In episode 6 of the Ground Effect podcast (recorded in May 2020), we head to North America to speak to Troy Baxter, a pilot whose international career is as diverse as it is surprising. From island-hopping in the Carribean, flying in an active warzone in Afghanistan and doing medevac in Canada (to name but a few of his adventures), Troy has done it all.

This is the first of a two-part episode. In part 1, we talk about:

• How the Covid-19 pandemic has affected his flying
• Growing up in a military base in Nova Scotia
• How his training was subsidised by the Canadian government
• Completing a very competitive flight training program at Seneca College
• Difficulties in his flight training
• Training in the Cessna 172, the Beech Baron and the Bonanza
• How he didn’t touch a plane for 2 years after completing flight training
• Island-hopping on the Twin Otter and the Islander in Sint Maarten in the Caribbean
• Returning to Canada to do medevac flying on the King Air 100
• Flying the Dash-7 across international waters for the United Nations
• Flying civilian in an active war-zone in Afghanistan (and having to deal with rocket attacks)
• Flying the Dash-7 from Africa to North America (via the Middle East, Europe and the North Atlantic)

We hope you enjoy this episode. And if you do, rest assured that there’s a lot more in part 2, which will be posted in the coming weeks.

If you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions for us, or you want to be a guest in the podcast, we'd love to hear from you! You can get in touch with us either by email (groundeffect[@]neustadt[.]fr), via Twitter @thegroundeffect or Instagram (groundeffectpodcast).

Host: Parimal Satyal
Support and Original Artwork: Maggie Oran
Podcast Music: Getting It All Together by RockitMaxx