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To learn more, visit sportys.com sxmoffer that's sporty.com sxmoffer hey, my name is Paul Volti. I'm a 757 and 767 captain for United Airlines, also known online as My Layover Life. AV Nation, what is going on? And welcome back to the Pilot to Pilot podcast. My name is Justin Seams and I am your host. Today's episode is with Paul from My Layover Life. He's probably everyone's favorite United Airlines pilot. Well, maybe except for Swain. I don't know. They can battle it out together.
I'll message them both. We'll put up a poll. Actually go to YouTube, Instagram, we'll vote. Who's your favorite? Paul or Swain? I don't know how we got there, but we did. But AV Nation, I hope you enjoy this podcast. I've been wanting to have Paul on for a while. Reach out to the dms. He's like, hey dude, I gotta take a sick vacation with my wife. So I was jealous for a little bit while they're out in Italy and I was hanging out in North Carolina. But you know, it is. He's the Layover Life guy.
So I need to Learn some things from him and how to take some sick videos and live the dream. But, AV Nation, I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it. Paul was a lot of fun to talk to. And without any further ado, here's Paul from my layover life. Paul, what's going on, man? Welcome to the Pilot, the Pilot podcast. Hey, man, thanks for having me. This is great. Yeah, anytime. I'm glad we got this to work out.
I messaged you, what, about a month ago, and you're like, hey, man, I'm gonna go on a sick vacation for a little bit. So I was paying attention to it. I was like, oh, man, he really did go on a sick vacation. I was like, dang. My wife's like, why'd we go to Ohio to visit our family for our anniversary. And they went all over the place, like, I'm sorry, All right. I'm new to the airlines, all right? Give me a break.
Yeah, my wife and I just went to the Amalfi coast in Italy and celebrated 20 years of marriage, which is pretty wild. Yeah, we. We celebrated 11 years. Let's see, two days ago or, wow, three days ago. I hope my wife doesn't watch. Congratulations. Thanks, man, I appreciate it. But they're not here to talk about our anniversaries. We're not here to talk about our lovely wives. Another podcast we will shout out to them. They're amazing. But we're here to talk about you.
We're here to talk about your aviation journey. And I always like to start at the beginning. So why did you become a pilot in the first place? So when I was 13 years old, I got a ride in a tow plane, the tow plane that pulls up gliders. And my dad and I were just hanging out at the airport, little grass strip near where I grew up in Minnesota. And my dad actually talked to the tow plane pilot and asked him, hey, could my son go for a ride?
And it was literally a five dollar, you know, just ride with the tow plane pilot. And I went up when I was 13 and got hooked on that, you know, eight minute airplane ride. And so the next summer I started taking flying lessons. And my dad saw that I was obviously interested in flying and said, but I was also getting really bad grades in school at the time. So he said, all right, well, for every A you get, you get one hour flying. And for every B you get, you get a half hour flying.
So overnight I went from season D's, the A's and B's and started my flying Lessons, of course, back when you're 14, you don't need to fly, you know, four times a week. So I was flying once a month or twice a month maybe, and eventually soloed a couple days after my 16th birthday and then got my license on my 17th birthday and then got my instrument rating while I was still in high school when I was 18. So the bug hit you hard, went. On to college, and. I'm sorry. So the bug hit you hard then?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I. I think by the time I got to college, I had about. I mean, it was almost 250 hours. So I got my commercial rating shortly after I got to college. And. And from there, I was, you know, throughout college, I picked up a bunch of different flying jobs, from flying skydivers to. I flew a Cessna 210 for a company, and. And I. Ultimately, the coolest job I got was sitting in the right seat of assessment citation. There you go.
We didn't fly very much, but, you know, for a college kid to be building jet time was a pretty big deal. Yeah. So that was awesome. So when did becoming an airline pilot kind of enter into your brain or that being the end goal of the career? Was it that first flight where like, all right, I love this. How do you make money doing this? Or was it, all right, I love this, let's go for a flight. I'll continue this and kind of see where it goes? Yeah, no, I. I knew I wanted to be a pilot.
I didn't necessarily know I wanted to be an airline pilot. And it wasn't until probably I started flying that citation. The guy I was flying with, Neil, he used to be an airline pilot, and then he retired from that and became a corporate pilot. And it wasn't until I really started talking with him more, I didn't know if I wanted to be a corporate pilot or an airline pilot or a cargo pilot or, you know, my biggest ambition was flying a Learjet, flying bank.
Checks around and, like, life can't get any better than that. I just want to be in my Learjet flying checks. Yeah. And he said, you know what? For a career, you want to be an airline pilot. Corporate flying is really cool, but you're also pumping your own gas sometimes and making hotel reservations and filing your own flight plan, which is not hard or necessarily bad. But, you know, airline flying, you walk down the Jetway, you take a left, they've done everything for you.
You just show up and fly airplanes, and it's a great career. And I can't thank him enough. For giving me those words of wisdom because it's turned into a great career. Yeah, I'm relatively new to that style of flying. I came from flying corporate or fractional and the idea of just turning left is so foreign to me. You know, it's.
You check your phone in the morning, all your flight plans are done taking care of, but you're chasing catering, you're trying to figure out bags, you're trying to figure out where's the airplane is in the hangar, do I pull it out, what time do I pull it out, how much fuel do we need, all that kind of stuff. And now having the ability to literally just turn left and to sit down and you know, you take a little break, you look at the plane, you're like, I'm gonna do my pre flight flows, do all.
I'm the 737, so you know, it's like I'll reach all the way back and try to reach everything. But it really is true. It's. It's hard to beat the idea of just turning left corporate. You can make good money, there can be good lifestyle. Sometimes they run you down pretty hard, but I don't think it can beat. You know, I'm kind of an airline truther now. Granted, I'm getting ready to start my eighth month, so relatively new, haven't been burned too bad yet. But yeah, it's.
I'm an airline truther now, man. It's the. Yeah, I never thought I'd ever say that, but here we are. Yeah, it's. I mean all. You know, any pilot loves flying airplanes, so they'll do whatever it takes to fly an airplane. But for a, you know, 30 year career, to just be able to walk down the jetway and hang a left, it just, it makes it so much easier and. Absolutely. And you can really just enjoy the flying and the layovers. Absolutely. Uh, when you were doing your training in high school, the.
What did your friends think? I had a friend that was 16 and he was getting his private. And granted, my dad was a pilot, so I was aware of aviation, but I was still like, dude, that's crazy. Like you're only 16, how are you training? Was it similar for you? It was similar to me. I mean it got the. I grew up in a small town, so it kind of caught the town's attention.
You. Like, I ended up in the newspaper a couple of times and, and as far as other kids though, I. I feel like I've always kind of stood out from the normal crowd, so it didn't really bother me at all that I, you know, I played tennis a little bit in high school, but I wasn't super into sports or anything. Like, flying was my sport, so I'd go mountain biking in the morning, go to school, and then go out to the airport in the afternoon. And. And that was kind of my. That was kind of my deal.
And, yeah, a few kids caught on to it, and I think one other kid in high school ended up taking lessons for a little while, but I don't know. I've always kind of liked being. Not that flying airplanes is being an outsider, but, you know, I was the one kid in town that was doing it, so. Yeah. And, I mean, not everyone does it. And like you said, some people will take up a lesson or. Or even get their private. And then they kind of just fizzle out and they just stop flying all together.
It's not something that people continuously do or even make it all the way to the airline pilot. So it definitely is a little bit different. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Was the whole lot of, you know, fortitude to put up with, because really, you have to love flying to put up with all the learning and all the lessons and all the stuff. I mean, it's easy to look at you or me now, like, all right, well, you're an airline pilot. That must have been easy.
You just sign up and they teach you, and you become an airline pilot. There's a lot of not super fun times, like you're studying and you're working hard, and. And a lot of people don't see those. Those hours spent, you know, not flying an airplane and just sitting on your desk looking over the fars. I remember specifically a certain time when I was flying, when I took a bunch of time off.
I was playing football in college, so I was going back and forth, and, you know, I got to a flight and it was so bad. Like, I mean, one of those fights of your cfi, you're like, whoa, this, dude. That's not good. And I was just like, why can't I get this? You know? And I think some people have that moment. It's pretty regular. Like, if you have that feeling, it's okay. You know, I had that. You probably had that. A bunch of people have had it at the time.
But it's something that you do forget, and people don't look at when, you know, you're. You're in Italy, you're on a layover, you're living your dream. They forget the fact that you were really. You pretty much sacrificed for For a long time. And it's not like it is today, where you could just get 1500 hours or a thousand hours and hop right into a regional jet and start flying jet time. You were flying checks. You're flying whatever you could and not making any money. That's what's amazing.
Like, literally no money. In some cases, you were just begging for a ride, and you're like, dude, I don't need to eat. I don't need anything. Just put me in the plane. I'll be good. Yeah, yeah. I mean, flying that system citation, I didn't make money doing that. That was just, you know, two hours of jet time once a day, you know, like. Which was amazing. But, like, that's stuff you can't pay for, you know, college kid. You can't just go pay for two hours of jet time.
That would cost thousands and thousands of dollars. So really, to do it for free is like, I mean, I wouldn't do it for free today, but, you know, when you're just trying to build time, it's. It's the way to go. So talk a little about that, because a lot of people message me and they're like, hey, like, you always talk about putting yourself out there, you know, getting that airport job, just talking to people around you. Talk about how you were able to.
I don't want to say finagle or finess, but talk your way into a right seat in a citation or 210. Because it's.1 of the best ways is just to be there. If you're consistently there, you show an appetite for aviation. And if they just have an inkling that you're a good person, don't burn any bridges. Opportunities will come to you by literally just being there. So talk a little bit about how you got those jobs, how you found some sweet flying that you can do.
Yeah, Literally every job I've ever had has not been an advertisement in the newspaper or, you know, or online or whatever. I'm kind of dating myself. But literally every job I've had has been because I knew somebody associated with that job. So I got a job working at an FBO in St. Paul, and that's how I met the guy who flew the Cessna 210. And when he quit, then he, you know, he knew that I was interested in that, and he called me and I interviewed for the job and got it.
And then, you know, that. The citation job. When I was in college, I literally met the guy at a restaurant. I saw him at a restaurant, and he was looking at, you know, airport charts. He was, like, doing a lesson with somebody or something. And I walked over and said, hey, it looks like you guys are pilots. Sam. Paul. I'm a pilot, too. And what do you fly? Oh, I fly a Citation. Oh, okay, cool. Well, if you ever need someone to sit in the right seat, here's my number. You know, like. And just.
Literally just being nice to people, being a good human and showing that you're interested is kind of how I got all my jobs. I. My. Even my airline jobs, you know, I met a guy who I. After college, I worked for Pinnacle, which was the Northwest Commuter, which is now called Endeavor. And I met a guy who had just started at Pinnacle, and he told me exactly how to get the interview. He said, listen, all you have to do, send your resume, call them.
They won't know where your resume is, but just call them and tell them you're interested and you had sent your resume and you want them to check on it, and they'll invite you for an interview, and then the next day you'll fly down for an interview and you'll get hired. And that's literally what happened. I sent my resume. A week later, I called them. Oh, I can't find your resume. But can you come down tomorrow?
Sure. Yeah. And then getting hired, going from Pinnacle to, I got hired by Continental, and then obviously, we merged with United. Same thing. I was friends with a guy I had met who didn't even work for Continental or Continental Express, but I knew that he used to work for Continental Express. And so we were friends for two years. And I finally asked him, kind of when I was ready to move on from Pinnacle, I said, hey, do you. Do you know anyone at Continental that would maybe help me get hired?
Because this was 2006, so Continental was doing really well. They were hiring kind of like we're hiring now, you know, 25 people a week or 40 people a week or whatever. And that was kind of one of the main places to go. And he said, yeah, I think I know a guy at Continental that might be able to help you. So he called that guy, and then I called that guy, and that guy. Called someone else, right?
Yeah. And, yeah, that guy walked into the chief pilot's office, and it turned out that my friend, who I'd been friends with for two years used to be the chief pilot at Continental Express. It's hilarious. So he had a great. I didn't know that. He never told me that. That's not why we were friends, you know. But you never Know who you're going to meet along the way. Never. And the, the power, not maybe power, but you know, like the, the influence that they have.
And so, yeah, like you said, don't burn any bridges. Yeah. And keep all the phone numbers you can. And. And you never know who's going to be able to help. That even goes for just like commuting home on an airline or just like in any kind of circumstance. You never. There's. I mean, I've met a chief pilot randomly probably once or twice so far, which may not sound like a lot, but it's more than it should happen. You know, it's like you shouldn't just run it.
You think there's so little amount of che pilots for the airlines. It's like there's been no aviation. Like it was at a coffee shop. It was at whatever. It's like, oh, I'm a chief pilot. Like, cool, dude. Hi, my name is Justin. Are you hiring right now? Yeah. And you never know, like if you're, like if you work for a regional, you're trying to get out with a major. When you're commuting somewhere, sitting in the cockpit.
I mean, there's certainly a chance that the guy sitting there is the chief pilot or is one of the main check airman or, or whatever and has a lot of pull. And if you have a good conversation, you're like, that could be all it takes to. All it takes. Get your name top of the interview list. So moral of the story, if you didn't take anything away from this podcast, is treat everyone like they're the chief pilot of the airline that you want to go to and you'll be okay.
Yeah, that's a great way to say it. Yeah. Just be nice to everyone. You know, do go above and beyond in the airline. So you are at the airline and I think it's really interesting because obviously Minnesota all the way through and through the A's. The accent isn't really coming out, I'm not going to lie. So someone somewhere has told you how to get or wash out that accent because I don't get much Minnesota from you. But you mentioned Continental and you said 2006.
And I'm going to put some tune to together that Delta would have been big by now out of Minneapolis. The merger would have gone through. Why not try to go to Delta? Did you want to commute? You wanted to go to Houston or did Continental have a pretty big role in Minneapolis at the time? They did not have a big role in Minneapolis at the time in 2006, I think that was before the Northwest Delta merger. So, yeah, I think the United Continental merger and the Northwest Delta merger, look it up.
We're around the same time. I want to say 2010. Was it really dang? I think so. Yeah. I know. I know it wasn't. I know I wasn't trying to go to Delta. 2008. Everyone I. Delta, Northwest 2008. So you're right. So Northwest at the time wasn't hiring anyone from Pinnacle. Basically. I think I knew one or two people out of, you know, a lot of people were leaving Pinnacle, but only one or two went to Northwest. And I think from what I understand, it was the way Northwest saw it was.
It was like three training events. Like, they had to train you at Northwest, but now they had to train a new captain at Pinnacle and they had to hire a new first officer at Pinnacle. So they. I think. I mean, I don't know if that's true or not, but that's kind of how I heard that it was a bad idea. Let's not take any of those guys or girls, right? So. And. But really, back then, you know, it wasn't hiring. Wasn't like it is now.
United wasn't hiring, or maybe they were hiring, but they're also doing some furloughing. And. And Delta really wasn't on my radar because I grew up in Minneapolis. And the only reason Continental popped on my radar is because I knew a few people at Pinnacle that had gone to Continental. And then suddenly I knew a guy who used to be the chief pilot for Continental Express. And really, back then, you just went to the first airline to hire you. The first major airline to hire you.
So. So Continental was the first major airline to hire me. And. And that's where I went, because getting, you know, getting an interview with Northwest was nearly impossible. So was that the. Let's say, before the idea of Continental, before the connections was the goal Northwest, was that like the dream, fly out of Minneapolis and fly for Northwest? No, it actually wasn't. The one airline that I kind of had in the back of my head since I was, you know, college age was Southwest.
And So in early 2006, back then, Southwest required you to have a 737 type rating. So a lot of people were just paying for a 737 type rating and then immediately getting an interview with Southwest. And so I did that. I went and paid for a 737 type rating and then got an interview with Southwest, but did not get hired. That was in 2006. And then in the first part of 2006, and then the later October or whatever of 2006, I got an interview. That's when I got the interview with Continental.
And then. Yeah, so then I obviously stayed with Continental and, And yeah, it's been great. But I can't know. Was doing really well back then. And then the merger with United only made it better. And yeah, it's been awesome, man. It's crazy how everything happens for a reason, right? You know, I'm sure there's a lot of disappointment. You're like, I just dropped an absurd amount of money for this type rating just to get this one job. And to not get that, it was $7,370. You'll never forget it.
You need that tattooed on you somewhere just for how much. It was just to remind yourself every day and show it to Southwest. Be like, see, look, you messed up. But yeah. And I'm sure, you know, if I, If I had been hired by Southwest, it would have been great too. For sure. People that were hired around the same time, they're. They're captains and they're. They're doing great. Oh, for sure. You're. You're. Maybe your videos would be a little bit different.
They want to be my layover life all the way in Italy and Europe and all those fun places. But, you know, Omaha and Tulsa are pretty cool too. Yeah, there's no shade that wasn't. I mean, you, you can have a good layover anywhere, anywhere you are. I mean, it helps to be in. Rome or whatever, but for sure, that's a goal. But if you're with the right people, you can, you can have a good time pretty much anywhere.
I want to talk a little about maybe the disappointment that you went through with not getting that Southwest job because it sounded like it was what you wanted, right? Like it was what you look to. It's what you work for and you spent the money to do. To do that. And I'm sure everyone said, hey, you get that type rating, you know, you're pretty much a shoe when it's going to happen. So to not get that job. Talk about what was going through your head. Was it a give up moment?
Was it, I can't do this, I'm going to be at a regional forever? Kind of talk about the emotions you had. Um, yeah, it was disappointing. It. Maybe I had. I guess it was more of a learning experience, you know? Like, I remember there was multiple interviews throughout the day. And I remember one of the last Interviews. The guy asked me one of the most basic questions, like, tell me about a time you messed up or whatever, you know?
Like, I can't remember what the question was, but I literally had no answer. And I was just like, yeah, I don't know. And he's like, just, anything is fine. He's like, please. Please, anything. I don't know if I was tired or just running out of steam or whatever, but it's just like, yeah, I don't. I don't really have anything for you. He's like, all right. Like, literally just, like, walked me to the door. Like, your flight home now. Like, have a good day, man. We'll see you later.
So I feel like. I mean, if there was a reason I didn't get hired, that was probably it. But I don't know. I guess I just. I saw it as a learning experience and for sure and went on from there. And I did. I had done another interview, I think it was with Midwest Express. Yeah. Which was like a. An airline in Milwaukee that. They don't exist anymore, but they flew 717s. And I. I also didn't get hired by them, so. Yeah. And I think that was before Southwest, so I don't know.
I. I guess I've been used to rejection. You know, a lot of girls said no to me in college and high school. All it took was one, though. All it took was one. Yeah. Yeah. But. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how I saw. It's like, it only takes one person to say yes. And there's. There's other airlines out there, definitely. And I saw other people at Pinnacle not getting hired places, and. And I just, I guess, kind of assumed that that was part of the. The process, you know?
And I think it still is, to be honest with you. I mean, everyone says how easy it is to get hired, or especially, let's say, like, when I was hired or kind of six months before that, or even the last two years, people kind of have the assumption that it's really easy to get hired, but it's still pretty easy for them to say no to you. You know, it's a. You have this. You're still not guaranteed to get that job. You still have to perform. You still have to come up with an answer for.
Tell me about a time. Whatever they ask. Yeah. So it does happen still. And I think disappointment and not getting the job of your dreams is something you should not. Maybe not disappointment, but not getting your dream airline job is something you should kind of keep in the back of your mind of what you would do next. You know, it's still good to have that goal, to have the place you want to go.
But you also need to understand that just because Delta said no, United said no, or American said no, doesn't mean that one of the other ones won't say yes and give you a great job. Because at the end of the day, we do the same thing. We fly airplanes, we take people where they need to go. The planes may be different, the layovers may be different, but you're going to be an airline pilot. You're going to make relatively the same amount of money wherever you go.
Just your cities you live in and the cities you go to might be a little different. Yeah. And that's not to say that, you know, United says no. That's not to say that they won't call you again in two years. Yeah. As a matter of fact, I, after I got hired by Continental, I re interviewed with Southwest. Oh, really? 2008. And then they said yes, but they were putting off class dates because that 2008 was like the recession time or whatever.
And so they, so they, I had a job offer, but they put off class dates until an unknown time. And, and that's when I switched airplanes from the 737 at Continental to the 757 and 767. And I initially, my thinking was I just want to go, you know, grab a couple more type ratings and before I leave Continental. And then we merged with United and. And then I was like.
And once I started flying the 757, 767, I kind of fell in love with flying all over again, like, or maybe I fell in love with travel, you know, and then I decided I wasn't going to go to Southwest and I was going to keep flying to Europe and do awesome layovers. And plus, you don't want to give up, you know, by the time Southwest actually called and offered me a class date, it was 2011. So I would have been giving up five years of seniority at Continental United.
So did you make it out of that time without getting furloughed or anything happening? Yeah, I got furloughed from Pinnacle right after September 11th because I was hired by Pinnacle in May of 2001. So I finished training in August or September. Great timing. Or August. Yeah, September 2001 was my first month as a line holder or as a, you know, being a regular. And so I got furloughed in October and then I was only furloughed for one month, which is crazy.
Like, most people get furloughed for years or, you know, a decade or whatever, but I was fortunate. I got furloughed for one month, then I was back. And so September 11th didn't. I didn't lose a lot of flying because of that. But, you know, when you're furloughed, you don't know if it's going to be one month or one year or two. Years, or, like, do I need to get a job somewhere? Like, do I need to learn how to lay brick? Like, what's going on? You know, it's like. Right? Yeah, yeah.
So when I got hired by Continental, there was about 1500 people that got hired underneath me pretty quickly. And then I think in 2008, we furloughed like, 147 people. And. But I wasn't part of that. And then they all came back. I think in 2010, once we announced the merger with United. Nice. When I thought something was really interesting, you said that flying the 7 5, the 7 6, it kind of brought your love back of flying.
Would you say that was kind of just like been beaten down by the regional life of a lot of legs, short layovers? Or would you say it's just kind of just, you know, a job in general? You know, eventually every once in a while, you're going to get kind of the stage where you burnt out and you need to take that new step to try something else. I think it was more the. A lot of legs and short layovers and, you know, those kind of struggles that you go through at a regional.
Because now I'm doing one leg a day, never deicing, you know, and you're. And then you're going to, like, I went to Bath and went to the Roman baths and. And I went to Stonehenge and I went to Normandy in France. And you, you know, to start doing stuff on layovers that weren't really an option when you were going to Omaha and Des Moines. Yeah, but, I mean.
But the flying itself is awesome, too, because it's, you know, seven or eight hours of flying in a regional jet is a lot of work because you're making two to four or five landings a day and you're with the same person, which I know sounds silly, but, like, when we take off and go to Europe, you know, we sit with one guy for two hours or two and a half hours, and then we go back and take a nap, and then we come back and sit with a different guy for two and a half hours.
And it makes the flight go by. An eight hour flight, the same eight hours of flying. It makes it go by so fast because you're like you're constantly with someone else to talk to or you're taking a nap or you're watching a movie or whatever. And then you get there and it's now you're in Rome, you know, and you got all day to explore. So let's take a break from today's episode to hear from our sponsor, RAA Justin here. Whoever said what you don't know can't hurt you clearly wasn't a pilot.
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Talk about your first trip from being, you know, being a regional pilot and then getting on the 757 6, flying across the country and realizing how different your life was than what you just came from. Were you just shocked? Like, I can't believe I'm going to get paid to do this. Like that wasn't real work. Yeah. I think one of the things I was most worried about when I went to the 757 and 767 was how am I going to handle a really long flight?
Yeah. And then my first, my first trip was to Paris and I was like, oh, well, from Newark, it's only six and a half hours to Paris. That's. And you get a nap. Like that's super easy. Like that's, you know, it wasn't, I was like I was getting on a 18 hour flight, right? Like six and a half hours. It's like flying from really fast DCA or Dulles to lax, you know, San Francisco or whatever. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. And even when I got on the 737, so I started on the 737 at Continental.
And even when I got on that, you know, it was a little bit different because we go, you know, we did even like Houston to Anchorage, which is a seven hour flight. So like it was different than regional flying. And you know, at Pinnacle, I basically blew in the upper Midwest or sometimes, you know, as far south as Memphis or whatever. But so just to Be flying to Phoenix or Los Angeles or Seattle. Like, that was all new to me. So that was. I don't know, it was fun.
And. And we went to places I'd never even heard of before, like Quito, Ecuador, Guayaquil, or, you know, some cities I didn't even know existed. Yeah. Until I started working for Continental, when. I think it's important to talk about what your lifestyle was like personally at home, like, financially, with working at a regional back then and first year pay at, say, Continental, because now they have the idea. Or most pilots that get hired, they can make a hundred grand pretty much.
At a regional. First year on airline, you can make 100 grand. But that wasn't the case, you know, 16 years ago or even like eight years ago. Right. I want to say it was closer to like 40 grand. Is that. Is that what it was at United when you got hired, or Continental? My starting pay at Continental was $25 an hour, so that equated to roughly $2,500 a year. And, you know, I had come from captain pay at Pinnacle, which at the time was $80,000 a year, which is crazy today.
I thought I was living my best life, and really it was good. I was living in Minneapolis, which is kind of where I grew up and based in Minneapolis. So what was really hard when I went to Continental, especially for my wife, because my wife only knew we were newly married then. She only knew living in Minneapolis, based in Minneapolis, making a decent living. And then I went to Continental, where we had no health insurance for six months. Oh, dang.
And we're making $25 an hour, so $25,000 a year. And I'm commuting now to Houston to fly the 737. So I'm gone a lot more not making any money, spending money on hotels in Houston. And yeah, it was tough. It. We had saved up a little bit to. Because we knew that was like, that's what you did back then. You saved up because you knew your first year at an airline was going to be hard. And. And so it kind of prepared for it a little bit, but it was still difficult. We made a lot of sacrifices.
Yeah. And, you know, there was days where there's, you know, $80 in the checkbook and, like, we all get paid again for five days. This isn't good. Yeah. Your wife's like, this is supposed to be your dream job. Right. Like, you wanted this. Right. Like, this is the pinnacle of your career.
When we were just at pinnacle making 80 grand, what's going on yeah, it's, I feel like I'm in a similar kind of stage of that right now because I was a seven year captain where I was last, you know, I had the potential to make pretty good money. Come to the airline I'm at now and I'm taking like 100, $120,000 pay cut for the first year. Flying, gone, more commuting, short call reserve, long call reserve, going back and forth. My wife's like, are we sure this was a good idea?
I'm like, it's going to get better, I promise. Just watch my layover life, watch his videos. It's all good. All right. It's going to be us one day. Yeah. But yeah, it's definitely, it definitely does get better. Yeah. And like I said before, like, you have to love flying to put up with a lot of this stuff.
And I don't hear this super often, but I have heard people say, oh, I want to get, I want to become a pilot because it pays well or because you go cool places and like you, it's not just that easy. You know, wrongly want to be a pilot. You should really love flying airplanes. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean just, yeah, there's a lot of stuff that goes on and you can get a lot of money.
I mean, you hear crazy stories about airline pilots pulling in like $1 million, but they're also playing the system and they're gone all the time. It's like, I don't want that. I want to make like lower to mid salary of what, what that, what you can make based on how hard you're working and just be home as much as possible. That's the goal right there. And have cool layovers. Yeah, I think I told you my schedule this month.
I had two weeks of vacation and literally I picked up a trip this coming weekend just to supplement our Italy vacation. But had I not picked up that trip, I would have been off from October 5th until November 7th. That'd be amazing. With two weeks of vacation, that's crazy. You get back in, which is crazy. Like absolutely crazy in getting paid very well. It just takes some seniority, right? Like you said, like just, just wait a little bit. And it does get better. It gets sweeter.
Learning how to play, kind of not play the system, but learn the games that are, you are allowed to take advantage of to maximize your days off and pay. It's almost like a doctorate. I feel like trying to figure out. 1 PBS 2 How airlines pay, how you need to follow up with the right people to make sure. You get that pay. So there's going on. Yeah. But you know that those years, those years go by are really fast and I feel like it was last week that I was like starting out at. Here I am.
You know, it'll be 18 years this year, which is. Dude, that's great. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's been a. I mean, it's been awesome so far and I. Hopefully it only gets better. Yeah, let's hope so. Yeah. We don't want to go down no more down, so we just want to keep rising up. All right. It's time to, to have a solid stretch of 10 plus years of the good times. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Have you been, what planes have you flown for United?
You mentioned, you mentioned 73 to start. 757 6. Or was it 7 5? Sorry, I heard a 7 3. So somewhere in there. And then have you pretty much been on the 7576 for most of your career there? Most of it, yeah. I started on the 737, so I flew that for two and a half years or three years. And then I came to 757 and 767 in 2009 and I've been on it since. So I've got over 10,000 hours on that airplane and I've been that for 15 years and three, the last three years as a captain.
So which one do you like better, 75 or 7 6? Well, the 76400 pays the most, so. So that one. Yeah, there's actually a big, there's a big pay difference that I don't, I don't really know why. The 767300 is narrow body pay. Oh, really? The 767400 is wide body pay. Oh, that would piss me off. And there's a, there's a big gap there. So all the767,400 trips go super senior because they, they pay. I mean, literally on one trip it's thousands of dollars more, which is crazy.
So it's crazy what the airlines can throw in there in those contracts. You're like, I know that's not much. Different from a flying perspective. I don't know. The 757 is pretty fun to fly. Yeah. So now the one bad thing, I like it all. It's just, it's fun. I just love it all. What are you going to do when United comes out and says, hey, we're retiring the 7576? They've been around for a while, so it's not going to be there for that much longer. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. I think in theory they're supposed to retire at least the 757s in 2030 or 2029. So that's only five years from now. Yeah. Ideally I would maybe go to the Triple seven as a, as a captain. Right now I'm like, I'd be like 99% on the triple seven as a captain in San Francisco. So I, I don't want to do that because I don't, I don't really want to be on reserve again. So I'll, I'll hold out on this airplane until they, probably, until they kick me off of it. Yeah. And then.
But it'd be fun to go out to San Francisco and do some of the Australia and Asia flying and, and just try something new. It, you know, 15 or 20 years on one airplane is. Yeah, probably, probably too long. Talk a little bit about commuting because someone that lives in a city that's not great for the airline, I would say maybe that's the wrong way to put it, but you're never going to live in base. Living in Minneapolis, working for United, it's just not going to happen. Right. So has commuting.
Everyone always tells me airlines are way better when you're in base. And I'm sure you can agree to that. Just makes your life a little bit easier because you got to plan a little bit more, you know, that one trip now you might need to go the night before you lose another night at home. So talk about doing that for a career.
Is it something that you think a lot of people can just get used to and it just kind of, you work it in and you make it work or do you think a lot of people, it's kind of a big deterrent in the airline they go to or even their quality of life at an airline.
I mean, I think you're going to have, you're for sure going to have a better quality of life and the ability to make more money if you live where you're based because then you can pick up, you know, this one like a one day trip that pays 400% premium pay or whatever, you know, like you have those options to do that. I like living in Minneapolis. This is where I grew up and this is where my family is. And now it's, you know, it's where my kids go to school.
And so I don't know that I'm committed to living here forever, but for sure, till our kids are out of high school, and it's. I don't know, it's never bothered me enough to seriously consider moving. We looked at it for a while, looked at moving somewhere, but we like it here. And I don't know, like, especially being on the airplane I'm on, I can fly into Newark in the morning and go to Europe at night, come back at noon and then fly home and be home for dinner most of the time.
Not all the trips are like that. Obviously, if I do a domestic trip, sometimes they start early or end late, but, you know, next month I've got 18 days off, and I'm not like the most senior person on the air on the fleet. 18, 15 to 18 days off is pretty standard. And you're still home a lot, you know, so. I don't know. I don't mind commuting, but a lot of people do. Do you feel like when you.
When you mentioned that you can commute early in the morning and then you fly a trip later to go to Europe, do you think that that takes out of, you know, fatigue? Not saying you are fatigued, but does it. Does it just add an extra toll on it? Are you able to kind of relax in the airline and you don't feel like you're working? Does that make sense?
Yeah, I. I feel like I almost always take the first flight to Newark, and I feel like waking up early to take the first flight sets me up for, like, a good nap schedule. There you go. So, like, I wake up early, I take an. If I can, if I'm not in the jump seat, I sleep on the plane to Newark. Then I hang out for a while, and then I take a nap in the crew lounge, and then I go fly, and then I get a nap on the plane to Europe, and then I get to Europe and take a nap when I'm there. So I don't know.
I. I feel like if I lived. Say I lived in Newark and I'm home and doing stuff all day or hanging out with my kids or whatever, well, I might not be taking a nap before I go to the airport. So I still might be up in the morning and up all day and then go to the airport. So I. I don't know. I. I don't feel like I'm more fatigued than if I lived in Newark. That's a good point, because I feel. Like I'd just be doing different things. Yeah, you'd be doing your Honey to do list.
You know, you'd be building something or fixing something like, oh, I gotta go to work. I gotta fly to Europe. Geez, take a nap. Yeah, so that makes a lot of sense. But I do, I will say, like, last year we brought our daughter to Paris and we took Delta from Minneapolis to Paris just because we were doing a weekend like a birthday thing with our daughter and it was just easier to take a direct flight from Minneapolis to Paris. 100%.
A friend of mine happened to be working the flight, and he lived two hours away in Wisconsin somewhere. And. And I told my wife, I was like, this is what life would be like if I was based here. Like, I'd be home all day, I'd leave for the airport at 7pm and I'd go to Paris. You know, like, there's certainly something to be said for that. You know, I probably lose. If you were to add up the hours, I probably lose three days at home every month just flying back and forth.
So, you know, it's certainly not for everybody. But yeah, it's also, you know, like I said, if I'd been hired by Northwest or Delta, then it'd be a different story, but absolutely. But yeah, it's all worked out. We could always. We could always move, but I don't know, we'll probably wait till after the kids are. Kids are gone. So. So let's talk a little bit about Instagram, YouTube, social media. What was. Because obviously you've been an airline pilot for 18 years. Social media has been.
Or not. You've been working for Continental United for 18 years. Social media has been around for a good bit. But what, probably two or three years ago, was it when you started making videos? Was it a little bit before that? I feel like trying to remember the exact time that I remember seeing the first. My labor life. And I feel like it was around 20. 20, 2021. What was it about that time? Did you always want to do this? Kind of get into a little bit about just starting my layover life.
Yeah, I feel like I've always been. That's always been like a creative side to me. Like back in. Back when I was like at Pinnacle, I had a blog, you know, because everyone had blogs back then. Like, what was it called? New blogs or. Yeah. And I don't know, I've just always kind of had a creative side to me. I started my layer of life, Instagram, probably, I want to say, six or seven years ago. And I started it. I have another Instagram account that's like family stuff in private.
And I started it because when I came on to the. Or, you know, I was doing all These really cool trips. And my normal Instagram account was like a picture of my family and then a picture in Rome and a picture in Milan and a picture in Athens and a picture. And it was like turning into, like, too much work stuff. So I just thought I'd separate the two and have one that's just for, like, what I do on layovers. And. And, you know, it was like your normal Instagram account. It wasn't.
You know, Nobody starts with 180,000 followers. Not at all. Not at all. Yeah. So it, you know, it was years of just a normal Instagram following. And then I started my YouTube channel, and I started that. I started that, I think five years ago. And initially I started it because I saw all these people going on layovers to Rome and, you know, Athens or whatever and literally just slam clicking, staying in their hotel room for 24 hours or 48 hours. And I was like, there's so much to do here.
Even if you've been here a hundred times, there's still something you can find that's unique. And so I started my YouTube channel mostly as an encouragement to other crew members or, you know, if you're going to Lisbon and you're looking for something to do, you could look at my videos and see what I did and do one of those things on your layover that of course, didn't really take off because they were just travel videos. Like, they weren't aviation related at all.
So if you go back to my first, probably 40 videos on YouTube, none of them have anything United or any. Any really indication that I'm a United or a pilot at all. They're just, suddenly I'm in Lisbon, and suddenly I'm in Rome for whatever reason. Yeah, yeah. And. And there's way better travel. So they were just travel videos, basically. So there's. And there's way better travel YouTubers than me.
And so once I started putting in, like, behind the scenes, if you will, aviation stuff and like, work stuff, that's when it kind of picked up some traction and people started watching it more. And it's been fun to interact with people. And, you know, like, there's a lot of people from the military have found use of the videos because they don't have any idea what airline flying is like.
And yeah, you know, people who work at regional airlines see them and see kind of what their future looks like. And. And then I've run into even business travelers who just like, you know, they're like, they fly all the time, but they don't really see exactly what pilots are doing or pilotins are doing and, and kind of gives them a perspective as to what our job feel like.
So it's been fun to just meet people in the airport and, and see how those videos are encouraging them or helping them plan their trips. And when you decided to bring kind of United or I'm a pilot, and specifically show more, not like top secret United stuff, but just like be pretty open with where you are, where you work, was there hesitation about that at all? Because airlines historically have not really.
I don't want to say they're not in favor of social media, but they're just so hesitant to kind of accept it or really want their brand out there because the way they see it, they have 15,000 pilots. If they say yes to everyone, then someone's going to tarnish their name or bring them down, you know. Right. So I guess the question is, what steps did you take when mentioning United? Was it more of a I'm going to do this and ask for forgiveness later? Was it just. Hopefully they never see it.
Talk about that. Yeah, I mean, I never got official permission to do anything. When I started my YouTube channel, I had already kind of been in contact with the social media team and the social media team had started a, like an influencer camp for internal influencers, if you will. So I guess I kind of knew that they were on board with social media stuff and I was kind of part of that group.
So I just started making videos and obviously being very careful about like none of my videos are filmed in the cockpit while we're flying. And, and you know, if I, even if I show a shot looking out the window, I'm clear to show that you can see that this is shot from a passenger seat and not the cockpit window. And, and like I'm very careful about recording and, and, and, and now I feel like enough people kind of know who know what I do that.
Like I'm not even going to record a video in the cockpit because the guy next to me will see that or whatever, you know, Like, I don't want to be a bad example of what social media is. So. Yeah. But yeah, really, I never really got official permission. That just kind of turned into they like what I'm doing. And now I work pretty closely with a United social media team, so I. Was gonna say it seems like they kind of accepted it because you just did the, the video with them.
Whereas I think it's a commercial I haven't got a chance to watch yet. But I saw the Commercial. I believe you guys call them 1k flyers or a million miles. I think you gave something to someone with a, that flew an astronomical amount of miles with you guys. So they definitely have seemed to have accepted it. And it seems like United, out of all the airlines maybe is currently. This could always change, right? Is the most social media friendly, I would say.
Or maybe it just seems like most United. Most pilot influencers see happen to be United pilots. I don't know, I haven't figured that. Out yet, but I'm not sure which one is which. Yeah, the social media team does a great job handling everything and they are very encouraging of.
I mean, they put on a social media camp every year and this past year, you know, there's like 100 or 120 influencers from pilots, flight attendants, gate agents, ramp agents, everyone's who, you know, has a presence on Instagram or social media gets to go to this camp and learn more about photography tips and how to make better TikToks and you know, like that kind of stuff. And remember, say positive things about the brand. Only positive things. Yeah, yeah. And there is that too.
Like you can't get on there and. Rip into passengers or Scott Kirby should do this. Yeah, no, bad idea, right? I don't know. I'm a pretty positive person as it is tonight. It's never been a struggle to like. But, you know, I. We all have bad days. I'm not. But I don't want to go on Instagram and see your bad day. I'm going there to be entertained. So I'm not going to put my worst days on Instagram.
So I was gonna ask, has there been a day where you're like, you know, you're setting up the video, you set the phone up and you're doing whatever it is you do and you just kind of take a pause and you look at, you're like, I don't feel like doing this today. Or has it been kind of. Are you able to turn it on and you know, be my layover life right then and there? I mean, I feel like there are times when I like have to turn it on.
And there's other times, like in one of my last videos, I jumped off a cliff in Switzerland. And you know, when you're doing that kind of stuff, you're just on awesome, you know? Yeah, no, for sure. There's days where it's like, I know I want to record a video on this trip, but I'm not really in the mood today. And I have found that I can, if I have a lot of B roll footage, I can make up for lack of personality on camera with B roll and voiceover later in the edit.
And so, you know, I'm not on for an entire three day trip of on camera action. You know, is it something that you invite other people to come with you all the time when you're on camera or do you try to do all those on your own and not.
The reason I ask that is because for, for me personally and I think a lot of other people, it's the idea of being on camera out in public, you know, like holding a camera up, talking to it, or doing like a cool transition or going up to a rock and, you know, sitting on it, looking at, talking to people. It can be intimidating putting yourself out there. What does this person think of me? What is this, you know, what is my number one, my lead flight attendant going to think?
Or what's the fo gonna. You know, you just kind of, you think about your head when in reality they don't care at all. You know, they're just like, oh, it's cool, he's got a YouTube channel. But in your mind you're like, oh my gosh, everyone's looking at me looking like that stuff. So what are you playing with? It's still, it still takes a lot to like walk through the airport and talk to the camera. Yeah, especially I don't do that in uniform very or hardly ever.
Yeah, but, but if you're in a quiet airport talking to a camera, you feel like everyone is looking at you like, and maybe they are, and that's fine. I, I've kind of come to the point where I was like, I don't care. They don't know that I've got this YouTube channel. Or maybe they do now and it doesn't matter. They'll see it, they'll laugh at me. And that's fine. But I know what I'm coming. I know what I'm putting together here, and I know it's going to be awesome in the end.
But as far as recording with other crew members, obviously I always ask a video I'm editing right now. The first officer was with me throughout the day and the little adventure we went on, but he didn't really want to be on camera, which is totally fine. And that actually was kind of helpful because then he held the camera for me and I was, he was able to like film me doing stuff. You're my videographer. Cool. You don't want to be in it. Here you go, you just got a new job.
Yeah, I'll buy dinner. Yeah, yeah. And. But I ask, you know, I'll ask flight attendants if they're okay obviously being on camera, and if they're not, that's totally fine. They can stand behind the camera. Like, if I'm like, in my. The video I'm editing now, I filmed part of our briefing, and oftentimes I'll do like a real briefing, and then I'll be like, can I just sit here and talk with you guys and record that? Like, it doesn't sound an official briefing.
It's just like, to simulate a briefing. We'Re going to go to the airport and we're going to eat Qdoba and then we're going to do this. But it looks really important. Yeah, yeah. That way I'm not distracted when I'm, yeah. Smart. I, like, record a video. But, yeah, I mean, I try to make it fun and, and people are either receptive to it or not. And now, like, enough people follow me that they show up and they kind of know that I have a YouTube channel or know I have an Instagram account.
And. And if I'm going on a trip where I'm planning on doing a video, I'll usually send out an email ahead of time and just say, hey, just so you know, I might be recording YouTube video. And. Yeah. How would you say it's received by pilots? Because I would say a lot of times I've seen pilots hate on social media influencers. It's just like, natural. Right. They think of it as cringe, but I think deep down everyone kind of wants to have that opportunity. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.
Some people may not want to, but how have you seen this is the pilot community, especially the United pilots. Do you think they've kind of rallied behind it? Do you think they like it? Do you think some people don't like it? A mix of them or what would you say? I'm sure there's a lot of people who don't like it. I don't ever go on message boards or anything, so I don't see all the hate or whatever. But yeah, I'm sure some people don't like it. And that's fine. If it's.
If you don't like it, then it's not for you. Like, yeah, I'm not making this for every United pilot. I'm making it for the student pilots and the travelers, the regional pilots who are needing inspiration to, like, keep showing up to work and keep applying to United or whoever. And if it's, you know, some 64 year old crusty pilot who doesn't get YouTube or social media, that's fine. That that's not for him. Then if he sees it and hates on it, then whatever. It doesn't really bother me too much.
But it took me a while to get to that point where I could just blow that off and. But just realizing that my videos aren't for everybody and the people they're not for who see them are probably gonna, you know, hate on it a little bit. Yeah. Be the loudest usually too. Yeah, yeah. But I've, you know, I will say I've never had anyone come up to me in person and say that they hate my videos. I don't like your videos. Yeah. Everyone.
You know, I've had a few first officers say that my videos are the reason they want to work for United and. Which is pretty cool. Yeah, that's awesome. So it's those kind of stories and those kind of people I fly with that make it worth doing what I'm doing. Yeah, I think it's great for airlines to have an ambassador like that. I think there's something between it's a fine line like you don't want it to be company sponsored or company pushed or have the feeling of it being very corporate.
But if you can find somehow an organic way to have someone show what it's like to work, how they're happy at their job, how they think their airline's the best, all that kind of stuff, and just be happy and show the cool things to do. I think it's an amazing recruiting tool and it can help separate that airline from one or the other. Now there's obviously the dangers of picking the wrong person or having one rogue video go out there that could hurt the airline.
But I think overall it's definitely worth it. I think what you've done has helped United, along with other influencers that are United, just put their name brand ahead of someone else. You know, if you, if it comes down to it, you're looking at the applications and which one you want to hit. Submit first to maybe like, oh, Paul, okay, United, that's cool. Let me submit that one first. And you get, you know, it's just, just how it works in your brain.
So I think all the airlines, if they're listening to this, they should kind of take note, maybe try to find their own influencer on YouTube or whatever it is. Not, not promoting myself. I don't really want to be a YouTube influencer. I mean, it'd be kind of cool, but I can't look at myself in the camera yet. I haven't gotten that point in my career. But I think it's important, and I think you've done a good job. The videos are cool, and I hope you continue doing them.
I got a little bit more for you, and then we'll go. One is going to be. Actually, I'll ask this question first because I got to load everything up. I actually just got called in for a trip a little bit ago, so I have to go to Newark for some reason. Oh, no kidding? Yeah. Tomorrow, let's see. I'm going to Newark. I'm on the 7:3 domestic side, so not great. But Newark, DFW to Austin, Austin, DFW to CMH, then Columbus back to Newark.
So I need to get my consolidation in, and I'm desperately in need of hours, so I can't say no to any trips right now. But my phone rang about 20 minutes ago. I was like, what's this take? Okay, sorry. Oh, no. I went to school in Columbus, so I went to Ohio State, so it'll be good for me to go back to my. My college town. Oh, yeah, that'd be cool. Anyways, the question I have for you first right now is obviously you have a lot of people that kind of watch your videos.
You've probably had the opportunity to kind of tell them this advice. But what are three tips you give someone, whether they have one hour, a hundred hours, a thousand hours, or they want your career, they want your lifesty, they want your YouTube channel, everything. What kind of advice would you give to them? And if you can, three tips specifically for that. Yeah. Well, number one would be don't give up.
It. You know, my wife and I both trained jiu jitsu, and it's one of those things that, like, it's hard all the time. Like, I'm always getting beat up. You feel like you're never progressing. Um, and. But what you don't see is, like, the people on either side of you are progressing relatively at the same rate that you are. And just don't, don't give up. Because really, in the. In the end, like, you're flying an airplane and it's awesome.
And like, if you love flying airplanes, whether you're flying a Cessna or a regional jet or a triple seven, it's all awesome. It's like, it's so fun. And the fact that you get to fly airplanes for a living, either, you know, now or in the future, it's like, it's the best. Agreed. Um, I don't know if that was one tip or two tips or what, but. Yeah, just don't give up. It's, you know, any. Anything that's worth doing is going to be hard.
Like, you know, for me, like trying to get to a black belt, I mean, that's probably a decade away from me, but it's going to be worth it when I get there. And same thing, being an airline pilot, like, becoming an airline pilot is hard and there's going to be some sacrifices and struggles and for sure, but anything that's worth doing is going to take that. So just don't give up. I love it. I mean, that's the general overall and everything in life. Right? Just don't give up.
And I've seen it with, I mean, a lot of people be like, how'd you create a podcast? How. How have you gotten a good podcast? How do you get sponsors? And honestly, you might agree to this as well. I think the number one thing is just continually posting content, just being consistent. It's not going to happen overnight. Like you said, you might have had 40 videos of travel sty, videos that maybe didn't really do anything, or maybe they did, I don't know. But I'm just kind of thinking.
But just being consistent and being there and continually posting does wonders for your career or what you want. It's the people that try to do it, they do it for a month. They don't get any views, they don't get any sponsorships. Like, this is stupid. I can't do it. It's like, that's how it works. I didn't get paid, I didn't get any sponsors, make any money off this podcast for the first five years. I did it. It isn't until recently that I've started getting money, getting sponsors.
So it's not overnight. It's hard work and you gotta continually do it. And that's how everything is, I would say. And you're learning along the way, like, yeah, you're getting a little bit better with every video. Like, for me, anyway, with your podcast, like, you know, I try to learn something new in every video, like a new graphic, a new edit, a new transition or whatever.
I try to learn just to be a little bit better or get a different camera and learn how to use a new camera or a new drone or whatever. And the same thing at Jiu Jitsu. Like, I just try to learn a little bit every day. And when you go flying you just try to learn a little bit. You don't have to take in the whole lesson. Just take in a couple minutes of it and be better at that. Totally agree.
And I was going to do a rapid fire section, but my phone, for some reason I still use Evernote and it locks me out whenever I use a different device. So I need a switch. We'll do it again later. I'll call you up for five minutes and we'll do it again later. But I wanted to ask you the last question. What do you bring with you? What's like a recorder? Do you have just like a massive third bag with cameras? On cameras. On cameras. Do you have like a professional Sony?
And then you have like an OSMO Pocket or your iPhone? Like, what are you bringing to record with? Right. Yeah. My standard. If I'm recording a YouTube video, my standard setup will be I have a Sony ZV1 mark 2, which is A. A small point and shoot. I've got a road mic that I put on top of it, like a shotgun mic. And then I have a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone. And that having a drone really helps you set the scene for different transitions and set the scene for where you are. Plus, they're fun to fly.
And then I'll use my iPhone for a lot of things. I've got a little suction cup thing. I can put it on a window. Cool. And walk. Do a walking past shot or whatever. Or like sitting on the airplane seat, you can suction it to the screen in front of you. Yeah. And then usually I have a GoPro or an Insta360. If I'm doing any sort of underwater action type shots, I'll make sure I have one of those with me. So, yeah.
So the Sony ZV1 Mark 2, a DJI drone, and then my iPhone and a GoPro or something like that. So what do you do about flying? That's kind of the basic setup. What do you do about flying a drone in a different country? Is a lot of, I'm guessing, you know, now the rules and local laws, but has it been a lot of just. Just Googling, figuring out, like, how do I fly a drone here? Can I fly a drone here? Or is it just we'll go fly if I get arrested, you know, I'll just blame it on the first officer.
It's his drone. I know in London and Paris, like, that's a pretty strict drone, no drone zone. Um, I'll. I'll try to Google a little bit. Yeah. What the rules are. And look up the DJI app to see. But usually the DJI thing, if you're not allowed to fly there, it won't let you take off. Oh, cool. Yeah, that's good. I don't know. I figure if it. If the drone lets me take off. We'Re good to go. Has customs ever, you know, like, London customs, have they opened up and like, dude, what are you doing?
Doing? Are you an influencer? Like, why do you got a drone here? Why you got these cameras? What are you doing, man? No, it's actually never, ever come up. No one's ever looked at, you know, four cameras in my bag and asked anything about it. Well, I love it. Well, hey, Paul, thank you so much for today, man. It's been fun talking with you. I hope you have a great rest of your time off. Just living your dream. So thanks for coming on. This podcast will probably come out in a week.
All I need from you is just a picture, some videos that you want to send me for some promo, and that'll be it. Sure, sounds great. All right, man. Well, I appreciate it. We'll do it. Thanks, dude. Yeah, man, we'll have a good. I'll hold down Newark for you tomorrow. Yeah, have a good trip. See you, man. AV Nation, that's a wrap on today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. Shout out to all the sponsors.
I really appreciate everything you all do for the Pilot to Pilot podcast and it is. Can't do this without you. Let's just be honest. But AV Nation, I'm so thankful. Paul, I appreciate you coming to the podcast. It's great to hear your story. It was great to talk about regional life, about flying for Continental, making 25 an hour at a major airline. I don't think anyone right now that's listening can comprehend what that would be like.
Everyone needs to make at least 100k and if they don't, they feel like they're not doing well in life. So it wasn't that long ago when that wasn't a possibility at an airline. So it's something that we always just got to keep in our brain, keep in our mind of what has happened in the past and how, one, it can come back. And two, we should be super thankful for what we have in this. This awesome industry that we all call our own. So, AV Nation, I hope you're having a great day.
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