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Pre-Flight Checklist
The whole gang is here for the last new show of the year (hey, that rhymes!) including Turbo, the Flying Dog!
We start with some announcements. Eric has a shout out for Jason from Alaska (brrrr!) who despite setbacks is continuing to his work on his aerospace education.
Victoria announce that Turbo the Flying Dog book is now for sale click here: Turbo the Flying Dog (Volume 1)
Cruise Flight
Victoria discusses the Dare to be Different scholarship, which requires you to do something unique in aviation. Using her GPS she flew in the pattern that spelled out “dare 2 be.” You can see the details on her blog. Victoria was also on Airplane Geeks.
The topic for this week is their reflections on their year in flight, including what they did in aviation and the most amazing thing they saw from the air.
- Eric discussed using General Aviation to go visit his sister when she had her baby.
- Sean talked about getting a ride on Fat Albert, the Blue Angels C-130 that does something akin to aerobatics.
- Victoria said one of her favorite things is sharing aviation with others, and how earlier this year her and her husband flew their plane along with another couples plane for a special hamburger.
- Carl’s best flight was actually getting to fly a 172, which is a big change after flying for the airlines. The most beautiful thing was seeing wave formations flying into Trinidad.
- Rick said he did not do any flying this year due to family commitments and discussed the difficulty of trying to stay current and how important that is if you really cannot go flying anywhere. However he did discuss flying around New England at some really beautiful airports.
After Landing Checklist
~Picks of the Week~
- Victoria: 1800wxbrief.com, a great site for filing a flight plan and plotting your route.
- Sean: XPlane 10 Mobile flight simulator game for iOS. the 172 comes free, you can purchase other planes in app.
- Carl: Paul Job Photography, an aerial photographer taking great aerial, airplane photography.
- Eric: FAA Safety Briefing Magazine, which is a great resource for pilots. It is available for free as e-pub or Kindle, or in print for a low fee. Also, the FAA Safety Briefing Twitter account is a great resource and has a lot of interaction among pilots sharing information.
- Rick: MPING (Meteorological Phenomenon Information Near the Ground), a free app that lets you report on weather phenomenon near the ground, where radar cannot detect. The app is available for iOS, Android.
This episode is sponsored by:
I’m fairly new to your podcast, but have to say listening to others speak about putting flying on hold because other commitments was very therapeutic for me. Misery loves company, not that the host or myself are miserable while not flying, but come on we are not flying – things could be better we could be flying after all and hopefully soon we all will be.
(What follows is a very long comment regarding two different podcasts, but I hope that it offers some encouragement to your listeners who might find themselves in situations similar to mine. Thank you in advance for your indulgence.)
A big thank you to Rick Felty for sharing your experiences of not flying on the most recent Stuck Mic Avcast. Thanks also to Carl Valeri for the constant reminder on the Aviation Careers Podcast that there are many ways to be involved in aviation. Both of your thoughts resonate with the past two decades of my life.
Like most aviation lovers, I grew up fascinated by flight. As a kid I played with balsa and foam gliders, went to air shows, and built models of airplanes and aircraft carriers. As the world’s worst Little Leaguer I spent most of my baseball career deep in the outfield watching ultralights fly out of my small town’s grass strip. Glasses prevented me from taking the military route, so after high school I began flight training in a college aviation program. I soloed, flew cross country, and took classes in aerodynamics and aviation management. Summer was spent working as a baggage handler for a major airline.
Everything in my life pointed toward a career with the airlines, except for one thing. While I loved flying, I had no interest in the business side of aviation. Corporate culture left me cold. Instead I began to discern a call towards professional ministry and set my educational goals on seminary. After seminary I married a woman who was working on her PhD. Because of both costs and time, graduate school took first priority and flying was put on hold.
Since then I have had to find other ways to remain involved in aviation. I serve as an Air Force Reserve chaplain and am on the board of a local aviation museum. I continued to play around with radio control and flight simulators, but it was seventeen years before I was able to set foot in the cockpit of a light plane once again.
Now in our late thirties, my wife and I are both finished with school and working full time. Student loan debt is under control and a window of opportunity has reopened in my life. Three months ago I enrolled in ground school and began working toward my sport pilot license.
As a working adult, the training process looks very different than it did two decades ago. I am not able to fly two or three times a week like I did in college. Lessons have to fit around family and work. It is not as efficient in terms of either money or time. I have no idea how long my training will take, and frankly do not care. The learning process itself is fun, and flying with an instructor is still flying.
On the positive side, I am a better student than I was back then. Maturity and improved training aids mean than I am better prepared for each lesson than I ever was at age eighteen. I also am more willing to listen to what my instructor has to say. My previous experiences have laid a solid foundation. I am not starting from scratch. Finally, the fact that flying is now purely a recreational activity for me has eliminated the stress associated with keeping up with the tight part 141 training timetable. Now all I have to worry about is safely learning at my own pace.
My message to my fellow listeners is this, never give up on your aviation dreams. There are many ways to be involved, and many of them do not involve piloting. If flying is your goal, it is never too late to learn or relearn. The key is to enjoy the journey. Some of my ground school classmates had been away from flying longer than I have been alive. All of them were having the time of their lives being back around airplanes.
Thanks to you and the crew of Stuck Mic and Aviation Careers for a wonderful year of exciting and inspiring listening. Happy aviating everyone.