Episode 145 brings you "information whiskey" - the crew's loose, conversational format where they step back from their "really tightly wound formatted structure" to catch up on life, flying, and everything in between.
Ben confesses to being a "plane jinx" after his multi-engine training gets derailed by yet another 100-hour inspection, while Brian plans an epic desert trip from Nashville to New Orleans to Marfa because "if I don't have something on the horizon to look forward to, I'm just a shell of a human being." Ted shares his Palouse flying video and recalls his motorcycling adventures from "above the Arctic circle" to "below the equator."
The highlight of the episode is Brian's glowing review of Wendell Geek's masterful Fisk arrival video, calling it "the first thing I've seen where it actually made me want to fly Fisk" and praising its non-linear storytelling approach. Mark reveals he accidentally rendered over his original footage and had to rebuild the entire video from scratch.
The conversation meanders through STOL competitions ("if I had your plane, I would be doing that"), insurance implications of MOSAIC rules, and the crew's ongoing battle with aging aircraft and cars. Ben gets his thrills with a massive forward slip through Atlanta's Delta airspace, while Brian contemplates whether anyone wants to rebuild a 4AGE motor in a 1985 Toyota MR2.
As Ted notes about midlife priorities: "We chose this not because it was easy, but because we thought it was easy" - the same mindset that drives both flying and life decisions at this stage.
Ben's wisdom: "Cleared for the approach means it's time to make math panic look graceful."
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