Charlie Gasmire
Charlie Gasmire is a pilot and entrepreneur with a passion for spreading access to aviation. After 20 years of aviation experience he founded and now runs Airplane Academy and its associated YouTube channel.
My Aviation Story
I’m a commercially-licensed pilot and aircraft owner with 20 years of experience in aviation, and I love helping others pursue this amazing hobby and profession.
I own a 1975 Cessna 182P and hold both single and multi-engine commercial certificates, as well as a private single engine seaplane certificate, instrument rating, and tailwheel endorsement.
To help share lessons I’ve learned, and to help others become pilots and aircraft owners, in 2018 I started the Airplane Academy website and YouTube channel. Since then, it has received over 9,000,000 views, gained over 95,000 subscribers, and has been featured in Cessna Owner Magazine, Pipers Magazine, General Aviation News, and more, and I was a speaker at AirVenture 2023.
I am thankful to have had opportunities to film with Cessna, Daher Kodiak, Tac Aero, Pilatus (coming soon), and more. The more aviation I experience, the more I want to continue to share it with others and help others become pilots and aircraft owners. It has changed my life and I am confident it will change yours, too.
On a personal level, I feel so thankful to live in an era when human flight is possible, and to live in a country where it is so accessible. Aviation has changed my life and has been one of the most rewarding pursuits in so many ways. Life seems more peaceful to me in the air, and I wish everyone got to experience the freedom of flight.
My mission right now is to help aspiring, student, and licensed pilots pursue aviation and airplane ownership. If you are looking for individual consultation, or just want to talk shop for an hour, click the link below!
More About Me Personally
I live in Frisco, TX with my wife and two young children, and we are members at Onward Community Church. I attended Baylor University and got both a BBA (Finance and Entrepreneurship) and MBA. After school I worked in a software startup that I co-founded, processing e-commerce payments for small businesses. We sold that business and I then worked in corporate finance roles for several years doing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for private and public healthcare companies, helping complete over 20 company acquisitions totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
In 2020 (a week before the pandemic hit) I left the corporate world to work on two of my own ventures, Boss Cub, and Airplane Academy. Boss Club teaches entrepreneurship and personal finance skills in middle and high schools across the country and to date has helped over 10,000 students start real businesses. Many of our customers are private Christian schools where we get to offer a separate Christian version of our curriculum and teach the Biblical worldview of money and stewardship, which has been an incredible and really rewarding opportunity. I’m grateful to spend my time helping others pursue the things I love – flying and entrepreneurship. They have both changed my life and I want others to experience the same. Outside of work I enjoy spending time with my family, flying (obviously), playing guitar, cooking, watching Guy’s Grocery Games or The Office, reading, studying the Bible, and binging business podcasts.
Fun fact: I soloed on my 16th birthday which fell on a Sunday… the next day I got my driver’s license! Funny turn of events.
Accomplishments
Instrument Rating
My second favorite training experience (second only to getting my seaplane rating), and barely ahead of mountain flying.
Mountain Flying Course
Transitioning from flat North Texas to the mountains of Idaho is no joke. I have serious respect for mountain pilots.
Commercial License
Complete! I started and stopped this like three different times because "life got in the way"... but I got it done!
Seaplane Rating
100% the most fun 5.7 hours in my logbook. I was fortunate to get this rating in Alaska alongside my dad in a Piper Super Cub.
Tailwheel Endorsement
The first 5 hours are the hardest! I wouldn't trade time in the Super Cub for anything. Keep calm and more right rudder.
Multi-Engine Commercial License
I did a 3-day accelerated program that took 7 days due to weather. I was thankful for the extra time on the ground... it's totally new material!
Turbine Aircraft Checkout
I got checked out in a Kodiak 100 which was my first turbine experience. It involved getting 50 hours with a mentor pilot plus a 5-day intensive course specific to the Kodiak including full-motion simulator training. It is a whole new world and a FUN one!
Upcoming
CFI/I
Becoming a flight instructor is an important goal of mine. CFI and CFII is definitely part of the near-term plan!
On YouTube
In 2019 I launched the Airplane Academy YouTube channel. It’s a place to share aviation adventures, training lessons, and content useful for promoting aviation as a whole. As pilots we get to experience some incredible views and adventures and it would be a shame not to share those with the world. I’m excited to continually post new content here and try to become better at documenting the allure of aviation. Here’s an example:
My Aviation Bucket List
- Solo on my 16th birthday (Complete! Then got my driver’s license the next morning.)
- Get my pilot’s license (Complete! Circa 2007.)
- Get my instrument rating (Complete!)
- Get my tailwheel endorsement (Complete! About 150 hours in a Piper Super Cub will make you appreciate right rudder a whole lot more…)
- Commercial Certificate (Finally complete! Here is a video I put together after the fact so you can avoid the mistakes I made in the process.)
- CFI and CFII
- Do aerobatics (Complete! Got to do these in a Citabria in Alaska. It started with spin training and then went up from there.)
- Seaplane rating (Complete! This was the most fun I’ve ever had in an airplane. Two videos from that rating I recommend: Glassy Water Landing / Takeoff and Seaplane Approach)
- STOL training (I’d like to do WAY more of this but I started the basics and trained with Tac Aero to land on a sand bar – video here!)
- Mountain flying course (Complete! Two summers in Idaho in my 182 flying around with the Idaho Aviation Association. I have several videos of various approaches on our YouTube channel.)
- Land my plane at Oshkosh (Complete! Video coming soon.)
- Go to Reklaw fly-in in East Texas (Complete! It was a bit of a circus. Video debrief here.)
- Explore the Ozarks in my plane (Complete! One of the most underrated places in the US and in this video I show why.)
- Take a “fly any direction the weather is good” vacation with my wife (Complete! Went to Nashville and Memphis!)
- Fly a full motion simulator (Complete! Did the 737-700 sim at Southwest Airlines HQ when I was young… hope I get to go again! The Kodiak 100 training at Parkwater Aviation in Washington also had a full-motion sim that I trained in. Very fun!)
- Go in the shuttle trainer in Seattle (I went and it was closed…)
- Take a ride in a military jet (L-39, Mig, etc)
- Compete in an aerobatics competition
- Compete in a flour bombing competition
- Land my own airplane in 49 states (Hawaii can wait)
- Be a guest speaker or panelist for an aviation event (Complete! I was a speaker at a seminar at EAA AirVenture 2023 in Oshkosh, WI. I hope to get to do more of that. It was a lot of fun!)
- Do a collaboration with a major aviation YouTube channel or brand (Complete! Videos with Textron flying the Cessna 182, Cessna 206, and Kodiak flying the Kodiak 900. More to come!)
- Get sponsored by Bose, ForeFlight, or a similarly large brand
- Own more than one airplane
- Make a full time income from aviation
- Fly left seat in a jet
- Get my multi engine license (Complete! Got my multi-engine commercial add-on after I got my single engine commercial certificate. Video debrief here.)
- Fly a glider
- Fly a paramotor
- Fly an ultralight
- Fly an airplane with a smoke kit and get to say “smoke on” as I flip the switch
- Own a warbird
- Own property with an airstrip on it
- Start a YouTube channel for aviation (Complete! Check it out here.)
- Fly myself to the Bahamas
- Own an airplane (Complete! In 2016 I bought a 1975 Cessna 182P. Love that airplane.)
- Get a type rating
- Interview an astronaut (Complete! YouTube video here.)
- Fly to Big Bend, Texas (Complete! YouTube video here.)
- Go to space (it’s a bucket list after all, right?)
- Fly in a WWII warbird (Complete! Took a ride in a B-17 and a B-25! Boy are they loud.)
- Start or participate in an effort to help create more pilots and give young people more access and exposure to aviation
Hire Me 1-on-1
Looking for individual help in regards to aviation, airplane buying, YouTube strategy, or entrepreneurship in general? I’d love to talk. Click the link below to learn more.
