E348: Nick Fialka's Unconventional Path and Interview Secrets
Pilot to Pilot
Justin Siems
4.8 • 997 Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Not every pilot's journey starts with dreams of flight—some begin with a challenge and a bottle of Eagle Rare bourbon.
In this episode, we sit down with Nick Fialka, captain at a major airline, host of the Ready for Pushback podcast, and interview coach at Spitfire Elite. Nick's path to the cockpit is anything but conventional. From attending The Citadel (not exactly known for churning out pilots) to flying helicopters in the Navy, then leaving it all to build a successful RV park in Florida—Nick thought the airlines weren't in his future.
That changed when a retired Delta captain rolled into his RV park with a $700,000 rig and convinced him over whiskey that he belonged at 35,000 feet.
We dive deep into what it really takes to land a job at a major airline in today's market. Nick pulls back the curtain on the interview process, sharing the mistakes that sink applications before they're even read, the logbook disasters that cost pilots their dream jobs, and why spending $600 on interview prep for a $22 million career is the easiest decision you'll ever make.
We also tackle the reality of aviation's boom-and-bust cycles, what the 2026 hiring landscape looks like, and why even the most senior pilots need to keep one eye on their next move. Whether you're building hours at a regional, prepping for your first major airline interview, or just trying to figure out if this career is right for you—this conversation is packed with real talk and actionable advice.
Plus, Nick shares why leading with empathy beats canned answers every time, and how your attitude might matter more than your flight time.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Episode 348 of the Pilot to Pilot podcast takes off now. |
| 0:09.7 | The Pilot to Pilot podcast is brought to you by Ground School from the Finer Points, |
| 0:13.8 | the indispensable training app for new and experienced pilots. |
| 0:17.4 | Visit LearntheFinerpoints.com, backslash Justin Justin to save 10% off your first year. |
| 0:22.5 | Fly with Garmin avionics, then grab your mobile device and make the Garmin pilot app your |
| 0:26.8 | cockpit companion. Get advanced functions you'll use before, during, and after every flight, |
| 0:32.7 | including updating your aircraft's databases and logging engine data, file fly log with garmin pilot all pilots need |
| 0:41.8 | the big weather picture and i use serious xm aviation to check the fronts airmets segments turbulence |
| 0:47.5 | pyreps and more while i'm pre-flighting and in route all to give my passengers and me the most |
| 0:52.3 | comfortable flight possible and now with the latest offer from seriousM, there's never been a better time to upgrade |
| 0:57.8 | your next flight with a Garmin GDL 52 portable receiver to bring SiriusXM and ADSB weather, |
| 1:04.1 | plus traffic, into your cockpit. |
| 1:05.9 | Hey, my name is Nick Fialca. |
| 1:07.7 | I am a captain at a major airline flying the 757 and 767. I run the Ready for Pushback |
| 1:14.3 | podcast and I'm a coach at Spitfire Elite Interview Consulting. Aviation, what is going on and welcome |
| 1:19.5 | back to the pilot the pilot podcast. My name is Justin Seams and I am your host. Today we're interviewing |
| 1:25.1 | Nick from the Ready for Pushback podcast. He's also a Spitfire |
| 1:29.0 | elite interview coach and a major airline pilot. We talk about his journey from becoming someone who |
| 1:35.2 | thought he couldn't be a pilot at all to going to the Citadel, which is not known for training |
| 1:39.1 | pilots, to becoming now a major airline pilot and a couple of stops in between he owned an RV park |
| 1:45.0 | which is fascinating and cool and it took a bottle of whiskey from a retired delta captain for him to |
| 1:50.2 | realize he could be an airline pilot it was a really fun talk we get into the weeds we dive deep |
... |
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