Adventure Flying

Many people are intrigued at the idea of being a pilot, but becoming a pilot can feel a bit daunting:

Which flight school should you choose?
How much time is flight training really going to take? 
Which type of pilot license should someone pursue?

...these are all pretty typical questions that the latest episode of ICON's Adventure Flying podcast tries to answer. Featuring Jason DePew, a 737 Pilot for a major airline and one of ICON's main A5 flight instructors for the Florida region, this episode will help you consider the best route to take if you're interested in becoming a pilot.

AirVenture 2021 had a number of exciting announcements and perhaps one of the more interesting stories on the media front was the acquisition of Flying Magazine by freight industry entrepreneur and pilot Craig Fuller.

Craig also runs FreightWaves, Inc. a company that is known as "The Bloomberg of Freight". FreightWaves offers current digital intelligence and context to the freight community on a central platform. Craig will now bring this digital expertise to the helm of Flying Magazine. 

Craig is a pilot who began flying during his teenage years, but stepped away from it during college and his twenties. He recently stepped back into the cockpit after about 20 years away. What brought him back to aviation? In no small part, the ICON A5.

Tim Sheehy is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, a retired Navy Seal, a multi-engine seaplane pilot, and the CEO of Bridger Aerospace.

Bridger specializes in aerial firefighting, primarily the ground to air reconnaissance and organization of assets in the air, as well as providing support using their "Super Scooper" seaplanes. 

Wildfires are one of the most devastating economic and environmental issues of our time, and the type of flying that is required to control them is arguably the most demanding in all of aviation. In this episode of Adventure Flying, Tim discusses how seaplanes have made a tremendous contribution to fighting fires by air, as well as how they've added to the adventure. Here is what else is needed to better contain wildfires, and how he went from Navy Seal to running an aerial firefighting company.

Erika Armstrong aka "A Chick In the Cockpit" is one of the leading voices in the aviation community. Having flown close to 30 different aircraft, from charters for the World Wide Wrestling Federation to corporate business travel around the globe, Erika has countless stories that any aviator would find edifying.

For this episode of the Adventure Flying podcast, Erika focuses on the moment when she found herself flying beneath the runway at Telluride Regional Airport. It was a scary situation that was completely avoidable, and her goal in this episode is to share her mistakes.

We also couldn't let Erika go without asking her to reflect on the future of aviation -- as an instructor and someone who has seen the aerospace industry evolve over the years, what does she see that excites her about the technology being presented today? What are potentially the drawbacks?

These are Erika's insights from her adventures in the air, which pilots of all skill levels will hopefully find valuable for the next time they take to the skies. This is Adventure Flying.

Jeff Nielson is best known as “The Airline Pilot Guy” or “Captain Jeff” from the “Airline Pilot Guy” podcast. Having served seven years in the Air Force and an additional 30+ years as an airline pilot, we wanted to know what flights he remembers the most and why.

In this episode of the Adventure Flying Podcast, we interviewed Jason Miller, host of The Finer Points aviation podcast. In addition to hosting The Finer Points, Jason is a 2-time CFI of the year and is one of the most prominent flight instructors in the United States. Since both ICON and Jason promote Adventure Flying, ICON in the A5, and Jason through his Finer Points Airplane Camps, we asked Jason for his perspective on how he teaches adventure flying safely.

How does he teach operating in the low-altitude flying environment?

What has been his most challenging adventure, and how did that shape his personal minimums?

How did he, someone who had no connection to aviation, become a pilot in the first place?

Listen to the latest episode of the Adventure Flying Podcast from ICON Aircraft. 

Warren "Angus" Curry spent 22 years as a Marine Pilot and SOCOM Commander.  Narrowing down his greatest adventure to a single experience was no small task, but listen to what he learned flying one of the most advanced aircraft in the U.S. Military.  

Peter Weber starred on a season of ABC's "The Bachelor" and also he has close to 5,000 hours as an airline pilot. Listen to what makes flying so special to him, when he realized he was born to become a pilot, and what he says is his greatest adventure. 

Before joining ICON, Rich Bookbinder was a Sergeant in the California Highway Patrol, flying helicopters on missions varying from search and rescue to air support. One would logically think Rich's most memorable flying adventure would have been in the air over California in his role as a police officer, but it was actually while en route to a small Eskimo Village in the Yukon Delta of Alaska.

Genesah is a Fixed Wing CFI, Commercial SES, and a Private Helicopter Pilot. While she has considerable experience as a pilot, her answer to "what was her greatest adventure" was pretty easy.