MAVGEEKS: A Military Aircraft Obsession

We all know what it’s like. You’re waiting for an episode of your favourite military aviation podcast to drop and then two come along at once!   Join Gini and Jamie for more of RIAT 2025.  The journey continues with a French E3 Sentry (ooh la la!) and the beautiful RC135 Rivet Joint.  They also share their wish list for airshows in 2026, where Gini manages to mention the Tristar (ag...

Like Nicholas Cage landing the Fairchild C-123 Provider in Con Air, Gini and Jamie have wrestled back the controls of Mavgeeks:  A Military Aircraft Obsession to bring you a double helping of some military aviation magic.   They look back on RIAT 2025 with a journey of U2s, Reconaissance Spitfires, the RCAF’s Hercules and the Confederate Air Force C47 “ready for duty”.   Our Mavs ma...

Ho ho holy ****, Christmas snuck up quicker than a Sopwith on skis! With gift-giving on the MavMind, the final episode of series five sees Gini Carlin and Jamie Gordon meet Dale Luckhurst, Head of Brand at Airfix. Gini and Jamie got the full geek's guide to the legendary brand, the forensic research and development process that goes into its ultra-detailed model aircraft and loads more. Merry Chri...

Airline food gets a bad rap. For some of us, no other words paint so vivid a picture of bullet-hard potatoes and custard lumpier than a regional runway. However, one man has mad it his mission to upend these assumptions. Luckily for our Gini Carlin and Jamie Gordon, that man is none other than MavGeeks alumnus and Season 4, Episode 1 all-star Al Bridger! Al’s a pathological overachiever: a BAE Haw...

Helicopters are sadly, sorely neglected by us here at MavGeeks towers, but no longer! The mononymous Russ is a former door gunner on the Westland Lynx Mk7 and Mk9, amongst other rotary aircraft, with several tours of Aghanistan and Iraq under his belt. He was instrumental in keeping his crew and aircraft safe. Conveniently, he's also a neighbour of our Gini Carlin over in Canada. Russ was incredib...

Earlier this year, Gini Carlin and Jamie Gordon caught up with none other than Scott Bateman MBE. An RAF veteran with a storied career as Hercules Captain, Scott was perfectly poised to introduce us to what’s formally the Lockheed C-130, but will forever be the Hercules of our hearts.  In May of 2024, Scott published Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller “Hercules: The story of an RAF legend.” Needl...

The Royal Canadian Air Force turns 100 this year! In that spirit, Canada resident Gini Carlin takes the lead for a guided tour of the fabulous Force's history. At this year's Royal International Air Tattoo, she caught up with several RCAF pilots and engineers, as well as the masterminds behind its centennial celebrations. She even had a long chat with Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny himself, Command...

This week, our Gini Carlin enjoyed a blast from the past in several senses. She paid a visit to the delightfully well-preserved 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum at RAF Thorpe Abbotts, where she volunteered as a young lass potty about planes. Reg Wilson, the museum's Chair of Trustees and Deputy Curator was kind enough to give Gini a guided tour of its exhibits and history of both the museum and th...

Hilariously, bizarrely, Denver International Airport is something of a lightning rod for conspiracy theories: in the mind of the open-eyed, the Illuminati’s clubhouse shares a wall with an alien-infested catacomb. While it’s true that unofficial mascot Mustang killed his creator, Senior Vice President of Communications, Marketing and Customer Experience Stacey Stegman was keen to put to bed u...

Something a bit different this week, dearest MavMates! Gini and Jamie enjoyed a natter with Tony Gaunt, Business Development Executive at Martin-Baker. Informally, they're THE ejector seat people, though Tony corrects our podcast co-pilots' terminology, offers an idiot's guide to testing an escape system, walks us through one of the most hair-raising use cases of Martin-Baker's work to date and re...

In this week's episode, Canada-based Gini pays our Jamie a little visit, which can only mean one thing... ROADTRIP! (Gini's driving permitting, of course). Reunited at last at RAF Coningsby, they catch up with a selection of its regular visitors: the enthusiastic amateurs and quintessential MavGeeks themselves, the planespotters! Talk about finding your tribe! Then, Gini checks in with a spokesper...

It’s the 60th anniversary year of the RAF's Red Arrows aerobatics team, and with the commemorations taking in our Gini’s far-flung Canada, it felt only right that we celebrate them in style. Gini and Jamie were lucky enough to catch up with current Red 6 Flight Lieutenant Stuart Roberts and Red 9 Flight Lieutenant Patrick ‘Paddy’ Kershaw about the privilege of donning the red overalls and making t...

Known affectionately as the Aardvark for its reputation as a terrain-hugger with a big nose, the General Dynamics F-111 was one of the United States Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force’s go-to combat aircraft. Mike Crain spent years in its cockpit for the latter, starting at the hilariously young age of 21! Our Jamie Gordon caught up with Mike for the lowdown on this striking and unique machi...

We’re back, baby! To all MavGeeks old and new: welcome! Man, it feels good to be home. Gini Carlin and Jamie Gordon are absolutely buzzing to begin a bumper new sequence of excuses to natter about their military aircraft obsession and bring you along for the ride. To kick things off, Gini shares some interviews she conducted with an assortment of heroic pilots at this year’s Royal International Ai...

Got an obsession with aircraft that’s impossible to contain? Worried you might be as maniacal about big metal birds as that bloke that sat on a car park by Heathrow Airport filming everything during that storm? Power down your radar, you’ve arrived! MavGeeks: A Military Aircraft Obsession is back and bigger then ever for series 5! Join Gini Carlin, Jamie Gordon and another load of their aviation m...

This International Women's Day, our Gini takes to the skies with none other than the decorated Colonel Kim Campbell. The pair trace Kim's extensive career, from a storied 24-year stint in the American Air Force flying the A-10 Thunderbolt (AKA the Warthog) to her success as a keynote speaker and author in the present day. Happy International Women's Day!

To tie a knot on this fourth series of MavGeeks, Gini and Jamie come good on a promise they made way back in one of its earliest episodes. That's right, they've tracked down Llewis Ingamells, Chief Pilot of the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance! Llewis was incredibly generous with his time and wisdom, imparting reams of insider knowledge on this fascinating, daring and ultimately unsung world of heroi...

This week, Gini joins Jamie from her new Canadian digs for an otherwise classic slice of MavGeeks. Earlier this year, the pair managed to pin down ex-Harrier pilot turned author Chris Burwell for a three-person natter about fast jet flight, Chris' excellent book "Nine Lives: The Compelling Memoir of a Cold War Harrier Pilot", and that fabled awkward moment in which one's required to exit an aircra...

As winter hits hard and we weather enough storms with names to crew an Avro Lancaster, Gini and Jamie take a look back on (marginally) sunnier times and climes in this RIAT retrospective. Gini was at the Royal International Air Tattoo in July with a microphone and a mission: chat to as many pilots as possible. She caught up with aircrew of the B52, the F15, the “Weatherbird” WC130-J, and loads mor...

Jamie’s in the cockpit today for a long-overdue natter with Mandy Hickson. Rightly described by Gini as a “Queen of the skies”, Mandy’s a decorated Tornado GR-4 pilot with over 30 years of aviation experience, three tours of duty and 45 missions over Iraq to her name. After leaving the RAF, she authored the 2020 bestseller “An Officer, Not A Gentleman”. Jamie got the scoop on her fascinating, vari...

This week, we celebrate spooky season! First, Gini catches up with Richard Craig, keen aviator and ghost tour guide at the UK's most haunted castle, Chillingham. Richard shares all manner of hair-raising aviation tales, as does Rachel Parsons of the Retford Ghost Hunters. When they spoke last year, Rachel told Gini all about a recent encounter with RAF Metheringham's resident apparition, the Methe...

Introducing Near Death, a brand-new podcast from BFBS Creative. How do you come back from the brink? A close encounter with a body bag, an out-of-body experience or a flight through a wall of fire. Some people know what it’s like to come back from death’s door. Near Death explores some of the darkest stories of human survival. Follow now and never miss an episode at bfbs.com/neardeath, or your fav...

We’re feeling smug this week as Gini Carlin blasts off for an out-of-this-world chat with Britain’s first “official” astronaut Tim Peake! The pair touched on everything from common misconceptions around spacewalking, to deceptively huge characters in the otherwise serious world of space exploration, to Tim’s brand new book: Space: The Human Story.

It’s back to basics this week for a nuts-and-bolts Mavs classic. Our Jamie was lucky enough to be offered a guided tour of the iconic Avro Shackleton by none other than Squadron Leader Retired Brian Withers MBE; the very one he flew on, in fact! Jamie learned all about this giant of the sky and the curious foibles that come with it. 

Gini and Jamie celebrate World Space Week 2023 by catching up with some of the most pioneering space figures on - and off - Earth. Jamie’s mind is blown by Delian Asparouhov of Varda Space Industries, Melissa Quinn tells Gini all about her time running Spaceport Cornwall and her current role keeping space clean at Seradata, and Jamie pins down none other than Dr. Paul Bate, the CEO of the UK Space...