Today we hear the incredible story of Matt Cole, a plane crash survivor and flight school owner. Be sure to share this week's episode, it's a special one.
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00:01
Behind the Prop Intro
Clear prop 773 Cherokee number two following Flint traffic three mile final one trolley bravo makesford in Runway 25 going four mile.
00:10
Nick Alan
This is behind the prop with United Flight Systems owner and licensed pilot Bobby Doss and his co host, major airline captain and designated pilot examiner Wally Mulhern. Now let's go behind the prop.
00:25
Bobby Doss
What's up, Wally?
00:26
Wally Mulhern
Hey, Bobby, how are you?
00:28
Bobby Doss
I am fantastic as always. This week we have a special guest on the show, and I'm gonna try and introduce him. Before I mention his name, we had a student, we always are looking for great show ideas and great content. And one of our students, his name's Cameron, sent me a long email, and I was impressed with the detail and information he gave me about a flight instructor that he worked with before he found United Flight Systems. And that was a flight school in Oklahoma named Blue Skies. And our guest today is Matt Cole. Welcome to the show, Matt Cole.
01:01
Matt Cole
Thank you very much. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
01:04
Bobby Doss
Of all the aviators I've met, Matt's got a good story and a bad story. Matt's lucky to be with us today, I would say. Matt was in a Seneca, a Piper Seneca that crashed on March 16, 2001, and suffered many burns all over his body. And we're going to talk about his story more as a life story, but also as an aviator. But Matt's the owner of Blue Skies and is a flight instructor today. And to go from months in a burn unit to being able to fly again has got to be a story that all people listening to the show want to hear about. And we look forward to having that conversation. Matt, thanks again for joining us.
01:45
Matt Cole
Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
01:47
Bobby Doss
So, a current day in the life of Matt Cole. He's the owner of Blue Skies. Tell us a little bit about Blue Skies and kind of your clients and the aviators that go to your school today. Before we jump into the rest of the story.
02:01
Matt Cole
Yeah, I started Blue skies in about January 2015, and it's been a real amazing journey. Never thought I'd own a flight school, but I had the opportunity at Guthrie Airport for a hangar that came up, and I jumped on it and said, this is my chance. So we've been out there since 2015, and we do private pilots, we do instrument pilots, we do commercial pilots. I've Even done some CFIs and flight reviews and all that type of stuff. But I really enjoy teaching. And it's. It's really nice to be back flying after not flying for 10 years during the recovery. And yeah, it's really good.
02:50
Bobby Doss
Yes. At a high level. We'll talk at a high level. The accident occurred on March 16, 2001. We'll talk more about it. But your mom wrote a book about the story and I kind of pieced all this together from your mom's story. You were in the burn unit for six, seven months. Lots of time recovering after that. But about 10 years later you did a soda, which we've talked about on the show before, but is a. You have a special opportunity to demonstrate that you can operate an aircraft in a. Probably a different state than a human that's got every faculty available. Wally's actually done a soda for one of our students that had a great colorblind issue and were able to help them get their medical clearance.
03:38
Bobby Doss
And you got that soda taken care of and then you got all of your certifications back. And just listening and hearing your mom's story, telling the story of you flying again and soloing for the first time. It was quite goosebumpish, I will say, when I heard that. Just thinking about the journey that we all go through and we have bad days and we bitch about weather or we complain about something else. And your journey back to those certificates was much harder than all the rest. And I don't think I'll look at them the same, but you got all those back and then still had the perseverance to want to be a flight instructor again.
04:18
Bobby Doss
And I'll tell every flight instructor that works for me and every flight instructor that's around the world, if you think you're having a bad day, I'll remind you that Matt's working hard in Oklahoma and his. His past has been worse for sure. And then you bought a flight school. I think many people reflect on me buying a fly school going. That was a mistake. But I love being around the school. I love watching young kids learn how to fly. I love. Almost everybody's got a smile on their face every day. Not too many people come in frustrated to want to learn how to fly. So congratulations on all your success at Blue Skies. But more importantly, congratulations on getting out and recovering to the state that you're at today, for sure.
05:00
Matt Cole
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. It's been tough, but it's been quite a journey, like I said.
05:05
Bobby Doss
Yeah. And as. As I'm listening to the book and your mom tell her story, I'm. I've got a 22 year old. You were. How old were you on when you had the accident? 23 years old, so about six months older than my daughter is right now. And man, to get that phone call would be brutal. And then the journey that you take, like, I mean you've had to have highs and lows. I don't know where you'd like to begin, but I guess why don't you tell us about the accident and then tell us about the journey that you and your family went through because it's one that, that we should all reflect on for sure.
05:41
Matt Cole
Sure. So March 16, were, I was with the owner of the company, my boss, my flight instructor. I was a multi engine instructor at the time. We were doing multi engine standardization there. So I can teach in the. It was a Seneca and we had done a number of flights before. This was probably going to be one of the last flights before were signed off. There was another pilot in the back who was doing the same thing, standardization. So he was kind of observing and from what I recall that we did all our air work this day and were coming back to do a landing over at Flagler Beach Airport just north of Daytona beach, which is where we departed from originally. The flight school was in Daytona and I was, were somewhere on the downwind at Flagler Beach.
06:41
Matt Cole
I recall that I had, my gear was out by this point and I had 10 degrees flaps, I think it was whatever, first notch. And everything seemed okay. We were lined up. I was flying from the right seat, of course, the other guy was in the left and I was making a right base into the field there, into the Runway. And then by the time we got to final, we started getting a little slow and so I went to give a little power and that's when I realized something was wrong. It wasn't acting right. We started to roll a little bit and you know, it all happened really fast. I honestly wasn't 100% sure what was going on because I had already done my dumps check and I think I was just about to do the final one when it started.
07:31
Matt Cole
When we started having trouble and we, it basically we just got behind the power curve. We got too slow. I think we almost start the vmc. So I gave, you know, I gave, prior to that I, I gave full power and I think that's when we started to start the vmc. And the other pilot, the instructor pilot who by the way had 5,5000 hours plus in that Seneca, he started, I think he started feathering it and you know, trying to shut it down and feather it. But you know, like I said were just coming in and were way too low. We whizzed by some power lines and I saw some, I saw a brick wall on the side and we apparently we started clipping the trees and one of the trees punctured the fuel tank on my side.
08:23
Matt Cole
So when we crashed down just shy of the Runway, which was maybe a quarter mile, half a mile shy of the Runway, I think it was at least like I said, he didn't VMC it. We were under as much control as we could be and when we smashed down that's when it ignited and I think it flashed through the co pilot side window and it immediately ignited me on fire. And I guess the impact was hard. I didn't have any broken bones from impact. The other instructor pilot, he broke his leg real bad and he did get some burns. The guy in the back didn't have any burns interestingly. But the impact was hard enough so that he broke his back.
09:15
Matt Cole
I, you know of course subsequently find out but as soon as we smashed down I jumped out of the plane onto the burning wing there and then jumped to the back. And you know, I think back to elementary school, you know, you think stop, drop and roll. So I knew I was lit up. So I hit the deck, I hit the ground there was dirt and I started rolling around and I don't know if that worked or anything but I got right back up and started running some more. And this young kid, I call him a kid at the, you know, he was 19 or something at the time, he was driving on a highway and he witnessed this accident sequence here and he got out of his truck and he apparently ripped his shirt off and put me out.
10:05
Matt Cole
And I said to him immediately, I said my friends, get my friends there in the plane. I didn't know that they had gotten out. So he went to attend to them. And lucky for us the flagler has a, there's a fire department on the field. So they arrived I think within two, three minutes. They were there pretty fast. Sprayed me down with water and I knew it was bad because when I looked at my hands they were pretty, they looked like black paper mache. And I felt something funny with my lip, like my upper lip. I was running my tongue across my, the top of my lip and it's like there was nothing there. So I knew my face was bad that I could feel my hands were really bad that hurt. I was unaware that my entire trunk had also been burned.
10:58
Matt Cole
But anyways, the paramedics got there and boy, I Remember the look on the guy's face? I knew it was bad, not only by that, but I saw his face. He was, he had a look of like the deer in the headlights. And apparently they did what they generally don't often do. I heard. And he, this was his first. I had a collapsed lung. So I think he gave me a. Was it kind of a trach in the field? Something like that. And so that was it. They must have given me morphine or something like that and put me to sleep. And the next thing I knew, I wake up. Well, I didn't know it was a couple months later. I thought it was, this was a Friday and I thought maybe it was Monday or something.
11:45
Matt Cole
But you know, as time goes by, I find out that about two months had passed where they were wheeling me in and out of surgery and keeping me under a morphine induced coma. Luckily I had no head trauma and no other impact trauma. Interesting. It was all the third degree burns. So that's when the journey really began for me, after I started waking up, of course. And like you mentioned the story my mom tells, that's as you can imagine, as everybody who's a parent can imagine what kind of a phone call that was to find out. And the flight school, to be honest, it really didn't handle it well at all. They were very unprofessional. They were completely unhelpful to my parents, to my mom, unfortunately.
12:33
Matt Cole
And they basically said, well, Matt's been in a crash, we don't know where he is, we don't know if they're alive, good luck to you. And that was it. So I'll tell you, that was another motivation for me starting a flight school. I mean obviously none of us, you know, want anything to like that to happen, but I mean just to treat people right is so important. But anyways, so we, I wake up must have been about May and like I said, that was the start of my journey there. It was extreme pain and lots of surgeries subsequently. And I, you know, the waking up process is not like boing, here I am awake. It's, you know, it's in and out for another month or so. I'm going to say because of all the morphine and stuff.
13:27
Matt Cole
And I had surgeries and I started getting better in about June or July, at which point they, I was transferred to a full time physical therapy rehabilitation center. And at that place I, I basically had to learn how to walk again because being in bed for so long, the muscles atrophy and all that. So I had to learn how to walk again. That was an amazingly difficult process.
14:02
Bobby Doss
Stay there for just one second. Remember that we just moved to the rehab center because we're going to put links to the book in the show, notes and stuff. The book was a very interesting read and I know it and not all the listeners are going to know it, but this. You sound like anybody else who's ever been on the podcast. There's no pictures in podcasts. But the reality is this. This was a massive amount of recovery. Right? Your body was covered. 65% of your body was covered in third degree burns. You don't just recover from that. You. The book tells stories of where they put your hands into your legs so that they would just grow skin again. Like, like the amount of recovery is. I think we're understating the trauma that you went through under morphine or not.
14:53
Bobby Doss
Your body went through scrutiny. Just an unbelievable amount of change. The amount of blood flow to your fingers and arms and the things that they talked about was crazy. This was not a, hey, it was really warm. This was a person that. They were covered in fuel and flames and got patted out. So I want to jump back to when this guy pulls over and gets you because it's talked about in the book as well. Do you, do you know who this guy is and do you ever talk to him? I think that's what I was curious about when I listened to the book.
15:28
Matt Cole
We did. We. After the. Let's see. Maybe when I got back to Los Angeles, where I'm from and the family was living, when we got back there, we. We somehow connected with him and were in touch for a while after the accident. I kind of lost touch with him now. But yeah, we ended up talking to this young kid. His name is Jonathan Shoeless. And yeah, just. I mean, just an amazing kid. How lucky for us that he was there to help attend to us. And I'm sure it's something he'll never forget as. As well as I'll never forget him.
16:04
Bobby Doss
Yeah, so you're in a coma or you're just in a bed and your mom's taking care of you and you're recovering from this horrible accident. Three or four months has gone by, you move to this rehabilitation center and like you said, you've forgotten and really aren't able to take care of yourself at all is the way it was described in the book. So you're starting all over at the age of 23, 24 to just do the basic fundamentals of living again. Right?
16:31
Matt Cole
You bet. For sure. That's right.
16:34
Bobby Doss
Flying probably was not in the top of mind thought process. It was being able to sit up.
16:39
Matt Cole
I assume just being able to sit up and stand up and get out of bed unassisted was my new life.
16:46
Bobby Doss
That is crazy. The worst that's ever happened to me as I ruptured my Achilles. And I. I struggle with a little bit of depression around that because you're on crutches, you can't take care of yourself. I can't even imagine what it was like in that circumstance and how appreciative you must be for the people that took care of you and helped you get back. So. All right, jump back to the rehabilitation center and kind of talk us through a little bit of what went on there.
17:14
Matt Cole
So we. The rehabilitation center was basically six to eight hours of just doing exercises and learning how to walk and learning how to do all that kind of stuff.
17:25
Bobby Doss
And were you a good patient? I always wonder, you know, I don't think I'd be a good patient in those situations.
17:31
Matt Cole
I did an awful lot of negotiating with people to not have to get up and do stuff. And some of them, you know, humored me, and others were, nope, you're gonna do this. And yeah, you bet I was negotiating. And. And like you said, I mean, you know, I was depressed. You know, I was. I was. I couldn't imagine, like he's. I mean, flying obviously was nowhere near on my mind. It was, how am I going to take a shower by myself again and eat by myself again? And all that stuff. So I was definitely depressed and honestly wished that maybe I hadn't made it a number of times early on for sure, you know, but, you know, press forward. And in rehab, I was there for maybe about a month.
18:14
Matt Cole
And all of a sudden, the insurance company, somebody in a cubicle says, oh, you're well enough. Time for you to go home, Release you to go home. And were like, whoa, really? Wait a minute. There's an interesting phenomenon that I would never think about where you're in the hospital for so long. We were scared to leave. I was scared. I was scared for my life. We had to drive back home all the way across the country. I mean, you know, we're thinking, what if something happens on the way out? So were scared. So we talked to the surgeon, the burn surgeon that did about. Before getting to rehab, I had about 20 surgeries that this guy did on me. And we spoke to him and he said, I'll tell you what, let's do Some more releases and some more work on you.
19:04
Matt Cole
Come back, we'll do an arm, really, because, you know, I couldn't lift my arms above my head. The skin gets really tight when you get burned. So to be able to lift my arms above my head, I mean, that's taken years of therapy and multiple surgeries. So we started with one surgeries, one surgery there while that, you know, where they released my armpits. So this was a very fascinating deal. So what happened was we get back, I have the surgery. I'm not sure if they thought maybe the feeding tube wasn't getting down far enough. I ended up losing a lot of weight. I mean, I'm not a big guy to begin with. Prior to the accident, I was 5, 6, and about 120 pounds. So I'm not a big guy or anything, but in rehab, I was down to about £100.
20:00
Matt Cole
And then when I get back for these surgeries, not sure if the feeding tube or I wasn't getting good nutrition. We got. I got down to 90, and then I got down to 80 pounds. And I'm basically wasting away. And we're like, what is going on here? I started vomiting. Nothing was going. Not. I couldn't. So basically I was vomiting all the time, and nothing was coming out either. And by, like, a week into this, we thought, what is going on? We were scared I was going to die again. And I'm getting lighter and lighter weight. And the surgeon finally figured it out that the feeding tube wasn't low enough, and a little fat pad in the superior mesenteric artery closed up. And that's why I was kind of wasting away.
20:48
Matt Cole
So that was another challenge where we thought, you know, we're getting better and on the home stretch. And then we had a major setback. And this was probably into July, August by this time. And we finally figured it out. Very slowly, I start gaining weight again and get back to £100 and maybe a little more. And we finally, like I said, getting better. And I think by it was about September, the beginning of September, where, you know, again, we determined that I was better and, you know, at least can walk enough so that, you know, I would be able to be released. So I was released from the hospital somewhere around September, 6, 7, 8, 2001. And my mom had an apartment out there in Florida right by the hospital. And one for. And were just about to leave.
21:50
Matt Cole
And one's final setback we had was my arms and hands were so stiff and rigid in the fingers that were remaining on my Left hand and there were a couple remaining on the right hand. I sat down on a chair and I didn't lift my hands enough. And just by putting a little weight on the fingers, I broke a couple of fingers. And so right when I thought were going home, we had to go back to the burn unit there and they had to stitch me up. It wasn't a big deal, but it was. Again, I was so frustrated and, you know, just so down in the dumps, feeling sorry for myself. That was kind of a emotional experience. I thought I was getting out. But, you know, we got through it. And they.
22:34
Bobby Doss
Yeah. And the way I read it was. The way I read it was a little different. It was that you sat down on your hands and you like ripped a couple of fingers off and they were barely hanging by threads, right?
22:42
Matt Cole
They were ripped, like hanging by a thread. And luckily it didn't hurt because I didn't have any feeling in him. But, man, it was just frustrating because, you know, had to go back. And so they stitched him up, you know, and we had some laughs with the bird nurses again there. That I'm back. Here I am. Oh, here we are again.
23:01
Bobby Doss
But, well, I just want to put that in perspective for the listeners. Like, it wasn't that he broke his fingers. The fingers were barely hanging on. It was. And this was six months. This is when they thought you were well enough to go home and you were about to start a journey from Daytona to California in an RV that could not be comfortable for a burn victim who'd been obviously taken care of by a team of people to keep your wounds healing and all that stuff. So crazy experience. So you start this journey from Florida back home. This is still in 2001. Again, I don't want anyone to take while he's back. This took another decade after this, but you drive back, you're in California now. What transpires over the next nine years, that's a little bit of the void.
23:52
Bobby Doss
I mean, we hear about family, relationships, some other stuff, but what happens in those nine years? I know you went back to school, but tell us a little bit about that nine year journey for you.
24:01
Matt Cole
You bet, you bet. Let me tell you, if I may, real quick about getting home. We got home, sure. On September 10, 2021, 22,001. And we all know what happened the next day. My buddy from flight school, John Patrick Hyndeman, we called him Patty Hindman, he drove back in the RV with us and he followed behind in my car that I had out in Florida and he had to drive it because it was a stick shift and half my family didn't know how to drive a stick. So helped us come back and we finally make the trip and get back to my home in Los Angeles on 9-10-21. And the next morning, my girlfriend's mother, who, she's from Florida, she was living in Florida, she calls us up and says, hey, guys, turn on the tv.
25:01
Matt Cole
A plane just crashed into, she said, the Empire State Building. And we said, oh, my goodness. We turned it on and saw the carnage there. And my friend Patty had a flight to get out that day or maybe the next day. And we all know what happened then. He was delayed for another week before they could fly us out. So we got home a day before 9. 11 was the timing on that. It was just crazy. Yeah. So. So we finally get him out of there and really the next nine years, and certainly at least at the beginning, for, I'm going to say the first couple few years, was learning how to do everything and just having more surgeries, learning how to shower. I showered with my dad literally for two or three years after the accident. And that's.
25:51
Matt Cole
That's a bizarre dynamic, you know, I mean, I think it helped because I was also very lucky. My dad is a physician. He's a pulmonologist, internal med, and he's board certified in sleep and a number of other things. So he actually really saved. I had an eye issue in the hospital. He saved my vision. And so it wasn't as strange as I guess it could have been, you know, without having a father that's medically inclined. But it's weird to have to count on your parents and your mother and even, you know, my girlfriend to bathe me. You know, it's just weird. It's just very bizarre. And. But, you know, what are you going to do?
26:38
Bobby Doss
I was going to say, what option do you have at that point, though? That's, you know, we don't deal with that on a daily basis. But when you wake up and you know that your outlook is to learn how to feed yourself, take a bath with your dad or a shower with your dad, and then you really can't do anything else on your own, it's got to be tough. The days have got to be gloomy.
26:55
Matt Cole
It was tough and gloomy, you know, because I was, you know, I started flying at 16 and I was very, you know, I was a very responsible guy, you know, and I drove kids around for a living before doing flying Professionally. And I was always the guy that everybody used to call for help, like they need, they got, you know, they need. They got a problem or they, you know, I was always the guy. And now here I am all of a sudden asking everybody else for help. It was something that for me was very hard to do. You know, I couldn't, I just couldn't do it. I struggled. I would rather struggle and for 10, 20 minutes trying to do a basic task than to ask people.
27:36
Matt Cole
But I had a flight instructor who was my original instructor, and he gave some good advice when he had a little accident when he was younger and said, what are you going to do? You just got to, you know, swallow your pride and ask for help. That's it. So that really helped me. And it took years to kind of come to that, and I still have trouble, you know, but, you know, like I said, I mean, years. What are you going to do? You got it. You know, there's people who love you and you just got to ask for help. That's it.
28:05
Bobby Doss
Yeah. To put it in perspective again, I'm referencing the book, but you were thrilled to death to be able to drive back and forth in the driveway some five, six, seven years later. And my wife asked me to move a car in my driveway this morning, and I was like, golly, I got to go move the car. And it just snapped in my head like, wow, maybe I shouldn't be too disappointed that I have the ability to just jump up and go move the car. Because that was something that apparently in the book brought you such joy that had to be part of what you were seeing, a light at the end of the tunnel, that you may be self sufficient one day.
28:41
Matt Cole
Absolutely, you bet.
28:43
Bobby Doss
And here, and here I am complaining about it. But I, it's perspective, but it's.
28:48
Matt Cole
Yeah, I mean, it gives. It definitely, you know, gives you a new perspective, for sure. That's right, it does. And I, you know, I, I admit I still do. Even today. There's days where I get down in the dumps and, you know, think, geez, you know, why me? Why is this? But it really does. I mean, and I guess in also doing this podcast and stuff, if I can help one person, you know, that really makes it worth it. So absolutely.
29:20
Bobby Doss
No question, no question. And we all appreciate you doing it and telling the story. One of the things that caught me, and I don't. You said nothing's off limits, so I'll ask the question. But one of the things that caught me was that you ultimately had to make a choice to have your arm amputated. And man, you talk about choices that I have to make and then the choice that you make that you have to decide or choose to decide. It didn't sound like it was mandatory at the time, but talk me through what was going on and what made you think that it was the right thing to do and what the day leading up to that must have been like because golly, inconceivable.
29:59
Matt Cole
I just, I still can't even comprehend it today really. But I think the decision. So we amputated the arm in 2006 and that's after a number of years of going to. I was over at. In Louisville, Kentucky, there's a. It's called Coutts and Kleiner's Hand Institute. And they actually did right about the time of the 010203 I think it was, they did one of the first hand transplants. So they were a world renowned hand plastics facility. So by that time I had already been to them for a number of surgeries. I had about four or five surgeries on my left hand, which was the better of the two hands. But it was just looking by then that there was really not a whole lot of function. They were going to get back on that left hand the better of the two hands.
30:54
Matt Cole
I have five digits on that hand. But the problem is from your wrist to about almost to your elbow forearm area, there's a artery called the median nerve. And it was so badly burned that they just had to debride all the way out of there. So basically the fingers are never going to move again. I'm basically got a flat palm. If you set it out on the table with all your fingers out, it's basically that's what it is. It's a flat palm with the fingers out permanently and they don't move at all. And they did a couple of. They, they did another similar surgery where they sewed my hand wrist area to just down by my stomach, lower stomach almost into the groin area there.
31:44
Matt Cole
And the same principle where they tried to save my hands and literally buried them in my legs as if to say, okay, body, here's some bone with no skin. Let's grow skin around it. So that's what I did. They got a good blood supply in that and gave me a little more skin underneath the forearm. So that's not just bare bone. And they did a little bone graft on the hand to get my thumb a little further away from the hand. But really there was by that time it was starting to become obvious that there was really going to be no usable function that they were going to get out of the hand. The left hand, now the right hand is the one that I had amputated, that one. The thumb was mostly burned off. I had no pinky.
32:28
Matt Cole
I did have a remaining ring finger and a middle finger, but again, they were very close to each other and kind of just sticking out, and they didn't really do anything. And the problem was, as the skin on that hand was very thin and it was always breaking down and breaking down, meaning, like it was not covered enough. So it was oozing all the time, see? And it was extremely itchy, which we could talk about that. The body, whole body's itchy, but the hand was really itchy and it was oozing. And the problem is, you know, when you're have open skin like that, obviously, which I ran into, this problem in the hospital is you can get an infection. And so we, you know, we then thought about it. We went to the prosthetist out here. We saw.
33:21
Matt Cole
I'll get a plug in for him. Scott Savlich, prosthetics out here, world renowned. And we talked to them before. Amputee said, yeah, you know, if you. We could. It looks like we can help you. They put the electrodes. And so he said, okay. And by the way, prior to going to that Koots and Kleiners, we had been to about five, six, seven other doctors and got all kinds of opinions. We got about seven or eight different opinions and, you know, then ended up working with Coutts and Kleinert's. And it became obvious that it wasn't looking like were going to gain anything much out of the left. So that's when we started doing that. And I guess you can say, I mean, how do you ever psychologically prepare for that? I mean, there's no way you could do that. But maybe it was.
34:09
Matt Cole
At least I had a. I think it was better that I was able to make the decision years down the line, because when were in the hospital, both of those arms and hands were so badly burned that the doctors and surgeons, they said, he's going to have no function ever out of these hands. Let's amputate him right now. So they wanted to amputate both of my arms at the forearm there, just below the elbow. And that would have been like, I would have had to wake up with that. And my mom and folks, obviously, they talk. And they said, no, you know, if it's not infected now and it's not affecting his life. We're going to leave him.
34:56
Matt Cole
And, you know, when I look back, I'm very glad that they did that because, I mean, it was hard enough waking up like I did, but, I mean, can you imagine waking up with your arms now amputated? That's just, man.
35:10
Bobby Doss
No, I can't imagine that, to be honest. I cannot imagine that, no. And so you make the decision and part of what wasn't in the book that I. My mind was racing to. You didn't make this decision on Monday and they do the surgery on Tuesday. Right. You had to have some gap. And what the hell must that gap felt like? You make the decision and then, you know, the arms coming off. There was. How much time was there?
35:33
Matt Cole
I mean, like I said, once it became obvious over these couple of few years that these hand surgeries are not gaining me much, I think much. I think it was kind of then the seed was planted that, you know, it's not looking good. I mean, so it was. I think it was more of a. It wasn't like, here, today I'm not going to do it, then tomorrow I decide we're going to do it. It was kind of more a process that occurred from 01 to 06, so that was helpful.
36:05
Bobby Doss
So was flying back in your mind at this point, though? Were you thinking, this is going to prevent me?
36:11
Matt Cole
He wasn't. I was not thinking about that. I mean, I was able to semi drive my stick shift car, you know, I mean, at least safely on the roads. Never going to be Mario Andretti on the track or anything, with no grip, so to speak. But, you know, I was at least able to do that. But I was starting to think, you know, that maybe with this hand being a problem and itching and oozing all the time and maybe then getting a prosthetic that is in the shape of a normal hand, I was starting to think, you know, that's maybe that's the way to go to get me back into, you know, driving the stick shift car. And then, you know, certainly maybe I was kind of starting to think about the flying.
36:53
Matt Cole
Not a whole lot, to be honest, but maybe a little bit. But yeah. So that's when after seeing the prostate, the prosthetist, and realizing that this is going to be the way to get back to as normal a life as I could, I think that was semi comforting for me, maybe.
37:16
Bobby Doss
So. So tell me a little bit about when you started thinking about flying. You know, I. I think it's closer to this 7, 8 year, 9 year mark when you really started thinking it was possible.
37:25
Matt Cole
It really was. And that's after having the pro. The prosthetic device for a couple years and really getting more comfortable with, you know, regular life activities. I'm going to say by 2008 or 2000, I think it was about 2008, I had a buddy that was a. One of my best friends and he said, hey Matt, I want to come visit you. I want to fly a plane out to do that. He's from Los Angeles, where I'm from, and he came and visited and he brought Seneca.
38:03
Bobby Doss
I read that. What a choice to make you fly the exact same plane.
38:09
Matt Cole
Yep, he brought the same plane, you know, the same type of plane. We crashed it. So I'm gonna say when he got out there, that is when, you know, he offered us a ride. And I went up with my dad and I saw. I know you. I saw, you know, you read in the book how emotional that experience was. It was scary. I was scared. That was my first trip back in a small plane and it was the very plane we crashed in and or type, you know, at the same time. And wow. It was. He let me take control for a bit and I was. It was just like, you know, just like riding a bike, so to speak. I mean, obviously we know that it's not the same thing, but it kind of is.
38:49
Matt Cole
I mean, because I had, you know, by that time I had double imei, so I wasn't a beginning pilot. Maybe that helped and. But I got back into it. Did. And that is what the event that planted the seed in my head that, geez, you know, maybe I could do this. Maybe I could.
39:08
Bobby Doss
I've told my story a couple times. I had a near miss while working on my instrument rating. They very busy airport where we fly three runways, a water Runway, small Runway and a big Runway. And they landed a helicopter about 50ft in front of me as I rotated and I. I should have hit those props. I should have. We should have both been on the concrete and never spoke of again. But I just barely missed them and kept my wits about myself. Didn't stall the aircraft. And it took me a long time to want to get back in a small plane. I can't imagine sitting in a similar type make and model aircraft is something that you went through. I can't imagine the emotions. I can't imagine the excitement that I'm able to do it.
40:00
Bobby Doss
And then all of the memory of everything coming back on landing. I Can't imagine what it must have been like turning final that day for you, but kudos because it definitely gave you the opportunity to fly again, which is amazing. And I guess there's so much I could talk about. But I guess tell me a little bit about the soda process for you. Everyone out there that thinks that they can't fly, they could possibly meet you or hear your story, should feel like they can fly. It puts everything else in perspective. What did you have to do to get your certificates back?
40:35
Matt Cole
Yes. So after that event in about 09, 2010, I started thinking, let's do it. So I went to a local flight school out here and just, I think I flew in a Cessna originally and then I ended up taking the Soda Ride and a Piper Arrow. But it was like getting back into, you know, it was just like getting back into the swing of things. It was, I had to adapt and kind of learn how to do some things differently with the prosthetic and non functioning left hand. But I, I really think that it was helpful that I had at the time. I already, you know, I had 600 hours or so. So I'm thinking that was certainly helpful.
41:20
Matt Cole
But it was, you know, I took a few lessons getting back and then we called the FAA and got that soda ride and by the way, that same friend that came out with the Seneca, he then came out for the Soda ride and brought my brother in law and they kind of surprised me for that. And somebody also called the news so our local news channel was out here as well. And it was just an amazing also very emotional process as the whole thing was. I found myself throughout this entire process being extremely emotional, you know, like I can imagine. Yeah, you can imagine. And so yeah, it was fabulous. It was really awesome. I got it back.
42:09
Matt Cole
I wish they still had that news article as a link, but it was a really nice article that they had and it was just great to get back. So that is when in 2010 where I got, they reinstated my single engine licenses because they, you know, of course they would have wanted me to do a soda in the multi. So I got all the singles back and that was in 2010 and I did a little bit of flying. I rented that arrow a little bit, took my parents back up and it was just fantastic and we left. Loved it. And during that time is when I started thinking, gee, I mean obvious if I could fly it, I don't know why there would be a reason why I couldn't instruct in it. So that's when I started thinking about getting my instructor certificates back.
42:51
Matt Cole
And, you know, between 2010, 2011, and then 2012, I got those reinstated.
42:58
Bobby Doss
That's awesome. And so you take this, the soda ride. I don't. I don't know. Is there any special equipment that's required for you to have in an aircraft when you fly? Like, the controls don't have to be any different. There's not a strap that you have to have for the yoke or anything.
43:13
Matt Cole
There is not. I'm able to do everything in the plane, at least the Arrow and, like, a Cessna 172. So there. The only limitation on my soda ticket is that I must be wearing that prosthetic device. Okay.
43:31
Bobby Doss
Wow.
43:31
Matt Cole
Yeah. That's the only one on there.
43:33
Bobby Doss
So I'm thinking radios and all the other things you got to be doing in flight. That's amazing, Matt. That's really amazing.
43:40
Matt Cole
It's not easy. And that is actually something I do have trouble with. It's. The funny thing is I could land and fly the plane just fine. When it comes time to twisting those knobs and the radios, that is difficult because I have to use two hands, see? So I never currently, I never do anything like, hard or really any IMC myself. You know, I always have my dad, who I ultimately ended up getting his light. We could talk about that, too. You heard about that. I ended up getting my father his private pilot license as well after getting my tickets, my instructor tickets, reinstated. But so, yeah, I. I mean, I'm very careful about what type of plane I get into to make sure that I can manipulate everything. And then, like you said, with the.
44:30
Matt Cole
Being able to, you know, having trouble with radios and stuff, I'm not going to go into IMC by myself, you know, where I would have to do radios and. And write down stuff and everything. So, you know, I'm cautious of that.
44:42
Bobby Doss
Well, let's don't get too picky. Your story is amazing on whatever you're able to do. I think that for me, I'm a customer service guy. I heard you just a minute ago talk about taking care of the customer. I'm a safety guy. You got to think about safety yourself. What is your overwhelming message to flight students, thousands and thousands of listeners to this show? What would you tell them that they really should be doing as it relates to being safe, doing the right thing, whatever it is. What's your message to everybody out there listening today?
45:20
Matt Cole
First of all, I would have to say for that is. Is, you know, the aeronautical decision making before you even get to the airport is critical. You know, the pave, the I'm safe, all of that stuff. I mean, it has to be aligned and in order because what we do is dangerous. And you just have to. Every single time you get into the airplane, you have to treat it with respect and go over those checklists. Like I said before, you even get to the airport, the weather, the plane, the pilot, is that all in order? And do your due diligence and flight planning. And then furthermore, in the aircraft, you know, getting to the aircraft, just checklist, checklist. I mean, I got lots of time. You have time. Wally has tons of time.
46:16
Matt Cole
But even with all that time, you still gotta follow the checklist and treat it with respect because it doesn't matter how many hours you have. We could all get hurt doing this. And I would say that's one of the biggest things I still see. There's a. There seems to be a cavalier attitude oftentimes with pilots that, I mean, I guess maybe we're in such a small percentage of the, you know, of the population on what we do. I could easily see how you can get a bit of an ego, but it's. You really got to check that because it doesn't matter. Any of us can get into trouble. I also think it's important to research a flight school and research their planes and make sure that it's a reputable place, because unfortunately there are a number of flight schools that are. That are not.
47:13
Matt Cole
And it's a tough business because there's not a lot of profit margin. And so you could see how they could skimp on maintenance and stuff. But, you know, you just got to make sure that it's. You're flying at a safe place and that, like you said, they have a very safe attitude and, and take things seriously. So that's my. I would say that's my biggest thing that I could say to people is realize that this is a serious deal and we could get hurt doing this. So just take it seriously and follow the checklist and follow your ADM checklist and all that, for sure.
47:56
Bobby Doss
No doubt, no doubt. I mean, we can get hurt.
47:58
Matt Cole
You.
47:59
Bobby Doss
You got hurt while you say it all the time. What's the only way we can prevent from getting killed in a plane today?
48:05
Wally Mulhern
Yeah, well, Matt, let me. Let me first say I've been kind of quiet today. There have been a couple times where I've started to speak up and quite honestly, I got a little choked up. In, decided to back off and keep my mouth shut. I don't want to cry on a podcast, but my gosh, what a, what an inspirational story you have. And you know, you're, you. This is a segue into what I wanted to say. I, one thing that I see as an examiner is the aeronautical decision making. And I am, I'm all this over daily. How can we as flight instructors do a better job of teaching aeronautical decision making? And, and I tell instructors, I say, look, you have to put your students under a certain amount of stress. Now it's artificial stress in the airplane.
49:03
Wally Mulhern
Okay, we're simulating this or we're simulating that. It is artificial stress, but we have to try to put them under a certain amount of stress to see what they're gonna do. Both my daughters fly and I, I used to always ask them when they would come in from a flight, I would say, have you scared yourself yet? And it used to scare me when they would tell me that they had never scared themselves in an airplane because it's coming, it's gonna come. I mean, you know, and how you react. And, and the first time they said, dad, this happened and I was scared. And I said, well, what'd you do? And I did this and this. Okay, great. All right. I, I felt like we hit a milestone by them scaring themselves in the airplane.
49:47
Wally Mulhern
I, one thing I see, you know, we spend a lot of time on the ground portion. I'll talk about maybe electrical failures. And a lot of the checklists in airplanes will say if you can't get, you know, an alternator failure rather in a single engine airplane, if you can't get it back, land as soon as possible. Possible. And I will say to the applicant, I'll say, okay, what does that mean? And occasionally people will say, I'm going to go put it down in the Walmart parking lot. And, and I, I think say, really? You're going to put an Air Cessna 172 down in a Walmart parking lot because of an alternator failure? And they say, well, they say, well, it says line as soon as possible. And there's the parking lot down there. Well, okay, I don't think that's the intent.
50:33
Wally Mulhern
Let's really think through this. So it's the decision making. I, I will tell you this. If I were learning, if I wanted to learn to fly, and I was anywhere close to Guthrie, Oklahoma, you'd be my. You would be my flight instructor, because, I mean, you have made some decisions, and, you know, I tell a lot of my applicants, what is our number one goal today when we get in the airplane? And. And the answer I'm looking for is to not die. Okay.
51:03
Matt Cole
Exactly.
51:04
Wally Mulhern
And. And you've done that. You have done that. And, God, you're such an inspiration. I am going to promote the ever living daylights out of this episode. I Hope we get 20, 000 downloads of this episode, because this. This is a story. This is a life story. And so my hats off to you.
51:24
Bobby Doss
Yeah. Hopefully one day we'll make our way up there and we'll get to fly around the patch together some. It is a great story.
51:30
Matt Cole
I'd be honored.
51:32
Bobby Doss
And I think it goes well beyond just your story. But your story was what makes it obviously a catch or interesting. But you're an aviator like the rest of us. You're clearly passionate. You caught the bug young, and you've spent your life giving back to aviation. And I know the students and the young men and women around your airport have to appreciate that at some level. I gotta say, I appreciate your mom's side of the story. At the age I am and the age that my kids are and the amount of effort that your family had to put in it. I'd like to wrap with a little bit of the book. And again, the book will be in the show notes. Go buy the book. It's 299 on Kindle from Matt's mom. Please do it.
52:13
Bobby Doss
And the last page of the book says, thank you so much for reading our story. Always remember, quitting is never an option. Matt, I'll say thank you for sharing your story. I will remember never to quit again. And as always, fly safely and stay behind the prop.
52:30
Nick Alan
Thanks for checking out the behind the Prop podcast. Be sure to click subscribe and check us out online@brave.theprop.com behind the prop is recorded in Houston, Texas. Creator and host is Bobby Doss. Co host is Wally Mulhern. The show is for entertainment purposes only and is not meant to replace actual flight instruction. Thanks for listening and remember, fly safe.