Acro Camp 2 Now Filming!



This is a regular blog post that updates listeners and viewers on events in the Airspeed world. Airspeed is an audio and video Internet media source that brings the best in aviation and aerospace to media devices and desktops everywhere. If you’re looking for the audio and video content, please check the other entries on the site. It’s all here! In the meantime, enjoy this update about what’s going on in Airspeed’s world.



In case you hadn’t heard, we’re shooting a feature film this week. Airspeed’s intrepid film crew is at Ray Community Airport 25-30 August shooting Acro Camp 2 with a cast of four new pilots who will fly upside down for the first time.

Follow all of the action at www.acrocamp.com. And, as a special bonus, Jack Hodgson of Uncontrolled Airspace and Around the Field is posting frequent updates at the Uncontrolled Airspace blog.

Airspeed Colors Fly Down Under


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

I got an e-mail from Jack Hodgson over at Uncontrolled Airspace this morning. Seems there was a meetup of UCAP listeners down at the Avalon 2009 Australian International Airshow and Aviation & Defence Expostion and the guys posted a picture in the UCAP forums. Pictured are (I think) Steven Pam and Grant McHerron.

Check out the Airspeed golf shirt!

Thanks to Jack for the heads-up and to Grant for a-waltzing the colors in Australia!

Safety with Aviation Safety Magazine Editor and UCAP Hangar Denizen Jeb Burnside

Subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your favorite other podcatcher. Or listen online right here by clicking: http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedBurnside.mp3. It’s all free!

We talk this time with Jeb Burnside about aviation safety. Jeb is an editor at Belvoir Publications, the folks who bring you Aviation Safety Magazine (of which Jeb is editor), KitPlanes, AvWeb, Aviation Consumer, IFR, IFR Refresher, and Light Plane Maintenance. Many of you know him as a third of the regular occupants of the Uncontrolled Airspace Podcast‘s virtual hangar. He’s also a longtime pilot.

Jeb’s website is at http://www.jeburnside.com/, where there’s a pretty complete account of the partial engine failure in he experienced in 2003 along with pictures.

You can reach him at jeb@uncontrolledairspace.com.

Picture used by permission.

Four Popular Aviation Podcasts to Launch first "Formation Flight" to Cover Aircraft Purchase and Ownership

Four of the Internet’s most popular aviation podcasts will conduct an online “formation flight” during the week of February 3, 2008. That week, each of the shows will cover a different aspect of purchasing, selling, and owning general aviation aircraft.

This is the first time that the leading general aviation podcasts have coordinated episodes in this way.

“Each of our podcasts covers different parts of general aviation in different ways,” said Jack Hodgson of Uncontrolled Airspace. “Ever since we were all on a panel together, at the AirVenture Oshkosh air show last summer, we’ve stayed in touch and have been talking about ways to leverage each of our strengths.”

“There’s a lot of expertise among the producers and hosts,” said Will Hawkins of the Pilot’s Flight PodLog, “and we’ll be able to provide listeners a solid set of viewpoints about most of the major issues surrounding aircraft transactions and ownership.”

“We’re all fans of each other’s shows and it’s a great way to carry on the dialogue about this thing that we all love,” said Jason Miller of The Finer Points. “From flight training to legal aspects to how to successfully share an aircraft with others – we’re really going to be able to cover the flight line for the listeners.”

“With four shows participating, we create synergies for the aviation audience that we all hope will call attention to the lineup of media available to pilots, owners, and aviation enthusiasts,” said Steve Tupper of Airspeed. “It’s really quite amazing the amount of high-quality programming available for free over the Internet and we all want to expand the coverage of this medium to reach as many aviators as we can.”

A “podcast” can be thought of as an Internet radio or TV show. Producers post sound and/or video files on the Internet. They can then be downloaded using a common web browser or a program with special podcast capabilities such as Apple’s iTunes. An iPod is not needed to enjoy podcasts. They can downloaded to a portable audio/video device (such as iPods and other MP3 players) or watched on a regular desktop or laptop computer.

“General aviation” is private and commercial aviation other than scheduled airline flights and military operations. It runs the gamut from corporate jets to single-seat ultralight aircraft and everything in between.

Information about the respective podcasts follows in alphabetical order by show title.

Airspeed will cover the legal aspects of purchases, sales, leases, and fractional interests, as well as the tax aspects of owning all or a part of an aircraft. Airspeed is an aviation and aerospace features show hosted by Michigan-based pilot and technology and aviation lawyer Steve Tupper (known to many by his radio alter ego of “Stephen Force”). steve@airspeedonline.com; http://www.airspeedonline.com/; 248-470-7944.

The Finer Points will cover the flight training necessary and helpful to become familiar with a new aircraft. This is especially important in that many pilots who purchase (or buy into) different aircraft are moving up to new levels of complexity and performance and safety, efficiency (and insurance!) all depend upon adequate training. The Finer Points features California-based flight instructor and new media producer Jason Miller. Jason@ontheflightline.com; http://www.thefinerpoints.net/.

The Pilot’s Flight PodLog will cover the host’s recent experiences in buying into an airplane and his co-owner will join in the discussion. The Pilot’s Flight PodLog is a “hangar-flying” show that features one-on-one conversations with host and west-coast pilot Will Hawkins. pilotwill@sbcglobal.net; http://web.mac.com/pilotwill/Site/Home.html.

Uncontrolled Airspace’s panelists have a wide variety of ownership experiences among them and the panelists and a guest will cover both personal experiences and lessons learned from the experiences of others. Uncontrolled Airspace has a “hangar-flying” format and is hosted by pilot, freelance writer, and new media producer Jack Hodgson, aviation photographer, senior editor of Kit Planes magazine and US editor of London’s World Aircraft Sales magazine Dave Higdon, and editor-in-chief of Aviation Safety magazine and contributing editor of AvWeb Biz Jeb Burnside. podcast@uncontrolledairspace.com; http://www.uncontrolledairspace.com/.

Links to this press release in various forms appear below. Please feel free to pass along far and wide.
The picture above is (c) 2007 by Steve Tupper. Please feel free to use it in connection with this press release.

Glider Ops with Aviation Wunderkind Tony Condon

Subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your favorite other podcatcher, listen to audio at http://airspeed.libsyn.com/, or download directly at http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedCondon.mp3.

We interview pilot, CFI, CFII, MEI (add additional initials until your fingers hurt from typing) Tony Condon. Tony (whose shadow appears in the foreground above) hangar-flies with us to talk about glider operations and his philosophy of flight. He’s based at Ames Municipal Airport just south of town in Ames, Iowa, from which he flies and instructs. We caught up with him Wednesday evening and talked for about an hour.

More information about Tony and his really well-written accounts of his glider flights at www.knightglider.com.

In other news, I got to join the panel in the virtual hangar over at Uncontrolled Airspace to talk about instrument flying, instrument flying, and why you should file a flight plan when you’re going cross-country in the winter. I also got to bask live in the aura of Jack, Jeb, and Dave. How cool is it to listen to your favorite hangar-flying podcast and actually interject from time to time? And you get to hear the podcast a few days early. In realtime, in fact!

I managed to follow through on my personal game plan of shutting up and listening whenever Jeb and Dave hit stride, but was pleasantly inpressed by their willingness to let me rattle on a little as well. And Jack is a master moderator. These guys are mensches in a community of mensches. Subscribe to UCAP through iTunes or your favorite other podcatcher or listen directly to Episode 54, Back Course Approach, at http://uncontrolledairspace.com/eps/UCAP054.mp3.

The book is coming along! I’m presently experiencing a poetry block and having difficulty finishing the last piece, but will try to finish it off this weekend. It doesn’t help that work is kicking my ass, but that’s me in November and December. Hard to say I didn’t see it coming.

Stay tuned!