From Marine to Pilot: The Flight That Changed Everything with Tim Pierce of Hive Aviation

Transcript note: This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly formatted for readability. Speakers are host Jet Bunditwong and guest Tim Pierce.

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[Music] Hi and welcome to The Personal Side of Business where every business has a story. I'm your host Jet Bundong. Today my guest is Tim Pierce who owns Hive Aviation. He is a private flight instructor here in Northern San Diego. He offers affordable and personalized flight training for all levels. Welcome to the podcast. >> Thanks Jeff. Thanks for having me. >> No problem. So tell us how did we get here? >> Yeah, it's kind of an interesting story. So, in a couple days, I have my 12 year anniversary. I've been married for 12 years. >> Nice. Congrats. >> And, uh, a little while back. Thank you. Um, my wife and I have always done more experiences than gifts. So, one year for my birthday, she ended up getting me just a group discovery flight from Learn to Fly San Diego. It's right down here, just on the other side of the airport. And it was literally love at first flight. We went up, did the same thing kind of you and I did, right? We took off, went over Mission Bay. The flight instructor showed me, hey, this is the yoke. This is what this does. This is the throttle. this is what this does. Do some climbs, turns, and descents. And

[01:00] right then and there, I knew I was like, "All right, this is for me. How do I do this for a job? How do I change my career completely?" >> What were you doing before this? >> So, I was in the service at the time. >> Oh, wow. >> Yeah. I was still active duty, you know, with the Marine Corps. I was stationed on Camp Pendleton. And then after that, when I had got out of the military, I was working in law enforcement for a number of years >> and doing what I did with them. You know, we worked a lot of car crashes and things like that. So, Lifeflight was pretty frequent. You know, it was a common interaction with us. >> And so, that kind of sparked my interest. So I was like, how do I do that specifically? How do I fly those helicopters? So I started with um altitude helicopters. They fly out of Brownfield south of here. >> And then I realized I don't have a million dollars. So um you know, one hour in a helicopter is almost two hours in the fixed wing. So right then and there that was an obvious decision for me. And so kind of what led me into the fixed wing side was you know you have to find a way to build all this flight time to qualify for a job like that. So, I'm just a normal person. So, if I can't afford it, most other normal people can't do it as well. So, more job

[02:01] opportunity in fix wing than helicopters. And that's kind of what led me down this path. >> Wow. And >> stick with fixing. >> When you the first time you got in there, uh what what were you thinking right then and there? Did you know that you were going to do something with aviation or was like this could be a hobby? >> It was a mix of both. You know, I like I said, we took off over Mission Bay. I remember looking over and seeing SeaWorld down there and all that. And I was like, this is pretty cool. And then I didn't really know that you could do charter, you could work for the airlines, you could do air ambulance, you could work for a police department, you could do um, you know, something with the news agencies or some type of just anything, right? There really is a an abundance of options in the industry. You just got to find what works for you and what your niche is. >> Yeah. I I mean, so who's ever listening to this and if you're seeing this just for the uh part of the first episode, we're going to have a a second secondary

[03:00] episode that's going to show an commentary on where Tim takes us into the plane and he's teaching me how to fly for the first time, which I will tell you it's this mix of like exhilaration and terror, right? Like I I'll be honest with you. Look, and I think I think it's because you have this control at your hands and it doesn't feel like you have really any controls, if that makes sense. Like I'm following. >> Yeah. How how how was your first time your first flight? >> Yeah. So, kind of like yours was, right? Like where you get up and you're you're on the controls and you're super rigid and you're like, I'm forgetting to take a breath and things like that. And the instructor's like, you're fine. Just >> breathe. You're good. >> Right. Right. And then once you kind of relax, you get up there and I think that's one reason why I could take people along the coast. There's a lot to look at. It gets the eyes outside the airplane and it distracts you from, oh my god, I'm in a small airplane, >> you know, >> and then you kind of relax and kind of get in the flow of things and just becomes a bit more natural. When that

[04:01] transition happens, that's where learning starts to occur and that's what hooked me immediately. >> Wow. And what was your kind of uh deep dive into starting a business as a flight instructor? Did you get mentors or did you just look into the business right away and say I'm going to start to do dig online and start to put this together my by myself? >> It was a mix of both. Um so I was working for a flight school in North County. I worked for Pinnacle Aviation for about a year and a half. Um built some flight time there. made a lot of really great connections that have paid dividends thus far. Um, and so it was really nice to be able to see that organization and how it functioned as an employee and kind of see that side of it. And then I was able to take a number of those uh practices and procedures and kind of apply them to Hive. I was like, okay, I might be able to actually do this. You know, there's only a handful of flight schools. You have ATP, you have Pinnacle, you have learn to fly in San Diego, then you have a flight club. So

[05:01] that's really only four with such a booming industry. So it's there really is a lot of potential that you can you can get into. >> Is there a certain type of person personality or brain that you think should go into flight or do you think it's just for anyone? >> Honestly, I do think it's for anyone. I think you if you can >> prioritize tasks, multitask, and really just kind of hone in on on what needs to be done when it needs to be done, >> you can fly an airplane. >> Yeah. Um, I think the biggest thing is is how long would it take for, you know, a certain person or a specific personality to get to that point. But I do really believe that anybody could learn how to fly an airplane. >> Yeah. What were some Is there anything you've taken from your years in service to running the business or flying an airplane? >> I think the attention to detail. >> Yeah. >> Um, especially teaching it. You know, I think you had asked a question, you made a comment during the flight that we might address, but you're like, I was so

[06:00] focused on just keeping the airplane straight and level, which is true, right? So, when you're whether you're in the military, work in a car crash, doing some type of investigation, there's a bunch of different things that have to mesh together. >> So, that really kind of helped, you know, when it comes to the business side and even teaching. >> Yeah. It's you know what it is? It's it's the movies that kind that screw you up or screw me up, right? You you think that getting in a tail spin or just losing control seems so easy, but I look back on it now and go, I really would have had to do something drastic in order for that to go out of control. >> That's true. >> Is there um are I don't want you to call out anyone, but is has there ever been a situation where you're like, uh this this gets pretty dangerous in this moment that I'm flying right now with another person? >> Yes, absolutely. There's one that's not funny and then the other one's kind of comical. >> All right, let's share share the stories. >> So the first one I would say as a

[07:02] brandly new, you know, newly minted flight instructor, I had just had all the training, just went to the check writing like cool, I can teach people how to fly an airplane, having not had much interaction actually teaching people how to fly the airplane. One of the biggest things is like everybody is different. There is no cut and dry approach. There is no oneizefits-all. So you over the years you figure out what works, what doesn't and then you have this toolbox you can always pull from it. Um so we're at Fbrook and it was one of my first flights and we're coming and we're doing this base to final turn which is pretty notorious because people get slow, they get uncoordinated and that's where that base to final stall spin occur happens. So with this one particular student, there's a lot of people in the pattern. Somebody's coming into land and we're in this turn. I'm looking outside. I'm looking for the other airplanes. I'm watching his air speed. Watching him. And he's slowly but surely bringing that nose up, which is getting you into that scenario.

[08:00] >> So, just when it kind of starts to hear that stall horn pop, I don't know if you have the audio in the video or not, if you can hear it or not, but >> just where the stall horn starts to sound is when I was able to catch it. So, it didn't develop into anything, but it was kind of one of those realizations like you need to be paying more attention >> than what you're already doing. >> Yeah. And so that right there was a pretty good wakeup call for me. >> Yeah. >> The other one that's pretty comical is as you do this, you get a bit more comfortable and confident and you realize you can start to predict these scenarios. >> So anybody that's watching, if you've ever flown or done maybe power off stalls or on stalls with a bank turn, you know there's a tendency for that wing to drop in the airplane to roll, which is fine as long as you have altitude below you. And that's what happened. Um, a constant thing is keeping the airplane coordinated. And I think you saw that as well. High angle of attack, meaning the nose is coming up, airplane starts to roll, and the airplane starts to roll like this. And we end up getting into a roll, we

[09:01] recover. I was like, "So, what are we going to do next time differently?" She's like, "We're gonna use rudder. We're gonna use the right rudder. There we go." And she did it fine the next time. No problem. But I think one one of the things that starts to happen is the more you teach, the better you're at just being a te a flight instructor, right? >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. And um how how many hours does it take to become to actually be able to fly by yourself and then also become a flight instructor? >> So there's a couple different levels, right? Private pilots, the FAA says you have to have at least 40 hours and there's some subcategories in that. Most people are averaging like 70 75 and then you have to go and get an instrument rating which is another 40 hours. So now you're at approximately 120 maybe 130 >> and then you have to get your commercial rating. You have to have 250 hours at that point. And then from there you can start to delve into okay do I want to add a multi-engine rating planes with two engines? Do I want to become a CFI?

[10:02] Um and then there's some additional training with that. Do I want to maybe go fly banner toes? And there's that's really the the breaking point where you can branch out. >> Yeah. When when you were in the beginning stages of deciding which direction you wanted to go, what what were some other possibilities that you were going to become as a pilot? >> Yeah. You know, I was thinking like one of the the first big decisions you have to make once you get your commercial rating is like, okay, how do I get paid to do this? A lot of people go into flight instruction. I wasn't sure if that was for me. So I looked into maybe flying for a Go Jump Oceanside. That's a pretty big airplane. That's a high performance airplane. So that's another rating or endorsement you'd have to get. So I was like, I don't know about that. Maybe Banner Toes. That's a pretty good one. But then that's just blue skies flying up and down the coast. Might not be the best when it comes to applying for a job to fly something in bad weather. >> Yeah. >> Because you're just a blue skies kind of pilot. >> So there was a couple considerations

[11:00] like that, but eventually went the CFI route. um the instrument instructor rating so we could teach people how to fly in clouds and things like that and then that's where I ended up kind of staying for most of the time. >> Have you dealt with uh a possibility of like you know bad weather that you ended up going through and you were like I'm pretty proud of myself for for dealing with that. >> Some yes, some yes and some no. Um, the nice thing is what I really enjoy about aviation is you'll never know it all. >> Yeah. >> And it's a constant growth kind of process. You're never going to be an expert. It's just let's do this a little bit better than we did it last time. So, we're actually going into Montgomery uh field, which is just south of here. And we're coming into land. And as we landed, no sooner than we touched down, they gave us a thunderstorms in effect. Convective segment active. Basically, a bunch of bad weather you don't want to fly near. I looked at the guy was flinging. I was like, "Oh, that makes

[12:00] sense of all that uh that rain and how it gets so dark in that cloud there for a minute ago. It wasn't there before we got in there, you know, and it just it can really just change and develop that fast." >> And you said you had told me uh jokingly that one of the benefits of being a pilot is being able to just get in a plane, a smaller plane, and go someplace instead of driving for a couple hours, you can just hop in it, right? Could you talk a little bit about that so that if people are interested in becoming a pilot, what some of the personal benefits there are to it? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, one, you don't have to get stuck in the five uh freeway traffic. Perfect. There's no tow roads at 4 and a half thousand ft. >> And I mean, you have honestly one of the best views, the one of the best offices in the world is just looking out that window, you know. Um, so as a private pilot, what you can do is you can join flight clubs, you could rent through a school like Pinnacle. Um, and you can really take these airplanes anywhere they're capable of. Whether you want to fly to Catalina for lunch, go to Big

[13:01] Bear, spend the weekend for a snowboarding trip, you want to go spend the weekend in Vegas, as long as you do it responsibly, you can do that with an airplane. You know, there's been people that have rented it, flown to Texas to visit their family. We've taken airplanes to Utah, Nebraska, Missouri, NorCal, up by Sacramento, San Francisco. So, really, as long as you can get into the airport, you're going to be just fine. >> Yeah. I mean, it kind of changes your travel life in in so many different ways, right? >> Yeah, that's for sure. >> And then for you over time, have how far do you how far have you actually flown in a private jet by yourself for, let's say, vacation? I think for vacation, I haven't traveled outside the country yet, which we've had passports for years, but just worked in school. It's kind of prohibited that. >> Um, so just coast to coast >> as far as like, you know, Southwest, Delta, United, whatever it may be. >> Something where we've flown from here to San Francisco, which is about an eight hour flight in a small plane.

[14:01] >> So definitely you're saving some time and money if you fly commercial. >> Yeah. But also, you're not really able to see much at >> 35,000 ft. >> Yeah. >> Flying along the California coast at 6,000 feet is a pretty gorgeous experience. >> Yeah. And you know, for those of you that are listening and watching, one of the things that I felt I was worried about going into that plane was I'm not really good with tight spaces, but Tim had brought up, you know, you're probably going to be looking out and um it's going to feel bigger than and that's exactly what happened. I think when you start to see the ocean and you can look at our uh part two video, it's basically I mean it's it's a beautiful view. It's it's just it I think the first 10 seconds you're just like I can't believe this is real and then all a sudden you're like okay I got to make sure we're controlling everything you know. >> Yeah, absolutely. Got to keep the eyes on the move. >> Yeah. what what are um some different type of airplanes that you want to fly

[15:00] uh I think as your goal um as you get more into aviation. >> You know, there's a lot of them that I'd like to fly that I don't think I'll ever have the ability to. So, there's a really cool um airplane museum up in Chino. It's called the Planes of Fame. It's all just World War II airplanes. So, we're talking like P-51 Mustangs. There's bombers up there. There's >> is this a connection with the service and aviation? Yeah, >> kind of. Um, but they do basically these these demo flights. I think it's every first or second Saturday of the month, but they'll take one of these war birds and just go fly and you can go out there and check it out. >> So, I was like, uh, how do I get in there and how do I do that? >> Yeah. >> Because that would really would be a a true dream come true on that one. >> Yeah. I mean, I think because you're you're in uh smaller planes right now or, you know, you you get to have that option. I feel like now you get to look back on those really cool planes at the beginning, you know. Um and uh what have you learned so far about running this

[16:02] business? Um is this your first business coming into it? >> It is. And what I found out is that flying an airplane's easier than running a business for sure. So there's just a there's a lot of back of the house administrative stuff, you know, that you have to make sure is in line, whether it's from, you know, the state or the government in terms of the IRS. There's a lot of documentation that has to be in line that I'm like, "Oh, okay. Got to get that done." >> But what's great for you is you are a person that pays attention to detail. So that that's helped, right? >> It helps. It helps. And then sometimes I kind of, you know, plan too much and I'm like, okay, I got to pay that in four months. >> Yeah, >> that's in three and a half months. Now it's in three months. So I'm like, I got some time. >> With aviation, is are there more uh I guess permits, regulations that you actually have to adhere to in order to run the business? >> Yes and no. Um, so I have do have to maintain my flight instructor certificate. So that's every 24 months, calendar months I have to go ahead and make sure I do an online training,

[17:00] resubmit the application, make sure that I'm staying current with the instruction to be able to teach, you know, people to fly instruments. There are certain approaches uh and time frames that you have to meet. So you have to maintain currency and proficiency in that. Um there's also I carry my own insurance with that. So that's an added cost. Um and then rental fees, right? So yes, if you and I went up, you're flying the plane, I'm teaching how to do that, but I need to know how to do it myself. >> Yeah. >> So I still go out and rent the planes on my own, whether it's the 172 you'll see in the video there on part two. >> Maybe it's a Piper Archer, maybe it's a Cherokee 6, maybe it's a Piper Arrow. So there are still other airplanes I do go and fly on my own just to make sure that I can still teach in that effectively. And when you when you started your first flight, you said it was 12 years ago that you or was that just when you guys got together? >> That's when we got together. Uh the first flight I think was right around 2017 or 2018.

[18:00] >> Okay, cool. So eight years. Um yeah. What uh if you could go back and do something different and maybe accelerated your education, aviation, what would you have done? >> Don't skimp on the ground school. >> Yeah. stick your head in the books because one thing I wish people would understand coming through is yes, flying the plane, that's the fun part. That's why we're doing any of this. But if you don't understand the why of why you're losing lift, why the airplane wants to go down when you hit a certain bank angle, if you don't understand that, you can't compensate and counteract that. >> You can, but at that point, you're just mimicking it. But if you understand that, okay, when I go from straight and level flight, I lose vertical lift. Trader for some horizontal lift now, I don't have as much vertical lift. Oh, that means my airplane's going to go down because the weight overcomes. It's the theory behind that. >> If you can get ahead of that and anticipate it, it just makes things so much more fast. >> How many more hours you think you would

[19:00] have studied all that ground stuff before getting a plane? Honestly, if I can go back, I would make sure that ground school is done by the time I step foot in that airplane the first time. >> How long is that ground school? >> Um, those ones there, I think about 35 to 40 hours of ground school. >> So, I mean, honestly, you could probably do that in a month and a half, two months. It's just kind of prepping you that way. When you do get in the airplane, you're already like, "That's the air speed indicator. I know how that works. That's a turn coordinator. I know how that works." Or, "That's the VSSI." It already clicks. You're already making those connections. Don't let the first time you hear about something be from me in an airplane. >> Yeah. You know, one of the things that >> is great is uh pre-flight uh Tim had got down piece of paper started visually showing me some things and what to look for. And then uh just some altitude numbers and and controls. I felt like that moment looking back if I didn't pay

[20:01] attention to it, I just knew it was going to be important. And I think you emphasize that like we just these are things that you you kind of want to have floating in your head before you go up there. And I felt like if I didn't pay attention to that, >> taking me up in the air and just >> you you saying things to me, I would have been like, uh, I don't know what we're talking about right now. You know, >> that's a prime example of that right there. So, if you don't go up there and you don't have an understanding of what's going to happen, it's going to be way more difficult than it has to be. >> I mean, you saw it firsthand that the the airplane is not a good classroom. It's too loud. There's too much going on. >> You're looking at things that are not necessarily comfortable or familiar. >> Trying to keep the airplane up, >> you know? So, it's just a lot of things. That's not a good time to learn the theory. >> Yeah. And for you, when do you remember that moment that you felt really comfortable like you were like, "Okay, everything's clicking together." >> I think that honestly by that first solo the first time you take off in the airplane by yourself. >> Remember we taxied back on runway 28

[21:01] left. >> Pretty sure it was 28 left. 28 left in Montgomery and we parked and then the flight instructor I was working with, Joe, he was like, "All right, go ahead and park." And I'm like, "Oh, this is weird. Wonder why we're doing this. That's not where the flight school's at." >> And he's uh he takes off a seat belt. He obviously he's like, "You good? You ready for what? Ready for what?" And he was like, "Yeah, go go go do go do the laps. Go do three full stop take uh t you know takeoffs and come back and taxi back and pick me up. I'll be on the radio if you need me." >> And >> were you terrified at that moment or >> Oh, absolutely. >> Confident because Okay. Well, >> yeah. You've done it so many times, but this is now by yourself. >> Exactly. >> The safety net is not there anymore. Yeah. >> But I think right then and there was like, "Okay, >> I've done it. I've demonstrated it. He has enough trust in me that we've been through this a number of times at this point. He has enough trust in me to let me go take this airplane and fly in the sky next to San Diego airport by myself and not get in trouble or spin."

[22:00] >> Yeah. >> So that first takeoff, I was like, "This feels wrong." But once again, you take off, you kind of settle in, you're like, "All right, it's time to work." Yeah. >> And then it just >> it just starts rolling. >> Yeah. You know, one of the things that I had looked up, what were some of the most important things to being a good pilot? And I think you you'd brought up a lot of these things of like uh multitasking, concentration, being alert, being able to um understand what's going on with the plane and yourself. And I felt like the way you were teaching it just it made sense to me. And I think that's that's what made it a lot easier. You know, I I can see how of someone go going up there not preparing themselves at all would get into a situation we're like this is too much absolutely but getting more as much information and it was just you know we were there for such a uh a quick time so I can see like I had more hours to look at the ground stuff it would it would really help you know

[23:00] >> even in the short time we had I mean we did you know a 15-minute pre-flight briefing >> and then we're up in the air and within 30 minutes you're making level turns climbing turns descending turns and you're already, you know, building upon and and correlating that knowledge to what we've already discussed. You're setting the power settings and it was just clicking. >> Yeah. And I mean to kudos to you. And I think one of the things you're seeing the video, our flight video is um you know, Tim made a really good point of focusing on visuals, right, to to help you. I think one just fly the plane, but two to really have markers what's going on um when you're turning, when you're going straight, and and if if the plane is doing something because I think there's one a couple times where I I feel like without markers, you're kind of unsure because the horizon, I think you use it a lot to uh kind of keep me, I would say, focus on what's going on, but you kind of lose sight of it because you're concentrating other things like, "Oh, I have to go back to this to really

[24:01] concentrate on that. >> Um, all right. So, if you could give advice to someone who is >> we're going to do this at twofold. One, if someone's going to become a pilot and two, if someone's trying to become uh or create a aviation business, what advice would you give to those two people? >> So, maybe we'll start from the aviation business side because I think that'll be shorter. Um, find a way to keep costs low. That doesn't mean go out, rent a space, buy an airplane, get a business license, and then be like, I'm going to go teach how to, you know, people how to fly an airplane because again, you're going to have to get your private instrument, commercial, CFI, CFI, which is already going to cost you upwards of 60 or $70,000 uh out the door. And then you want to buy a $200,000 airplane. So, you can see how these buildings stack up. That's not a responsible way. So, I do everything through Pacific Coast Flyers, which is a flying club here in North County. You

[25:00] can go in there as an independent CFI. The club has rental planes you can use. So, that's one really good way to help keep that overhead or that lingering cost low. >> Is that accessible all over the country, these flight clubs? >> Yeah, there's flight clubs all over the country. Um, Pacific Coast Flyers is exclusive to San Diego County mainly. They have another location, an air, a couple airplanes up in Riverside County, Orange County, but mainly SoCal, like south of LA. >> Um, but yeah, for anybody else looking to become a pilot, I would say just get comfortable with being uncomfortable because that's where growth is going to happen. >> I went up and did a flight earlier with a gentleman and he's working on unusual attitude recovery. So, he's wearing these these sunglasses that are fogged out so he can only see the dashboard that you'll see here in the video. >> Wow. and trying to keep the airplane straight and level and I'm taking the controls and putting it in an uncomfortable situation so that he has the ability to correct that like immediately if he was to put himself in

[26:00] a cloud or some type of un uh desirable situation something like that. >> So you could see the first couple he was a little uneasy kind of on edge kind of holding on to the dashboard >> but the more he did it those nerves went away and then it was just time to work. >> Yeah. So that's okay. There's going to be plateaus in your training. That's a good time to tell whoever you're working with, let's just do a fun flight. Go to Catalina. Go to, I don't know, go grab lunch somewhere. Go do something. Just step out of that training environment and then come back to work >> because you can't really train for everything. There's no >> No, you can't. You can't. >> And you'll never be an expert. You know, you're never going to know it all. It's impossible. >> Yeah. Well, great. Well, thank you so much, Tim. Where can people find you? Yeah. So, I got a website. Um, if you're interested in a Discovery Flight, want to talk about maybe training opportunities and maybe some of the scholarships that we have kind of in the works maybe in the next six months to a year, um, you can find us online where www.fly-hive.com.

[27:02] And if you navigate over to the contact page, all of my information is there, email, cell phone number. So, reach out if you have any questions. And hopefully we'll see you in what will be part two. >> Yeah. Great. Awesome. Well, thank you, Tim, uh, for coming to the podcast. This is a personal side of business. >> Great. Thanks, Jet.