Scott Beaver
A listener, Scott Beaver, wrote to me recently to say how much he’s enjoying listening to the podcast and in his email he mentioned that he was planning to fly around the world at some time in the not too distant future. I’m always keen to hear about how people go about planning for great flying adventures so I invited Scott along to appear on the podcast.
BBMF Lancaster
As promised, here’s the interview with Syd Marshall. Syd is a volunteer guide at the Battle of Britain memorial Flight museum, and what a great interview it turned out to be. I wasn’t expecting to meet a WW2 Lancaster crew member so it was not only a pleasant surprise, for me, but Syd had some great stories to tell about his time as a flight engineer on Lancaster bombers.
Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol
During my visit to the Flying Show recently I caught up with an organisation I’ve been wanting to base an episode on for quite a while. A listener, Michael Womersley-Carter, had brought Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol to my attention some time back so I was keen to interview them at the NEC.
Tony Cowan MBE is Chairman of Sky Watch and kindly agreed to spare half an hour to chat about the organisation and about his own personal aviation story.
Flight Training in the USA
I’ve been asked by a listener called Tom Boothby whether I could do an episode on flight training in the US. I’ve eventually got a few folks lined up to come on the podcast and chat about their experiences.
So, Episode 33 of Flying Podcast features a fellow Barton flyer called Dave Crozier who trained in the US some time back. My first question for Dave was `what was your experience of flight training in the USA?’ His response was that he’d been struggling to get his PPL completed over here in the UK. The weather in England was conspiring to prevent him getting his flying licence so he decided to go over to the US to complete his training.
After a great deal of research, Dave chose UK Flight Training of Long Beach in California. He chose California due to the predicted better weather and with 360 flying days a year who could argue.
Peter Davies
Episode 32 of Flying Podcast sees me back up to York to interview Peter Davies. Peter is an instructor on gyrocopters for the Gyrocopter Experience. He currently runs their Preston franchise. Quite by chance, when I was reading about gyrocopters I came across Peter’s name and I was fascinated to read about his experiences in the world of aviation. His flying pedigree goes way back to the early days of hang gliding and microlighting here in the UK and so I thought he’d make a good candidate to appear on the podcast.
Hot-Air Balloon
In this episode of Flying Podcast, I’m talking with Ted Moore of European Balloons. European Balloons operate commercial hot-air balloon flights in the Home Counties from their base in Great Missenden. The purpose of this interview was to find out more about hot-air ballooning. How do you get into it? What qualifications do you need? What sorts of balloons are there? How do you learn to fly a balloon, etc etc. If you like to know more about the world of hot air ballooning, have a listen to Ted’s podcast.
Paragliding on Mam Tor
In this episode of Flying Podcast I talk to Judith Mole and Geoff Minshull who fly hang gliders and paragliders for pleasure.
In this podcast they tell us about why they have chosen to fly these particular sorts of aircraft and what is involved in learning to fly. We also discuss the equipment required and where to fly from.
Paul Lomatschinsky takes part in a comemorative flight across the Atlantic in a Diamond DA42 Twin Star. The flight, which took place in Feb 2009, was to comemorate the 90th anniversary of Alcock and Brown’s first non-stop flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1919.
Joel's Bell Jet Ranger
I spent a few hours with Joel Tobias, owner of a Bell 206 BIII Jet Ranger. In this podcast interview he gives us some background to his flying career, his aircraft and how he uses it for business and pleasure.
Sheila and John with 'Charlie'
Sheila Dyson flies her Cessna 182 to Sydney, Australia from Netherthorpe near Sheffield. An aviation trip of a lifetime and a real adventure. A truly great accomplishment by any standards. Listen as Sheila shares her experiences of the trip to Oz.