The Student Pilot Audiocast [mp3]

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 (https://airfreddy.infusionsoft.com/go/ltfg/afap3/).  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.

Hello again, everyone.  I’m back with episode 22 about my first dual cross country flight during my primary training.  It was fantastic as I hope you’ll be able to tell from this episode.  I went from KCHD to KTUS, or Tucson International (http://www.airnav.com/airport/KTUS). I also mentioned Scenario Based Training (http://www.asa2fly.com/Train-Like-You-Fly-Guide-to-Scenario-Based-Training--P931_product1.aspx) in this episode as well.  Linked here is an ASA book on the subject. Finally, Picacho Peak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picacho_Peak_State_Park) is used as landmark in this episode.  I wanted to include a picture I took of it during one of my flights…it is quite spectacular (and this picture does not do it justice). (http://studentpilotcast.com/spc/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/20081206_4882_2.jpg) I hope you all enjoy the episode.  Please leave feedback for me.

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 (http://www.twitter.com/billwil).  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.

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 (http://www.airventure.org/).  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 (http://www.uncontrolledairspace.com/), The Student Pilot Cast (http://www.studentpilotcast.com/), The Finer Points (http://www.thefinerpoints.net/), Airspeed (http://www.airspeedonline.com/), and the Pilotcast (http://www.pilotcast.com/) (along with CFI cast).  Remoted in via skype was Will and Dave of the Pilot's Flight Pod Log (http://pilotwill.libsyn.com/).  Notably missing this year were new pilot, Greg, from the Student Pilot Journal (http://www.studentpilotjournal.com/) and student pilot Jerry from VA Student Pilot (http://www.vastudentpilot.com/).  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 (http://www.airventure.org/2008/8sun3/podcast.html) 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.

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.

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 (http://www.vastudentpilot.com/) 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 (http://feeds.feedburner.com/virginiastudentpilotpodcast). Enjoy.

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.

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.

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.