The Student Pilot Cast

Okay, we're back to the lessons. As you can see from the title, at this point in my training I have started learning the performance takeoffs and landings sometimes referred to as "Shorts" and "Softs".  Within 4 day’s time I had three dual lessons on these performance landings and takeoffs.  I also take a moment in this episode to comment on a strategic mistake that I made in this part of my training.  Let this be a lesson for you all!

Enjoy the episode.  Please leave feedback or comments.

We have a very special episode of the audio cast today.  Yesterday, Jerry O'Sullivan from the Virginia Student Pilot podcast completed his first solo flight!  Well, we had a chance to talk today while it was fresh in his mind, and that’s the cast we have today.

The second big news of the day is that Jerry has finally released episode 5 (he was stuck on episode 4 for a while) of his cast.  He’s got a big backlog of stories, too, so we’re looking for more episodes from him over the coming weeks.  So I’m sure he will relate his first solo flight through his feed when he gets there in his podcast, you get to listen to some of that reflection today, along with other topics as well.

I really enjoyed speaking with Jerry, and I’m sure you all will enjoy this as well.  Thanks, Jerry, for spending this time with all of us.  If you aren’t subscribed to the Virginia Student Pilot podcast, check it out.  You’ll love it.  You can do so through iTunes…but if you don’t use iTunes, here is the proper feed to use:  RSS for VA Student Pilot feed.

Enjoy.

This is a blog post entry only.  No Episode on this post.

I just wanted to give a quick update on something kind of cool.  A month or so ago, someone from Flight Training magazine contacted me to ask questions about the Student Pilot Cast, my motivations, etc.  Low and behold, it showed up in the magazine in July!  Page 14 if you want to check it out.

I also want to publicly set the record straight with a couple of errors and omissions in the article.  First, while I was explaining some of my motivations, I mentioned some of the other aviation podcasts that I had been listening to that provided inspiration (as well as knowledge and entertainment) to me.  Happily, they made it into the magazine.  Sadly, they omitted two of the ones I mentioned, and they misspelled Will Hawkins’ name.  So, I wanted to “set the record straight” right here, and list the podcasts that I had mentioned in my original statement, along with links to them in case some of you are not listening to them as well.

• The Finer Points – Jason Miller does an absolutely fantastic job of teaching small lessons about flying (he is a CFI, and from what I hear, one I would like to fly with someday).
• Uncontrolled Airspace – Jack, Dave, and Jeb (and guests) do a great job producing a weekly “hangar flying show” where they discuss everything from news to 60 year old “off field landing”.  Good stuff.
• The Pilot Cast – The original “hangar flying show” with Pilot Mike, Pilot Kent, and Pilot Dan.  This was the first podcast I found and started listening to about aviation.  These guys are entertaining.
• The Pilot Flight Pod Log and the Student Pilot Flight Pod Log by Will Hawkins – Very good down to earth stuff.  Will’s student blog, which is done because he is Pilot Will now, I found just before starting mine…and was verification to me that people would want content like this (because I loved listening to his).  Will really hangs it all out there.  His new cast (listed first) is a hangar flying show where every show he has a new guest to talk about flying adventures.
• Airspeed – by Stephen Force (A.K.A. Steve Tupper) does a very cool, radio-like podcast about everything aviation, from flying in an open cockpit to getting a DC-3 type rating to the Blue Angels, and all the way to the “steely-eyed missile men” of the astronaut program.  Always interesting and heartfelt.

In the Flight Training magazine blurb, Airspeed and The Pilot Cast were left out, and they referenced Will Hawkins as Willis, so I just wanted to publicly, in the forum that I have editorial control over, set the record straight.  If you’re not listening to these other casts, by all means, start.  There are some new great ones out there now, too, including The Student Pilot Journal, and VA Student Pilot.  Please leave comments on this post if any of you know of other good ones that you want to share with everyone.

Thanks again for listening.  I’ll try to get another episode out in the next day or two.

Hey…look at this.  Finally a video episode!  It’s been a long time coming, I know.  I hope you enjoy it.

There are some problems with the video which I explain a bit about in this episode, but I decided to use some of the video anyway as I think it will still be interesting.  Also, I rendered this mp4 video at 320x240 pixels to save space.  This should work well on most portable video players…but won’t look quite as good viewing on a computer of TV screen.  I do have a standard definition version (640x480), but it is a whopping 227 MB as opposed to 94 MB, so I went with the smaller one.  Please let me know if you would prefer the larger, clearer versions of this and future video podcasts or the smaller ones that I’m releasing.  Based partially on this feedback, I will make future decisions on the rendering of future videos (and may even change this one).

In this video I show some of the flight that I talked about in the audio episode 10, “Sometime You Just Feel Like a Pilot”.  All of the commentary and insight about the flight is in the audio cast; this video is simply a compilation of parts of that flight for your viewing pleasure.  The main discussions still happen in the audiocast…so simply put, the video is not a replacement for the audio…they are for different purposes.

Thanks again for listening and watching.  Please let me know what you think of the video.  The quality will be better next time…but feel free to comment on the content, length, flow, etc., so I can try to make my next one even better.

StudentPilotCast-V002-20080617.mp4

Hello, everyone.  I’ve just returned from my little vacation Scuba Diving with my buddies in the Channel Islands, and I’m releasing episode 10.  This episode documents a very memorable flight for me; a flight that helped me remember why I’m doing this.  This flight may end up being even more important to me than my first solo.  Listen to this episode to understand why.

Also, The Student Pilot Cast got mentioned in AOPA’s Flight Training Magazine!  Jill from AOPA contacted me a while back and asked me some questions about my podcast and some of my motivations for creating and producing it.  In the July issue on page 14 they outline some of this in the feature, “Training Notes and News”.  Very humbling to be mentioned in a publication that I’ve been reading for a long time, and which I respect a lot.

Also, because of that exposure, I’ve gotten a significant number of new listeners, so I want to welcome these newcomers to my exhibitionism around learning to fly.  More and more I’m doing this for all the world to hear and see…mistakes and all. 

In this episode, I document my first ever flight away from the airport by myself where I am PIC from start to finish.

…or the Pilot PJ Interview

Episode 9 is completely different.  We’ll get back to the regular podcasts momentarily, but for this episode, we have the pleasure of hearing from Pilot PJ, a relatively new pilot who shares his wisdom with us.  PJ and I talk about everything from multiple “discovery flights” to finally taking passengers for rides.  Some of the stuff in between includes landings, instructors, the Internet, and an aviation museum that PJ volunteers for in Texas.

Enjoy the episode, and a big “Thank you” goes out to PJ for helping out with this one.  Excuse the audio quality…I’m still learning how to properly record interviews.

…or One-Niner-Zero at Two-Zero, Gusts Two-Eight

Here is Episode 8 of the Student Pilot Cast, “Movin’ on Up”.  Join me as I document a dual flight I had where we worked on partial panel instrument flying, ground reference maneuvers, and crosswind landing.  I’ve got a lot of good stuff coming up, and I’m going to start releasing more episodes to relieve the burden of documenting many flights in one episode…it starts to get daunting when I’ve got 6 or 7 flights backlogged.  In addition, I’m hoping this makes it easier to listen and follow it as well.  It should give me more opportunities to do other topics rather than just doing flights every time.  But because I’m flying on average three times a week, it’s easy to fall behind.  We’ll see how it goes.

In any case, enjoy episode 8 of the audio cast.  Let me know what you think by contacting me through the contact link above, leaving a comment on this episode, or emailing me at the email address mentioned in the audio cast.