We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jon Gray a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jon , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
In my early childhood days, I lived near March Air Force Base in Riverside California. I remember my eyes being drawn upwards to watch the military aircraft that was landing and departing from March Air Force Base. I grew up wanting to be a pilot but had no idea how to accomplish my dream. In my mind, I was as likely to be a pilot as I was to become a professional baseball player.
As an adult, I started my public safety career as a firefighter paying my way through college working for the U.S. Forest Service. After graduation from UC Santa Barbara, I was hired by the San Diego Police Department, as a police officer. In both the fire service and law enforcement helicopters provided support from above and I became infatuated with them. I transferred to the Ontario (California) Police Department in 2006 and earned an opportunity to become a part time observer or Tactical flight officer (TFO) in 2013, a full time TFO in 2014 and was selected to become a pilot in late 2017.
Looking back there were not many resources for me as a child or adult to learn about the pathway to aviation. In 2020 during my hour plus commute to work I listened to a podcast featuring an LA County Sherriff who fly’s their rescue helicopter “Air Rescue 5.” After hearing the interview, I searched for similar content to no avail.
After noticing the void in the podcast segment representing and promoting public safety aviation, I decided to start The Hangar Z Podcast. My goal in creating the podcast was to inspire others to get into public safety aviation, to promote the good work being done daily by current public safety aviation crews and to honor contributions made by previous generations.
As of today, The Hangar Z Podcast has produced 58 episodes over two years and has interviewed guests from within public safety aviation from across the world.
Jon , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As I stated earlier, I had no clue how to become a pilot. Neither of my parents had an aviation background and they probably thought my passion for aviation was just fantasy.
Being a pilot now I have learned that most everyone in the aviation industry has overcome adversity to get to the position they are in today. I spend approximately half of each interview on The Hangar Z Podcast, discussing the guests background and how they got into aviation. My hope in doing this is that people will be inspired by the wide variety of backgrounds, obstacles overcome and pathways to aviation discussed.
The second half of the episodes are spent discussing and outlining the agency my guest comes from. Public safety is full of stories that could not be scripted better by Hollywood, because of that we go over interesting incidents that guest had been a part of during their careers. This segment is designed to provide training and insight for those currently in the public safety aviation industry.
Public safety aviation is literally saving lives every day in United States and across the world. The Hangar Z Podcast utilizes social media to promote the good work done by public safety aviation crews. Our goal in promoting the good work is to provide insight to the general public who generally never hears the about heroic stories and missions that are being completed by public safety aviation crews.
The most rewarding aspect of what we are doing is the impact we are having on others aspiring to get into public safety aviation. We love reading the messages received from listeners that have benefitted from the content on the podcast. One listener wrote us recently and described how the content we talk about led him to pursue a position in his department’s aviation unit. He said what he leaned listening to the podcast helped him immensely during the interview process to become a tactical flight officer. He was ultimately offered a position as a TFO which he accepted. Today he is helping to protect the good citizens of Tennessee from the sky.
There are many aviation related podcasts, but we are the first and only podcast promoting public safety aviation.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
Lucky the financial capital to start podcasting is relatively low. Equipment needed to start a podcast can be as simple as a laptop with a set of earbuds that include a mic and recording software that can be found for free on the internet. As a podcast grows so does the need for better equipment and advanced editing software that can be very pricy.
The mental capital needed to start the podcast is the better story. The first major barrier to sucess was my own desire to avoid failure. I had no clue how to record and produce a podcast episode let alone the equipment needed to make a successful podcast. I was pretty sure that even if I could figure it out, the only person who would listen would be my mom and maybe a friend as a gesture of good will.
I remember getting the nerve up to tell my friend and coworker Kevin about my idea to create this podcast during one of our flights. I was pretty sure he would laugh and tell me what a nerd I was for wanting to create a podcast. To my surprise he was acceptive of the idea and encourages me to do it. The next step was to tell my boss what I wanted to do since much of what I would be talking about was work related. I was again surprised to hear him encourage me to do it as long as I didn’t do anything stupid to make my agency look bad.
After getting through the initial rounds of pitching the idea to family and friends without any major issues, I decided I would work up the courage to figure out how to create a podcast. After a few months of research and much trial and error, I was pretty confident I could record and produce a podcast episode.
The last hurdle in my mind was coming up with the first guest. I immediately decided I wanted to ask my first supervisor from my aviation unit to join the podcast as the first guest. I highly admired this man as he is a great leader and is highly respected in the industry. His name is Eric Weidner. He had retired from the police department a few years prior and joined forces with some other respected giants from the industry to create their own successful enterprise in aviation called CNC Technologies. Not wanting to embarrass myself I had to work up the courage to ask Eric if he would be my first guest. Eric encouragingly told me he would be happy to join me on the podcast.
Using an old laptop my dad had given me along with a USB mic borrowed from a friend of mine I recorded the first episode of The Hangar Z Podcast with Eric Weidner. The first episode was released On August 13th, 2020.
It is often said the hardest part of any run is the first step. I found this to be true of my own self as it relates to perusing my idea of developing producing and releasing a podcast. Luckly I was encouraged and motivated to start the podcast by family, friends and coworkers. Since the first episode The Hangar Z Podcast has been received better than I had ever imagined. Not only did my mom listen (she unfortunately passed away May 1st, 2022) but most everyone in the public safety aviation community listens as well. It has been wildly odd being recognized by my voice or Hangar Z shirt at public safety aviation events.
The Hangar Z Podcast is no longer reliant on an old computer and a borrowed mic thanks to sponsorships from companies from within the public safety aviation community such as CNC Technologies, Metro Aviation, Bell Flight, Airbus Helicopters Teledyne Flir and many other companies.
After episode four of the podcast, I asked my friend and fellow pilot Jeff Ratkovich to join forces with me on the podcast as a co host. Jeff has quite an extensive aviation background that began in the military and led him to become a law enforcement pilot for the Riverside (Ca.) Police Department and now he is flying EMS in Tennessee. We have since partnered to bring forward interviews and stories from literally across the world. The journey has been outstanding to say the least.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
Jeff Ratkovich is the co-host of The Hangar Z Podcast. Jeff previously worked for the Riverside (Ca.) Police Department as a Police Pilot flying their MD500 helicopters. I knew Jeff from seeing him at various industry events but formally met him at a really cool event called “Cops for Kids.” That year Jeff volunteered to run and organize the huge undertaking.
The Cops for Kids event is an awesome event created to give back to and inspire kids who are patients at Loma Linda University’s Childrens Hospital. Every year the Riverside Police Department in conjunction with many other local Southern California agencies raise money to buy toys for the children at Childrens Hospital. The toys are collected and loaded up onboard law enforcement helicopters, that are flown into and land on the grass at Loma Linda University’s Childrens Hospital. The children get to leave their rooms and explore the helicopters as well as other police equipment such as armored vehicles and police motorcycles. For the children that are unable to leave their rooms, officers and deputies go to them with words of encouragement as well as toys to bring smiles to their faces.
Jeff later left law enforcement and moved to Tennessee to fly EMS helicopters. Knowing Jeff and his interesting background I asked him to join the podcast as a guest in episode 4 which was released on September 23rd, 2020. I quickly realized that he would be a great cohost on the podcast. Jeff first joined the podcast as a cohost in episode 7 which was released on November 5th 2020.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hangarzpodcast.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hangar_z_podcast/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hangarzpodcast
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/HangarZ
Image Credits
The album art with the overhead picture of the helicopter was shot by Scott Dworkin The shot of Jeff Ratkovich by the Riverside PD Helicopter was shot by Jason Jorgenson