Number one: Do you think pilots are cool?

- Yes.

- All right, we're gonna get along.

(TJ laughs)

(upbeat music)

- Hi, my name is TJ, and I'm nine years old.

- [Producer] TJ, have you ever met a pilot?

- I've been to Hawaii twice, but I've never seen a pilot.

- [Producer] Are you excited?

- Yes.

- Hi, I'm James, and I've been a pilot

since I was 17 years old.

I got my license when I was in high school.

I've always wanted to fly ever since I was a kid.

I'm an 80s kid, so watching the movie Top Gun,

as soon as I saw the planes in that movie,

I just decided that I wanted to start flying.

When I was a kid, I don't really know

how much I knew about airplanes.

I just knew that they flew, I didn't really know how.

But I knew that I wanted to learn how they flew.

Hi, I'm James, what's your name?

- TJ.

- TJ, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, too.

- How do you think that airplanes actually fly?

- I think they fly because of the engine they have.

They have this race car steering wheel thing.

- (laughs) Oh yeah, okay.

- [TJ] Yeah, and then they pull it,

and then they just slowly drift up.

So when they go down, the wheels help it slow down

for the plane to land to that area.

- So when a plane is taking off, how do you think

the plane actually lifts off the ground?

Like, when birds fly, what do they use?

- They use their wings.

- Right, so what do you think a plane uses?

- Their wings.

- There you go, so wings combined with.

- Air.

- [James] And speed, right?

- Mm-hm.

- [James] So as a plane's going faster and faster,

it generates more and more lift with the wings,

and the air going over the wings,

it actually creates the lift that lets the plane take off.

- The first airplane to take off

was in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

- Oh, oh, you know that already.

- [TJ] And then everyone was like,

"You know what, let's copy Kitty Hawk."

And they'll just fly planes everywhere.

- (laughs) December 17th 1903 is when they first flew.

Do you know how long they flew for?

- Three seconds.

(incorrect buzzer sound)

- Twelve second, close.

- Oh, and I read that airplanes,

like when they're flying from like Iceland

to like New Zealand, they need way more fuel.

- [James] They do, they do.

- [TJ] Because it's gonna be a really long flight.

- It is a long flight.

- Like 16 hours.

- Sixteen hours.

Do you know how long the longest flight ever was?

- A week.

- A week? (laughs) - Over a week.

The longest flight was about 19 hours.

- Nineteen hours?

- That's a long time to be on a plane, yeah.

- That's nothing!

- Nothing?

- That's nothing!

- Nineteen hours?

What would you do on a plane for 19 hours?

Would you watch a lot of movies?

- Or I'm just gonna get my papers and,

"Hey, can I sign your autograph, pilot?"

- (laughs) You could.

So how fast do you think planes

are flying when they're in the sky?

How fast do you think, like, commercial airlines fly?

- A hundred and thirty-five.

- A little more.

- A hundred forty.

- (laughs) It's about 500.

- Five hundred?

- Between 500, average 500-550 miles an hour

is about how fast planes fly when they're up in the sky.

- What if, like, the shortest flight

was like three seconds?

Like, Prospera to San Francisco,

like, ding, we're here.

- Yep, yep, so how high do you think the planes fly?

- Above 125, above clouds.

- A hundred twenty-five feet?

- Meters.

- Meters?

Oh, gosh, I don't know meters (laughs).

Most airlines fly between 30 to 40,000 feet, on average.

- I once had this dream that we were flying a plane,

and then we were above Seattle, but next door

was Beijing, China, it was so weird.

- Next door?

That's a quick flight to China.

Can you see yourself being a pilot?

Do you wanna fly planes?

- Kind of.

- Yeah you do, I know you do.

- Yeah, I do.

- [James] Have you ever been up in a smaller plane?

- I don't think so.

- No? - I don't think so.

- You should do it, it's fun.

What do you think the difference is

between the really big planes and the little ones?

- I think I can see the difference because of the wheels.

Like, the wheels are like, I'd say, like this tiny.

Yeah, and then, it's like bigger than you.

- Yeah, on the big planes.

- Yeah.

- Also, the engines, too, right?

So this one's got a propeller.

A lot of the smaller planes are propeller-driven,

whereas the big planes you fly are.

- Big engines.

- Jet engines, big jet engines, yep.

- I'd say, like, they're the size of like 300 meters.

- Three hundred meters?

You like meters, don't you?

- Yeah, I see this guy like having these two sticks

and then like, doing like, those signals.

- Yeah, the guy, that's the ramp agent.

So he basically tells you keep coming forward.

There's a bunch of different motions

that mean different things, like turn left, turn right,

and then the cross means stop.

So you know how there's a lot of traffic

in LA and the 405 and all that?

- [TJ] Yeah.

- How do you think traffic is organized in the sky?

How do you think we don't run into each other?

- I think it has something to do with like, the speed.

- [James] Okay.

- So, I think when another airplane goes by,

you have to slow down, and then it's like (squeaking noise).

- Yep, actually, when you're flying, it's actually

really hard to see other planes, 'cause the sky's so big.

Have you ever heard of air traffic control?

- No.

- No, okay, so it's these people at the airport.

So, have you ever seen those big towers

with the glass windows all around it?

Inside those glass towers, there's

a bunch of people with radios on.

We have radios as well.

And so we're talking back and forth,

we're letting the air traffic controllers

know where we are, and where we're going.

Okay, so when we're flying, you know,

we're really up high in the sky.

When you look out, you can't really see anything.

So how do you think we know where we're going?

- They use a GDP.

- GDP.

- (laughs) I mean, GDP, GPS!

- There you go, GPS, very cool.

What do you think pilots used before GPS?

Because GPS is relatively new.

- They used a map.

- There you go, a map, very good.

We used maps and also, this is a,

what's called a VFR chart.

- [TJ] Whoa.

- This is a VFR chart, and basically

it's got all the airports, there's LAX,

there's Burbank, this is Van Nuys Airport.

- This looks like Pac-Man.

- (laughs) It does a little.

When you're flying a plane, imagine having this

while you're trying to fly a plane, right?

It's just too cumbersome, so we don't use this anymore.

So now, we use this thing.

Some of these are built into the screens,

like on the actual plane, and some people

have them, like as an iPad, like this.

- Oh.

- And so, basically, what you just

saw there, is now on the screen.

- Oh, wow.

Is that like a Samsung?

- This is an iPad.

- Oh, I have an iPad Pro!

- Oh, wow, see, you're ahead of me.

Do you know what a pre-flight check is?

- I've heard that you can't walk

underneath the wing of the plane.

- Oh, I do it all the time, are you not supposed to?

As, like, a passenger, you don't get anywhere near,

besides the steps, but as a pilot,

you have to go underneath the wings.

So you have a whole list of things

that you wanna check before you actually get in the plane.

So, you go and you check like the tires,

the lights, the wings, all the controls.

- Is there like a gas station for airplanes?

- There is a gas station for airplanes, yep.

They're on the airports.

Most of the time they have fuel trucks.

Or, if you're at a smaller airport, they'll have

like a self-serve kind of station.

You kind of fill it up and go.

All right, TJ, so the most important part of being a pilot,

since I know you're going to be one one day,

test out some aviators.

You can't take flight school without having aviators.

- And then, when it's too sunny,

just put on your glasses, like a boss.

- That's it, you've got it, he's cooler than me already.

- I learned that all airplanes have an engine.

And then, the plane check thingy,

- Pre-flight check. - Pre-flight check.

They check the engines, the wheels, the wings,

they check everything on the plane.

And then, I learned that they didn't have GPS

back in the day, they actually had to use the map.

And then, they invented GPS.

That's really cool to learn.

- He knew a lot more than I thought he would.

Clearly, he's a very smart kid and he's going places.

And I think he'll make a good pilot one day.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music)