A Southwest Airlines pilot bought an airplane catering truck for $3,300. He spent 7 months turning it into a mobile tiny home — see how he did it.

Pankey is a former US Air Force pilot who grew up in Louisiana. After 20 years with the Air Force, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2016 and got a job with Southwest Airlines as a commercial pilot, where he's been for the past seven years.

He's no stranger to van life, having lived in one when he first started at the company.

"When I first got hired at the airline, I bought a little lot of land in a town called Crested Butte in Colorado," Pankey told Insider. The idea was to build a hangar-style home, buy an airplane, and fly to work, he said.

But in the meantime, he was living in an apartment complex next to his lot and commuting to airports in Denver and Los Angeles whenever he was scheduled for a flight.

"I'd stay at hotels before I actually went to work. I had to pay out of pocket and I was spending like $800 a month," he said. "So I thought, what if I bought a van and renovated it?"

He kept the van in the airport parking lots and ended up sleeping in it to save hotel money whenever he went to work, he added. This became his arrangement for the next couple of years.

During that period, pilots were being told to take time off with partial pay, so Pankey decided to put his plan of building a house on hold.

"If COVID-19 can shut down the world, maybe it's not a good idea to go into debt right now and build a big old house," Pankey said.

He had enjoyed the process of renovating his van and decided he wanted to do it again — but on a bigger scale. 

"I had seen these box trucks at work, and I thought about how cool would it be to live in one of those, or to build one out," he said. "I was telling another pilot this, and sometime later he sent me a text saying that a whole bunch of them were being auctioned off in Seattle."

Insider verified the cost of the vehicle with online records.

The vehicle comes with a scissor lift that is used to raise the box-shaped cargo space on its back until it is level with the plane, Pankey said. Items such as food and beverages can then be loaded onto the aircraft with ease.

"It actually spent a lot of time in Las Vegas, and then they moved it up to Seattle," he said. "It's about 20 years old."

The truck came almost empty, with a few shelves that Pankey had to clear out. "I was starting the project from scratch," he said.

Pankey created a frame for the new roof by welding metal beams together and extended one side of the roof by an extra two feet.

"I wanted a slanted roof just so I could collect rainwater on one side, and I wanted to make it taller as well, so I had a little bit more room," Pankey said.

Having a sloped roof also meant that any solar panels that he placed on top of it would already be at an angle towards the sun, he said.

Moreover, the original roof on the truck was made out of fiberglass and felt a little flimsy, Pankey said: "They're super thin — like you could probably put your hand through it if you punched it with your fist."

"When I finally got that thing completely sprayed, it was just a huge load off my shoulders," Pankey said.

The insulation wasn't just keeping the inside of the truck warm, it was good for soundproofing too, he said: "It was so quiet in there. Even if I was running a power tool on the inside, you couldn't hear anything from the outside."

"One of my neighbors used to bring over his amp and his guitar, and he would sing in it. It was really loud before the foam, and after you couldn't even hear it at all," he added.

Although some neighbors were a bit apprehensive about his decision to work right outside of the apartments, most of them were just as excited about the project as he was, Pankey said.

"They loved it. They would come over every day and cheer me on," he added. "Or they'd want to go up and down in it, so I'd run it up and down for them."

"I also painted some rivets all over it so it would look even more like an airplane," Pankey said.

The hood of the truck features a spray-painted bird motif that was inspired by the car in the 1977 action comedy film "Smokey and the Bandit."

He estimates that he spent between $30,000 and $35,000 on the build, including the cost of buying the truck.

The converted vehicle still retains the original side banner from its days as an airline catering truck, with a cheeky slogan that reads "The snacks are on me."

"I was hoping they would let me keep it," Pankey said. "I was talking to my friends before the auction, and they all thought that the truck was amazing and fitting because I'm a pilot and I work for Southwest Airlines."

Although the company's name and heart logo had to be removed in the end, he was allowed to keep the banner. 

Pankey usually raises the scissor lift about five or six feet up when he's parked, just so that it's level with the front deck.

"It's easier to get out on the front deck that way. When the box is down, I have to climb up to get out onto the deck where I cook and eat," he said.

While being raised up in the air gives him unblocked views of the surroundings, it also means that he needs to watch his step.

"I've come close to walking off the edge of it," Pankey said. "I have a little lanyard flag, it's orange, and it says, 'Remove before flight.' I hang that up so that I would walk into it when I have the door shut, and remember that the truck is up."

The loft is where Pankey sleeps, and it fits a queen-sized mattress.

"I have a foldable, telescoping ladder that I open up and use," Pankey said. "In retrospect, I should have planned this better and built a ladder for me to get up."

Instead of using the narrow shower cubicles that are typical of RV homes, Pankey opted for an in-home, corner-style shower made from tempered glass.

Although he was initially apprehensive about how it would hold up while he was on the road, the structure is surprisingly sturdy, Pankey said.

Pankey glued magnets to the base of his kitchenware to ensure they stay on the shelves when the journey gets bumpy.

For larger items like jars and containers, he strings heavy-duty cords across the entire shelf to prevent them from falling out.

Apart from a small table where Pankey eats his meals, the deck is also where he keeps his outdoor grill and stove.

The logs covering the back of the truck are for aesthetic purposes, Pankey said.

"I dropped by an old timber mill on my way to get supplies at Home Depot, just to see if they had any scraps. Sure enough, they did — they had a whole bunch of those so I just took them," he said.

"If I'm somewhere where it's raining, I collect the rainwater. If it doesn't rain, I have a water bladder that I'll fill up and bring back," Pankey said.

In addition, the truck is equipped with a plug that allows him to hook up to utilities at campgrounds and RV parks, he added.

"Those are downhill skis and a couple of snowboards," Pankey said. "I haven't done a whole lot of skiing since I've been living in this, but I used to ski all the time."

Pankey also has a Toyota Tacoma pickup, that he tows with the aircraft catering truck. He says that this helps when it comes to running errands around town. 

Looking back at his experience, Pankey says that adapting to the tiny home wasn't all that difficult due to his previous experience living in the van. 

"I didn't have a whole lot of room in the van, so when I got into this thing, it was massive," Pankey said.

But at the same time, he acknowledges how such a drastic lifestyle change can be a nerve-racking experience.

"When you move out of a house or an apartment into something like this full-time, there's definitely anxiety when you do it," he added. "But I was ready to do it, you know? I told myself I'm going to make it happen and it's going to be fun."

"Is this going to be full-time? Should it be a van or something bigger? And if it's going to be bigger, is this going to be your primary vehicle? These are all things you need to think about," Pankey said.

Smaller RVs don't have an additional vehicle that they can use for errands, Pankey said, which means that they can risk losing their camping spot because they need to head to the store.

People who want to take on such projects should also consider the extent of their building skills.

"When something goes wrong, do you need to get someone to fix it, or are you going to learn how to do it so that you can fix stuff on the road?" Pankey said.

Since he built his truck on his own, he knows exactly where everything is and how to fix them when something goes wrong, he added: "That's the big difference between buying somebody else's creation and building your own."