Lessons from a top Red Bull Air Racing and decorated fighter pilot--Matt Hall

08/20/19 • 60 min

My guest today is Matt Hall, Australia's top aviator. He has logged over 6,000 hours in various aircraft, including the F-18 Hornet and the F-15 Strike Eagle. He is a decorated Wing Commander in the Australian Air Force, a Fighter Combat Instructor (Australia's version of Top Gun), and in 1997 was named Australia’s Fighter Pilot of the Year.

Matt has also competed on the international level in aerobatics, winning the Australian Advanced Aerobatic Championship and finished first in Freestyle and second overall in the Unlimited category.

For the last 10 years, Matt has been flying at the pinnacle of aviation racing--The Red Bull Air Race series. He is one of the top pilots, coming in second overall a record three times. With the final Red Bull race ever coming up, Matt is in second place with a chance to win the championship.

What struck me most about Matt was his system's approach to winning. He has merged the training he did in the Air Force with an Olympic athlete's mindset. Every aspect of his life has been optimized so that on race day he can fly as fast as possible. In our conversation we talk about what it's like to pull 12G's, the time his wing hit the ocean during a race, his sports psychology training, and more. Below are the show notes with the associated timestamps:

Where passion for aviation comes from (min. 02:45)
Highlights of your military career and stories (min. 08:00)
Lessons learned from combat (min. 12:15)
How he got into racing (min. 14:45)
How difficult the transition to racing was (min. 17:45)
How to reduce jet lag (min. 20:15)
Red Bull Air Race weekly schedule (min. 23:45)
How the military background helps now (min. 27:45)
Using sports psychology for flying (min. 30:15)
Mental and physical training (min. 33:15)
Pulling upwards of 12G's in turns! (min. 35:15)
Race overview (min.37:15)
Strengths and weaknesses flying (min. 39:45)
Challenges he's had to overcome (min. 41:15)
Being the CEO of the team and the pilot (min. 43:45)
Crashing a Red Bull plane into the water (min. 47:00)
Whats next now that the Red Bull series is canceled (min. 54:45)

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Matt has also competed on the international level in aerobatics, winning the Australian Advanced Aerobatic Championship and finished first in Freestyle and second overall in the Unlimited category.

Where passion for aviation comes from (min. 02:45)
Highlights of your military career and stories (min. 08:00)
Lessons learned from combat (min. 12:15)
How he got into racing (min. 14:45)
How difficult the transition to racing was (min. 17:45)
How to reduce jet lag (min. 20:15)
Red Bull Air Race weekly schedule (min. 23:45)
How the military background helps now (min. 27:45)
Using sports psychology for flying (min. 30:15)
Mental and physical training (min. 33:15)
Pulling upwards of 12G's in turns! (min. 35:15)
Race overview (min.37:15)
Strengths and weaknesses flying (min. 39:45)
Challenges he's had to overcome (min. 41:15)
Being the CEO of the team and the pilot (min. 43:45)
Crashing a Red Bull plane into the water (min. 47:00)
Whats next now that the Red Bull series is canceled (min. 54:45)

Previous Episode

The Co-Founder of Siri and Change.org on working with Steve Jobs, Time Management Techniques, and Keys to Success--Adam Cheyer

My guest today is a genius that is changing the paradigm of the world we live in. I don't use those words lightly. He is the Co-Founder of Siri, the digital assistant that's in every Apple device. He is a founding member of Change.org, a community of over 200 million members who fight for what's right by shining a spotlight on important issues around the world. He is also a founding member of Sentient, the worlds most well funded artificial intelligence company. He is currently working as the Co-Founder of Viv Labs, developing Bixby, Samsung's digital assistant. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, and holds 26 patents.

Talking with Adam was an incredible experience. He is one of the few people who has changed the world in a measurable way. His story about Steve Jobs calling him up and offering to buy his company is amazing. He talks about how he managed his time while starting 3 companies simultaneously, how to develop a mental model to predict the future, and his current digital assistant, which the rest of us won't have access to for several years. If you listen to one part, listen to the last 10 minutes, where he talks about the key to his success--verbally stated goals. Below are the topics we discussed along with timestamps:

Origin of Siri (min. 02:45)
How to know when you can commercialize a passion (min. 06:15)
Developing a mental model of the future (min. 10:30)
How social media has helped us (min. 15:00)
Working with Steve Jobs (min. 17:00)
The Apple culture (min. 24:00)
Seeing Siri everywhere now (min 27:00)
Future of digital assistants (min 30:30)
Developing Bixby for billions of devices (min. 34:00)
Balancing security with function (min. 37:15)
His personal super-assistant (min. 38:30)
Founding Sentient, the worlds most well funded AI company (min. 41:45)
Using Sentient computing to find the perfect shoe (min. 46:15)
Amazing time management skills (min. 48:30)
His key to success--verbally stated goals (min. 53:15)

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!
I've also started a monthly newsletter where I send out a few useful or insightful things that have helped me over the last month. You can sign up by clicking here or going to:
https://www.professionalsplaybook.com/newsletter
Instagram-- @justinfighterpilot
Facebook--@justinfighterpilot

Next Episode

CEO and Co-Founder of ForeFlight on building the worlds best aviation software--Tyson Weihs

My guest today is Tyson Weihs, the Co-Founder and CEO of ForeFlight--by far the best aviation software ever produced.

Tyson and his company Foreflight has nearly singlehandedly dragged the entire aviation industry into the future. Before Foreflight aviation software was slow, cumbersome, and obsolete as soon as you bought it. It was similar to the dashboard GPS devices you stuck to your car window. Foreflight has done to aviation software what Google Maps did to the TomTom. It works seamlessly, it's updated all the time, and every few months there's a new feature you can use.

In our conversation, we talk about what it takes to build a great team, how to harness innovation, how he manages his time, and more. Below are the full show notes with associated time stamps:

Where the idea of ForeFlight came from (min. 03:30)
Obstacles Foreflight has had to overcome (min. 08:15)
His biggest win (min. 12:40)
Building a great team and culture (min. 19:15)
How to manage innovation (min. 29:15)
Making the software useful to everyone (min. 34:00)
Surprises as CEO (min. 36:30)
How he manages his time (min. 39:30)
Things that increase his performance (min. 41:30)
Where ForeFlight is going in the future (min. 42:30)
Whats next (min. 49:15)

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

I've also started a monthly newsletter where I send out a few useful or insightful things that have helped me over the last month. You can sign up by clicking here or going to:
https://www.professionalsplaybook.com/newsletter
Instagram-- @justinfighterpilot
Facebook--@justinfighterpilot