Speaker 1: 0:20

Hey everybody, ryan Garland here, founder and chairman of Paradigm. Thank you for watching Paradigm Shift. We are sponsored today by 10 Day Doors. They are the manufacturer on all of our barn caves project, all of our structural engineering, structural steel and our Paradigm storage product. So we're happy and I'm excited today to introduce you to Jason Pope.

Speaker 1: 0:37

He is my helicopter pilot. He has an R44 and he's done some amazing things. So we're going to kind of interview him today and kind of talk about all the wonderful things that he's done. But, uh, I will tell you the reason why I wanted to bring him on is because he owns eternity helicopters and he is probably one of the best pilots I've ever seen. And, uh, I have to. I have to admit that I've been with a lot of pilots and, uh, some of them scared the living shit out of me. But this guy, I mean he gets down close to the water. He's doing all these wonderful filming. So all of the filming and all of the videos that you see with all of our boats and all the cool stuff that you see, this is the man behind the scenes that's actually flying. So, jason, thank you for joining me today.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Well, thanks for having me. Absolutely, buddy. I mean it's kind of my first experience doing something like this and it's cool. It's cool to do it and I appreciate everything you said. Got to put you in the hot seat man.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Thank you, this is the way to do it Just break the ice and get going right. So really I want to more interview you and talk a little bit about your history, your past, because I want people out there that may want to think about hiring you to do other filming or travel or what have you. So let's talk a little bit about the business and then let's talk a little bit about your past. So let's talk about eternity, helicopters, what you are, what you do and just kind of the nature of your business at the moment.

Speaker 2: 1:49

So, um, we are a very small husband wife team. My wife and I, uh, do it together. We have one helicopter, one pilot, um, but I will say I, I could not do it without my wife and friend. She does all the behind the scenes, all the billing, all the all the books.

Speaker 1: 2:07

Oh, I get the bills, I get it Right.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Right, all the all that kind of stuff. Putting the helicopter in the air and flying it safe is is the operation side, is what I do. Yeah, behind the scenes is what she does. So basically, we before this I was flying a bigger helicopter, fighting fires. I loved my job, loved the company that I was working for, loved the people that I was working with, but I wanted something different. I wanted something new.

Speaker 2: 2:40

When I was on fire, I was in Washington and my schedule was a 12 on 12 off, so, but it worked out to about a 14 day on 10 off, because you have a travel day at the beginning of your shift, after your shift. Well, I had two girls at home, my wife, my two girls. I want to be at home, yeah, um. So we put eternity together, um, and, and me pitching it to my wife and saying I think we can do this. Let's go spend a bunch of money. Let's spend a bunch of money and typical guy, buy this helicopter and I promise it'll work and so, so, so there's a little bit of convincing there. But you know, fortunately she totally believed in me and we did it. We, we put everything.

Speaker 2: 3:23

She's a smart woman, though in me and we did it. We, uh, we put a smart woman though she's very, she's very smart, very smart, um, thank you. We um. So we did it. We went out, we found the helicopter took me a couple years to find it we bought it and I and I knew kind of what I wanted the company to look like, all the way down to the vehicles that I had, the support vehicles I had, um, I knew the color of the support vehicles I had. I knew the color of the helicopter when I had. I knew the color of the helicopter when I was looking for it, the avionics that I wanted Very picky, so it took me a long time to find it.

Speaker 2: 3:53

When we found it, we got it in Texas, bought it in Texas, had it taken to Oklahoma City. So they did a whole the pre-buy inspection and I wanted a hundred hour annual, a hundred hour inspection, the annual, everything done on it. So when I pick it up it's ready to go um, flew to oklahoma, picked it up, flew it home, um, so basically what we do is we we have an they call it an loa a letter of authorization from the faa to be a tour company. So we're in an approved FAA tour company and kind of what that consists of is the FAA will come out to your hangar, they inspected our hangar, they inspected all of our log books, and then the helicopter, and then it was a big interview process and then we were approved for that LOA way. So after that we kind of we wanted to move more, more into the filming and video kind of stuff, which was fun for me that's the kind of fun flying, sure, um.

Speaker 2: 4:58

So we went and got a what they call a motion picture movie manual. Now, this manual isn't something you get online and say, okay, you know, print me out all these pages of this manual, that's that I can operate with. You have to write the manual, so you have to. I think it ended up being about a 16 page document that we wrote um, this is how we're going to operate, these are our limitations and our restrictions and basically we file that with the FAA.

Speaker 2: 5:29

It goes through the whole approval process and once it's approved, it's kind of a big deal that you have that. There's not many operators small operators, I should say that have a motion picture movie manual. So that was approved movie manual, um, so that was approved um. Now when we do our, our, our shoots, we need event specific permits, which is easy through the once you have your motion picture movie manual, you apply for an event permit and you get your event permit. Um, so, in the event of us coming out here and filming all these boats and stuff going up and down the lake, um, we have a permit that is specifically dated for those days, for those days yeah yeah, that is pretty cool, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:11

So I remember you and I talking about I wanted our audience to hear about that and then you know you were. I mean you're busy, I mean you seem busy. I mean I think you had a photo shoot set for tomorrow. You're getting a bunch of photo shoots for tommy gunn, which is like the man, the myth, the legend of photography out here, and for all the boats and he's traveling all over the country. He's in miami and he's in ozarks. I mean the guy's all over the place and he gets the best shots. And I remember when I hired him, when you I hired you the first time to get shots of the boats on I think it was on my ribbon cutting right, we're correct, yeah and uh, and I just I see him everywhere and he's, I think, is he, is he. Has he booked you out for a cat fest? Was it cat fest or desert storm?

Speaker 2: 6:50

or is it both? Uh, both both yeah you know, tommy, um kind of a really cool story with tom, love tom to death he is. I've worked, I've worked with a lot of good photographers, um, and a lot of them are, like I said, really really good, professional at what they do. Um, tom, I, he's, he's, he's the elite, I mean he's just he's good, he's very, very good, very professional. Um he'll make a slow boat. Look fast, which is what the people that are getting the photos taken want, yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Right, they want, you know make me look fast. Make me look good, make me look fast.

Speaker 2: 7:29

Just how he does it. It's, it's uh, he's awesome to work with, and you guys have done a lot together, though we we formed a pretty good relationship working relationship and a personal relationship. You know, um, we're we're buddies, yeah, um he's just.

Speaker 1: 7:42

I just saw you the other night, right, you guys came by, you guys were together. I'm like wait, hold on. I thought didn't you just get here? I didn't know you. I knew you landed, but I didn't know you. I blinked and I turned around, you guys were both there. That was really cool, right, all right. So I, so I got, I'm gonna totally put you on blast here. Okay, you got to tell me and tell our audience the story about when you were hired and that kid was did that whole like hey, guess where I'm at you?

Speaker 2: 8:09

got to tell the story.

Speaker 1: 8:10

This was an Epic story, mind you guys, everyone who's listening or watching. We were on a flight back from Vegas, I think, and you told me the story and I could not. I was. I don't think I've laughed so hard in my life when you're telling me, when you were telling me and they're, and the light bulb clicked on and how it all worked out and why your wife was getting blown up. I couldn't. I was Joe. Listen to this. You're going to love this, my friend.

Speaker 2: 8:33

This is unbelievable.

Speaker 1: 8:34

This is the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life. So you got to tell us the story. So I was, from the beginning, give the whole story, because that's what cast is about, man. Okay, all right, so so I'm sorry to put you on blast.

Speaker 2: 8:44

I gotta hear everyone's gonna hear this story so I can use names and all that it does oh yeah no problem, yeah, whatever.

Speaker 2: 8:48

So there's a young kid and he's a streamer. I'm not super familiar with this whole streaming thing, but but this kid's a streamer, so he's he. They call me up, they want me to come up to the rooftop of this building and the job this is in la is in LA. This is in LA. Okay, not very many buildings in LA you can land on, but this one particular one it's 16 floors and you can rent the top floor for an event and it's basically just vacant now until you rent it. It's an event center, yeah, it's an event space and it's a 360 degrees view of LA, so it's a super cool spot. Well, this kid's going to be up there and we're going to do filming, so it's a filming gig. I land, take the helicopter and land on top of this building and I didn't realize the production that it was actually going to be. I mean, they had these cameras that you see on the news, right?

Speaker 2: 9:46

mean these four foot long giant cameras and I'm like, oh, this is a bigger deal than I thought. So we landed and, uh, the kid wasn't there yet. Um, kai colette, kai calais colette, something like that, something like that, kai um, and he streams himself, like I guess, 24 hours a day. This kid just streams and shows you his life and smokes weed with with snoop dog and and just does whatever and streams it. And so I'm like this kid's making that much money, um, and they tell me you know how much this kid's? I'm like, oh, my god, I'm in the wrong business.

Speaker 1: 10:22

Yeah sure, yeah, so it's crazy this stuff you hear and how these people are making money. It's wild Right.

Speaker 2: 10:28

So the basis of that day in this event was if you find Kai, you get $100,000. So he had $100,000 cash that he dumped out and he's got a massive following, doesn't he? Oh, massive he's. I guess, from my understanding and, like I said, I'm not super familiar, but from my understanding he was like a top streamer or something.

Speaker 1: 10:50

Okay, okay, so he's got millions of followers, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:52

And it was crazy because, as we're sitting there and he's going through this whole thing, he says you know he's calling them subs, you know I need 500 more subs. And each one of these subs come to find out like subscribers. We're giving them $5, $10, $100 for access to watch him. And it's blowing my mind the whole time I'm standing there. So the whole thing is you've got to find out where Kai's at. So they start with the camera on Kai at just his mouth, so all you can see is his mouth and he's talking. And once he gets 500 subscribers, you're going to see his face. And then the the screen kind of gets bigger and bigger as he gets more subscribers. So so it gets bigger. And then at one point they they have it where him and his buddy are sitting there and it looks like a living room, whole stage set up on top of this building, and then your helicopters in the background, helicopters behind the backdrop that they had set up, and so 500 more subscribers. And, okay, now we drop the back. And so the back drops and there's my helicopter sitting there, okay, well, behind my helicopter was the Hollywood sign. You can see the Hollywood sign. You can see the Hollywood sign. Okay. So now everybody's kind of knowing, okay, we're in LA, obviously downtown LA, on the rooftop of this building, and there's a helicopter.

Speaker 2: 12:17

Well, as I'm standing there, my phone starts ringing and I'm like, oh shoot, you know, and I have it on silent because it's a production thing, so. So I kind of stepped to the side and I answered my phone and it was a. I don't really know what the guy did. He said he was like an aircraft broker or something along those lines. He says I need to know where you're at. And I said well, I I don't. I don't know who you are. I can't tell you where I'm at. I said I'm working and um, part of this job is is um got to be disc? Are I can't tell you where I'm at. I said I'm working and part of this job is got to be discreet.

Speaker 2: 12:48

And I can't tell you where I'm at. He said, well, let me tell you what's going on. He says I'm looking for Kai. He says there's a hundred thousand dollars that Kai's given. He says I'll split it with you If you tell me where you're at. I said okay. I said I'm still not going to tell you where I'm at. I said I can't. It's the job I can't tell you where I'm at. Well, so anyways, long story short, a kid finally finds us and they bring him up to the top of the roof and congratulations. They give him, you know, the $100,000 is on a pile on the table. Well, they give him this big, you know four foot check that he's holding, they write his name on it and all that so. Well, now we're on top of this building. So they want to film Kai flying off of the building and flying away, and at that point it was probably the only safe way to get Kai out of there.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Just the amount of people, huh, just the amount of people and stuff.

Speaker 2: 13:49

It was going crazy. Well, my, after I get off the phone with this this guy that I told him I'm not going to tell more, is that my wife's calling me. And so when she's calling me, like I answer, um, and and she's saying, now, were you on, were you in flight? Now, no, no, I was still on top of the building, okay, and it was. Right after this, this gentleman called me and I and I hung up with him. Um, my wife calls and says are you okay? I said yeah, I'm fine, we're doing this job over here. She says my phone won't stop ringing. She says I'm in a meeting with attorneys and some of the property owners that she works with and stuff. She says I can't take this call. My phone doesn't stop ringing. She says I'm going to have to turn my phone off.

Speaker 2: 14:25

So she was getting call after call after call and and so I'm like because they saw eternity helicopters what it was was my tail number and eternity helicopters was all visible, so you could google the tail number and see who who owns the aircraft. Yeah, um, well then, they googled the company name and they got a hold of us and they're trying to find out where we're at.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Wasn't she freaking out? Thought you crashed or something at one?

Speaker 2: 14:51

point. She was pretty nervous there for a second because there's so many, you know where's your aircraft and and all this other stuff that. And she had no idea, because I didn't have no idea when we were going to this job. I just knew we were filming and that's all I needed to know. I didn't know the whole backstory to what Kai was doing. Um, so so she ends up turning her phone off because it it won't stop ringing in in her meetings.

Speaker 1: 15:18

I couldn't even imagine being her. You're freaking out, knowing you're flying and your phone's blowing up and you're kind of going like wait, hold on, wait. Did you crash? Did what happened? Oh man, I can only imagine right knowing her too. Her heart probably just wasn't stopped beating right.

Speaker 2: 15:33

So she felt better after she talked to me and we I told her you know this is a? Uh, people are looking for him. You know he's giving this money away for who can find him first. Um, so now I have to take kai and fly him um out of there. He gets in the helicopter and the kid is um, he's a younger kid, pretty animated, you know. Full head of dreadlocks. Um, pretty funny kid, I guess 12.3 million subscribers Okay.

Speaker 2: 16:07

Well, there you go, wow. So he gets in the helicopter and, oh, this is cool, and you know he's, he's he got a little bit of a lingo to him, I guess. Um, and we take off. Now I have in my, in the helicopter, I have Kai sitting in the front seat, the guy that won the $100,000 sitting in the back seat and then the guy that's filming sitting behind me. So we pick up and I take off of this building and Kai starts screaming and he's like this is the coolest thing. And he says I'm in Grand Theft Auto. I'm in Grand Theft Auto and I'm like, oh crap. So I? He was so loud I had to isolate his mic, so I turned his mic off.

Speaker 2: 16:52

He's screaming so loud I still can't hear atc because I need to fly into santa monica, la, yeah, down to la flying into santa monica is pretty congested, um, and you have santa monica is very particular on how you fly in there, the, the procedure to get in there, um and you, so you need to be able to hear them. So so he's screaming at the top of his lungs. He's in grand theft auto flying this helicopter he's on facetime or something, what's he doing? They had all these cameras and everything set up in the helicopter.

Speaker 1: 17:24

You have it. Oh yeah, why is it on YouTube? Oh, it's awesome. I've got to watch this. It's awesome. We're going to clip it into this podcast dude, so I have to isolate him.

Speaker 2: 17:34

I'm still struggling to hear ATC. I take him, we land at Santa Monica Airport, do the whole filming. It's all live stream and everything's there. Um, now the the escalade, black escalator whatever is picking kaya pulls up to the helicopter. You know, and heaven forbid you walk into the fbo. No, the escalate has to pull out to the helicopter. So they come out. He jumps in there and the cameraman and the kid that just won the hundred thousand dollars are standing there and they're going. So, like now what? And I said well, I don't know. What do you mean? What? What are you looking at me for? I'm going home.

Speaker 2: 18:10

You're like get out like my job's done and they're like well, we don't, we don't have a ride back to the building or we don't have a. Well, you may have to call uber. I mean the building's the other way, I'm going that way, the building's that way, so, um, so they ubered them.

Speaker 1: 18:26

It's just all isolated and quiet yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:29

So the camera guy calls an uber, gets an uber, he gone. Yeah, he's gone with all this stuff. The kid that won the hundred thousand dollars, uh, I don't, I don't want to jump to. Sure, I don't know if he had the means to to uber, so he's standing outside did you have?

Speaker 2: 18:46

his money. He didn't know. I don't know what he had with him because it was probably 20, 30 minutes that I'm doing all my thing, getting fuel and getting everything I need to get, uh, to get home, and I look outside. He's standing outside on the curb and so I go, hey, like, are you good, like you have? He says yeah, I called my buddy, my buddy's coming to pick me up, so so he had a friend coming to pick him up.

Speaker 1: 19:10

Meanwhile kai was was on the road going dude, could you imagine, just I, I think, when you were telling me the first time, I'm like I can only imagine brenda, your wife, just going. Oh my because I think, just because, dude, that many phone calls that fast, you think you're getting an accident. And that's what she thought.

Speaker 2: 19:28

Yeah, I know, yeah. And so until she spoke to me she was pretty nervous, because everybody that was calling her was kind of a how do you answer that Like?

Speaker 1: 19:37

where are you guys at? What do you mean?

Speaker 2: 19:38

I'm a joker anyways, you know, yeah, where are you at? What are you guys doing?

Speaker 1: 19:41

I want to know what the money with you that kind of stuff, Could you imagine I'll split the money with you. Where are you guys at? That's funny.

Speaker 1: 19:48

Yeah, I couldn't do it. When you told me that story, I couldn't believe it. Man, I think that made my day. I'm coming back from a stressful day. Yeah, that was. That was pretty funny. Well, thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 1: 20:01

So the other, you know, I've I've flown a lot. I like being up in the air and I travel a lot and the one thing that's really cool and I always tell everybody when you have you have you know, you you spend time with a pilot and you kind of hear all the stories and you're going to hear um, you know, I guess where I really appreciate about you is how much of a family man you are. So a lot of our conversations, you know, looking at God's country and we're up in the air, has been really family oriented and um, and I think there was like a brotherhood that was created. So I really consider you one of my closest friends and now you're flying my son around and it's so. It's just very rewarding knowing that you are, in essence, another mentor for him, because he's experiencing the things that I experienced when he get up there. He texted me when he landed. He said it was his coolest thing and he can't wait to come out again and that type of stuff and uh, and that's the biggest blessing. But you know that I think there's, there really is a brotherhood that's created when you're up in the air, like that, because there's there really is, there is you just look at things differently when you're down on the ground. It's just so different from being up in the air.

Speaker 1: 21:01

You know, once you get up in the air, you're like man, this is the way to travel. It's like you know, it's like a time machine. It saves you time. It's just the best thing in the world. But when you're down on the ground, you're like man, can you just fly me to my house real quick? It'll take four minutes when it takes me 30 minutes to get there, you know. But to bring you on was you know how?

Speaker 1: 21:22

It was really cool that you said yesterday that you feel in your heart that you're never going to die in a helicopter. You're going to die an old man in a bed. And that's really cool because that means that you know in your heart you're never going to, you're not going to be dead in a helicopter, and that's cool for someone like me to hear that you feel so convicted that you are always going to be safe. But that does go hand in hand with my belief in you from the beginning and how you've practiced and all the things you've taught me and so forth, and I just want to thank you for that. And I want to thank you publicly because you know I do have a lot of responsibilities and and when my with my son and so forth, you're probably one of the best men I know and I've never seen another man that cares so much about his family, that wants to fly, enjoy his life, but is always there to make his family, his life, his everything. And I wanted to publicly tell you that. And I want to tell everybody else how much you know, if they decide to reach out to you, um, that they're in good hands and that's the most important thing.

Speaker 1: 22:15

When you're in a little R44, you know. And it's just a little different because everyone's been to like small planes, not everyone's been in a helicopter. I've learned that right. Remember, when we had the first ribbon cutting, you took everyone on tours. Sure, everybody's never been in a helicopter before. Joe, were you in a helicopter before that one? No, you were not. Well, with derrick, no, okay, yeah, one time before that one time. But even then, and just just to make sure, so it's with derrick the one that introduced you to.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Oh, that's right. So joe did introduce us. Wait, how did you?

Speaker 2: 22:42

introduce us again.

Speaker 1: 22:43

You remember we were looking for me? Oh, that's right. So Joe did introduce us. Wait, how did you introduce us again, do you remember? Oh, that's right. And you found him somewhere. Yeah, so he was looking. We were looking for the old guy that we used Correct, but he found you and you're like actually, and that's kind of how I hooked up with Tom Tommy Lee.

Speaker 2: 23:04

Yeah, he contacted me and said, hey, you and you're like actually, and and that's kind of how I hooked up with tom tommy lee. Yeah, um, he contacted me and said, hey, uh, this is what I got going. I'm a photographer in havasu. Um, I've flown with with the other gentleman that would that had the company, um, but I'm look, I need a new helicopter. Uh, he's not operating anymore. Yeah, I need a new helicopter. So that was my introduction to Havasu and I've been coming out here for a long time.

Speaker 1: 23:28

Yeah, you have a house here, yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:29

I was very familiar with Havasu so it wasn't like completely new to me.

Speaker 1: 23:37

So do you remember the first time I think it was our very first time when I had my Doug Wright and we were going up the river and you up up the river and you were low? I mean, you were low, we had. It looked like we were doing a hundred miles an hour. I think we probably were. You were so low and I had my other buddy that was filming in the in the plane right below on the other side of us, there's in the in the boat, both side of us, and you were're on the far side from the camera of my boat and you were so low it looked like your skids were on the front. Did you remember that? Do you remember, do you kind of remember that shot? It was a while you were running with me for a while.

Speaker 1: 24:12

I do remember filming that boat oh, that was on a different day yeah, that was a good, that was a learning experience yeah, don't hit the drone. Don't hit the helicopter with the drone, joe yeah, I wasn't.

Speaker 2: 24:24

Um, we were fairly new to each other. Um, so working together was was fairly new and and I take responsibility on not asking the right questions, right, um, hey, joe, don't fly into me please. The the shot was super cool it was a great shot. Yeah, that's a super cool shot. But, um, I did talk with one of my my buddies, I think it's tom and he says did you, you realize that drone was there? And I said no, I said that that was just one of those, um, close calls that fortunately it it happened, but yeah

Speaker 1: 25:00

um oh he, the idea was to get the shot while he's banking, remember that. So so we were the way the, the way we were cruising the boat, he was trying to bank it so he can get you. You shoot with his, his blade sideways.

Speaker 2: 25:16

You know what I mean so when we discussed that shoot um ahead of time, you had said, okay, I wanted to look like maybe the boat is you're in a pursuit, yeah so the boat kind of aggressive, flying maybe, and make it look like the helicopter's trying to catch the boat, yeah so, um, I almost actually wore my flight helmet and might have been a little bit too much, but um, so I wore my, my actual flight suit and everything.

Speaker 2: 25:47

Yeah, just the way I flew, you know banking back and forth. Make it look like I was chasing that video by the way, went, it went viral, I mean that was the one thing.

Speaker 1: 25:55

That was probably the best video we've ever shot just to basically build awareness for paradigm storage. And then we used a lot of it for Barncage. We still use a lot of that footage, but those were the best shots we've ever had and it's hard to recreate those shots because of where we were located and the boat and everything and the day it was a great day, it was nice and so, man, it was a great day, it was nice and so it. Man it was. It was so cool. But I mean, yeah, when you, when you were kind of in the gorge right before the gorge, right kind of like in and out of the gorge what do you want to call it comes towards the south side of it, but yeah, we kind of kept doing that turn and you, just you we still have that video where he's like totally sideways and I'm like right underneath you. It is such a great shot. Oh yeah, you had all kinds of shot. Yeah, we have a lot of camera again.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Yeah, that was really pretty cool man when we do a lot of these boat shoots. The way I look at it as as, um, as the helicopter operator, um, not only does the person that hired us that wants pictures of themselves in their boats, um, they want the, the perfect shot. So in my'm thinking, okay, I need to put the photographer in the best position to get the best shot. So, wherever that's at and and I'm listening to them, I'm working for them at the time, so they're telling me okay, hop over to the left side, you know wherever to be at, on the, on the boat, that's where I'm putting my putting the helicopter, putting them in the right position. But I also look at it as they paid good money to have this whole experience. Not only are they going to get some awesome pictures, but they have a helicopter feet from them, um, so to give literally feet well, safely, yeah, of course right but they want the helicopter experience Right and so um.

Speaker 2: 27:38

so that's what I'm also looking at is I want to give these people a good experience where they're going to remember shoot. We just had a helicopter and it was like I could have given her a hundred miles an hour in the boat.

Speaker 1: 27:47

Yeah Right.

Speaker 2: 27:48

Right, so um, within reason, obviously, get get close, give them an experience, but put the photographer where he can get the best shots. That last forever.

Speaker 1: 27:59

Well, man, it's cool because the way you, especially when you're working with Tommy, he's getting shots of every boat that's out there. You guys are just all over the place getting all kinds of different. You see your helicopter and you see Tommy's work and so many photos in the industry, from every boat builder that's here in Lake Havasu, or people who come from Miami out here for events, or Ozarks. Your helicopter and your brand is everywhere from being all a part of this, in essence, culture, the boat culture.

Speaker 2: 28:33

We have been very blessed, and I don't know what I can contribute it to, other than blessed and lucky. The boat culture we have been very blessed and, and I don't know what I can contribute it to, other than blessed and lucky getting getting the right with the right people.

Speaker 1: 28:42

Yeah, and you know he knows everybody.

Speaker 2: 28:45

He does, he knows everybody, kind of along those lines is when we started to turn him eternity. It was a huge gamble, for for us, right we're putting all this money out.

Speaker 2: 28:55

We're buying huge gamble for, for us, right, putting all this money out. We're buying, you know, and what are we going to do? Is it going to, is it going to work? So I was talking to a really good friend of mine, who I consider him very successful, um. And I said, man, am I doing the right thing? I'm almost 40 years old dude starting this thing. I mean, what am I doing? And he told me, um, which I? I probably recite this in my own brain every day don't look at the money, don't chase the money. He says, build relationships. He says the the money will come. But if you treat people right and you build those relationships, um, that's how you, that's how you have a successful business.

Speaker 1: 29:37

That is 100% my business. It's all relationships and if you're doing people right, then they'll want to continue to work with you, and he nailed it. And you know what. The thing too and I think a lot of people they say it, but do they really do it Are you actually doing what you love? And when you do something that you love, you're going to be the top 1% in that industry, and that's how I see you. That's why I wanted you to be on here. I wanted people to. I want to build awareness of how good you really are and how much fun you can you are with that helicopter and safe at the same time, cause that's key.

Speaker 1: 30:12

But you literally are getting memorable shots. That I mean I have. I have shots that are all over my social media. These are shots my kids are seeing using other magazines, are pulling from and using them other social media. It's pretty cool, but it's all from your positioning, you know. So you've really got an eye for that, which is cool because you nailed it. People really want specific shots. They want to be seen a certain way.

Speaker 2: 30:35

Yeah, there, you go, there, you go right there, yeah showing the camera man.

Speaker 1: 30:39

Show them the back so people can see it. Look at that yeah that's him right there, that's the shot when we said feet away, we weren't lying. Huh, you know, it probably looks closer than it really was, but is?

Speaker 2: 30:49

super kind. Thank you for saying all that. Um the. I'm by far not the best pilot out there.

Speaker 1: 30:55

Um, of course you course you're going to say that Joe would, doesn't he? He's so humble. Huh Better than Delta pilots. Delta pilots, they're, they're, they're helicopter pilots, aren't they? Yeah Well.

Speaker 2: 31:09

I appreciate you guys saying that, but but, um, you know, I don't know. Just operate the thing safe, that's key, that's key, man. Well, thank you and I'm sorry to interrupt. No, you're good Kind of going back to the. You had mentioned it earlier that I said I'm not going to die in a helicopter.

Speaker 1: 31:26

I know how I'm going to die.

Speaker 2: 31:30

I've said that in the past and I've kind of felt like man this maybe comes off a little arrogant, kind of felt like man this baby comes off a little arrogant. And that's the last thing that I want to come off or sound arrogant. Like you know, I can do what I want, because I'm not going to die doing that.

Speaker 1: 31:44

No, you don't think that way, you don't operate that way.

Speaker 2: 31:47

A lot of things that I do jumping out of an airplane, parachuting or hang glider, whatever I want to do it, I want to experience it, not because I have a death wish or anything, because I I want to experience life. That's what that's life. Yeah, um, I don't want to miss anything, um, and I know that if, if, I am in control of what I can control, um, I can do it safely.

Speaker 1: 32:13

Yeah, well, so that's what that's. My point is you're not. You're not. You're not operating out of fear, you're operating out of professionalism and you're a perfectionist. That's the one thing I wanted to highlight is, you really are a perfectionist and I watch how you operate all the way down to remember when you had someone teach you how to start the R44 and you're like it doesn't start the way it used to. He showed me this helicopter R44 mechanic from heaven and the guy showed you to do something and it wasn't working. And you're like dude, that's not my helicopter.

Speaker 2: 32:43

He's a test pilot for Robinson, he works for Robinson and he yeah, so he's, in my opinion, the best of the best Doesn't get any better.

Speaker 1: 32:52

But it didn't. But after he went to start it you're like this, did not, my helicopter wasn't starting the same you got it back. It's running now the same way you wanted it.

Speaker 2: 32:58

He taught me a different procedure, which very small changes, very subtle things, but it wasn't my normal procedure, so it was just.

Speaker 1: 33:07

But every time you fire, I mean this morning it was like right up I mean no ifs, ands or buts and that's what's so nice and no ifs, ands or buts and that's what's so nice. And then hearing you, just you spend a lot of time going through your instruments and writing everything down and taking your time, you are in no rush. And that was kind of the testament of what I was trying to tell Shane and anybody else going hey, they're going. Why don't you go get your license? Or why don't you fly, or why don't you do this? And I said, well, look, my and I'm always going a million miles an hour.

Speaker 1: 33:33

That's when accidents happen. If you bring in the right pilot and that's their job, then the likelihood of safety is much higher. And that's where I want everybody to think about that. You know, I think a lot of people you know, I'm going to go buy this, I'm going to go fly, I'm going to do this and have fun. Yes, if it's your passion and you have some downtime, you don't have a high stressful life, but my life is not that way.

Speaker 1: 33:55

My life is go go all the time. One phone call changes the whole entire day for me. So you know, that's where you know. I really appreciated the relationship. But even you teaching me kind of how you operate and think, because you really are doing this as a job, this you want to be, you're making income for it, you're putting food on the table, you want to be safe. So you just look at things differently than I think. Someone who just wants to fly for fun Because when you fly for fun I feel like people test the waters a little bit more. Because you're flying for fun, you're like no, I have souls to protect and I have to get here and here. So you think differently and sometimes those are the attributes that you want to see in somebody.

Speaker 2: 34:34

When your life is in someone's hands, um, just like with anything, right, if, if, if you're in a boat and you're the captain of that boat, everybody in that boat is your responsibility. Um, I used to teach my girls this when they were 16 years old, getting their licenses, learning how to drive. I said, look, obviously you can't have all your friends in the car now because there's laws against that in California. You have to drive so long by yourself or whatever. So I said, but once you start putting friends in the car, um, there, there's, there, now there's a hundred distractions. They're all yelling, screaming, they want to crank the radio up and all this stuff.

Speaker 2: 35:11

You are responsible for everybody in that car. Um, their lives, and not only in that car, their lives and not only in that car but every other car on the road You're responsible for there. So one of your little friends gets some wild hair, distracts you. You go in the other lane. Now, you've just affected everybody in your car's life, not only to the car that potentially you could come in contact with Other people even around there. Everybody in their life you've affected. Just same way in the helicopter um, if I'm responsible for that helicopter, I'm flying that helicopter. Everybody in that helicopter is my responsibility. Um, and, and we're all in it together, uh, you know, if, if heaven forbid, something were to happen, um, you know, we're all in this, oh yeah we're together so.

Speaker 2: 35:54

So there's been times right that I that I've told you I can't fly or won't fly, um, whether it's weather conditions or whatever the case is. Um, because for me it's not safe and, like I said, you know, every, every pilot's kind of got their own safety um, protocol limitations, I guess, and so mine are, you know, at at a certain point I I won't fly. I'm sorry, I'm not, I'm not going to fly, I don't want to end up as a statistic.

Speaker 1: 36:28

Well Jason. I have to agree, you are probably one of the safest pilots I've ever met. So let's so. One last thing where did the eternity helicopters come?

Speaker 2: 36:34

from? Where'd you get the idea, the name, the name, um, um. So when my, when my wife and I got married, they say you know, you're married till death, do you part? Right? I didn't like that, brenda didn't like that, so we had them change it and we said we want to be married forever and all eternity. So that's how they did it. When we got married married, they said it's not death, dude, we're married forever and all eternity. So I have infinity tattoos on me. Both my daughters have infinity tattoos. It's kind of our family. It's your new family crest. My wife has zero tattoos, so she's out, but the eternity is just that. It's how my wife and I got married and I thought it was fitting that is really cool.

Speaker 1: 37:22

Well, dude, jason, thanks for sharing all that. Buddy, I wanted everybody to see who you are and who keeps us safe, and all of our friends and family and all of our staff, because you're taking all our people up in the air and showing them the world. Because they just love like how it's just, even though people I think they get just desert, it's ugly. I'm like, yeah, it's not that ugly. Get the load next to the water, next to a million dollar boat and go have some fun. So well, thank you for joining me, buddy.

Speaker 1: 37:44

I really appreciate it and for those of you that are watching or listening, eternity helicopters. You can find them everywhere social media, google, look them up. Jason, you'll talk to his wife, uh as, and so if you guys decide to book him, he's right here in Havasu and he travels all over Southern California Vegas, phoenix. He's kind of all over the place because he can. So all right, guys. Thanks so much for listening, and on to the next.