Stuck Mic AvCast - An Aviation Podcast About Learning to Fly, Living to Fly, & Loving to Fly

Learning, Living, and Loving To Fly.

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Episode #22 – Sun N Fun Domination, Ignoring ATC, & Flying With Pets

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Pre-Flight

Ooooooooweeeee, what a great show we’ve got lined up for you today! Carl and Len report on their exploits and tomfoolery from Sun N Fun 2012, Rick updates us on the happenings with our friends at Terrafugia and their roadable aircraft, Len shares a story about telling air traffic control to piss off, Victoria gives us some pointers on special considerations when flying with your furry loved ones, no not your husband but your pets, and Carls talks about severe turbulence signs and flight characteristics.

Cruise Flight

After Landing Checklist

~ Picks Of The Week ~

Victoria – Pet Friendly Travel, Dog Friendly Destinations, Axels Food & Ice Cream Merrimack, NH

Carl – Pilots N Paws volunteer pet transport

Rick – Flying Car Film documents the progress of Terrafugia and the roadable aircraft

Len – Patient Airlift Services volunteer medical transport

Listen to Episode 22 Below

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3 Pilots, 2 Airplanes, 1 Camera – Behind The Scenes of Women Fly It Forward

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I woke up the other day to a text message from Victoria, one of my co-hosts on the Stuck Mic AvCast, asking me if I’d be available to film a promo video for her Women Fly It Forward event. Well I happen to love airplanes and making videos and hanging out at the airport so naturally I said yes.

The idea was to capture some footage of Victoria explaining the success of her 2011 event and inviting new participants to register for the 2012 event. It’s on March 10, 2012 by the way and just in case you don’t know, the goal of Women Fly It Forward is to introduce women to general aviation by giving them a FREE ride in a small plane. A worthy cause it would turn out as 185 women participated in 2011! Not bad for the first time.

That event won Frederick Municipal Airport, in Frederick, MD the “Most Female-Pilot-Friendly Airport Worldwide” award for 2011. A second and equally awesome accomplishment. Getting back to the promo video – we met at the airport over the weekend with airplanes, video cameras, and other film gear for what would turn out to be a chilly afternoon on the “set.” Having access to some airplanes we pulled the Cessna 172 out of the hangar for a nice back drop. We also did some filming in front of a Glasair but that didn’t make the cut in editing.

After freezing our butts off for 2 hours filming in the winter wind, we finally had all we needed and called it a wrap. Then it was off to warm up over dinner, dessert, and a live band.

Episode #17 – Flying For Fun Vs Flying Hire

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Today’s show was spurred by a listener email that had to do with the pros and cons of flying for fun versus flying for work. There’s a lot of opinions out there on the Internet and aviation forums, some from disgruntled airline pilots, other from passionate aviators looking to fly heavy iron.

Since Carl and Len are both airline pilots and Rick and Victoria fly for pleasure, what not a better group of people to discuss these issues with.

Pre-Flight

Our Stuck Mic AvCast co-host Carl Valeri of ExpertAviator.com, will be attending the Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, FL on January 19th and 20th. The event, which runs January 19th through January 22nd, focuses on Light Sport Aircraft and the Sport Pilot Certificate. Look for Carl in his Stuck Mic AvCast t-shirt armed with his video camera and audio recorder making his rounds at the Expo! He’s super nice and fun to talk planes with so make sure to catch him if you can.

The next announcement today is in conjunction with Women of Aviation Week, the second annual Women Fly It Forward event hosted by our very own Victoria Neuville of Aviation Insurance Resources. The event will be held at KFDK Frederick Municipal Airport, Frederick, MD on March 10th, 2012 and promotes aviation for women. Last year, Women Fly It Forward shared the gift of flight by providing free airplane rides to 185 women of all ages. The only requirement is that it must be your first time in a small plane. There’s also a chance to win a flight award for money and discounts towards flight training. Will you be there?

Cruise Flight

  • Intro to flying for fun vs flying for hire
  • Why we became pilots
  • Decisions to fly
  • Training choices
  • Desired outcomes
  • College education paths
  • Time off for other life pursuits
  • Pros and cons of flying for hire vs flying for fun
  • Flying as a hobby
  • Flying as a job
  • Co-hosts regrets and what’d they do different next time
  • Crusty and disgruntled pilots
  • Freedom of general aviation
  • Constraints of paid flying jobs
  • Flying as a long-term career
  • Changing careers to fly
  • Leaving flying for a career or personal endeavor
  • And much, much more!

After Landing Checklist

~ Picks of The Week ~

Victoria – Future Flyers Club: Your Online Toy Airplane Superstore

Carl – Aircraft: The Jet As Art display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

Rick – Announcing Microsoft Flight, the reincarnation of Microsoft Flight Simulator with a twist

Len – iFlightPlanner for iPad: A FREE flight planning app

Listen to Episode 17 Below

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Slick: A Glasair Demo Flight

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Meet Bob Zajko

You’ve met him before. He’s done a few guest blog posts on The Anywhere Map including Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of his video demo.

What you might not have known about Bob is that he owns a Glasair 1 experimental aircraft. It’s a retractable gear, controllable pitch propeller, stick-flown aircraft and you can call her “Slick.”

Hello Slick

I met up with Bob at the KFDK airport in Frederick, MD for an afternoon flight in the Glasair. This would be many firsts for me: first time in a Glasair, first time flying with Bob, first time with a full video setup, and first time flying out of FDK. Big day, right?

Thanks to our friend Patrick who loaned us his GoPro® HD HERO2 Motorsports Edition camera (affiliate link), we were able to employ a 3 camera setup in flight. Coupled with an audio patch cable for recording intercom and air traffic control, we hit the skies.

Being my first demo flight video you can see it was a bit lacking in flight maneuvers. We hadn’t exactly known what to film and decided to just go up and have some fun while the cameras recorded it all. Of course you have to realize that when it comes to video editing for time and content that sometimes things get left out. For instance, YES we did a runup, all checklists, and radio calls even though not everything can be seen during the video, we did it.

Avoiding Camp David

KFDK is about 11 nautical miles south of Camp David, also known as Prohibited Area 40, or P-40. Luckily we weren’t going to be flying around there on this demo flight. Instead, we headed westerly out to the common practice area. There Bob handed the controls over to me and I flew some basic turns, climbs, and descents.

Admiring the ease of controllability I decided I would try my hand at some steep turns. We started off at 5,000 ft for this maneuver as I banked 45-degress into a left hand turn. The aircraft didn’t require much back pressure or trim input to maintain level flight, even at our bank angle. Upon completion of my left-hand steep turn I rolled into a turn towards to right, again holding her at 45-degrees of bank with minimal control inputs.

Not thinking that we should demonstrate any other flight characteristics like stalls or slow flight, we went for a short sight seeing tour of historic Harpers Ferry, WV. I’ve been to Harpers Ferry 2 times prior but it was from the ground. This was the first time I had flown over this neat town. The sun was shining and the fall tree colors were in full effect making for a nice backdrop as I maneuvered around the area before returning to Frederick for a full-stop landing.

In Closing

You’ll learn all kinds of performance data about the Glasair during our flight to and from the practice area as Bob answers my questions about that capabilities of his airplane. His knowledge of this airplane is pretty in-depth, something I would come to expect form a person who has over 1,000 hours flight time in Glasairs.

If you’ve enjoyed this demo video, share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or leave a comment below. I’m also available to film demonstration videos for fun or for hire. If you’d like to have your aircraft featured on ThePilotReport.com, please Contact Me!

ThePilotReport and Len Costa LOVE and USE:
GoPro® HD HERO2 Motorsports Edition (affiliate link)