Episode 270 Failing Forward: Mark Paterson's Story of Failure and Recovery
Ready 4 Pushback
Nik Fialka
4.8 • 716 Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back! In this episode, Nik sits down with Mark Paterson, a pilot who shares the full story of his aviation journey—from leaving a career in the restaurant industry to chasing his dream of becoming a professional pilot. Mark speaks candidly about the challenges of flight training, the pressure to perform at a Part 121 carrier, and the harsh reality of being sent home during the training process. But that isn't the end of his story. Mark opens up about how he rebuilt his confidence, regained his momentum, and ultimately secured a position at Sun Country Airlines. He shares what he did differently the second time around and offers valuable advice for pilots navigating setbacks of their own. This episode is both a cautionary tale and an inspiring comeback story—about how to prepare for every stage of training, how to recover if you’re let go, and how resilience and honesty can help you keep moving forward, no matter the obstacles.
What you'll learn:
What went wrong for Mark during his training at a regional airline—and how he handled it
How to deal with failure and rejection in aviation
How Mark built his confidence back
How to prepare for training so that you don't get 'behind the power curve'
Tips for staying focused, bouncing back, and owning your career path
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, pilot. Welcome back to Ready for Pushback. I'm Nick Fjalk. It's another interview show. |
| 0:07.4 | Today's guest is a gentleman named Mark Patterson. And Mark tells a story that's not super fun, but I think is really poignant and really important for the pilots that I have been talking to recently. |
| 0:20.1 | Mark was hired at a Part 121 carrier and did not |
| 0:23.9 | succeed at training. He was fired from the company and kind of had a big hill to climb. And I |
| 0:30.2 | wanted to unpack that because I speak to a lot of pilots that have been let go from an airline, |
| 0:36.8 | whether it's a major or a regional or a |
| 0:39.2 | ULCC, and they're trying to figure out what to do and how to do and how they can possibly be |
| 0:44.4 | successful. And this is the success story. Like this is the conversation where you kind of find |
| 0:50.7 | out all the tips and tricks to get you to where you want to be to be successful |
| 0:55.4 | in aviation. So if you stumble, you have a hard time, something's not working out. Just know that |
| 1:00.6 | there is a path and there is a way that you can be successful. And that's what I want to do is |
| 1:07.4 | like bring this message of hope today for people that have had a hard time and haven't been successful. And it's way more people than you would expect. It is way more people. |
| 1:16.8 | I talk to a lot of them. Right. So have some confidence. Listen to this show. It's a great episode. |
| 1:22.2 | Thank you to Mark for coming on and telling everybody his story because I think it's super impactful. |
| 1:27.5 | All right. |
| 1:27.8 | So sit back, relax. |
| 1:30.2 | Let's get ready for pushback. |
| 1:32.9 | It all started as a spark. |
| 1:36.5 | Maybe it was the sound of jets racing across the sky. |
| 1:40.8 | Or the feeling of your heart racing as you watch Crop Duster flying low and slow. |
| 1:47.0 | Even then, you knew you were meant to fly. |
| 1:51.0 | For pilots, it's more than just a job. It's a calling. |
... |
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