Desert Pilot Podcast

A little while back I was listening to the Uncontrolled Airspace podcast ep. 186 and they were talking about flight bags and all the things that they carry in their flight bag. I was shocked when they didn't mention any survival gear that they carry. I consider survival gear an essential part of flying and my flight bag. I put this together to show everyone what I carry and give some ideas. I'm open for any input so send it my way. Arizona Survival Gear from Trevor Smith on Vimeo . Download the video HERE for your mobile device.

In my Aircraft Design and Logistics Management class at Arizona State we made a Radio Controlled Airplane. But the way we did it was the class was step up like a company would be with a design, supply, manufacturing, etc. departments that all worked together to make the plane. I learned a lot and was a neat idea for the class. The grade we got in the class was not based on if the plane flew but how we worked together and what we learned from it. I was in the test and evaluation department and charged with recording and editing this video which is a summary of the semester. Arizona State RC Airplane Project Spring 2010 from Trevor Smith on Vimeo . Download the video for your mobile device

This is a recording of a flight back into Scottsdale coming home from a 5 hours Civil Air Patrol exercise. We are flying in from the north west and there are tons of students around we really had to have our heads on a swivel. http://www.archive.org/download/FlyingIntoSdl/CapIntoSdl.mp3

I did another funded Civil Air Patrol (CAP) flight this last week. Instead of taking my audio recorder this time I decided to shoot some video. I shot video in the past with the video function on my camera but I've since gone out and bought a Kodak Zi8 that shoots HD. I'm still getting used to all the settings that I has. The video I shot for this flight was not the best that I think the camera can shoot. The morning shots seem to be fine but the prop wash seems to get really bad later in the day. I'm going to try to mount it in some different locations in the plane and see what works best. Because the shots were so different I didn't edit a nice video I just put some of the raw shots on the web.

Download podcast here: http://www.archive.org/download/FundedCapFlt/fundcapflt.mp3 This flight is my first really funded flight flying for the Civil Air Patrol  that I flew last Tuesday. My  squadron at Falcon Field Airport ( FFZ ) just got a plane assigned to them again and today I signed up for a crew pick up flight. The Arizona Wing does consolidated maintenance and for good or for bad some has to go pick up the pilot that takes their plane in to the shop in Payson ( PAN ). On this flight I pick up a pilot after he dropped off his plane and took him back to his car at Chandler Municipal ( CHD ). Falcon Field like many in the Phoenix valley has its roots as an Army Air Corps field build for training British pilot in World War II. Falcon Field was it's original name give to it by the British in the 40's and the name has suck since. Currently it has one 5100ft and a parallel 3800ft runways...

Boeing B-17 touch-n-gos at IWA from Trevor Smith on Vimeo . Podcast Download: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13836556/b17touchngo.mp4 I was driving (Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010) to  Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport  where I go to school  back from lunch and looked up and saw the B-17G Sentimental Journey fly over the car on final a few hundred feet off the ground doing touch-n-gos. The plane is based at Falcon Field (FFZ), just to the north of IWA, and operated by the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force  I've never see a B-17 flying before and it was quite a sight. The video in the podcast feed is a lower quality the one found on the blog so it can be viewed on an ipod 

This episode is my mother and I flying back from Payson, AZ to have breakfast with my Grandpa on his 79th Birthday. Mom did great she was a little nervous but that is normal from anyone who hasn't sent too much time in little airplanes. Here is a link to her blog where she talks about the flight and posts a few more pictures. The breakfast crew