Stephen Rocha, 2011 graduate, shares stories and details from his current work with Delta Airlines. He flies internationally and enjoys that every day is a little bit different--even when flying to the same city or the same airport terminal. Communicating clearly with the crew, flight control, maintenance teams, and industry safety organizations is a key requirement for all professional pilots.Stephen remembers many great hikes and camping trips during his time at ERAU - Prescott. For our current Eagles, he says don't be afraid to let your goals change and evolve. Try to let go of "what might have been" and live in the moment as much as you can.
Episode Transcript:
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Abby:
Hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of What's the Word Eagle Alumni Spotlights. I'm your host, Abby, and today we have a very special guest for you. Today we're joined with Stephan Rocha and Stephan, why don't you give us a little bit of background about yourself.
Stephen:
Hello. Thank you for having me on this podcast. As Abigail said, my name is Stephan Rocha. I am a current first officer on the board, 757 767 with Delta Airlines. I'm also an Embry Riddle Aeronautical alumni. I graduated May 2011 from Prescott campus. From there I went to Grand Canyon Airlines there. Then I went to ExpressJet from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Delta, for just over six years, they're happy to be here inside to share some of the experiences I've had.
Abby:
Awesome and do you have a favorite memory from your time at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, you'd like to share?
Stephan:
So that was one that I really got stuck on, just because there's so many great memories that I had at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University like that. But I would say some of my favorite moments were the very beginning of my college time, and I met some really great friends. We've been hiking all the time. And in fact, actually, once a month, we actually made a promise to do an excursion. We went hiking over to Mount Humphreys. We went camping and all this. And these are friends that I still, still talk to today. Actually, that's one that lives about 40 minutes south of me here. But as far as my favorite event, I would say it's just something that me and my friends did every fall is to get back to school. We always went to a get back to school camping trip, and it's just how we kind of like, kicked off this school year. Just went down in the middle of the forest, had a nice big fire, and just hung out and just talked and cut up from the whole summer and whatnot. So that was one favorite event.
Abby:
Oh, wow, that sounds like so much fun. And it's even better that you're still in touch with some of those special people from your time at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
Stephan:
Yeah, actually, I would say I'm in touch with quite a lot of them, actually, especially my fraternity bars that I had there I was at Sigma Chi in college, and I'm friends with a lot of them. Actually still, I see them constantly. So, it's really good.
Abby:
Awesome, awesome. And now switching to being a pilot at Delta, what is your favorite part about being a pilot?
Stephan:
That is also a very loaded question. My favorite part, I would say it has to be that no day is the same, whether even if you fly into the same city, no, no, day is the same. You fly with different people, different experiences, different weather patterns, even keeps the job very fresh. And again, it could be your 100th landing, or your first landing at that airport. It's still a very fresh, fresh job. I don't feel like I'm ever working. I feel like I'm sometimes on vacation. But my favorite thing is that no day is the same, honestly,
Abby:
Right, right? So, it kind of keeps you on your toes a little bit. Never, never monotonous.
Stephan:
Absolutely. It's never that. It's never monotonous. Now, yes, I have been asked, what do you do during cruise? Because it must be boring. Yeah, it is boring. But let me put it in this perspective, boring is good. It means nothing wrong is happening. So, I'm glad when it's boring, it means that the job is quote, unquote, easy. It's not easy to get there and it's not easy to do, but it's easy, quote, quote, unquote, if you guys know what I mean. So boring is good, but having that different challenge every day, or different destination or a different crew member, that's what makes the job fresh to me, and I really do enjoy it.
Abby:
Right, right. Okay. And now I know you said it's different, it's the same, but it's different. So, what is a typical day kind of look like?
Stephan:
Yeah. So, I live in Denver, and I'm based out of New York. I do mainly international flights. In fact, this Wednesday, I'm going to Venice for the first time. Super pumped for that, but a typical day for me, like, let's just run through what I'll be doing. On Wednesday, I'll be hopping on a flight from Denver to New York. On Wednesday, get to New York about four hours prior to showtime, which is when we want to report to work. So, I'll just hang out there. I'll take a nap or have some lunch. I'll do whatever, update my iPad with all the new manuals updates or software upgrades and things like that. Once that's done, then I meet up with the crew. We usually meet. Meet up with them at in the power lounge. Talk about the fly plan, talk about the procedures who are going to be flying it. Talk about any sort of contingencies that we might have, or anything of concern, or anything to note. And then we go to the airplane, get us set up, fly overnight to Venice, land there, and then take a quick nap, go out a good time, because it's my first time. I'm probably going to walk around the whole entire city. Get some really good food, because I love food. It's why I probably can't lose weight, because I just love food so much. And then go back to the hotel, get a good sleep, because there's still very responsible people, and then we fly back the next day. But typical trips right there is what I is what I do. Once you get into a routine. It's pretty straightforward, but, yeah, just get up, commute, go, go to work and come back. It's pretty it's pretty nice.
Abby:
Oh. Awesome. And do you have a favorite place that you've flown to before?
Stephan:
I get this question all the time, and my answer is always the same. There are so many different cities that I've been to that you see the similarities between them, but you also see the differences between them. That makes it super hard to just have one favorite. But some of my top five, I would say Quebec, Canada is a gorgeous city. I remember being there one time right around Christmas time, and it was snowing very hard, very big flakes, and the city was still pretty active, like people were out walking. The Christmas lights were up, and it was just, it just felt like I was walking through a Christmas car, or like one of those, like globes and that you see at the gift shops. You know, it just feels like you're walking through one of those. As far as like approaches, Portland Maine has a really good approach to land at the airport. I think it's one of my favorite ones. When I flew over at the Grand Canyon, I was always fun, because you always got to see some views like you don't ever get to see even from 30,000 feet up. You don't get to see what you saw when you just 1000 feet above the canyon. As far as lately, going to Europe. I just went to Prague two weeks ago, and that was a beautiful city, very walkable, really good scenery, really good history as well. And I can be a little bit of a history nerd, so I really enjoy looking around and exploring. But right now, I will say Quebec City four is just magical, sort of like distressed feeling Paul in Maine for the approaches Prague, just for the historical thing. But also, really like Dublin, it's a lot of music in Dublin. And I've, no matter where you go, which pub, which restaurant, which anything, there's always live music. And I really enjoy that as well. So again, loaded question. But, oh, in Rio, I went to Rio engineering, really good spot to just go there and hang out.
Abby:
Oh, that's awesome. And I'm sure once you go to a certain city, more than once, you kind of figure out where you like to go.
Stephan:
Yeah, actually, I did a lot of Honolulu about a year or so ago, and I had a list of like 20 different spots to hit up behind a little and you just ask friends, you ask people, you ask people you're flying with and all this stuff. And I just every single overnight, I just checked a few Off, off the list. And it was just like, even though we I was there 2025, times, I still did something different every time. Yeah, there are something that I did the same, like I always want to go get it's called a coco puff bakery item from this Liliha bakery in Honolulu. I always did that because it was just kind of it was really good, and it's running to the hotel as well. But then I did something else, you know, it was just everything had its own different adventure. Despite it being the 20th time there.
Abby:
Awesome, awesome. That sounds very fun. Very exciting.
Stephan:
Thank you. Yeah, it really is. It's a really exciting job. Again, I don't feel like I'm working at all.
Abby:
And that's the best kind of job right there where you don't feel like you're at work.
Stephan:
Exactly. I would agree with you 100%
Abby:
And now my next question for you, are you able to tie writing into your day-to-day work life?
Stephan:
Yeah, actually, I we do mainly, we do it with acars, which is the way that we communicate between flight control and the airplane. We just type it in via a computer and we send out a text message, just like we do with our phones to our friends. So yeah, that's, that's the main way we tie writing into that.
Abby:
Okay, perfect. And do you ever have to write any kinds of reports or anything like that or is it mainly just that text message type writing. The text message is the primary common way that we communicate in a day-to-day basis. We do reports like when we have, let's say, an incident with that could be a go around or a diversion we had to take off, or we had to write a maintenance report because something broke on the airplane. We do write those sorts of reports. Almost certain number of students are familiar with an ASAP report. We do those not too often, but we do those. I do about once, one every three or four months or so, just to bring up some safety that I see. And that's just what, that's what they are there for. But that's where writing does come. Very, very essential.
Abby:
Right, right. And then. So, for our viewers who maybe aren't pilots, what is an ASAP report?
Stephan:
I'm going to butcher the acronym, because I always butcher acronyms, but I believe it's Aviation Safety Action Program. It's when you see or when something happens to you that you could have fixed. For example, like we have a procedure we need to put the flaps to take up position before we start taxing after takeoff. If we forget to do that and we, do it later, they could be a potential safety issue if you do not realize it before we take off. Flats are just a mechanical device that we use for better lift to take to take off. But let's say I forgot to do that. I need to write a report about it, because everything on the airplane is tracked, and I write a report, this is what happened. This is what I could have done better, and this is what I learned from it. And that report goal then goes into the database, and it's compiled with a bunch of different reports, and they look at the trends and look at the data, and with that, they see where pilots need to be a little bit more. Fresh in their in their training. In fact, every nine months we go into the simulator to just refresh the skills that we do not use every day, which are good, like we go in there and refresh skills that are like engine failures, engine fires, cargo fires, medical emergencies, which I'm glad they don't happen every day, but if you don't practice them, you're going to be rusty. So, we go in there every nine months. In fact, it's all those, and then we have special emphasis items, and those are compiled from the ASAP reports that we write and everything. It's also a way to self-disclose that you did this and that you know what you did wrong, and you know what you are going to fix later on. And that, in a way, protects me as well from any action, or also, if you see something that needs to be a little bit better changed, like you're coming into an airport and the crossing restriction, I cross this point and this the an attitude is always so challenging, you almost can't make it every time you bring it up to the eyes of the company and the FAA via the ASAP report, like, Hmm, maybe we should. We should change that. And that's even though you did nothing wrong, you could still do that like, hey, this is what it's been challenging. I don't know if it's a lot of things have been reporting this, but maybe you should change that, you know. So, it's a really good report. It's a safety report to better enhance the safety on the industry and every single flight out there,
Abby:
Right, awesome. And I'm sure those are very important to write with a lot of detail in them?
Stephan:
Being very specific, not just the detail, it's also how you write. You have to be very eloquent, what you want to be clear. Pilots. Unfortunately, we're not the best, strongest writers, is what I've noticed. However, though, where we do get to report writing, I do believe we all take extra time because we want to exactly make sure what we want to portray. So, it's very important to be direct, very important to use the proper language, very important to be concise and clear with what you're writing as well, because it's not just going to go into a pile, it's actually going to go and affect different aspects of the industry, right?
Abby:
Perfect, all right. And then, so have you noticed any differences or similarities between writing you did at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in the workplace?
Stephan:
Actually, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University prepared me pretty well for the writing that we do in the workplace. The thing I really like about riddles training, if you will, is how they literally used to be industries tools like I learned how to do an insight report during my flight safety course at riddle. I learned how to use the A cars, which is the text messaging thing that we have on the airplane during my flat management system course at riddle. I think the courses at riddle were very good for us to get you prepared for the industry itself. Now, if you, if you wanted me to be a writer, I don't think so. But that was not, that's not Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, you know. But as far as getting me set up for the air, for the industry, and what I did a packet riddle to what I'm doing now, it's very good. I'm very strong.
Abby:
Perfect, awesome. I'm glad to hear that and then so my final question that I have for you today, do you have any advice that you'd like to share with our current eagles?
Stephan:
It's more of a general piece of advice. It's always good to look to the future. Always good to have that end goal in sight, but do not be afraid for that goal to change, whether it was you’re doing or some other circumstance to change it. But most importantly, do not forget to enjoy where you're at right now. I see a lot of people get caught up with the if only I could do this, if only I will be this, if only I get this job here, and they cannot forget to live their present. So don't forget to live the present. Focus on focus on the future, of course, and don't be afraid to change your goals, because maybe you find a different interest, or maybe something else catches your eye, or something else happens that your goals can change. But whatever you do, just keep striving, have fun and work out of it,
Abby:
Perfect. And that was great advice. Thank you, Stefan, and we want to give a big thank you to Stefan for being on with us this week, we hope you all enjoyed this episode and stay tuned for more.
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Amelia:
This podcast is supported by the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. Abigail Bradberry is our host and producer. Matthew Haslam is the department chair, and I'm Amelia Chesley, Assistant Professor of professional writing. The intro and outro music is Wanderer by Aylex. Many thanks to the Prescott campus Writing and Design Lab for hosting our transcripts. Find us where most podcasts are found and please do reach out if you are a Prescott campus alum, we'd love to feature you in a future episode.
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