E365: Pete Stavrides: From Watching Challenger Explode to Flying Super Hornets

Pilot to Pilot Magazine — Volume 003 is out now. Get yours at pilottopilothq.com/magSponsors — please support the people who support the show: • Avemco Insurance — Save 5% as a Pilot to Pilot listener. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297-owner (owners) or avemco.com/4297-non-owner (non-owners) • Textron Aviation — Built for lifelong aviators. Plan your next chapter at txtav.com/stepup • Garmin — Plan, file, fly, log with the Garmin Pilot app • Allworth Airline Advisors — Register for their latest webinar at allworthfinancial.com/justin • Learn the Finer Points — Save 10% off your first year at learnthefinerpoints.com/justin. https://allworthfinancial.com/airlines/lp/runway-for-retirement-webinar?utm_campaign=airlines+-+more+runway+for+retirement?lmls=Partner+Channel&lmld=Pilot+to+Pilot&ad_version=SocialPete Stavridis was nine years old, watching the Challenger explode on live TV, when he decided he was going to fly airplanes. No pilots in the family. No money for it. So he enlisted in the Navy out of high school in 1995 — not the optimal path to fighters — flew P-3 Orions as an enlisted aircrewman on counter-drug ops over Panama and Colombia, and worked his way into a commission. He selected #1 out of T-34s, got the Super Hornet, and flew combat over Iraq and Afghanistan.Now he's an Airbus first officer (by design), an FAA examiner with roughly 700 checkrides behind him, an aircraft management guy specializing in the Piaggio, and he runs upset recovery training in the L-39. He also raced at Reno in the gold jet class at 500 mph, four to six feet off another airplane — until he watched his friend and competitor Aaron Hoag G-LOC and go into the ground in front of him in 2022.We get into:Why enlisting first was a risk he'd take againWhat a Navy flight surgeon prescribed when Pete was struggling in T-45s (hint: Halo)Being shot off a carrier deck, and why nothing else comparesFighter pilot ego vs. actual humility — and why humility can't read as weaknessWhat air racing really takes: micro-knots, wake vortices, and why pole position changes everythingLosing Aaron, "stem power," and how he got the jet on the groundWhy the DPE shortage isn't a DPE problem, it's an FAA problemWhat he can read about an applicant in the first two minutesHonesty, knowledge, determination — his three traits of a good captain, FO, or wingmanExposing your kids to aviation without pushing it"When we get in an airplane, we're in a survival situation. We're not supposed to be there."Happy Flying,Justin