This week we chat with Chelsea and Scott from SouthWings, an amazing organization that allows pilots to volunteer their time to aid in conservation efforts in the Southeast!
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00:01
Behind the Prop Intro
Clear prop 773 Cherokee number two following twin 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, Wally?
00:25
Wally Mulhern
Hey, Bobby, how are you?
00:26
Bobby Doss
I am fantastic as always. We have a group on for the first time in a while. We've done a number of individual interviews over the last few months. We have a group called South Wings joining us tonight. We have both Chelsea and Scott joining us. Welcome, Chelsea and Scott. Thanks for joining.
00:43
Chelsea
Hello. Thanks for having us.
00:45
Scott
Thanks for having us.
00:47
Bobby Doss
So, oddly enough, Chelsea and I have been back and forth via email for a number of months trying to figure out when we can record. Schedules are always tough. And then she says, this guy Scott's gonna join. And then she. I mean, she doesn't live in Houston. She doesn't really know who I am, and she says Scott's gonna join. I'm like, well, I know Scott. And she's like, well, that's weird. How do you know Scott? So Scott was actually a host at my open house a few years ago. Maybe Wally was playing in a band at that open house. I don't remember if that was the one or not. Scott's shaking his head, so I'm gonna assume it was. So Scott and I have a little bit of history and Scott's a volunteer pilot.
01:21
Bobby Doss
He's gonna help Chelsea, who's kind of the pilot coordinator, describe all the good things that South Wings does for their companies, their. And how they've contributed to the world. And we're excited to have them. So 1996 is a long time ago when South Wings got started. Chelsea, I'll jump to you first. Give us a little bit of an introduction. The. The vision, the goal. What is South Wings doing for the world? And what is PI? What do pilots do to help South Wings be successful?
01:51
Chelsea
So, yeah, 1996 is when South Wings was started by our two co founders, Hume Davenport and Jay Mills. They started this group in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and kind of started because Hume was flying around one day and noticed some clear cutting that was going on in the Cumberland Plateau and kind of thought that was not supposed to be happening, which it wasn't. Turned out there were chip mills, newly constructed wood chip mills were clear cutting these forests at just alarming rates, turning the wood chips into fuel. And there were lots of groups. So Lots of groups on the ground who were concerned about this. And Hume started carrying some of these passengers on his plane to show them from the air what was going on.
02:45
Chelsea
A lot of these passengers were staff members of environmental groups who were doing this on the ground work to combat this issue. And so were able to provide the tool of flight to help them advance and expand the capacity of their work. And so since then, you know, starting out focused on forestry practices. Since then we've expanded to tackle lots of different issues. Our flight partners are working on all sorts of things like exposing the negative effects of mountaintop removal, coal mining, watershed and wetland protection, monitoring industrial development, coal ash disposal, monitoring industrial farming, oper. So all sorts of reasons that folks reach out and request a flight from us and we help them with that tool of flight to help them advance their work and reach their goals.
03:40
Bobby Doss
And there's obviously an aspect of pilots that you need pilots, you need missions, kind of high level. What's some statistics around pilots that are volunteering for you guys today? Companies that are asking for missions, if they're not exact, you can definitely wing it. It's part of the show.
03:59
Chelsea
Yeah. So a stat that I can give you is we have 75 volunteer pilots on board right now. And that's throughout our entire service area, which actually covers the Chesapeake Bay region, all the way down the east coast and into the Gulf states, including coastal Texas and Houston. And our volunteer pilots are flying all sorts of aircraft from one to seven seat airplanes and flying as one to three or four flights a year. Each volunteer pilot is working at a different capacity. For south wings, they'll fly as often as they want to, which can sometimes be once a year or once every other year, and then as many as three, four, five, six flights a year. So yeah, we're always looking to bring on new volunteer pilots, especially in Texas, especially in Houston.
04:55
Chelsea
It is one of our areas that is, you know, we have a good volume of requests in that area. We, like I said, well, we just expanded into Texas two or three years ago and we've gotten to know lots of organizations in the area who are requesting flights. And so we're always looking to bring on new volunteer pilots. We're always looking to link up with new organizations and environmental advocates who want to use these flights and use this tool of aviation to help them with the work that they're doing. So yeah, always looking to bring on new folks to the organization.
05:33
Bobby Doss
So I was joking earlier, but let's assume that I knew a guy that owned A Saratoga in north Houston, and he wanted to volunteer. What would be the requirements for that? Said pilot, his name's Wally, by the way. What would be the requirements for Wally to be able to be part of your missions, and what would you expect him to do from a standpoint of volunteering for your organization?
06:01
Chelsea
So our first basic requirement is that folks have at least 750 hours of piloting command time. These flights are a little more intensive than just flying from point A to point B. You know, South Wings flights are scenic in nature, often low and slow, and may require some maneuvering to view specific points on the ground. So we require a bit more flying experience than maybe some other volunteer pilot organizations out there. But once you reach that 750 mark, we'll just have an initial phone call. We'll get to know you, we'll answer any questions that you might have, and then we'll start the process from there. We'll collect some basic pilot documents and we'll have an orientation call to get you real comfortable with our flight request process and how everything works. And then after that you'd be ready to take a flight.
06:52
Chelsea
So from initial contact to ready to accept a flight request, some folks complete that whole process within a week, some folks take a few months to do it, but that's pretty much how the process goes.
07:07
Bobby Doss
Do I have to own my plane or could I use like a fly schools plane or a club's plane? What are the requirements for the actual physical aircraft to meet the needs of South Wings?
07:18
Chelsea
That's a great question. Most of our pilots do own their planes, but you can rent from a flight school or a flying club. We do have a requirement to name South Wings on the insurance as additional insured. And that's just kind of, you know, there to protect everybody involved. It's never been, you know, needed really. We've never, thankfully, we've never had any accidents or any sort of situations where we've had to call upon that additional insured endorsement. But that is a requirement for being a volunteer pilot. So either that's on your owner's policy or if you're, if you have a renter's policy, best case scenario is to get the flight school to name South Wings on the insurance of the actual, you know, they're the actual owners of the aircraft. So that's a way to go about it as well.
08:05
Bobby Doss
And just so everybody knows, full transparency. I know a guy who owns a flight school and I don't think I would have any problem putting South Wings on it. If people with 750 hours of pic time they were renting from me wanted to help your organization out, so I can't imagine other flight schools wouldn't do it. Somebody who's got 750 hours is a lot less risk than most of the people that are renting. My planes are going to solo with 40, 30, 20 hours of time. So I would think that would make sense and something that I think most flight schools would do. I might ask them to have the renter's insurance also name you in case they did something silly. But at the end of the day, I think there's low risk involved for both insurance company and flight school owner as well.
08:52
Bobby Doss
So how do I do that? What do I do to go sign up? Is there a mechanism by which I sign up with South Wings to become a pilot?
08:59
Chelsea
Yeah, it's real easy. We have a form on our website where you just fill out some basic contact info, what you fly, how many hours you have, and just little. If you want to, you can tell us why you want to volunteer for South Wings and then send that in and we'll get in contact with you almost right away. That's my job as the volunteer pilot coordinator. So I'm the one who reaches out to every one of those inquiry forms and we do like to get the process started as quickly as possible.
09:29
Bobby Doss
And it literally on their website, southwings.org if you go to the website, it's pilots, it's a dropdown. You click be a pilot, you fill out that form and Chelsea will follow up with you, I'm pretty sure, fairly quickly. So 750 hours access to an aircraft. We get asked all the time, what can I do to build time between when I trained and when I want to be a professional pilot or whatever my mission might be. They're all different, but we're all looking for a reason other than $100 hamburger to go fly. This sounds like a really good reason. Scott, you are the volunteer pilot that's on the call with us to talk through this stuff. Give us a little bit of a background. You live in Houston. Again, we know each other.
10:12
Bobby Doss
What are some of the things that you've been able to do and how did you get connected with South Wings? Why are you on this podcast with us? Give us a little bit of background there.
10:21
Scott
Well, thanks, Bobby, and thanks again for having us on. I'm a big fan of the podcast, so. So, yeah, I. I've been flying for south wings since early 2022 at this point, and I've probably done close to 20 missions, I would say, and enjoyed every one of them. They're, they're. They're very different missions than the other nonprofits that I fly for, like Ancient Flight or Young Eagles or Hurricane Relief. I mean, normally you're. You're getting people from point A to point B or things from point A to point B. But as Chelsea said, these are. These are more sightseeing viewing. You're covering area for the purpose of going over the area, not to get from airport to airport. And it's very interesting flying. You're out there with people who know about the issues that they've asked to take the flight for.
11:28
Scott
And so not only do you get to volunteer and be a volunteer pilot for the organization, but you also get to learn a lot about the issues that are in play. And so I found my time with South Wings to be incredibly satisfying. And like Chelsea said, you can fly, you know, a mission a year or one every three years or, you know, six in a year. It's totally up to you. South Wings will come to you with the proposition, and you can say, well, no, I'm busy that week or that month or what have you.
12:05
Scott
But if you're interested and the type of mission is something that you're interested in, South Wings will hook you up with their environmental partners, and you go about sort of organizing exactly how and how best to get the flight done in a way that maximizes the value for the environmental. South Wing's environmental partner.
12:30
Bobby Doss
And I'm assuming, Scott, these are long flights, short flights, varying flights. Like what? Give us a. If you could give us a little bit of a profile. I mean, I've been involved with a few organizations similar to Angel Flight, and those. Some of those flights are four hours. Right. And that might be more than I'm willing to donate. Like, give. Give me the future pilot that might want to volunteer. What is it? What's my commitment? I got for you saying I have the option to say no, but if I want to be involved, what does really, the normal flight look like?
13:05
Scott
Sure, the flights vary in length, and I've done flights as short as a half hour, and I think my longest set of flights was flying from Houston to New Orleans, flying around greater New Orleans for the better part of two days and coming home the third day. So around Houston, there's a lot of demand at South Wings by its partners to fly around the Houston Ship Channel and see a lot of the various environmental impacts that the Ship Channel has and help their partners evaluate different issues that come up as a result of the amazing ship channel we have in Houston. Those are typically short flights, but those short flights are interesting, and sometimes they're not without their challenges, in part because, as Bobby and Wally know, the top of the ship channel is inside the hobby surface area.
14:07
Scott
So a lot of times you're negotiating with air traffic control at the same time, you're trying to get the sun behind the plane so the photographer can get his best photo of the ship channel. And so those flights, I find those flights to be very interesting because I spent a lot of time buzzing around in the Houston airspace. But you can do longer flights. Those flights to New Orleans I mentioned. In the Freeport area, there's some places where a lot of petrochemical industry butts up against some protected wetlands. And there's a lot of requests to sort of take a look at those issues and how one might be impacting the other. And so you can. You can find flights for, you know, less than an hour, and you could spend all day flying for south wings on particular flights if you wanted to.
15:01
Bobby Doss
Awesome. And something that maybe people don't really realize about Houston is you get the ship Channel class Bravo major airport just south of town, and then you got these really big buildings that are also not very far away that stand thousands of feet in the air, which make the scenery look cool. But you don't want to run in any of that stuff either. So lots of distractions and obstructions in your way trying to fly some of those missions around that ship channel, for sure.
15:32
Wally Mulhern
What about missions following natural disasters? You know, we deal with hurricanes down here. I know you guys had one up on the East Coast. Is there any survey work following hurricanes or any kind of, you know, maybe fires or any kind of natural disasters?
15:49
Chelsea
Yes, definitely. That's a big part of some of the flights that we do. Although we, you know, we are not a disaster relief organization. We don't do, you know, supplies drops or anything like that. So we. If there is a natural disaster, we're. We're waiting two or three days or however long it takes for that sort of work to get done, especially up in North Carolina, obviously, was devastating. Asheville is actually our. Where our headquarters are. And after hurricane Helene, well, the city was just devastated. And we did have some play partners who were seeking a trip to, you know, survey the damage. And obviously that. That relief effort took a long time. And I don't think we did our first flight after Helene until a week and a half Later.
16:48
Chelsea
So yeah, so we do fly after natural disasters, but of course we want to let the emergency work be completed before we even try and get up in the air.
17:00
Wally Mulhern
Sure. And what about organizations that are looking for a flight? What's the process to go through that?
17:09
Chelsea
So we have a flight request form on our website. If you're new to the organization, if you've never taken a flight with us, this is a great way to get the process started. It'll ask for contact info, basic you know, goal of the flight and you know, what's your objective? What are you trying to achieve? Do you think it's, you know, why, why is, why is a flight going to help you in your goals and passenger information? We ask for passenger waits ahead of time. And so once we collect all that information from the requesting flight partner, our program directors will take the lead and they are the ones who will get that conversation started with the flight partner and you know, craft the experience so that we're there.
18:00
Chelsea
We're able to use this tool of flight to help them make the most difference and you know, use the flight as best as we can. And if you know most, a lot of the majority of our flights we do fly with partners who have flown before. So lots of repeat flight partners. A lot of times flight requests come about just through an email conversation or a phone call conversation because we have these long standing partnerships with these partners. So it's a little less formal than that. But once we have that, the flight information, we'll craft that flight experience. And then at that point is when we start to reach out to pilots, to try and get a pilot for this, to fulfill this flight request. And we do this just one by one. We reach out to pilots individually.
18:56
Chelsea
We don't post our flight request on a board, online or anywhere. We just reach out to pilots one by one and say, you know, this is the flight profile, this is all the information that we have so far. Is this something that you'd be interested in taking on? And you know, there's never any pressure to conduct a flight whatsoever. So you know, the, but the pilot can say yes or no for whatever reason or, you know, those dates don't work for me. So there's always a little bit of coordination back and forth. These flights are, you know, a little different than medical transport flights because we are not really working on, you know, an extremely strict deadline as far as, you know, a patient trying to get to an appointment or something like that.
19:44
Chelsea
So there's always a little bit of back and forth, you know, working out the schedule and when is best for everybody to fly. And along with that, you know, we're looking for VFR days so that folks can see what they're trying to see anyway. So we can always, always reschedule for a better weather day if we need to.
20:04
Bobby Doss
What kind of flights, sorry, what kind of flights can we request? If I was, I think I joked when were warming up a little bit, right. If I wanted to find a new ranch to buy, you're not going to take me out to help me find my new ranch to buy. So that's, I'm assuming a hard no. But what kind of flights qualify for South Wings?
20:25
Chelsea
Yeah, that doesn't fit within our mission. But so, yeah, so we have three basic flight models that we kind of go by. So we will do monitoring and survey flights. So these will be providing that aerial coverage to areas that are often remote or inaccessible by ground. These flights assist in gathering data or photos to be used for scientific or regulatory purposes. And so these flights are with, you know, environmental advocate groups. And then secondly, we'll do flights of persuasion, which we like to call our flights when we're bringing on board someone who we're trying to educate about a certain topic or our partners are trying to educate about a certain topic.
21:18
Chelsea
So this could be, you know, just community members, it could be legislators, city council members, because we all know that the aerial perspective is so persuasive, it is so life changing and perspective bending. And sometimes all that someone needs in order to work towards positive change in an issue is to see it from above. Because the big scope that you can actually understand coming from the aerial experience is very persuasive. And so the third type of flight that we will conduct are media flights. So these are with reporters or videographers, documentary film crews, folks who are trying to add that aerial perspective to their work. We'll reach out for flight requests. And so those are the three types of flights that we'll conduct.
22:25
Bobby Doss
And as easy as becoming a pilot with South Wings, you can go to the same website, southwings.org and up at the top of that page you have the option to select passengers and then request a flight. And it's a pretty basic form to fill out there and get a request in. And I'm assuming y' all will follow up in a fairly timely manner and either qualify us or unqualify us depending on our request.
22:52
Chelsea
Yes. Yeah. Our flight directors will vet each request and reach out one way or the other. Whatever our response is, whether we can do the flight for you or not, they'll definitely reach out asap.
23:04
Bobby Doss
And I looked at the map and I watched your kind of your intro video about South Wings, something I hadn't really thought about. What if I want to volunteer? And I'm not kind of in this. I was born in West Virginia, so it's kind of funny. You go from West Virginia to Houston. I had no influence on that, I assume. But what if I. What if I want to fly in Oklahoma? What if I want to go to New Mexico? Do y' all have sister organizations that you work with and try to connect people to? Or is. Is there anything else like you in the west and North? And is there a North Wings? Is there a West Wings? Is there an East Wings?
23:44
Chelsea
So we are actually based on. We do have a sister organization. Lighthawk was founded long before South Wings was, and they do these types of conservation flights. Basically everywhere else that South Wings, everywhere outside of South Wing service area is Lighthawk territory. So our co founder was actually a Lighthawk pilot initially, and that's kind of how he got the idea of conservation aviation. And he brought the idea kind of back to the Southeast because he was doing those flights out in Colorado. So, yeah, Lighthawk flies outside of our service area. And I said, sister organization. We are not in competition. We are very friendly with Lighthawk. We coordinate with Lighthawk. When there are flights that we can't fulfill, we'll send them to Lighthawk.
24:46
Chelsea
When Lighthog has flights that they can't fulfill kind of on the edges of our territories, then they'll send them to us as well. We have many pilots, including Scott here, who are South Wings and Lighthawk pilots. So, yeah, it's a very a wonderful relationship with Lighthawk and. But as far as I know, Lighthawk and South Wing seem to be the two kind of, you know, volunteer pilot organizations that are focused on conservation aviation in the country. So, yeah, we're glad to be one of them.
25:25
Bobby Doss
So that's lighthawk.org if you're interested and you're listening to us in Seattle or somewhere else. Colorado appears to be their headquarters. Very similar website, very similar mission. And I'm sure there's global organizations as well, all around the globe. If you're listening to us on a different continent, I'm sure you can find something. And it's a. It is a common request that we get on how can I give back? If you're fortunate enough to own a plane or have a plane or access to a plane and can afford to fly again, the hundred dollar hamburger might not be as exciting as most.
25:58
Chelsea
And I would love to plug the Air Care alliance here. So Lighthawk and South Wings were members of the Air Care alliance and they are kind of the industry trade group for volunteer pilot organizations for public benefit flying. And so if anyone is looking for ways to do some volunteer flying, go to the Air Care alliance website. That's Air Care Alliance. Sorry, I kind of spoke quickly and it's hard to tell what words I'm saying. But yeah, Air Care alliance, they have a directory of organizations that you can to all sorts of, you know, medical transport flights, animal flights, all sorts of really, really wonderful organizations that provide that opportunity to do some volunteer flying.
26:45
Bobby Doss
Oh yeah, a lot. I, I haven't seen them before but Angel Flight pilots for patients, which is a friend of both Wally's and ours on the show Wolf Aviation Fund. Lots of, lots of opportunities for you to get involved in aircare alliance.org as well. Thanks for sharing that. I would not have been aware of that. So you have pilots, you have companies that need those pilots or missions that need those pilots. What's the overall impact in the last 28 years or so you've been involved with doing this stuff? Can you give us some of the wins, some of the stories that would get people excited about what may be the impact that South Winds. South Winds has done?
27:35
Chelsea
Yeah, it is, to be honest, really hard to track all of the wins and all of the successes because as much as we do try to keep in contact with all of our flight partners, you know, sometimes the result of the flight might not happen for 15, 10, 20 years. So sometimes it's hard to know exactly what our impact has been. But there's a bajillion small victories every day and then there's some really big, huge, exciting victories. A couple of those that just kind of stand out would be helping to advocate for the plugging of the Taylor Oil Energy oil rig that had been spilling for 15 years and no one really knew the scope of it. So in to kind of, to go backwards and start at the beginning.
28:38
Chelsea
In 2010, South Wings was doing some flights to help show the world the scope of the BP oil spill. And around this time, our partners at Skytruth were using satellite imagery and noticed another nearby slick that was completely separate from the BP spill. So Southlink pilots began flying with our partners to document that oil spill, which we now know as the Taylor Energy oil spill. And it was being reported that the size of the leak was much smaller than it actually was. So our partners were just trying to bring awareness to it and, you know, prove that the leak was larger than reported and pushed for something to be done about it. Unfortunately, nothing really was. Nothing was really. No one was really caring. No one was doing anything to try to clean it up.
29:32
Chelsea
Taylor Energy certainly wasn't doing anything to fix their mistake. And so finally in 2018, so this is after eight years of flights trying to document this. I think we took 23 flights in that time about this particular issue to document the spill. Finally, an investigative journalist came on board and wrote a story that ended up in the front page of the Washington Post. And the very next day, the US Coast Guard finally ordered Taylor Energy to clean up their mess and install a containment structure. So, you know, unfortunately for another few years, Taylor Energy tried to fight this in courts. And then finally in 2021, so 11 years after the slick, the oil spill was initially noticed, they finally agreed to drop all lawsuits and actually plug the well. So it was the. Ended up being the longest running oil spill in US History.
30:37
Chelsea
And, you know, were just really thankful to have been a small part of it. Of course, you know, we can't ever take credit really for anything that happens because of Southland's flight. It's all because of the work of our partners who are doing the really hard work to advocate for these things. You know, we're just here to, to provide them with a tool to help them with their work. So we did also have, we did have one other really neat kind of winter this year, actually. We helped to support a major conservation easement project in coastal South Carolina. And it ended up being the single largest land conservation easement project in South Carolina history. And the flight was really integral to making that happen.
31:28
Bobby Doss
That's awesome. Scott, you've shared some stuff offline with us. Tell us maybe one or two of your most exciting wins or flights that you feel like you made an impact on.
31:41
Scott
Sure. Well, I mentioned the Houston Ship Channel flights. Those are all obviously local and those are almost sort of a repeating flight request that if you ever want to go take a tour of the Ship Channel, there is an environmental partner who would be delighted to go with you. And so I've done that a number of times. But back in fact, in March, I took A reporter from Univision on a trip around the Houston Ship Channel, which ended up they did a story on Univision channel 45 here in Houston about the impact of the ship channel on various neighborhoods in sort of northeast Houston, which was all in Spanish. But my poquito Spanish allowed me to listen and understand enough of it to realize that it was an important story that the Univision wanted to tell. Separate from that, Wally mentioned natural disasters.
32:50
Scott
One of the interesting flights I've done for South Wings involved a natural disaster. But it was long after the fact that everybody in Houston remembers that when Hurricane Ike barreled through here in 2008, it was a real mess. And shortly after Hurricane Ike, a number of organizations, including the Army Corps of Engineers, some very smart folks at Texas A and M, Galveston, and a number of others started putting together studies to see whether or not we could have a coastal barrier that was modeled loosely after the barriers that the Dutch used to keep the North Sea out of the Netherlands. And this barrier got a nickname known as the Eich Dike.
33:44
Scott
And so I think, I want to say earlier this year, in January or so, I flew a journalist and an oceanographer and an engineer off the coast of Galveston and visually mapped where that project is anticipated to be built, if it ever gets built. I guess there's a very large question about the, you know, where are we going to get the funding for it? But it was interesting to me to learn a lot about that project in the course of helping this environmental organization put together some video and some photographs to make their points about what needed to be taken into consideration as Dike gets built or not built.
34:32
Bobby Doss
Yeah. And as Chelsea said, that could be 20 years from now, and it might only impact my grandchildren. But it'd be pretty cool to know that I knew a guy who hung out my hangar that flew that flight, that helped get the Ike Dyke built and save a whole bunch of homes and a whole bunch of buildings and a whole bunch of businesses in Houston, Texas. It's not instantaneous, for sure, in your organization at all.
34:56
Scott
Well, that's right. And you know, the same way the flights that I mentioned in New Orleans, I flew to New Orleans and I went with a film crew in the back of the Bonanza and an oceanographer, and we flew from New Orleans lakefront out to what's called the Head of the Passes, which is the literal end of the Mississippi, and listened. I listened as the oceanographer and the film crew put together part of a documentary that they were working on about the effect of climate Change on river deltas. The film crew had been in the Amazon the week before and they were just going around the world to the major river deltas. And if they could get a flight, great. If not, they'd get a boat. And, you know, that's. That documentary has not come out yet.
35:51
Scott
So I won't, I won't mention the name, but hopefully when it does, it'll have an impact on. For the, for the folks that are advocating to. That we need to look at the ways that river deltas are changing over time.
36:06
Bobby Doss
That's awesome stuff. So sometimes Wally and I reflect on all that we've done and touched around the world with the podcast. Many people tell him and me, I'm not a pilot, but I like to listen to your show. They're probably family or friends of ours and somehow connected to us. What if I can't be a pilot? What if I don't need a mission? What can I do to help the organization? Chelsea, if maybe it's Christmas and I feel generous and I want to throw $100 bill at an organization, what could they do?
36:39
Chelsea
Well, I think you want me to say that they can always donate.
36:43
Bobby Doss
Was I leading you to that option? I'm sorry.
36:46
Chelsea
We. We appreciate every. Every donation that we get, small or large. Southwings.org donate is where you can find the form to do that. So that would be very much appreciated.
36:59
Bobby Doss
You must have misunderstood me because I was hoping that you would say they could go to your store and they could buy a double X. Unfortunately, I'm a big man. Double X. This Columbia Mountain fleece vest would look great at the flight school in the cool days of Houston, Texas. So if you want to, you can also go to their store. I'm sure this merchandise does something for your organization. I like a quarter zip. Again, double X. You can find my address@unitedfly.com but. But I'm kidding, of course. But the merch is good stuff. What do you think, Wally? Our store looks bleak compared to the trucker hats and cool stuff they got.
37:41
Wally Mulhern
Yeah. And really, I mean, I'm looking at the prices and thinking, wow, that's really reasonable.
37:48
Bobby Doss
Super reasonable. Yeah. So if you need a. If you need a trucker hat, you need a toboggan. You need a good, you know, Columbia shirt looks like it's market price with the south wings logo on it. And you do a lot to support them as well. Is there anything else we could do to get involved? I guess tell organizations. Speak about what you do and then share the podcast and maybe the website.
38:15
Chelsea
Yeah. If you know a pilot who's looking to do some volunteer flying, point them in our direction.
38:20
Bobby Doss
And finally, where else can we find you? I'm sure you have some social media pages. What would you like our listeners to do around the world to help promote your organization if they can?
38:31
Chelsea
Yeah, we're on all the socials. South Wings is how you can find us. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all the things southwings.org My email is chelseaouthwings.org Easier to remember might be volunteerouthwings.org Any way you want to reach out to us. We would, we would be glad to have a conversation and get to know you and share more about South Wings with anybody who's interested.
38:58
Bobby Doss
That's awesome stuff, Scott. We're gonna have another open house in March, April. Some really big news coming for United Flight Systems and Behind the Prop in the coming year that we're gonna celebrate in March and April. So hopefully you can come back and support South Wings. Chelsea wanted to be a part of the open house in some way. You're, you guys are both welcome to have a table and share your news and what you do for organizations that are open house and hopefully reach a few hundred people at that event as well. More to come on that. As always, thanks for listening to our show. Thanks for South Wings for joining us today. No matter what you do, stay behind the prop. Thanks.
39:44
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.