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Midlife Pilot Podcast
par Midlife Pilot Podcast
Welcome to the Midlife Pilot Podcast, where we share the experiences and the challenges of flying in midlife. Whether you're a seasoned pilot, training for private or instrument ratings, or just thinking about getting started in aviation, we like to think of the podcast as your aviation companion, and your weekly dose of aviation inspiration. Hosted by the dynamic trio of Ben, Brian, and Ted - the show is not instruction - it's all about sharing real stories, personal insights, and the pure joy of spreading your wings in midlife.
Épisodes
EP205 - Glutton for Punishment
3 nov. 2026 · 1 h 02
Mark is back ("Thanks, Mark. Glad to be back") with Sparker transition-training dispatches: two seats, retractable, bubble canopy, Rotax 916, "about 165 knots at 10,000 feet," pending "a whole bunch of marketing inflation that I think might be going on there." Meanwhile a Phenom on frequency…
EP204 - What Is Landings?
27 oct. 2026 · 1 h 05
Ted did the math: episodes 83, 108, 116, 119, 128, 155, 188, and 201 were all more or less about landings, and tonight makes it nine, because you filled the tape machine and we have no self-control. The eternal question of this show, asked out loud tonight: "Oh man, how does this even work? What…
EP203 - Pause Not Included
20 oct. 2026 · 54 min
Last week's emergency deserves a sequel about the thing you reach for in the later phases of one: the checklist. Enter returning special friend of the show Checkmate Barry, two years to the day (October 1st) from taking over CheckMate Aviation, the premier checklist company. His origin story is…
EP202 - Declared Mercy
13 oct. 2026 · 1 h 02
Ryan and Jackie flew the beautiful RV-10 down for the EP200 hangar show. On the way home, the airplane had other plans: autopilot master fault, attitude indicator misbehaving in IMC, showing level while the airplane turned left, a wall of clouds ahead, and one analog instrument left in the panel:…
EP201 - The Last Five Seconds of a Landing
6 oct. 2026 · 1 h 02
The Discord kept circling one subject, and it happens to be printed on our favorite t-shirt: I forget how to land (or have never learned in the first place). So this one's all landings: the plateau, the last five seconds, and the sight pictures we grade ourselves against "a little less forgiving…
EP200 - It Took You Long Enough
29 sept. 2026 · 54 min
Two hundred episodes, and this one comes with a studio audience: live from a hangar at McCollum Field, at a non-event event. "Come if you want, come as you are," and people came anyway, some from very long distances. Ben opened the show with engines running in the background and Lucy parked…
EP199 - No Longer Sport Pilot Extraordinaire
22 sept. 2026 · 1 h 01
Eleven minutes of "we're keeping it a mystery," and then out with it: our friend Timestamp Tedder went and passed his private pilot checkride. "No longer sport pilot extraordinaire." Theoretically he can still hold the title, he just kind of added some more. A hard-won medical, a pile of hours in…
EP198 - How Dare You Try to Minimize My Suffering
15 sept. 2026 · 1 h 07
Ted has a private pilot checkride on the calendar, so naturally the crew dedicated the evening to helping him prepare. And by helping, we mean: "You may not be nervous at all for the checkride. But you will be by the end of this conversation. It's our job to make you nervous." The chat piled on…
EP197 - I Just Passed My PPL at 1,005 Hours
8 sept. 2026 · 1 h 02
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…
EP196 - BasicTed: Luck Favors the Prepared
1 sept. 2026 · 1 h 15
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…
EP195 - I'm Temporarily Delayed, Not Canceled
25 août 2026 · 52 min
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…
EP194 - "That's Why I Wear the Propeller Hat" - PropHatCat!
18 août 2026 · 1 h 13
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…
EP193 - Getting in the Way of Our A&Ps
11 août 2026 · 49 min
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…
EP192 - I Can't Believe Someone Pays Me to Do This
4 août 2026 · 59 min
Flying, and actually having someone else pay for it. The crew sits down with James Onieal of Raven Career Development: pilot, instructor, type-rated in the King Air, Citation, and Embraer 170/190, veteran of regional, fractional, and FAA flight check flying, and a career coach since 2010 (also a…
EP191 - I'm Just Going Where He's Going
28 juil. 2026 · 59 min
Ben is back from AirVenture and still hearing the Fisk arrival in his sleep. Two holds around the lakes, a push all the way back to Puckaway, and made it in on the third time, following an RV toward the runway: "I'm just going where he's going, and I hope they clear us to land." The full Oshkosh…
EP190 - Nothing Like the Real Thing
21 juil. 2026 · 1 h 06
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…
EP189 - Sport Pilot Extraordinaire
14 juil. 2026 · 1 h 01
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…
EP188 - Go/No-Go: Honoring Your Minimums When Everyone Else Is Leaving
7 juil. 2026 · 45 min
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…
EP187 - Information Whiskey: Super Scoopers, Springer Mountain & the Bachelorette Bravo
30 juin 2026 · 53 min
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…
EP186 - Risk It for the Biscuit: The $300 Hamburger
23 juin 2026 · 1 h 02
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,…