Storms, smoke, bladders.
We've got all sorts of things to overcome in the next couple of days.
That is episode 92 of the Student Pilot Cast
Welcome back, SPC listeners.
We got a special episode for you today, a hangar series episode where we're
just gonna take a few minutes and talk about some of the journey and adventures
we've got in front of us in the next couple of days headed to Oshkosh.
And I've got with me my co-pilot and my youngest son, Trey.
Trey, say hi to everybody.
Hey.
It's, uh, good to be on.
Awesome.
Yeah, I've never really had my family members on the podcast before, but since
we're gonna be doing this together, I thought I'd bring him on today.
And we are leaving the Phoenix area in, a day, basically.
We're leaving Saturday morning.
We're recording this Thursday night.
We've got a lot of things packed.
We've got the airplane ready.
And we're just gonna talk about what we've been doing to get the
airplane ready what our plans are, and what some of the challenges are.
But more importantly, we're gonna talk about what we're hoping to
be able to do and see at Oshkosh.
Sound good?
Yeah.
All right.
So in the last week or so, the Jabiru needed new tires,
so, Trey helped me do that.
Trey, incidentally, is in school right now to become an A&P, to
become an airplane mechanic.
So I welcome his help and, uh, budding expertise on being able
to help me with stuff like that.
So we changed the tires.
We got the log entries done.
we changed the oil to get it all ready.
Kinda knocked out a few different little squawks that we had.
Uh, by the way, I glued back on the panel that fell off, and so that's
looking good, and I test flew it this morning after all of our maintenance.
What'd you think about going through that process?
Yeah, jacking the airplane wasn't the easiest- Yeah … not having tall
enough, or short enough wing jacks.
Yeah.
It's a high wing, but it's a small high wing, and so wing jacks that are meant
for Cessnas are a little too tall, and shorter jacks are a little too small.
So we improvised.
We- Trey devised a way to use a regular floor jack that had, had a spreader on it.
I guess that's what you'd call it.
And, um, took off some covers and got the airplane jacked up so that we could change
the tires, and that was an adventure.
Neither one of us had done through-bolt tires before, so that
was that was a learning process.
but yeah, we got it all done, and everything's looking good.
We are taking it there without the wheel pants on.
So I've never really flown the airplane without the wheel pants, so we're
probably gonna lose a few knots, but it sure gives us- Better access
to the to the wheels and the tires and the brakes for pre-flighting.
And of course, taxiing around in the grass will probably be
a little bit less worrisome.
What do you think?
Yeah.
You fly any different this morning?
No, I can't tell any difference, but I stayed in the pattern, just
kind of a maintenance flight.
And, uh, didn't really go anywhere, so I wasn't able to check if I wasn't getting
the cruise speeds that we normally get.
But starting Saturday morning we'll be able to.
Speaking of which
All of a sudden the monsoon season is upon us here in Mesa,
in the Phoenix area in Arizona.
And so pretty much every day we've got thunderstorms coming through.
In fact, there's a thunderstorm going on right now.
We're under a flood watch.
And, we keep looking at the weather, and we're hoping we can get out of here.
What have you been seeing and hearing?
Rain for the next 10 days.
Yeah.
It's not gonna be constant rain.
I mean, that doesn't really happen here much, but we're hoping by
leaving early, early in the morning on Saturday, it should be, it
should be pretty straightforward.
But we've had a lot more overcast than we normally get.
It's been relatively high overcast, but we've got the Rocky Mountains
to fly over, so we have to get relatively high to do that.
So we're hoping that we can, we can get through it.
The Jabiru being a light sport, um, and I don't know if there are any
light sports that are certified for IFR flight, but I know most of them
are not, and that includes the Jabiru.
It's not certified for IFR flight.
So we have to stay VMC.
And so of course that's gonna make it a bit of a challenge.
And then we're learning today and yesterday that there's smoke all over
Oshkosh, all over Wisconsin, so that could prove to be interesting, too.
So obviously we'll be keeping an eye on all of that.
what else?
What else are you thinking about, about the trip?
I've never flown in any sort of weather.
It's always been clear skies, so that'll be interesting.
Yeah.
Good experience.
What about our bladders?
How are the- how are those gonna do, you think?
Walk that fine line.
Drink as little water as possible.
Without getting dehydrated?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a fine line we gotta walk.
It's about 11 hours of flying.
We're gonna do it over two days, or a day and a half.
So we're gonna have three to four-hour legs.
so yeah, we'll have to walk that line between dehydration and
needing to use the restroom.
Anything else?
What else are you thinking about?
Anything worrying you a little bit?
Just the weather, but- Yeah.
The weather and the smoke, right?
What can you do?
Yeah.
All right.
I think we're gonna make it.
We're gonna make it somehow, sometime.
And if we do, what are you looking forward to, Trey?
I've, uh, never seen the Red Arrows, so that'll be a good demonstration to watch.
Yeah, I never have either.
I never thought I would care all that much about the bigger teams,
but couple of years ago when, uh, the Canada demonstration team
came, I, I found it really cool.
It's kind of amazing to watch a larger team with smaller airplanes as
close as they are going in formation.
you might even know a little bit more about the Red Arrows than I do.
What… How many, um, how many airplanes are there?
It's a nine-ship formation.
Yeah.
And do they do most of the show together?
Uh, I'm not sure.
Or do they have solos like, like our demonstration teams
do or- Yeah, I'm not too sure.
Yeah.
I guess we'll find out.
So yeah, that's gonna be really cool to see something new I've never seen before.
Neither one of us have ever seen before.
Yeah.
Trey, I don't think you've ever tent camped- I have not … at Oshkosh before.
What do you think of that?
Yeah, first time airplane camping in general.
It'll be- Well, I have taken you airplane camping when you were little.
Oh.
That I can remember?
Yeah.
You were probably seven or something last time we did that.
Yeah.
But mostly because I got too old to like tent camping anymore.
But here we are.
Yeah, it's worth it for Oshkosh.
It'll… Try to stay dry.
That'll be the main objective.
Yeah.
And, uh- The weather's looking pretty good for Oshkosh.
I mean, temperature-wise.
Yeah.
Not as many rain days as are forecast here, which is kinda crazy.
So yeah, that'll be fun.
What else, besides the Red Arrows?
Anything else you're looking forward to?
It's all cool It's all cool.
I should say, Trey works for a an upset prevention and recovery company.
Uh, pretty well-known one here in the East Valley, and so he's around
aerobatic airplanes all the time.
So I'm guessing you're looking forward to some of that stuff.
Yeah.
It's always cool to see the new extras there, the, uh, gamebirds.
I like those airplanes, and there's probably a lot of new stuff that
I haven't seen- Yeah … that we'll be able to take a look at.
Cool.
And are you gonna do anything for your A&P program while you're there?
Yeah, I'm planning on taking a couple classes.
Hope we can get a avionics class, and do those workshops.
Maybe electronics and that's what I'm working on in school right now, and
I'm missing class to be in Oshkosh, so- … should probably, learn some things.
Yeah.
His, uh, his instructor told him, "Hey, while you're there, make sure you learn
some stuff and do a report on it," since he'll be missing some classes.
it's certainly gonna be an adventure.
We'll take you guys along with us.
Make sure you're following Student Pilot Cast on Instagram, and @billwill
on X. I always want to say Twitter.
and, we'll keep you guys updated through that.
Uh, as I said in the last episode, we'll also be doing a recap
show kind of recap everything.
But the day-to-day we'll be putting out on social media.
It's too difficult to produce and publish full episodes while you're there, so we'll
be putting out little things on social media, and then we'll put out a recap
episode, and then there's gonna be several episodes, uh, that are coming out of that.
We've got some pretty cool stuff lined up some good interviews about
those pilots who are always learning.
The always a student mindset, of course, as everyone knows, is a
big, big deal for the Student Pilot Cast, and so a lot of what we're
doing is, kind of focused on that.
wish us luck.
follow on Instagram and X, and we'll keep you posted on how things are going.
Thanks for joining me today, Trey.
Yeah.
It'll be fun.
All right.
That'll do it for episode 92.
And we'll see you at Oshkosh, hopefully.
Reach out if you if you're gonna be there, and maybe we can get together.