Tracey Barnes-Priestley: Hi, I'm Tracey Barnes-Priestley.

This week on "What's On Your Bucket List?"

It's a dream come true for our first guest when she gets behind the wheel of a very special truck.

And then, stay tuned to watch our second guest take to the skies over Humboldt for a once in a lifetime experience.

Coming up next on "What's On Your Bucket List?"

♪♪♪ Tracey: We are here with Nancy Cavanaugh and I have a feeling this is gonna be a fun one.

[laughing] Nancy, what are we checking off your bucket list?

Nancy J. Cavanaugh: I wanna be the tillerman on a fire truck.

Tracey: Now, when I read your application and I saw that tillerman and I had no idea what it was, I had to look it up.

So would you please explain for the audience exactly who the tillerman is?

Nancy: The tillerman is the guy who sits in that little cab at the back of the hook and ladder truck.

Tracey: With the wheel?

Nancy: With the wheel?

Tracey: Yeah, yeah.

Well, I think--are there any kids around who have not seen that guy and looked at that guy and thought, "I wanted to do something."

Nancy: None that I know of.

Tracey: Right, so you're our big kid for the day.

Nancy: Yes, I am.

Tracey: From what you were telling me in our pre-production interview, you got to know fire personnel pretty in a previous job, previous career.

Nancy: Previous life.

Tracey: Previous life.

Nancy: Yes, yes, yes.

I've worked emergency trauma at Cedar-Sinai and at UCLA and did my six-month stint as the liaison with the fire department.

Tracey: Oh, you did?

Nancy: So yeah, we did ride-alongs and got to see what they really do.

Tracey: Yeah, that must have been fascinating.

Nancy: It was, it was.

Tracey: This isn't a quantum leap for you, what do you do in your spare time?

Nancy: I do autocross.

Tracey: Explain that please.

Nancy: Autocross is racing against the clock trying to get your best time down on a course that frequently changes.

Tracey: And how did you even start that?

How did--where did that come from?

Nancy: I don't know.

I've always been I guess a speed demon and always into cars and building cars and that started when I was in high school.

Tracey: Really, building cars?

Nancy: Working on engines, yes, yeah, yeah.

Tracey: So you started working on cars in what way?

Nancy: Well, this was down in Southern California in Long Beach at Lions Drag Strip.

And I was the math nerd so I would do the math and figure out what was the optimum size judged to be running in the car so we could get the best time.

And then from there I taught them into letting me drive the car on the drag strip.

When I finally won my heat I got disqualified.

Tracey: Why?

Nancy: Because I was a girl.

Tracey: No.

Nancy: Yeah.

Tracey: Really?

Nancy: I did.

Tracey: What year would that have been?

Can you remember?

Nancy: That would've been like 1965.

Tracey: Isn't that something?

Isn't that something?

Nancy: Yeah.

Tracey: You won the heat.

Nancy: I did.

Tracey: Oh.

Nancy: I took the division.

Tracey: Oh.

Nancy: My mistake was taking my helmet off.

Tracey: Well, okay, I think we've waited long enough.

I think we need to get you up in the--up behind the wheel.

Nancy: Yes.

Tracey: We'll hope the sun comes out, it's trying.

And we're gonna go out to Redwood Acres where we're gonna meet station one and the crew.

So let's go, shall we?

Nancy: Okay, let's.

Tracey: Okay.

Tracey: At Redwood Acres, we were met by Scott Gordinier, the engineer who drives the firetruck, and Jared Hugh, the tillerman and Nancy's teacher for the day.

First, Scott explained how the truck functions.

Scott Gordinier: It takes two people to operate this piece of equipment.

So, as the driver of the front, I'm kind of in charge and responsible for the safety of the apparatus.

I have a steering wheel that controls where we go, gas pedal, brake pedal, just like your car.

And then the tiller, the tiller operator in the back there is responsible for operating and steering this rear axle that you see behind it.

So that allows us to go around corners that are really tight and get into weird alleyways and stuff because the primary function of this ladder truck is to make rescues and to get to the roof to cut holes in the roof for fires.

We here on the truck don't really actually use the hose at all.

We have axes and chainsaws and tools where we--so we are in charge of opening the door for the engine crew to get the engine crew in if it's locked.

We're in charge of looking in the fire and rescuing people and then of course, cutting holes in the top.

So the ladder goes a 100 feet in the air and it can get us to meet that objective depending on, you know, where it might be.

It could be a two-story Victorian or it could be, you know, the jail downtown that's five-stories tall.

Nancy: Wow, amazing.

Tracey: Well, all right good introduction.

Shall we get you going here?

Nancy: I'm ready.

Scott: Excellent.

Nancy: I'm ready.

Tracey: Scott took us on a safety tour of the truck and explained his responsibilities as the engineer, which includes communicating everything he observes to his tillerman.

Scott: 'Cause from your position, you'll have an excellent view of the sides, but not a very good view of what's actually in front of us.

So that's my job.

So, at any point and any time throughout our driver's training today, if you see something that you think maybe I don't see like anything, a person, a dog, an obstruction, a car, just be like, "Hey, do you see that car to the left?"

And I'll be like, "I see it, no problem," or I'll be like, "Oh, I don't see it, thank you for pointing that out," and I'll do the same to you.

So just very--me and Jared having a very, very open line of communication and the whole time we're talking, talking, talking the whole way.

And then of course if you're uncomfortable or you feel like things aren't going well, just say stop and I'll stop.

Nancy: Oh, that's not gonna happen-- Scott: That's all you gotta say.

Okay, I didn't think it would, but if it does.

Tracey: Next, Jared showed Nancy the safest way to climb into the cab and then explain the basic responsibilities of the tiller operator.

Jared Hugh: So to go over a couple of components in the tiller cab, you have your steering wheel, which obviously is pretty self-explanatory.

You have an array of switches up here that are for lights primarily, and windshield wiper.

This is an indicator up here that shows you if your tractor or the tiller portion is in line-- Nancy: Got it-- Jared: With the tractor portion 'cause this turns multiple times and if you turn back, it can still be turning and you won't know so this helps with that indication.

So the first thing I was told is to not over tiller.

So like my natural instinct when I first got here is to do two full turns when we're going around.

Nancy: And you don't really need to.

Jared: You don't.

A lot of times you don't even need to turn the wheel.

This is the tricky part, when he turns right, you go left.

Nancy: Oh, I know that.

Jared: Do you have any questions?

Nancy: No.

Jared: No?

All right.

Nancy: I wanna drive.

Jared: You wanna drive?

[both laughing] Tracey: Nancy made herself comfortable behind the wheel and put on her headset.

Scott ran her through the final checklist.

I'm checking the cameras to make sure there's no one.

Dave: Cool.

Nancy: I do have somebody on my left side walking.

Scott: Thank you, that's perfect and I believe those are our vault.

You have vault--your door shut out there?

Nancy: Okay, I do.

Scott: Cool.

Scott: And so I'll always make sure our doors are shut, make sure there's nothing in front of us and then I double check with my crew in the cab that everyone's buckled, which they are.

Nancy: I'm buckled.

Scott: Cool, you're ready?

Nancy: Ready.

Scott: Okay, we're gonna start rolling.

Nancy: Oh my God, here we go.

Scott: All right.

You're officially driving the back of the tiller truck.

Sweet, so what we're gonna start out here is we're gonna be doing not quite yet, but in a minute here, we'll be doing a nice right hand turn.

Nancy: All right.

I'm gonna go left?

Scott: Yeah, and we're gonna start our turn here in about another 3 feet.

So I'm gonna start turning right here.

Scott: You're ready?

Nancy: Yeah.

Scott: Okay, here we go.

Nice work.

Are you familiar you see this pole here on the right?

Nancy: Yeah.

Scott: That's our main obstruction so we're gonna go round that pole.

Nancy: Okay.

Scott: You're doing a really good job so far.

Excellent.

Then of course we're gonna have a fence up here on our left so don't swing too far over it.

Nancy: Got it.

Scott: Perfect.

Scott: Sweet, and so that right there is a nice, easy U-turn and so you can straighten out.

So you're kind of crabbing to the left there.

Nancy: I see that, I've see that.

Scott: So just kind of bring your steering wheel back to straight.

There you go.

It takes a minute.

Perfect.

How're we feeling?

Nancy: Great, this is fun.

Dave: Have you ever thought it would be-- Nancy: It is, it's better, it's better.

Scott: You know, we're gonna be hiring some new firefighter soon so.

Nancy: I think I'm over the age limit.

Scott: I don't think so.

I think you can throw an application for it, yeah.

[Nancy laughing] Okay so, here comes another right hand turn already.

Nancy: Okay.

Scott: So as we approach a structure fire, let's just say a house on fire, we're gonna be constantly looking for our personal safety first because if we get hurt we can't help anyone.

And then we're gonna be looking for obstruction.

So if we wanna put this--a big ladder up to the roof--or you can start straightening now right now.

So bring your wheel back center there, perfect.

Okay so, we're gonna do the left turn so you're gonna swing just to the right a bit.

Just nice and gently you need to do more than probably hour and a half, one full turn.

Tracey: Next, Scott had Nancy try crab steering which is a very useful maneuver when changing lanes in tight traffic.

Scott: Now, steer to your left.

Steering all the way to the left.

Turn to the left.

There you go.

So I have the camera man here, I'm sure he'll get out the way but just heads up on the left hand side.

Yeah, pretty cool.

Nancy: Very.

Scott: Pretty interesting view, isn't it?

Nancy: It is, it's amazing what you can see.

Scott: I know.

It's pretty wild.

All right, excellent work.

Nancy: Awesome.

Scott: Yeah, you're doing better than we expected, so we-- Nancy: I'm doing better than I expected.

Tracey: Finally, Nancy tried a careful maneuver steering in between cones.

Do you see that?

Nancy: I do.

Scott: Excellent, okay.

Scott: So we're passing a cone on my left and I'm gonna start moving over to your left.

Okay and perfect and can you see, you'll see it just here in a second.

The cone on our right?

Nancy: Yes, I see it.

Scott: Okay, so I'm gonna swing right, which means you need to swing just a bit left not too much left just enough--beautiful that was excellent.

That was perfect.

So now look in your left hand.

Can you see the next cone?

Nancy: I see it.

Scott: Perfect.

That one, that one didn't go as well, but that's okay.

That's why we practice with cones.

Anyway, excellent work.

I think, mission accomplished and you're definitely an honorary part of our fire department.

Nancy: Thank you.

Scott: Yeah, hopefully you had a good time.

Nancy: I had a fabulous time.

Scott: Wonderful.

Nancy: This is amazing.

Scott: Good, good.

Tracey: And there she is, the newest tiller person.

Nancy: Best ride ever.

Tracey: Was it?

Nancy: Yes, amazing?

Tracey: Ta-da!

Nancy: It was great, it was great.

Thank you so much.

Oh my God.

Tracey: Come here, come here.

What did you think of it?

Nancy: It was so much fun.

You're right, you really don't need to be turning that with every turn you can kind of feel where it needs to go.

I hit one cone.

Scott: You did?

We had one casualty but that was quite a maneuver weaving in and out of there.

Nancy: That was the easiest part.

Tracey: Was it really?

Nancy: It was.

Tracey: What was the hard part.

Scott: You did great.

Nancy: No, it was I had a good teacher.

It was awesome.

Tracey: Well, you've checked it off your bucket list, what would you say to other people?

Nancy: Oh, you gotta do it, it's amazing.

Tracey: Yeah, well, I wanna thank these guys for a wonderful experience.

Nancy: Yes, thank you.

Scott: Well, thank you guys so much for joining us.

Scott: We loved having you so.

Tracey: It was great.

Nancy: It was absolutely incredible.

I need a hug.

It was great.

Thank you so much.

Jared: Thank you.

Tracey: All right.

Nancy: But now I wanna do the ladder.

[all laughing] Tracey: To watch this and other episodes, go to keet.org.

Nancy: What's on your bucket list?

Tracey: We're gonna have some fun on this segment and I have to thank our guest Peter Koczera for that.

Welcome to "What's On Your Bucket List?"

Peter Koczera: Thank you.

What are we checking off today, Peter?

What are we doing here?

Peter: We're going on a flight over Humboldt Bay.

Tracey: That's right.

And I have to say that here in Season 3, we get this request maybe more than anything else that people wanna do, so, thank you.

We're gonna take you up in this lovely little craft.

I'm curious about where your love of flying began.

What got you started with this?

Peter: Ooh, from early childhood.

Tracey: Really?

Peter: I think my parents took me up in a DC-3 when I was seven years old.

And I got a glimpse in the cockpit of a DC-3.

And then we lived near Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod.

Tracey: Oh, oh really, Okay.

Peter: So I heard the first sonic booms going over and we went to the open house every summer.

Tracey: So you really grew up with this as part of your DNA almost.

Peter: Yes.

Tracey: Why this for your bucket list?

Why flying over Humboldt County?

What is the intrigue?

Peter: My son Riley, has a very good flight simulator with an excellent view of Humboldt, which he has flown out of many times.

And the second reason is, I've had one extraordinary view of Humboldt Bay from the air but unfortunately, it was from the air ambulance bringing me to Redding, California.

Tracey: But you enjoyed the view in spite of the circumstances?

It was at sunset and it brought me out of my situation for a brief moment.

Tracey: What a good point.

It was a distraction of the best kind.

Peter: And I've been wanting to see that view in another circumstance ever since.

Tracey: Well, we're about to make that happen.

That's just wonderful.

Shall we get you up in the air?

Peter: I'm ready.

Tracey: All right, let's do it.

Tracey: This entire experience would not have been possible without the help of pilot Dave Marshall, who was also the faculty advisor for the Aviation Club of Cal Poly Humboldt.

What is it about flying that its grabbed you clearly.

What is it?

David Marshall: When you fly a plane, all you can do is fly the plane.

My first instructor said, "Every takeoff and landing is a maximum effort maneuver and it's the focus to the exclusion of all else.

So you can't be thinking about other things and that focus is really what draws me to this.

Tracey: Yeah, and what's it like up there, in the air?

Dave: You know, it's different things for different people.

A lot of people call it freedom but the reality is, it's a time machine, you can go places a lot faster.

It creates dynamic, there's no police cars that can pull you over.

Tracey: Oh, interesting, interesting.

Dave: So I can go to the Bay Area at 160 miles an hour and that's kind of nice.

Tracey: Yeah, that's a little different from those of us on the ground.

Dave: Yeah, we just did some flight planning and it's an hour and 45 minutes from here to Oakland International, so that's nice.

Tracey: Ah, so you can just scoot on down there for the day.

Dave: Yeah, I go to Palo Alto, the airport in Palo Alto by Stanford University.

That's where my mother-in-law lives.

And so I'll go down and have lunch and then come home.

Tracey: How wonderful.

Tracey: Well, I wanna thank you 'cause this, as I said, this has been one that a lot of people have requested in the three seasons of the show.

So you are finally the man who's making it happen.

I think we should get Peter up in the air.

Tracey: Earlier, at the Cal Poly Humboldt flight simulator, Dave helped Peter get prepared by giving him a thorough explanation of the many facets of flying.

He went over the physics of flying, how a plane actually flies, instruments, and how they're used, the weather, navigation, and even airport fees.

It was a great intro to flying and then it was time to get Peter up in the air.

Dave: Howdy.

Tracey: And what are you gonna do now?

Dave: So let's go do a pre-flight together.

We'll walk around the plane and do all of the inspections we do before we start the engine.

Peter: All right.

Tracey: All right, I'll get outta your way.

Tracey: Dave took Peter on a walk around of the plane to make sure it was in proper condition to fly.

Peter: So we completed our walk around, everything was great.

So I think it's time for us to go flying.

Peter: All set.

Tracey: Have a great flight.

Peter: Thank you.

Tracey: Enjoy the ride.

Dave: There are no silly questions in little airplanes, so if there's anything that you're interested in that you want to ask about, feel free to ask anything but you're part of the crew and as part of the crew, if you see something outside the plane you're gonna say something.

We're flying in a VFR area, that means visual flight rules, which means we need to see where we're going.

We need to pay attention to what's outside.

So you're part of the crew.

David: Okay.

Tracey: Dave then went through detailed checklists before and after turning on the plane.

So now I'm ready to taxi and to taxi, I'm gonna look to the left and look to the right, make sure everything's clear.

Ready to taxi so here we go.

Remember in the simulator, I was driving with my feet, so now I'm gonna step on the left pedal and turn to the left.

So we're gonna take off into the wind.

You always take off at land into the wind.

So I got my checklist here and I've done my start checklist, so now I'm gonna do, as we're rolling towards the end of the runway, I'm gonna do some other checks.

Like we did in the simulator, I'm gonna make sure everything works as it should.

All right, did the flight controls, I've done my avionics, I have my lights on, we've shut the door, the baggage compartment is closed, I set my radios.

All right, traffic, 6-8 Mike a Mooney departing at 3-0 and we're going straight out to the beach today, Murray.

And here we go.

All right, the plane really wants to turn to the left, but I'm stepping on that right rudder really hard.

I make sure my air speed indicator starts to come up and that's working and also, I have oil pressure.

So we're getting close to rotation speed, which in this plane is right in here someplace.

I'm gonna let my plane speed up a little bit, put up the landing gear, put the flaps away, and then I'm gonna pull the power back to something called "takeoff power," which is a little less RPM and a little less manifold pressure.

So we're gonna go up to the beach and then we're gonna take a right and fly down the beach.

All right, we're up to our cruising altitude of 2,000 feet above sea level.

Tracey: And then Peter's dream finally came true.

Dave: So this is where you can fly the plane if you'd like.

So what you wanna do is you wanna pick a place that's out there in front of us, way out there on the hillside and that's what you're aiming for.

You also wanna remember what it looks like.

So if it looks like this, we're going up and if it looks like this, we're going down.

So you wanna get a site view that looks correct and try to maintain that site view.

So the way the pilots hand the planes off, is I am flying it right now, so I say to you, "You've got the plane," and you acknowledge that by saying, "I've got the plane," in which case I let go.

And if you wanna give it back to me, you say, "You've got the plane" and I'll say, "I've got the plane."

So let's practice.

You've got the plane.

Peter: I've got the plane.

Dave: There you go.

So you're flying.

All right, so now you wanna turn to the left and we're gonna go back the way we came.

So turn to the left and keep turning and we're gonna fly around the edge of the bay.

Perfect, try to keep that tilt.

You're doing excellent by the way, we're holding altitude, the outside is looking good.

Peter: Plane responds really well.

Do another turn?

Dave: Oh, yeah, but we're gonna go down a little further because there's a Coast Guard helicopter behind us that's gonna be working at the airport behind us and I don't wanna get into their space.

Peter: Got it.

Dave: Yeah, there's three dimensional situational awareness is important.

It's not only the--you have to look at the weather that's outside, you have to look at the other aircraft and anything on the ground, and you also consider the wind too.

So all of these things are considerations when you decide where to put your airplane.

But you're doing an excellent job.

We've descended a little bit, you're about 300 feet lower than when we started.

So if you bring the nose up just slightly, that's right about, a little bit more higher the nose.

Just about there that's perfect and that's climbing at about a 100 feet a minute so in four or three minutes we'll be back up to where we were at.

So you can roll that trim wheel backwards slightly and that'll bring the nose up slightly.

All right, so we wanna go right over the middle of the town of the Eureka.

We wanna stay away from the Samoa Airport, which is out there where the smokestacks are 'cause there's a Coast Guard helicopter that's operating over there.

We really wanna be up to the left.

So, you can see where the edge of the bay is, right?

Peter: Yep.

Dave: You see the trees that are right on the edge of the bay?

Peter: Yep.

Dave: At this end of those line of trees, that's where the airport is, that's what you wanna aim for.

All right, so I wanna put a little bit of a throttle, a little bit of power, and I'm going to set the plane up for landing.

We're gonna need to descend.

So what I'd like to do is start flying the plane up so I can set up the plane for landing.

I've got the plane.

Peter: You've got the plane.

Dave: All right, so then you let go.

Good job, though.

Peter: Thank you.

Tracey: Dave slowed the plane speed, engaged the flaps, and then lowered the landing gear.

Dave: So now we've got the gear out.

I'm gonna check to make sure the gear is down and we have a green light here so the gear is down and locked.

Seatbelt secure.

♪♪♪ So now I'm turning, so I'm parallel to the runway, but actually flying away from the runway.

And we're gonna turn right a couple more times and line up for the runway.

The other thing I'm doing is I'm trying to get the plane to slow down to my approach speed.

And in this airplane the approach speed is 80.

So I'm going to 85 now, but I'm also gonna turn right a couple more times to get over to the runway that's over there.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Dave: There you are.

The object is to not break the plane.

Tracey: Welcome back to Earth.

How was it?

It looked amazing.

Peter: It was tremendous.

Tracey: Was it?

Peter: I got to fly.

Tracey: You got to fly.

You were actually not like the simulator you were-- Peter: Nope.

Tracey: Really?

What was that like.

Peter: On heaven.

I'm in heaven over Humboldt Bay.

Tracey: Was it gorgeous?

Peter: It was gorgeous, yeah.

So I just grabbed control and he said, "Point that something in the distance and I kept it really level and-- Tracey: Wow, you did it.

Peter: Yep.

Tracey: You did it.

Well, congratulations you've now flown a plane.

Are you glad you checked it off your bucket list, Peter?

Peter: I am very glad.

Tracey: Yeah, well thank you.

As I said, I think this is a segment a lot of people are gonna enjoy.

So thank you so much for the idea.

Glad to have you.

Tracey: To watch this and other episodes, go to keet.org.

♪♪♪ all: What's on your bucket list?

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ...