MAVGEEKS: A Military Aircraft Obsession

Earlier this year, Gini Carlin and Jamie Gordon caught up with none other than Scott Bateman MBE. An RAF veteran with a storied career as Hercules Captain, Scott was perfectly poised to introduce us to what’s formally the Lockheed C-130, but will forever be the Hercules of our hearts. 

In May of 2024, Scott published Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller “Hercules: The story of an RAF legend.” Needless to say, Gini and Jamie insisted on hearing a couple of teaser tales from Scott’s Hercules career as featured in the brilliant book.

Strap in for a nuts-and-bolts MavGeeks classic!

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 6pm - 7pm (UKT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk.

The Royal Canadian Air Force turns 100 this year! In that spirit, Canada resident Gini Carlin takes the lead for a guided tour of the fabulous Force's history. At this year's Royal International Air Tattoo, she caught up with several RCAF pilots and engineers, as well as the masterminds behind its centennial celebrations. She even had a long chat with Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny himself, Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force himself since 2022. Strap in!

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 6pm - 7pm (UKT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk.

This week, our Gini Carlin enjoyed a blast from the past in several senses. She paid a visit to the delightfully well-preserved 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum at RAF Thorpe Abbotts, where she volunteered as a young lass potty about planes. Reg Wilson, the museum's Chair of Trustees and Deputy Curator was kind enough to give Gini a guided tour of its exhibits and history of both the museum and the "Bloody 100th" itself, packed with discussion about the impact of smash-hit series Masters of the Air, based on the 100th Bomb Group's story. On that, listen to the end for a surprise.

Close your eyes and settle in for a touching tribute to the brave lads who lost their lives for the 100th Bomb Group; the real Masters of the Air.

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 6pm - 7pm (UKT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk.

Hilariously, bizarrely, Denver International Airport is something of a lightning rod for conspiracy theories: in the mind of the open-eyed, the Illuminati’s clubhouse shares a wall with an alien-infested catacomb. While it’s true that unofficial mascot Mustang killed his creator, Senior Vice President of Communications, Marketing and Customer Experience Stacey Stegman was keen to put to bed unearned rumours about the fabulous workplace she loves so dearly as Gini Carlin and Jamie Gordon offered up the wildest DIA-centric conspiracies they could find.

Off the back of that, Jamie went toe-to-toe with THE Danny Robins, whose runaway hit podcast and TV series Uncanny catapulted him to the rank of Britain’s pre-eminent ghost hunter. Danny was good enough to explain how this kind of paranoid and paranormal thinking takes hold, and from there, the two chatted all things spooky aviation. 

Listen with the lights on!

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 6pm - 7pm (UKT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk.

Something a bit different this week, dearest MavMates! Gini and Jamie enjoyed a natter with Tony Gaunt, Business Development Executive at Martin-Baker. Informally, they're THE ejector seat people, though Tony corrects our podcast co-pilots' terminology, offers an idiot's guide to testing an escape system, walks us through one of the most hair-raising use cases of Martin-Baker's work to date and really reiterates that when his work saves one life, it saves many. This conversation was fascinating and life-affirming in equal measure: strap in!

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 6pm - 7pm (UKT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk.

In this week's episode, Canada-based Gini pays our Jamie a little visit, which can only mean one thing... ROADTRIP! (Gini's driving permitting, of course). Reunited at last at RAF Coningsby, they catch up with a selection of its regular visitors: the enthusiastic amateurs and quintessential MavGeeks themselves, the planespotters! Talk about finding your tribe! Then, Gini checks in with a spokesperson for the incoming generation aviation fanatics, the wonderful Polina, better-known as Girl Who Loves Planes - @lifeabroad1 on TikTok. Together, they try to get to the bottom of why aviation captures the imagination in the way it does.

It's a full-blown spotters' special this week!

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 6pm - 7pm (UKT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk.

It’s the 60th anniversary year of the RAF's Red Arrows aerobatics team, and with the commemorations taking in our Gini’s far-flung Canada, it felt only right that we celebrate them in style. Gini and Jamie were lucky enough to catch up with current Red 6 Flight Lieutenant Stuart Roberts and Red 9 Flight Lieutenant Patrick ‘Paddy’ Kershaw about the privilege of donning the red overalls and making their three years with the team count. They also caught up with Wing Commander Stewart Campbell who was, at the time of recording, OC 617 Squadron - “The Dambusters” (!) - about his time with the Reds ten years ago, flying as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations and what he’s been up to since. Finally, we hear a brief word from the original Red Arrow himself, Red 6 Henry Prince, whom we sadly lost in August of this year. 

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 6pm - 7pm (UKT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk. 

Known affectionately as the Aardvark for its reputation as a terrain-hugger with a big nose, the General Dynamics F-111 was one of the United States Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force’s go-to combat aircraft. Mike Crain spent years in its cockpit for the latter, starting at the hilariously young age of 21! Our Jamie Gordon caught up with Mike for the lowdown on this striking and unique machine, its rare side-by-side co-piloting configuration, its spaceship-style ejection method, and even one or two epic dogfight stories along the way.

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 18:00 - 19:00 (GMT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk. 

We’re back, baby! To all MavGeeks old and new: welcome! Man, it feels good to be home. Gini Carlin and Jamie Gordon are absolutely buzzing to begin a bumper new sequence of excuses to natter about their military aircraft obsession and bring you along for the ride. To kick things off, Gini shares some interviews she conducted with an assortment of heroic pilots at this year’s Royal International Air Tattoo. She caught up with crews from the F-35, KC-10, C-17 Globemaster, Grypen, even an F-16 test pilot. Coolest job ever? We think so!

We want to hear your aviation tale! Get in touch via [email protected]. Also, feel free to leave us a glowing review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps us out!

You can join Gini and Jamie for more MavGeeks fun with a heavyweight pilots’ playlist soundtrack every Tuesday from 18:00 - 19:00 (GMT) on BFBS on DAB in the UK, or online at https://radio.bfbs.com/stations/bfbs-uk. 

Got an obsession with aircraft that’s impossible to contain? Worried you might be as maniacal about big metal birds as that bloke that sat on a car park by Heathrow Airport filming everything during that storm? Power down your radar, you’ve arrived! MavGeeks: A Military Aircraft Obsession is back and bigger then ever for series 5! Join Gini Carlin, Jamie Gordon and another load of their aviation mates for the lowdown on history’s most iconic flying machines with the real-life superheroes who fly them.

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We want to hear your aviation tale! Reach out at [email protected].