RADIO TONI with Toni Lontis

Up In The Air with Robert Fulton

In the first of 2 shows our guest today is an inspirational reinvention specialist, author, and pilot. Robert Fulton 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.

1. Let’s start at the beginning and talk about you and your journey – you discovered a love for flying quite early in life, it’s a special story and I’d like you to tell the listeners about that early love. Blimp, whats a blimp,

2. There’s an interesting story from your childhood about leaning to pleat a skirt by the age of 8….that no mean feat, how come you learnt how to

3. Robert, tell the audience about what happened as you grew older – pumping gas and flight school, Calgary, private pilot’s license,

4. There was a leaflet you saw in a show window that changed your life. Tell us about that – army leaflet, basic training, wanted flight training but ended up a helicopter pilot,

5. We want to delve into all your flight and Vietnam stories on the show next week but can you briefly let the audience about all the different types of flight roles that you’ve had over the years – helicopters, war and combat, fixed wing, crop dusting, Southwest airlines etc

6. After such a long and illustrious career you were preparing for retirement and something life changing happened, what was that?

7. What was the aftermath of this horrible situation?

8. I understand your PTSD (Vietnam) was retriggered and you suffered from depression, can you tell our listeners what that was like and how you managed to recover?

9. Tell us about the decision to write the book, was it difficult and what was the process like?

10. I want to briefly touch on Toastmasters and how they helped in your recovery

Finally 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.

There’s plenty of wonderful reviews for the book – from women especially – have you found this interesting?

Why do you think women are buying this memoir in such numbers and especially for their husbands?

Why to buy the book, how to connect with Robert

Join us next week when we talk to Robert about the stories of his life in Up in the Air.

Paolo Links: https://apilotjourney.com/

Instagram:apilotjourney4