Midlife Pilot Podcast

A listener comment set the agenda this week: as the hosts stack ratings and turbine job offers, do the 20-to-200-hour faithful still see themselves in the show?
Ben answered by wearing his Nobody Cares hat, the one from the Nashville meetup of the same name, and explaining why: he had maybe 250 hours when Brian and Chris started recording, and hearing them talk about their first solos "hit home with me like a ton of bricks." He is still as excited for every first solo and first cross-country posted in the community as he was for his own. The whole thing turned into the closest the show has come to a Lloyd Dobler rant in years: "I don't want to manufacture anything, I don't want to sell anything."
Because here is the thing about ratings: this is not a competition, and in the words spoken on air, "we're still terrified little babies on check rides." The instrument ride at 800-something hours was not easier for the experience. It was worse. And in the most on-brand development this show could possibly produce, Ted, freshly armed with his hard-won medical, is now preparing for a private pilot checkride, with a standing dare to post "I just passed my PPL at 1,005 hours" on the flying subreddit and watch the comments roll in.
Ben, meanwhile, is still waiting for the beast to get out of the shop ("There is a very good chance that the beast will be done by the end of this week." "So one more month." "Exactly. That's what everybody says."). His new employer filled the gap with computer-based training homework that ate his entire weekend before Phenom 300 indoc, and they sent him the AFM, which he is respectfully not opening yet. He has, however, already downloaded a Phenom for Microsoft Flight Simulator, so training is basically complete.
In the mailbag, a student pilot who lost his medical shortly after his second solo wrote that Ted's story "is exactly what I needed to hear to give me hope," and asked whether BasicMed can put the whole fight to rest. Fittingly, the community chat channel has become the Ted and Mike Alpha Golf medical regulation hangout, currently nerding out on FAA changes around antidepressant special issuance, sleep apnea, and diabetes.
Also aboard: a 1985 Toyota MR2 blew a head gasket, grew a pinhole in a freshly fabricated muffler weld, and confirmed that its owner "will never win the lottery." Toby K passed his instrument checkride, Bill S got checked out in his flying club's A36 Bonanza (15 hours of dual for the checkout), and there is apparently an equity flying club out of PDK called Bonanza Five with access to five Bonanzas. Welcome to new patrons Ryan C. and Arnold A. And every "It's Ted" now triggers the Ren and Stimpy Log song, for which we apologize in advance. Tonight's wisdom: every great landing begins with a good approach and ends with a story that improves by dinner time.
Mentioned on the show:
* Ren and Stimpy, The Log song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc7xLsp_mcg#t=35s
* Bonanza Five flying club: https://www.bonanza5.com/
* Lloyd Dobler rant ("I don't want to sell anything..."): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuc_BqAPxRo#t=23s
* NOBODY CARES fly-in video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAjPnyxtrSM

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_300
Phenom 300: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_Phenom_300
Raven 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_6pCuLgo
Ison Law, The Pilot Lawyers: https://thepilotlawyer.com/
AOPA Medical Resources: https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/medical-resources
AOPA MedXpress Simulator: https://wingmanmed.com/medxpress-simulator/
Wingman Med: https://wingmanmed.com/
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_Czechoslovakia

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/

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

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/