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Welcome to the Yog Nation, the Spirit of Gratitude podcast on the OneTech Gration platform.
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Hello, friends.
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My name is Jorge Patel, and this podcast explores the themes of bullying, self-awareness, and the power of our inner spirit, including the silent battles we all face.
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Join me every week as I invite high-profile guests as we explore how adversity shapes us, how gratitude lifts us, and how we can all uncover the inner strength that we all have within ourselves.
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Join the conversation.
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I appreciate you listening in.
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In other words, aviation is self-awareness at 30,000 feet in the air.
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His big break came in 2004 when Calm Air selected him to fly the Beauvaisier regional jet.
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From there, Alex became a well-respected corporate pilot for companies like Black Decker and American Express on Gulf Streams, earning a reputation not just for his technical excellence, but for his calm leadership and integrity.
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And today, this quiet strength has carried him somewhere where dreams do come true, folks.
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He's earned the trust of PGA Tour athletes becoming the pilot many pros rely on to carry them safely, not just to tournaments, but through the demanding rhythm of their careers and lives.
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I think we can all relate to that.
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With gratitude, welcome to the podcast, Alex.
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Yogi, thank you very much for having me.
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That introduction was uh very nice of you to say and um very blessed to do what I do for a living and um uh very glad to be here and with you on the podcast and uh tell my story to your audience.
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Absolutely.
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Well, let's dive in.
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What is your story, in the sense that how old were you when you wanted uh when you wanted to become a pilot?
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And where did this passion of aviation come from?
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The um I was one of the, I would say, more fortunate kids growing up, you know, even in middle school, definitely in high school, uh, I knew what I wanted to do for a living.
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Um, I was around aviation my entire life growing up.
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Um, my dad was uh military pilot for 25 years, um, and then he flew in the cargo and commercial business for the next 23 years after that, before he had to retire at a certain age that was mandated by the uh Federal Aviation Administration.
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Um my uncle uh flew helicopters uh overseas uh for a lot of princes and kings out in the Middle East.
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Um and I was fortunate enough to be around the conversations, uh the stories, um, and more importantly, the dedication and hard work that it takes uh to be successful uh in that career.
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Um I didn't get a chance to uh follow my uncle's footsteps and fly helicopters, you know, for VIP transport, um, whether it be domestically or overseas.
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Um I didn't get a chance to follow my dad's footsteps and be in the military.
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Um it is a probably a regret of mine.
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Uh I did try.
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Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in that.
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Um and how did you view that by the way?
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How did I get into the corporate side of things?
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No, uh this perceived um, you know, being unfortunate that you weren't able to follow perhaps your footsteps of your father or uncle.
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And the reason and the context is around, you know, many people, young or the young at heart, may not know what their path is, right?
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And so was that also instinctive that you already knew?
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And do you think everyone has that?
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So that's a really great question.
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Uh, I'm actually dealing with that question right now with uh my cousin um who is getting into flight school.
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And um I think a lot of kids that get into flight school, whether it's uh post-college, post-high school, don't really know the routes and the options that are available to them.
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Uh most people that go into civilian training, uh, civilian pilot training, um, there's a lot of different routes you can go after you have the certain time requirements that are met, and they all vary with individual companies and their insurance requirements.
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Uh, you can go uh start flying for cargo companies, uh, FedEx, UPS, uh, build up your seniority, build up your time, uh, make a career that way.
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Uh, you can also go straight from flight school, which a lot of friends of mine that I went to flight school with did uh immediately started working for some of the regional carriers, uh, and then building their time, uh seniority up and then working for you know major carriers, Delta, American, United.
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Um, or you can get in the corporate route, uh start flying smaller jets, CJs, uh, that's a citation jet, um, hawkers, and then kind of work your way up to you know the larger pieces of equipment in the market, Gulf Streams, Bombardiers, Falcons, uh, et cetera.
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Fun toys, right?
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What's that?
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Fun toys, right?
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Fun toys, yes.
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Um uh I when I went to flight school after I graduated college at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, um, you know, again, it was really in middle school, definitely by my freshman year in high school, I knew what I wanted to do, uh, but didn't really know the different routes uh or the options that were available to me and what all you could do um in making aviation your career.
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Um and I fell into corporate aviation by almost a mistake and um didn't really know what it was about.
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Um, but once I got into it and I learned that it takes a lot more of your time, it takes a lot more dedication, it takes a lot more planning.
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Um it requires a lot of different thought processes that I would say some airline pilots and cargo pilots, you know, have a full dispatch team uh to work with them.
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Uh, there's been certain jobs where I don't have that.
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So you are the dispatcher, you are the scheduler, you were the maintenance coordinator, um, and you're very hands-on as compared to maybe, and I this is not in any disrespect, but you know, maybe just showing up and just flying somewhere from point A to point B and being done.
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Um, you know, corporate aviation has provided me uh with uh what I think attributes towards my personality, which is the hard work, the dedication, the time, and also seeing the fruits of your labor actually come to fruition and and seeing a very successful trip um be the end goal.
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Uh I've always strived for a perfect trip, no such thing.
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Um I've failed every time.
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Uh but I well, I think Michael Jordan, if you ask him, he'd never, if you'd asked him, what was your perfect game?
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And he probably said I never had one.
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I would agree with that.
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Um I think if you were to ask Ben you know Ben Hogan or Jack Nicholas or Tiger Woods if they ever played a perfect round of golf, and they would tell you they haven't.
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Even shooting a 59 wouldn't wouldn't do justice for them.
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So I I I I think uh regardless of what line of work you're in, if you're dedicated to your job and your craft, you keep striving for that.
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And you could strive for that when you're you know young and upcoming in that career field, or you could strive for that, you know, towards the latter part of your retirement.
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And that's a beautiful message, uh Alex, that you just shared, because you know, many a times what the common thing that I've heard is find your tribe.
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I mean, find the people that are willing to support you and ask these questions about what are the different paths I could take, perhaps in aviation, to help guide them to where um it's a perfect match.
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Well, maybe not perfect, but as perfect as they can get.
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And you know, to to your podcast, right, and and to the message that you want to display.
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I can remember when I was going through flight school after I graduated college in Orlando, you know, I was um uh very again, very fortunate to know what I wanted to do for a living.
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Uh, but I was afraid to ask questions because I thought I knew a lot of things about the industry, you know, from my dad and my uncle.
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Um and I always felt like asking certain questions um would indicate or give way to people that had a lot of experience there at the flight school that maybe you're not as knowledgeable as you think.
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Um, and maybe you're not good enough to do what you're trying to do for a living.
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Uh so I was embarrassed to ask questions.
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And I overcame some adversity when I first got into corporate aviation um after I had a very short career with the Airlines, uh, only a year and a half, uh, to where I had two really good mentors along the way, uh a guy named Chris and a guy named Earl, um, that just for whatever reason took me under their wings and showed me a lot about you know what it takes uh to be successful in this career field and the amount of time and work that you have to put into it.
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And I'm smiling because you speak to the second part, which is mentorship.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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And um because of that relationship that I still have uh with Chris and Earl, uh, I have tried to give back what I have learned to people that are uh wanting to get in this industry or that already currently are in this industry.
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Um I enjoy the the teaching of management leadership.
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Um and it's hard to teach at times, but you know, the situation awareness uh that you have to have uh when you're flying all around the world.
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Um and um, you know, how to really stay ahead uh and think further than where you're currently at, um, you know, at 45,000 feet in the middle of the Indian Ocean or Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean.
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That gets probably to a state of mind, correct?
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It does.
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Um, I I look back at um, you know, people that are very, very successful in this career field, um, and it's what I would refer to as kind of the it factor, right?
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You know, I there's there's certain things that you can teach, right?
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I mean, I could teach, I could teach you how to fly an airplane, right?
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I could uh you know, from point A to point B.
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I want to.
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Um I'd be more than happy to teach you.
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Um but the things that you have to know um and be able to think your way through certain problems um or uh certain you know adversities that you face uh while you're flying uh and be able to use the resources that you have around you um to make a good uh decision to keep not only yourself, but your crew, your passengers, and the asset uh that this particular person you know owns or company owns, um, and have a positive outcome at the end is you can teach it, um, but it's very hard to really have the full picture of what it takes uh to um have that ultimate ending of keeping everybody safe and keeping everybody you know calm.
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Uh because there's certain things that can happen where, regardless of a first-time aircraft owner or a company that's owned corporate assets for 25, 30 years, they've been around airplanes long enough, they know what they should hear and they shouldn't hear.
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And when they start seeing commotion, stress, that you know puts stress on them.
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Um, and that's your whole goal is to make it seem seamless uh from start to finish.
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Well, I mean, it it's certainly universal what you just mentioned, Alex, because again, in the in the family dynamic unit, right, you may have a parent that is stressful, kind of the things that you just described, and how to stay calm, how to stay patient, so that that family going through that particular challenge or that family member can overcome.
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So that's where, again, I just wanted, and that's where it's fun for me to invite these different uh diverse perspectives on what it means to be grateful and to have that inner spirit and and that self-awareness.
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And so that's really interesting you brought up because I'm just trying to draw parallels with your profession and how that applies to the everyday and the humanity that we all have in inside of us.
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Yeah, um, you know, it's uh like I said, it's it's been a very um rewarding uh career.
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It's it's definitely had its uh moments of uh, you know, you you you question yourself at time.
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Yep.
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You know, and also I I think with everything else, you know, we um, you know, you and I met at a golf course, um, had a chance to briefly talk, and you know, you don't see a lot of um, you know, uh 48-year-olds that are out there competing competitively uh on the PGA tour.
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You know, um, these kids that are young that um have grown up, you know, with a lot of good instruction, uh, coaches, sports psychologists around them.
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Uh that's the reason why I think they're able to really gain a lot of confidence uh right from the get-go and then come out and be successful.
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Um, you know, in in my line of work, um, you know, I I think it takes a good five or six years to really get a true understanding of what you need to do to overcome, you know, certain challenges that maybe you were aware of, that maybe you're not aware of.
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Um, and then you hear other stories too, you know, from other people that uh have encountered certain things and you can learn from their mistakes, or you can learn from what they did uh, you know, during uh certain times uh that can maybe help you out if you encounter something similar to that.
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Well, going back to your comment about you know these players having these resources for them to be better athletes, it kind of gets to the notion of the haves versus the have nots.
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And I think that's the unfortunate reality we live in today.
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It's like people that have this talent that it factor, right, they may not have the proper resources and team in place to help them take them to that next level.
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So in your experience being around these PGA tour professionals, could you speak to perhaps maybe not the societal concept of have versus have not, but for those that don't have it, what can they do so that they can transition to having it?
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That's a really good question.
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And I'm not really sure I have probably the right answer for that.
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It's a perspective, right?
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You know, I was uh fortunate enough to be around the PGA tour, uh, you know, in my line of work uh in the career field.
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Um I also played college golf um at a very small school, an AI school in Montgomery, Alabama.
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Um and to um, I guess to realize that, you know, I never had any potential to ever make a living playing golf, uh, but then getting into aviation, then being around the PGA tour and seeing how successful and the dedication um and the amount of time and effort that it goes um into making a player successful, it's not just the player itself, it's the caddy.
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Um, you know, so it's uh could be your agent, uh, could be a sports psychologist you work with, uh, it could be your trainer.
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Um, you know, I I've seen firsthand uh the particular person that I worked for in the PGA tours had a long career, um, albeit he's on a different tour now.
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Um, but you know, he had a great uh fitness coach that was with him for 23, 24 years uh that kept him, you know, in great health, um, kept him flexible, kept him mobile.
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Um, you know, and again, I think, you know, having the right resources around you and knowing how to use those resources and get the most out of um what you want to accomplish, uh, whether it's soft or aviation, right?
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You need to rely upon those resources and use them and be able to have the confidence that, you know, hey, this is what other people have learned.
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Um, this is what I should be doing, and um utilize that.
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And it looks like you don't have to have all uh all five things that that that you need.
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I'm just I just put place five as an example.
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Because I do remember at a time when Bubba Watson won the masters, I believe he went many years without even having a swing coach.
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Uh that is correct.
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Um actually what's even more interesting, um I grew up in LA, but it's not the LA that you would probably think of.
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Uh we we refer to where I grew up as Lower Alabama, uh the Florida panhandle.
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Um and uh I I played middle school and high school golf against Bubba Watson.
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Uh Bubba grew up in Pensacola.
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Yep, Bubba grew up in Pensacola, Florida.
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I grew up in a town called Niceville, Florida.
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Um and so we used to have to play against him in a lot of matches.
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Um, and our matches back then were just nine holes, uh stroke play.
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Um, and I can remember one year my head coach in high school, you know, put me against Bubba Watson, and everybody on the team is like, yeah, you know, you have no chance, right?
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Of your beating Bubba.
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Um and I played a lot of golf with him uh growing up.
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Uh I'd only beat him once.
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Um and uh there was a lot of junior tournaments that we played in um throughout the different areas uh there in the panhandle, Pensacola, all the way out towards I mean, really Panama City Beach.
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Um and everybody knew that you were competing for second place against him.
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He just had so much natural talent uh that just to your point, didn't need a swing coach.
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Um probably I would say one of the best players that can visualize what he wants to do and know how to do it.
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So are these players, when they are on tour or when they compete, are they playing against themselves?
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Are they what no no?
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I know it's it's all three, so but I'm curious what percentage you give.
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So if if you can indulge me here.
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So on the golf course, are you ultimately playing against yourself, the course, or the other players?
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And I'm just curious to get get your take on the percentages of what's what.
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So your your last question, right?
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Are you playing against the course, yourself, or other players?
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Uh, very few events, as you know, right on the PGA tour are match play, right?
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Um, and and I think anytime you have the WGC match play events, right, um to some degree, maybe the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, right, you really are playing against that other person, right?
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That that is the only goal is to get that point for your team uh and move forward.
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Uh with the other two options, right?
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Playing against yourself or playing against the course, I think just like a lot of, you know, uh Kevin Kisner says it all the time.
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Certain people on Sirius XM, PGA Tour radio say it, you know, there's there's horses for courses.
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Um and you know, I think I'm sorry, what does that mean?
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I didn't follow.
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Yeah, so uh there's certain courses that um the PGA tour, right, uh has set uh for their events, right?
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That these players know, hey, I really like this course.
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This course sets up visually for me.
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Um, you know, Jack Nicholas designed a lot of his golf courses for uh people that like to fade the ball, you know, off the T for a right-handed player, you know, so a little, you know, left to right, you know, shot shape, and that's how Jack kind of designed his courses.
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Um, you know, you've got Pete Dye that I think is a visually intimidating architect.
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Um, you have to be able to get over that.
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You know, to me, it's a lot like you know, flying into different airports where, you know, the runway is short and it's very narrow.
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It gives you a lot of deceptions about where the airplane really is in relation to the ground.
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Um, you know, so there's certain airports for me that are challenging.
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There's certain golf courses for me that are, you know, challenging, and there's certain golf courses for the best of the best that are challenging.
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Um, you know, and uh so I would say that.
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Um, I mean, again, I'm not I'm not on tour, never, you know, um was fortunate enough to play it for a living, but I would say there's probably a 50-50 chance that most players are playing against themselves and against the course at the same time.
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But not to the other player.
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That's interesting.
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No, I I think there's certain events, these guys know what the winning score is going to be based on the course conditions, um, how firm the greens are, um, you know, uh what the weather's gonna be like.
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Uh so they know what they have to go out and shoot, you know, over a four-day period to make themselves be in contention and hopefully have the chance to win come Sunday.
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Oh, that's amazing.
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I mean, actually, this is an answer I never would have uh expected.
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I thought you were gonna put, you know, 40% on yourself, 40% on the course, 20% on the on the other players.
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But you gave a very detailed answer that uh was very, very fun for me uh to hear and and listen.
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And then I would have to think that with these players, I mean, beyond just having these incredible high standards they have for themselves, I guess it gets into a headspace that you and I talked about uh earlier, Alex.
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And with that headspace, I think there's a large degree of selfishness that comes uh into play.
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Because to be the best, you need to have that ability to eliminate as many distractions as possible, having that singular focus.
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You know, Master Rays talked about the pursuit of mastery.
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You know, Master Rays is a 10th degree martial artist, uh 10th degree black belt, excuse me, in martial arts.
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He was the one that tested Tony Robbins for his black belt test decades ago.
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:45.440
So he talks about pursuit of mastery in this area of being selfish.
00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:49.200
What do you say to that, or or how would you comment on that as well?
00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:58.640
Yeah, so you know, um I think uh knowing uh knowing your limitations, knowing what you can and can't do, right?
00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:02.240
Whether it's go back to your question about being on the golf course, right?
00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:06.240
You know, um do I have confidence going into that event, right?
00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:14.400
Have I done enough preparation to make sure that I'm gonna put myself in a good spot to be ready for this particular event that I have decided to play in?
00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:20.720
Um, you know, the same thing that um goes along with that uh concept.
00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:29.440
Uh in my line of work, you know, every whether we have one leg and a leg is just flying from one airport to another, right?
00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:35.039
Or you could have two or maybe three legs or four legs, you know, all in one day.
00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:38.880
Um we do what's known as uh, it's called a frat.
00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:41.920
It's a flight risk assessment test, right?
00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:51.279
And you have to have a score that's below a certain level, right, to make sure that, you know, you're doing everything you can to mitigate as many risks as possible.
00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:54.559
And those risks vary, you know, in my line of work.
00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:57.920
It could be the weather, it could be mother nature, something that you can't control.
00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:07.759
Uh, it could be certain things that are on the aircraft that maybe don't work, um, but you're allowed to fly uh with certain things that don't work.
00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:16.240
Um, and that's all uh published uh and made available to you know the crews, the management companies, the airlines, whatever.
00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:19.599
It's referred to as an MEL, a minimum equipment list.
00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:38.480
Um and so, you know, when you have all these factors that you put into place and you know that you've done everything that you can to mitigate as many risks as possible, it gives you the confidence, right, to be able to overcome those adversities that you're facing that you can and cannot control.
00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:47.759
Um and I think the players on tour, you know, do a somewhat of a risk assessment themselves.
00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:50.720
Um, you know, is this a good course for me to play?
00:23:50.960 --> 00:24:07.519
Um, you know, um, do I have a caddy that's you know spent the time to go out there and you know take a look at the course and um know the undulations very well, um, you know, and be able to help read the greens, um, you know, know what the weather's gonna be.
00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:21.759
Wouldn't an elite athlete under any under any circumstances know how to approach any type of golf course, whether it's Pebble Beach or Augusta or uh Goth Page Black?
00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:22.400
Sure.
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:28.000
Um, you know, I think especially for the the courses like you just mentioned, right, where they've had you know rider cups and U.S.
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:31.599
opens at, um, you know, they've played those courses before.
00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:38.240
Uh, you know, the guys that live on the West Coast, they're very familiar with Pebble Beach, the Cypress Points, the Monterey Peninsula Country Club.
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:41.279
Um, you know, they're very familiar with those golf courses.
00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:48.160
And sure, they can tell you, you know, the distance and and the layout from the start to the finish.
00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:50.720
Um, but what you can't always predict, right?
00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:56.720
And just like in you know, my line of work too, you know, you take off leaving one airport, going to the next, you never know what's going to happen.
00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:02.640
Um, so you get out there, you're on the driving range, you have a good warm-up session, you're able to control the ball the way that you want.
00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:07.119
Shot shaping, trajectory, spin rates, distance control, etc.
00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:18.640
Then all of a sudden, you know, you realize it come the fifth hole, the sixth hole, you're not able to hit that 60, 70, 80 yard chip shot, you know, where you want it, uh, pin high.
00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:20.480
Because of what reason?
00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:37.599
Uh so it could be, and again, uh I'm I'm guessing here, but it could be it could be nerves, it could be pressure, um, it could be uh your body that's just not able to do certain things the way that, you know, um your uh how do I say this?
00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:40.400
Your kind of muscle memory should work, right?
00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:44.880
To hit those shots and execute those shots the way that you want to, but you have to be able to overcome that.
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:56.319
You have to be able to figure out a way to uh get that ball as close as you can to the hole and give yourself a chance to make a birdie or or you know, get up and down from a very difficult spot and make par and walk away and keep yourself in contention.
00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:59.279
Well, everything you just said, Alex, applies to life in general.
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:00.079
Without doubt.
00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:08.960
And that's that's the thing that you know I've realized being around the PGA tour uh and being blessed enough to be in that spot, right?
00:26:09.039 --> 00:26:20.480
There's certain things that I know that are gonna come my way that I have to be able to overcome, you know, when you know, taking a 40, 50, 60 million dollar asset from one airport to the next.
00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:24.480
Um, there's a lot of different factors that you have to consider and be ready for that.
00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:28.400
Where does turbulence come in in terms of your inner spirit and self-awareness?
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:35.359
You know, it's uh it's becoming more of a dominant topic uh in our industry.
00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:41.359
Uh, unfortunately, a lot of people, both in the airlines, corporate, you don't really hear about it too much in cargo.
00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:46.079
Um, and I think the reason for that is because there's typically only you know two pilots.
00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:57.680
If there's a certain airplane that requires a flight engineer, which that's becoming almost non-existent now, you don't really hear about you know airplanes encountering uh severe turbulence with the cargo.
00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:04.319
But if you hear about it, you know, from the airlines and you've got you know 150, 250 passengers, then some of them get severely hurt.
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:06.319
Uh, you know, that'll make the news.
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:08.559
Um, there's all different kinds of turbulence.
00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:10.240
I don't want to get into too many details.
00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:22.559
Uh there's some turbulence that I think uh with good planning, uh you can see where the the Gulf Stream and the winds are going to change at whatever altitude you're flying at, and you can kind of know that's coming.
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:33.599
Um, ATC, Air Traffic Control, does a good job of informing us if there's other airplanes, whether it be in front of us or behind us, um, different altitudes, if they encounter that, so we can be prepared for it.
00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:37.440
Uh, but there's also areas that we refer to as CAT.
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:40.079
Uh, unfortunately, our industry has a lot of acronyms.
00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:43.200
CAT stands for Clear Air Turbulence that you just can't see.
