A Year of Aviation Highs and Lows… and Highs

0:00 This was my first flight after a very difficult start to 2025.

0:04 It wasn't a beautiful day and Dave and I spent over 2 and 1/2

0:07 hours in the air to do a missing man formation over a celebration of life.

0:12 Receiving this message from the family at the end of the day was

0:15 very rewarding [music] and it really helped

0:17 me reflect on how precarious things are, especially as pilots.

0:21 This was my first flight after getting out

0:23 of the hospital from an emergency gallbladder removal surgery.

0:27 After triage, they managed to stabilize me so I could wait for an OR slot.

0:31 I got unplugged for the first time in 3 days.

0:35 And they taped it up so I could have a shower.

0:38 And I'm using this opportunity to move.

0:43 So I've been living on an IV for a few days with a lot

0:46 of time to think about all the flying I was hoping I would get to do.

0:50 The procedure went well, but I self-grounded for several weeks until I got

0:53 a letter from the surgeon confirming that my recovery was complete,

0:56 which I could present to the aviation medical examiner to renew my medical.

1:00 So after that slow start to the year,

1:02 I did manage to get some good flying done including ending

1:04 my competition season with a personal best on my final flight.

1:08 For this one, I'm sharing highlights of things that were captured and yet to be

1:10 shared in clips from some of the best episodes of 2025 that you may have missed.

1:15 It was very cool to have the RV-14 in the same

1:17 place [music] at the same time as ALIA from Beta Technologies.

1:21 Jerry invited me to join him

1:22 and the team in Chicago getting ready for AirVenture.

1:25 So the guys that are back there briefing [music] for a photo flight.

1:28 We're going to be flying with a gimbal on the A-Star.

1:30 Ultimately, this is what we're going to be

1:31 doing with ALIA and a bunch of other airplanes,

1:33 but today the ceiling is a bit low, so we're not flying ALIA.

1:36 Just going to get some practice done with the T-6.

1:38 So this this shows me this is like a kind of a Let me film.

1:41 uh segment view.

1:42 What do you call it?

1:43 Segment view, Cody?

1:44 Uh it's like looking in your sectors, I guess.

1:46 Sector view, yeah.

1:47 Relatively.

1:48 If I need like the the additional SA, I can see like, okay, you know,

1:51 he's off our [music] 1:00, I can just quickly spin the camera over there.

1:56 And I'm kind of controlling all of it with these sensitivities.

1:59 So if I want to pan quickly, I just turn this up.

2:02 Now if I need to get somewhere,

2:03 and then I can also just push it to like the forward position.

2:07 That's cool.

2:09 This is going to be a very cool episode, but for now, here's a little teaser.

2:12 All right, I'm just going to cross and push a little bit over to his right side.

2:18 One of our sort of shooting philosophies that we've we're working on, Steve,

2:22 is like anytime the helicopter's moving, it looks good.

2:25 Just make use of it.

2:27 Yeah.

2:28 I'm full left pedal right now,

2:30 so I got to slow down a little bit before I can do it.

2:33 it looks like he's lined up and waiting.

2:36 Nope, he's on the roll.

2:37 Three miles two golf extra,

2:38 you'll be number three following traffic turning a three-mile right base.

2:41 So this was still early days for Jerry and Cody working on this, but I mean,

2:46 this shot was pretty awesome to see happen in real time.

2:49 Perfect.

2:53 That was awesome.

2:54 I could do that all day.

2:55 That is pretty cool.

2:57 [laughter] All right, let's go get them.

2:59 So we got a bunch more of that and before leaving Chicago,

3:01 the guys were willing to shoot some of the best

3:04 B-roll I'm ever going to get of the RV-14.

3:07 And it was a real privilege to be able to capture the process of being

3:10 a part of the team while these guys got ready for a very high-stakes shoot.

3:15 And then it was a quick hop to get to Oshkosh where I

3:17 had the RV-14 on display right beside ALIA at the International Aerobatic Club.

3:22 And it was exciting to see the RV-14

3:24 out there among a huge crowd from the A-Star.

3:28 So I'm about to fly during the air show at AirVenture to film ALIA.

3:33 There's Redline.

3:38 So my thoughts on what you and Jerry are doing right now is like you're almost

3:40 like dance partners where you guys have to be

3:42 in step with what's happening so it works.

3:45 Is that a good analogy?

3:46 Uh yeah, yeah, we have spent the last week recording.

3:49 It's really been a good opportunity to practice that that kind of coordination.

3:53 I do have the screen up front.

3:54 It's good for me to kind of read his mind a little bit.

3:57 So if I see like maybe he zoomed all the way out,

4:00 I know to automatically start moving away.

4:02 He'll say something if I don't get the hint fast enough,

4:05 but yeah, that's not like a bad analogy.

4:07 We had to cut a hole in the bottom of the A-Star to to make it fit,

4:10 which is a part of the STC.

4:13 Um and I'm pretty lucky to have like an A&P/IA who's also a helicopter pilot

4:18 who also flies in air shows to be able to like do all this for you.

4:21 Amazing.

4:23 You guys have been practicing in all

4:24 these lower pressure environments because this is a really

4:28 You don't get How many chances you going to get to get the shot here?

4:31 We're flying in the air show three times this week.

4:33 This is the only time they're allowing us to do photo chase

4:36 and I'm pretty sure we're the only photo chase at the air show.

4:38 So this is this is it.

4:39 This is our only shot.

4:40 And you got six minutes.

4:41 For six minutes?

4:42 Yeah.

4:44 This is going to be This is what we rehearsed.

4:46 This is what we briefed.

4:47 So I don't expect to be hearing you saying much, right?

4:50 Because you're pretty much going to just get it.

4:52 Yeah, I think we pretty much know it.

4:53 I mean, we rehearsed it several times

4:54 in Plattsburgh so that Cody knows where to go.

4:57 He knows his altitudes.

4:57 I know what to expect.

4:58 He's going to be talking me through everything that the air that ALIA is doing,

5:02 but also what he's going to be doing.

5:04 It'll just help me a lot cuz I'm kind of looking through a straw.

5:07 So we'll save the payoff shots of ALIA at the air show for the actual episode,

5:11 but here's the kind of stuff that Jerry was able

5:13 to capture with that gimbal of the C-17 departing from AirVenture.

5:18 This next one represents the culmination of a huge amount

5:21 of work from a big team at the Canadian Aviation Museum.

5:25 That's a newly restored Tiger Moth.

5:28 Clear prop.

5:28 Half speed.

5:31 Contact.

5:42 The whole fleet is outside and Dave is doing the ground run right now.

5:47 We're just waiting on ceiling anyway and then he should

5:49 do some taxi testing and then first flight in this airplane.

5:55 Good job, team.

5:55 All right, everybody uh give high fives.

6:00 And high fives to each other.

6:02 [laughter] I'm going to level this thing out and I'm going

6:07 to slow down and see what it feels like going slow.

6:10 So this is 60 mph indicated in the back,

6:14 50 uh 60, so we're plus five in the front.

6:17 Wing gauge showing 60 there.

6:21 All of these disagree with each other.

6:22 That's interesting.

6:24 Okay, we are at 50 mph.

6:27 Positive aileron control still.

6:28 I mean, it's a little little bit dead, but Okay,

6:31 so we're showing 55 in the back, 57 in the front, 53 or so on the wing.

6:40 This actually doesn't even feel slow.

6:41 Airplane's still flying, very much flying.

6:44 So that first flight is in post-production right now and I'll be

6:47 sharing the process of getting checked out in the Tiger Moth soon.

6:50 And for this next one,

6:51 if you recognize who this is before I reveal his identity, drop a comment.

6:55 I don't want to make you sick with my flying.

6:58 Don't worry.

6:59 I'm pretty immune, but you know, I've got a wood do this a fair bit.

7:04 It is not a pretty flight, you're good.

7:05 It's a little bumpy.

7:07 So AvGeeks may already know him as Barenaked Pilot,

7:11 but that is Ed Robertson, [music] the lead singer from the Barenaked Ladies.

7:15 He's an instrument-rated pilot and shares some pretty cool stuff

7:17 flying his SR22 all over the place while he's on tour.

7:21 And since of course all Canadians know each other,

7:23 we've actually been friends [music] for quite a while,

7:25 but this was my first chance to get him up in the RV-14.

7:28 This is such a pleasure to have your aircraft in my hangar up here.

7:33 It's very exciting.

7:34 I've watched so many hours of you on YouTube

7:39 and Instagram and we've been friends for a long time,

7:41 so this is a really nice marriage of our two worlds.

7:45 You want to do a spin?

7:47 Sure.

7:48 Okay, so I'll do one and then you can do one.

7:50 Okay, I have control.

7:50 You have control.

7:51 I'm going to do competition entry only because it takes forever to decelerate.

7:56 That's why they designed it so typically they'll put a 45 line ahead of it.

8:00 So you can lose all your energy in very little space.

8:02 Does that make sense?

8:04 Okay, so I'm just going to level this off

8:06 and then we'll just kind of do a competition style entry.

8:09 That'll be 45.

8:12 Our comes off.

8:16 And then pop coming off the line and it should be ready to spin right here.

8:21 Left.

8:23 And we'll go one and a half.

8:25 Recover.

8:27 And then there's my competition style recovery, all the power.

8:33 Wow.

8:34 And then I'm ready for the next figure cuz we're already at high speed.

8:36 Right.

8:37 I don't need to do one of those.

8:39 No?

8:39 No.

8:40 No.

8:43 [laughter] So there's a really fun full episode coming from this, but I've

8:45 already started publishing [music] some short bits on Instagram and YouTube.

8:49 That's just some of the great stuff

8:50 that I've already filmed that'll be publishing in 2026,

8:53 but in terms of what was published in 2025,

8:56 the year-end Patreon post inspired this episode because I felt

8:59 I created some of the best Flight Chops episodes to date.

9:03 However, it was a bit of a heartbreaker when in many

9:05 cases YouTube didn't serve very many impressions and thus they didn't

9:09 get a chance to get clicked on despite good [music] retention

9:11 and positive comments and likes from those that did watch the episodes.

9:15 So this is a little bit of a snippet

9:16 of new content that I shot related to an existing

9:19 episode working with my friend Matt to showcase

9:21 the utility of home simulation [music] and real-world flying.

9:24 So then the ultimate evolution is where we're at now,

9:28 which was what we did at the Houston Expo.

9:31 We'll just let some beauty shots fly here

9:33 while while Matt kind of talks about what we built here and so we've used like

9:38 a whole bunch of products from off the floor.

9:39 We've got some real SimGear technology in there.

9:43 Uh we've got some virtual fly stuff.

9:45 We kind of like picked a bit from everywhere.

9:47 Uh we called it the FrankenSim.

9:49 So that was us doing a talk at the Flight Sim Expo in Rhode Island.

9:53 We actually flew there after Matt had

9:55 practiced flying the route in the home sim,

9:57 which is going to make a cool future episode.

9:59 But the existing episode that I published leading into the 2025 event

10:03 showcased the time that I had the RV 14 on display in Houston.

10:06 So this is a few minutes before the public is coming in.

10:09 We've got the same hardware that's mounted in the actual airplane so that you

10:13 can really see how good SimTech is for working on your muscle memory,

10:16 your flows, procedures.

10:18 This is Flight Chops 3.0 right here.

10:20 So we've got that awesome RAM mount.

10:21 That was a recommendation from Steve really early on.

10:24 Uh we're going to have some real Sim Gear hardware in here.

10:26 We're going to have some Virtual Fly hardware, some [music] throttles.

10:29 We're mostly done with our setup back there.

10:31 Matt is working on tweaking the final settings of the sim.

10:34 He's with me in the edit suite while I'm cutting [music] this episode.

10:37 And Matt is practicing the actual route that we're

10:39 going to fly to Rhode Island on the sim.

10:41 And he's going to do as much of the real flying as he can take.

10:45 He's currently a student private pilot and it's been awesome

10:47 to watch how he's been using home sims to augment his training.

10:50 And I've been having a fun time telling the story.

10:54 The episodes covering my training with [music]

10:55 Beta had wildly different view counts.

10:57 And this one, which I thought was the biggest payoff, didn't do so well.

11:00 So I want to share it again here.

11:02 Yeah, I think the radio calls for the final full stop here.

11:06 Uh let's not change anything.

11:07 Okay.

11:08 Sounds good.

11:08 I think my brain is at 100% capacity.

11:10 If I have to think about which finger

11:11 to push a button on, that might max it out.

11:14 Yeah.

11:14 Trying to use rudder my hand is a very is a big leap for me.

11:17 Yep.

11:18 Flying this thing without using my feet was one challenge, and this was another.

11:21 I don't get any feedback from your stick [music] to my stick.

11:24 So I can't feel what you're doing.

11:26 So as I'm teaching you through these landings and takeoffs [music] and stuff,

11:28 it's all verbal coaching.

11:30 Yep.

11:30 Um and I won't be coming on top to add things.

11:32 So on 600 Fox today, [music] the priority button's not active.

11:36 So I can't turn your stick off.

11:38 Okay.

11:39 [laughter] So we'll make super clear, [music] if I hear I have control,

11:41 I'm going to say you have control and I'm off the controls.

11:43 It's 100% you on the controls until I say that I've got the airplane.

11:47 Okay.

11:48 I had a little bit harder time that time.

11:50 Hey, I controlled it really nicely though.

11:51 Yeah, I think we got a little gust there at the end.

11:54 It was super interesting to be able to capture

11:55 and share the training in this all-electric aircraft.

11:58 And next up, I'm learning how to fly the V12 version of it,

12:01 so stay tuned for that.

12:02 And for my final favorite yet underperforming episode from 2025,

12:07 this one is just pure awesome.

12:08 Like if you told me I'd have an opportunity like this 5 years ago,

12:12 I wouldn't have believed it.

12:14 [music]

12:13 So I'm excited to share a clip of it again for those of you that missed it.

12:17 All right.

12:17 Well, it's an honor to fly with you today, Michael.

12:19 Really appreciate fitting me in.

12:21 Uh I'm excited.

12:21 Let's go do it and see how the sighting device works.

12:24 That's elite airshow pilot Michael Goulian taking a break

12:27 from his unlimited level flying to coach me.

12:29 On the upline, higher off the horizon.

12:32 Correct.

12:32 Yep.

12:33 For me, I love sportsman intermediate because you

12:36 can start to make big changes on people.

12:38 And this is really where the foundation begins.

12:40 Much better.

12:41 So put that picture in your eye.

12:42 That's what you want it to look like.

12:44 Does that make sense?

12:45 Could you see a change?

12:46 Yeah, totally.

12:47 So I was kind of trying to memorize

12:48 that and then I screwed up my timing for the kick.

12:50 Since we've never worked before,

12:52 kind of the thing that I'll do is just watch your flying, see your style,

12:56 look at what your maneuver sort of as a whole,

12:59 and what kind of sort of presentation do you make?

13:01 And that's the biggest thing is like I don't want to critique, I'd rather coach.

13:05 And it was a good time.

13:07 I like it.

13:08 Thanks, man.

13:10 actually um it it goes.

13:13 [music] Yeah, it goes.

13:14 Nice.

13:15 That was good, man.

13:16 That was really good.

13:19 [music] That was the teaser for this episode,

13:21 but I want to share another 90 seconds of this one because it was so good.

13:25 Sometimes what looks vertical [music] inside

13:27 the airplane isn't vertical outside, right?

13:29 And and in competition,

13:30 we're just trying to paint this perfect [music] picture in the sky.

13:33 So even if it doesn't look perfect to you,

13:35 if it looks perfect to the judges, that's [music] what matters.

13:37 We got a lot more done than just setting lines.

13:40 It was very cool to see how Michael picked

13:41 up on subtle things he could help me fix,

13:43 which directly led to a personal best at the US Nationals,

13:47 where I managed to place 10th of 24 competitors flying our free sequences,

13:51 and I scored 78.85%.

13:54 All right.

13:54 So start [music] to figure out sort of what are your big tendencies,

13:58 where can we make big adjustments?

14:00 And [music] sometimes it's just the look of a pull

14:02 off of a line onto a line, right?

14:04 Cuz we're we're trying [music] to make this flight

14:07 where let's just say there's 20 of you in sportsman,

14:10 how do you outshine [music] everybody else?

14:13 Then I ended the season flying the Nancy Lincoln contest

14:16 and managed to beat that personal best with an 81%.

14:19 Again, thanks to Michael's coaching.

14:20 Okay, just do a hammerhead.

14:22 Once you're ready, you can turn around, do a hammerhead whenever you're ready.

14:25 And now I can see the whole thing.

14:26 So that looked positive up when you started, then it got clean at the end.

14:30 The downline looks fine.

14:32 In a contest, there's always just one

14:34 or two people that [music] for whatever reason,

14:37 somebody that's untrained is like, "Ah,

14:39 that's the best one." And it's just a little

14:41 [music] bit of here and a little bit of there,

14:43 and that's what I try to get out of everybody because [music]

14:46 in sportsman, there's a bunch of really good pilots.

14:48 And and technically,

14:50 they're probably all about the same from a precision standpoint,

14:53 [music] but what is it that sets you apart?

14:55 So it is a little bit of this, is it a little [music] in tighter,

14:58 is it a little bit lower?

15:00 And that's what we want to find out and take advantage of your plane.

15:03 So if you made it this far, thanks for watching.

15:05 [music] And please do check out that full episode with Michael coaching.

15:08 I really tried to frame it in a way

15:09 that would be relatable to all [music] pilots.

15:11 It really captured the nuances of applying

15:13 feedback and immediately seeing quantifiable improvements.

15:16 And with that in mind, I'd like to share some details about something

15:19 that I've been working on for a really long time.

15:21 So I'm here with Jason Miller from The Finer Points.

15:23 We've been working together for like more than 10 years.

15:26 Yeah.

15:27 Yeah.

15:27 pretty awesome to be here together.

15:29 And we're continuing to work together on a really cool project,

15:31 which I'm going to let Jason kind of fill you in on.

15:33 Yeah.

15:34 Well, uh it's called the Ground School app.

15:36 It's really redefining what ground school is.

15:38 It's kind of like a kind of like a CFI in your pocket.

15:41 It's private training, instrument training,

15:42 mastering landing, standard operating procedures.

15:45 You know, I get I get emails all the time,

15:47 people that want to fly out and and to California [music] and work with me.

15:50 It's like the app is designed to to fix that problem so

15:53 that anybody anywhere in [music] the world can take flying lessons with me.

15:58 And I'm going to be working with Jason to build content,

16:00 to constantly add to it.

16:02 So like this airplane is a really advanced avionics suite that I'm

16:05 familiar with, but Jason's going to help me tweak some things,

16:07 get some finer points, and share that kind of thing.

16:09 He's got an airplane with a G1000, six-pack stuff.

16:12 And I'm going to help build some content about intro aerobatics.

16:14 So really, we're just going to keep building content and filling it up so

16:18 that the app is constantly valuable to all

16:20 the users with new and improved stuff.

16:22 [music] Awesome.

16:23 Yeah, looking forward to it.

16:25 Keep your flight chops sharp in 2026.

16:27 And here is the one and a half turn spin [music] from my personal best flight.