Will Locante: Professional Baseball Player Turned Pilot

Pilot to Pilot - Aviation Podcast

Justin Siems

Leisure, Hobbies, Business, Aviation, Careers

4.9 • 938 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Avination, welcome to episode #50 of the Pilot to Pilot podcast. Today, I am interviewing from Arizona Diamondback pitcher Will Locante. In this episode, Will and I talk about..

Why he retired from a career in baseball to become a pilot.
When Will knew he wanted to be a pilot.
Wills uncle is a 787 sim instructor for American.
Why Will wanted to capitalize on his sports career as long as possible.
When I knew I wasn’t going to go pro in football.
How I used athletics to put myself in the best position possible to become a pilot.
How Will went to Tennessee even though he hates Tennessee and loves the Auburn Tigers

How Will doesn’t miss Professional baseball one bit.
Will was always under the impression aviation was a military career.
Will’s neighbor who is a captain at SouthWest helped sparked the interest in aviation again.
How will was always annoyed with my old freight company flying into Smyrna late at night.
How Will didn’t go to ATP because he thought he could get his training done quicker.
How Will decided on a Flight School.
Why will as a flight instructors dream.
Will had around 40 hours when he got his Private Pilot license.
Will talks about fun times at John Toon aka the wild west.
Was will more nervous for check rides or games.
Will talks about how he did his CFII check ride with a DPE and the FAA.
The most nervous will has ever been for a check ride.
Don’t let a failed check ride keep you from thinking you can get your dream job.
Use a failed check ride as a learning experience.
How Will became the instructor he is today.
How Will has had to tell students that they should find another instructor.
How Will determines if a student is ready to be signed off.
What was Will’s wife’s initial reaction about him retiring from Baseball to become a pilot.
Why Will didn’t want to be an instructor.
We talk about the 1500 hour rule.
I talk about my experience getting my first type rating.

Avination, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Please leave us a review on iTunes and be sure to check out our Patreon page!

Happy Flying,

Justin

Transcript

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0:00.0	Episode 50 of the pilot, the pilot podcast takes off now.
0:05.0	What's up everyone? My name is Willa Conte. I am a CF double I and serious instructor here in National Tennessee. I made the
0:16.1	career change from a professional baseball player to become a pilot and I'm
0:20.6	about to transition from an instructor over to the airline life.
0:25.0	What is going on, Navy Nation, and welcome back to the Pilot
0:29.0	The Pilot Podcast. My name is Justin and I am your host.
0:32.0	Today is episode number 50. I cannot believe
0:35.6	that there has been 50 episodes of these. Thank you to you guys for devoting all of your
0:39.7	time. That is 50 hours of your life that you have spent listening to this podcast and I greatly appreciate that.
0:45.3	Today I am talking with Will Locanti. Will is a former professional baseball player.
0:50.8	He played baseball at Tennessee. Some of the things that
0:53.9	Will and I talk about today are why he decided to retire from baseball to step
0:57.9	away from a multi-million dollar career to become a pilot. Why Will thought ATP was too slow for him and how he thought he could get his time done faster?
1:08.0	How Will used to be very frustrated with priority air charter, my former freight company flying in a Smyrna late at night.
1:14.9	We talk about what it was like to have a DPE that was being watched by the FAA in one of his check rides.
1:21.0	We talk about the most nervous he's ever been on a check ride. We talk about how his wife
1:24.6	handled him retiring from baseball and wanting to become a pilot. We break down the myth of
1:28.9	why you don't have to be a military pilot to become a pilot and how Will thought that he couldn't do it unless he went to
1:35.2	military out.
1:36.2	Ava Nation, I really hope you enjoyed today's episode.
1:38.8	I really enjoy talking with Will.
1:40.4	It's great to talk to another athlete.
	...

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