In the wake of a difficult weekend (and, indeed, a difficult season) for the airshow community, I asked John Cudahy to sit down for a few minutes to talk about airshow safety.
 
John has been the president of the International Council of Air Shows, Inc. (“ICAS”) since 1997.  I’ve heard him speak at the annual convention in Las Vegas for the past two years and I’m returning to Las Vegas again this December.
John is one of those people who has always been on my list of people to bring onto the show at some appropriate time.  I had thoughts of bringing him on as a part of the upcoming episode encapsulating my experience attending ICAS’s Airshows 101 class at the last convention.  But the events of the summer conspired to make it more important to bring John onto the show now to talk about the ICAS safety culture.




Airspeed - Airshow Safety: The View from ICAS

Join host Stephen Force for coverage of aviation and aerospace that includes general aviation, space exploration, military aviation, flight music, and a healthy dose of flying philosophy.

Science & Medicine

Natural Sciences

Social Sciences

Medicine

Aviation

Games & Hobbies

Leisure

Tony Condon is as an ATP and corporate pilot who also serves as the president of the Kansas Soaring Association, headquartered at Sunflower Gliderport. We sat down and talked about long-distance cross-country soaring.

Airspeed - Downwind Dashes and Other Long-Distance Soaring with Tony Condon

John Harte is glider CFI and chief instructor at Sanhill Soaring Club in Gregory, Michigan, just a few miles down the road from Hell. (Hell, Michigan, that is.) He's also a tow pilot, aerobatic pilot, airshow performer, and FAST formation lead. Here's an hour and a half in conversation with John.

Airspeed - From Hell to Namibia and Back Again with John Harte

Kent and I are sequestered in our respective locations at SARS-CoV-2 sweeps the nation, so we thought we'd record a podcast episode.

Airspeed - Hangar Flying with Kent Shook

We made an audiobook! Steve narrated the audiobook version of Thomas A. Bass's The Eudaemonic Pie. The book tells the story of a band of physicists and computer wizards in the late 1970s and early 1980s who set out to beat roulette in Las Vegas with computers in their shoes. A story of science, art, and the birth of the hacker culture. The episode contains a brief account of the making of the audiobook and the entire prologue of the audiobook itself.

Airspeed - The Eudaemonic Pie

The second in a two-part series chronicling the long road to becoming a CFI. In this episode, our hero suffers more indignation at the hands of a check airman who calls off Christmas, after which he begins the long slog down the self-launch mountain, through the valley, and back up the adjacent peak of aerotow.

Airspeed - Airshow Safety: The View from ICAS

Download our free app to listen on your phone