Flight instructor and social media superstar "Fly With Kay" joins Bobby this week!
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00:01
Behind the Prop Intro
Clear prop SR73 Cherokee number two following Flint traffic three mile final one trolley Bravo Makesford in Runway two five 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.
00:24
Bobby Doss
What's up, K?
00:25
FlywithKay
How are you, Bobby?
00:26
Bobby Doss
I'm fantastic as always. This week's Wally's not on the show, but we have a guest. Hopefully many of you have seen her content on YouTube or heard about her and seen her on TikTok, Instagram or everywhere else. I have Kay with flying with Kay with me. Thanks for joining us.
00:40
FlywithKay
Thank you very much for having me.
00:42
Bobby Doss
So Kay is actually here. We're gonna go fly the brand new Top Hawk, the 2025 Cessna that we won this year and we're gonna take a little trip and you're gonna get to see all that stuff on her channels. I'm excited to have Kay in the building. I started this show almost five years ago. I know what it's like to make content and try and make a bunch of people happy. It's not an easy job, is it, Kay?
01:02
FlywithKay
No, most definitely not. But it's fun to try.
01:04
Bobby Doss
It is fun to try and it's hard work. I don't think people realize just how many hours go into 30 minutes of content. And we've already probably spent almost an hour together today taking B roll and other pictures and footage for both your content and my content. Now we're going to record a show that we've been prepping for the last 20 or 30 minutes. All of this is going to end up airing weeks from now and we'll probably forgot what we even talked about when it shows up on the air. But tell us a little bit about you and how did you become a YouTuber pilot slash, flight instructor slash what you do?
01:39
FlywithKay
Well, thank you for asking. First of all, I'm 28 years old. I actually got into social media by happenstance because when Covid hit, I lost my job. I was a certified flight instructor. I was actually getting set up to go and join American Airlines. I was very excited. I all I wanted to do was travel the world. It's the entire reason that I became a pilot. And when that opportunity was no longer a possibility for me, I started renting an airplane. But so did every other pilot in the Houston area. So it became harder and harder for me to continue to fly, build my hours, stay proficient, stay current and it was just a hassle. So I convinced my parents to help me buy a $40,000 airplane. And it was the definition of a fixer upper. And I started making videos.
02:21
FlywithKay
And the more videos that I made, the more questions that I got, the more people that were inspired and the more people that were like, wow, I can't believe that this is another side of aviation I've never even heard of. Then I was really excited to continue to share my journey as I built my hours.
02:35
Bobby Doss
Awesome. And a lot of people hear $40,000 airplane. I bet the plane didn't just cost you $40,000. That's what everyone hears that number, and they're like, oh, I'll go buy a $40,000 airplane. I won't go rent from a flight school. The 40 quickly probably became 60. Then you probably put an engine in it or sold it right before you had an engine. I'm sure that adds up really quick. But it is the freedom to do what you want to do when you want to do it. No question. And I watched a lot of Little Red was the name of that plane, right?
03:02
FlywithKay
Yes.
03:03
Bobby Doss
I watched a lot of those videos. I think you were based not too far from here in a little town called Sugar Land. For those that are not from Houston, Texas, that's like an hour and a half drive from here, but it's still in the city, just on the south side of town and still live in town somewhere and do a lot of traveling away from here. I understand as well. Is that true?
03:22
FlywithKay
Yes, I do. I try to do a lot of local flying, but I really like to just get up in the air, do my radio calls, listen to my weather, get as high as I can. I actually have an oxygen system in my airplane now and get the heck out of Dodge. So I go to places like California, New Mexico, and most recently, the Bahamas.
03:39
Bobby Doss
Awesome. And I understand. I watched those videos of you landing in the Bahamas. You're going back to the Bahamas sometime soon.
03:46
FlywithKay
Yes, I am. I'm very excited. I'm thinking about the next two to three weeks. Got to keep an eye on the weather because now we're going to have to worry about storms over the water. But I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to go find some new islands.
03:57
Bobby Doss
Yeah. I don't even remember all the water rules, but I'll look those up if I ever decide to get more than I can get right back to the shore. So when you became a flight starter, the goal was to work for a big airline that didn't work out because of COVID I remember Covid. It was scary times. We were supposed to be closed for a couple weeks and that didn't happen. I think we wore masks and everything was closed for much longer. I was scared to death. I thought the school was going to go under. But like you said, a lot of people have free time. I think people could take a three hour lunch and not get in trouble. So we actually just got busier and busier and people wanted to rent, people wanted to fly. And it's been non stop ever since.
04:35
Bobby Doss
Have you ever thought about getting back into aviation professionally, not being a YouTuber?
04:39
FlywithKay
I have. I have a lot of really wonderful people that have offered me some incredible opportunities. I actually have done a few flights in a King Air and was working on getting my cert in the King Air for an Air Medevac company. The only problem was is they were over in El Paso. So I'm waiting till they're a little closer so that I can just commute using Mystic. But I've also looked at potentially going to the airlines again. I'm about 20 hours shy of my 1500 hour goal, so I'm getting closer to having to really make a decision.
05:06
FlywithKay
But I, I love what I do, being on social media and being on YouTube because the comments that come through where people are like, you know, I live in London and I'm watching your video and I've never thought about becoming a pilot and it's too late for me, but my daughter could do it. She's watching these videos while I make pancakes on Saturday morning. And those comments, I just never get tired of reading them. So it'd be really hard to give that up.
05:28
Bobby Doss
Yeah. And we've had Hoover on the show. We've had other people on the show. A lot of professional pilots do have YouTube channels. So there's probably a little bit of hotel time and a little bit of travel time where you can still do what you do. Probably not in the smaller planes, but it's interesting how many people that do have a career in YouTube itself also are professional pilots. A lot of those aviators are. Tell me, what's your. What's been the best top three trips you've ever taken that you've recorded some videos for and put on YouTube.
05:58
FlywithKay
Top three? Well, I have to say, number one's gotta be going to the Bahamas. My first stop was Marsh harbor because I had to go through customs. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it didn't hold a candle to flying into Staniel Cay. It's this teeny, tiny little island. It has less than 100 people that actually live there full time. It's got a beautiful yacht club. People just come in, they sail in, they fly in, they stay for a couple of days, drive the golf carts around the island on the wrong side of the road, and then they leave and they go to another island. And I actually really enjoyed that experience. So flying into Staniel Cay was definitely my top, my second one during COVID things were kind of getting better and the world was starting to open up again.
06:42
FlywithKay
I finally did the trip from Houston, Texas, up to San Diego, California to visit my grandparents. So it was about roughly 11 hours of flying. It was a very long day. I think I did three fuel stops that day. And I landed. I stayed with them for a few days and then I took them to a small general aviation airport called Twentynine Palms near Palm Springs. And we stayed away from everybody because, you know, they're older and worried about their health. All that jazz, set up some chairs, brought a picnic, and sat by the Runway and just watched airplanes come in and out. And it was a really fun, just family oriented flight that I got to do and share something that I really loved with people that I don't get to see very often.
07:21
Bobby Doss
Fantastic.
07:22
FlywithKay
And number three, that would actually be number one. And number three would most likely be my flight to Vegas. Cause I got to fly with a friend for a first time. Not for the first time necessarily, ever. Cause I have a lot of pilot friends, but a friend that knew nothing about aviation. And her and I decided to do a trip to Vegas. And Vegas ATC forgot about us. So we had to chop and drop and try to find the Runway. And it was a really crazy, fun, safe experience. And we landed and she's like, why can't the airliners land like you do? And that just made my whole day.
07:58
Bobby Doss
That's funny. That's awesome.
08:00
FlywithKay
Yeah. Yeah.
08:01
Bobby Doss
So we. If you're a listener of the show first time, because Kay's on it. Well, we did a show about 10 episodes ago that was all the tips and tricks to fly to the Bahamas, how to get through customs. If you. If you're interested in following Kay to the Bahamas at some point, that show would fill you in on all the. The legalities and criteria to get in the Bahamas and all the paperwork and all the radio certificates and things that most of us don't know how to do. We did that show on that. What was the worst trip that you've ever taken.
08:28
FlywithKay
Oh, I would say the worst trip, just because it caused me so much stress, was right after I bought Mystic. I decided to take my dad to a baseball game. And originally were gonna go to Arizona and watch the Diamondbacks. And I was like, you know, that's a little far for our first real flight in mystic, now that I've got my hours and I'm feeling comfortable. So we decided to go to St. Louis, and lo and behold, 20 minutes before landing, my door pops open. And it's because the previous owners had done a field fix and never actually fixed the problem. So over whatever their temporary fix was just wore out too much. So even if I had opened my side window, I never was getting that door closed. The worst part about it is that the maintenance shop was fantastic.
09:13
FlywithKay
They tried to fix it over and over, and it happened four times before the weather moved in. And I ended up getting stuck in St. Louis for another two days. So it cost me a lot of time, a lot of money. But ultimately they were able to fix the problem and I was able to get home. But it being one of the first long distance cross countries I had done in the airplane. Not exactly the most ideal moment to have a situation occur.
09:37
Bobby Doss
No, it's not. And we have planes break down in remote locations all the time, and sometimes it's user error, sometimes it's just the equipment gets beat up quite a bit Here at a flight school, getting a plane back, even from a short distance, is very painful.
09:51
FlywithKay
Oh, yeah.
09:51
Bobby Doss
And then I think remote mechanics know that they have you stuck there and they just might take a little bit of advantage of you in that situation.
09:58
FlywithKay
Yes.
09:59
Bobby Doss
Which hurts the wallet quite a bit as well.
10:01
FlywithKay
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So I say that's my biggest fear with the Bahamas, is having to fly in somebody to do maintenance at some point.
10:08
Bobby Doss
Goodness, yes. Knock on wood. Hopefully it's not one of those big motors one side of the plane, because that would be really painful. Everybody thinks they want to be a YouTuber or a podcaster or they think it's the easiest thing in the world. It's not too hard to sit here and talk into a microphone, but it's hard to come up with content. I probably reached out to you. The first time was over a year ago, and schedules just don't line up sometimes. To get this to work is not the easiest thing in the world. But for all the people that want to be YouTubers, what's a day in the life of a YouTuber like, what's it really like to be flying with K all the time?
10:43
FlywithKay
Honestly? Yeah, honestly. It's one of those things where some days are just go, go, go. And there are other days where I just get to relax and fly and enjoy myself. I don't actually film every single flight I do because I want to keep in mind that even though it's a job, I don't ever want to feel like it's a job. I still want to have that love and that passion for aviation. And sometimes just going up with my hair in a bun, no makeup on, and just flying for fun is how I keep that alive. But one long form video that's roughly 40 minutes or so probably takes me 12 to 15 hours. I've got four cameras that I have to align with my audio. I've got to make sure that it tells a complete story.
11:22
FlywithKay
And then I also go through the comments and I read people's comments on what do they really want to see. Lately I've been told they want to see more checklist usage. Sounds good. I'm the checklist queen. No problem there. They want to see all the radio calls, they want to see the full landing, and they just want to see more and more. And so I'm constantly making changes to my videos, and that adds a lot of time, too, because I'm trying to give my viewers exactly what they want every single time.
11:45
Bobby Doss
And we have listeners. You know, you can't appease everybody. You're never going to make a video that makes everybody happy. But it's hard to. Some people want checkride, checkride on this show every week and that we could do that. But that's not all that aviation is about. What, what do you think the viewers get from your videos the most? Are they learning how to fly? Are they learning how to be a better pilot? Are they. Are you just inspiring women to be pilots? What do you think your show gives to the community that you're. You're sharing it with?
12:12
FlywithKay
I think it's actually a combination. I think it inspires a lot of people, and not just people directly, but it also inspires them to talk to the people around them and, you know, nieces, nephews, their kids, their grandkids, maybe. Some people leave comments and they're like, hey, you know, I was a pilot in the 1970s and I stopped flying. And because of you, I went and did another introductory flight just so I could get back in the air. And I forgot how much I loved it. And it's because I came across your video, and I call that inspiration, because I've inspired them to find something that they love or something that they previously loved, and maybe life just got in the way.
12:47
Bobby Doss
Sure.
12:48
FlywithKay
That's what happened with Pops. I mean, he never flew when I was growing up, and probably the day he retired is the day he decided to get back into flying. And without him getting back into flying, I never would have become a pilot. I was on my way to become a flight attendant because all I ever wanted to do was travel.
13:04
Bobby Doss
So it is inspirational to hear these stories and see people doing what you might want to do. Right. I think. I think we've inspired people on the podcast. Obviously, as a flight school, we inspire people. I think. Think of the. Maybe the lives we might save that we never know about. Right. Some of the stuff I know. I know. You were just highlighted by Hoover from Pilot Debrief. He was on our show. He was highlighting the positive things that you do while talking in the plane, telling yourself what you're doing even by yourself, the value of that. And there might be someone today that talks to themselves and realize they made a mistake and fix that mistake that could have been the one that got him. And you'll never know it, but I'm sure you're saving lives along the way as well.
13:45
FlywithKay
I like to think so. And I like to think that people, by watching the way that I fly and the way that I run through my checklists and the way I do my radio calls, if they're not learning something, they are able to sit there and agree and process with everything that I'm doing. You can always tell, you know, the keyboard warriors that don't know how to fly when they leave comments like, stop using your checklist. Just get in the air. You've been flying this airplane how long? Yeah, it's like, okay, nice to meet you. Thank you so much for watching my video. I'm gonna keep using my checklist, but you can skip that part if you'd like. And it's just a constant reminder that doesn't matter how many times you've done it.
14:23
FlywithKay
Going through your checklist is ultimately going to be most likely what saves you in the end.
14:28
Bobby Doss
Yeah. I recently flew with someone and they never turned their landing light off. And I asked them why they don't do it. They said, well, it's led. It's just. It's going to be fine. I'll leave it on. I said, yeah, but why didn't you turn it off? And he goes, well, I forgot to turn it one time at night. So I didn't turn, I don't now. Just don't turn it off. I'm like, you know why you didn't turn it on? Because you didn't use your checklist. You know why you didn't turn it off? Because you didn't use your checklist. If you use your checklist, the problems that you think you have would go away.
14:53
FlywithKay
Yes.
14:54
Bobby Doss
So, yeah, checklists are there for a reason and we might remember some of that stuff, but we should always refer to the checklist. Pretty basic in these planes, but we need to refer the checklist. So tell me what. Don't. What's the bad part of being a YouTuber? Everybody thinks it's glorious and everybody's rich and rolling in money. What's the bad part of being a YouTuber? By the way, that's not true always either.
15:19
FlywithKay
I would say that the only negative aspect that I can think of with being a YouTuber is you really have to develop a thick skin quickly. People will pick apart your videos, pick apart your appearance, pick apart the way that you speak, the way that your voice oscillates when you get excited, the way your sunglasses are sitting on your head, anything and everything. They'll try to make you feel insecure about it. And I'll be honest, when I was first getting into social media, it really got me. But I had a wonderful support system. And then I met more and more aviators just around the world that were supporting me. And I've decided that's who I'm making the videos for.
15:57
FlywithKay
If the haters want to sit there and watch the 40 minute video and help me pay for my next tank of gas, let them love it. Thank you very much for your support. Probably not going to respond to their comment, but it'll still help the engagement. And at the end of the day, that's how I'm going to look at it.
16:12
Bobby Doss
That's great. I can't stand comments. They're not fun. People say some really mean things to people on social media and I think I refer to those as keyboard warriors. Right, you said it. They're, they're just sitting behind a keyboard saying what thinks they make. That maybe makes them feel better, but it does do damage to people. It is hard to put up with that. And hopefully all the comments for you on this will be very positive and for me, very positive. So we're about to go fly. We want a top hawk. You don't know what a Top Hawk is. And listening to this show. We've, we've spoken a little bit about it, but Cessna's pilot center group can submit a marketing plan and a video. We submitted a video that's on our YouTube channel if you guys and girls want to go watch it.
16:56
Bobby Doss
It was 10 minutes. John and Martha King had a little, little bit of cinema time on that one. They recorded part of our video in their studio and shared with us. But it's a day in the life of a student here, and I think we do really good things for our students. So Cessna awarded us with the 2025 Top Hawk. And that's pretty much a free 250 hours of that aircraft, which is pretty valuable. And the right to buy the aircraft, which we are. The school's going to ultimately buy that aircraft. And I think the Hobbs Meter right Now says about 12 hours on it. And so Kay is going to jump in with me and I'm going to fly with K and we're going to go around the Houston area and hopefully make you guys and girls some good content for her channels.
17:34
Bobby Doss
And we're going to have a lot of fun doing it. How can people find you? Where do they look you up? What do they do if they want to support you in any way? How do my listeners help you kick?
17:43
FlywithKay
Best way is just type in Fly with K on any social media platform. I'm on TikTok, Instagram, of course, YouTube, and even Facebook.
17:51
Bobby Doss
Okay.
17:52
FlywithKay
And if you forget where to go, all you have to do is go to flywithk.com and it'll show you all the links there, too.
17:57
Bobby Doss
Awesome. And I think you wrote a book. I think you have a Patreon site. All that stuff's on that website as well. And they can go out there and support you that way, too.
18:05
FlywithKay
That is correct. It tells the story. Becoming Fly with K is available on Amazon. And it tells my story from how I went from serving tables and not being able to make ends meet to ultimately becoming a social media general aviation person. I guess.
18:20
Bobby Doss
That's awesome. All right, let's go flying.
18:22
FlywithKay
I'm excited. Let's do it.
18:23
Bobby Doss
All right, we're going to go fly, everybody. Don't forget. Thanks for listening and stay behind the prop.
18:29
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.