Episode 334 of the pilot the Pilot Podcast takes off now.
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Speaker DHagai Mako I Skypa Business Development VP not the easiest name to say Hagai In Hebrew it's Hagai.
Speaker DBut I'm sure we'll make it work.
Speaker AAV Nation what is going on?
Speaker AAnd welcome back to the Pilot to Pilot podcast.
Speaker AMy name is Justin Seams and I am your host.
Speaker AToday's episode is with Hagai from Skypath and what an episode.
Speaker AJust great energy, a great conversation and just awesome to dive in to.
Speaker AOne Getting deeper into what truly fuels Skypath as a company and why they're creating, why they're going after everything and why they're just so successful and just the personal side as well.
Speaker AJust figuring out who Hagai is, why he he operates the way he does, and just how he goes about his daily life.
Speaker AI think there's a lot of good in this episode that came out of it.
Speaker AWhether you're a pilot, whether you're just going throughout your day, and whether you just want to be successful in life.
Speaker AI think this is a solid, solid episode.
Speaker ASo Skypath thank you Hagai.
Speaker AThank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker ABut AV Nation Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Speaker AAnd if you do, leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcast and make sure you drop the Follow or Subscribe button.
Speaker AI know that sounds very cliche to keep saying that, but Spotify is letting me know and doing a much better job of knowing how many people are following or subscribing to your podcast.
Speaker ASo go ahead and follow there.
Speaker ALeave a comment as well while you're there and say that I sent you.
Speaker AThat works too.
Speaker ABut aviation.
Speaker AI hope you enjoy this episode.
Speaker AIt's always fun talking to Skypath, so make sure you download their app.
Speaker AThere will be a link in the description as well as it's truly, truly, truly my go to app for turbulence.
Speaker AAnd if I were to fly ga, I would have this as well.
Speaker AJust because it'd be.
Speaker AI know Christina would be in the back, be like, yo, why is it bumpy?
Speaker CTell me that.
Speaker AAnd she could just see it, be.
Speaker CLike, look, there's bumps.
Speaker AGo away, go around.
Speaker ABut AV Nation, I hope you're having a good day.
Speaker AAnd without any further ado, here's a guy from Skypath.
Speaker CYou have a lot of confidence in me, man.
Speaker CYou know, Americans are not good at difficult names.
Speaker COr not even difficult names, just names that aren't Chris or Justin.
Speaker CSo if I butcher your name, I do apologize.
Speaker DNo problem.
Speaker DI used to.
Speaker DI lived seven years in the US and when I ever go to Starbucks, I use Joe because there was no chance that anybody will get right the Hagai, Mako or any combination of those two.
Speaker DI love it.
Speaker CThat's so funny.
Speaker CJoe.
Speaker CJoe.
Speaker CNow, whenever I hear the name Joe at Starbucks, I'll probably go to Starbucks after this, honestly.
Speaker CBut if I ever hear name someone say Joe, I'm going to just automatically assume that's not the real name.
Speaker DExactly.
Speaker DI assume there are a few Joes in Starbucks that are asking their coffee.
Speaker CYeah, probably.
Speaker CYeah, I know a couple Joes.
Speaker CSo probably.
Speaker CBut now it's ruined for him.
Speaker CIt can't be Joe anymore.
Speaker CI'm just going to come up with a new name for him.
Speaker CI'm going to call him Hagai.
Speaker CHow about that?
Speaker DSounds great.
Speaker CAll right, well, Hagai, hopefully I said it correctly, but welcome to the podcast.
Speaker CThis is another skypath episode.
Speaker CSo if you haven't listened to any of them before, we have.
Speaker CWe have two other episodes.
Speaker COne with Maya, one with Guy.
Speaker CThey've been fantastic episodes.
Speaker CThey've been well received.
Speaker CMy editor has always liked it.
Speaker CHe's always enjoyed listening to these, and everyone that we've had on has Always had questions about Skypath.
Speaker CSo any chance I get to talk about a really cool app?
Speaker CWe always try to have it come on.
Speaker CWe always try to show the cool stuff in aviation that's coming out.
Speaker CBut we will get to Skypath later.
Speaker CWhat I really wanted to touch on and what we do at Pilot to Pilot is tell personal stories as well.
Speaker CSo I wanted to share more about you and you and aviation.
Speaker CSo why don't you go ahead and tell me how you got in aviation and from what I've gathered and what I've heard, it's not necessarily the standard two year old, three year old looking up the sky be like hey airplanes, I love airplanes.
Speaker DYeah, it's actually quite the opposite on that part I have to say.
Speaker DSo I did, like many of the pilots and employees of Skypas, I did the flight school and flight academy in the Air Force and that was my segue to aviation.
Speaker DHowever, before I joined the army, I actually wanted to go to the Special Forces and not actually the Air Force.
Speaker DIn Israel the Air Force has priority so they have the first filter to choose from the people that go into the army in general.
Speaker DAnd if you either not, not relevant, not fitted to them, obviously you will be out of that pool or if you fail any of the testing on the way.
Speaker DSo again, unfortunately I passed some of those tests before the service and I got into flight school and still I had this bug into the Special Forces.
Speaker DAnd I can tell you a story that I think at flight school.
Speaker DAt flight school the, the first cutoff is the basic flight testing.
Speaker DThat's okay.
Speaker DMy time was done on a Piper, on a small Piper and, and, and I remember my saddest day in, in flight school was actually the day I passed those testing because I thought that again they will kick me out.
Speaker DYou know, I was sure that I'm going to fail.
Speaker DI was sure they would kick me out.
Speaker DAnd then I said okay, I forces eventually I passed that and as a competitive person that I am, I continued, continued the flight school until I completed as an attack helicopter pilot.
Speaker COh my gosh.
Speaker CI just can't imagine you just being like I hope I fail these so I can go do what I want to do.
Speaker CBut you just can't let yourself fail from what it sounds like.
Speaker DI remember I called my parents and I remember I had tears in my eyes during that time, you know, just because I passed and nobody kicked me out.
Speaker DSo I, you know, took the decision for me.
Speaker DYou know, sometimes it does help in life.
Speaker CThat's really funny.
Speaker DMost certainly, yeah.
Speaker CIt goes to show that sometimes, you know, someone has other plans for you.
Speaker CAnd it turns out if you're looking back, you're probably not as sad about what happened now.
Speaker DNo, not at all.
Speaker CYeah, not at all.
Speaker CWhat was it like flying a Piper for the first time?
Speaker CWas it for someone that didn't want to get in aviation?
Speaker CWas there fear at all?
Speaker CYou know, a lot of people look at small planes like, I'm not getting that.
Speaker COr was it kind of like, it's kind of exciting, there's an engine on there, so some wings.
Speaker CLet's go do some fun stuff.
Speaker DYeah, no, no, it was.
Speaker DSo the other nice thing that I actually enjoyed, I have to say, those testing.
Speaker DOne of the challenges in flight school and flight academy in the Air Force is the fact that everybody is having their eyes on you and testing you all the time.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DAnd that usually creates a lot of pressure.
Speaker DAnd beside the fact that affect your performance, it's also affect the enjoyment that you have from that experience in life.
Speaker DAnd I have to say I actually quite enjoyed my first Piper flying again, not that I excelled there, I wasn't that amazing, but the experience and I didn't felt any failure feeling or something like that, or any high stress.
Speaker DI just enjoyed, you know, seeing everything from above like that, you know, getting my checklist done and succeeding in some of the drills and skills that they ask us to do.
Speaker DAnd it was, it's quite a.
Speaker DIt was a fun time for me.
Speaker DThat again, maybe that was of a reason I passed, you know, to a certain level, but I wasn't suffering that much.
Speaker DEven though you're had a spotlight on you and everybody's testing you and giving you a grade for anything you're doing, that's part of the challenge of, of being a pilot in the Israeli Air Force, you know, in general, I would say yeah.
Speaker CAnd you sound like a guy that, that likes the pressure, that likes the challenge.
Speaker CYou know, some people don't want to be between a rock and a hard place.
Speaker CIt sounds like you might thrive in those situations.
Speaker CHas it always been that case?
Speaker DI don't know if I thrive, but I can compete, let's say like that.
Speaker DAnd I push myself in those situations.
Speaker DI would say it like that, you know, it bring you to the edge.
Speaker DSo.
Speaker DAnd a lot of the time that edging part brings the best of you, right.
Speaker DAnd that's what you want in those kind of situations.
Speaker CDo you think that was a learned skill or is that something you're born with?
Speaker DGood question.
Speaker DI think it's Both, I think you have to have like a baseline in your, like, genetics, in the skills that you grew up with.
Speaker DBut I think, and I can tell you quite honestly that flight school changed a lot in me, right?
Speaker DIt's kind of re education to a certain level, the whole Air Force experience.
Speaker DAnd it's something that I take all the way today, right, to my job, to my hobbies, to my kids, you know, to analyze whatever you're doing, to find what you're doing good and what you're doing bad, to learn how to improve it efficiently, right?
Speaker DBecause one of the things, everybody can be a pilot, right?
Speaker DEverybody can be a pilot in the Air Force that's like that.
Speaker DBesides, everybody can be a pilot, but everybody can be a pilot in the Air Force.
Speaker DThe issue is how quickly can you learn and how quickly can you improve, right?
Speaker DAnd will your.
Speaker DWill you do again mistakes or errors that you did in the past, right?
Speaker DBecause you want to learn and improve from them.
Speaker DAnd I think that's a challenge.
Speaker DEventually you want pilots to get better and better and better all the time and achieve and not get to their ceiling so quickly.
Speaker DAnd that's part of the things flying an aircraft, basically, it's not the biggest challenge in life, right?
Speaker DEverybody can do it.
Speaker CAbsolutely.
Speaker CAnd I think part of the issue is just the mentality that you have when you're in there flying, right?
Speaker CYou have to be able to not be afraid to make mistakes.
Speaker CYou can't be.
Speaker CYou can't be hesitant.
Speaker CYou just have.
Speaker CSometimes not making a decision is the worst decision you can make, right?
Speaker CLike you act, you make a decision and you rely on your training, you rely on your cfi and you figure it out.
Speaker CThis is something you gotta do.
Speaker CAnd that's something that isn't easy for everyone to kind of wrap their brain around.
Speaker CAnd another one is constructive criticism.
Speaker CUnderstanding that constructive criticism will create a better pilot, a better person, more competitive in.
Speaker CYou don't take it the bad way.
Speaker CIf someone has a.
Speaker CIf you have a bad flight lesson or your instructor lets you know about it, you just got to take it, right?
Speaker CYou just got to sit there, you got to, you know, just take the beating up.
Speaker CI don't have a better word for it, but take the beating and just, just come back the next day and realize that it's not personal.
Speaker CThey're just trying to get the best out of you.
Speaker CAnd it's going to help you in flying and it's going to help you in your personal life.
Speaker CBut a lot of times, just figuring out a way to navigate criticism and navigate suffering and not doing great and adversity will help you become better.
Speaker CAnd you, you'll do better in those situations when the more adversity you face.
Speaker DNo, I totally agree with that.
Speaker DTotally agree.
Speaker DAlso, what to focus on, right?
Speaker DIn.
Speaker DIn same.
Speaker DLike again, when you did your pilot training, you had a bunch of errors, right?
Speaker DBut you need to understand what should you focus for the next slide, right?
Speaker DWhat was the three things that you can correct that will make you much better?
Speaker DBecause you have probably 20 things that you have to get them better or do them better.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DAnd that's also something that you understand very well in, in the Air Force, in flying in general.
Speaker DWhat do I focus on?
Speaker DWhat do I look at at any time?
Speaker DWhat do I do at any moment?
Speaker DRight?
Speaker DIt's true for flight, right?
Speaker DThe issue, the challenge is what do you do in every segment of the flight?
Speaker DWhat is the correct action I need to do?
Speaker DYou know, and then I think it helps you become a much better pilot.
Speaker CYeah, totally agree.
Speaker CNow, for you, you sound like someone that likes to have more than just one thing to be fully satisfied, right?
Speaker CLike where you are at Skypath now, what was it or how was your kind of progression into getting.
Speaker CNot even getting to Skypath, but just you.
Speaker CWhen you're in the army, when you're in the Air Force, when you're, when you're doing your training, what was your mentality like?
Speaker CWere you, you weren't satisfied with just flying?
Speaker CWhat were you wanting to do?
Speaker CWhat was kind of your brain like?
Speaker CWhat.
Speaker CWhat was a guy thinking at that time?
Speaker DDuring.
Speaker DAfter flight school, you mean?
Speaker CYeah, after flight school.
Speaker CYeah, after flight school, you're flying the helicopter and you're just sitting there and you're.
Speaker CYou.
Speaker CThis isn't what you want.
Speaker CNot all that you want.
Speaker CYou want more, right?
Speaker CSo what, what was coming next?
Speaker DSo again, I think I'm.
Speaker DI'm a person that likes to try different things and experience different things.
Speaker DAnd that was part of my service experience.
Speaker DAnd so I started first of all at Cobras, and then I really wanted to switch to a more advanced helicopter, the Apache.
Speaker DAnd that's something that affect.
Speaker DAnd I had also other hobbies that I wanted to try and actually try them after the end of my service.
Speaker DSo, for example, transition into Apache.
Speaker DI did it as a reserve pilot, and that's really rare.
Speaker DIt's a, you know, hard transition to do when you are actually reserve pilot coming usually once a week, twice a week.
Speaker DNow you need to commit yourself for a few months and and, and transition to whole different aircraft while you are working, while you have family, while you have other obligations.
Speaker DAnd so that was one challenge that I took and, and again helped me fulfill my life.
Speaker DAnd the other thing, I had other dreams.
Speaker DI actually, I had the long old dreams of farming and wrenching that I tried after the service.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker DAnd so I did some wrenching in Australia while I was there.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker DAnd I did a few working vacation, I would say like that during my backpacking.
Speaker DSo I did the wrenching and I did the dive master and dive instructor.
Speaker DAnd by the way, one of the things I learned, I love the wrenching, but I found out that I enjoy more working with people.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DAnd those creatures that walk on four, although they're amazing, amazing to grow an amazing experience still, you know, I, I needed the communication, right?
Speaker CSo.
Speaker DSo that's, for example, one thing that pushed me to my current career.
Speaker DAnd even when I started to work at Elbit System, which is a defense industry company, I started as a system system engineer.
Speaker DBut try to touch all the different segments or different portions of, of any kind of business, right?
Speaker DFrom development into testing, into a teaching, into marketing and opportunity again to touch all these different aspects of any good business.
Speaker DAnd, and that helped me find out what will work better for me.
Speaker DI would say that the biggest transition for me was at when we moved, my wife pursued their PhD and we moved to the US and then I actually transitioned from Elbit System Israel, small but nice, to Elbit US again, the same company, the subsidiary, the US Subsidiary.
Speaker DAnd again seeing the US organization the way that they work.
Speaker DAnd also that was my first role as a business development manager.
Speaker DThat had me the opportunity again to do exactly or part of what I'm doing now, understanding what hurt people, what affect people, and how can the product and the solution come and solve those problems and be direct with people, see what annoys them, what they require in order to improve their operation.
Speaker DAnd yeah, it's exactly like that.
Speaker DSo those transition between the cattle, between the other diving instructor had the opportunity again to touch all these different aspects and find my way into Skypas.
Speaker CYeah, What I think is really cool is, you know, when you're young, you see social media, you see YouTube, you see Instagram, and you think that these people got, whether it's fame, whether it's money, whether it's success, you think it happened overnight.
Speaker CAnd I'm guessing that if someone was to look at your Instagram, if you had one when you were ranching, your life would look much different than it does.
Speaker CRight now.
Speaker CSo what I'm getting at is you took kind of every opportunity to kind of mold yourself into who you are now, like a well rounded person, you took all these different experiences, which some might not want to do ranching, some might not want to do this, but the point is, is that you were, you kind of took every opportunity you had and you learned from these experiences and you built this wealth of knowledge.
Speaker CYou know, you might take something that you learned from ranching, you might take something that you learned from diving, whether it's to communicate with people, whether it's teamwork, whether it's building.
Speaker CI mean, when you're, when you're with the, a bunch of cattle, you got to figure out a way to get things done.
Speaker CYou can't talk to them like you said.
Speaker CSo sometimes you're gonna have people that you don't might necessarily connect with, but you still got a way to get it.
Speaker CYou have to get the job done.
Speaker CBut you were able to use all these experiences to come.
Speaker CAnd what I'm getting at is when you're 18 years old, you're not going to be as successful as, I mean there's this one off 18 year olds, right?
Speaker CWhether they come from the right family, whether they just had the right opportunity, but you have to kind of put in the work and you have to enjoy the grind.
Speaker CSounds like, I mean, I guarantee you if I asked you if you enjoyed everything that you did, you'd be like, it was the best time of my life.
Speaker CI love ranching, I do it again, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker CBut you have to enjoy the grind, you have to enjoy the process.
Speaker CAnd don't be afraid to say yes to something that maybe isn't going to be the normal decision.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CLike I'm guessing all your friends didn't go ranching as well in Australia or become dive masters.
Speaker CBut don't be afraid to say yes to those kind of decisions that not everyone's doing.
Speaker CAnd you never know what opportunities will come up in your, in your life and how it's going to be able to improve yourself and just become a better person.
Speaker CWhether it's 5, 10, 15 or 20 years down the road.
Speaker DNo, no, totally.
Speaker DAnd every experience take you to the next one.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DAnd one example that relates to aviation, I told you I did a transition as a late, in late age to the Apache, which is an advanced helicopter, glass cockpit, different armament equipment, different systems.
Speaker DA huge change for me, you know, and, and going back to a student, I was almost 30 at that time.
Speaker DGoing back to Be a student, you felt like you're going back to flight school.
Speaker DNow, that's already a mentality that put you on the edge, right?
Speaker DPut you in a corner.
Speaker DBecause, wait, I'm experienced pilot, you know, I did a lot of things, you know, so now I'm back to a student that somebody, the younger than me tells me how to fly now and things like that.
Speaker DSo, so, but, but those are experience that, that happened to you in life, right.
Speaker DI moved to the US I had now a new company to work with, new people, new mentality, new culture.
Speaker DThis is a new change.
Speaker DYou need to learn how to adapt, how to fit yourself to those kind of environment.
Speaker DAnd just that fact of changing an aircraft, to me, it was a similar transition.
Speaker DLike that, learning how to adopt myself, how to adjust myself to that new situation, to that new mentality, by the way, without affecting my success.
Speaker DBecause becoming a student, you can also become, you know, the small student that's, you know, focused on the smallest drill and skill that you need to do.
Speaker DBut you need to look at the bigger picture.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DYou need to look, how do you get yourself better without, by the way, doing a safety incident?
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker DBecause that's always in flying, right.
Speaker DThat takes you back.
Speaker DEvery safety event that you have, you need to do to beat me or a bit more cautious now to take your, your, your spares.
Speaker DAnd that's part of the challenge.
Speaker DAnd that's a lot of things I learned again, just from transitioning from one aircraft to another and at the an older age and, and seeing how that experience can affect other parts of my life.
Speaker CAbsolutely.
Speaker CI'm sure that was pretty humbling too, when all of a sudden you got this 21 or 18, how were they old?
Speaker CThey are teaching you how to fly something.
Speaker CYou're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker CI got experience.
Speaker CYou come to this new airplane, you switch airplanes, and whatever worked in the last airplane is not going to work in the new airplane.
Speaker CYou know, you're just kind of like, this is how we did in the old airplane.
Speaker CWe're like, well, hey, old man, this is how we do it in the new one.
Speaker CAll right?
Speaker DCorrect.
Speaker CIt's humbling and it's important.
Speaker CLike you said, growth is huge.
Speaker CYou know, if you're not growing and someone else is getting better than you.
Speaker CAnd we used to say, I played football in college, American football, I should say, not soccer.
Speaker CBut we always said that if you're not getting better every day, you're technically getting worse and someone is getting better than you as well.
Speaker CSo if it's important for you to grow.
Speaker CAnd if that's a goal that you want, there's nothing better to do than change airplanes, change scenery, choose the hard subject.
Speaker CChoose something that's difficult.
Speaker CIt gets you out of your comfort zone and puts you in a fight or flight mode and see how you do totally.
Speaker DAnd also enjoy the road.
Speaker DRight?
Speaker DThat's another thing.
Speaker DIf you only think about the peak that you will get eventually, most of the time you're climbing.
Speaker DRight?
Speaker ALets take a break from today's episode to hear from our sponsor, Alworth Airline Advisors.
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Speaker AAnd now back to today's episode.
Speaker CI want to talk a little bit more about Skypath now.
Speaker CSo how did Skypath come about?
Speaker CLike you mentioned, you're in the US your wife's getting her PhD, you're working here.
Speaker CWas it just like someone was like hey, a buddy from the military, hey, we got this new app working on, you know, it's aviation and technology.
Speaker CWe would love to have you here or how did that all come together?
Speaker DSo I think again at that time we returned to Israel already.
Speaker DMy wife finished her PhD and started position here in Israel and I started to work back in Elbit system Israel and I was managing now the international business development for the rotary wing division.
Speaker DSo I was in charge on a lot of new business and I had a good experience on that part and I felt like I'm missing a big chunk of business that I'm not experienced.
Speaker DAt that time Elbit had some organization change and Maya rco, she and I served together in the squadron, had the opportunity to work in LB together.
Speaker DSo we knew each other for a while and she convinced me that's a great timing, a good opportunity and did that leap as well.
Speaker DAnd I said it's now, never right to a certain time time.
Speaker DAnd I tried and I have to say same same as my other experience.
Speaker DIt's incredible experience to work in this kind of Industry, you know, a bit more cutting edge technology, apps, you know, the whole concept of software as a service, it's something that doesn't happen so much in the military aspect.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DIn defense industry.
Speaker DSo this is aspect of the market that I was exposed to and in this organization that I wasn't exposed in elbit.
Speaker DAnd that's part of the reason I decided to do this kind of transition.
Speaker CWhat excited you about Skypath or my ecology?
Speaker CWhat was like kind of, not necessarily what did she say?
Speaker CBut was it the app, was it the technology?
Speaker CWas it just the fact that you've been an aircraft, whether it's a helicopter, whether it's an airplane and you had turbulence and you're like, wow, I really wish I knew when this tournament was going to happen so I didn't have to come through this.
Speaker CWhat was it?
Speaker DI think like every good business, first of all I saw a problem that needs to be solved.
Speaker DThat's the first thing you like to solve problems, right.
Speaker DIf it's just for the fun of it, it's not the same.
Speaker DSo I saw first of all a problem that needs to be solved.
Speaker DSecondly, I saw actually a valid solution, a very good solution patent, a unique solution that can actually, with the right distribution, with the right development, can actually solve the problem big time.
Speaker DAnd that's what the, the second part and the third part, it was related to aviation.
Speaker DSo for me it was a transition was very natural, you know, to this aviation segment.
Speaker DAgain, different, not the defense industry, but still aviation, still related, still talking about, with pilots, still talking about flying, still talking about your day to day experience.
Speaker DAnd, and I think that was the third part that connected me or hooked me into Skypus.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker CAnd how long, how long ago have you been there?
Speaker CWhen, when did you make the transition to Skypath?
Speaker DSo I'm now closing three years in SkyPass.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker DSo there is a while.
Speaker DAnd, and we grew up quite dramatically in the last few years.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker DAnd we've been able to first of all grow in the commercial market.
Speaker DMajor carriers that started using us more and more and understood the value that we can provide them in a very easy and seamless way.
Speaker DAnd recently we are also growing on the business aviation market.
Speaker DCorporate aviation or business aviation that again, maybe they don't experience the same incident or the same amount of incidents that happen in commercial aviation, but their overall flight experience to their passengers, to their customers is crucial, maybe even more than, you know, in commercial aviation.
Speaker DAnd that's part of the service that we provide or can provide.
Speaker CYeah, well, I mean Just speaking on a previous life of mine.
Speaker CMy last job that I was at Fractional, you know, mentioned the company.
Speaker CBut it's.
Speaker CHow do you make it the most personal flight possible?
Speaker CRight?
Speaker CLike, how do you put the personal touch on it without going too far?
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CThere's a common line that you cross.
Speaker CBut just being able to be like, oh, my iPad says there's gonna be turbulence in 15 minutes.
Speaker CInstead of just hitting like a seatbelt sign, you could be like, all right, you know, I'm gonna go back and talk to the passengers real quick.
Speaker CHey, this is Pre Turbulence in 15 minutes.
Speaker CWe recommend you go to the bathroom now or you sit down, put your seatbelt on.
Speaker CAnd that just helps out a lot.
Speaker COr if you know, you have a.
Speaker CIf you know that the passenger doesn't like turbulence, then you can route around it and you don't have to say anything and you make it as seamless and as easy as possible.
Speaker CAnd the best part was using SkyPath is we talked about this before we started recording.
Speaker CAs you look down, it doesn't take long to interpret what's going on, right?
Speaker CYou're like, oh, red's bad, orange bad.
Speaker CYou know, it's like, let's go away from that.
Speaker CSo the hexagonal squares make it.
Speaker COr circles, the hexagons makes it very easy to look at and deduce the color and see what's going on and be like, that's bad.
Speaker CLet's go around.
Speaker DOne of the best stories I had during again the short time I hear we started with one of again of the bigger business aviation company in the US Working together with them.
Speaker DAnd I think a few weeks or two weeks before the Super Bowl.
Speaker DThe super bowl is always like the busiest time of the year for those companies.
Speaker DInsane, insane, insane.
Speaker DAnd we had a random call that we talked about total other stuff.
Speaker DAnd then one of their chief pilot told me, listen, you won't believe what happened in the last week or two weeks.
Speaker DWe started getting tons of phone calls from our passengers verifying if their crew for the flight to Vegas.
Speaker DAt that time the super bowl was in Vegas has Skypass app.
Speaker DAnd for me it was incredible, right?
Speaker DThe busiest time of the year.
Speaker DThat company is getting phone calls from passengers and customers telling them, please verify that Skypas is part of the, you know, of my crew there or supporting the crew that's gonna fly me.
Speaker DYou know, there is nothing better than that from our perspective.
Speaker CNo, I agree.
Speaker CI mean, and it just goes to.
Speaker CWe talked about in previous episodes.
Speaker CIt's just for A pilot.
Speaker CAnd for decision making, it's the overall toolkit.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CAnd adding another tool to that belt just makes things even easier.
Speaker CThere can be an infinite amount of tools that you have.
Speaker CBeing able to use the ones you want in the right time and be able to deduce information very quickly makes it very important.
Speaker CSo that's what Skyp does.
Speaker DYep, exactly.
Speaker CI asked, I asked Guy this question.
Speaker CI liked his answer.
Speaker CI want to see what you do as well.
Speaker CIt kind of put you on the spot.
Speaker CBut let's say I'm a airline executive that you in skypath have been trying to kind of get after and be like, hey, you know, you need this app.
Speaker CThis is why you need it.
Speaker CThis is whatever.
Speaker CBut what is we're stuck in an elevator, we'll say we got like three minutes.
Speaker CWhat's your elevator pitch to me?
Speaker CHow would you sell it?
Speaker DI get it a lot now.
Speaker DThe elevator speech is a big thing now to say.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker DSo first of all, again, I want to verify that you have a problem.
Speaker DRight?
Speaker DThat's the first thing I want to say, that I'm solving something for you.
Speaker DI will first verify that you experience what I assume is the problem.
Speaker DYou know, that's the first part.
Speaker DTime start.
Speaker DAre you suffering right, from those incidents, from those injuries, from that downtime, you know, from that flight experience, from your passengers?
Speaker DAgain, verify that that's what you have.
Speaker DAnd then the second part is, what do you say?
Speaker DIf I can improve that dramatically with basically a download of an app?
Speaker DThat's it.
Speaker DThat's what you need to do, right?
Speaker DDownload app, improve your life, get the best information you have in advance without you on the way at all.
Speaker DAnd that's part of the thing.
Speaker DOur app is doing the work for the pilot.
Speaker DYou don't need to hold or move the iPad and verify that the iPad measured correctly, you can be totally busy with anything else.
Speaker DAnd the app will notify you when you are encountering turbulence.
Speaker DSo that was the two part, from my perspective, verifying that you actually suffer from that problem because otherwise I'm not solving anything for you.
Speaker DAnd then the other thing, tell me that's the distance.
Speaker DIt's downloading an app and go and try it.
Speaker DAnd this app will change your life on that turbulence mitigation.
Speaker DBut that's the thing.
Speaker DYou have to be ahead of the curve with this kind of situation.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DYou have to envision where will the solution will be in one year, in two years, in a few years.
Speaker DAnd I think that's part of the vision that we try to present to our customers and prospects as well, to show them that we are expanding more and more, that we are improving our solution more and more.
Speaker DYou said about football, right?
Speaker DYou can't stay the same every day.
Speaker DIf you did a practice and you didn't get better, you basically got worse, you know, and that's same with our solution.
Speaker DIf they pass here a day and we didn't get better with more data, with more capabilities, with more redundancy, with more automatic and more AI involved in that, we got worse.
Speaker DAnd that's all of us.
Speaker DWhen we are coming here to work every day, we are trying to get that better and better.
Speaker DAnd eventually I think our customers sees exactly that.
Speaker DThey see that we are coming to work, we are coming to improve that, and we are coming, even the minor errors to correct and get them better.
Speaker COther.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CAs someone who, in a.
Speaker CAs a company that's doing very well in their space, do you find it that you all compete internally to try to create the best app or is it like an external competition that kind of drives and makes you guys want to be the best?
Speaker DI think, right.
Speaker DYou have a few people from the Air Force here, so obviously we compete, Right.
Speaker DThat's the first thing.
Speaker DWe compete in everything.
Speaker DEven in our, in our, you know, fun days that we have outside of the office.
Speaker DThere is some, some kind of competition involved there.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker DSo we compete, but we keep it, I think healthy competition.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DAnd not a bad competition.
Speaker DI think that's a secret.
Speaker DAnd by the way, that's true also for flying, right.
Speaker DYou want to be better or you want to even, even from your co pilot, for example, you, you want to be better from him, but you don't want to ruin his flight or damage his.
Speaker DWhatever he's doing in order for you to look better.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DSo you need to find that right combination, still be competitive.
Speaker DAnd that's.
Speaker DWe can't go around it, but have it a healthy competition and not something that will backlash to us and eventually affect the product and affect the overall company.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CWhat's been your favorite kind of from the three years you've been there, what's something that makes you the most proud looking back on?
Speaker CIs it, I guess give me two answers because I feel like you're going to say people wise, because it sounds like you like people, you like communication.
Speaker CSo I figure there's going to be kind of a personable story there and then also kind of a company technology or software story.
Speaker DI would say two things that I'm very proud of first of all, we joined the rtca.
Speaker DRtca, Are you familiar with that organization?
Speaker CIs that the Rotary?
Speaker CI think maybe.
Speaker DNo, I don't remember the abbreviation.
Speaker DBut they basically defined global standards for the FAA and for the Eurocontrol.
Speaker DActually, actually.
Speaker COh, cool.
Speaker DAnd one of the things we did in two and a half years ago when I joined here, we actually joined their Turbulence committee and be able to share and improve safety for the overall community, you know, and again, as a business, it's not straightforward to do something like that.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DBecause you're wasting time and effort.
Speaker DNobody pays you for that.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DYou're wasting a lot of time and effort and trying to help everybody.
Speaker DYou are sharing a lot of your secrets and a lot of what you're doing.
Speaker DAnd for me, getting there and being involved there, it's a huge success.
Speaker DBeing a crucial.
Speaker DI think we are a crucial member of that committee, the two committee that I'm a member in.
Speaker DAnd for me that's something we are very proud of that movement and that fact that we didn't look at ourselves, didn't look purely at the business success and wanted to share our knowledge, our information, our vision with the global community, whether they are Europe or us.
Speaker DI think that's one crucial part.
Speaker DI think the other part that I'm proud, the fact that we are transitioning now or exposing this solution to the business aviation, corporate aviation market again in commercial aviation, there was other solution.
Speaker DYou could install on the aircraft the software that will do very similar to what we are doing, but that require an actual software installed on the aircraft.
Speaker DOkay.
Speaker DAnd for the business cooperative segments, it's totally irrelevant with all the different aircraft they have.
Speaker DSo for me, that the fact that we open that market that we are exposing us of and the feedback that we are getting from customers, like that super bowl story that I told you that for me, the other major success that we be able to shift this boat a bit to that market as well.
Speaker DAnd again, not look at the pure revenue line, but look at the overall advantage that we provide the community again, whether they are pilot dispatchers or even the regulator as the faa, air traffic control and so on.
Speaker DSo that's part of the change we are trying to bring.
Speaker CYeah, sounds like you started with the gold airlines.
Speaker CRight now you're a business aviation corporate.
Speaker CAnd then there's also a huge market of ga.
Speaker CWhether GA and general aviation maybe is more an American thing than is others, but there's still some GA out there elsewhere and there's still very valuable resources and people.
Speaker CI mean you can probably agree to this.
Speaker CNot all pilots love turbulence, right?
Speaker CIt doesn't matter what you're flying.
Speaker CIf you're flying a Piper, if you're flying a 747, you know, over the ocean, it's like you want a smooth ride.
Speaker CIf you ask any pilot, they usually want the most boring flight possible, and that's a smooth ride.
Speaker CSo if I'm flying a Sirius, you know, it'd be nice to look down at app like, oh, turbulence, let's go this way.
Speaker CSo it's really cool to see what, what all you guys are doing.
Speaker CWhat would you say is your favorite feature to use on the app whenever you get the chance to use it?
Speaker DThe favorite feature, I would say, again, the number one feature is the notification.
Speaker DFrom my perspective, first of all, again, because the expectations is for a pilot to be, you know, to know everything around him and be on top of that and be ready.
Speaker DBut part of the advantage with today tools that, you know, the pilot can do whatever he needs to do, and the solution or whatever system can actually notify him, alert him at time and, you know, at the right moment in time.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DWe talk about it in the start.
Speaker DYou need to know what you're doing in each moment.
Speaker DAnd the notification feature that we have, automatic notification without the pilot involvement working even in the background, to me, that's the most crucial feature, you know, because eventually the fact that the data is there, it's one level, but you want to bring the data into the pilot eyes, into the pilot view and verify he's aware of them and act accordingly.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DAnd to me.
Speaker DSo that's the best and most important feature, that notification that we have.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CAnd talking with guy, talking with Maya, talking with you, knowing that it's just like an overall team app.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CSo you can have dispatch, you can have pilots, flight attendants, maybe even.
Speaker CI don't, I don't know for sure if there's a passenger version, but I feel like I remember hearing something about passengers as well.
Speaker CSo now maybe it's not best to give the passengers all the information.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CBut having the ability to know what, what they went through or what was right there or the decision that was made, you know, but it's an essential safety app.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CLike we mentioned, the toolkit and the tool belt for multiple people to look at, have eyes on, to make sure what everyone wants when they fly commercially or whenever they fly private, is to have a safe flight and land at their destination.
Speaker CSo it's just a great tool to have and to be able to use.
Speaker DCorrect.
Speaker DNo, no, I agree.
Speaker DIt's.
Speaker DAnd I think passenger is, is on the roadmap.
Speaker DIt will get there.
Speaker DIt will get there.
Speaker DNo doubt about it.
Speaker DAnd I think you said something very true.
Speaker DIt's you need to bring the right information to the right person.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DWe talk about pilot, flight attendant, dispatchers.
Speaker DThey don't need the same information.
Speaker DRight.
Speaker DThey don't need the same notification.
Speaker DBut each of them needs different aspect of the information and in the right timing, in the right method.
Speaker DAnd part of the challenge is not only, again, not only presenting the data, not only bringing the data, but bringing the data at the right time at the right level to this specific Persona, you know, and that's what we are trying to do with all our solution.
Speaker DAnd that include again the pilots, the cabin crew, the dispatchers and hopefully to the passengers very soon as well.
Speaker CYeah, absolutely.
Speaker CI mean, yeah, when you talk about what dispatchers need, they could be like the amount of flights have deviated off this course, you know, then they can make that all right.
Speaker CWell if there's 20% of flights are deviating, we should probably go somewhere else.
Speaker CAnd pilots need to know what's happening now, what's happening in 15 minutes and the dispatcher can help look down the road as well.
Speaker CSo like it's a team effort and just having the ability to have multiple eyes on safety just makes a big difference as well.
Speaker CCorrect.
Speaker DIf we talked about notification in the notification feature for pilots we give something like about 10, 15 minutes notification, right.
Speaker DAnd that's a reasonable time.
Speaker DThey need to take a decent decision.
Speaker DBut for the dispatchers, when he's maybe effective planning, we give up to one hour notification.
Speaker DThat allows him plenty of time to decide do I change route, do I notify, do I verify if the crew is aware of that or not and things like that.
Speaker DSo again, fitting whatever solution you are providing to the right person in the right time, I think that's a crucial part of any good solution.
Speaker CAbsolutely, totally agree.
Speaker CAnd I think it's really cool what you guys have done.
Speaker CYou know, I have been a fan since I've used it.
Speaker CWe talked about it before, but Skypath's great.
Speaker CI love to continue to see it get bigger, to continue to grow.
Speaker CAnd as I mentioned, just seeing it in everyone's iPad, right.
Speaker CLike whether it's GA and they're serious and they're, they're 152 whatever they're flying around, you know, I think it's me really cool to use as a tool or even in check rides, you know, hey show the examiner be like hey look this is what our, our route is going to look like.
Speaker CThis is what the turbulence looks like.
Speaker CJust ease of mind for everything.
Speaker CCheckride, flight, anything.
Speaker CI think it's a, it's just a must have.
Speaker CBut yeah, I appreciate you coming on.
Speaker CIt was a lot of fun to talk with you and share your story.
Speaker CI can tell from right away like you and I are very similar, competitive person.
Speaker CYou sound like the closer.
Speaker CYou sound like Maya calls you and be like he's like a guy.
Speaker CWe need you.
Speaker CCome on in.
Speaker CI'm gonna fly to Dubai to talk people.
Speaker CWe need to make this happen.
Speaker CBut I appreciate you coming on and your story is awesome and I love how well rounded you are and that you weren't afraid to say no to certain situations like to go be a rancher in Australia.
Speaker CWhich when I was leaving college I wanted to move to Australia, New Zealand so bad.
Speaker CNot necessarily to be a rancher, but just to be a part of the culture and be down there and maybe surf a little bit.
Speaker CBut it was really cool to to hear your story and talk about Skypath and I can't wait to see where it goes.
Speaker DSame here.
Speaker DI appreciate the talk and all the good questions.
Speaker AAV Nation that's a wrap on today's episode.
Speaker AThank you so much for listening.
Speaker ALike I said earlier, if you are not following, if you're not subscribing, go to Spotify right now, Hit follow, subscribe, whatever that button is that they have.
Speaker AAnd also take your dad's phone, take your mom's phone, your sister, your wife, your husband, whatever may be just hit subscribe as well.
Speaker AYou know, maybe they need some aviation in their life as well.
Speaker AI said as well as a lot.
Speaker ABut I think it's time to go.
Speaker AIt's 10:46.
Speaker AWe just had to move back into our house after I was hanging curtains and a pipe burst.
Speaker AYeah, not a good story story for another day.
Speaker ABut we had to get our floors redone to say the least.
Speaker ASo Avia Nation, I hope you're having a great day and as always, happy flying.
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