Desert Pilot Podcast

This is a short segment (3min) from NPR that talks about the decline in student pilots in the US and why. It's great to help anyone understand what is going on in the industry.  Although most of the things in the story does hit the issue on the head I, along with JetWhine.com , don't agree that less student pilots will lead to less professional pilot. It will just lead to lower qualified pilots. One of two kinds, a fool who is up for his neck in debt or some one with rich parents. So which one am I? Well I hope to be nether by staying clear of debt and not speeding though to stay proficient and professional. I'm learning that any schooling right now is going to put you in tons of debt. I plan to pay off my debt while working as an air traffic controller. At the same time building hours at CAP and working as an instructor aka Free flying. Then when I have enough hours I can get a good retirement for the FAA as an ATC and be hired as a pilot. Flying is still my dream b...

This last Wednesday morning I did my first Civil Air Patrol cadet Orientation Flight (or O flight). Three 13 year-old cadet boys and I went off for a 2 hour flight making 2 stops letting each cadet taking turns in the front seat flying. Each cadet gets 5 of these in CAP. First stop was Case Grande, second was Coolidge airport. When we landed we saw a DC-4 on the ramp fueling up. We got out and walked over to it. You don't see a DC-4 everyday and after talking with the pilot we learned that some one had bought the old plane that had been at Coolidge for years and they were ferrying it up to Anchorage, Alaska. They let us climb inside and take a look around. It going to be used to hall fuel to small towns in the bush in Alaska. I only had my cell phone for pictures so they are not that great but cool none the less. me and the three cadets. These are the big tank they had in the back to hall the fuel. UPDATE 6/13/10 : I got sent some more pics from a little better camera so I tho...

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...