 Hi everyone, I'm Abby Gill-Taylor and I'm from Henry County and I'm one of the 31 Alabama State Ambassadors for 4-H. I'm here today with Mr. Pete Cruz, who is the Headlin Airport Manager out at the local airport in my county. We're really pleased to have him today and we're going to ask him a couple of questions about his career and how he got started. So I would like to first ask you, what was your major in college? Well, my major has nothing to do with what I do now. I went to Auburn University, War Eagle, and majored in agronomy and soil. So I was planning on working for the Soil Conservation Service. I was in the agriculture field one day there. I've been born and raised as a farmer or son and I'll probably continue on as being a farmer or working in some line of agriculture. Well that's really cool. What got you interested in being a part of the airport life? Well, I think aviation's been in my blood all my life. I remember when I grew up here in Hedlin, they had helicopters from Fort Rucker, Alabama, flew constantly in our area. They were preparing for Vietnam and they trained a good bit of pilots here in this area. So they had local landing fields and some of the pastures around our house. When I got a free moment, I'd go over and watch the helicopters land. You always just had an interest in watching fly and how they flew. Just like the aviation science. I thought it was really cool to see them. Something that big and heavy could actually fly and carry people. So I think it's something that's in my blood from early on. I didn't act on it until late in life, but I think it's a calling. I think it's similar to some other fields where maybe a law enforcement, things like that. There's people, it's a calling to you on that field. Aviation is the same thing. If you're a pilot, you know it. You like it. There's no gray air. It's kind of cool. It's not. You either like it or you don't like it. Well, that's really interesting. So maybe can you give us a typical day in what your job is like? Yeah, I'd be glad to. But I need to get in, you know, fed early in the morning when it's cool. And we have several things that we take care of there at airport. We have aviation fuel that's for the airplanes that come and go and pilot stop and refuel their planes similar to a gas station, you know, at a convenience store, except that it's for aviation purposes. And we have to check the fuel to make sure the fuel has no water in it. Because if these guys have a problem in the air, they can't just stop and check it out. So it's very important that the fuel is pure. And it's the grade that we sell. So we do that. That's the very first thing we do to check that and make sure that's good. And then we are basically property managers. We have, I think it's about 392 acres of the airport in heaven in Alabama. And we have 190 of that is row crop agriculture that we rent out to farmers. So that's part of our management is to work with that farmer and work with him or his crops that he has there. We lease him the land and make sure he stays within the confines of our lease. And we also have a good number of buildings there. We have 40 tea hangers. A tea hanger is a hanger that houses an airplane, a small airplane, a general aviation airplane, a few, a lot of people on boats and, you know, second cars and stuff, several people on airplanes and they have to store them somewhere, usually at the airport. And so we have tea hangers, not many as those, we have 40 of them that are, you know, for lease, we keep those full. So if somebody's leaving, I have to have somebody to fill it up. That's where we get a lot of our income from this from the rent of these buildings. We also have several other businesses out at the airport, just besides the hidden airport, we have Willa Cove, which is a powder coating company. We have Calvin Mountain Trucking, they're a trucking company. We have several flight skills that give flight instruction, survival flight, that they're a life ambulance company. And so I work with all these companies to make sure that their buildings are well taken care of. They have the things they need to run their business there. And if we can help them, that's what we do. So my day is spent taking care of property and managing our property. I know that probably working at an airport is a high risk job. What would you say is your biggest responsibility? I think the biggest thing is probably making sure the pilots are taken care of the people that come in to our airport to make sure they feel welcome, to make sure they get a little taste of our southern hospitality. So I just want to make sure that I portray Hedlin Airport in my best light and it can make them remember that they want to come back to heaven, that they like it. So representing Hedlin Airport is probably my biggest responsibility. And moving on to the next question, what would you say is one of your favorite things that you get to do in your job? I think, you know, talking with the pilots sitting around, you know, the pilots will come in and they need a break from their flights and they want to decompress and all talk about their flights. I love sitting around talking aviation with the pilots. That's always kind of fun. And we have a front porch that these guys will come and sit and drink a cup of coffee or, you know, water or soda, whatever they have. And we talk to them and just, you know, you get their stories and, you know, you talk to people and it follows a very expensive aircraft and it's kind of neat to see, you know, where they've been and what they've done and you get to associate with some what we call the celebrities of our business, the people that are flying the jets and, you know, the bigger aircraft that we don't see a lot but they have their own airplanes and they come into our airport. So I think associating with them, seeing them and listening to their stories, that's that's the best part of it. Just yeah, I'm a people person. So I like to talk to people and I don't like to be alone. Also another cool thing I enjoy is there are a lot of things I do during the days and my attention span is, you know, I guess it's fairly short. So I need to change up during the day. I don't like to do the same thing all day every day and this gives me a chance to deviate from doing, you know, one thing for eight hours. I can do something for, you know, 30, 40 minutes, two hours and then do something else and every day is a little bit different. So it makes the days interesting. That's what I like about it. And that's really cool. What is something that you would tell someone going into your field? Maybe some advice? A little bit of advice for this. If you've got aviation in your blood, you know it, you need to spend some time around the airport. I would suggest maybe a small airport and a large airport. Go out and you'll meet the people, most of the people at the airport are very friendly. They want to talk and tell about their stories and tell you about their airport. No matter who you are, if you want to come out to the airport, people will talk to you and tell you their stories. So I think it's important that they spend a little time at the airport. Get to see what happens during the day to routine at the airport. And if you want to fly, you need to take an introductory flight there. So at all the local schools that have good flight instruction they have an introductory flight for $50. You can take a flight and fly around an airplane, see if it's your cup of tea. You may think it is and it might not be. So before you invest a lot of money in taking lessons, you have a taste of it. I would say spend some time at the airport, get to know somebody. I bet you know somebody in your life that flies or has done it. So that would be the best thing. So in order to be an airport manager, did you have to get your pilot's license? That's not essential. It helps to know a little bit about aviation. I do have my pilot license. I got it I think within probably within a year graduated from college. I got a single engine airplane license and but it but I say it's not essential. If you want to manage an airport it's mostly about managing aviation and having a license. It's not important but it's but it adds to your knowledge and it helps you take care of the problems that the pilots have better if you have that in your background. So I also have a commercial hot air balloon license. I found commercial hot air balloons and did rides for passengers. So just having having been in the air, having spent time in the air's face to see what the pilots go through. It's it's very helpful especially when you're talking to the pilots that come into your area. So can you walk us through what getting your license is like? Yeah it's a process that takes you know depending on the weather everything you know is weather dependent. You want to fly, start flying whenever the weather is very good. You don't wind slow. You don't wind you know not choppy or gusty. You don't want any clouds in the area. You want a clear pretty day. But you have to have 40 hours of flight inside in an airplane within and I think 25 of that has to be with an instructor. So you have to have a you know a certified flight instructor to help you teach you how to fly and then once you get to a certain number of hours you will solo. You will take the plane out by yourself. So I think I soloed after about four or five hours and then you know the instructor pilot will fly with you several times and you have several other things you have to do. You have to have cross-country flights of a hundred miles or more. You have to have so many hours of not flying. You have to have so many touchy-goes which is landing and takeoff. You need to build time in an airplane and get comfortable with it. Once you have to I think it's a minimum of 40 hours in the airplane then you can take a written test which is administrated by the FAA test and you have to pass it. And then after that you pass the test. You have to take a proficiency check ride with an examiner and you have to go to where the examiner is. I don't think there's one in our area I think nearest ones in Tallahassee, Florida and they put you through the gamut. They ask you a lot of questions about flying, airspace questions. They ask you questions about the machinery and weather. Everything associated with flight then. You have to pass both though. So you have to pass the written test and the proficiency test to get your license and then once you do that you're issued a license and your license never expires. You'll have it for the rest of your life but you have to do certain things to stay current in your airplane there. So if you you'll have a once every two year by annual flight review that you have to go up with a another instructor and he checks you out once every two years to make sure that you can fly. You also have to have a medical certificate which means that you have to be physically fit, enable, and not a health risk or a two-fly. So you know several things you have to have there. But it's uh and right now it's probably going to end up I think the cost for a total ride, you get everything, you get it's probably between five and seven thousand dollars right now that you have to invest to to make it work. Wow that's really cool. And I'd like to end with saying that are asking you what is your single most exhilarating or best memory as airport manager? Oh I'll see here. I think probably the best and the most fun thing that's happened is we have a fly-in. It's where we about once a year. We have done a couple years but once a year we invite people in the area. We send out invitations to fly in on a certain date. We use a Saturday and we have vendors here. It's like a harvest day we have here in town but we have it at the airport and we we call it fly-in. So people fly in from all over the area and you can get you know 50 to 100 planes there one time in the park on the grass. It's just really cool to have a park out there. Planes you never see and you haven't seen in a long time. Friends come over with their airplanes and you know the public can come out walk around, test the airplanes, see the airplanes and you maybe even get a flight. We normally have a whole company there to give them rides and so just the thought of putting all that together it's time consuming. It's a massive effort but seeing it come off and seeing everybody there having a fly-in. That's that's probably it I think some of it's the exhilarating feeling once it's all over. Well thank you so much for explaining your job and everything that you have to do in it. Well thank you very much. I appreciate you having me here today.