About this episode
("One Fifty Two") Ted celebrates Mosaic Day by breaking free from the "walled garden" of light sport aviation and "soloing" both a purple lightning-bolt Cessna 152 and a 172. As our friend Dominic eloquently writes, sport pilots are now "loose upon the natural wilds of general aviation," discovering that some planes "require you to hold the yoke one-third to the right just to fly straight and level. It's a feature." Ted's conclusion: "I buttered almost every landing...they're so easy to land compared to the egg." The bad news? He keeps forgetting carb heat exists. Ben logs his "maybe second best landing ever" (wife-verified!) at the Gainesville fly-in and surprises her with a short field takeoff. Brian gets Nashville Approach's fastest "stay outta the Class Charlie" dismissal ever, attends a stellar Commemorative Air Force hangar dance, and reminds us that filing IFR doesn't guarantee instant gratification when controllers are slammed. The crew tackles listener feedback from newly-minted MOSAIC pilots navigating "airframe chaos" (G1000s, steam gauges, and seats "smushed flat" so you "can hardly see over the firewall"), motion sickness solutions featuring Chick-fil-A minis and relief bands, and why even Bob Hoover dealt with air sickness. Plus community shoutouts including a 60-year-old nailing his commercial checkride with a power-off 180 in 15-gusting-25, and Xyla Foxlin getting her plane back after losing her medical. Mentioned on the show: ABY - Albany Ga: https://www.airnav.com/airport/ABY GVL - Gainesville Ga: https://www.airnav.com/airport/GVL FlySto: https://www.flysto.net/home M93 Southernaire: https://www.airnav.com/airport/M93 M54 Lebanon Tenn: https://www.airnav.com/airport/M54 Ted's "soloing a 150" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmXyFeK09ng Checkmate Aviation: https://www.checkmateaviation.com/ myaeroglass: https://www.myaeroglass.com/ Xyla Foxlin lost her medical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj0H8oVS7qg Xyla got her plane back!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu-T7P3o6tU Join the Midlife Pilot Podcast community, support the show on Patreon, and get merch at www.midlifepilotpodcast.com