5x5 with Scott Corley

Rob Bendall was the lead certification pilot for the launch of Virgin America. Along with certification Rob has had a role in most things involving the pilots at Virgin America. Hiring, checking, training, and otherwise supporting the pilots; he has acted as certification pilot, check airman, base chief pilot to system chief pilot. In this interview we talk about what it took to launch the airline from a pilot’s perspective and many other aspects of the airline. Rob’s integrity is something I have always admired. I hope you enjoy this conversation. Bendall Interview 00:00 Role in Certification 6:00 Pre-Virgin Background 12:25 How the FAA tests the operation via scenario cards on test flights. 16:45 Early VX manual sets 19:45 Pilot Culture and uniforms. 25:30 Goatees, FuManchus, and Professional looks. 44:00 The VA Inflight Entertainment System. 47:45 Ken Beiler Cabin 3.0 49:00 Unions and VX 53:00 ALPA organizing drive. 57:00 Biggest Challenges 60:00 Interviewing Pilots 69:00 Consolidation 71:00 B6/NK 76:50 Who owned the Planes 81:00 The Most Virgin Virgin Company 83:15 Own Safety 84:15 Props to Tech Ops 87:00 Protecting the dignity of the airline.

Iain Day was 3 years old when his father took him to an airshow at RAF Leuchars outside Dundee in Scotland and he was hooked.
He received a Flying Scholarship from the UKs Royal Air Force at the age of 16 as a member of the Air Training Corps. Iain was, for a while, the youngest Private pilot in Scotland being only 17 when he achieved that.

At 18 Iain left home and moved to the United States to continue his aviation education.
Capitalizing on on the more cost effective training environment in the States; Iain arrived in Phoenix, Arizona in late December 1994. There he started working on more licenses and ratings, eventually gaining all levels of flight instructor and advanced ground instructor certificates before he turned 21.

Along with flight instructing, Iain worked as a support pilot and announcer for a nationally touring airshow act.

In 2001 left Phoenix and moved to New England as a First Officer and later Captain for the now defunct Colgan Air flying all over the North East.

He then flew corporate jets for 10 years. After that he went to went to Virgin America where he met me, we were flying the A320 out of JFK and EWR. He left this job after the sale of VX and they closed the only East Coast base it had.

He now works for a large Cargo outfit; recently having transitioned from the Boeing 747 to the Boeing 777.

Just over a year ago he traded his 1974 Bellanca Decathlon aircraft, N401AD, for my current aircraft, a 1992 Yakovlev 55M, N55YA.
Follow him on Instagram @capecodyak

Matt received his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina in 1994, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Sherman received his master's degree in international relations from Cambridge University in 1996. As a Fulbright Scholar, he worked with the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs on US - Australian trade regulations. He later returned to Chapel Hill and received his J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 2002. (Source:Wikipedia—But also confirmed by Matt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Sherman_(lawyer) Matt’s unique charismatic personality helped him build relationships with all types of players on all sides of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. His resulting perspective would inform the key decision makers in both wars. The list of people he advised includes General Stanley McChrystal, General David Petraeus, and General John F Campbell. 12:46 Nothing Simple 14:00 Geography plays huge role in how nations evolve 15:30 Long term force presence 17:00 How to interpret the political views regarding now.. 18:50 Forever War isn’t the way to look at it 21:00 How wars end 32:20 Afghani Institutions today 33:46 US Mission in Afghanistan 34:30 Reason for Pride in the mission 35:00 What caused 9/11 and will the Taliban be able to enforce prevention of terrorist training camps. 38:40 Justification for Invading Afghanistan and whether the Taliban could have turned over Osama Bin Laden to the US. 41:00 How Important was finding and killing OBL. 44:45 Perceptions of Force 46:20 The Fierce debate in Washington on the first surge in 2006 51:10 Obama Surge 53:20 The psychological impact of leaving 54:30 How many Americans are in Afghanistan against their will right now 56:20 Afghani helpers to the US left there 56:50 Helping People Out of Afghanistan 78:30 Advertisement 88:00 Dan Carlin 93:20 Wars bringing out the best in people. 94:00 Looking for more or broader perspective 100:00 Round up of Saddam’s AirForce 109:30 Colin Powell’s perspectives 1:58:00 Sister BA Acknowledgments: Thanks to Matt Sherman for his time and the sharing of his perspectives. Thanks to Sheila Corley for help in general in life and more specifically to this episode helping me consolidate my thoughts for the Intro. Chad H for showing up. The Ninja 9 for the intro music. (Solstice from the Pandemia album.) Mike Marts for creative connections. Parkin Corley for writing/playing drums on the outro music. Brendan Ruane, who is an outstanding audio engineer, for coaching me over the last year plus to help me get to the point where I was able to create the sound mix from this episode by myself…. Shawn G Smith for demanding better from me.

John Carlson and I have a fun discussion about the Auto Sales industry and life!