Pilot to Pilot

In 1999, a handful of people gathered at a dusty Namibian airfield to meet two men flying weight-shift microlights around the world. One of them was Mike Blyth. Watching from the crowd was a boy who had never left the country, whose family couldn't afford much flying, and who had no real concept of where these men had come from — only that whatever they were doing, he wanted to do it too.

Twenty-five years later, JP Schulze has flown around the world himself, built the first Sling High Wing off the line — designed by the same Mike Blyth — and become one of the most distinctive filmmakers in aviation.

This one took a while to make happen. We finally met at Oshkosh this year, and JP is candid about being a naturally shy person who ended up with a career in front of a camera.

He grew up in Namibia with no art classes and no creative outlets, thinking in German and Afrikaans, teaching himself English from the Discovery Channel at eight years old. He was taking the controls of his dad's microlight at ten. He funded his first licence by free-diving for crayfish, selling snake venom, and restringing tennis rackets.

The around-the-world trip nearly didn't happen twice. Sponsors walked after a Cirrus ditched near Hawaii and the CAPS pull ran on every news channel — nobody wanted their logo on a small plane over an ocean. So JP and Louis Cole self-funded it, and JP is honest about what that cost: the fourteen-hour legs, the multi-hour shouting match somewhere between Fiji and Kiribati, and the weight of being responsible for a non-pilot's life for the first time.

In this episode:

• Meeting Mike Blyth in 1999 — and building his airplane twenty years later
• Growing up flying "sketchy" weight-shift trikes over the African bush
• Why Southern Africa has a GA scene almost nobody expects
• Moving to New Zealand at seventeen and rebuilding from scratch in a third language
• Meeting Louis Cole on a sand dune and having his life change in a day
• Signing with Discovery, then watching the money disappear
• What flying around the world actually took — and why he'd do it again
• Insisting on being the first to build the Sling High Wing, then helping write the manual
• Why he refuses to post weekly, and what that has cost him
• The sunglasses he built because a $350 pair costs $10 to make
• Why print still matters, and what we both think is at stake

We also recorded a second conversation about the around-the-world flight itself — that one is exclusive to the magazine, with the audio released free a year after publication.

Happy Flying,
Justin

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Pilot to Pilot Magazine — Volume 003 is out now. Get yours at pilottopilothq.com/mag

Sponsors — please support the people who support the show: • NEW SPONSOR ALERT I'd like to welcome AeroTow to the Pilot to Pilot sponsors! check out their AeroTow T2 Engineered for easier maneuverability, the AeroTow T2 is versatile for a variety of aircraft. Its universal cradle provides a seamless towing experience ( Pilot to Pilot listeners can save $100 by using the code in the podcast!) Avemco Insurance — Save 5% as a Pilot to Pilot listener. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297-owner (owners) or avemco.com/4297-non-owner (non-owners) • Learn more about the exciting innovations at Textron Aviation today… just go to TXTAV.com • Garmin — Plan, file, fly, log with the Garmin Pilot app • Allworth Airline Advisors — Register for their latest webinar at allworthfinancial.com/justin • Allworth Financial - https://allworthfinancial.com/airlines/lp/runway-for-retirement-webinar?utm_campaign=airlines+-+more+runway+for+retirement?lmls=Partner+Channel&lmld=Pilot+to+Pilot&ad_version=Social 

Mark Woglom has bought and sold roughly a dozen airplanes in twenty-five years — a new Cessna 182 he learned to fly in, a Baron he never got comfortable in, a pressurized 414, a Cheyenne II XL, four separate Cirrus SR22s, a Vision Jet, a TBM 960, a Citation M2, and the CJ3+ he flies today. Six weeks ago he added an Icon A5, because you can't go sightseeing in a jet.

Along the way he built a framework for making the decision the rest of us agonize over.

In this episode we cover:

• The three F's — finances, features, and function — and why mission is the one most buyers skip
• The "fourth F": buying the wrong airplane, and how to avoid it
• Why he never trusts manufacturer range claims, broker enthusiasm, or forum consensus
• His normalized fuel reserve method for comparing aircraft honestly, apples to apples
• Real rules of thumb for insurance, capital cost, maintenance, and the ancillary costs that ambush new owners
• Why he took a five-year break from flying while still owning an airplane
• What changed when he decided to earn a type rating in his mid-fifties
• Why his wife's headset ended a turboprop purchase
• Never get plane poor — and why a fuel stop isn't the end of the world

Whether you're saving toward your first 172 or wondering whether the step up is worth it, this one's a masterclass in buying with your head instead of your heart.

Happy Flying,
Justin

Pilot to Pilot Magazine — Volume 003 is out now. Get yours at pilottopilothq.com/mag

Sponsors — please support the people who support the show: • NEW SPONSOR ALERT I'd like to welcome AeroTow to the Pilot to Pilot sponsors! check out their AeroTow T2 Engineered for easier maneuverability, the AeroTow T2 is versatile for a variety of aircraft. Its universal cradle provides a seamless towing experience ( Pilot to Pilot listeners can save $100 by using the code in the podcast!) Avemco Insurance — Save 5% as a Pilot to Pilot listener. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297-owner (owners) or avemco.com/4297-non-owner (non-owners) • Learn more about the exciting innovations at Textron Aviation today… just go to TXTAV.com • Garmin — Plan, file, fly, log with the Garmin Pilot app • Allworth Airline Advisors — Register for their latest webinar at allworthfinancial.com/justin • Allworth Financial - https://allworthfinancial.com/airlines/lp/runway-for-retirement-webinar?utm_campaign=airlines+-+more+runway+for+retirement?lmls=Partner+Channel&lmld=Pilot+to+Pilot&ad_version=Social 

Pilot to Pilot Magazine — Volume 003 is out now. Get yours at pilottopilothq.com/mag

Sponsors — please support the people who support the show: • Textron Aviation — The Pipistrel Voyager is perfect answer for high utilization flight training, easy ownership and broader access to aviation • Avemco Insurance — Save 5% as a Pilot to Pilot listener. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297-owner (owners) or avemco.com/4297-non-owner (non-owners) •  • Garmin — Plan, file, fly, log with the Garmin Pilot app • Allworth Airline Advisors — Register for their latest webinar at allworthfinancial.com/justin • Learn the Finer Points — Save 10% off your first year at learnthefinerpoints.com/justin. https://allworthfinancial.com/airlines/lp/runway-for-retirement-webinar?utm_campaign=airlines+-+more+runway+for+retirement?lmls=Partner+Channel&lmld=Pilot+to+Pilot&ad_version=Social

Kyle Skylaski had never been on an airplane — not even as a passenger — until his senior year of high school. A local orchardist flew him across Washington in a Cessna 172 so he could make a state playoff baseball game. He got there as the game started, changed in the car, and hit a three-run homer off a future big leaguer to win it.

That flight sent him to the Air Force Academy and into 23 years in the cockpit: F-15s at Holloman, F-16s as an aggressor during the fall of the Soviet Union, an exchange tour with the Navy in the F/A-18, and later a modified 727 as a test pilot for Raytheon.

In episode 366 we get into what sports actually teaches you about flying, why leadership is service and nothing else, the three C's every team needs, what it feels like at Mach 2 versus 300 feet and nine miles a minute, losing seven friends early in his career and what it changed about how he takes risk, and where electric and hybrid training aircraft might actually make sense.

Kyle's book, The Sky Less Traveled: The Maverick Life of Leadership, Resilience, and the Pursuit of Purpose, is on Amazon now, with the audiobook coming this fall.

In this episode: first flight over the Cascades • Air Force Academy football and gliders • pilot training at Laughlin, where half the class washed out • F-15 vs F-16 vs F/A-18 • the aggressor years • flying the 727 as a test pilot • the squadron bar, call signs, and crud • three things he'd tell anyone starting over

Pilot to Pilot Magazine — Volume 003 is out now. Get yours at pilottopilothq.com/mag

Sponsors — please support the people who support the show: • Textron Aviation — The Pipistrel Voyager is perfect answer for high utilization flight training, easy ownership and broader access to aviation • Avemco Insurance — Save 5% as a Pilot to Pilot listener. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297-owner (owners) or avemco.com/4297-non-owner (non-owners) •  • Garmin — Plan, file, fly, log with the Garmin Pilot app • Allworth Airline Advisors — Register for their latest webinar at allworthfinancial.com/justin • Learn the Finer Points — Save 10% off your first year at learnthefinerpoints.com/justin. https://allworthfinancial.com/airlines/lp/runway-for-retirement-webinar?utm_campaign=airlines+-+more+runway+for+retirement?lmls=Partner+Channel&lmld=Pilot+to+Pilot&ad_version=Social

Pete Stavridis was nine years old, watching the Challenger explode on live TV, when he decided he was going to fly airplanes. No pilots in the family. No money for it. So he enlisted in the Navy out of high school in 1995 — not the optimal path to fighters — flew P-3 Orions as an enlisted aircrewman on counter-drug ops over Panama and Colombia, and worked his way into a commission. He selected #1 out of T-34s, got the Super Hornet, and flew combat over Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now he's an Airbus first officer (by design), an FAA examiner with roughly 700 checkrides behind him, an aircraft management guy specializing in the Piaggio, and he runs upset recovery training in the L-39. He also raced at Reno in the gold jet class at 500 mph, four to six feet off another airplane — until he watched his friend and competitor Aaron Hoag G-LOC and go into the ground in front of him in 2022.

We get into:

• Why enlisting first was a risk he'd take again
• What a Navy flight surgeon prescribed when Pete was struggling in T-45s (hint: Halo)
• Being shot off a carrier deck, and why nothing else compares
• Fighter pilot ego vs. actual humility — and why humility can't read as weakness
• What air racing really takes: micro-knots, wake vortices, and why pole position changes everything
• Losing Aaron, "stem power," and how he got the jet on the ground
• Why the DPE shortage isn't a DPE problem, it's an FAA problem
• What he can read about an applicant in the first two minutes
• Honesty, knowledge, determination — his three traits of a good captain, FO, or wingman
• Exposing your kids to aviation without pushing it

"When we get in an airplane, we're in a survival situation. We're not supposed to be there."

Happy Flying,

Justin

Pilot to Pilot Magazine — Volume 003 is at the printers. Get yours at pilottopilothq.com/mag

GIVEAWAY - Complete the survey to be entered to win a Pilot to Pilot hat and Magazine subscriptions

Big thanks to Textron Aviation for sponsoring this week's episode of Pilot to Pilot! This week I'm joined by Jason Rhode as we talk bout his unconventional journey in aviation - from where he started to what ultimately led up to step up into larger aircraft.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear how the right aircraft can help you take the next step in your aviation journey!

What happens when a public company CEO gets tired of the airlines and decides to fly himself? Jason Rhode, former CEO of Cirrus Logic, joins Justin to share one of the most unique aviation journeys we've featured — one that started not with a childhood dream of flying, but with a sweaty preflight in 110-degree Austin heat and a finance guy's ForeFlight demo.

In this Textron Aviation-sponsored episode, Jason walks through every aircraft in his progression — DA40, DA62, Kodiak, TBM, and finally the Citation CJ3+ — and why Textron Aviation was the throughline that made each transition smoother than the last. He breaks down what the pro ownership program actually looks like from the inside, how Textron connected him with the right mentor pilots and Flight Safety simulator training, and why the M2-to-jet transition is far less intimidating than the insurance market wants you to believe.

In this episode:

• Why owning a plane extended Jason's career as a CEO by four to five years
• How Textron's pro ownership program handles maintenance tracking, mentor pilots, and service center coordination
• The CJ3+ acquisition story: buying a plane that had been in a ditch, flying it to 45,000 feet before the seller had
• Finding the right insurance underwriter for jet transitions (and why your broker matters more than you think)
• Pilot and Paws missions, concert chasing in the Citation, and the lifestyle that makes it all worth it

Sponsors — please support the people who support the show: •Textron Aviation — Built for lifelong aviators. Plan your next chapter at txtav.com/stepup • Avemco Insurance — Save 5% as a Pilot to Pilot listener. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297-owner (owners) or avemco.com/4297-non-owner (non-owners) •  Garmin — Plan, file, fly, log with the Garmin Pilot app • Allworth Airline Advisors — Register for their latest webinar at allworthfinancial.com/justin • Learn the Finer Points — Save 10% off your first year at learnthefinerpoints.com/justin. https://allworthfinancial.com/airlines/lp/runway-for-retirement-webinar?utm_campaign=airlines+-+more+runway+for+retirement?lmls=Partner+Channel&lmld=Pilot+to+Pilot&ad_version=Social