Season 4 closes out with a returning guest...Brett Baker of Cleared to Adventure was one of the very first people on this show, back in episodes 4 and 5, and this time we caught up in person on a gravel bar in Alaska. We flew in on the HawkWagon, caught some glacier views along the way, and recorded with actual gunfire in the background from neighbors sighting in rifles nearby. Hard to imagine a better way to close out a season. Brett opens up about something a lot of his viewers have asked a...

Shane Madson runs Mad Custom Cubs out of Westlock, Alberta — and he builds airplanes the way he used to build Harleys, one weld and one custom touch at a time. Before he ever picked up an aircraft-grade torch, he spent years on Alberta drilling rigs and running gas plants, then became a motorcycle mechanic and competitive racer, before a chance conversation with a parts-shop regular convinced him airplanes were actually simpler than the choppers he was already building. We get into the story ...

Jeff Smith and Matt Axley join the show to talk about Fly Rocky Top — a brand-new backcountry airstrip network in East Tennessee, and the flagship project of the Recreational Aviation Foundation's "Expanding the Map" initiative, announced at Oshkosh this past July. The network runs on a basecamp-and-outpost model. Rockwood Municipal Airport is the basecamp: a 5,000-foot paved runway paired with a brand-new 2,400-foot turf strip called Smuggler's Landing, a name with more local history behind ...

Josh Richling has one of the best seats in competition STOL flying - he's the crew chief behind Steve Henry's Wild West Aircraft Highlander XL builds, the machine that's put up some of the shortest takeoff numbers in the sport. He's also the guy running Tundra Tailwheels day-to-day since Steve Henry took over the company from founder Jim Pekola in 2024, and on top of that, he freelances for FLYING Magazine covering the National STOL Series. So he builds the airplane, builds the gear, and writ...

Ray and Melisa Fowler run Adventure Flying LLC, a CubCrafters Certified Sales Center covering the mid-Atlantic — Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Both are Delta A320 Captains, and both carry warbird résumés that go well beyond the airline job: Melisa is type-rated in the DC-3, C-47, and B-17, with stick time in the back seat of a P-51. Ray is a retired Air National Guard Lieutenant Colonel, an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner, and Director of Flig...

CC Pocock has spent over two decades flying in some of the most remote, unimproved terrain in the world, and now runs a one-man flight school in the Nevada desert that's trained more than 950 pilots. He's the author of Bush and Mountain Flying, now in its third edition, and just launched his own podcast and YouTube channel, Bush Air. We get into the real distinction between "bush flying" and "backcountry flying" — a line most pilots blur — and where CC thinks formal flight training falls shor...

Darin Hart runs American Legend Aircraft in Sulphur Springs, Texas — the shop keeping the Piper Cub lineage alive, from a stripped-down J3 to the Rotax 916-powered Nomad. We get into how the Nomad came to be (including the Trent Palmer connection that helped put it on the map), the story behind the name, and a full breakdown of the build-assist model versus buying a kit. We also dig into MOSAIC — what the new certification standard actually means for manufacturers, the scale of investment it ...

Erin and Paul flew their Bearhawk 5 named "Tina" to Peach State Aerodrome to drop in and record an episode! It was epic, and unfortunately I had to edit out the multiple fly-bys that interrupted the recording...haha. But in this episode we talk about getting into flying, building an airplane from scratch (proudly with Bearhawk's builder assist program), and flying it to all 50 states. This one was a lot of laughs and is a fun listen. Follow them on Instagram HERE Follow them...

Most people know Justin Meaders for the incredible story of returning to flight after the motorcycle accident that left him paraplegic. That story has been told well—including on Pilot to Pilot—so we took a different approach. In this episode, we focus on Justin the competitor: his years in Formula One air racing, his transition into the backcountry community and National STOL, the airplanes he's built and flown, and the mindset behind competing at a high level. If you've ever wondered what s...

Season 4 kicks off with a bit of a role reversal...in response to your comments I decided to do a "meet the host" episode" and instead of me just talking to myself, I invited Ryan Dembroski back to the podcast (only 3-time voice on the pod). Ryan takes a turn at the mic and asks me his toughest questions and we dive into my aviation story and what is coming next for the podcast. This was fun to record and I hope you enjoy listening to it! Welcome to season 4! JB on Instagram Sign-...