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Midlife Pilot Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Midlife Pilot Podcast
Welcome to the Midlife Pilot Podcast, where we share the experiences and the challenges of flying in midlife. Whether you're a seasoned pilot, training for private or instrument ratings, or just thinking about getting started in aviation, we like to think of the podcast as your aviation companion, and your weekly dose of aviation inspiration. Hosted by the dynamic trio of Ben, Brian, and Ted - the show is not instruction - it's all about sharing real stories, personal insights, and the pure joy of spreading your wings in midlife.
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- Yesterday59 min
EP191 - I'm Just Going Where He's Going
Ben is back from AirVenture and still hearing the Fisk arrival in his sleep. Two holds around the lakes, a push all the way back to Puckaway, and made it in on the third time, following an RV toward the runway: "I'm just going where he's going, and I hope they clear us to land." The full Oshkosh debrief: the campsite, the meetup with the APG crew, BK the Oshkosh controller, and the departure lesson every IFR pilot should hear (no slot before Oshkosh means no slot leaving it). Brian counters with the BUCKHD THREE arrival into Atlanta and a real-time weather call when the bad stuff showed up early. Plus a big announcement: a live show recorded at McCollum Field (RYY), with food at Elevation Chophouse after. Tape machine from Ash (flying_wheelies), a plea for written reviews (the stars are great, write the words too), Ray B joins at the Land-O-Matic level, and Dev Cannon logs an hour milestone flying his Navion home from Oshkosh.Mentioned on the show:RYY - Cobb County/McCollum Field: https://www.airnav.com/airport/RYYElevation Chophouse: https://www.elevationatlanta.com/Ascension Aviation, RYY FBO: https://ascensionfbo.com/location/atlanta/Ash aka flying_wheelies: https://instagram.com/@flying_wheeliesBen on Airplane Pilot Guy 716, part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-jPl9NKqOQBUCKHD THREE arrival for Atlanta: https://www.flightaware.com/resources/airport/KCCO/STAR/BUKHD+THREE+(RNAV)The Flying Reporter - Oceanic Adventure: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcG48Zvp5uCEOpen Source GA - many Oshkosh videos: https://www.youtube.com/@OpenSourceGA/videos
- 1 weeks ago1h 6m
EP190 - Nothing Like the Real Thing
This week Ben, Brian, and Ted get into IFR currency: what it actually takes to stay instrument current and ready. Six approaches, holds, tracking and intercepting nav aids, and the clock that never stops running. Foggles versus a safety pilot versus the real thing, why the foggles are "the worst approximation of the instrument experience," and whether an IPC is the smarter move than chasing six approaches every six months. Plus a full tape machine of your voice memos and a whole lot of Oshkosh anticipation.From the tape machine: Ash (flying_wheelies) on flying as a wheelchair pilot and sport pilot in his Paradise P1, and more of your feedback.Mentioned on the show:Brian's THE LONG WAY: https://www.makesmallcorrections.com/Frequency Change Aviation, Nashville: https://frequencychangeaviation.com/EP36 with CFI & flight school owner Jeff Ramsey: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep36-cfi-flight-school-owner-jeff-ramsey-on-how-to/id1591463789?i=1000615289723Ash's Flying Wheelies: https://www.instagram.com/flying_wheeliesParadise P1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_P1_LSAICP Savannah: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_SavannahWhen Do You Need An IPC (Boldmethod): https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/regulations/when-do-you-need-an-ipc-instrument-proficiency-check/1DullGeek's "I Can't See the Runway!!": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoIQv7IsfCw
- 2 weeks ago1h 1m
EP189 - Sport Pilot Extraordinaire
Sport pilots get treated as lesser pilots. This week the crew takes apart why, and why it does not hold up. The restrictions are real. The skill gap is not. After MOSAIC put Cessna 172s and Cherokees within reach of a sport pilot, the training gap closed on its own. It starts with Rich, a sport pilot in Atlanta who walked into a flight school and got told he had "so much less training."Also this week: listener Christopher H. crossed 500 hours and passed his commercial checkride. Tape-machine messages from Luke Johnson, Sierra Squared, and Chris M. From the community: Echo November Whiskey passed the instrument checkride after "5 reschedulings with 3 DPEs." PapaLima logged a 90-day run for the ages. hakan flew his first border crossing, Germany to Austria.Support the show, join the Discord, grab merch, and send us a message at midlifepilotpodcast.com. If you are enjoying the podcast, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and we will read it on the air.Mentioned on the show:Brian's THE LONG WAY: https://www.makesmallcorrections.com/Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic since 1992: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CzechoslovakiaLong Way 'Round, Ewan McGregor: https://www.longway.tv/Yes, Long Distance Runaround: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La9Me7alNqAErica's IFR class: https://www.gilbertaviation.com/
- 3 weeks ago45 min
EP188 - Go/No-Go: Honoring Your Minimums When Everyone Else Is Leaving
Ben's coming back to McCollum with his wife in the right seat and the winds at 340, 18 gusting 28, basically direct crosswind, and he's already named the two north-south runways he'll divert to if he doesn't like it. That's the whole episode in one scene. We dig into go/no-go decisions, built around the Go/No-Go channel where you post a flight before you fly it and let the group reason alongside you. No bravado, no armchair quarterbacking.Brian makes the case that scrubbing a flight you could have made is still a win, because you're teaching your future self the call was sound and next time the conditions could be worse. Erica Gilbert's 1,000-foot ceiling minimum comes up, and the story behind it: three emergency returns after takeoff inside 30 days. We talk through the real question under an IFR deck, which is how much time you want to find a landing spot when the engine quits, not if. The hardest scrubs are the ones 900 miles from home with work in the morning, so grab your meds and your underwear.We also read a remarkable letter from Bruce, a 45-year-old monocular MMA coach who spent two and a half years fighting through medical denials to earn his certificate. Plus accomplishments from Teddy's second Mooney, an M20J flown Texas to Minnesota, and Checkmate Barry's 14-maneuver flight review, the Piston Peasant shirt Ted designed, and a second cohort of Brian's VFR cross-country course after the first sold out. If you can't be a good example, you'll have to be a horrible warning.Mentioned on the show:THE LONG WAY cross-country course: https://www.makesmallcorrections.com/PISTON PEASANT shirt: https://midlifepilotpodcast.printful.me/product/piston-peasant-shirtNew website: https://midlifepilotpodcast.com/I FLEW ALL DAY AND LANDED AT THE SAME AIRPORT shirt: https://midlifepilotpodcast.printful.me/product/i-flew-all-day-and-landed-at-the-same-airport-unisex-classic-teeErica Gilbert's IFR masterclass: https://www.gilbertaviation.com/ifr-course
- 4 weeks ago53 min
EP187 - Information Whiskey: Super Scoopers, Springer Mountain & the Bachelorette Bravo
A whiskey episode, the non-format format where we catch up, work the live chat, and let it fly. Ben spots a pair of Canadair Super Scoopers fighting fires over Utah and IDs them on ADS-B in about ten seconds. Brian preps a 4:30 a.m. departure for West Texas to end-around a brutal heat dome, Tango 82 for a couple nights, then Marfa. Ted lays out the fatigue math of flying high for smoother air and better fuel burn, and when the oxygen comes out.We read an invite to Ed-Air, a Part 137 ag operation in Southern Indiana with a pilot house, six beds, and an 80-year-old founder. Brian recounts his annual five-mile hike up to the Len Foote Hike Inn near Springer Mountain and the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, 19 miles over a weekend that doubles as Oshkosh training. Version two of the website is live at midlifepilotpodcast.com, with the Midlife Pilot Tape Machine and a VU meter that actually works, so go yell into it. Plus the long road to turning Nashville's Super Charlie into a Bachelorette Bravo, a Challenger pilot caught on the wrong frequency, the grace controllers extend to student pilots, bush wheels on a Cessna 140, and a shout-out to everyone with a checkride coming up. Don't scud run, people.Mentioned on the show:Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-415T82 airport: https://www.airnav.com/airport/t82I20 Ed-Air Inc. airport: https://edairinc.com/location.htmlI20 info: https://www.airnav.com/airport/I20Len Foote Hike Inn: https://hike-inn.com/Springer Mountain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springer_MountainGita's Calm Cockpit Podcast: https://calmcockpit.com/Capt'n Todd's "portapilot" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR2HrQGf454www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
- Jun 23, 20261h 2m
EP186 - Risk It for the Biscuit: The $300 Hamburger
Avgas hit 8.85 a gallon, so the $100 hamburger is now a $300 hamburger, and if you're renting, congratulations, it's a $1,000 hamburger. Brian, Ben, and Ted dig into how midlifers actually keep flying when fuel costs go vertical: pull the power back and trade five knots for four gallons an hour, cast a wide net for a safety pilot to split the cost, chase the cheapest fuel 50 miles out, and rediscover this thing called "morning." The feedback bag is stacked this week. The Tuba Guy writes in from the Boston Symphony, 13 years out of the cockpit and finding his way back. Listener Jason followed in Brian's footsteps to Drift Aviation and got hooked on the J-3 Cub. And Cassie, a brand-new private pilot, relies on the show for her weekly "aviation friend fix," which nearly earns her 30 instant pilot friends in Portland whether she wants them or not.Plus a legendary 1 Dull Geek Rant on the the eternal question of where exactly you're supposed to do your run-up. Brian's new VFR cross-country course is at makesmallcorrections.com.Mentioned on the show:* Catherine Cavagnaro: https://aceaerobaticschool.com/* Justin Tidwell, Flywell Aviation: https://www.flywellaviation.com/aboutus* AC Super Decathlon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Champion_Decathlon* Coronary artery disease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_artery_diseaseiep141* Getting a medical with coronary artery disease: https://www.faa.gov/ame_guide/media/Coronary_Heart_Disease_Disposition_Table.pdf* Episode 141 - Every pilot is creative somehow: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep141-every-pilot-is-creative-somehow-tim-lien-from/id1591463789?i=1000721686629* Bill Burr- helicopter bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ZSzuj1UpA* The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Midlife Pilot- second edition! https://midlifepilotpodcast.com/#guide* Lambert's throwed rolls: https://throwedrolls.com/* RYY airport diagram: https://www.aopa.org/ustprocs/20260611/SE-4/ryy_airport_diagram.pdf* Brian's "the long way" ground course: https://makesmallcorrections.com/Support the show! www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
- Jun 16, 20261h 1m
EP185 - Flying the Long Way
You earned the ticket. Now what? Most VFR pilots get their certificate and then spend the next few years doing pattern laps and $100 hamburger runs, never quite working up the nerve for the big trip. There's no checkride for cross-country confidence, so nobody teaches it. This week, Brian, Ben, and Ted dig into everything that happens after your training ends and the open country begins.The guys get into the gap in pilot training nobody talks about: en route weather reality versus departure-and-arrival thinking, why personal minimums need a methodology for ratcheting (not just a number on a card), and how to think about your airplane as your responsibility for three days on the ground, not two hours in the air. Plus the stuff that bites you in the real world: dead iPads in one-million-degree Texas heat, self-serve fuel pumps that put a $3,000 hold on your only credit card, progressive taxi at unfamiliar fields with crossing runways, and knowing where you're going to put it down when the engine quits on departure from an airport you've never seen.Ben finally lands on the right runway at New Smyrna Beach, Brian watches his commercial rating show up in the airman registry, and a bathroom-wall sticker in New Orleans pulls another listener out of a training slump. Brian also announces The Long Way, his new four-week ground course built on everything learned VFR-ing all over the country, available now at makesmallcorrections.com.Whether you're the pilot talking yourself out of the trip or the one who goes far but knows some of it was luck, this one's for you. You don't have to be IFR-rated to Ted yourself all over the United States.Mentioned on the show:Ultimate Pilot's Guide to Becoming a Midlife Pilot, 2nd edition: https://midlifepilotpodcast.com/#guideFairchild C-123: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_C-123_ProviderNew Smyrna Beach Airport: https://www.nsbairport.com/The Jerk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_JerkThe Long Way — Cross-Country Confidence for VFR Pilots, a four-week ground course: https://www.makesmallcorrections.com/Air Facts Podcast with Gita Brown: https://airfactsjournal.com/2026/06/podcast-dads-logbooks-with-gita-brown/Gita's 2025 Dad's Logbooks article: https://airfactsjournal.com/2025/08/dads-logbooks-keeping-a-daughter-on-course/
- Jun 10, 20261h 7m
EP184 - Information Whiskey: Event Events vs. Non-Event Events
Brian is hiding from CMA Fest, Ben is back from the British Virgin Islands, and Ted has finally sprung the Egg from a two-month annual. Time for an Information Whiskey episode.Brian gets back in the air after his exam binge with a visit to Full Stop Aviation at Union City, where he meets a 1,000 horsepower Reno racer, then executes a strategic family airstrike to the Virginia mountains and reports that Lucy's autopilot vertical hold now sounds like logging into America Online before giving up entirely. Listener feedback from Chris H. sparks a debate on whether heavy dual time before the private checkride is a red flag or just life happening. Community accomplishments include a PIN code for the DC FRZ, a 9,000 foot density altitude wake turbulence encounter, ten Young Eagles in one day, an LSRM-I sign-off, and fresh grief for everyone hand jamming a Garmin 430 in actual.Then things go deeper. Brian unpacks his new video "Trip. Fall. Succeed." and the photograph he took of a family at Huntsville Executive just two days before they were lost in the Montana Aztec accident. It's a thoughtful look at how aviation talks about tragedy, and how Ron Horton's challenge to become instructors gives all of this weight and purpose.Plus: episode 200 hits this fall, and the crew wants your votes for a very special non-event event at a no-place place. Hudson Corridor? New Orleans? A Denny's in Topeka? Send votes to midlifepilotpodcast@gmail.comTonight's bit of wisdom: "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."Mentioned on the show:UCY - Union City:https://www.airnav.com/airport/UCYFull Stop Aviation at UCY:https://fs-aviation.com/Luke's Landing:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOrpUYt-M4Qosktmet7JnfgFlightChops video, going to UCY - Have You Ever Truly Experienced "Severe Turbulence"?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUrGSFulrwITUPJ - Lettsome International, British Virgin Islands:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrance_B._Lettsome_International_AirportEP182 - DPE Ron Horton Part 1:https://open.spotify.com/episode/5yl5pJ0rvFXpg5nxNL7xTw?si=1XbAa1HlQKmC5oP5XfaghwI was today years old:https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-was-today-years-oldFLARE Bourbon distillery:https://www.flarebourbon.com/homeCheckmate Barry using the Icarus electronic foggles:https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2026-04-27/training-icarus-device-inoculates-against-iimcRedbird AATD (simulators):https://simulators.redbirdflight.com/Brian's new YouTube video, The Midlife Way: Trip. Fall. Succeed:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCim9wvwmO0Blancolirio video about the family flying the Aztec:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7kT0_Jns0QBrian's video on monetizing tragedy, The Economics of Exploitation. Aviation's YouTube Problem:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129nlBPpVAIJim Morrison, No One Gets Out Of Here Alive:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Here_Gets_Out_AliveNEW, New Orleans Lakefront Airport terminal building:https://lakefrontairport.com/about/Connect with the show:Everything Midlife Pilot Podcast:https://midlifepilotpodcast.comPatreon and Discord:https://patreon.com/midlifepilotpodcastLive on YouTube Mondays 8 PM Eastern:https://youtube.com/@midlifepilotpodcastLeave a five star review on Apple Podcasts and we'll read it on the air.
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About Midlife Pilot Podcast
Welcome to the Midlife Pilot Podcast, where we share the experiences and the challenges of flying in midlife. Whether you're a seasoned pilot, training for private or instrument ratings, or just thinking about getting started in aviation, we like to think of the podcast as your aviation companion, and your weekly dose of aviation inspiration. Hosted by the dynamic trio of Ben, Brian, and Ted - the show is not instruction - it's all about sharing real stories, personal insights, and the pure joy of spreading your wings in midlife.
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