The Student Pilot Cast

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.

Wow.  Brian Terwilliger, the director and producer of the great aviation documentary film One Six Right, has done it again.  This time in a very high quality web vignette about his history and his media ride with the Navy jet demonstration team, the Blue Angels.  I can’t say any more that you won’t get from seeing, so just watch “Flying Full Circle”.

Feel free to watch it here if you’re pressed for time, but if not, do yourself a favor and watch (or download) a higher quality version at Brian’s site.

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.

Hello everyone.  I'm still here, and actually in the middle of producing a new episode...but it's taking longer than expected (it's a good one...lot's of firsts in my training).  I just wanted to let everyone know that there is a new episode on the horizon and I haven't forgotten about you.  I'm working on some other stuff as well.

Also, I just had to tell someone.  I took my first cross country as a licensed pilot this past weekend, as well as my first pax (my wife), and we headed up from the dreadful heat of the Phoenix Valley to the nice cool pines of Show Low (with a stop in Payson).  It was great, and I'll tell you all about it in an episode down the road...but I've gotta say...flying is cool.

 Stay tuned...I'll be releasing in the next day or two (I know...promises, promises).  Stay safe.

Here is the last part of Podapalooza 2008 from Oshkosh.  I hope you enjoy.  Thanks for listening, and please don't forget to let me know you're out there.  Leave me some feedback using the contact link near the top of the page.

Hello everyone.  I'm happy to release part 1 of the 2008 edition of Podapalooza, which was recorded in Oshkosh at EAA Airventure.  Podapalooza is the gathering of aviation podcasters in Oshkosh each year.  As well as being released on this and many other feeds, this year it was broadcast live on EAA Radio as well as on the Internet. 

Participating in this year's event was, in the order they were sitting, Uncontrolled Airspace, The Student Pilot Cast, The Finer Points, Airspeed, and the Pilotcast (along with CFI cast).  Remoted in via skype was Will and Dave of the Pilot's Flight Pod Log.  Notably missing this year were new pilot, Greg, from the Student Pilot Journal and student pilot Jerry from VA Student Pilot.  I'm probably forgetting others as well, so forgive me.

 I also want to note that Airventure Today (the daily Airventure newspaper) did an article on the Podapalooza, so check that out if want to.

 I really enjoyed participating this year, and felt honored to be on the stage with so many talented people.  It's a great community of people in aviation.

Hello everyone.  I'm finally releasing the next episode in my student pilot saga.  In this episode, 16, I do an update direct from Oshkosh, WI for EAA Airventure 2008.  I wasn't able to get this published while still in Oshkosh because of very poor Internet access...but now that I'm home in Arizona I've got my acess back to normal.  I added a pre-script to the original episode that I recorded on location.  In this episode, a very important announcement is made, as well as some information on small changes to the podcast going forward.  Don't worry, nothing major will change...just more content, so it's all good.

In this release, I talk about following me on Twitter if you want, which you can do from this link.  If you don't know what Twitter is, take a look at the site and determine if this is useful to you.

That should do it.  Stay tuned in for more content from Oshkosh as well as more training.  I'll be updating you all soon.

Hello, everyone.  Sorry for the long delay.  I have not stopped flying...but I appreciate those of you who have asked or inquired.  In fact, if anything, I have intensified my training.  I'll try to do a quick audio update as well so those of you who don't get on the website will get an update as well...but this will have to do for now.

So...the other news is that I'm at Oshkosh.  I flew in with Kent from the PilotCast, which was very interesting.  This is my first trip to the mecca of general aviation, and I'm hoping to bring some good information to all of you who haven't made it this year.  I've got some really good updates coming for my training, too, but I'm putting those on hold for Air Venture, and will resume those next week.

You can follow me at Oshkosh on twitter (www.twitter.com/billwil) where I am attempting to update what I'm seeing and doing.  I've been seeing some great stuff, and I'll get you all some more information soon.  Stay tuned for more updates.

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.

It's time for another video episode, episode 3, Reference This.  In this episode, I take a solo practice flight to the practice area to go over Ground Reference Maneuvers. 

I'm including the smaller version again in this feed (320x240) because of the sheer size of the 640x480 versions (400 MB).  I've heard from a couple of you commenting that you would rather have the larger version...and I still may consider that, but these files just seem too large for a simple podcast.  The embedded video from Vimeo in this post is pretty high quality, so if you desire a more detailed version, maybe this will suffice.  For those of us who watch video podcasts on a handheld device, the smaller version will suffice.  Again...if I hear from more of you wanting the larger versions of these, I will consider changing this, or adding a High Quality feed for the larger videos.

Thanks for taking the time to watch.  As usual, I'd love to know what you think, so shoot off an email or use the contact page on the website.

Here is the embedded version of the video.

Use the Feed Link 

This is an episode about a solo flight I took to practice ground reference maneuvers.  I also take the opportunity to share portions of an email I received from David Allen, a future pilot who's email summarized in an eloquent way what several people have said to me since I started this.  I asked David for permission to share his email, and he graciously allowed me to.  Thanks, David, for the kind words, the motivation to keep producing more episodes, and allowing me to share it.  Like I say in the episode itself, contact and notes from people like David are the only compensation that podcasters like me get for the hours put into production and planning.  Letters from David and others like him make it well worth it.

So, if you would like to contact me, feel free to do so at the email address mentioned in the episode, or simply click on the contact link on this website and let me know what you think.  Up next I'll be finishing up Stage II, and it will be on to the cross country work in stage III.  I hope you hang with me...there's a lot more to come.

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.