Episode 9 – Pilot Dimitri Neonakis and his Uplifting flights!

You’re listening to Your Happy Place Podcast.  Each week we will be bringing you interview with real estate experts and investors.  The show features interview and discussions on real estate investing, property management and inspirations. With your host Jenna Ross.

Jenna: Today on the podcast we have a special interview with guest pilot Dimitri Neonakis.  Dimitri has been living a simple life until this past April when he made he made news headlines when he flew a heart shape flight path over the Portapique area affected by the mass shootings in Nova Scotia.  I have followed Dimitri’s remarkable sky art ever since and he also got my attention when he offered a little boy with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer a flight.  It’s Zach and you can find out more information about Zach through Facebook.  He has a Facebook page called Zach’s Virtual World Tour and also Dimitri would love for every one to know that they can find his Dream Wings through Facebook which is a free aviation program for children with disabilities. If anyone knows of someone who is disabled, a disabled child in the Atlantic Canadian provinces, Dimitri would love you to connect with him through the facebook page to arrange a free flight.  Without further adieu, welcome to the podcast Dimitri. 

Dimitri: Good to be here. How are you?

Jenna: I’m doing really well and it is a pleasure to have a few minutes of your time to have a conversation about the amazing inspirational things you are doing with your flights in Nova Scotia.  I was just wondering if you could share with me a little bit about the first flight that kinda got the medias attention when you drew a heart around the Portapique area.  Could you tell us about that flight?

Dimitri: Sure.  It was I believe the 19th of April in the after math of the terrible events and the shootings that took place.  I was in shock and I decided to do what I always do to destress, went on a flight.

I had drawn a heart over Portapique and I didn’t know how it was going to come out and it really didn’t matter because I didn’t think anybody would see me it was something I needed to do for the local community and for Nova Scotia.  And something in my mind a text message that nobody would see or an old fashion smoke signal if you could call it that way.

So I took off from Halifax airport, I didn’t even file a flight plan, the air traffic controller asked me where I was going and I simply said North.  What are you doing? Sight seeing ok clear for take off.  So I took off headed straight towards Portapique and I started following this flight path that I had drawn on my flight app.  I completed it came around and then I looked at my app to see how it looked I was surprised that it looked perfect.  I was very happy about that, I felt good were required in the cockpit, there was an eerie silence.  I don’t know what it was.  I was shocked just like every other Nova Scotian I think.  I was shocked and I felt like doing this for my own reasons.  

The flight didn’t last very long.  Portapique is not very far from here and about forty minutes later or about an hour later I don’t remember now, I returned to the airport, landed got a instructions a taxi out to my parking space and the air traffic controller said that was a beautiful flight path.  I was surprised.  I said you see that, he said yeah it was beautiful.  I got home and all these messages started coming in.  Some airport watchers, there’s some apps that they track air craft, the movements of thousands and thousands of air crafts.  They tracked mine, they posted it, I saw something like an aircraft drew a heart over Portapique and we can’t believe our eyes. Long story short, it went viral and I was a bit upset for it going viral. 

I went to bed, the next day I woke up in the morning and all these messages from reporters were coming in one after the other from across the country, across North America.  I didn’t want to talk to anyone.  At that time we had a count of nineteen victims and again I was in shock and the last thing I wanted to do was to talk to reporters about a flight I took.  What’s the big deal.  I called my daughter Alex in California and had a chat with her. I said “Alex, we have so many victims here and these reporters are calling me.  I don’t understand why and I don’t want to talk to them.”  What she said made a lot of sense, she said “Dad you need to talk to these reporters because we don’t have anything good in the news right now.  There’s nothing you know COVID, massacre in Nova Scotia, this thing.  There is nothing in the news.  There is darkness every where.  Your little flight is a ray of sunshine and a little bit of hope for people. I saw it, it is all over North America.  You should talk to the reporters, people need this news story right now”, so that is where it started.  I changed my mind and talked to every body he went out and I was so to say that I saw the results.  So many messages I got that said “Thank you, we needed this”. 

 I got messages from the victims families and that’s what really sunk in to me saying WOW my daughter was right I needed to put that story out there.  Families, people who lost both of their parents.  I got a message from a young lady who said “my boyfriend jut lost both of his parents I can’t thank you enough”.  I said to her, “you tell your boyfriend and you and your whole family that I am with you, I support you, we love you, we’re with you, we’re in this together we will get through it, just stay tough”.   

Jenna: It’s such a beautiful thing and I think social media can be a double edge sword but I think it is a way that a lot of people have connected and a lot of people are sort of healing together and your flight path, while a simple idea and it was for yourself it did connect a lot people.  I think that is a beautiful thing and I think for myself I am personally an empath so when something tragic like this happens it’s so difficult because you don’t know, you feel so helpless and you don’t know what you can physically do and so what you did is so simple but complex because not too many people have access to a plane to do something so special, it’s really quite something I feel.  I think that is really interesting and from that flight I am seeing some other flight paths that you have done as well that are also so powerful and you are sending beautiful messages of hope and encouragement.  Do you want to tell us about a couple of other ones that you chose to do and why you did them?

 Dimitri:After the flight over Portapique something interest me.  I saw the flight path and it turned out exactly how I drew it on my flight app. So the way I draw it, I create a flight path on this aviation app then I use waypoints to manipulate it to give it the shape that I want.  Now with the heart it was actually quite easy it’s not that hard but when you get into other complicated shapes such as a face it can get pretty tricky in drawing and in flying of course.

I have never done this before, it has never been tried in aviation before.  Some pilots have gone up and wrote a couple of letters or a message with letters but never before any body in the whole history of aviation has tried to draw a face or a complicated drawing and after I drew the heart something sparked in me to do it again but I wanted something complicated to see if I was able to do it.  So I drew a light bulb on my flight app, a light bulb.  A light bulb is a very complicated flight path because on the bottom it has over seven, 180 degrees turns back and forth.  That was a good test to see if we could get those 180 degrees tight turns within half a mile each in an airplane that flies over the ground at 300 kilometers and hour, good luck.

 I set out to see if I could fly it and when I was done and I downloaded my data from my GPS which gives me accurate position of the flight of the aircraft within a meter that is how accurate it is.  It helps us land in fog so it has to be within a meter.  So when I downloaded it I just shook my head I couldn’t believe it was perfect, perfect better then I drew it.  I said ok I am on to something.  So that was the light bulb. 

It was something I did myself and then within two/three days something happens in Nova Scotia.  Nova Scotia becomes a punching bag for 2020.

 Another bloody hit comes again I believe it was six military personnel crew members from the helicopter that crashed in the Ionian sea over in Greece.  It kinda hit home because some of these guys were friends of friends and they were devastated.  I saw the Facebook page.  So I called one of my good friends who lost I believe two of his best friends on that accident.  I talked to him and I wanted to do something so I sent him a message.  I drew large bird facing Fredericton and the bird represented the flight, I can’t remember what I called it.  I called it A22, that was the tail number of the aircraft.  The tail number of an aircraft is very important to an aviator.  So I called it the flight of A22 heading towards Fredericton where Fredericton was the name of the frigate.

I sent it to my friend and I said is it ok for me to go draw this to honor the people and he said absolutely.  So I took off and it was large over400 nautical miles bird spread all over most of Nova Scotia and I landed I posted it for my friends so that they could share it.  I named the people who lost their lives, same thing, people embraced it. They found comfort in it. Messages from the military came, thank you’s and how wonderful this is.  I was a bit stunned but I was happy to see that people were engaging in such a positive way that it made it all worth while.

Jenna: That was a beautiful flight path as well.  I encourage people to 

Google you and if they haven’t seen these flight paths that you have done to take a look at them.  It’s like what your daughter had said the whole world really needs more joy right now and Nova Scotia has just had one tragedy after another.  This is so comforting to people because there has been a lot of difficulties and a lot of sadness and people just need more then ever to connect some way and this is just kinda helping people to connect which is so nice.

Dimitri: I jumped in chronology here.  The second one.  Well the first one after I drew the test with the light bulb, it wasn’t the bird for the A22 helicopter it was actually Lady H.  I called the drawing the Lady H.  It was the face of a lady and I had no idea how this was going to turn out because it was very complicated. I had to draw the lips and the nose it was very complicated and I had no idea how it was going to come out. 

It was for Heidi Stevenson. I dedicated that to Heidi Stevenson and again people responded so kindly and so happy that there was great response. Then two days later I got message it’s from Heidi Stevenson’s mother.  She said I want to thank you for what you did.  If my daughter Heidi was here with us she would have been so proud. 

We chatted a bit and I thought wow the mother of the person who died in this terrible tragedy in the line of duty is contacting me to say thank you, that gave me the inspiration to continue and try to get better at this.  Then I drew the large seagull and then Nova Scotia gets hit again with the disappearance of the three year old boy Dylan in Truro.

To be honest two days had gone by and I hadn’t heard anything in the news about him. I hadn’t known.  I get a message from a lady who says, I get a lot of requests from people, and she said could you please draw Dylan”s name, and I said, “who’s Dylan?” She goes a little three year old boy who disappeared in Truro.  That hit me because when my daughter Alex was six she went missing.  Six hours of looking for her, she was at our friends house but I didn’t know, were the worst feelings I have ever experienced in my life. The thoughts that goes through your head is unbelievable.  I felt it was a personal flight for me to fly there.  I drew his name on the Ipad within an hour or two, waited for good weather.  I had to wait two hours I mean two days for good weather and on the fifth day I flew his name Dylan over Truro. Unfortunately I forgot to press record on my GPS and I know the drawing was perfect.  

It was picked up by radar but radar distorts the image.  Radar is designed to catch straight line it’s not designed to give a good imagine of a guy who sits there and does 180 degree turns like I do.  It turned out ok and people found comfort in that and shared it and again the same response from Nova Scotians, another sad story.

Then the lost of one of the greatest aviator and greatest ambassador to aviation, Jenn Casey.   I remember sitting home watching the news and all of a sudden breaking news right in front of me. The aircraft is crashing.  For an aviator who has flown as much as I have watching an aircraft crash it’s not easy.  It’s not easy because we as pilots we have a code together, we associate with each other we support each other and it’s an awful thing.

I had no idea of who was involved.  I messaged my friend Steve who is a snowbird pilot and I said, “what’s going on? Who was it? What happened? How is the crew?” 

Well later on we found out that it was Jenn and Ritchie was in bad shape.  He was in critical condition.  I do have a connection with Jenn because she had heard about me and my work with children with disabilities and I couldn’t wait to meet her and she couldn’t wait to meet me.  We were suppose to meet at the airshow in Debert. 

In the meantime she had sent Steve a bunch of presents for me to give to the kids. What a wonderful person.  What a sweetheart.  What a great loss of Canadian avaiation Jenn is.  Steve had called me and said Jenn has sent you, remember we had never met, I have never met this woman I never met Jenn.  She sent hats and pins with snowbirds and give this Dimitri and every time he flies the kids with disabilities just give them one.  There was all kinds of stuff.

Jenna: How nice.

Dimitri: I can’t wait to give those to the kids and then this.  I knew I had to something in the sky for her.  I created a flight path in which it is her name and then it turns around and its her aircraft.  I sent a message to her mother.  Her mother Rose is a friend and Lara went to high school with Rose and the ironic thing is a half hour before the accident Lara had sent a Happy Birthday message to Rose, Jenn’s mother.  It was her birthday that day.  I mean how terrible is that, how ironic is that and a half hour later there it is.  

I asked Lara to send Rose and her husband a message with, I know they were grieving, Rose was so close with her daughter, so devastated and I know it was their grieving time but we decided to send the message, the drawing is it ok we draw this in the sky?

They replied back and said yes.  Is there any way you can put the number eleven anywhere in the drawing because it is her favorite aircraft?  So I had to redo the drawing that morning I added number eleven before her name. Eleven, Jenn, and the aircraft and I went and I flew it.  I was concentrating hard as I wanted to get that right for this wonderful friend and aviator that I never met.   

Jenna: Wow, that is such an incredible thing.  

Dimitri: What was next.  I have done eleven of them, I can’t remember what was next.  I did one for Mothers Day of the mother holding the child. It’s artist interpretation.  Some people saw it as a mother holding a child and other people had to look for it.  It was a little complicated but I turned out beautiful for me.  It was personal to me, my daughter is giving birth to my first grandchild next month and I dedicated it to her, my daughter Ereni.  Then I started to getting a lot of messages, the word was out.  I was getting messages can you draw this can you draw that? People don’t understand that aviation is a very expensive field and I do have a job. People are very nice don’t take me wrong when I say this, nice people but a lot of people don’t understand the expense of aviation and what it takes to do a drawing like this. It’s not like getting in your car and go for a drive and GPS picking you up.  It’s very complicated and takes hours and hours to prepare, draw, file a flight plan, execute.  It takes hours.  So I got some messages and then we had the event with George Floyd.

Again I was watching in disbelief of what was happening down there.  I watched that video him saying I can’t breath one time maybe twice and I couldn’t watch it again.  I was done watching.  I decided to do something.  I saw millions of people protesting all over the world. I felt like the killing of George as I call it, and I think there is a song by Rod Stewart called the Killing of George. Am I right?  The killing of George Floyd I saw as a tsunami that simply navigated the world ten times over.  It caused such an uproar, protest it was unbelievable.  I never saw anything like this in my life.

I decided to draw the fist which is a very powerful symbol that I respect and I didn’t know if that was the right drawing to do or if I should draw something else.  I went the fist.  I called the night before my kids on Facetime, we had a great conversation about the current events and racism, a really good conversation with young kids, with beautiful fresh ideas, I love their ideas.  At the end of the conversation I showed them my drawing and they said “go do it dad, you have to do it”.

I got to the airport around 10:00 in the morning it was hot day.  I knew it was going to be a rough up there because the heat of the sun just brings so many currents upwards so I knew it was going to be tough but I also knew I had to focus on really getting it right. It was the most complicated that I have done. There were a lot of 90 degree turns and 120 degrees turns.  I took of right away and it was moderate to severe turbulence.  I said you know what, I will deal with it and I started drawing. 

I was in the cockpit by myself and kept going the words of George Floyd “I can’t breath”were kinda in my mind because I was so free up there and such a stark contrast of my own freedom to do what ever I want up there and that man didn’t have the luxury with the knee of somebody on his neck, dying.  I kept going I turned to the airport, landed and downloaded the transport of data from my on board GPS on to Google earth and when I saw how it came out I just said “Yes, I nailed it”.  This was my way of protesting.  It was support, it was my way of protesting it was my way to solidarity, defiance against oppression.

Jenna: I think the fist and I think that a lot of people have turned a blind eye in a sense and this has brought it all up and I think the fist is a powerful statement to say that we have to band together in solidarity and enough is enough. This is unacceptable so I think this is very powerful. 

Dimitri: The thing was that by the time I landed the fist had gone viral all over the world.  How, I was in disbelief.  There are companies that own this flight app again that they track an aircraft and one of them called Flightaware.  I think this guy is keeping an eye on me every time I go up they are saying ok here he goes.  Lets see what is he going to draw.  It is good business for them.  They uploaded it.  They said “a pilot in Nova Scotia drew this”.  He just went exploded all over the world, within two hours I had messages from Germany, Spain, China, Greece and so many other countries.  I put it on my Facebook page as I wanted people to see it.  It was my way of protesting.  It’s like a protester it goes out and raises a sign or signs, I did the same thing.  Again a good response.  It was interesting when he went viral around the world again from this company called Flight Aware.  There were thousands and thousands and thousands comments and I read a few.  Ninety five percent of the comments were very supportive and stuff and there were some that people were not happy that I drew the fist.  You know what that is too bad.  And that’s how you feel or they feel so I didn’t respond to any of those.  There was no point.  Some people they said things like what a great waste of time, what a great way to waste fuel.  I didn’t get a lot of support from pilots in the United States, I have no idea why.  Anyways.  Jenna: There is always a few.  That is kinda part of the problem there is always a few.  Dimitri: There was one comment that I read that really stood out.  He says he put that up there (meaning me)lets take it in on the ground now and lets do something about it.  That was a great comment.  The comment was|”from the air to the ground”.  He put it in the air lets put it on the ground and do something about it. 

This fist caused a media frenzy I felt for the first time in my life.  I guess I have a four seated airplane that I use for charity, and I go to work and pleasure but my life here in Nova Scotia is pretty simple.  I never experienced anything like this. Reporters from big European magazines calling me, or reporters from the Toronto Star or CNN.  CNN Greece channels, China, Spain.  I was flabbergasted.  What is going on here, it is just a flight.  It is what it is.  People again were looking to relay some positive information out there and they were reaching out to me the same way they were reaching out on April 19 with the heart shape flight path.  I talked to as many as I could.  Even USA Today tried to contact me.  They wrote up a thing about it. 

OK that’s great and then I got a phone call from a great fella name Steve McKinley from the Toronto Star. Really, really a great guy originally from Jamaica. A reporter that lives here in Nova Scotia and asked “do you mind if I come out to the airport, take a few pictures and watch you?”  I said how about you come with me I have two flights today.  One with Zach and the next one I am going to draw the Graduate for the people who didn’t graduate.  And that was by far the most complicated flight path I have ever take.  You probably seen it I put it on my Facebook.

Jenna: I did, it was incredible. 

Dimitri: Steve was beside himself. I said “bring your barf bag and a couple pairs of underwear”.  I was joking with him, there are going to be some tight turns and if you are prone to motion sickness maybe you should stay of the ground and he was saying “no, no I am going to come”.  He showed up at the airport, Zach and his family showed up at the airport. Zach is an eleven year old boy sweet boy who has been battling Stage 4 neouroblastoma cancer I believe it is called.  At some point a few months back his body was not responding to treatment.  A great fighter Zach Connolly a great kid eleven years old. 

The Nova Scotia Wish Foundation granted him a free trip to Europe because he loves history, he loves geography and especially European History.  Unfortunately COVID19 came and he couldn’t go due to travel band and all that.  Not to be bitten by a virus.  With the help of his grandmother they set up a Facebook page where people could send him pictures of where they lived so this way he could travel virtually.  What a great idea, what a brilliant little guy and his grandmother a great lady.  Thousands and thousands of messages poured in and I happened to hear about it.  My heart melt and I sent him a message on his Facebook page and said my name is Dimitri Neokankas and I am a pilot here in Nova Scotia and I do fly a lot of kids  your age around the city and I would love to have you in my right seat as a co pilot if you like airplanes and you area not afraid of flying.  Sure enough they took me up on my offer and showed up at the airport.  Steve was there and took a lot of pictures and just as we were getting ready go on the airplane, a radio station from Alberta called. We had a great little chat with Zach going in the air with his parents.

We got on the airplane and in the meantime I had contacted a air traffic controller who is a friend of mine and I told him about the flight I was planning so he did something wonderful with the air traffic control tower as soon as I contacted the tower and the air traffic controller went out of his way to call Zach, Captain Zach. He would say things like Zulu Pappa Tango Taxi Juliett Alpha at your discretion.  Pass the apron to hotel with Captain Zach.  We get to the apron Zulu Pappa Tango six thousand feet from hotel is it sufficient for you and Captain Zach? I mean stuff like that don’t happen in aviation.  Air traffic controllers are business, business, business and for this controller to be professional and supportive and kind to make the day of this little boy.  I ended up sending an email to Nav Canada to say I commend your team here in Halifax.  This is amazing.  So we were clear for take off and the controller would come in and say Zulu Pappa Tango which is my code sign,Zulu Pappa Tango radar identified at a thousand feet.  I have the latest weather for you perhaps Captain Zach might be interested in, visibility fifteen miles, layer at sixteen thousand, second layer at twenty thousand, wind 350 at 10.  Unbelievable stuff. Jenna: How special. Dimitri: He is listening and his parents we are all listening and his name is Captain Zach.  I put the airplane on autopilot.  Once you have it on autopilot on heading and altitude the airplane will hold altitude and will hold heading but there is a heading button that you can turn and the airplane actually follow a magenta line that you pick by turning this button and that is very easy to do.  In the meantime on the take off I had taken Zach’s hand put in on the throttle, I had taught him how to dial up the radio frequency, I had taught him, a very smart boy he picked up on engine mileagement and fuel management and all that stuff really quick, so I put his hand on the throttle and said “here we go” on the take off and advanced it together forward full throttle and within thirty seconds we were airborne.

You could see the excitement in his face.  He was very quite but you could see it, the excitement in his face.  And the air traffic controller calling him Captain Zach and once I gave him control of the aircraft, yes the auto pilot is flying the aircraft but it is Zach that is actually picking where we are going.  Within two minutes he has the whole thing figured out taking us directly over the city and then he turns right towards Sackville and goes directly like he knows where he was over his grandfathers house, does a large circle around and then he says “I am ready to head towards the airport my hands are getting tired.” 

Jenna: Poor fella. What an experience for him.

Dimitri: I make the call, Halifax Hour Charlie Golf Zulu Pappa Tango over Sackville now Captain Zach has passed his flight test and he is ready to return to the airport. Zulu Pappa Tango Halifax Golf Congratulations on Captain Zach for his successful flight clear for left base runway 14 number 1.  We get there Zulu Pappa Tango Captain Zach your clear to land on runway 14.  At the end when we were exiting the, I was stuttering you could hear it in my voice I have the recording I was shocked, I had a lump in my throat when I was thanking the air traffic controller I said “ Exit Alpha Juliette the Gateway, thank you, thank you for what you did today.

Jenna: Awesome.  I follow Zach’s virtual tour somehow that came across my Facebook and I followed the Facebook page and when I saw your post and realizing who you were and offering him a flight or to fly with you I was so impressed.  And then when I saw you had posted in there the pictures of the flight it brings a tear to my eye.  He’s a special little boy.   Is there anything because he may hear this podcast interview, I think he will enjoy hearing you re account how the flight went. Is there anything else you would like to share with him quickly?

Dimitri: I would have to say to him that he is now an honorary captain at the Truro Flight Club and The Bluenose Flying Club, in the company of over 150 pilots he is an honorary member. The Bluenose Flying Club sent him a parcel today left it at his back door, sent him a message Zach check your backdoor there’s all kinds of goodies for him.

What I want to say to Zach from one pilot to another, Zach any time you want to go up again give me a call I will fly with you anytime.

Jenna: That is so nice. I am sure it must have been such an incredible experience for him and it’s so awesome as you mentioned the way that the air traffic controllers and everything were handling it they don’t do that every day and that is really, really, really special. 

Dimitri: Very special and I thank everybody and I sent people messages and said thank you so very much you guys are amazing.  So we landed, we said good bye to Zach and his family.  They were super excited, yes Zach was a little tired and I understand it was his flight test and he did awesome.  So now is the time to go and draw the graduate we jumped in the plane with Steve and we took off and again it was a very very complicated flight path over 320 nautical miles long over Central Nova Scotia well between Peggy’s Cove and Windsor.  It was a two and half our flight and Steve took a lot of pictures and videos, he did his work did very well and also what I explained to Steve what I do up there is very safe.  If you sit on the ground and you look up when I draw a face you are just going to see an airplane that is turning normal. I have a safety envelop of forty five degree bank and even my own on board computer will not allow me to go pass fifty degrees.  If I do, the computer will take over and say no you are not suppose to be here, level off.  So there is a personal safety envelope as a pilot and an on board computer safety envelope as a machinery. 

I also don’t fly over overly populated areas, hey anyone can lose an engine.  I’d rather land in trees than somebodies house.  There is safety involved in what I do. We came back to the airport, downloaded the data again.  I saw the drawing that came out and it was not 100% that I wanted because there was one turn when I was drawing the mouth that I got distracted and didn’t calculate that the wind was pushing me three hundred and twenty miles per hour and I was about ten seconds too late to take the turn.  It turned out ok don’t take me wrong but not to my satisfaction.  You wouldn’t see it but me as a sky artist I know where the mistake is.  

Overall I posted it for the graduates and again great response.    I am happy I did it and I got some messages from young me and women who said thank you I need this this year such a great support and that made me feel so good that I did this for them. And that’s it, that’s it for the drawings.  I do have some for the future planning one for Fathers Day maybe I will draw it next week. We have Remembrance Day, Christmas Day I will be up there I love doing it. I will be there.

Jenna: I also wanted to take a quick minute to say congratulations to my nephew Ethan Ross if he is listening. Ethan graduated from high school in Dalhousie New Brunswick and he will be coming to Dalhousie in Halifax for university.  It is really special that you did that for the graduates because it’s definitely a different year to be graduating and that is very important as well.  I also want to quickly say that I really appreciate when my family had to evacuate from the West Porters Lake forest fires and you took a flight over and posted some photos to show what the area was looking like because we were evacuated and wanted to see that was very comforting as well.  I just love the joy that you are spreading to everyone in Nova Scotia and it means a lot everyone world wide at this point for the issues that you touched on and the joy that you have spread.  I heard you called an angel in the air with flight wings basically is really what it boils down to.  I really appreciate you taking the time coming on the podcast cause I know you had so many interviews so it really means a lot you taking the time to chat with me.  I would like to leave you with one final question. And my question is where is your happy place? 

Dimitri: I don’t have to think too hard about this one . It is in the air. Jenna: I had a feeling you were going to say that and it is very fitting for sure. 

Dimitri: Before I go I want to mention Dream Wings.  If any parents with children with disabilities or disadvantage youths are interested I have a free aviation program where I take children with disabilities for flights just like I did with Zach.  They become my co pilot just like Zach did and I want every parent in the maritimes to know that this initiative is available to them.  I know we are in amiss COVID19 right now and my flights have stopped with these children of course Zach was an exception. I want all parents to know that there is an initiative for children with disabilities called Dream Wings.  They can check my Facebook page called Dream Wings.  They can read a lot of stories, see many many pictures of children with disabilities.  Come to the airport spend and hour or two with us.  We will take a flight your children and yourself.  You will learn about the principals of aerodynamics, what keeps airplanes up in the air and you will experience flight for the first time inside the fence of an airport.  It is available no charge.  All you have to do is call leave a message I will put you on a list and I will call you on a nice day of course when all this is over and we will go on a flight.  That is it.

Jenna: That is so incredible Dimitri.  We will definitely share that around and put that out there so people are aware of your Dream Wings.  That is so incredible. Thanks again for coming on the podcast.  It was delightful speaking to you.

Dimitri: Thank you.  It was nice talking to you and have a great day.

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