Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is trojan media network.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to behind the Business.
This is a student run podcast where we talk with local business owners about how real businesses actually work.
[00:00:18] Speaker C: Each episode focuses on one person and their experience running a business, including the parts people usually don't see.
[00:00:25] Speaker D: Today we're talking with Myron Yoder from the Wright Base Flight training. Myron is a flight instructor, helps manage a team of instructors and also works as a mechanic. Thank you for being here with us today.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: What can you tell us about yourself and your business?
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Well, first, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I've really enjoyed you guys school and everything you're doing even though we home school.
My daughter's been part of your volleyball team here for several years and it's been been fantastic.
So sorry, could you repeat the question?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: What can you tell us about yourself and your business?
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Okay, so I'm a flight instructor like you said.
My primary goal with right based flight training is to help people.
So in, in aviation there's a, there's a few different paths to become an airline pilot.
But most people who train with us that are career oriented actually want to join the airlines. So I'm actually helping the business owners that want to fly, the career oriented people that want to fly, the hobby people that want to fly, helping all of those. But the primary core group that become flight instructors are still going towards the airlines and so I'm helping them get their license as well as helping them get experience to where they can get hired by the airlines.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Let's go way back. When did flying first become something you cared about and not something that just seemed cool?
[00:01:57] Speaker A: I.
Sorry, I thought I muted this, but apparently I did not mute my little thing.
Okay, say the question again.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: When did flying first become something you cared about and not just something that seemed cool?
[00:02:15] Speaker A: So flying was always something that I cared about.
My dad was a pilot, just a private pilot, but he got his license in southern Mississippi, which is where I spent most of my life.
And he got his license because we were missionaries in South Central in Central America and Belize for a number of years and he thought that he would need to fly people back and forth in the jungle.
Never really ended up needing that skill, but it was fun. He was very passionate about aviation from before I was born.
So from the first time that I can remember seeing airplanes, I was in love with them. Because every son wants to be like his dad. My dad was a pilot. My dad liked airplanes. I liked airplanes.
We also had Belize. Central America had an agreement when they became a, they became independent from Great Britain.
And part of that agreement was that the British could train their military in the jungle in Belize for a number of years.
So when I was a little kid, there were Harriers and Hueys and all sorts of military aircraft flying at super low level like it was, it was legit.
So I remember, I have vivid memories from before I was five of those sorts of things happening in the jungle.
And I just always was delighted. The first time my dad took me flying, I believe I was 5 years old at the time. I actually cried because I did not want to get out of the airplane.
[00:03:47] Speaker C: So do you remember what made you realize this could be more than just an interest or a hobby?
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Yes.
I have five siblings, but my oldest sister Anita was always the one who promoted growth, personal development, like you can do this, go achieve things, kind of, kind of lifestyle.
So I always loved aviation, went to flying camps, started flight training when I was 12, but never really took it seriously and applied much discipline towards it, I guess you could say, until my sister encouraged me to.
She actually, she bought my first flight lesson. But then she was the one that encouraged me to go to college for it. Specifically, I was happy. I was content working with my dad's H Vac company.
I wouldn't say I really had goals, it was fun.
But when, when she was pushing me towards, hey, like, let's find a couple aviation schools, let's, let's pursue this dream that you have of being a pilot and let's pursue it maybe as a career instead of just as an idea of a hobby.
So I did, we applied for.
I actually only applied for one school because it ended up looking the best to me and went to Eternity University in Longview, Texas, got a four year degree and the rest is history.
[00:05:21] Speaker D: Was there a moment where you thought I could actually do this for a living?
[00:05:26] Speaker A: So even when I graduated, my goal was to be a missionary pilot. I majored in mission aviation at a small Christian university in Texas called Letourna University.
It was a fantastic experience.
Very expensive, but fantastic experience.
When I graduated, I was still pursuing being a missionary pilot.
So when you say pursuing it as a career, begging for money as your career as a missionary, I wouldn't necessarily call that a career, at least not related to what I have now, owning a flight school.
But it was my pursuit to be a Christian missionary pilot from the time that I started school.
And to be a missionary pilot, you are in the jungle, you have to be a mechanic as well. Because if you're back 100 miles from the nearest road and your airplane breaks, you should probably know how to fix it on your own.
So the.
When I, when I decided to pursue it outside of just the mission pursued, which I'll clarify why I stopped pursuing that.
I follow Jesus passionately and there was a period of time where very clearly it felt like God was just saying this is not what I have for you. Like I should not be pursuing this missionary thing.
Over the years since then, I've realized that my pursuit of that was kind of to get out of the US and all the crap that happens here.
So it wasn't necessarily a healthy motivation.
But when I made that change, I did start pursuing business.
Within the next year after I stopped pursuing the mission side of things, started pursuing business and then for this flight school, I actually got out of aviation entirely for, for a period of time I stayed part time just to keep my, my currency like to where I'm safe in the air. But when I got back into aviation, here was actually only three and a half years ago.
Actually three years, three months ago I'd been out of aviation 100, hadn't even flown the year prior and started a boat rental business actually here on Thames Ford Lake and still going boat winchester.com if you all want to go pay a lot of money for a nice boat.
But the. In the, in the wintertime there's not a lot of people wanting to rent my nice boats. So I needed something to make money.
I looked up Winchester Airport, actually started teaching here. There was a gentleman here that had an airplane and I had one student that wanted their license.
And so I started, started training her here at the Winchester Airport. Her name was Georgia, she is now at the airlines. Pretty crazy awesome story.
But started training her here and it was not as a business, it was just to provide for my family because boats weren't making money right now.
So I needed to make money somehow.
And then I ended up connecting to a gentleman named Dr. Ralph Bard in Tullahoma who had a couple airplanes that he rented to people. But he did not provide the instructors. And he made it very clear for legal reasons he didn't want to be liable for being a flight school.
So when I started instructing with his aircraft three years ago in he he was very excited because there was a gap of it. There weren't enough instructors in the area at the time.
A couple other guys were leaving and I started instructing there January 2023. One of my first questions to him was hey, you're not a flight school.
What if I look like a flight school, even if it's just me so that people call and, and come to the airport and they see that there's an operation here instead of being confused because the way that it was set up was a little confusing.
So I started that. And I really didn't even start ride based flight training because I wanted to be a big flight school and grow, grow, grow.
I started it just because the customers were having a bad experience and I could make that look a little better from the Google profile and stuff like that.
I think when I really figured out that it could be a business was when the first instructor reached out wanting to teach with me.
So then I had an employee and it was, it was exciting to me to have people. I was like, wow, people actually like want to do this with me even though I don't really feel like I'm a business yet.
So that's when I, that's when ride based flight training became more than just me flying.
[00:10:42] Speaker E: I'm fly there just to match room.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Am I talking too much?
This is, this is, it's better.
Hey, I'm okay. I'm okay with going a little over if you want and then y' all can cut out questions or whatever too.
[00:11:01] Speaker E: Well, so here's Vulvarian. How many of you are car riders? You're five.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:08] Speaker E: You're a car rider?
[00:11:09] Speaker D: No, I'm early.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Bus.
[00:11:10] Speaker E: You're right.
So okay, here's what we'll move.
We will skip to the, the last.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: Page, the very last page.
[00:11:20] Speaker E: And then we've probably got three or four minutes before announcements. Come on, try your hardest. It's probably going to be nearly impossible to go through announcements, the editing so I can do that later. Great. Okay, got it.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: What is something about aviation that surprises people? When they first started training.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Swimming pools, that, that is the big deal. People look down and they're like, wow, there are a lot of swimming pools down here.
It is unique. It's funny, but that's what came to my mind when you asked that question.
It's very common. There's a lot of swimming pools in the world and you don't see them all until you're four.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: So what is the most unexpected thing you have learned about people while teaching them to fly?
[00:12:22] Speaker A: There are a lot of very successful, very wealthy people who have not achieved something that they're proud of.
And when they achieve their private pilot certificate for, for multiple people that I have taught, they come out of an 8th grade education or even less self made billionaires.
Did really well bought an airplane or just decided this is something they've always wanted to do.
And for those guys, when they finish it, it's very challenging to get your rating. I guess it's not just hey, let's go to middle school and get our rating. It's a, it's a big deal, big commitment. But when they get that accomplishment, they get their pilot certificate.
It is, it is one of the biggest things that they've ever done in their life.
Even if they own a million dollar business, I mean $20 million business, $80 million business, like it's a big deal.
[00:13:24] Speaker D: If you had to describe your job using one word, what would it be and why?
[00:13:32] Speaker A: That's a good one. Give me a second.
So the word that comes to mind is health.
I for the first couple months after I started right based flight training, I really was focused on okay, what's our mission, what's our values? I always hear those things are important. I still don't have it all written down but it's really a question of why are we here? Why does my business exist?
And like I said towards the beginning, I've decided that our business exists to help people.
Whether that's the high schooler that wants to join American Airlines when they get their certificates and their experience or the business owner who needs somebody to full time give them a pilot and manage an airplane. You're actually style back.
It's all about hypnotubai.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: If you could go back and talk to yourself on the first day in aviation, what would you tell yourself to relax about?
[00:14:32] Speaker A: There's a lot of information coming at you, like a lot of information and it's like dreaming from firehose you.
The tendency for one of my customers is to just feel overwhelmed with all the information and like they have to know everything right now, but the reality is you don't.
So the self study, like it's important to study on your own. But anytime that gets overwhelming, just let your instructor lead. Let your instructor be the one that's spoon feeding you information for the first couple of vessels.
[00:15:09] Speaker C: What excites you about the future of what you do?
[00:15:14] Speaker A: I get really excited about progress in technology.
So I think the thing that excites me the most about aviation, I'll just talk about aviation in general.
I'm just really excited about drones and automation.
So I'm a partner with Cirrus Aircraft. They have a parachute for the whole airplane, like big deal. They're the best selling airplane in the world in this industry, in the small aircraft world. And they're headquartered in Knoxville. So pretty exciting that we're so close to them.
They just launched about a year ago, they launched the G7 plus, where for the first time in a small piston engine airplane, like, you know, four seat airplane, you can push a button. If your pilot falls asleep and you can't wake them up, just a passenger can push a red button. The airplane will identify the best airport to go to, the best route to avoid the weather and alert emergency authorities, Give the passengers a play by play of what's happening, land on the Runway and shut down.
So the planes that I'm training in, the new ones have that technology in them. It basically turns into a drone. It's like, here's a drone, here's send the ambulance, we're going to go land.
And then the airplane takes over. Pretty incredible.
I'm a big fan of progress, big fan of safety improvements and automation and technology is where we get that improvement in aviation.
[00:16:45] Speaker D: What keeps you motivated on the days that feel overwhelming?
[00:16:53] Speaker A: So.
So the thing that keeps me motivated when I'm feeling overwhelmed is first and foremost that I believe me and my family are here for a purpose to glorify God and serve him forever.
Even when things don't feel like they're being accomplished properly, we can, by being stable and consistent and not giving up, we can get through the valleys and we can grow as, as a family. We can grow as people grow as a community.
So really, it comes down to, to what I have faith in. And that's Jesus.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: So is there anything about your experience or this industry that we did not ask what you think students should hear?
[00:17:43] Speaker A: I didn't have a good mentor when I was getting into aviation, and I'm very passionate about mentoring people that are pursuing aviation.
So the one piece of advice I would give to anyone who's getting their license is find someone like me who can come alongside them, give them guidance, give them coaching on how to invest their time, how to invest their money, where to go to school. Because we're a small school, we can't handle everybody. We're not a college program like MPSU is. But have a coach that pushes you and doesn't just chill and let you waste three years of your life not pursuing it passionately.
Because you can go from zero to being a flight instructor in less than a year if you, if you go through the right path.
[00:18:36] Speaker D: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us and sharing your experiences.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. My pleasure. You guys are great.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Thank you.
