The Student Pilot Cast

Today we talk about legacy, and legends of aviation. I recently found some old audio in the SPC archives from OSH 2011, and it brought me back, got me thinking about the legacy of some of the people we sometimes get to cross paths with. Some are important to the world and some are important more to us and a few others. In any case, I wanted to let you guys hear this audio, too. I hope you like it....

Welcome back, SPC listeners.  I’m super happy to bring you a chat with Dan Justman from the airplane Owners and Pilots Association, or AOPA, about their program designed to help part 61 students and instructors with their training. AOPA is trying to tackle what is likely part of the reason so many people quit pilot training before achieving their certificate by organizing the flight training...

For this episode I got a chance to talk to Nick Smith from Part Time Pilot, an online private pilot ground school that packs a lot of personalized value into a rather inexpensive service. Learn about how he’s taking a more personal approach to online training and also learn how to get a discounted price on Part Time Pilot which will last a lifetime. For the tricks on discounts check this out from...

This is the audio version of the Student Pilot Cast audio Episode 63. The video version of this can be found in the video feed of this podcast, or in highest resolution on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/-GhDPNoQcj4 In this episode I get to talk to Mark Palm, the CEO and Co-Founder of Samaritan Aviation, a humanitarian organization who help people out in Papua New Guinea. Mark gives us a bit of the...

The state of Oklahoma has gotten serious about aviation, STEM education, and the whole aeronautics industry. I talk here briefly with Grayson Ardies, Director of the Oklahoma Aeronautical Commision, about what the state is doing to further aviation education and aeronautics in general in the state. This is the audio version of podcast episode 62, but there is a video version as well in the video f...

The state of Oklahoma has gotten serious about aviation, STEM education, and the whole aeronautics industry. I caught up with a High School teacher in Oklahoma, Chris Eckler, to talk about what he’s doing in his school district with regard to Aviation Education and how he fell in love with Aviation in the process. He caught the bug and trained to be a pilot himself just ahead of his students. More...

In this episode I have an impromptu conversation with Celia Oakley of Opener. We had been hearing about their electric STOL aircraft but hadn’t planned on doing a feature on it until my crew took a spin in their 3D simulator and we found the evolution and the atypical flight characteristics of the BlackFly interesting…so we started asking some questions, and with the permission of Celia, got a bit...

In this episode I catch up with Laura and Jay of Infinite Flight to talk about their flight simulator. We cover what it is, how it started, is it a tool or a game, and what’s coming next. This is a fun discussion about something I hadn’t really been keeping up on the last decade or so; the flight sim world, and what I love about Infinite Flight is how easy it is to get started and use it wherever...

We finally make it to Showlow the morning after our diversion to Payson. I categorized this flight as a grateful nod to aviation and I dive into how I was feeling at this point in my flying career. I hope you enjoy this flight.

This one is awesome for me. I got to take my wife on our first mission together to the high country of Arizona for a weekend away with friends. Being the PIC on these flights was teaching me a lot, and on this day I had some weather decisions to make. Follow along as we have this flying adventure together.

CORRECTION and UPDATE: I had published the episode 55 audio as episode 56 in error. On July 6th, 2022, I realized the mistake, and have updated this episode release with the correct file. Sorry for the inconvenience. Episode Description: Back to a cockpit audio episode this week, but you may be asking what it is since I finished my primary training episodes. Well, this is an Oshkosh arrival, the p...

Back to a cockpit audio episode this week, but you may be asking what it is since I finished my primary training episodes. Well, this is an Oshkosh departure and next week we’ll do an arrival…and yes, in that order. More explanation when we get into the episode…but I hope you enjoy.

This episode is an interview with Stu Stevenson, Co-Owner of Thrust Flight, an ab initio flight school in the Dallas area with additional locations on the horizon. Stu is also one of the co-hosts and the creator of A Pilot’s Journey Podcast, and is a CFI, ATP, and generally great guy. In this discussion with Stu we will cover all sorts of cool topics from Stu’s own training to how he and his busin...

Welcome back SPC listeners.  Big day today…time for my check ride.  It’s finally here…and after all these years, we’ll finally figure out if I made it or not.  Hope you enjoy Episode 53, “Checking my Ride.” Yup, the time had finally come to see if I had learned what I needed to learn to be able to move on to the next phase of my flying. This was a big one for me.

Back to my training, we’ll be doing the second half of my makeup flight.  This is the continuation of the flight from Episode 50.  Enjoy episode 52, “Am I Ready Yet?” I was only a few days from my rescheduled check ride, and I was getting even more nervous and excited. Glad you can join me for this one.

This week week’s episode is something a little different.  We’ll get back to part two of my Instrument make-up flight next week, but I wanted to throw in the audio from a sit-down I had with an old friend and colleague, Tim Omta, when we recently re-connected after several years because of aviation.  He had let me know that he had just learned to fly last year but I didn’t know a lot of...

This is episode 50, where you may have been expecting an episode about my check ride, but alas, there was a bit of a snag, so you can get all of the information in this week’s episode. This episode will include part one of some makeup flying and we even go and land at Pinal Airpark to look at some mothballed airplanes. Believe it or not, it was a fun, relaxing flight, but I’ll be back to stressing...

In this episode we’ll cover a quick flight to get the additional .3 hours I needed to be ready for my check ride. The previous day I had 3 flights (see episodes 46, 47, and 48 for those). Today I would do this one flight, and be studying like crazy for my oral and check ride the next morning. I also was going to try to get to bed early so I would be ready the next day. But today, I needed some hoo...

For this episode we’ll be doing a dual flight with Lary, getting some of that hood time I needed, and practicing a takeoff under the hood. We’d be flying in N81658. Keep in mind this is now my 3rd training flight of the day and the fourth in the past two days. To recap, I had a solo flight in the morning (see episode 46) where I practiced the stuff I had gone over the day before with my instructor...

In this episode I’ll be taking you along for my fourth and final stage check with one of the chief pilots. This stage check, if successfully completed, would mark the end of my primary training and I would then be ready for my check ride with an examiner.  Of course, as I’ve already mentioned, I would have a couple more flights after this just to get my hood time in and also to do some last-m...

Welcome back SPC listeners…this flight was the day after my dual flight with Lary from the last episode, episode 45, and I would be doing some solo practice on the same things, short and soft takeoffs and landings.  I’d be staying in the pattern for this solo.  Hope you enjoy Episode 46 – The Last Solo.

In this episode, just three days after my last solo covered in episode 44, I was back in the cockpit with my instructor, Lary, and along for the ride on this one was my oldest Son who was around 10 at the time. We would stay in the pattern for practicing short and soft field landings and takeoffs, as well as an engine out drill in the pattern. It was a great flight, and I was getting close to my c...

Today I’d be flying in 2148Y on a solo flight to practice ground reference maneuvers as well as practicing some short and soft field landings. In fact, according to my part 141 training curriculum, this would just be my second to last solo flight before my check ride. We will see what actually happens, but I knew that my primary training was coming to an end. In fact, this was passed the middle of...

Dropping episode 43 today, where I take you a long on a dual flight with Lary, my instructor, but I have two small visitors today as well. This episode is a bit nostalgic for me as I had my two youngest kids with me; ages 8 and 6. Of course, they’re adults now as this was way back in 2008 when I was doing my primary training. I’m such a washout with these episodes. I hope you enjoy this one…at lea...

Wow…what is this? Another episode of the Student Pilot Cast?!?! After all this time? Well, yes…let’s at least get through my primary training before another hiatus, shall we? Actually, I’ve got some plans even after that, so let’s see how it goes. In this episode I’ll take you along on a solo flight where I practiced Short and Soft Field Landings, Minimum Controllable Airspeed, Power off and power...