Unable to discern the fate of the small American delegation trying to win the freedom of an injured American college student from North Korea, a Phoenix Air flight crew decides to launch on its own. Says the pilot, “I’m an old Marine and Marines don’t leave our people behind.”

Participants:

• Mike Ott, pilot, Phoenix Air
• Dr. Michael Flueckiger, Phoenix Air Flight Medic
• Dent Thompson, Phoenix Air Sr. Vice President

A call for help from Washington, DC to Phoenix Air, based at a tiny airport in Cartersville, Georgia: Can you fly a medivac mission right away? The destination: North Korea. This is the first of a two-part episode on the extraordinary mission to rescue Otto Warmbier from North Korea.

Participants:      

• Dent Thompson, Senior VP, Phoenix Air
• Mike Ott, Captain, Phoenix Air
• Dr. Mike Fluekiger, Medical Officer

A World War II era bomber pressed into transoceanic service as a freighter is lost. It’s night. The water below is frigid. Whether the crew survives depends on how close to a ship they can ditch their aircraft. Now, a new initiative would put ships and planes together, greatly reducing the time in water for aircraft crewmembers.

Participants:

• Dr. Phillip Zeeck, former B-26 freighter first officer
• Jim Stabile, CEO, ADS
• Christine Negroni, aviation writer, author of The Crash Detectives

After the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, the question is whether cockpit automation is working for pilots or pilots are working for the automation. We talk with the pilot of Qantas Flight 72, An Airbus A330 that pitched down without control input and without warning a decade ago. The pilot of that aircraft says of the MAX 8 accidents, “the road is different, but the destination is the same.” Our roundtable of pilots and aviation journalists looks at the growing complexity of flight deck automation, our increasing dependence on it and the lack of training available to pilots for cases in which the automation fails.

Participants:

• Capt. Kevin Sullivan, Qantas Flight 72, October 8, 2008
• Capt. Gary Rower, Airbus A330 international captain and cockpit resource management trainer
• Capt. Bill Palmer, Airbus A330 international captain and author
• Capt. Bert Botta, former international captain and flight crew trainer, now flying business aircraft
• Mark Phelps, executive editor, AIN Publications
• Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief, AIN Publications
• Rob Finfrock, aviation writer

Listen as these aviation professionals discuss how critical it is to not just understand weather but to understand how to know the limits of weather depiction.  As you will hear, that can vary depending on where you are sitting.  

In this conversation we will hear from multiple points of views:

• Dan Boedigheimer—Business aviation pilot and CEO of Advanced Aircrew Academy
• Dan McCabe—FAA Air Traffic Controller based at Atlanta Center
• John Kosak—NBAA Manager of Weather Programs, based at the FAA Air Traffic Control Command Center in Warrenton, VA

What makes an otherwise safe pilot believe he or she can pick through the cells of a thunderstorm? In this episode, Wilson Khors and his copilot become so transfixed on making it through a tiny hole in a line of convective weather over San Juan, Puerto Rico, they simply disregard the option of turning around. They’re not alone. Even some of the most experienced pilots have done it. In part, they’re using weather depiction strategically. But is that really wise?

Topics the episode will cover:

• The hazards of trying to fly through rather than around convective weather.
• How weather depiction varies tremendously based on who and where you are.
• The advantages of using weather depiction strategically to avoid storms rather than tactically to pick a path through them.

In this episode you will hear from:

• Wilson Khors—Part 135 pilot who encountered a thunderstorm in a Pilatus PC-12 over San Juan, Puerto Rico in May, 2014
• Dan Boedigheimer—Business aviation pilot and CEO of Advanced Aircrew Academy
• Dan McCabe—FAA Air Traffic Controller based at Atlanta Center
• John Kosak—NBAA Manager of Weather Programs, based at the FAA Air Traffic Control Command Center in Warrenton, VA

When an aircraft emergency situation strikes, as a pilot, how prepared will you be to deal with it? For both an experienced aviator with thousands of hours of stick time and a novice on the first solo flight, proper training, a level head, and the ability to focus on the task can carry the day.

Topics the episode will cover:

• The importance of emergency training
• The ability to focus on the task at hand
• Understanding when to declare an emergency

Having reached their 43,000-foot cruise altitude, the crew of a corporate Citation XLS had their world almost literally turned upside down. Like a rogue wave far out at sea, clear air turbulence can come from nowhere, and a routine flight can instantly become a heart-stopping roller coaster ride. Like many before them, this crew battled not only a gut-wrenching upset and aerodynamic stall, but even more significantly, they experienced the paralyzing effects of shock. In this episode, we’ll hear from one of the pilots, as well as experts in the field of upset recovery training. We’ll also learn how proper conditioning can enable pilots to react quickly and calmly when confronted with a “one in a million” event.

Topics this episode will cover:

• Upset recovery training
• Wake turbulence
• Gravity waves
• Clear air turbulence

After an unanticipated en route stop-over throws a curve to an experienced crew, they fall victim to an error of omission that could have been disastrous. Leaving Denver International Airport for their homeward leg, they trip up on what has become an alarmingly common problem: pilots not briefing for altitude restrictions on standard instrument departures, or SIDs. Fortunately, an alert controller catches the error in time to avoid an imminent traffic conflict. The Gulfstream pilot in this episode owned up to his mistake. This is a larger systemic problem than you might think, a team of aviation experts concurs.

Topics the episode will cover:

• RNAV approach and departure procedures/SIDs & STARs
• Altitude restrictions
• "Climb/Descend Via" terminology

While safety management systems (SMS) are powerful tools that are now seeing widespread adoption throughout the aviation industry, if not fully utilized and embraced from the top to bottom of an organization, and without proper reporting, any “near-misses” can go unchecked until disaster strikes.  A U.S. Navy aircraft mechanic, who was seriously injured in a maintenance accident, went on a crusade to find out how the root-cause of such a situation, which previously harmed four others, had slipped through the cracks in the SMS.

Topics the episode will cover:

• Safety Management System
• Communication Break Downs
• Blameless Culture
• The value of incident reporting