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Where’s Baldo – A Month in the Life of an Airline Pilot

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Skydive the Beach - Sydney, AU

Skydive the Beach – Sydney, AU

We thought we’d poke a little fun at one of our co-hosts in addition to starting a fun online game called, “Where’s Baldo?”, where we chronicle the monthly destinations of co-host Len Costa as an airline captain for both work and pleasure. He gets around (literally).

Why “Baldo” you ask? Back in December 2012 Len decided he’d had enough of his luscious, soft, head of hair and went the shaved route courtesy of the awesome peeps at Head Blade (check them out, their stuff works). As a self-appointed baldy, the catchy phrase “Where’s Baldo?” was a fun play on pop culture icon Waldo who we seem to be eternally searching for. Seriously… will somebody PLEASE find that guy!

Anyway, we’ll be publishing a monthly blog post with all the destinations he’s set foot in. We hope you enjoy this new online game and the first edition releases on Friday, June 7th, 2013.

Clear Skies & Calm Winds,

SMAC

Where Captain Why

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Back in December 2012, at a Christmas party, co-host Len Costa had the chance to meet a fascinating man by the name of Dr. J. Scott Brown while visiting Knoxville, TN on a work related overnight trip. A conversation ensued about life and the decisions we make and how they lead us here and there. So motivated by our conversation, Dr. Brown decided to share a very personal and touching poem he had written entitled, “Where Captain Why” about the thrill of the journey.

And while this poem has a very specific nautical theme it relates nearly word for word for aviators and pilots alike.

We now present, “Where Captain Why” by Dr. J Scott Brown:

The Fearless Captain holds the wheel

A place in mind his soul can feel.

He goes forward with no stress or doubt,

For he knows where he is, and has chosen his route.

Even with the waves and wind, He may be blown off course,

but corrects again.

For this place he seeks, he must go.

This is the place that will make him whole.

The Captain, the Ship and the Sea are one.

When the reason you sail is the right one.

Before you know it your port will appear and you can dock

without any Fear.

As your foot hits land, and you tie up the lines,

Your eyes look to the ocean for new goal to find.

For you see,

It is not the port you desire most,

Is is the thill of the journey from coast to coast.

If you’ve enjoyed this poem we would love for you to use one of the share buttons above or below this blog post and send this poem forward.

Cheers,

Stuck Mic AvCast

SMAC048 – Victoria’s Back, Pitch Down Dummy, Autolandings

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Today’s show marks the triumphant return of our beloved and sassy Victoria Zajko as she fills us in on all the exciting news from her absence including the amazing statistics from 2013’s Women of Aviation Week Worldwide events. Rick’s recent flight with a CFI conducting simulated engine out procedures invokes an interesting conversation about pitching down when it may seem completely counterintuitive. And Carl wraps it up with a story and explanation about his first autolanding in the Airbus A320 on an ILS during 1,400 RVR. All that and more coming up right now!

Pre-Flight

From July 26-28th, 2013 the Festival of Ballooning at Solberg Airport in Readington, NJ will feature over 100 hot air balloons, flights, entertainment, headlining bands, fireworks, plus more. As one of the nations greats balloon events this is not to be missed.

Cruise Flight

Show Notes

After Landing Checklist

~ Picks of The Week ~

It’s Not Us, It’s You… Goodbye Facebook

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We here at the Stuck Mic AvCast believe in a world where our message is freely distributed to our listeners around the world without impedance or fees. As of recently, Facebook is no longer that medium for us.

What Happened?

You’re probably aware that Facebook is now a NASDAQ publicly traded company. In an interest to their shareholders and to earn income they’ve implemented some changes to their software. One major change is the way Facebook’s algorithm determines the exposure of each posting made on their website.

For our Page with 194 “Likes” only a tiny percentage of those 194 dedicated fans actually get to see our postings because of this Facebook algorithm. And I mean a tiny amount. Whereas before all this money making, stock exchange nonsense all our fans would see every single post. But that’s simply not the way of the world anymore.

What A Racket

Now you may be thinking, “Why would Facebook limit the exposure of your posts?” and here’s why: MONEY.

The idea is that a Facebook Page owner can pay an advertising fee to “Promote” a post which allegedly generates more exposure over the limited percentage currently allowed by their system algorithm. And while we don’t take issue with a company trying to earn a profit (go for it) we refuse to let that affect what we share with you.

We’ve ran the tests, paid some promotion and advertising fees just for the heck of it, and have seen NO valuable increase to our podcast family.

So Here’s The Deal

The Stuck Mic AvCast is leaving Facebook. As of Thursday May 23rd, 2013 we will no longer be a brand that supports Facebook and will be shutting down our Page permanently.

The BEST way to keep in touch of all that’s happening at the podcast is through Twitter. You DO NOT have to sign up for an account to Follow Us but it’s highly recommended, and hey, it’s a great hangar flying community you won’t want to miss out on.

The address is: Twitter.com/StuckMicAvCast. You can visit the site from any internet device to see what we’re up to if you choose not to Follow Us. Or you could subscribe to our Tweets by using this link in your favorite RSS reader: https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=stuckmicavcast.

The Big Break Up

Well there you have, we’ve said our peace, and now it’s time to part ways.

So goodbye Facebook – it’s been real and it’s been fun, but it ain’t been real fun.

PS – NO, you can’t have your favorite sweatshirt back either…