Don’t forget to check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide. Air Freddy is a very experienced CFI who has writtend a great guide to getting started in the flight training game. I’ve read the book and wished that I would have known about it before I started…so I’m passing it along to you if you’re interested. By using the link I’m providing here the Student Pilot Cast will get the referral credit, so please do use this link.  

Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoy this episode.

I was nearing the end of stage III in my training, so I was almost in the home stretch.  I also explain in this episode the cramming of flights I had to do over just a few days to finish stage III.  This flight was the first of them.

As mentioned, If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

Lastly, don’t forget to go check out the newly released (out of beta) myTransponder.  This aviation oriented social networking site is great.  To commemorate the recent full release and the fact that it is now open to anyone to join, I’ve created a group on myTransponder called, “Fans of the Student Pilot Cast.”  Please head over to the site and sign up if you haven’t already, and by all means, join my new group!

Thanks again for listening, and enjoy the episode.  Then, get out and fly!

[KAVQ-KCHD]

I mentioned the Remos GX LSA flight from Oshkosh in this episode.  Here is the link to the Airspeed episode that covered this.  My flight video from this will be coming in the future.

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter for the latest news from Student Pilot Cast land at http://twitter.com/billwil.

If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

I hope you all enjoy the episode.  Please send comments and feedback.

If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way. 

Enjoy the episode.

Getting ready to start	The Pavillion filling up as we get started
Stu talks about his first impressions of Oshkosh	Stephen Force cracks wise, I’m sure
Jack getting a comment from Rod	Threw in a pic of the Terrafugia for good measure

Don’t forget, if you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.  Freddy has included many stories from his over 9000 hours of dual given time that help you learn what to expect and how to make decisions as you start your training, perfect for the beginning pilot.  Air Freddy sponsors this podcast through these e-book sales, so you’ll be supporting The Student Pilot Cast as well with a purchase, and I appreciate that.

Let me know what you think of Podapalooza 2009!  I hope you enjoy it.  Now, get out there an fly!

Along with the interview, I want to share several pictures with you of their first product of this program, a 1982 fixed gear Saratoga.  Enjoy.

The Saratoga NX	The Rear and Baggage Door
Panel from the Rear Seats	The New Interior
Weight-Saving LED Light	The Panel from the Pilots Door
Avidyne’s R9 PFD	The FMS Display and Keyboard
The Whole Panel	The New Switches

I hope you enjoy the interview, and I want to once again thank the folks at Nexair.  I’m impressed with what they’ve done.  I’d love to hear from you on what you think.

So take a look at the video, but here are some more details.  The first thing to understand is that what you record to doesn’t really matter.  I use a digital audio recorder, but recording to a video camera, an mp3 player, or even an old fashioned tape recorder is the same thing.  The trick is getting the audio from the plane to a level that can be recorded by one of these devices correctly.

The Levels.  Whatever your method of recording, you will likely be using the Microphone (Mic) input jack of some sort of recorder.  The levels that a Microphone puts out are much lower than the levels that are needed to drive headset speakers, which is why just plugging a headphone output directly into the Mic input on a recorder will likely not work well.  The audio will be overdriven and garbled.  So, the first issue is to reduce the levels coming out of the plane’s audio system to a mic level that can be recorded.  There are several ways to do this, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The Jacks:  The other issue is much more straightforward; you have to use adapters and cables that allow the different jacks for headsets and recording devices to be connected.  This is a simple physical plug problem which can be addressed with various adapters.

The Solutions:  There are probably many more ways to do this, and I welcome comments from readers/listeners for more ideas, but I’ll likely cover most of the common ways to accomplish the same thing; record audio in the cockpit.  Here are various solutions in no particular order.  I will list pros and cons for each solution.

• Probably the simplest and least expensive solution from an equipment perspective is to use a simple attenuating cable that can be found at many audio and electronic parts stores, including Radio Shack, like this one.  This type of cable is special because it has electronics built in that will “attenuate” the higher speaker audio signal coming out of the plane down to a lower signal suitable for recording from a Mic input on your recording device.  The one I’ve linked here attenuates 90 dB if I remember correctly, which is about right for this application.  Notice also that the cable is a mono 1/8 inch male to mono 1/8 inch male plug.  That means you’ll have to buy adapters to match the output and inputs that you’ll need.  In most situations, that will be a 1/4 inch male (stero or mono depending on your plane’s audio panel…mono being safest) to 1/8 inch mono female adapter.  The 1/4 male plug would plug into an unused headset port in the plane.  Pros: Cheap, simple, parts likely locally obtained. Cons: Requires an unused headset port in the plane (i.e. in a four seat airplane, you can’t have 4 people with headsets plugged in), doesn’t record ambient noise.
• Another solution would be to build on the attenuating cable solution into a pass-through attenuating cable.  Using the solution above you can add additional adapters and cables to allow the contraption to pass through the audio while attenuating and splitting the audio to a recording device.  This would necessitate some additional splitters and adapters that can likely be found at local or online parts retailers such as Radio Shack and PartsExpress so that you would split off the audio from the airplane’s audio panel into two paths, attenuate the one to the recorder, and pass through the one to the headset.  This would allow a jack that is in use by a passenger to be used to record as well.  I have not used this setup myself.  Pros: Parts likely locally obtained, can use an in-use jack and works with any headset.  Cons: Solution getting complicated with many wires, adapters, etc., doesn’t record ambient noise, and is starting to get expensive with all of the adapters.
• The purpose-built patch cable solution is probably the most simple and the hardest to screw up.  It is not necessarily the cheapest of the solutions, but isn’t too expensive.  This is the solution that I have used for the vast majority of my recordings.  I have chosen this because it is simple, reduces clutter in the cockpit (least amount of wires), and reduces the likelihood of missing audio because of batteries, wires coming unplugged, etc.  This solution simply involves purchasing a purpose built cable for recording in cockpits and plugging it in between the audio panel plug and your headset.  This solution works with virtually any standard airplane and any headset, and is the solution outlined first in the accompanying video.  It is essentially a pass through attenuating cable that is packaged into a small and simple cable.  Various versions of this type of cable can be purchased through aviation audio specific resellers and manufacturers, including Marv Golden, Barnstormer Audio, Aircraft Spruce, and probably others.  I personally use the one from Barnstormer, but they all do the same thing, and will likely cost somewhere between $30 and $40.  Pros: Simple and foolproof, can use an in-use jack and works with any headset.  Cons:  More expensive, doesn’t record ambient noise.
• A lavalier microphone (lav mic) solution can be used as well.  This is a more organic solution for recording the audio in the cockpit because it doesn’t interface with the airplanes audio system directly.  I touch on this near the end of the accompanying video, and I have used this method personally with success a few times.  You simply use a lav mic that can be obtained from many places, including this one from Radio Shack, and you simply plug it into your recording device and put the small microphone into an ear cup of your headset.  Electret type microphones will give better results, but require batteries.  You’ll need to play with the levels a bit to get it right, but this method does work, and will record some ambient noise as well…something many people desire.  It is more like the sound of actually being there, but does require having extra wires dangling from your headset and of course does not work with in ear headsets such as the Clarity Aloft.  Pros:  More organic sound recording, doesn’t use an audio jack in the airplane, relatively inexpensive (especially if you already have a lav mic or another need for one).  Cons:  Works only with “over the ear” headsets (most of them), increases clutter and wires in the cockpit, could require additional batterries in the mic, could be uncomfortable with some headsets.
• The poor-mans lav mic solution is simply a variation of the lavalier microphone solution outlined above.  Everything is exactly the same, but instead of using a real lav mic, some people have had success using a set of cheap earbud style headphones (like those that come with an iPod for example) as a microphone.  Simply stick the earpieces in your headsets earcups and the other end into the mic jack of your recording device, play with the levels, and cross your fingers.  I have actually tried this for giggles, and it does work, but the levels and sound quality are nowhere near that of a good electret microphone, or one of the other solutions listed here.  With the right combination of earbuds and recording device (with various levels of input), there is nothing wrong with this, but you will have to experiment a little.  Once you find a combination and settings that work, it shouldn’t be a problem and should produce results similar to the lav mic solution above, but do your testing.  Pros and Cons are the same as above besides the extra testing mentioned here. 

Okay…there’s the rundown.  For what I personally do, as I mentioned, most of the time a use the Barnstormer purpose-built cable for audio.  As I record video, though, I’m trying different things, including splitting the audio coming from the cable to my audio recording device AND the video camera, or using the splitter cable for the audio only device, and using the lav mic solution for the video camera.  This gives me the best of both worlds as far as audio goes (more organic audio with the video and more pristine audio with my audio recorder).  This is an especially useful scenario if I have a passenger who is willing to put the lav mic in their earcup, that way it keeps the extra cable away from me and reduces the chance of it interfering with my PIC duties.  The Barnstormer cable and other solutions like it are absolutely bullet-proof…I’ve never had a failure or forgotten anything, etc.  There are no batteries to change, no extra cables into my earcups to deal with, etc.  I just leave the splitter cable attached to my headset and carry it in my headset bag as if it were part of the headset.  Works out well.

Hopefully this post and video answers this question for everyone.  I’ve tried to be as comprehensive as I could, but I’ve missed anything or made any mistakes, please let me know through the comments (so others can see as well).  Happy flying (and recording).  Can’t wait to hear everyone’s cockpit audio.

Obviously, this is a small break from the normal episodes of my training, but I think you’ll find these quick podcasts interesting and worthwhile…at least I hope you do.  Please let me know what you think.  As usual, I’d love to hear from you.

I have a few more things to share from Oshkosh, as well as a short video about recording cockpit audio that is ready to go, and will be published in the next couple of days.  After that, we’ll resume normal programming and finish up my training.  Enjoy.

In this episode, we did a dual night cross country from KCHD (Chandler) to KAVQ (Marana) which is in north Tucson.

KCHD-KAVQ (around Eloy)

Thanks again for listening, everyone.  I hope to see you at OSH!

The route home was only slightly different than when I went to Tucson.  I needed to do a touch and go at Ryan Field down in Tucson, so that changed the route slightly.  Here is the return.

NavMonster, KTUS-KRYN-TOTEC-KCHD

Remember, If you are thinking of learning to fly, find out everything you need to know to get started and what to expect during your training with Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide.  You help support this podcast by using my link here, so if you consider purchasing this e-book, please click above.

I’ve included a couple of pictures.  First is the route I took on this leg from Chandler (KCHD) to Tucson (KTUS).

[Cross Country Route, Courtesy of Navmonster.com]

The next photo is of Pinal Airpark and all of the mothballed airplanes.

[Pinal Airpark From Above-Showing some of the big iron]

As usual, I hope you enjoy this episode.  Please send me feedback through email or via the contact link above.  Also, feel free to leave comments below.  My training was getting hot and heavy now…I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Tailwinds.

I hope you enjoy the episode.  As usual, take a few minutes and let me know what you think.  Also, remember to check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide eBook to help support the Student Pilot Cast.  As I mentioned before, Air Freddy has over 9000 hours of dual given, so he’s been around the block a few times.  If you’re thinking about becoming a pilot, his guide may certainly help you prepare, so check it out.  If you use the link above to purchase, the Student Pilot Cast will get credit, and it is much appreciated.

During this flight my instructor, Lary, grabbed my camera and took some shots.  I’ll include a few of them here.

The first two are approaching Sedona.

These next three are approaching the Phoenix valley from the northeast over Mesa, including a shot of Red Mountain.

This last one is our long straight-in approach to Chandler’s (KCHD) 22R.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter HERE to see what I’m up to now.  Thanks again, everyone.  Have a great flying day!

This flight was one of the experiences that finally got me doing something about my dream of learning to fly.  Within 6 months of this, I was preparing to start my own training.  I hope you enjoy it.  As always, I would love to get feedback from you on this.

NOTE: I have encoded this video at a higher quality than I usually do because the content deserves it, and it is a shorter video, so the file size wouldn’t be too massive.  It could, however, prove problematic on some hardware players.  I have tested on iPhone, both classic and new Zune’s, and Xbox 360, and all work great.  I couldn’t get my hands on a regular iPod to test, but I think it should work.  It may not work on older iPods though (pre G5).  In any case, please let me know if you run into any problems so that I can continue to improve my process.

I mentioned in this episode our new sponser, Air Feddy’s Learning to Fly Guide.  Air Freddy has around 9000 hours of dual given and has written an e-book that really helps lay out the process of learning to fly; what to expect, what equipment is needed, how to figure the costs accurately, etc.  He also tells a few personal stories as part of the book which helps keep it all interesting and personal.  Fred’s experience can be very helpful to prospective and current student pilots.  If you want to know more about it, or purchase the e-book, please use the link above.

Thanks again, SPC listeners.  I hope you enjoy this episode.  As usual, please provide any feedback that you may have.

I also mentioned Scenario Based Training in this episode as well.  Linked here is an ASA book on the subject.

Finally, Picacho Peak is used as landmark in this episode.  I wanted to include a picture I took of it during one of my flights…it is quite spectacular (and this picture does not do it justice).

I hope you all enjoy the episode.  Please leave feedback for me.

I hope you enjoy this episode, and I’ll try to be more consistant with the releases going forward.  Please give me feedback as always.  Also, I’m working on a couple of videos, including the video from the flight covered in this episode as well as a tutorial on how to record in cockpit audio, as this is my most frequently asked question from listeners.  This is in addition to a start that I’ve got on the next audio episode as well.

As usual, for up to date information on flights, feel free to follow me on twitter.  Thanks again, everyone.  Get out there and fly!

Here is episode 20, the second and final part of my first night flight around the Phoenix area.  As I said in the audio, I really enjoyed this flight a lot.  Now that I have my license, I need to do some more night flying.

Enjoy the episode, and by all means, let me know what you think of the podcast.

I broke this into two parts because it was a long flight with quite a bit going on.  I hope you enjoy.  Don’t forget to give me feedback.

Participating in this year’s event was, in the order they were sitting, Uncontrolled Airspace, The Student Pilot Cast, The Finer Points, Airspeed, and the Pilotcast (along with CFI cast).  Remoted in via skype was Will and Dave of the Pilot’s Flight Pod Log.  Notably missing this year were new pilot, Greg, from the Student Pilot Journal and student pilot Jerry from VA Student Pilot.  I’m probably forgetting others as well, so forgive me.

 I also want to note that Airventure Today (the daily Airventure newspaper) did an article on the Podapalooza, so check that out if want to.

 I really enjoyed participating this year, and felt honored to be on the stage with so many talented people.  It’s a great community of people in aviation.

Thanks for listening.  I hope you enjoy episode 14.

I’m including the smaller version again in this feed (320×240) because of the sheer size of the 640×480 versions (400 MB).  I’ve heard from a couple of you commenting that you would rather have the larger version…and I still may consider that, but these files just seem too large for a simple podcast.  The embedded video from Vimeo in this post is pretty high quality, so if you desire a more detailed version, maybe this will suffice.  For those of us who watch video podcasts on a handheld device, the smaller version will suffice.  Again…if I hear from more of you wanting the larger versions of these, I will consider changing this, or adding a High Quality feed for the larger videos.

Thanks for taking the time to watch.  As usual, I’d love to know what you think, so shoot off an email or use the contact page on the website.

So, if you would like to contact me, feel free to do so at the email address mentioned in the episode, or simply click on the contact link on this website and let me know what you think.  Up next I’ll be finishing up Stage II, and it will be on to the cross country work in stage III.  I hope you hang with me…there’s a lot more to come.

Enjoy the episode.  Please leave feedback or comments.

The second big news of the day is that Jerry has finally released episode 5 (he was stuck on episode 4 for a while) of his cast.  He’s got a big backlog of stories, too, so we’re looking for more episodes from him over the coming weeks.  So I’m sure he will relate his first solo flight through his feed when he gets there in his podcast, you get to listen to some of that reflection today, along with other topics as well.

I really enjoyed speaking with Jerry, and I’m sure you all will enjoy this as well.  Thanks, Jerry, for spending this time with all of us.  If you aren’t subscribed to the Virginia Student Pilot podcast, check it out.  You’ll love it.  You can do so through iTunes…but if you don’t use iTunes, here is the proper feed to use:  RSS for VA Student Pilot feed.

Enjoy.

There are some problems with the video which I explain a bit about in this episode, but I decided to use some of the video anyway as I think it will still be interesting.  Also, I rendered this mp4 video at 320×240 pixels to save space.  This should work well on most portable video players…but won’t look quite as good viewing on a computer of TV screen.  I do have a standard definition version (640×480), but it is a whopping 227 MB as opposed to 94 MB, so I went with the smaller one.  Please let me know if you would prefer the larger, clearer versions of this and future video podcasts or the smaller ones that I’m releasing.  Based partially on this feedback, I will make future decisions on the rendering of future videos (and may even change this one).

In this video I show some of the flight that I talked about in the audio episode 10, “Sometime You Just Feel Like a Pilot”.  All of the commentary and insight about the flight is in the audio cast; this video is simply a compilation of parts of that flight for your viewing pleasure.  The main discussions still happen in the audiocast…so simply put, the video is not a replacement for the audio…they are for different purposes.

Thanks again for listening and watching.  Please let me know what you think of the video.  The quality will be better next time…but feel free to comment on the content, length, flow, etc., so I can try to make my next one even better.

Also, The Student Pilot Cast got mentioned in AOPA’s Flight Training Magazine!  Jill from AOPA contacted me a while back and asked me some questions about my podcast and some of my motivations for creating and producing it.  In the July issue on page 14 they outline some of this in the feature, “Training Notes and News”.  Very humbling to be mentioned in a publication that I’ve been reading for a long time, and which I respect a lot.

Also, because of that exposure, I’ve gotten a significant number of new listeners, so I want to welcome these newcomers to my exhibitionism around learning to fly.  More and more I’m doing this for all the world to hear and see…mistakes and all. 

In this episode, I document my first ever flight away from the airport by myself where I am PIC from start to finish.

Episode 9 is completely different.  We’ll get back to the regular podcasts momentarily, but for this episode, we have the pleasure of hearing from Pilot PJ, a relatively new pilot who shares his wisdom with us.  PJ and I talk about everything from multiple “discovery flights” to finally taking passengers for rides.  Some of the stuff in between includes landings, instructors, the Internet, and an aviation museum that PJ volunteers for in Texas.

Enjoy the episode, and a big “Thank you” goes out to PJ for helping out with this one.  Excuse the audio quality…I’m still learning how to properly record interviews.

Here is Episode 8 of the Student Pilot Cast, “Movin’ on Up”.  Join me as I document a dual flight I had where we worked on partial panel instrument flying, ground reference maneuvers, and crosswind landing.  I’ve got a lot of good stuff coming up, and I’m going to start releasing more episodes to relieve the burden of documenting many flights in one episode…it starts to get daunting when I’ve got 6 or 7 flights backlogged.  In addition, I’m hoping this makes it easier to listen and follow it as well.  It should give me more opportunities to do other topics rather than just doing flights every time.  But because I’m flying on average three times a week, it’s easy to fall behind.  We’ll see how it goes.

In any case, enjoy episode 8 of the audio cast.  Let me know what you think by contacting me through the contact link above, leaving a comment on this episode, or emailing me at the email address mentioned in the audio cast.

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any suggestions for the audio cast.  I’m hoping to get some video up soon, but I’m experimenting with the capture of video.  Well see how it all works out.

This is just seconds before my first ever touchdown as PIC.

This one is on rollout for my full stop/taxi back.  See, I’m alone.

This is after my three landings back at the ramp.  That’s a happy pilot.

I hope you enjoy the episode.  Thanks for listening, and please give me any feedback by clicking on the “contact” link on the top/right of the homepage.

There’s a couple of interesting tidbits, and some good information on some changes in my training…or at least my trainer.  As for the title, you’ll have to listen to find out.

I mentioned an accident that happened here locally in this episode, and promised to post a link to the NTSB preliminary report.  The fatal crash referenced is here.  I mentioned a previous accident from which the student pilot and CFI walked away.  That link is here.

Thanks for listening.  Please leave feedback or click “contact” in the upper right corner of this page to send me an email.

I apologize for the long delay of over two weeks, but I was on vacation, and then work had me slammed.  My wife and I went to Seattle, and I wanted to include a couple of pics from that…some of this is discussed in this episode.

First, one of my favorites.  Look at the little guy in front of the brand new 777 before a test flight out of Paine Field.  The scary thing is…compared to what I’m flying, that little plane is big…and in this photo is a good 300 feet or so closer to the camera, so its really even smaller than it looks relative to the jumbo.

Here is the same 777 on its takeoff roll, and lifting off.

Here is a giant freighter being loaded…that was quite a site.

And a nice shot of the Seattle skyline from the water.

Thanks for listening.  Please leave feedback or click “contact” in the upper right corner of this page to send me an email.

Thanks for listening.  Please leave feedback or click “contact” in the upper right corner of this page to send me an email.

…or, How to Choose a Flight School or CFI

Okay, on to the second episode.  Its been over ten days since my last episode because I had a snag starting my training.  Because the school I chose was so busy, I had some scheduling issues, but we’ve worked those out, and I have my first lesson tomorrow.  So before I formally start my training, I wanted to do an episode on how I chose my flight school, and what criteria I used.  This is that episode.

I mentioned in episode 002 several of the sources of information that I used to develop my criteria for selecting a school, and some of those are listed here.  First, two podcasts were very influential…and those were the Finer Points, by Jason Miller, and the CFICast, produced by the PilotCast guys (which unfortunately doesn’t seem to work well with at least the latest version of Internet Explorer, but the link directly to the feed is here).  Also, the AOPA forums were helpful as well.

Once again, music in this episode is from Uncle Seth.

Enjoy…and please leave feedback as comments on this episode, or click “contact” above to send me an email.

As promised in the audio, here are the links to another show from the student’s perspective, the Student Pilot Flight PodLog by Will Hawkins.  And here is his latest efforts, since becoming a pilot, the Pilot’s Flight PodLog.

Again, music in this episode is from Uncle Seth.

Enjoy…and please leave feedback as comments on this post, or click “contact” above to send me an email.

Music for this episode is provided by Uncle Seth.