You know that feeling? You mistakenly assume one thing and then make a total fool out of yourself later? I know that feeling. And now, you can listen to me experience that feeling, via Stuck Mic Avcast!

This was a hilarious episode anyway. Everyone was in a great mood and we were just having fun and chatting it up. The listener mail was really good too, very informative. I encourage you to listen and enjoy. You will especially enjoy my need for a vocabulary lesson. Just wait for it. It's epic.
  

I am a lousy note taker. Always have been. I've varied between trying to write down everything and trying to write down bullet points. I've tried just notating action items. Still lousy. Apparently, I've been doing everything wrong! 

I've heard about the Cornell method of note taking before, but I suppose I've never really considered it heavily. I ran across this online today, and gave it a read. I like this, and I'm going to try it out. I have plenty of opportunities to take notes, so maybe I can finally improve on this skill.

Risk is real - especially in aviation. For every flight operation, we must evaluate the applicable risks and then make an educated decision regarding which risks are acceptable and which are not. This episode looks at some very interesting topics, including making the go/no-go decision when it comes to risk management. Yes, it's my soap box, but you should listen anyway.

Enjoy, and fly safely my friends!

SMAC Episode 81

Hanging out with some of my favorite aviation peeps! We're talking about drones, toilet paper cutting, and other aviation happiness. Love me some aviation, and love me some Stuck Mic!

SMAC Episode 73

Don't you just love reading academic content in a one-size-fits-all format? Wait, you don't? Of course you don't! Who would? What a dry and terrible way to learn!

We have so many amazing learning aids available to us today that is is still fairly amazing to me that so many instructors hang all their hopes for student learning on textbook reading assignments and classroom lecture. We can do better. We have to understand that, while texts are important, they are not the be all and end all in learning. Read on, whether you currently agree or not. I've got an online presentation here that might help you or win you over.

A little over a year ago, I began this crazy new journey in my professional and personal life. I realized a life-long goal/dream, and I decided to pick up and transplant my family to a new town because of that realization. I'm not saying that it has all been a super easy journey, but I am saying that I can reflect on the last year of my life and feel satisfied that the year behind me was very well spent. And while this post might seem self-serving, I assure you that it is not. There is no way I would be writing this today if I didn't have the best wife and kids ever and the greatest work team ever assembled.

Uncle Billy, the consummate aviation enthusiast/slacker, failed to show up for yet another scheduled podcast! What are we gonna do with you Billy!?! Luckily, two venerable titans of aviation know-how stepped up to the plate, took a very deliberate stance, and then proceeded to smash said podcast totally out of the park! That's right sports fans, the great Jamie Beckett and Eric Crump (that's me by the way) may have just saved the day. Why don't you just have a listen and tell us how well you think we did?

Here's Uncle Billy's Enunciator Panel Podcast, Episode Deux!

Well, here it is folks, a podcast for Mr. Everyman Aviation! Uncle Billy's covers aviation from all the angles, eventually. 

Uncle Billy was temporarily out of pocket for this episode, so I stepped in with the help of my like-minded aviation chum, Jamie Beckett. Listen intently as we solve all the world's problems, including third-world hunger, nuclear holocaust, ATC tower closings, and similar global catastrophes. You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll beg for more. Whatever you do, please enjoy the show!

Flying is a complex activity, and it demands focus, forethought, and an ongoing safety-minded decision making process. That being the case, it wasn't a tremendous surprise that when the NTSB released its "Most Wanted List for 2013" a few weeks ago, three of the ten topics related directly to general aviation. While that emphasis on aviation is down from five topics in 2012, we as a community should be looking at these areas as opportunities for improvement. And remember, flight fans, improvements in safety directly relate to lower accident and incident rates, and that's good for all of us.

I recently accepted a position with Polk State College in Winter Haven, FL. I am the first aerospace program director for their newly created professional pilot program. You've probably never heard of Polk State; I hadn't either. But I was unable to resist the opportunity to actually do exactly what I've been preaching about for the last five years - reinvent pilot training. I'm not talking about fixing pilot training. I'm talking about throwing the current training system away and starting over from scratch. And that's exactly what this new collegiate training program is doing. From the college curriculum to the training students will actually receive in the airplane, everything is different. It has to be.