to have as my own. Real, a realistic one that I would have as a quote unquote daily would probably be like a Cessna 410, so it's a multi-engine prop plane that's got decent amount of speed, and you can fit, you know, I believe it's like four or five people. Actually, let me take that back. I'd take a Pilatus, PC-12. It's a single engine turbo aircraft, and you can fit, I believe, like six to eight people in it, and it's got a lot of power, and yeah, PC-12.

PC-12 aircraft. All right, what do we got here?

How many passengers? Good old Wikipedia.

Yeah, got a lot. Wikipedia's become so, like, good in the last decade. I remember when I was in school.

Yup, so one, two, three, four, five, six people, and then, you know, I'm up front. Seven. You know, it's only single pilot. That's a good looking plane.

What's that go for?

Probably just, probably just should have a mill, maybe.

Not too bad. Yeah, chump change for a guy like you. All right, cool. And then the military plane.

F-22 Raptor. That's, if I would have got...

You could buy that?

No, no, I'd just be a military aircraft if I could, if I were to fly it.

Oh, you like, you could just fly it.

Oh, that's a multi-million dollar aircraft.

So much certification.

I was thinking like, I don't know, like a B-52 bomber or like sweet, like a P-51 Mustang. Like, like, people can privately own those, right?

Yep. Yep. P-51 Mustangs you can own depending on that. I've seen guys own F-18s before, things like that.

Wait, what? You can own F-18s?

Like, it's obviously demilitarized. Like, it's not like a military aircraft anymore. They've scrubbed all the...

It's a civilian.

So there's a guy when I was down in, working down in St. Pete instructing, there's a guy that was in St. Pete. Yeah, he had a military aircraft. I forget exactly what it was, but you know, you could go take a ride in the jet, and he'd go out over the ocean.

This dude owns this?

Well, obviously the bombs and stuff are not on there anymore, but that's still a crazy plane to own. Yeah. Well, when you got money, I guess you gotta have fun somehow.

Bro, just imagine.

The G's pulling in that. Yeah. So the F-22.

I don't own a Lamborghini. I own an F-18.

Yeah, right.

Well, that's gotta be like double digit millions.

It's probably gonna go a little bit higher on that.

Yeah. Like the high, yeah. How do you even service this thing? Where do you take it?

You can't take it to f****** military bases.

But yeah, F-22 Raptor. It's faster, playing, versatile. F-35 too would be pretty fun. The helmet inside the F-35 is actually pretty, a lot of technology on it. But yeah, that's Yeah, this thing looks amazing. Yeah, it's so sweet.

Here in my garage.

Yeah, right.

Alright, well, let's switch to the car portion.

Alright, the car portion. So what would you daily drive? What would you track? And what would be your show car?

So, you know, again, the R8 is my dream car. So if I were to say, I could do it for all of them, but realistically, daily, it would actually be a Dodge TRX.

Alright, Ram TRX for sure.

Yeah, you got the utility, you got a little bit of power.

Yeah, maybe put a little supercharger in there or something, right?

Upgrading, yeah.

Because, you know, that's what I grew up by. I kind of grew up out, you know, up in East Bethel, so I grew up driving the 1999 Dodge Dakota as my first vehicle.

Were you part of Truck Row at your high school?

No, I wasn't that cool. I was, you know, kind of in that middle section. But, so daily would be that. I think, I think track again, I think it would be an R8. Obviously, I'd probably put some fun twin turbos in that, and that would probably be my track car. And then show car, I don't know, like, McLarens, I always have people around them. It's always a good show car. I got a buddy that's got one, and you got to hang out with him, and he drove it around, and it's awesome. So probably a dude, McLaren. 720 probably.

Is that what your buddy's got?

No, I forget what he's got. I hadn't seen him probably like three years ago. I think it was a 720. Don't quote me.

Yeah, 720 with some like really nice art form wheels, something like multi-spoke, like crazy. You could just make a beautiful car.

Yeah, so I think those would be my three.

Lots of time and effort went into that one.

Yeah, one of my favorite GT3 cars is like the Gen 1 R8s. I don't know. The GT3 body paneling, they're just huge wide. They got the big aero. They're insane looking.

If you look up Ball Vise, Frank Ball won a Crown Rally guys, dude. He actually did turn his Gen 1 R8 into, yeah, basically something like this.

Ooh, yeah, that's nice.

Look at this thing.

Yep.

32% off.

Oh, 32% off. There you go. Yeah, that's a sweet looking car.

Yeah, R8 LMS, like this is pure racing.

I want to see if it turns up. Can you search up Ball Vise?

I'm not going to look up Ball Vise. Unless you give me some other words to put in there.

Audi R8, Frank Ball. I don't know. Try that. All right. Audi R8. Oh my god. Jesus Christ, Sean. You said give you more words and you're not using them. All right. Images. Something. We have an R8 now. The question is, will it? I don't know if it's going to pop up. I don't know. We don't want to put too much time into it. I'll show you when we're off air.

I really don't want ball vise to pull up.

Either way, it looks similar to that. Either way, let's wrap up this podcast. Let's show the R8 off air. Perfect. Thanks for coming on, Ben. Again, let me know if there's anything that we got to cut. I think you're pretty good, but obviously, us regular people can't know everything. Yeah, man. Lots of fun stuff. Where can people find you?

Yeah, I'm pretty much just on Instagram, fitpilotfalk, my last name, F-A-L-K. I post my aviation content, my fitness, and a little bit of the R8 on there, too.

Good s***. And then you can find Sean at 1MNMOPAR. And then obviously, we're on my podcast, so Minnoxide. Other than that, thanks for listening, guys. Thank you, Ben, and see you next time. Peace.