The Student Pilot Cast

Hello again SPC listeners.  Today’s episode takes us on a solo training flight on a very busy day to practice performance landings and takeoffs (shorts and softs).  We have everything from FOD to go-arounds in this episode, so enjoy.

I was nearing the end of stage III in my training, so I was almost in the home stretch.  I also explain in this episode the cramming of flights I had to do over just a few days to finish stage III.  This flight was the first of them.

As mentioned, If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

Lastly, don’t forget to go check out the newly released (out of beta) myTransponder.  This aviation oriented social networking site is great.  To commemorate the recent full release and the fact that it is now open to anyone to join, I’ve created a group on myTransponder called, “Fans of the Student Pilot Cast.”  Please head over to the site and sign up if you haven’t already, and by all means, join my new group!

Thanks again for listening, and enjoy the episode.  Then, get out and fly!

This is part II of my night dual cross country flight.  This part takes us from Marana Airport in the far northern part of Tucson back to Chandler. 

[KAVQ-KCHD]

I mentioned the Remos GX LSA flight from Oshkosh in this episode.  Here is the link to the Airspeed episode that covered this.  My flight video from this will be coming in the future.

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter for the latest news from Student Pilot Cast land at http://twitter.com/billwil. 

If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

I hope you all enjoy the episode.  Please send comments and feedback.

Hello SPC listeners! Today we will follow my outbound leg of my dual night cross country.  I had to take a couple of weeks off because of extensive travel, including some family vacations.  I’m back now, though, but headed to Oshkosh this week.  This means lots of content coming up hopefully.  For most of it, follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/billwil, and I’ll keep you updated.

In this episode, we did a dual night cross country from KCHD (Chandler) to KAVQ (Marana) which is in north Tucson.

KCHD-KAVQ (around Eloy)

Thanks again for listening, everyone.  I hope to see you at OSH!

This episode chronicles my return flight to Chandler from Tucson international, and is the second part of my first solo cross-country flight during my training.  There’s some interesting things that happen, and another bonehead move on my part with the radio.  Please enjoy this flight as I learn to fly in front of the world.

The route home was only slightly different than when I went to Tucson.  I needed to do a touch and go at Ryan Field down in Tucson, so that changed the route slightly.  Here is the return.

NavMonster, KTUS-KRYN-TOTEC-KCHD

Remember, If you are thinking of learning to fly, find out everything you need to know to get started and what to expect during your training with Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide.  You help support this podcast by using my link here, so if you consider purchasing this e-book, please click above.

Today’s episode is a very special one as we’ll cover my first solo cross country.  It was a simple flight from Chandler to Tucson International, but a giant step for me in my training.  Join me as a learn to fly in front of the world in podcast episode 26 of the Student Pilot Cast, Out of the Nest, Part I.

I’ve included a couple of pictures.  First is the route I took on this leg from Chandler (KCHD) to Tucson (KTUS).

[Cross Country Route, Courtesy of Navmonster.com]

The next photo is of Pinal Airpark and all of the mothballed airplanes.

[Pinal Airpark From Above-Showing some of the big iron]

As usual, I hope you enjoy this episode.  Please send me feedback through email or via the contact link above.  Also, feel free to leave comments below.  My training was getting hot and heavy now…I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Tailwinds.

In episode 23 we cover the return flight from Tucson International Airport (KTUS) to Chandler (KCHD) as part of my first dual cross country.  Leaving a class C airport was a bit different than working in my usual class B airport.  Busier airspace, bigger airplanes, departure controllers, approach controllers, and clearance delivery.  All together, it kept me busy, but I learned a lot on this flight and enjoyed it very much.

I mentioned in this episode our new sponser, Air Feddy's Learning to Fly Guide.  Air Freddy has around 9000 hours of dual given and has written an e-book that really helps lay out the process of learning to fly; what to expect, what equipment is needed, how to figure the costs accurately, etc.  He also tells a few personal stories as part of the book which helps keep it all interesting and personal.  Fred's experience can be very helpful to prospective and current student pilots.  If you want to know more about it, or purchase the e-book, please use the link above.

Thanks again, SPC listeners.  I hope you enjoy this episode.  As usual, please provide any feedback that you may have.

I'm back SPC listeners!  I've had no time to produce new episodes for a while, but I forced myself tonight...and put off some other stuff.  So what we have is another training episode, Episode 21, "Good Freakin' Flight".  This is a solo flight that I took after returning from my Dive trip, and this was the next flight in my training after the night flight that was covered in episodes 19 and 20.

I hope you enjoy this episode, and I'll try to be more consistant with the releases going forward.  Please give me feedback as always.  Also, I'm working on a couple of videos, including the video from the flight covered in this episode as well as a tutorial on how to record in cockpit audio, as this is my most frequently asked question from listeners.  This is in addition to a start that I've got on the next audio episode as well.

As usual, for up to date information on flights, feel free to follow me on twitter.  Thanks again, everyone.  Get out there and fly!

I’m back, after an exclusive one month tour of Europe, Scandinavia, and…no, that’s not true.  In fact, I’ve just been really busy, and haven’t had a chance to finish this episode up and send it out on the feed.  Bad me, I know.  So, we skipped September in the podcast…I’ll try to make it up to you all.

Here is episode 20, the second and final part of my first night flight around the Phoenix area.  As I said in the audio, I really enjoyed this flight a lot.  Now that I have my license, I need to do some more night flying.

Enjoy the episode, and by all means, let me know what you think of the podcast.

Hello patient Student Pilot Cast listeners.  I'm back again with a training flight, which happens to be my first night flight...as well as a few other firsts.  We basically to take a tour of the Phoenix Valley at night.  Very cool.

I broke this into two parts because it was a long flight with quite a bit going on.  I hope you enjoy.  Don't forget to give me feedback.

Shooting 'em out rapid-fire, now, folks.  Here's another episode of the Student Pilot Cast, number 15, about a flight in which we focused on VORs and Simulated Instrument Conditions (The Hood).  I had passed my Phase II Check, and I was starting on Phase III.  I hope you enjoy.

Episode 14 is here!  Today we'll follow a dual lesson that I had to prep for the Stage II Stage Check.  Now that I had been introduced to shorts and softs, and had some time to practice, it was time to finish stage II.  Before I could do this stage check, though, I had to prep with my instructor.  That's what this lesson and episode is about.  We practiced steep turns, minimum controllable airspeed, power on and power off stalls, emergency procedures, and a couple more short and soft landings.

Thanks for listening.  I hope you enjoy episode 14.

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 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.

Another episode.  This week I get to finish up recounting the story of my first solo, and then the very next day, my second solo.  There was a lot of good experience to be had, and I try to sum it up in this episode.

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any suggestions for the audio cast.  I'm hoping to get some video up soon, but I'm experimenting with the capture of video.  Well see how it all works out.