Radio Toni A Conversation with Kez Wickham St George and Toni Lontis

This is the second show of a new show series focused on authors and co hosted with my amazing new co host Kez Wickham St George

Kez Wickham St George is the driver of her own creativity and her passion is to inspire and nurture others to tell their stories. Her values are simple; when you touch a heart; we can change a life. By encouraging you to write or journal her belief is, it will only add value to your life.

Toni now has multiple live streaming TV radio shows on different platforms based in the USA and broadcasting to the world, including her own channel on Binge TV Networks. She delivers collaborative co-hosted business shows that create brand awareness and helps companies leverage the power of live streaming media. She uses the power of the spoken word to tell the stories that the world needs to hear. Believing that everybody and every business has a story, everyone has something to say and she is determined to help you say it. She too is passionate about supporting authors and promoting their work.

This week we welcome back to Radio Toni Robert Fulton

Robert is an inspirational reinvention specialist, author, and pilot. Robert was just 3 months shy of retirement, having fully vested in his employer’s retirement plan, when they pulled his program and laid everyone off! Robert was forced to reinvent himself and for the first time in his life, in his 50yr career he was grounded. Robert had to figure out how to overcome PTDS, deep depression and what on earth to do in his late 60’s. Out of this time was born a book – Up in the sir, a pilot’s journey, his aviation memoir spanning 50 yrs. Robert also became an award winning speaker with Toastmasters and now he speaks on overcoming obstacles, reinvention, retirement and leadership.

About the book - Up in the Air

With more than 20,000 flying hours, Robert Fulton takes you "up in the air" in a series of 10 chapters that detail stories produced by a wide variety of fixed-wing and helicopter missions that on occasion rise to the level of breathtaking terror as well as the luxury of immense relief. 

In a career spanning almost 50 years, Fulton dives into the riddles of fate in the air, into life's struggle to survive no matter what - finding a way, risking life and limb to achieve a goal, taking calculated risks to overcome an obstacle that blocks your progress. Lessons applicable to life and living are paralleled by the author through lessons in flight where the elements and fate's cruelest outcomes are presented as experiences to learn from. 

Up in the Air: A Pilot's Journey will have you paying rapt attention to find out how the story ended or what is next, but it will also give you the feelings of the author as he steers in hopeful directions for a favorable outcome for patients, passengers, and fellow pilots who deserve success and to be shielded from fate at its worst.

Good afternoon Robert and welcome to Radio Toni we are so delighted to have you here today. We are sharing questions today with my co host Kez and I’m going to pass the microphone to her now.

1. KEZ - There’s a lovely description of the first time you went up in a place as a child. Can you recount this for the audience, it’s a wonderful memory for you isn’t it?

2. TONI - I noted a wonderful phase from the first chapter of the book, the chapter is called 30sec over Tokyo. I don’t want to give away the story but there’s a phase I loved from this chapter “Bull riding in the snow” Can you tell the audience what this wonderful phrase refers to?

3. Kez - You describe 400 orange helicopters converging from all points on the Parker County Court house, like bees swarming to the bee hive. What is this describing, and can you take our listeners back to that time and place?

4. Toni - One on the Chapters in UP in the Air focuses on fate and the analogy you use is about fortune cookies. Let’s talk about fate. How much does the concept of fate enter your mind as a young man flying combat missions in Vietnam in helicopters? How did you deal with this across your career and what are your thoughts about fate?

5. Kez - What are snakes and what was their significance in Vietnam?

6. Toni - Night flying – what are the implications of flying aircraft at night?

7. Kez - Robert what about flying accidents/incidents and dangerous situations, you have had many of those across your career, can you tell the audience about one of those, how did you get back in a plane/helicopter, do those near-death experiences change the way you fly, they way you live life?

8. Toni - Up in the Air is peppered with wonderful insights into the technical components of flight, from helicopters to aircraft. You’re an expert in this field how did you accomplish the difficulty of converting this type of technical information into such readable and interesting script for readers?

9. Kez - Up in the Air is a series of short stories from your decades in the air. Do you have a favorite chapter, if so why?

10. Toni -You’ve had some amazing book reviews so far and I want to read one of these for the listeners today –

Book Reviews: Exciting Flying Memoir! A collection of auto-biographical short stories from the author’s experiences as a both a helicopter and fixed-wing pilot, Robert Fulton’s thrilling new memoir kept me turning the pages late into the night! Fulton writes gut-wrenching moments that brought me to tears and hair-raising experiences explained in detail. The author’s wonderful story-telling puts the reader right in the pilot’s seat through Vietnam, Arctic flying, perilous wire-filled cities, and low-visibility night flying. “Up in the Air” is an excellent read to be enjoyed by pilots and passengers alike.

Kez - Finally, what does the future look like for Robert Fulton author, speaker pilot hold?