Midlife Pilot Podcast

That little button is not your enemy — but nobody tells you that when you're a student pilot white-knuckling your first radio call. In episode 175, Brian, Ben, and Ted dig into everything they wish someone had told them about ATC before training started. Why "say again" is a superpower and not an admission of failure. How to read back what matters without trying to memorize everything the controller just said. Why knowing who you're talking to — ground, tower, approach, center — shrinks the panic down to a manageable size. How live ATC on your commute is basically free ground school. And the single most important thing any student pilot can do before pressing that button: practice the words before you say them. Whether you're still circling an uncontrolled airport wondering what to say on the CTAF or you're tangled up in a busy Class Charlie wondering how anyone does this naturally — they didn't. They just got the reps. Mentioned on the show:
* Thanks to Erica at Turbine Rotables! https://www.turbinerotables.com/
* Taylor Coot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Coot
* Republic Seabee/Lake Buccaneer: https://airvectors.net/avlake.html
* NOBODY CARES fly-in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAjPnyxtrSM
* Turbo Encabulator video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag
pro pilot pete
* PlaneEnglish: https://planeenglishsim.com/
* ARSim: https://arsim.ai/
* Revisionist History- This Is Your Captain Speaking: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/this-is-your-captain-speaking
* The Right Stuff (book): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(book)
* CaptnTodd's "first flight with the portapilot" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUVfGulHeY

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Ted "puts a ring on" his airplane in the most permanent way possible. A Colorado hotel owner proves that "not a Patreon supporter" and "free advertising" aren't mutually exclusive. We talk IFR currency, what it's like to come back to instrument flying after 20 years of VORs that no longer exist, and why the marine layer off the west coast might be the greatest IFR playground on earth. A 56-year-old gets his ticket back, another gets his for the first time, and somewhere between teenage phone anxiety and shooting approaches in the Pacific fog, we remember why all of this matters.

Mentioned on the show:
* Luke's Landing: https://www.youtube.com/@lukeslanding2230/videos
* EP172 - Live from Bentonville! Thaden Invasion podcast video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL_5JakmqDA
* 48A - Cochran Georgia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochran_Airport

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You can have a flying machine or you can have a project. Sometimes you get both whether you wanted them or not.
This week, 1DullGeek aka Mark lays out why he's leaving the certified world behind and building a TL Sparker — a Czech experimental that burns half the fuel, costs a fraction to maintain, and was designed after his children were adults (unlike the Cherokee 235, which predates his parents).
Brian is staying in the museum business for now, flying a 1967 Cherokee 180 and embracing his identity as a steward of vintage aviation history, whether he likes it or not. Ted is flying a Special Light Sport that is certified, experimental-adjacent, and philosophically its own thing — much like Ted himself.
Along the way we get into what it really costs to own old iron, why parts availability in the certified world will break your soul, what MOSAIC means for the future of sport pilot, and whether two weeks of coursework is actually enough to maintain your own airplane (spoiler: probably not, but it's a useful warning label).
Also in this episode: a debrief from the Thaden Invasion fly-in including a NASA report we won't elaborate on, a $25 ramp fee at JWN that costs less than a tank of avgas but somehow hurts more, a surprise night power-off 180, and a birthday calculation that required community intervention.
Listener Sierra Victor from Surprise, Arizona (yes, that's a place) writes in about sport pilot gatekeeping and gets some straight talk: the aerodynamics don't care what certificate you hold, and neither should you.
Mentioned on the show:
* UCY - Union City Tenn: https://www.airnav.com/airport/UCY
* Full Stop Aviation: https://fs-aviation.com/
* AOPA - PAPA bill: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2026/march/11/pr-support-grows-for-bills-banning-ads-b-misuse
* 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
* LSRI, LSRM courses: https://rainbowaviation.com/courses/
* Dunning-Kreuger effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
* Fly Eagle Sport: https://flyeaglesport.com/
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Recorded live at Legends Air Center, Bentonville Municipal Airport (KVBT)
We pulled it off. Forty-six planes, 76 humans, one carbon cub with a suspiciously placed trim switch, and a weather forecast that went from "perfect VFR" to "tornado watch to snowstorm in 24 hours." Episode 172 is the live recording from the Thaden Invasion fly-in — and it did not disappoint.
Ben, Brian, and 1DullGeek filling in for Ted who attempted to get here from Portland via Delta and was defeated by the commercial aviation gods. We called him anyway. He answered!
IN THIS EPISODE:
🛫 The Instrument Rating Spite Train
✈️ The Race to Union City — Ben attempts to bribe a Memphis Center controller via Venmo. The controller provides his Venmo. "Ready to copy."
🛩️ The Convergence Incident — Mark's GPS-autopilot handshake goes sideways mid-flight, resulting in an unannounced formation maneuver.
🌩️ The Forecast Nobody Asked For — Our new friend Bruce, a multi-decade professional meteorologist, delivers a pre-show weather briefing that sends everyone scrambling for early departures. Tornadoes by noon. Snow by evening. Perfect fly-in weather.
📞 We Call Ted — He answers. It's lovely. He didn't miss anything at Game Bird. Those planes are ugly. The formation flights were nothing. (They were incredible. Ted knows.)
🎙️ Community Moments — Keith's story of stepping away from aviation and finding his way back. Captain Todd's first cross-country with his girlfriend (she asked where the car was). The anonymous question about an all-wives episode (immediately shot down). Erica Gilbert, CFII and weather guru, knitting quietly in the back like an aviation safety angel.
MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:
🏆 Legends Air Center at Bentonville Municipal Airport (KVBT) — Home of the Thaden Invasion and quite possibly the only FBO where you can fish off one end and tour an aerobatic manufacturer off the other.
✈️ Game Aerospace — The manufacturing facility that had our crew high on carbon fiber fumes and ambition. Shoutout to Derek and the team.
📋 Checkmate Aviation — Sponsor of our beautiful lounge space. Barry bought the company by accident (sort of). Custom checklists. Real story.
🎙️ Midlife Pilot Podcast on Patreon — The thing that keeps this ad-free and human. The reason we can afford microphones and index cards (when Ted is here).
🐦 Plane Places Adventures (YouTube) — Check out the channel. Virgil always has something.
🎙️ Airline Pilot Guy Podcast — AJ's co-hosting home. Captain Jeff. Good people. Good aviation.
📘 Helen Thaden — Aviation Pioneer — The namesake of the invasion. Bentonville's own. Look her up if you don't know the name yet.
🌤️ 1800wxbrief.com — FAA Aviation Weather Briefings — For those of you who don't have Bruce's number.
📖 Make Small Corrections by Brian Siskind Essays on flying, legacy, and midlife transformation. Brian's book. Read it.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:
"A beef Wellington is just a corn dog from a different socioeconomic background."

DPE, airline pilot, C-130 instructor, and VSL Aviation founder Seth Lake drops in from his car outside a North Little Rock hangar to help pilots get ready for the real thing. He previews his enhanced pre-flight safety seminar happening Saturday morning at Thaden Field — think less checklist theater, more popping cowlings and actually looking at stuff — and breaks down the honest threat picture at a busy uncontrolled airport: why flight following isn't optional, why calling traffic "in sight" is a commitment you'd better mean, and why hope is not an arrival strategy.
Plus: the case against the emergency descent maneuver, what midlife pilots actually have going for them on check rides, a surprise Miller's Ale House field recording, and the Bentonville roundabout that has claimed at least one dignity so far.
Seth's enhanced pre-flight seminar is Saturday at 9AM in the exhibition hall. Register at faasafety.gov for WINGS credit.
See you on the ramp.
Mentioned on the show:
* Nashville Bravo reclassification: https://www.reddit.com/r/nashville/comments/1q6ixd5/bna_to_be_upgraded_to_bravo_airspace/
* Erica's Aerosafe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AeroSafe
* Erica's Aerosafe weather briefing checklist: https://www.gilbertaviation.com/aerosafe
* Aviation Weather Handbook: https://www.faa.gov/regulationspolicies/handbooksmanuals/aviation/faa-h-8083-28a-aviation-weather-handbook
* Charles Taylor master mechanic award: https://www.faasafety.gov/content/mastermechanic/default.aspx
* Airline Pilot Guy: https://airlinepilotguy.com/
* Bob Hoover's aileron roll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9pvG_ZSnCc
* Seth Lake's VSL ACE guide: https://vslaviation.myshopify.com/products/vsl-ace-guide
* Seth's WINGS/EAA seminar on STCs at ORK (N Little Rock): https://www.faasafety.gov/spans/event_details.aspx?eid=141995&caller=/spans/events/eventlist.aspx
* How to fly an emergency descent: https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/aerodynamics/emergency-descent-aerodynamics-how-to-fly-them-safely-high-to-low/
* VBT airspace briefig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJldTQ8LhM
* Fayetteville airport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayetteville_Regional_Airport
* 2025 DCA crash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Potomac_River_mid-air_collision
* Seth on setting up Foreflight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFLxF8uciT8
* Crystal Bridges museum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Bridges_Museum_of_American_Art
* Pinnacle Hills Promenade: https://www.pinnaclehillspromenade.com/en/
* Buffalo National River: https://www.nps.gov/buff/index.htm
* Pinch Hitter course for nonpilots: https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/online-learning/safety-spotlights/pinch-hitter
* Seth/Midlife Pilot Enhanced Preflight WINGS course: https://www.faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_publicregistration.aspx?eid=141537&type=1
* Josh at Free Pilot Training: https://www.youtube.com/c/FreePilotTraining

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