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. Some notes from the show.Jo Hunter’s Video of her Breezy Flight: #OSH11 Breezy Flight“There I was” AOPA podcast of Gabrielle’s Mid-Air (Choose Episode 20): https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/podcasts/podcasts/there-i-wasIn the Pattern Podcast: In The Pattern PodcastA Pilot’s Journey podcast: Pilot’s Journey Podcast (pilotsjourneypodcast.com)

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 process and making it more transparent and predictable, even in a part 61 setting.  With their AOPA Flight Training Advantage program, or AFTA, they are hoping to make flight training more enjoyable for both the student and the CFI, and make the process a little bit easier, more predictable, and more streamlined…thus saving time, money, and hopefully helping a few additional people earn their certificate. I hope you enjoy this one.More information about AFTA can be found here: AOPA Flight Training Advantage – AOPAThere is a demo of the product that will be released shortly as a video episode, but also on our YouTube channel. Both links will be added below and on the website when published.

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 Nick:If just getting started and wondering how to do it we have the step by step 5 day challenge to get started as a student pilot:  https://bit.ly/3dJH5sXIf already started and getting into your ground training or flight planning we have a free step-by-step cross-country planning guide:  https://bit.ly/3wgosmGOnce you opt-in to either of those you will immediately get an email with your free content. For the free cross-country guide your 1st couple emails will have the links in the email to get the $50 off. For the 5-day challenge the link will be in the Day 5 email. Find out more about the service:On the web: https://parttimepilot.com/.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/part.time.pilot/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/parttimepilotYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/parttimepilot

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/-GhDPNoQcj4In 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 history or the org, the operations, and a quick tour of the aircraft they are using. Samaritan Aviation can be found on the web here: https://samaritanaviation.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samaritanaviation Instagram: https://instagram.com/samaritanaviation/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SamaritanAviation_ You can find out more about the Student Pilot Cast here: Web: https://studentpilotcast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/billwil Audio RSS Feed: https://studentpilotcast.org/rss Video RSS Feed: https://studentpilotcast.com/video-rss

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 feed as episode 6B.The video can also (and at higher quality) be found on our YouTube Channel here: https://youtu.be/FhNjxBVpZU4 The State of Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission website is here: https://oac.ok.gov/

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 information on the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission can be found here: https://oac.ok.gov/There is also a video edition of this episode that can be found in the video RSS feed as well as on our new YouTube Channel! Here is a link to the video for this episode: https://youtu.be/wJN44tWHDto

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 of the conversation here. This is also a video episode should you find that interesting. The video can be found in the video podcast feed or on our brand-new YouTube Channel here: https://youtu.be/cijxyS4E1HEMore information on Opener and the BlackFly aircraft can be found here: https://opener.aero. You can find out more about the Student Pilot Cast here: Web: https://studentpilotcast.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/billwilAudio RSS Feed: https://studentpilotcast.org/rssVideo RSS Feed: https://studentpilotcast.com/video-rss

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 you might be. It’s a far cry from the traditional desktop sims which require big, expensive computers and big, expensive accessories. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This is also a video episode. The video can be found in the video podcast feed or on our brand new YouTube Channel here: https://youtu.be/cijxyS4E1HEInfinite Flight can be found in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store for your tablets and phones. Also, more information on Infinite Flight here: Web: https://infiniteflight.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/infiniteflightInstagram: https://instagram.com/infiniteflightFacebook: https://facebook.com/infiniteflightYouTube: https://youtube.com/infiniteflightYou can find out more about the Student Pilot Cast here: Web: https://studentpilotcast.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/billwilAudio RSS Feed: https://studentpilotcast.org/rssVideo RSS Feed: https://studentpilotcast.com/video-rss

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 part two to the departure we did last week in episode 55. More explanation when we get into the episode…but I hope you enjoy.

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 business partner are running their flight and mechanic school today. We’ll talk about their Zero Time to Airline program, the pilot shortage, and a lot of other great hangar flying.Links:Thrust Flight (https://www.thrustflight.com/)A Pilot’s Journey Podcast (https://pilotsjourneypodcast.com/blog/)Stu’s LinkedIn Page ((99+) Stuart Stevenson | LinkedIn)Stu’s Twitter (Stuart Stevenson (@PilotStu) / Twitter)

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 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 me 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 details, and I purposely held off asking for them until we had a chance to sit down and talk with the audio being recorded.  Tim has a bit of a different back-story for his aviation interest, and in my opinion has some pretty interesting reasons for seeing his training through.  It was a very enjoyable conversation for me, and I hope you have a good time as well. Enjoy.Tim completed his first solo flight one year to the daybefore our discussion.

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 about the check ride soon enough. Hope you enjoy episode 50.

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 hood time…thus this episode.

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, Lary (see episode 45 for that), and then I had done my fourth and final stage check in the early afternoon (that one is episode 47). Now, in the late afternoon, I was doing another flight with Lary. I was getting very tired as you can imagine. It was late enough that it was no longer getting hotter at least, but it was still well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Hope you enjoy the episode.

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-minute prep and practice.Enjoy Episode 47.