Midlife Pilot Podcast

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.

  1. vor 1 Tag

    EP196 - BasicTed: Luck Favors the Prepared

    The gag order is lifted. For ten months Ted answered "what have you been flying lately?" with a cheerful bunch of nothing, because he had quietly bet everything, sport pilot privileges included, on getting his FAA medical. If you apply and get denied, there is no crawling back to sport. He applied anyway. This week the curse-word-laden victory text went out: Ted has his medical, he is legal PIC again, and by his own math he'll have "probably 12 ratings in the next 60 days." Same week, same show: Ben formally accepted a charter job flying SIC in a Phenom 300. ("It didn't say Chrysler 300. It said Phenom, right?") He says he feels like the dog that's been chasing the school bus and finally caught it, and the chat has already decided his Piston Peasant shirt must be surrendered for a Turbine Tyrant model. Ted then opens the books on how the medical actually got won: five months of preparation before submitting anything, more records than his AME could upload (they faxed the rest), a cash MRI, a concierge neurologist one block off Rodeo Drive with an F1 replica car out front, a congressional inquiry, and a personally logged bill of $21,000. Disclaimer on disclaimer on disclaimer: that was Ted's very specific situation, not a recipe. Talk to AOPA Medical Services, Wingman Med, a HIMS AME, anybody but us. Also aboard: Mark, officially the fourth host ("the fifth wheel... it's really nice for redundancy"), is off to build airplanes in the Czech Republic, which Brian was reminded has not been called Czechoslovakia for quite some time. Brian pulled the power at 10,500 feet over a very hot Tennessee and glided Lucy all the way home ("the Icarus approach," per the chat). Plus a five-star review titled "New Era of Hangar Talk," sport pilot altitude rules straight from the 700-page MOSAIC reading (61.315: unchanged), and the non-event event on September 19 at McCollum Field (RYY). Tonight's wisdom, via Mike Alpha Golf: luck favors the prepared. Mentioned on the show:Chrysler 300: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_300Phenom 300: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_Phenom_300Raven Career Development: https://ravencareers.com/Ted's video, "first flight after ten months grounded: my faa medical certification story": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCt_6pCuLgoIson Law, The Pilot Lawyers: https://thepilotlawyer.com/AOPA Medical Resources: https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/medical-resourcesAOPA MedXpress Simulator: https://wingmanmed.com/medxpress-simulator/Wingman Med: https://wingmanmed.com/Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_Czechoslovakia

  2. 25. Aug.

    EP195 - I'm Temporarily Delayed, Not Canceled

    Ben, Brian, and Ted declare this one Oops All Feedback (or, as Ben coins it, "oopsitizers"): five tape machine clips plus reviews and community wins. Ben's avionics go pop-pop-pop over Columbus under an occluded front, and the crew lands on static as the likely culprit, with a side of "do you have static wicks?" Mark (1DullGeek) returns with the owner-maintenance addendum: anyone can replace a cylinder, only an A&P can sign it back into service, half the work is reading the maintenance manual, and his torque wrenches visit a calibration lab every year. Tango Hotel plans to fly the entire Mississippi from Lake Itasca to Venice, Louisiana, sandbars included. Ray in Australia asks how to survive "dropping out the bottom of the flight school sausage machine." Dan, almost 60, regroups with a new instructor at a slower pace (spite is very motivating). And Sierra Mike, 59, calls midlife "a fairly optimistic actuarial assumption" and reports that his instrument rating is temporarily delayed, not canceled. Plus: Delta Foxtrot passes his instrument checkride on the first attempt a month before his 66th birthday, Aviator Mo's five-star review orders Ben to stop whining, the non-event event moves to Saturday, September 19 at McCollum Field (RYY) with Elevation Chophouse after, and Brian connects it all to the Center for Land Use Interpretation and the way little airplanes teach you to read the landscape. Tonight's wisdom: learn from the mistakes of others, because you won't live long enough to make them all yourself. Mentioned on the show:Center for Land Use Interpretation: https://clui.org/

  3. 18. Aug.

    EP194 - "That's Why I Wear the Propeller Hat" - PropHatCat!

    Marcus is a magician, an off-Broadway producer, and an en route controller at Houston Center, which is either an unusual resume or a perfectly logical one. To thousands online he's PropHatCat. He opens with the disclaimer (he doesn't speak for the FAA or NATCA), delivers a verdict on traffic management, and lays out the whole machine: tower to TRACON to center to the Command Center in Virginia, which fixes things with a cleaver and hands down playbook routes that every layer below shaves a little finer, until a controller is staring at a route straight through a thunderstorm and thinking exactly what you're thinking. He also discusses EDCTs, why fog in San Francisco turns into 80 miles in trail, and how to read the arrival demand charts before you plan into a busy field, plus why modernization takes forever at an agency where repaving a parking lot took seven and a half years, why frequency changes are harder than any controller believes until they sit in the right seat, how two American flights ended up with the same number, how accurate Pushing Tin is (very, especially the relationships), and why nobody else makes this kind of content: "they're not dumb enough to do it." Mentioned on the show: * PropHatCat on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prophatcat * PropHatCat's merch: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PropHatCat * PropHatCat on Linktree: https://linktr.ee/prophatcat * ATC TMUs: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap18_section_2.html * EDCT: https://www.aspm.faa.gov/aspmhelp/index/Expect_Departure_Clearance_Times_(EDCT).html * NAS status: https://nasstatus.faa.gov/Arrival demand chart: https://www.fly.faa.gov/aadc/ * ERAM, en route automation modernization: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/eram * PropHatCat flying with Accidental Aviator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GtI-uRIswc * Opposing Bases: Air Traffic Talk: https://www.opposingbases.com/ * FAA Mobile Clearance for GA, announced at Oshkosh: https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-advances-digital-departure-clearances-general-and-business-aviation * Elevation Chophouse and Skybar, McCollum Field: https://www.elevationatlanta.com/ Midlife Pilot Podcast: https://midlifepilotpodcast.com

  4. 11. Aug.

    EP193 - Getting in the Way of Our A&Ps

    Owner-assisted maintenance, with all four hosts aboard: Ben, Brian, Ted, and Mark (1DullGeek), the show's resident expert, currently apprenticing in his mechanic's shop. What are you actually allowed to touch on your own airplane? The crew walks through 14 CFR 43.3(a), the 31 preventive maintenance items in Part 43 Appendix A(c), and the fine print that says you can change a tire on the rim but not remove the wheel, since that means touching the disc brakes. The sport pilot exception (SLSA only), why the list is not "examples," the Coleal interpretation and what Mike Busch and others have made of it, and the practical wisdom: even when it's legal, do it with your A&P the first time. Plus your aviation-lingo-at-home tape machine submissions from the EP191 ask, and the words of wisdom every procrastinating owner needs: the small problem you delay fixing becomes a major problem at the most remote airport on your trip. Mentioned on the show: Opposing Bases: https://www.opposingbases.com/ Cheese Pilot: https://www.youtube.com/@cheesepilot Gita and the Calm Cockpit Podcast: https://calmcockpit.com/ Mark/1dullgeek's youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@1dullgeek TL Sparker: https://tlsportaircraft.com/sparker/ Arrested Development, Mr. Wendal song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcnPfHS24Pg#t=1m Meat and Three: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_and_three Why can we work on our own aircraft? 43.3(a): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/part-43/section-43.3#p-43.3(a) 43 Appendix A(c): Preventive Maintenance. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-43/appendix-Appendix%20A%20to%20Part%2043#p-Appendix-A-to-Part-43(c) Except for sport pilot, pilots can perform preventive maintenance on owned or operated aircraft. Sport pilots only for SLSA: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/part-43/section-43.3#p-43.3(g) The Coleal Interpretation: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/practice_areas/regulations/interpretations/Data/interps/2009/Coleal-Bombardier%20Learjet_2009_Legal_Interpretation.pdf AOPA: Mike Busch and Savvy on Coleal and maintenance: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/october/pilot/savvy-aviator-preventive-maintenance AOPA: Mike Busch on Coleal and other interpretations: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2023/august/pilot/savvy-maintenance-legal-interpretations GAN: Jamie Beckett on interpretations: https://generalaviationnews.com/2025/08/26/the-rules-mean-what-the-rules-say-or-maybe-not/

  5. 28. Juli

    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/RYY Elevation Chophouse: https://www.elevationatlanta.com/ Ascension Aviation, RYY FBO: https://ascensionfbo.com/location/atlanta/ Ash aka flying_wheelies: https://instagram.com/@flying_wheelies Ben on Airplane Pilot Guy 716, part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-jPl9NKqOQ BUCKHD 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=PLcG48Zvp5uCE Open Source GA - many Oshkosh videos: https://www.youtube.com/@OpenSourceGA/videos

Info

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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