Max Trescott Aviation Trends Aloft

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Evacuation Flight – Irma 2017

On Christmas Day, 2006, a tornado destroyed more than 40 airplanes belonging to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). But this year, as Hurricane Irma began tracking toward Florida, the University was prepared with a plan: Fly all 63 of its aircraft to Alabama in a single coordinated flight!

This image of the flight, that started at 2 AM on Saturday, September 9, 2017, tells part of the story. As you can see, aircraft are so closely spaced that they resemble a zipper stretching most of the way across the state of Florida. Early Sunday morning, Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Florida Keys, before running up the entire length of the Florida peninsula over the following days.

In the latest episode of the Aviation News Talk podcast, we talk with Veenen Udayan, an instructor pilot at Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach, FL, about ERAU’s evacuation flight. Veenen was the team leader for moving most of Embry’s 63 aircraft to the Auburn University Airport. But because of limited hotel rooms for the pilots in Auburn, another team leader led a smaller group of planes to Atlantic Aviation at the Birmingham Alabama Airport.

In this interview, Veenen talks about Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the flight planning and the advance coordination required with ATC to fit so many IFR aircraft into the system at one time. You can listen to that episode here.

If you're already a subscriber to the Aviation News Talk podcast, this episode is already downloaded on your smartphone. But if you're not, you can go here to subscribe on iTunes for Mac and iPhones, or here to subscribe on Android phones. Thanks for listening. And please fly safely, have fun and keep the blue side up! 

Hurricane Irma Relief – General Aviation Pilots Helping Storm Victims

Stan Brock, Remote Area Medical

It’s hard to go about business as usual given the death and destruction of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the U.S. and the Caribbean. So this week, the Aviation News Talk podcast is dispensing with its normal weekly format, sharing pilot safety tips and general aviation news from around the world, to focus on how general aviation is responding to these disasters. The bottom line: there are plenty of opportunities for pilots, healthcare professionals, and others to volunteer their time to help, or to donate money to groups providing hurricane relief in the aftermath of Harvey and Irma.

On Monday, we released an interview with Operation Airdrop founder Doug Jackson. That group, which was formed just 14 days ago as I write this, used a Facebook page to help organize more than 160 pilots and aircraft from around the U.S. to fly relief supplies into the hardest hit areas of Texas. Using everything from a J-3 Cub to a Pilatus PC-12, pilots flew over 500 missions carrying over 250,000 pounds of supplies to 32 airports. You can listen to that episode here.

On Tuesday, I interviewed Stan Brock, who in 1985, founded Remote Area Medical, a non-profit that provides free healthcare services in underserved, rural areas of the United States and overseas. From their base near Knoxville, TN, that group sent some of their seven airplanes and numerous trucks full of supplies to Texas. Now they’re gearing up to set up a forward base in Puerto Rico from where they will use their Cessna Caravans to distribute supplies to hard-hit islands like Tortola and St. Maarten. By the way, they’re currently looking for volunteer Caravan pilots, who’ve been through an approved Caravan training program during the past 12 months, to work a 2-week shift in Puerto Rico flying supplies to the islands. You can listen to that episode here.

If you're already a subscriber to the Aviation News Talk podcast, these episodes are already downloaded onto your smartphone. But if you're not, you can go here to subscribe on iTunes for Mac and iPhones, or here to subscribe on Android phones. Thanks for listening. And please fly safely, have fun and keep the blue side up! 

Best Aviation Jokes - M&R Joke Hour

Pilots and aviation fans love good jokes! So I asked listeners of the Aviation News Talk podcast to send me their best aviation jokes. In addition to those jokes, I scoured the Internet to find the best aviation jokes out there. And then I added a few aviation jokes of my own, including one I published on this blog years ago. 

Next, I called up my friend Rob Mark, Sr. Editor of Flying Magazine and creator of the JetWhine blog and asked him to read them with me for a special Labor Day episode of the podcast. As we said on the show, "This episode might not be for everyone. If you are someone who is easily offended, or you don’t like jokes that go to the edge, this is not your episode, and you might want to tune in again next week. Or wait until the kids aren’t around to listen to it."

If you're already a subscriber to the Aviation News Talk podcast, this special best aviation jokes episode is already downloaded onto your smartphone. But if you're not, you can go here to listen on the internet, go here to subscribe on iTunes for Mac and iPhones, or here to subscribe on Android phones. 

And if your favorite joke isn't in this show, email it to me, and I'll include it in a future M&R joke hour. Enjoy!