¶ Aviation Adventures With Pilot Katie
It was Wilbur Wright who said the desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who , in their grueling travels across trackless lands and prehistoric times , looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space at full speed , above all obstacles , on the infinite highway of the air .
My guest , katie McKee , or Pilot Katie as she is known , has a career on that great highway in the air . Katie is a pilot and has a love for aviation . That is evident as I spoke with her . Get ready to hit the skies , and perhaps we will hold a chicken along the way as well with my guest Pilot Katie McKee . Welcome to Journey with Jake .
This is a podcast about adventure and how , through our adventures , we can overcome the challenges of life that come our way . While I expect you will learn some things about different adventures , this show will entertain you . Each episode will feature different guests or guests as they share experiences and stories from the different adventures they have been on .
Not only will you be entertained , but you will also hear the failures and trials each guest faces and what they have done or are doing to overcome the hardships that come their way . My goal is to take each of us on a journey through the experiences of my guests , with the hope that you'll be entertained and inspired to overcome your day-to-day challenges .
After all , it's not all about the destination , as it is about the journey . Welcome back to another episode of Journey with Jake . I am your host , jake Bushman , and it is so great to be back for another episode . Can you believe this is episode 129 ? I love doing this and there are plenty more episodes coming your way .
Before we get to my conversation with the talented pilot , katie McKee , don't forget to subscribe to the podcast . I would also love it if you could leave me a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts . I am also on YouTube now .
I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing on YouTube , but this does provide a way to watch the interview instead of just listening , and I have had a few listeners over the last couple of years ask for that . So I'm just trying to give the people what they want , okay , so subscribe , check out YouTube and OES social media .
Give me a follow on Instagram at journeywithjakepodcast . For those of you that just listened to the show , this is a great way to see some snippets of the show so you can see what my guests look like and I'd like to share a little bit about me on the personal side of things as well . So check it out at journeywithjakepodcast . I was super excited .
I had the chance to visit with Katie McKee . As someone who seeks out adventurous types , I found Katie a while back and have enjoyed getting to see what she is about on social media . Her purpose is to help the aviation community and she is doing that by sharing some tips and pointers , as well as her life as a pilot .
If you like this episode , you will also enjoy episode 56 about the thrilling world of paramotoring with Walker Beecraft . Okay , let's get to my conversation with pilot Katie McKee . Well , I'm excited . Today I have Katie McKee , also known as Pilot Katie , on the show with me today . Katie , welcome to Journey with Jake .
Thanks for having me . This is gonna be a lot of fun .
Yeah , I'm excited , came across you on Instagram . You're someone who's adventurous in the fact that you're a pilot and you're out there flying around . You're showcasing it on Instagram and on social media too , which I think is cool , so that way , people could kind of be part of that , and that's what I liked about your Instagram account .
I felt like I was part of what you were doing . You were showing things like now go with me as I fly to wherever and it was kind of fun so I enjoyed that . So I want to hear all about that Before we dive into the whole pilot side of things .
For you give us a little background where you're from , where you grew up , that kind of stuff I ended up in the army went to high school in Georgia , which is kind of where I claim as home now , but then ended up in the military just basically because I wanted to pay for college .
I was really passionate about getting out of it without any debt and I was also , just like , interested in the military service because of my family background .
Through my time in the military I actually ended up getting into flying , not in military aviation but more kind of as an outlet , because I was part of the first wave of women combat arms officers , which had a lot of challenges , as you can imagine .
So I was kind of looking for an outlet and my dad basically was , like you know , just get your pilot's license If you hate it . It still looks good on a resume , but it shows that you can like follow through on something . So I ended up starting to fly in Lawton , oklahoma , and I was a student of a retired Air Force pilot .
He was awesome , gave me really good quality instruction and then I very quickly realized I didn't want to do the Army anymore and I wanted to fly full time , so made the jump over to that . So it all kind of goes into flying because , you know , my dad was ultimately kind of the catalyst that brought me into aviation .
Very good , so you have that background . Then , as a kid , you saw your dad flying Air Force . Is he still in the Air Force or is he ? What is it ? Is he still flying ?
Yeah , so he still flies for a major airline . He retired from the Air Force a while ago . He's in his like mid to late sixties so he still flies . He really is passionate about aviation and has his own small plane that he works on . But he's really passionate about it and loves it . And my grandfather was actually a pilot as well .
He was not a very good pilot which is kind of like a family joke . He was more of a mechanic , but he was a rule breaker . He was a Marine Corps veteran and just did whatever he wanted . So he actually crashed a couple planes .
We have a lot of stories about his life where he would show up to dinner with his arms all scratched up and we would realize that he left a plane in a tree somewhere and shimmied down the pine tree and just pretended it didn't happen . So I come from a background of wild aviators . But my dad is more professional and a better pilot .
So he really has kind of like instilled the passion and now my brother's also learning to fly . So it's kind of a cool family thing . My brother-in-law is going to start to learn to fly soon and it's kind of something we can all talk about and just enjoy .
Wow , okay , and I know you're married your husband is he in aviation at all or no ?
He's not we actually . So he kind of is . We met through aviation . It's kind of funny . He was learning to fly in support of a charity that he has , so he has Good News Aviation , which is the aviation and security part of anti-human trafficking work .
So he's really passionate about that and he was kind of learning that part just so he could help in any way that he needs to and also be involved if it was necessary for whatever work that they were doing . He was able to find other pilots for that organization .
But initially I was teaching him to fly and we just kind of like met and got married through that and then he stopped learning to fly because he's like , well , this is kind of expensive and I don't really need to do it if everybody in the family is a pilot and you know , you guys can just fly me for fun , so but we still fly together .
I mean he , he enjoys it and we'll probably finish his license at some point . It's just like it's not that it's not necessary for both of us to have it when we only fly together , you know right , so yeah .
So , even though he's doesn't have his license fully yet , you still met through aviation , though aviation . Aviation still brought you together .
Yeah , so that yeah , it's a beautiful love story .
Yeah , exactly , I love it . What was it about aviation ? I know it's kind of in your sounds like it's kind of in your blood , you know , with grandparents and parents and family . What was it for you ? You said it was an outlet . What do you mean by that ? What did it do for you ?
Yeah , so that's a great question . I thanks for asking , cause a lot of people like I talk about the whole women in combat arms and they just like don't really want to know anymore . You know , but it was . It was a really stressful time in the military . It was kind of challenging .
Like the unit that I was in , they had just put a bathroom in for women because the whole building didn't have a women's bathroom , so the bathroom would overflow every day because it was like a broom closet that they transitioned . It was kind of just mandated and a lot of people had a lot of negative opinions about it . What they did was they took women .
They put the officers first just to see if the women could do a good job and it would work out , and they basically just took the top physical fitness score women and just put them into field artillery , which is the first branch they opened . It was a lot of women that were kind of disappointed to be there .
Some of them wanted to be pilots and some of them wanted to be JAG officers and other things , and we were all just there and , unfortunately , multiple of my friends did have issues with sexual assault . So it was a really stressful time it was pretty transformative for me , just because I was so impressed with the quality of the women that I served with .
I remember like we're going through this really challenging field artillery , like math course . So we would get up , we'd do PT in the morning , like 4.30 to like I think it was like 7 . And then we were getting to class at like 8 , 7.30 or 8 . And then we would do like math and gunnery and like all these really challenging math problems .
Everybody was stressed , everybody was like barely hanging on trying to pass these tests . You know , and I remember like I walked into the bathroom , we had like five minute break between class and one of the other female officers was crying .
I asked her why and she told me that the person who had assaulted her , who was her commanding officer at her previous post , had been arrested , which was good , that justice was being done , but he had taken his own life in prison and she had just found out about that . We had four minutes in the bathroom where we talked about it .
We wiped our faces and we walked out and went back to class and nobody ever knew what we were dealing with . So that was the kind of thing that we were dealing with and I would go fly on the weekends and just kind of get away , and it was just challenging .
A lot of it was very positive as well and I'm still glad that I did it and I'm still proud of the military . But obviously the negative experiences tend to stick out more .
It was kind of something I just wanted to get off post , I wanted to get away , so I just decided I was going to train for a marathon and learn to fly , just to be doing something positive with my time Getting into flying . I honestly I was pretty high achiever at that point in my life and I had a lot of self-efficacy .
I really believed I could accomplish a lot . But flying was the first thing where I was like I don't know if I can do this . This is really hard and I am not sure that I can pass this . I am not sure I can learn to land this plane and take all these tests and everything . So it was just really a cool experience to work through the process .
And then , when I was in Washington State , I did my solo cross-country flights , which is basically where you go as a student pilot from one airport to another , and that's when I really fell in love with it because I had an awesome instructor Again .
His name was Joel and he just had the perfect balance of giving me enough information but also pushing me to go do it on your own . You can do this kind of thing . So he reviewed my cross-country flight planning and everything , and then he just was like okay , like how are you going to navigate ?
Okay , have fun , you know , just kicked me loose in the plane and I took off and I was flying , you know , north up the Puget Sound in Washington State , and it was just like this moment of like I am alone in this airplane up in the sky and I can this is not that hard for me anymore Like I can do this .
And I was just like I love this , you know , like it was so beautiful , it was so peaceful and I'm a big outdoors person too . So I was like I'm just seeing nature . It's just a whole different world up there , you know , and you can just get away and just see the world from a perspective that most people don't get to experience , you know .
And that moment for me was pretty much where I was like I want to do this for work every day , cause this is amazing .
¶ Affordable Pilot Training Success Story
It was interesting You're talking about having to . You weren't sure you could do it because it was hard , like there's you have to pass all kinds of things . I think some people sit and think people who maybe aren't pilots necessarily might think well , anybody could be a pilot , you know , it's a , it's a bus driver in the air or whatever .
I've heard things that they say no , there's things you have to learn , there's things you have to study . You have to know a lot about a lot of things , not just one specific thing . And then the fact that you , you know you did all that . You said , okay , I can do it , and you did it . And getting up flying , I mean , what's it like ?
Is it when it's just you Cause you're , you know you're doing your solo . Is it quiet ? Is it just the hum of the engine ? Are you just in present mode ? What's it like when you're up there by yourself ?
Yeah , my dad gave me good advice before the solo cross country . He's like you're going to hear the engine make noises it's never made before and it wasn't because it actually is . It's because you're paranoid and you're a little on edge . So there is an element of that at first .
But you get to a point where you don't want to be comfortable but you want to be confident . So you're kind of not on edge in the plane , like oh , what is that ? You know , why is the oil temp supposed to be there ?
Like you know enough that you understand what's happening and you've trained like emergency procedures enough that you feel like if something did happen you're equipped to handle it . And then it's just awesome .
Like you're just looking out the window and even now , like I flew up from Boise , idaho , where I live , to Coeur d'Alene the other day and I'm just crossing over the rivers and the mountains and I'm just looking around , I'm like I just never get sick of this .
I've been doing this for almost 10 years and it's just so beautiful and every flight's a little different . You know , look , the weather's different . You know , look , the weather is different . The atc assignments are different .
Like everything's a little different and it's just it's so peaceful and I feel grateful every time I fly because I'm like there is a certain level of privilege to get to this point , to even be able to pass an fa , medical or like , have a dad that was a pilot .
You know , I mean all of that and now I have a job that I enjoy and most people can't say that you know .
Okay , you said a technical thing I want to ask you about . I think I know what it means . You said ATC something Air Traffic Control . Is that what ATC stands for ?
Okay , hey , I'm not yes . You're a pro .
I know something Okay , very good . So Air Traffic , air traffic control , when you said ATC , perfect , that's awesome that you have that place where you can kind of be who you are and kind of escape . Thank you for sharing what you shared about .
You know that , that military experience and I know you mentioned you you did the military thing too to to save money . I think one thing I read about you or saw that you got your , your pilot training and it's expensive , but it looks like it wasn't . It wasn't as expensive for you . How did you manage that ?
Yeah . So I was really passionate about doing it without loans . I wanted to get through college without student loans because I'm a millennial and I'm kind of the generation of people that have realized that , like people told us , oh , just go to college .
And now a lot of people have really extensive loans and maybe they're not reaching the earning potential that makes that enjoyable for them . So I was in that headspace of like I don't want any student loans . I also didn't really know what I wanted to do .
Even in college , even in the military , I was like I'm just kind of doing the next thing that's productive .
And then with flying , I have always wanted to be a mom my whole life , and so I was like , you know , at some point in my life , when I'm married and have kids , like I may not want to fly full time because inherently , like my body has to be in a seat , you know , to do the thing .
So I just had that in the back of my head where I was like I don't want to , you know , meet my future husband and like , like , burden him with like , oh , I have $150,000 of flying loans but I don't want to work anymore . I just was like I'm going to do this , but I'm going to do it without any debt , which is really hard because it's expensive .
I mean now it's probably $100,000 to get from zero to commercial pilot , which commercial pilot does not mean what most people think , it means . Commercial pilot means you can be paid to fly . You're probably going to make $10,000 to $15,000 a year for the first couple years .
So it's more like a doctor , where it's like you're in residency but you're not making a bunch of money yet . There's a process to get to where you're like okay , these loans make sense . And some people there is no choice . Loans are the best option . Some people it's the fastest route . So there's no shade against that .
It's just for me , with the things I wanted out of life , I just didn't want to go that route . I just didn't want that risk . So I was living in Florida at the time and I was fortunate enough to find this light sport school . So a light sport airplane .
It looks to most people it looks just like a normal trainer airplane , but it's just a lighter plane , so it has a lower max weight that it can be , and so it's certified differently by the FAA To be a light sport CFI , which is a certified flight instructor , you don't have to have all the other ratings , which is what we call licenses in aviation .
So to make money as a pilot in aviation you have to have so many licenses to get to that point , and that's normally what costs $100,000 . But this light sport CFI route you can just kind of take your private checkride . You can just do a little bit more training and take another checkride and then you can start teaching people in these smaller planes .
Well , for logging time , which everything in aviation is like , how many hours do you have ? It logs the same . So I was able to start instructing at a much lower time . I had spent almost no money on my training and then I started getting paid to fly people and I can log the flight time . So it was a huge hack and I'm super fortunate .
I just happened to live in that town where that was one of the biggest light sport schools in the country and a lot of people have questions about this because I feel like that was a very fortunate experience I had and I try to put that info out . There's also people can do gliders .
You can get your commercial glider license before you're a pilot and that time can help build to get you into aviation cheaper . So I just think it's kind of like my duty now to like share this and give back to aviation , because I did all of it for under $35,000 .
And that's all the way from no training to an ATP , which is an airline transport pilot license , which is what most people think of as a commercial license Like that's the license to fly an airliner . You know what most people think of as a commercial license Like that's the license to fly an airliner .
You know , and most people , that's going to cost over a hundred thousand dollars . Wow , okay , yeah , I wasn't . I wasn't aware of that . When I think of , you know , people becoming a pilot , yeah , it's a hundred thousand or more .
You know , that's kind of up to my mind of how much this is going to cost , and every time you're going up it's costing you so much money and yeah , wow , that's interesting . Well , good for you . That's awesome that you found that hack .
Very fortunate , like I said , because like I just kind of kept knocking on doors and stumbled into it and I mean people can apply it all over the country if they wanted to . It's just kind of a different route where you're going to have to be a little bit of a hustler to like build up a student base and make this work .
But if you really have that priority of like I just want
¶ Diverse Aviation Career Exploration
to save money , this could really help some people , you know .
So you've been doing this , you said , for about 10 years , so people probably want to know what is it ? What are you doing ? Like , what was your kind of path after you got your training and everything and you instructed for a while ? What was your path ?
Yeah . So I got my light sport CFI . Then I was working full time . I then got the rest of my licenses that I needed , so I got , you know , time . I then got the rest of my licenses that I needed , so I got my multi-engine blah , blah , blah , all the other instructor stuff .
And then at that point I was kind of like , okay , I want to make a reasonable amount of money where I can actually live at some point . It would be nice . I would like to have health insurance someday .
So I found another flight instructor job which was out in Colorado and it is for the Air Force initial flight training and screening , which is like where Air Force pilots and Air Force drone pilots will go before they go to pilot training . So it's for the people that don't have any experience .
They get in like a little trainer airplane before they get into the faster stuff . So it teaches them like the basics of flight . So when worked there , that was a great experience . So it teaches them the basics of flight . So when I worked there , that was a great experience and it really taught me a lot .
I mean , the Air Force is obviously the best of the best in pilot training , so being an instructor for them . It taught me so much just from my peers and the kind of people I was working with and the way that they trained . And then I ended up moving on to what is called the Part 135 world .
But this is just like private aviation , like charters , which means like anybody can book this flight and be like hey , can you take me to Vegas or whatever Worked for that for a while .
That's when I moved to Idaho and I just really I was living in Georgia at the time but I really wanted to get out to either Idaho , wyoming or Montana because I just love the outdoors and the mountains and everything and I just like , really that's like where I wanted to end up . So I started calling just airport operators at like I called the Boise airport .
I called like some in Montana . I was like hey , do you have any pilot jobs that are hiring ? And one in Boise was like , yeah , we have so-and-so that's hiring . So interviewed , got hired by them and then moved out to Boise , did private charters for a while .
Then I went over to Flying Air Ambulance , so it's basically Medevac , but it's just in like a airplane instead of a helicopter . And then I did that . And then when I was working there , I was also contract flying for the company I work for now , and then they just kind of called me up and were like , hey , we need somebody full time .
Do you want to come on and work for us ? So I do . It's called corporate aviation in aviation but it's like it's really like private for a company .
So we don't fly for the general public , we fly for , like , the owners of our company , if they want to go on vacation or if they , if their employees , need to look at , you know , a real estate opportunity , or whatever it is . So I love it .
I've got a little bit of relationship with that . My brother-in-law does this .
He's a corporate pilot as well , oh cool , so he flies for a company here in Utah , so I understand that part a little bit .
But it's interesting , though , that you did the air ambulance for a little bit with a fixed wing plane Is that how you say it ? I guess , yes , yeah , instead of a helicopter . Yeah , but then you also did a little charter stuff as well . Then okay , yes , a little bit everything .
So is it like people basically renting the plane to like , hey , I want to go somewhere and they kind of rent it , and that's kind of how it works , yeah it would be like some of the people would fly and be like hey , we have a bachelor party in vegas and we all want to go .
So they'd all like split the cost of it , fly them down to vegas , you know ? Um , some people were like , do you know if , if it's , if it makes sense for them for business purposes , they would do it . Or parties or whatever . Some people would just charter from their house in Idaho to their house in Havasu . That's just where some people are at in life .
So that's what we did and it was just whatever their needs were . But for that the charter side is like the general public can just call up this company , like , hey , we need a flight from Idaho to Telluride , you know , and we'll book it and do all that . Whereas what I do now is more like it's just the owner and their plane and then we just take them .
So a little bit different , but it's a little easier because we're not . You know , the purpose of our aviation now is not to make money , so we're not like , just okay , we need to book as many flights as possible . It's just like we just work at the needs of the owner and our schedule's a little bit better .
That's good With working for that company . Do they kind of try to give you a set schedule ? Is there any time where he's hey , the owner needs to go somewhere tomorrow . Do you have any of that ? What happens there ?
We have that maybe once every two years . It's not very common . Other private aviation like that can happen and that can be the downside of it . You know that people are like , oh , the airlines will be better because your schedule is pretty set . But for my particular company , quality of life is important . It's just me and the chief pilot .
So we just , you know , we just talk , hey , what do you want to work this week ? Like , what's your ? Do you have any personal family dinners or whatever that you need to be at ? Do you have any doctor , doctor's appointments ? And we'll just put . We just build the schedule .
You know , and most of the owners are pretty good about giving us what they need , like two months out , and then we just kind of staff what we need and go from there . We also have a couple of contract pilots , so if we are really busy then we'll just have somebody take that flight for us . But there's a little shuffling .
I mean , that's kind of the point . You know . Why do you own an airplane if it's not like , hey , you know , so-and-so is in the hospital , like I need to get to Salt Lake or whatever you know . So we understand that . Or like , hey , no-transcript .
It's not very often , you know , because that's where it would get kind of challenging , because then you're like well , can I ever have a beer
¶ Aviation Career Paths and Adventures
or am I , you know , on call ? So that's where you know we try to avoid that , just because then you need to have time away where you're like I have no obligations to work , you know , have time away where you're like I have no obligations to work , you know , can't be tethered to it all the time .
Yeah for sure . Right , Makes sense . That's interesting . That's what you're doing now . You kind of you touched a little bit about , you know , actually like major airlines . Have you ever thought about going that route ?
Cause I think when people think about , hey , I want to be a pilot , they think of , oh , I want to fly for United or Delta or American or whatever . That or Delta or American or whatever , that's kind of where people's train of thought goes . I know that's where mine went when I was a kid . What are your thoughts on that ?
Do you ever have any desire to do that , or do you like where you're at ?
Yeah . So this is one thing I go back and forth so much on my career path because that is kind of the goal Most people are like I want to build my time . The US has a rule you have to have 1,500 total hours before you can even get the airline transport pilot license .
So you've already been kind of grinding for a couple of years and not making much and you want to get to that airline . Airline pilots make a lot of money and they don't work much so it's a really good job . But I mean it's 20 , 30 years into a career where they've been working and building experience to that point .
So most people are like I want to get to an airline airline , airline airline . I like I said my goal even when I was like 24 , when I started this was like I really want to be a mom and I want to have the option to be home with my kids . So I don't know if I want to do the airline thing .
So I was always kind of on the search for that like stay at home pilot job , which is really hard to find . I mean most of them you're going to be on the road , like that's kind of airplanes move other places you know kind of what they do .
I found that here but oddly enough I'm like you know , would it have made more sense to go back , get to an airline ? Like I just got married in January and we don't have kids yet . So it's like I could have been doing the airlines for like 10 years and then probably gone over to like the same thing I'm in .
But you just don't know that you , but you just don't know that I go back and forth and my advice to people now , especially when they're young , even women , I'm like just go directly to an airline as quick as possible . If you hate it , you can always go do other things , but airlines is kind of the top of the pyramid .
So go there and try it and your experience will help you get into something better in corporate aviation or whatever . So that's kind of where I'm at with that in corporate aviation or whatever . So that's kind of where I'm at with that .
You know I may , at some point in the future , like go to an airline , but it would probably be a long time down the road because now I'm just in that phase where it's like we were trying to be home more and you know the priorities are just not with being on the road like 14 days out of the month .
Well , and I respect that . I respect the fact that you want to have a family and you want to do that sort of thing , so that's awesome . I have much respect for that . That's great . Yeah , love it .
Pros and cons to everything . Yeah absolutely . I just didn't know at the time . But now I'm like , yeah , the airlines probably would have made sense even before with my goals . But like , who knows , you know , you learn throughout your career like what's best and obviously I'm super happy with where I am now . So it all worked out .
Do you have any stories or experiences you could share , maybe a certain flight that was memorable or anything like that ? Or have you ever had any close calls , anything like that ?
Well , there's just like so many . I mean I have had a couple emergencies like that's pretty like not I wouldn't say common , but what we call an emergency is really just anything out of the norm . So I know some people are really afraid of flying and I totally understand that . It's very hard to give control to someone else like that .
But even something where it's like oh hey , the gear didn't come up all the way , we would call that an emergency . So I've had some things like that . I've had bad weather , I mean the air ambulance thing . You're always in horrible weather into the mountains in the middle of the night with a person in the back that's in a bad place , you know .
So a lot of stuff like that . But you know there's nothing crazy that stands out . I will say like the favorite flights I've had so far was I took the Pilatus PC-12 , which is one of the planes I fly now into Stanley , idaho , which is like this little backcountry kind of half gravel , like a little bit of pavement strip up in the mountains .
A lot of pilots can't go in there because they're not allowed to land on something that's not a paved runway for their insurance . So I've done some backcountry flying in the Pilatus I've done like Smiley Creek , which is another like little grass runway up in the mountains of Idaho . Garden Valley is another one , and those are cool because it's high level flying .
So it's fun for me to really be like , okay , I can put this plane down on this little strip of grass in the mountains in this valley , but then it's also just so beautiful because you come up over the mountains you're probably like 13 or 14,000 feet and then you just drop down into the valley and you're just like , is this real life ?
Like this is so beautiful , you know . Then you land on this little tiny gravel or grass runway . You get out , like maybe you go into town and there's like one little restaurant , you know , and you're just in the middle of nowhere in Idaho and it's just like this is freaking cool , like this is freaking cool , like this is cool .
I also got my seaplane rating , which was another fun one . I want to fly seaplanes for one summer , like so bad . That's like one of my goals . But I went down to Florida and I did my seaplane rating with a company called Florida Seaplanes and that was fun too , because the guy has his seaplane is on the dock in his house , like he has .
He lives on a lake . So we just got on the dock , got on the plane , took off on the lake and like went over to other little rivers in Florida and it was just this sense of freedom where you're like , oh , I can just land on this lake , I can land in this little canal .
We would land and then go to these little dockside restaurants and have like fried gator , and it was just so like . It was so cool . You know , you're like my life is just a movie right now . Like I just feel so fortunate to be doing this , so those are probably my favorite .
A couple weeks ago also , I took the Citation CJ4 , which is one of the jets that we fly into Friday Harbor , washington , which is a really short runway , and I think there , I think that's . I don't think any other jets land there , like we might be the only one .
So that was really cool , just like taking that jet in there and just landing on this little runway and then just kind of getting out and be like , wow , I did that , you know . So those are some off the top of my head , but there's just honestly so many that I just can't even like that was part of the social media thing is .
I was like I want like a , like a living photo album of all these experiences , you know , because I look back now and I'm like that one was cool , that one was cool , you know . So there's just too many to even count , honestly and those are great stories .
And I know you said you're someone who loves the outdoors . So I think when you fly up in those little mountain places , little a grass strip in the middle of the mountains , that's got to be just awesome too , cause then you get out and , like you said , you go into town or whatever .
But do you have time then to kind of look at your scenery that you're in even when you're not in the plane ?
Yeah , I mean sometimes we will like if I'm , if I have no like hard time to be back with it , like I'll just go hang out . I mean , you know , at my company I can like put a paddleboard in the back of the plane , I can hang out as long as I want and then come home if I'm on an empty leg . So we've also done some airport camping up there .
So one of my friends they own an airplane they will just stage a car at Smiley Creek
¶ Shared Passion for Aviation and Mentorship
throughout the summer so we'll either drive up or fly in and then we'll all just camp on the airport . We'll get in their little beater car and go hike all day and then we'll go into town and have dinner and , you know , have a couple of drinks by the fire and then get up the next day and like fly back to Boise and it's just awesome , you know .
And then the whole you know doing the whole seaplane thing , pulling off to a dockside place where you're eating gator , that's just you know . Those are the type of things where you're just like , wow , I can't . You know the memories you create and you know the things that come from that Fantastic . You talked about your social media pilot Katie .
That's where we can find you on Instagram . Yeah , what was the purpose you said ? Part of it is just to kind of keep a record of what you've done , but what , what else ? Kind of what's the reasoning behind the whole social media for you ?
Yeah . So I started the TikTok during the pandemic because aviation kind of stopped . So I was like you know , let's see if this is something that I could kind of build up something to do with this . I don't know , I just had time and I was doing a lot of flying but I wasn't doing much else during the pandemic .
So I started it and it kind of blew up on TikTok because there wasn't a lot of people showing aviation on there . And then I put it aside for a couple of years , just because it is kind of weird to like be so out there in the world , like it is a kind of a vulnerable thing just to put your face out on the internet and your name .
So I felt a little weird about it . And then I just kept the accounts . Like I had the Instagram , I had the TikTok and when I met my husband he was like no , this is really cool . Like he's like you , I love to teach people with flying . Like I , I love instructing , and he's like you're really like instructing millions of people through these videos .
And he's like think about , like you know the , the knowledge that you're passing on , like you could like genuinely save somebody's life or help them be a better pilot , like just from these videos , and I I thought that was really cool , so that was kind of the perspective I had with it and picked it back up and so you know the whole account is kind of about
like helping the aviation community . It's also just like showing the joy of flying . Unfortunately , some people have do not have the experience I had with flight training , so I try to put out like cautionary tales . Some people have had you know really bad where the school will like take their money and like close their doors and like disappear .
Some people , they just don't know which way to go . They're like do I go to this big aviation college ? It's going to be you know $300,000 .
But they say like I'm going to get a good job and like people just need the mentorship and like I was so fortunate where it's like I have my dad that I can call me like hey , my instructor said this is that it doesn't sound right and he can clear it up real quick . So I try to give that to other people .
I try to answer like a lot of messages and you know do podcasts . And then we started the YouTube thing because I can make these videos on like state of the industry , okay , who's hiring ?
You know , cause I just realized like I have a lot of people I know in different parts of aviation and just putting it all together so that I do some vlogs on YouTube where I just kind of show like , oh , here's the flight , like this what I'm doing , and then I just whatever topic comes up , you know , if people are asking about like people asked a lot
about like , oh , how did you pay for flight training for $35,000 ? So I'll put a lot out on that . People ask a lot about like just different specific things .
Like I'm going to make a YouTube video here about like how to land the plane , because I have a lot of student pilots that are like I'm struggling with that last like 10 feet , like I just can't get it , and I kind of have figured out how to instruct that to my students one-on-one .
So I'm like I'm just gonna make a video and everybody can watch this and maybe this will help them Because , like you said , it's $300 , $400 an hour to like rent a plane and an instructor . You know that if that saves them a couple hours in the plane , like that could really make a difference .
So I also like , have been a link up with some scholarship organizations .
So I'm able to help right now with a company called aerial tribute project and they're giving out two scholarships in a couple months and right now I'm doing I'm on the board , so I'm reading everybody's applications and of course I crying my eyes out because they're amazing stories , but so it's just been really cool and it's just kind of like it's kind of gone
from there , you know , but it was just initially just me wanting to share my passion of aviation and help and help people . You know , help people love it as much as I do and not have a negative experience with it .
That's awesome and I enjoy it . I've been looking at some of your videos and posts on Instagram and a little bit on YouTube and it's been a lot of fun for me , so I really enjoy it . One thing I do have to ask you about that I kind of came across I think it was on Instagram what's with you and chickens ? What's the scoop ?
no-transcript . They're cute and they . We get eggs for free .
We give them to like all my neighbors so like that's awesome it is what it is , yeah I think something to you said , something about like holding a chicken you can't be , you can't be upset or you can't , I don't know . So there's some , some phrase I'm thinking .
They're a little like dopamine , little fluffy dopamine hits . Yeah , it just makes you happy . I love that All right .
So I know it's like kind of sidetracked us there , but I just thought it was fun . I've seen you with chickens . I'm like what's with these ? With these chickens .
They're really little , so they always like facetiming . They're like we want to see your titans , which is what they call them .
Okay we'll go look at the titans yeah that's great , it's fun yeah as you move forward now and you you've been flying for you got a career going on , you're married . Now all that stuff that's going on , what are what would you say are the challenges you face day to day , kind of what's the
¶ Navigating Challenges in Aviation Industry
difficulties with it ?
right now it's just a lot about balance , like because we're really you know , we're doing the whole youtube channel . We actually just hit 10,000 subscribers today . Congratulations , awesome . It was so cool for us . Because we're like because youtube is really hard to figure out , like we were saying before we recorded this , it's like the editing is really hard .
My husband has like taught himself how to be basically a professional video editor . But we like it because you can put out longer videos , like you can do a whole flight , you know . So we built that .
But it's just really cool to like put the effort in and like have it , have people like it , like getting to that like 10,000 number , even though it doesn't really mean anything . It was just kind of a cool milestone .
But we're I mean , he's working full time , he works in real estate investing , I work full-time and then we basically have this other social media full-time job thing that we're doing , which I really enjoy , and I think eventually I'll probably be able to transition to that full-time and we may eventually buy our own small plane and be able to just do that and do
charitable flights and stuff , who knows . But I mean it's just balance . Right now I feel like I have so many people that I want to help , so many people that say , oh , I actually live in the Treasure Valley , can we go get coffee ? And I'm like I want to do this every day and mentor you in aviation .
I can only do maybe one a month , so trying to figure out how to say no is one of them right now . But my job is great . No-transcript challenges right now as far as , like in aviation , I just I mean , I just enjoy it .
I feel like there are some challenges that none of them are really even negative enough to like mention compared to how much I've gotten out of it , you know .
Great points that you brought up and , yeah , I think , balancing . I mean I'm kind of in the same boat when I , you know , doing Journey with Jake and having a day job and having a family , and you know it's just there's a lot , for sure , and trying to yeah YouTube , I'm totally lost . So yeah , I might've talked to your husband about that .
See if he can square me away . It's so hard .
So when I was , you know , when I was little and I was a kid , you know , I always I loved , you know , seeing pilots at the airport was like the coolest thing , you know , and I and I remember when I was a kid and I'm I'm sure I'm older than you , so I know when I was a kid they're always men , you know .
And now I see a lot more women , like I see , I mean , I go on flights , commercial flights now , and a lot of times the main captain is a woman . As a woman yourself , do you still see it like mostly I mean , I think it's probably still a majority men Maybe I'm wrong , but it seems like it's a lot more women are in it now .
Yeah , it's definitely become more so it's still right now that , for the past year , 6% of airline transport pilots are women , so it's still mostly men .
It's still really low .
It's still really low and you know some of that like , who knows why that is Like , is that just because women are more interested in different things ? You know , like I said , you know it wasn't a societal thing that I really wanted to prioritize . Being a mom , that was just part of me . Is that individual ? Is that gender related ? Who knows , you know ?
But I mean , I'm kind of where I like feel like if someone is capable , like they should be able to do what they want to do . What I like about aviation is like the check rides that we take . It's like there's a standard for all the maneuvers . So if you do a steep turn , everybody has to do it Plus or minus 100 feet , plus or minus 10 knots .
You know there's a phrase that is basically the airplane doesn't care , which kind of means like your excuses are invalid against the laws of aerodynamics . You know , I think that's great .
You know , if people are interested in it , whatever their gender , race , whatever , go ahead and do it , and if you can fly the airplane like that's the ultimate standard and you can pass these tests . I think there are , you know , some barriers . When you're the only person that looks like you in a room .
It can be inherently uncomfortable and you have to be a very confident person to be able to navigate that .
There's definitely some challenging situations I've faced and even this past week I was running a conversation by my husband and I'm like I don't know if I handled this right , but I really am annoyed that I even have to think about this right now , you know , and it's annoying . But then at the other side I'm like am I , you know ?
Do men have the same challenges on a different side ? You know , because now we do have a little bit more of diversity hiring . So I've heard a lot of guys say that they have a hard time getting hired just because they aren't a woman or a person of color . I don't really know how that's statistically possible when it's still 94% , you know .
So I don't know To me , I'm like I don't care . And the thing I love about aviation is like I and most industries , it's like people respect someone who's good at their job .
So if you are good at your job and you're excellent and you are , you know , nice to people and reasonable and you're not difficult to work with , I really I think that goes a long way . I have had , you know , instances in aviation where I've had to kind of like mentor younger girls .
Like I did have a student where her flight instructor kept like touching her knee in the plane and just like weird things like that . She was 17 , you know . So her mom called me because I was the only female instructor in this area and she interviewed me for maybe 45 minutes because she's like we are not having this experience again .
So that girl , she's now at an aeronautical university and she's on the path to graduate in a couple of years and be an airline pilot and if I hadn't been an instructor she would not have continued , you know . So that that's just kind of some of the things that people run into .
But I think it's also important to note that , like you , can be a self-fulfilling prophecy sometimes and if you're like , just like a lot of other industries , there's some different demographics . Not everybody looks the same and that's fine . You know who can fly the airplane .
It should be about merit , it should be about skill level and ultimately , it should be about safety . So you know , this is the general public that we're moving through the sky in a metal tube and we do not care . You know what color your skin is . We care about your proficiency and that really should be the number one . And that goes for gender too .
I have seen a lot of initiatives for women in aviation . I think that's great . I mean , if there's some kind of barrier where a little girl has never seen a female pilot , so she didn't even think about it , and then she sees one and maybe she gets into aviation because of that , great .
Or like with my student where , you know , she had a female instructor so she felt safe and comfortable enough to actually learn how to fly instead of , you know , worry about her instructor being a creep , like great . But you know , also I've had a great experience .
People are generally not horrible in the world , you know and like , and there's a lot of positive out there . So all of that stuff's important to just kind of find the balance through all of it .
Thank you for sharing that . I appreciate that . I think you're right . If someone's professional , they're nice and they can fly the plane and do it safely , that's what you need . That's what it comes down to . Who cares ?
what they look like or who they are or whatever . Most people agree with you , you know .
Definitely . This has been awesome for me , getting to know you a little bit better , seeing your passion for aviation . Thanks for not being too technical , so I wasn't totally lost . I appreciate that too , just as a last minute thought for you . Then there's some young guy or girl out there who's thinking about possibly getting into this .
You know , what kind of like words of advice would you give them if they're contemplating ? You know , hey , I want to be a pilot , but not sure what to do . What would you tell them ? Yeah , that're contemplating . You know , hey , I want to be a pilot , but not sure what to do . What would you tell them ?
Yeah , that's a good question . Something I've learned throughout the years is aviation is really about the community , so finding a mentor is super important . You know , obviously we're flying planes and it's kind of a little bit of an antisocial thing when you're up there in the sky , but the aviation community really pulls you through .
But the aviation community really pulls you through . Facetime is important . Go to the airports , go and hang out , talk to people , ask people about their experiences . People love to talk about flying , they love to talk about aviation and people like to help and give back to young aviators . It is a very old school industry .
So going in person with a paper resume , dressed professionally , that goes a long way in this industry .
Get a mentor , get face to face and just try to get a full , you know spectrum of what it really looks like and just reach out to the community for support , because I think that's the people that have had the most positive experiences , that have really dug into the aviation community in general .
Katie
¶ Guest Suggestions and Upcoming Episode
, thank you so much for coming on Journey with Jake Awesome . Thank you so much for having me . Thank you so much to Katie McKee for coming on the show and sharing her journey into aviation and her love for flying . You can follow along with Katie on Instagram at Pilot Katie , and Katie is spelled K-A-I-T-Y and check her out on YouTube , also at Pilot Katie .
Once again , I am inspired and grateful that I was able to have another fantastic guest in Katie McKee . Thank you so much , katie , and thanks to all of you , the listeners . It means so much that you tune in to listen . Each and every week .
Let me know what adventures or journeys you would like to hear about , or if you have someone you think would be a great guest , let me know as well . You can email me directly to jake at journeywithjakenet or direct message me on Instagram at journeywithjakepodcast . We have another great episode . Next week .
I had the chance to speak with Sarah Diener , who is an unattached athlete participating in collegiate track and field . What is an unattached athlete ? I had the same question . Tune in next week to hear another great episode with Sarah Diener on Journey with Jake . Just remember , it's not always about the destination as it is about the journey . Take care everybody .