The Student Pilot Cast

MOSAIC took effect right in the middle of Oshkosh this year. A few months later, here's what actually showed up, what it costs, and what it means if you're learning to fly.

This is my AirVenture 2026 industry report, the one I promised you back in Episode 94. I look at two big stories through one lens: what do they mean for a student pilot, for someone thinking about getting started, or for a pilot who wants a more affordable airplane?

We walk through the first MOSAIC trainers from Van's, Sling, Pipistrel and others, and how their purchase prices and fuel burn compare with a new 172 or Archer. I also get into what the new rules really unlocked, including flying in actual clouds, and why sport pilot is now a much more useful starting point. On the panel side, it's Garmin AXIS, Dynon and a bold little startup called Airhart.

I also share a caution about technology and good pilots, why you shouldn't wait for new airplanes to start training, and my hope for where MOSAIC takes this industry over the next five years.

Were you at Oshkosh? Tell me what you saw at https://studentpilotcast.com/radiocheck.

Links:

Radio Check (voicemail): https://studentpilotcast.com/radiocheck

The Friday Flight Brief newsletter: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief/

All episodes: https://studentpilotcast.com/episodes/

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

How do you record your flight lessons? Nick, a listener in Houston, asked me the same question I got in 2009, so I flew with six recorders running at once, then tested five cables on the ground to find out what actually works in 2026.

We start with why it matters: in the moment you hear maybe a quarter of what your instructor says, and listening back is one of the best debrief tools there is. Then the options: a recording headset like the Lightspeed Delta Zulu, the classic splitter cable into a recorder, 32-bit float recorders like the DJI Mic 2 and Insta360 Mic Pro, a USB-C cable straight into your phone, and recording into a camera. Along the way you'll hear what clipping sounds like, why 32-bit float still isn't foolproof, and how much the cable itself matters.

Then the real question: what do you want the recording for? Clean panel audio is perfect for a transcript but sounds sterile, so we also cover a lav mic in your ear cup and recording two tracks for a natural cockpit sound.

There's a lot of "listen to this, now this" in this one. If your podcast app shows chapter art, the labels are on screen. The full video is at https://studentpilotcast.com/98.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

Your logbook knows you flew. It has no idea what you learned. In this Briefing Room episode: five questions to ask after every flight (Surprise, Workload, Skill, Decision, and Goal), where the self-debrief came from (FITS and learner-centered grading), and a simple system to capture your goal, bridge it into your next flight, and close the loop. Leave your answer to question five at studentpilotcast.com/radiocheck.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

At AirVenture 2026 I sat down with Adriana, founder of FlyORKA, expecting an app demo. I walked away with a line I haven't been able to shake: logging is not learning.

Adriana spent her career as a flight test engineer, learning to fly airplanes nobody had flown before. That path led her into gliders, tailwheel, and aerobatics, a pile of soaring records, and years of ab initio instruction. Her whole training philosophy comes down to one idea: we don't learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.

We talk about what flight test can teach a student pilot about every lesson: observe with curiosity, record without judging, then share what you found. Adriana tells the story of waiting through all of her primary training for honest feedback, and what she finally heard when it came. And we break down ORKA (Observe, Record, Know yourself, Assess and adjust), a structure for debriefing every flight and making your progress visible to your instructor, your peers, and the people cheering you on from the ground.

Not a sponsorship, but Adriana offered listeners 15% off FlyORKA for 12 months with code STUDENTPILOTCAST. She made 50 codes, so it's first come, first served.

Fair warning: we lost some audio and video during the recording, so the conversation jumps in a few places. That one's on me.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

• Fly ORKA — We log memories—not just flight hours

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

At AirVenture this year I sat down in the Cirrus compound with Eamon Powers, the Director of Cirrus Approach — the man who owns every piece of training content Cirrus produces, for pilots and for mechanics.

Twelve or fourteen years ago the fatal accident rate in the Cirrus fleet was, being generous, unremarkable, and there was a real argument in this industry about whether the parachute was helping at all. That number has moved a long way since. I wanted to know what actually moved it, how they know what moved it, and how much of it the rest of us can steal — because most of you listening aren't flying a Cirrus.

What I got was a lot better than a company pitch. Eamon has a PhD in instructional design, an ATP, and an A&P, and he'll be the first to tell you the business card looks a little silly.

We get into why every syllabus in America puts the first solo before lesson 20, and why that number is a leftover from World War II. What he calls "time to independence." How you keep a safety briefing from going rote. The CSIP standardization machine. The hardest number in aviation safety — the denominator. And the training nobody ever asks their mechanic about.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

Cirrus training

• Cirrus Approach — the training platform, for pilots: https://www.cirrusapproach.com/pilots/
• Cirrus Approach course catalog: https://learning.cirrusapproach.com/learning-catalog
• CAPS course — free, open to anyone, you don't have to own or fly a Cirrus:https://learning.cirrusapproach.com/courses/424/overview
• Mission Ready 2026 Simulator Sessions: https://learning.cirrusapproach.com/courses/821/overview
• Cirrus Embark — complimentary transition training when you buy a pre-owned Cirrus:https://cirrusaircraft.com/embark/
• Cirrus Training Network — find a Cirrus Training Center or a CSIP near you:https://cirrusaircraft.com/training-network/
• Becoming a CSIP (Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot): http://csip.cirrusaircraft.com
• Becoming a Cirrus Training Center: https://cirrusaircraft.formstack.com/forms/ctc_application
• Cirrus flight training overview: https://cirrusaircraft.com/approach/caps-training-course/

Also mentioned

• COPA — Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association: https://www.cirruspilots.org/
• Cirrus IQ (the data platform, built on the Garmin GDL 60): https://cirrusaircraft.com/cirrus-iq-faq/
• TRAC10 — the clean-sheet trainer Cirrus introduced in July 2026:https://cirrusaircraft.com/aircraft/trac10/

Student Pilot Cast

• Radio Check — leave me a voicemail: https://studentpilotcast.com/voicemail/
• The Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief/
• Three Simple Questions for ADM (free PDF): https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions/
• All episodes: https://studentpilotcast.com/episodes/

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

In episode 94 of the Student Pilot Cast, Bill recounts an unplanned start to AirVenture 2026 after the engine in his Jabiru quit over far southeastern Colorado on July 18, forcing an off-airport landing in a cornfield with his son Trey; both were unhurt and the airplane remains repairable with minor gear damage and an unresolved engine issue. Rather than a debrief, Bill focuses on gratitude for the “rings” of people who helped: Trey’s calm, useful cockpit support; his wife Crystal’s steady response, prayer, and communication with worried family; airline crews relaying the mayday on guard; ATC/FAA personnel tracking him down by phone; local deputies and responders; fire chief Everett and his wife Becky transporting and hosting them; friend Kent flying a Mooney rescue to continue to Oshkosh; and the broader aviation community at Oshkosh that shared support, stories, and connections.

This is not the debrief of the emergency...that comes later. This is arguably more important...the human side.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

It's Thursday night at Camp Scholler, day four of days not mattering, and Kent and I sat down with one goal: be smart-asses about a few things we'd seen at AirVenture.

So we get into it. Textron had us all convinced this was the year the Pipistrel Panthera would finally get certified under MOSAIC — and instead we got another two-seat trainer. The Camp Scholler bathhouse has quietly relocated the towel hooks inside the shower. The night air show is still the best thing in aviation, but somebody counted down "two minutes to hack" and then made us wait ten more for two drones and a flag. Also, everybody please sit down and stop filming it.

Then Bob Bittner wandered into the conversation and blew up our whole gripe session, because the 2026 AirVenture Cup — the one Kent has rechristened the SmokeVenture Cup — turned out to be a much better story than anything we were complaining about.

We tried to be snide. We learned things instead. That's episode 93.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

The AirVenture Cup

• AirVenture Cup Race — official site
• 2026 race course
• 2026 results — EAA Hangar Flying
• Wildfire smoke postpones the race (WSAW)
• The race finally launches from smoky Wausau skies (WSAW)
• Learn Build Fly — Wausau youth aviation program

Bob's airplane

• Cozy Mark IV
• Rutan VariEze — where the canard family started
• Long-EZ (EAA)

Textron, Pipistrel & MOSAIC

• Pipistrel (a Textron eAviation company)
• Pipistrel Panthera
• Textron buys Pipistrel, 2022 (AOPA)
• FAA MOSAIC rule
• MOSAIC explained — FAQ (AOPA)

Other things we talked about

• SubSonex personal jet kit (Sonex Aircraft)
• Camp Scholler (EAA)

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

In Episode 92, we join Bill and Trey talking briefly about their upcoming trip to OSH in a light sport aircraft, Lil' Rue. B

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

In Episode 91, Bill teaches a simple aeronautical decision-making framework for go/no-go and continue/divert decisions built around three simple questions: can the airplane do it? Can I do it? And is it legal? He breaks each question into three lenses—aircraft performance/envelopes/condition; pilot proficiency/physiology/capability under pressure; and legal airworthiness/mission-specific regs/paperwork—highlighting how pilots can miss risks or rationalize. He adds a “three strikes” rule where three “yellow” factors stacked together mean a no-go, and recommends post-flight learning with five quick debrief questions. He shares a headwind-induced fuel stop example, offers a free two-page PDF at studentpilotcast.com/threequestions, and invites listeners to connect, including at Oshkosh.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

In Episode 90, Beyond the Checkride, Bill and Kent reflect on the 2009 Colgan Air 3407 crash near Buffalo and how it drove regulatory changes including the 1,500-hour rule and the FAA-required ATP Certification Training Program (ATP-CTP). They discuss what ATP-CTP is, how provider and instructor quality can vary, and what Kent experienced taking it independently (about $4,000) with nearly 3,000 hours and single-engine turbine Part 135 time. They outline regulatory requirements (30 hours ground, 10 hours simulator) covering high-altitude aerodynamics, weather radar, air carrier operations, and CRM/leadership, emphasizing lessons from accidents like Air France 447, Tenerife, United 232, and American 965. Kent describes key sim takeaways such as high-altitude stall recovery requiring nose-down and significant altitude loss, automation differences, EGPWS/windshear maneuvers, and the importance of mindset, SOPs, checklists, and professionalism.

Get the free Go or No-Go guide: https://studentpilotcast.com/three-questions

Get the Friday Flight Brief: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief

Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams