Podcast – Jetwhine

A Unique Around-the-World Journey Heads East

Al Bean: An Astronaut of Many Colors

Favorite Flights I Never Flew

Veterans Day as a Time to Reflect

The past month has been one of amazement for most of us in the aviation industry as millions of people around the world try and figure out what happened to Malaysian Airlines flight 370. CNN decided to go 24/7 with MH370 coverage, while I was happy to help the Fox News people with their own news analysis on the disappearance. But here we are nearly a month after the Boeing disappeared and we’re only slightly closer to finding the airplane than we were in March. One of the biggest stumbling blocks of course has been the Malaysian government itself, that was woefully unprepared for such a calamity. Answering questions and researching news for Fox and for an upcoming book really got me thinking that it’s time to talk about the future of this industry. I’m not giving up on the people aboard MH370 of course, but we need to decide what lessons the next generation of aircraft designers, pilots and passengers must take from MH370 as it stands today. With that, I offer you the next Aviation Minute. The Aviation Minute: Episode 6 (for e-mail subscribers) Rob Mark, Publisher BTW, I owe those of you who receive The Aviation Minute on e-mail a huge apology. I had no idea you’d be unable to access the podcast player directly. While I work on a more permanent solution, I’ll continue adding a hyperlink to the episode as I did above which will allow you to listen to the episode.

It’s time to get our listeners caught up on The Aviation Minute. Seems that working the kinks out of our new podcast turned out to be a bit more time consuming than I’d at first thought. Now that the iTunes folks tell us The Aviation Minute has been added to to the approved list of shows, it seemed like just the right moment to bring people up to speed on episodes four and five. From this week forward, you can also expect a new episode of The Aviation Minute each and every Thursday. Episode four speaks to women in aviation and why the percentage of ladies in this industry remains so dismally tiny, while episode five offers a few parting thoughts to outgoing NTSB Chairman Deb Hersman and her respected team of investigative personnel. Subscribing to the Aviation Minute Because a show’s value increases with the number of listeners, I wanted to be sure you knew the easy ways to follow us. Certainly people using smart phones might find following The Aviation Minute easier through iTunes, but there is another system word mentioning … RSS. Despite the meaning — Really Simple Syndication — my first attempts at hooking up through RSS were a dismal failure. It took me awhile to learn that you need a reader of some sort to act as the aggregator for your feeds … so much for the simple part … no one mentioned that. Google’s Feedly app has become my aggregator of choice, so much so that I’ve turned it into my default browser page. Now when I log on each morning, I can tell at a glance which of my favorite sites have created fresh content without the need to remember to continually check back at a dozens locations So enjoy episodes four and five of The Aviation Minute … and of course be sure and tell your friends if you think the content’s worth 90 seconds of their time every week. Thanks, Rob Mark, Publisher PS — Is there an issue in the aviation world that’s driving you crazy? Tell us about it and maybe we’ll use it for an upcoming episode. E-mail me directly at rob@jetwhine.com. And don’t forget to tell us the country you’re listening in from.

I know the TSA costs us billions every year, but for once, I think people need to appreciate them for the good things those folks do … especially in light of the possibilities that hijackers may have taken out Malaysian 370 last week.  Rob Mark, Publisher

Thanks to all of you for the great comments about The Aviation Minute‘s first episode. You’ll find episode 2 below, which actually evolved from comments related to the first show about the regional airline pilot shortage.  Show Updates: If you look in the right-hand column here on the Jetwhine home page, you’ll see that we’ve added an easy way for you to subscribe to just The Aviation Minute episodes if you choose. We’re still waiting for the Apple people to work their magic on our iTunes feed which should be up and running by episode 3. In the next week, we’ll also have our show archive operational for a quick episode re-listen. Future Show Ideas: Thanks to the new listeners who took the time to share topic ideas that need some serious media attention. We can never have too many, so if there’s an industry on your mind … be it air traffic control, business aviation, safety, learning to fly or anything else, tell me about them at rob@jetwhine.com. Finally, a show like this really depends upon listeners like you to tell their friends. If you like The Aviation Minute, send your friends back here to Jetwhine.com and ask them to click on The Aviation Minute icon or just fill in their e-mail address. Thanks for listening. Rob Mark, Publisher

When I created Jetwhine wayyyyy back in 2006, the tagline was pretty simple … “aviation buzz and bold opinion.” Since then, some 650 stories of fact and aviation opinion have appeared on these pages. Some of them have have driven readers simply crazy, like some we’ve written about air traffic controllers and the FAA for instance. Some haven’t raised so much as a speck of dust anywhere. But that’s life. The stories written by our editor Scott Spangler though are often much more controversial than mine. The difference of course is that Scott’s style is so smooth that he makes his point without seeming to point fingers in people’s faces. I’m still hoping he can teach me that trick. Now as we enter 2014, I think it’s time to add a new element to Jetwhine … more audio. Today we’re rolling out Episode One of The Aviation Minute. These podcasts (scroll down) are designed to briefly capture the essence of a single topic. They’re also designed to create enough interest for you to seek more information on your own. It’s the only way you’ll ever stay informed on the ever changing world of aviation. And let’s be serious … this is not the aviation world I came into when I soloed a Champ in 1966 around the patch at Champaign Airport, IL (CMI). Our first show is devoted to the pilot shortage. And if I stay on top of things, we should have a brand new episode each week that tantalizes you just enough on one topic to make you think. And of course, I also hope these will someday bring my delivery up to the standards of Scott Spangler … but I still have a way to go. BTW, we’re always on the lookout for fresh topics that we should keep an eye on. Some of the best of the best have been suggested by you our readers … and listeners now. So please feel free to send along your ideas and comments to me … rob@jetwhine.com. For those of you who have come to expect complete technology savvy shows, let me mention there will soon be a separate RSS feed and iTunes account to subscribe to only The Aviation Minute should you choose. More on that soon. Enjoy, Rob Mark, Publisher