Hello, I'm Brandon Martini, a commercial pilot and flight instructor.
And I'm Carson Vasquez.
I'm a private pilot.
And we're listening to the Aviation Mentors podcast sponsored by Stratus Financial.
So buckle up because the aviation mentors are taking off.
Welcome back everybody to an amazing episode of the Aviation Mentors podcast.
Today we have a good friend of mine, Mr. Kevin Strange, and he has quite the career.
And I'm really excited that we get to put him on the episode today and kind of hear
all about what he started out doing, what he's worked through his entire aviation career
and what he's doing today, which you'll find out in a few minutes on why I'm so excited
to talk to him.
I've had lots of conversations about a specific subject that'll be a surprise for you in about
three or four or five minutes.
So thanks so much for being on today with us, Kevin.
Thank you guys.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
Thanks for being on, Kevin.
And you know, I think everyone listening, one of the flights we talked about, I think
during our emergency episode was the one that you and I did where your kid was fake being
sick and he got me good.
And that's something Brandon, I didn't even tell Brandon about when we did that flight.
So that was a pretty fun one.
But as one of our favorite listeners, you know, we always ask this first.
So how did you get into aviation?
Well, it's a little interesting in the fact that I learned how to fly from my dad.
But my first flight was actually out of Flavov Airport in the Cessna 140.
I was about 11 months old and dad strapped me between him and my mom right on the flap
handle and off I went.
And so that kind of just started the journey.
And you know, in general, my dad has been definitely the hero of mine in terms of aviation
and experiences and things that he's done.
He kind of led me through the journey.
He never pushed me to be in the aviation as a profession, but he was going to be darn
sure that I had my private pilot's license.
So he definitely worked through that.
And actually, I went through high school and college just flying as a private pilot.
But I went and got my degree in microbiology, of all things.
And actually worked as it is.
And I actually worked as a microbiologist for a little bit, but I just kept wanting
to be back in the air, you know, sort of that yearning.
I think you guys have talked about on several podcasts about that just desire to be in an
airplane and accepting those challenges and mitigating those risks and being a part of
that kind of community.
And that was really a part of it through my dad, but I wanted to be something more that
I can make of it.
And so while I was flying for the Civil Air Patrol at Squadron 5 there at Riverside, I
made friends with a gentleman who ended up talking about this company called General
Atomics.
So by this time, I had already had my commercial license.
I had, you know, several hundred hours.
I had a CFI.
And so I went and talked with them.
And after some interviews, I got hired by them.
And General Atomics makes the MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper and those very large unmanned
aircraft.
And surprisingly, I don't know if your listeners know this, but those aircraft are not controlled
by an RC box.
They're actually controlled by a pseudo cockpit.
We call it a ground control station, but it's an actual cockpit that you sit in with flight
controls.
You have stick, you have rudder pedals, you have throttles, just like you would in any
flight simulator that you've seen.
But anyway, I spent many years with them and I really enjoyed it.
And I started doing some instruction on the side, but that was just more just so I could
fly some manned airplanes at the same time.
Yeah.
So I've actually know a ton of people that have done with the chase planes for those Reaper
drones.
I guess in certain airspace, they actually have to have chase planes and there's people
that fly turboed Bonanzas and different planes that get to chase those.
And I've always thought it was fun to kind of see them all.
They're in like flight suits, but they're civilians and they fly these chase planes.
And it's really kind of fun to see.
I actually thought about doing it at one point and just going and applying because it's a
ton of hours in a high performance airplane and it's fun.
You're chasing a drone all day long.
Who wouldn't want to do that?
So that's pretty neat.
But speaking of that, I know you're kind of starting to get into it, but what types of
jobs have you held as your aviation career?
So that's how you got into it.
I know you're talking, you got into flight instruction.
I know I've done some flight instruction stuff with you.
And actually everybody, when I got my first Cessna 120, Kevin was the only person I knew
that had 120 or 140 time in particular.
And I said, Hey, can you try flying this thing for me?
And he flew it.
He was the first one.
He test flew my, my 120 after I bought it for the first time.
And actually I think you might've given me my tail well endorsement now that I'm thinking
about it.
I think we finished it up.
Yeah, we did finish it up.
Yeah.
So I got my tail well endorsement from Kevin and I was just a couple, two, three years
ago, I think at the most now, but now I've got a new 120 by the way, Kevin, you don't
know about, I don't think, but, but I've been flying that thing about once a week as much
as I can.
And I'm a lot better than I was.
And you were showing me how to fly it.
That's for sure.
I'm sure you have it.
Yeah.
Keep practicing.
Yeah.
Practice makes perfect.
So what other jobs have you held?
So it's like I said, an unmanned pilot, but this is pre 107.
So there wasn't any 107.
You actually had to have a license for that.
So I had that CFI CF, double I MEI, lots of tailwind instruction, love tailwheel aircraft.
And then I was a survey pilot for a while.
And what I did there was just sort of what's called ISR, some imagery surveillance, reconnaissance,
and you're just going around whatever a customer asks you to look at, go in and take pictures.
I wasn't really too involved with the actual sensors, just the aircraft itself.
And then I'd say that MEI and then going into some of the, you know, just sort of flying
test flying for people on the side, kind of like just, you know, working with people,
builders who are struggling with something or trying to get a performance number that
they were looking for.
And before I say all that, I had gotten into NTPs, which is that national test spot school.
And so that's where I gained some certifications to kind of allow me to sign off on some guys'
phase ones and things like that.
Or assist with the sign off, sorry, the DER signs that off, but to assist with those projects.
And then really that's kind of it, just test flying.
And I was deployed many years for General Atomics.
So I was overseas flying the various missions and things like that.
So without telling us too much, because I know you're sworn to secrecy by the government,
General Atomics, what was that like?
Was that like, what did you get to do or not get to do without telling me all the secrets?
It was, you know, the life was pretty long and hard in the sense that you would go on
contracts that may last about 90 days or 120 days.
It ends up being 200 days or 300 days because there were so few of us that, and the mission
was so important that they would keep extending us.
So you might be gone for eight months at a time, even though you sign up for about three
months.
You're in the desert.
So this is in, you know, the Stans, the Iraqs, those areas.
So you're in the desert for long periods of time, which is a very unique desert.
It's not like Southern California.
There's a lot of similarities, but it's just very interesting.
The weather that you have to deal with.
Sandstorms, I can go up to eight, 9,000 feet having to deal with that.
And lightning that shows up within the sandstorms.
That's always fun, especially with a carbon fiber aircraft.
Yeah, that's crazy.
I can't even fathom that.
And then, but beyond that, you know, you end up making friends with a very good group of
guys and gals who help support.
What the missions were is I was the pilot and then we would have what's called a sensor
operator and this is an individual who understands the different types of imagery electronics
that are on the aircraft.
And their job is to produce those images and produce that information for whomever may
need it.
Oftentimes, I never knew who the customer was.
So you could take a lot of this is satellite based and a lot of this is line of sight,
C-band based.
So that information gets encrypted and sent to someplace for them to later disseminate
and work with.
But there were times it was just long days of just drilling holes in the sky, circling
for hours and hours.
The legs on these aircraft are upwards of 18 hours.
So it is very common to go an entire month of 100 takeoffs in zero landings.
So that's very real.
And zero landings?
Zero landings because you would be on the launch shift.
So your entire job is to launch the aircraft and then put it in orbit, manage the aircraft
and then eight hours later, somebody comes and relieves you.
And so they'll be on the recovery shift.
So they simply recover the aircraft.
And the organizations did a good job at balancing that out.
So if you go a month of nothing but takeoffs, the next month you're going to be doing nothing
but landings.
So they do a very good job at balancing out and keeping your currencies alive.
All the currencies are still real, just like you would have to do in the airlines, just
like you have to do in the military.
So you still have to maintain your minimum number of instrument landings and visual landings
and all that kind of stuff.
So all that's still stuck.
There wasn't any special provisions for that whatsoever.
So it can be pretty challenging trying to manage all that and get people, you know,
all their takeoffs and landings in and all their instrument approaches in and all that
kind of stuff.
So it was very challenging.
It must have been really difficult to keep all of those pilots current like that.
I mean, your chief pilot had to have had so much work and workload or whoever had to handle
that dispatchers or whatnot.
I can't even fathom because I'm assuming you don't have as many resources as like an airline
would or maybe you would.
I don't know.
No, you're absolutely right.
In fact, there were multiple chief pilots, if you will.
So we would often go out in groups as you would like a squadron.
So there would be a group of eight of us and we know each other very well, you know, four
pilots, four sensor operators, and you would go out and then there would also be a sort
of a chief pilot that would manage the day to day.
And then of course back at the home office, then there would be, you know, a head chief
pilot that would also manage what they're doing and keeping the mission straight.
So there was a lot of challenges and you know, if somebody got sick or if we needed to do
a different type of mission, that could throw the monkey wrench in the plans really fast.
Like I said, there was very few of us at the time, very few.
This type of flying brings up odd question for me and I'm hoping you'd know how to answer
it.
Actually, I'm sure you would.
So when you fly these eight hour flights, does that count as flight time?
Like if you wanted to go to the airlines, does that count as flight time for your 1500
or so to speak?
Or is that more like a simulator?
Sort of.
It's a great question.
And it's one that as an organization, as a group of pilots, we've had to sort of battle
in a way or at least fight for our spot.
And the FAA, especially now looks at unmanned aircraft, they're envisioning this concept
of somebody on the ground, line of sight to the aircraft and manipulating it via a set
of control sticks versus, you know, you're commanding an aircraft, a live aircraft through
a simulator.
So you're physically performing the same exact work you would if you're flying a 208 or
if you're flying, you know, 172, you're doing the same work and flight planning and all
of that stuff.
All that is very real.
So to get to your question directly, it came about that there are some large UAVs that
actually have in numbers.
They're actually certified registered aircraft.
And it came about that those aircraft, because they're registered, yes, you can log that
flight time.
But many of the aircraft, especially the ones we flew overseas, were not, you know, they
were government owned aircraft.
So they didn't have in numbers.
They weren't, you know, civilian registered or anything.
So that's still sort of a battle.
If people know the type of flying we did, and I'm going for an interview or something
like that, and they know that kind of flying, they'll recognize the hours.
I mean, the FAA may not, but they'll recognize it as experience.
And so the only thing you couldn't do was earn a certificate through the process.
So let's say you were going to go for your ATP.
You could not use one of these aircraft to accomplish that.
Gotcha.
Makes sense.
I mean, I've heard lots from that.
And what kind of experience requirements were they looking for when they were hiring you?
It's kind of hard to find someone that's trained to fly these planes already.
So are these UAVs?
For me, obviously, they're scraping the bottom of the barrel.
So they're looking for anybody with a pulse.
Oh no.
No.
So when I got hired on, you know, this is in early 2000s.
This is when the program is brand new, just absolutely brand new.
And in fact, in a lot of cases, the military didn't really know what to do with them.
And then eventually the mission evolved and it was great.
So they were definitely looking for commercial pilots.
They wanted, you know, about 300 hours.
And of course, your medical to go with that.
And what they were really looking for were guys who had experience with different types
of aircraft, you know, about five hours a piece and different types at the time.
I think I had flown 30 aircraft with a minimum of five hours of PIC in each one of them.
And they were also looking for somebody who flew aircraft that wasn't automated.
And it sounds very counterintuitive because this is a highly automated aircraft system.
But they wanted people who understood stick and rudder.
Because at the time in the early days of this aircraft, failures happened.
And there's redundant flight control systems and things like that on board.
It came down to at some point, you're going to have to stick and rudder the airplane and
you're going to have to do it staring at a two dimensional screen.
And so they weren't really interested with high time jet pilots or people with direct
military experience.
They weren't really interested in that.
They wanted people who was a crop duster, you know, people who did aerobatics.
A lot of people were on aerobatics teams for the pilots that were there.
And so that's what they were kind of looking for is that you had this diverse capability
in an aircraft and weren't really afraid of it if the automation went away, you know,
and failed on you.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
You want a good pilot at the end of the day, either way.
But, you know, speaking of being a crop duster in aerobatics, I know you went to national
test pilot school.
So how did you get there?
You know, it's a pretty big jump.
It's a well known school and a well known for being expensive school.
So how did you do that?
Luck, pure luck.
And that's one thing about my aviation career is the very few things I've been able to do
is out of pure luck and joy.
And I cannot think enough the mentors I've had, my dad, everybody who's ever guided me.
I love them for it.
And so it just so happened that I was working a mission set out of in the desert near Edwards
Air Force Base.
And they were in need of people who could sort of flight test some of the aircraft, the
Incunites, the Reapers, the Avengers and all that kind of stuff.
So they were in need of that.
And they were looking around for people that could possibly help them out with that.
And when I say they, I'm talking about the US Air Force.
And so they ended up selecting a few of us, you know, to go to the test spot school because
in order to be a test pilot at that level, or at least be able to sign off on different
aircraft and different parts, you had to have, you know, at least a designation that you
were a test pilot, not just somebody who's experienced with different types of aircraft,
but you actually had a designation.
And so that's kind of how I got that slot.
It was sponsored.
It was only offered to one or two people every couple of years.
And so I don't know if I upset enough people or I did a great job in terms of trying to
get the slot, but I got it.
And I could not be more thankful for that.
It has certainly opened up my career.
Soterios Johnson By the way, Carson wasn't exaggerating when
he said expensive.
To go there, it costs upwards of a million dollars to send somebody there.
So it's not something that you can just, because I asked Kevin one day when I first found out
he went to national test pilots, I said, how much is it?
I'd love to go do that.
I figured, oh, it might be like a month long program or something.
No, it was a million dollars.
So you really need to be sponsored by the government, a government or the government
or a really big company like Boeing or somebody like that.
But speaking of how long it takes, I was really surprised because I figured it'd be a 30 day
course or 60 day course and go on weekends or something.
I mean, that's what I imagined when I first heard about it.
But what was the reality of it, Kevin?
How long did it take?
Kevin A 18 months.
Soterios Johnson That's incredible.
Kevin A Now, that being said, NTPS also has a lot
of short courses.
You know, they have a lot of small courses that might talk about stability and control
or avionics or different types of fixed wing and rotor wing.
So there are courses you can take that are, you know, just maybe a couple of weeks long
or maybe a month long.
On the website, they kind of spell it all out.
And those are all worth it as well.
What they are, they're just little tiny modules of a larger course.
And it's and they're wonderful.
The guys are extremely, you know, intelligent.
They're extremely they work with you.
They try to get you to understand and get you to learn.
But it is insanely challenging.
I cannot stress that enough.
You know, my background is in microbiology.
It is not in engineering.
And so I ended up going to, you know, to school to learn more math, just so I can keep up
with the class.
And that was a struggle.
If I don't say so myself, I could fly the linen snot out of everything they gave me
to the precision that they needed.
But when it came time to crunching the data and to formulating the next set of test cards,
that was a challenge.
I struggled with that a lot.
So that's where my mentors came in and kind of helped me out.
When I wanted to become a pilot, the one thing that scared me was the math, because I'm not
a math whiz.
It's just kind of like you.
I'm not as good as Kevin, obviously.
He's a pretty much an award winning pilot.
If I do say so myself, he's really good.
He can fly the heck out of an airplane.
But the math scared me.
I thought the math just being a private pilot would be very difficult.
And I was lucky to find out there's not very much math in basic piloting.
I mean, there is a little bit wind correction angles and things like that.
But it's something you can feel a lot of the time when you're actually flying.
So all the student pilots that are listening, don't get scared.
The math isn't that hard when you're becoming a private or even up to a commercial pilot
or a flight instructor level.
But I will say, it's probably calculus when you get to where Kevin's been.
So that is probably a lot more challenging.
Yeah, a lot of differential equations, a ton of differential equations going on.
And really, there's calculus involved, yes.
But it's more of that algebraic based calculus.
So it's not entirely challenging.
The key is that in aviation, there's no finite in aviation.
There's no absolute.
Everything has an exception.
How big or small that is, heck, even our regulations have exceptions.
But the point is that within that mathematics is it's almost like you're chasing multiple
variables that don't have answers.
So you have to try and get as close as possible to something so that you can have a benchmark
to work from.
Absolutely.
And kind of on a segue into test flying airplanes, I told everybody in the beginning of the episode
that we had a surprise for them, and Kevin didn't tell us where he's working today.
And I'm proud to announce he works for one of my favorite airplane companies, and that's
Icon Aircraft.
And unfortunately, since he's my friend, and he's also a test pilot, I send him text messages
whenever I have a question on things.
Hopefully, I don't bug him too much with those things.
But I really value his experience and being a test pilot.
And what is it like working for Icon Aircraft?
And what are you doing for them?
I mean, I know they've had a lot of awesome announcements since you've been there, and
I know they've all been due to you.
So tell me about that.
You just say, but no, unfortunately.
Well, you know, working for Icon, and it's going to sound biased, but I cannot stress
enough how much I love this.
The opportunity presented itself.
And when I took it, I relocated my entire family from Southern California.
And you know, and they're coming around to love and what's going on, and they love it
up here and everything like that.
But I cannot thank them enough for the support because this was going to be an opportunity
that I don't think I would ever have if I didn't jump at it.
Even you know, if it was short lived, I could say at least I've done this.
So what my job is, my title is Flight Sciences Manager, Chief Test Pilot.
And so what I do is I design the test cards and the test plans and work with the engineers
to help collect the data that they need for various components.
You know, aircraft are constantly improving, aircraft are constantly changing.
There's often requests from customers that they want XYZ built into the aircraft.
So how do you do that?
You know, and engineers are absolutely wonderful.
The group here is fantastic.
And I can't say enough about them.
And so working with them, help design those test plans and test cards, understand the
types of data that they're going to need to be able to meet that design element that they're
going for.
And then there's also the regulatory side.
You know, each aircraft has to meet the standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration.
And so we have to design test flights to capture that data to demonstrate to them that yes,
these aircraft is compliant and, you know, to be an LSA.
And these are how the things are compliant.
And then further, you know, if we design a new widget that goes in the airplane, we
also have to demonstrate its compliance as well.
So it's kind of this back and forth between design, engineering, flight testing, as well
as production flight testing.
My day to day is we roll out a ton of aircraft a month.
And my day to day is to test flight each aircraft.
So when I get the aircraft, they have 0.4 hours on them.
And that's only due to engine runs.
And then I fly about two and a half hours to run through an entire gamut of compliance
testing.
So when it gets back, then they present that to the FAA.
And then it receives its certificate of airworthiness.
So it gets its birthday.
So I actually fly the aircraft before it has its birthday.
And then, yeah, it's pretty amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
I love how much I'm enjoying this.
How do you fly an airplane that technically doesn't have an airworthiness certificate
yet?
So what the FAA does is they work with you.
And after seeing your compliance statements, and this, of course, happened many years ago
when the company was first built, but they give you what's called a special flight permit.
So special flight permits, that's kind of a general term.
It's LSAs operate under a special flight permit.
That's why you see S-LSA, special flight permit, LSA.
But this special flight permit is very restrictive, and it's specific to test flying only.
So that permit that the FAA gives us allows me to do just the test flight elements in
a very restricted area, under very restricted conditions.
I can't take people with me.
I can't do any type of instrument approaches or anything like that.
I can only do those elements that demonstrate compliance prior to the certificate of airworthiness.
So it's a special flight permit that we operate under.
So Kevin, I know that this airplane has kind of a stall spin resistant airframe.
And I've stalled it and it just kind of stays up there.
And I've seen some videos online of people trying to spin it and they put it right next
to a Cessna 150 and the 150 spins away and it kind of just like floats up, the icon does.
Have you tried to spin one before?
And have you gotten it to spin?
And tell me a little bit about the spin resistant airframe.
Okay.
Well, one way to answer the first couple of questions there is that during the production
flight test, we actually deliberately try to spin it every time.
And we do under very specific conditions.
In the part 23 regulations, there is a regulation there for compliance and spin resistance.
And so it gives us a performance where we slow the airplane down into the stall and
then we bank the airplane 30 degrees either side.
And we have to do that in all flap positions.
So we do that with flaps up, flaps 15 and flaps 30.
So we stall the aircraft and then I deliberately try to spin it.
And so that's how it maintains its spin resistance.
Also the aircraft has to have the parachute installed, the VGs installed.
So there's other requirements there to it.
So but the answer to your question is yeah, I do try to spin it every production flight
test.
Now as far as getting it to spin, that was a challenge.
It's an extreme maneuver to be able to get it into a spin.
And it is very difficult.
And no, I've not been successful in getting it into the spin.
Yeah, so it is very resistant in that realm.
But keep in mind though, like I said, there's no absolutes in aviation.
Can it spin?
Will it spin?
I'm sure there's a condition out there in which the aircraft can spin, but it is so
highly resistant that just simply by letting go of the controls, it will just simply drop
the nose, come out of the stall and fly straight.
That's incredible.
I remember when I first saw the video that I referred to earlier about somebody trying
to spin it and that's incredible.
And everyone listening, remember Kevin is a actual test pilot.
I mean, this is what he does for a living and he's an absolute professional at it.
So obviously don't go try to spin your icons.
So just to kind of give everybody that, that would be very dumb.
But as he said, it's incredibly spin resistant and it's very difficult to spin, which is
great for safe and for knowing about an airplane that has done that or that has the safety
profile that Icon does.
I also think outside of that, it also has the parachute installed on it, which is fantastic.
I don't believe that anybody's ever pulled one yet, knock on wood, but that is a great
safety mechanism that it has on the aircraft as well.
And I believe that's the whole reason why it can actually go over the LSA weight limits.
Is that correct?
Yes, that's part of it.
And it all revolves around the spin resistant authority that it holds.
And so we got an exemption because we demonstrate all these safety features that were attached
to the airplane helps with spin resistance.
And therefore we were able to earn an exemption to go over the LSA weight limit.
That's way cool.
What is the most fun flight you've actually had in the icon?
Because I know I've had several, one of my favorites was letting my son land at the plane
for the first time on his own.
It was actually the first plane he ever landed without any instructor input or control input
from me.
And that was a proud dad moment.
And that was last year.
So he's, he it's actually his birthday today.
He turns 12 today.
So happy birthday, Austin.
I've already talked to him this morning, but yeah, he was 11 when he did that.
So that was kind of my awesome moment.
What is one of your awesome moments that you've had in that icon that you really enjoy?
There's so many.
The first two that come to mind is I was able to fly my kids in the icon and to land them
on water.
Now, you know, I've flown with my kids before rented aircraft and gone and had some fun,
but you know, obviously they've never been on water.
So when we took it out to the lake and we landed on the lake, they couldn't believe
it, you know?
And so we sat there and I shut the engine down, we're in the middle of the lake and
they just swam.
They just jumped off and swam.
And they thought this is the absolute greatest thing.
And then I'd say another really memorable moment was sort of taking my dad.
After I'd been here a couple months, they came out to visit.
So I took him up in the icon and he fell in love with the aircraft as you did Brandon.
He absolutely loved the airplane.
But here it was this aircraft that I test flew that I helped get its birth certificate
and I'm handing the controls over to somebody who I admire immensely and watching the joy
and fun in their eyes.
You know, that's right up there.
And the other thing is my wife, taking her up and she goes flying with me.
She's had to deal with me for, you know, 30 years and whatnot.
But when taking her, I saw the joy in her face.
Normally she sees airplanes as just like a functional aspect that it's fun, it's great.
And she was a pilot too.
But I'd never seen her light up like she did when she flew that icon.
And of course we went on the water as well and had a good day about it.
Yeah.
That's incredible.
And just for our listeners, it kind of, this brings it all kind of full circle for me.
I almost got goosebumps when you were talking as well for one particular reason.
I didn't realize it.
I mean, I know it in the back of my head always, but kind of verbalize it.
Whenever people who love airplanes talk about airplanes, they do not talk about the airplane
itself.
They talk about what the airplane could do for you and what it can do for your family,
which is absolutely incredible.
Like what it did for my family.
I mean, I told you Austin was able to do that first flight.
And just like you said, when you first landed with your kids on the water, that was incredible
as well.
Just bringing your dad, who is a mentor to you in aviation and doing all of those things,
those were all experiences that airplanes afford us.
Those are experiences that airplanes can give to us.
And it's not because of the airplane itself.
It's because it's because what we're able to do with it.
So that's really powerful and it really opens your eyes.
So if you're thinking about learning to fly, it's not just flying the airplane and the
special feeling you get from becoming a pilot, because that is a thing.
And when you first become a pilot, how do you know when a pilot walks into a room?
They tell you, right?
That's always the montage, right?
But no, it's really after you've been a pilot for a long time, it's really the experiences
that allows you.
And my friend Anthony, Jirasi, says it really well.
And he says, it's about the freedom it gives you being a pilot.
It really gives you an immense freedom.
And the icon just gives you a crazy amount of freedom, which allows you to land on water.
And it's like flying a jet ski with wings.
It's kind of how I always talk about it.
I go to Long Beach Harbor and I see all the jet skis around.
Unfortunately, they try to get up a little too close and I end up having to take off
before they get there.
I'm sure you've had the same problems, but that's really what aviation does.
That's really what I love about it.
And it sounds like you can have similar things that drive your passion.
And even more than that is, like I said, my career has been full of luck and mentorship
and I want to give that back.
I want to interact with students coming up and helping them work on things, challenging
them with different ideas and philosophies and understand what aviation actually is and
isn't.
The other sides, and that's not just the scary side of about the safety or anything like
that, but what kind of risk mitigations are actually being done?
What's your thought process?
How does that ADM work into the whole situation?
And so I love to work with anybody who's willing to do that.
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
Thanks, Kev.
It's really fun just listening to you guys.
And again, the worst part about podcasts is that we can't see your guys' face because
you guys just look so happy talking about icons.
I'm just sitting back here just watching you two just talk about icons and your love for
seaplanes and your love for your aviation careers.
So it's really awesome.
And going from test pilot, CFI, now chief test pilot, that's pretty awesome.
Kevin, you really have done it all.
So I really appreciate you being on with us today.
And I think everyone listening, I really hope that you have at least a couple of really
cool new ideas for aviation careers.
And being a test pilot, I feel, is by far the coolest thing I can think of.
It's a lot of paper.
Kevin, do you happen to have any future plans?
Do you want to be a, I don't know, do you have any future plans?
You want to become an astronaut like I do one day?
Well, absolutely.
I would jump at the chance to do that most definitely.
And it's funny when I was, in fact, a mentor I work with, Chuck Coleman, he actually flew
the spaceship one.
And or Zio the White Knight spaceship one.
We actually was involved with that for a period of time.
We were talking about it and I said, yeah, I go for me, I don't want just the license
to do that.
I want the instructing license to do that.
Now I want to be the DPE for that, you know, to really, because that forces you to learn
so much more and take in so much more.
But as far as my future, you know, designing airplanes, I've got a couple of designs on
the mental board and working with an engineer to look through that.
So there could be a possibility of a design of an airplane.
I, upsets me at how expensive our industry is.
It upsets me to no end.
And now seeing how some of the sausages made, there's so many ways we can make it cheaper,
not only from a regulatory standpoint, but just, you know, our manufacturer building,
things like that, there's ways to make this cheaper.
Absolutely.
Because I've met so many young kids who are great attitudes towards flying, but just don't
have the means.
And luckily, you know, with like Stratos and other organizations like that to help them
out, that's extremely important.
And so I could not be more supportive of that.
But anyway, you know, designing an aircraft that is inexpensive, but capable, you know,
not some of these, you know, really small two seat aircraft that can only take you down
the road, but something that, you know, has legs and can do something serious.
I know it's a bit of a pipe dream, but that's one area of hoping to do.
And that to try and get my DPE, try and finish that up and try and do other things like that.
And then more importantly, just working with anybody who's got a great design, you know,
just the thought process of going through a new aircraft again is so wonderful.
That's awesome.
I mean, you said it might be a pipe dream, but every single idea, including ICON and
including a Cessna 172 and a Cessna 120, they all started as pipe dreams.
They all started as dreams in somebody's head.
And it wasn't until somebody put an action in place and actually did it.
The difference in most people and success are the people who are thinkers and the people
that are doers.
And Kevin, you're definitely a doer.
And I'm very proud to call you my friend and to have you on the podcast.
So thank you so much for coming on here today.
I know today's a little longer episode, but I think it was absolutely worth it.
We could probably go on for hours and hours.
I know Kevin and I, before the episode started, we started talking for 15 or 20 minutes about
things that probably was pretty good content, but the recording wasn't started yet.
So yeah, Kevin, thank you so much for being here.
And if anybody wants to reach out to you or anything like that, can you tell everyone
how to reach you?
And if there's anything you provide to some of our listeners, we'd love to share that
with them.
Yeah, I'm on Instagram.
So it's Cessna93victor or C-E-S-N-A-9-3-V. And then also you can email me.
I'm strangesax.gmail.com.
So basically my last name, S-T-R-A-N-G-E-S-A-X at gmail.com.
And those are probably the two fastest ways to get ahold of me.
And I will be willing to just share experiences or help with any type of training or just
help anybody out to move forward in aviation.
This is not a money making for me.
This is purely because I need to give back to the community that has given me so much.
That's really awesome.
And by the way, when he says that he'll help anybody out, he really will.
The man will take a shirt off his back.
He's one of the nicest guys I know.
So thank you again for being on here, Kevin.
But if you'd like to reach out to either one of us, meaning me and Carson, you can reach
us at Twitter or Instagram at MrMartiniGuy for me or for Carson, it's at Carson underscore
A-V-17.
And as always, we'd love for you to reach out to us via email, Brandon at AviationMentors.com
or Carson at AviationMentors.com.
And as a wrap up for the day, remember, we're here to guide you in your aviation journey.
So fly safe and enjoy the ride.