Midlife Pilot Podcast

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=1000615289723
Ash's Flying Wheelies: https://www.instagram.com/flying_wheelies
Paradise P1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_P1_LSA
ICP Savannah: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_Savannah
When 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

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/Czechoslovakia
Long Way 'Round, Ewan McGregor: https://www.longway.tv/
Yes, Long Distance Runaround: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La9Me7alNqA
Erica's IFR class: https://www.gilbertaviation.com/

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-shirt
New 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-tee
Erica Gilbert's IFR masterclass: https://www.gilbertaviation.com/ifr-course

A whiskey episode, the non-format format where we catch up, work the live chat, and let it fly. Ted 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. Ben 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-415
T82 airport: https://www.airnav.com/airport/t82
I20 Ed-Air Inc. airport: https://edairinc.com/location.html
I20 info: https://www.airnav.com/airport/I20
Len Foote Hike Inn: https://hike-inn.com/
Springer Mountain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springer_Mountain
Gita's Calm Cockpit Podcast: https://calmcockpit.com/
Capt'n Todd's "portapilot" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR2HrQGf454
www.midlifepilotpodcast.com

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