Gathering of Aviation Podcasters 2009

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These are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen online right here by clicking: http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedGAP2009.mp3.

As many of you know, Airspeed participated in the Gathering of Aviation Podcasters at Sun 'N Fun last week. Jack Hodgson of Uncontrolled Airspace just provided the audio file that Dave Shallbetter of Sun ‘N Fun Radio was kind enough to capture. Thanks, guys!

This version is unedited and unvarnished. Heck, I’m going to be listening for the first time on my own show. But that’s how we roll here at Airspeed. Enjoy!

Sun 'N Fun 2009 - Saturday and Sunday

This is a regular blog post. If you’re looking for show notes or links to show audio, please check out the other posts.

Ella and I are back from Sun ‘N Fun 2009 and a side trip to Kennedy Space Center. Heck of a good time.

Ella’s least favorite (and one of my most favorite) of the day was the USN F/A-18F Super Hornet East Demo Team, shown above in the Heritage Flight phase of the flight. Sun ‘N Fun is a little easier to photograph because the sun is a bit more behind you and you can shoot to the right from the announcer’s stand and get a much better sun angle than some other venues.

Matt Chapman flew his Eagle 580 to the edges of the envelope again. Really nice low-energy maneuvers and masterful handling of the aircraft. I’m not sure that many of those watching really understand what it takes to do some of the really slow stuff, but I was amazed. Embry-Riddle Eagle 580. Lycoming IO-580 engine, 330hp. 1,300 lbs. 400 degrees/second roll rate. +/- 10 gees. Yeah!

The Uncontrolled Airspace team was in full attendance for two episodes of its show and to run the Gathering of Aviation Podcasters on Friday. Good to see Jack, Jeb, and Dave all in one place!

Ella and I took Sunday and headed over to Kennedy Space Center. She’s not huge into the whole space thing, but, then again, she’s four years old and was a champ about everything. Here she is in the rocket garden just after arriving. There’s a dearth of family rest rooms throughout the center (rough for daddy-daughter pairs trying to navigate the premises), so we rode the fine line between not needing the facilities too often and dehydration.


I have pictures of her with the Saturn V from a January 2006 visit to KSC when she was 13 months old. I took another few of her in roughly the same position at the aft end of the first stage for comparison and I think we’re going to try to keep doing that for years to some. In the meantime. Here’s one of the both of us (which might also develop into a tradition).

Second Day at Sun 'N Fun

This is a regular blog post. If you’re looking for show notes or links to show audio, please check out the other posts.

Day two here at Sun ‘N Fun in Lakeland, Florida. We got up at 4:30 a.m. yesterday to make the flight to Orlando and didn’t get to the hotel until around 10:00, so no blog post yesterday.

But we’re back at a reasonable time tonight, so here are a few views of the day.

Rod Rakic, the mastermind behind www.mytransponder.com, got to hold Sean Tucker’s pole (at least one of them) for one of the ribbon cuts at the show today. Ella and I talked our way up onto the announcer’s stand and shot this picture of the moment. That’s Rod in the orange shirt holding the near pole.

Yesterday, we hit the Splash-In at the Fantasy of Flight museum on the way to Lakepand. We hooked up with Will Hawkins and Rico Sharqawi of Wilco Films and got to help set up for Kermit Weeks’ interview for A Pilot’s Story. Ella was the stand-in for Kermit during the setup phase.

The Viper East Demo Team was there with a single-ship F-16 demonstration. I shot what I could of the demo, but this was the first time I could get really close to the announcer end of the presentation. Here, the major is handling the communications with the aircraft during the demo while the chief did the announcing.

Be sure to join me on the Sun ‘N Fun Radio porch tomorrow right after the airshow (approx. 5:30) for the very first live rendition of Airspeed! I’ll tweet as we get close to airtime. See you there!

Sun 'N Fun Update for April 8, 2008 - DC-3 Pilot Dan Gryder Reports In!

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We’re crazy lucky to have as our ad hoc correspondent at Sun ‘N Fun in Lakeland, Florida Dan Gryder, captain of the Herpa DC-3, banjomeister extraordinaire, and great guy. We called Dan earlier today and actually caught him in the air. Once he landed, we hooked up for this interview and discussion about the events so far at Sun ‘N Fun.

If you’re interested in flying the DC-3 (or, like me, going for a type rating in the aircraft) or want to book Dan and the Herpa DC-3 for your event, please call Dan’s office at 678-688-7069
or e mail DC-3@earthlink.net.

Herpa builds the world's finest die cast miniature models and has again sponsored the Herpa DC-3 for 2008. Herpa has also funded flight operations at 2008 Sun n Fun. Visit the Herpa web site at http://www.herpa.de/.

Thanks, Herpa, for sponsoring such a gorgeous aircraft and amazing pilot.

Welcome Sun 'N Fun Listeners!

Greetings!

If you’re here because you heard an episode or two of Airspeed on Sun-N-Fun Radio, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Even if you’re not (whether because you’re a regular visitor/listener or you’re visiting for the first time and not because you were at SnF), please pull up a folding chair and hangar-fly some with us.

We’ve been working with Dave Shalbetter of SnF Radio for a few months now, doing production and other stuff to run in the loop when the station doesn’t have live content. In addition, we provided a few of our pithier episodes to run on the station and we hope that, if they brought you here, you like what you heard and want to know more about Airspeed.

Airspeed is a podcast (kind of like radio for the Internet, only more flexible). You can subscribe to Airspeed for free through iTunes or any other podcatcher. Or, if you wish, you can just listen right here online (as some 18% of listeners are doing these days). We put a link to the MP3 audio right here on the website right under the picture that leads each episode.

If you’re looking for links to the material that aired at SnF, they appear below.

Instrumental music that ran under a few of the announcements

The Lake Parker Arrival (http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/The_Lake_Parker_Arrival.mp3)

Theme from Milliways (Go for TMI) (http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/Theme_From_Milliways.mp3)

Fingers in the Airport Fence Entwined

Blog entry and text (http://airspeedonline.blogspot.com/2007/12/fingers-in-airport-fence-entwined-and.html)

Just the reading (http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedFingersInTheAirportFenceEntwined.mp3)

Why I Fly

Blog entry with text and a link to the episode audio (http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedWhyIFly.mp3)

Take Your Kids to the Airport

Blog entry and text (http://airspeedonline.blogspot.com/2006/05/airspeed-take-your-kids-to-airport.html)

Audio (http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedKids.mp3)

Other stuff of which I’m very proud, but that didn’t get on SnF Radio

First Solo

Blog entry with text: (http://airspeedonline.blogspot.com/2006/10/first-solo.html)

Audio (http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedFirstSolo.mp3)


The show is more than two years old and is approaching something like 100 episodes. Please feel free to browse the site, listen, read, or otherwise enjoy yourself. That’s why all of this is here.

Enjoy!

- Steve

The Lake Parker Arrival

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Very much in the mood for an air show this week. Only a few weeks until Sun ‘N Fun down in Lakeland. I leave tomorrow to go see Greg Summer of The Student Pilot Journal in Titusville near Kennedy Space Center and then go play some golf with my brother and my dad on Jekyll Island in Georgia. But it won’t be an airshow.

I now have almost 30 outtakes from my checkride all set to go and the commentary is about a third of the way written, but my voice is still shot, thereby making a new episode a little difficult to cut just now.

So I sat down this weekend and recorded a little meditation I’m calling The Lake Parker Arrival. It’s me on 12-string guitar, six-string guitar, and mandolin. I tried laying down a little Ashbory bass, but I think it muddied the mix, so I left it out. Kind of like Ben Folds leaving the string section off Give Judy My Notice. Actually, nothing like Ben Folds, but you get the idea.

Anyway, there’s a link to the file here: http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/The_Lake_Parker_Arrival.mp3. Please feel free to listen to it and pass it around for noncommercial purposes or use it at any airshow for which you happen to need music. Just give me credit.

I’ll be back online soon with an update for preparations for the Battle Creek air show and, as soon as my voice comes back, I’ll record the checkride episodes. In the meantime, it’s time for a little R&R with the family.

Tray tables and seat backs!