SPC092 [HS] Storms, Smoke, and Bladders...Let's Go!

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Storms, smoke, bladders.

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We've got all sorts of things to overcome in the next couple of days.

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That is episode 92 of the Student Pilot Cast

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Welcome back, SPC listeners.

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We got a special episode for you today, a hangar series episode where we're

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just gonna take a few minutes and talk about some of the journey and adventures

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we've got in front of us in the next couple of days headed to Oshkosh.

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And I've got with me my co-pilot and my youngest son, Trey.

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Trey, say hi to everybody.

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Hey.

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It's, uh, good to be on.

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Awesome.

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Yeah, I've never really had my family members on the podcast before, but since

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we're gonna be doing this together, I thought I'd bring him on today.

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And we are leaving the Phoenix area in, a day, basically.

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We're leaving Saturday morning.

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We're recording this Thursday night.

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We've got a lot of things packed.

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We've got the airplane ready.

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And we're just gonna talk about what we've been doing to get the

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airplane ready what our plans are, and what some of the challenges are.

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But more importantly, we're gonna talk about what we're hoping to

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be able to do and see at Oshkosh.

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Sound good?

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Yeah.

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All right.

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So in the last week or so, the Jabiru needed new tires,

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so, Trey helped me do that.

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Trey, incidentally, is in school right now to become an A&P, to

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become an airplane mechanic.

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So I welcome his help and, uh, budding expertise on being able

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to help me with stuff like that.

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So we changed the tires.

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We got the log entries done.

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we changed the oil to get it all ready.

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Kinda knocked out a few different little squawks that we had.

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Uh, by the way, I glued back on the panel that fell off, and so that's

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looking good, and I test flew it this morning after all of our maintenance.

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What'd you think about going through that process?

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Yeah, jacking the airplane wasn't the easiest- Yeah … not having tall

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enough, or short enough wing jacks.

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Yeah.

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It's a high wing, but it's a small high wing, and so wing jacks that are meant

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for Cessnas are a little too tall, and shorter jacks are a little too small.

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So we improvised.

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We- Trey devised a way to use a regular floor jack that had, had a spreader on it.

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I guess that's what you'd call it.

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And, um, took off some covers and got the airplane jacked up so that we could change

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the tires, and that was an adventure.

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Neither one of us had done through-bolt tires before, so that

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was that was a learning process.

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but yeah, we got it all done, and everything's looking good.

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We are taking it there without the wheel pants on.

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So I've never really flown the airplane without the wheel pants, so we're

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probably gonna lose a few knots, but it sure gives us- Better access

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to the to the wheels and the tires and the brakes for pre-flighting.

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And of course, taxiing around in the grass will probably be

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a little bit less worrisome.

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What do you think?

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Yeah.

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You fly any different this morning?

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No, I can't tell any difference, but I stayed in the pattern, just

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kind of a maintenance flight.

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And, uh, didn't really go anywhere, so I wasn't able to check if I wasn't getting

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the cruise speeds that we normally get.

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But starting Saturday morning we'll be able to.

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Speaking of which

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All of a sudden the monsoon season is upon us here in Mesa,

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in the Phoenix area in Arizona.

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And so pretty much every day we've got thunderstorms coming through.

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In fact, there's a thunderstorm going on right now.

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We're under a flood watch.

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And, we keep looking at the weather, and we're hoping we can get out of here.

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What have you been seeing and hearing?

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Rain for the next 10 days.

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Yeah.

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It's not gonna be constant rain.

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I mean, that doesn't really happen here much, but we're hoping by

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leaving early, early in the morning on Saturday, it should be, it

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should be pretty straightforward.

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But we've had a lot more overcast than we normally get.

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It's been relatively high overcast, but we've got the Rocky Mountains

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to fly over, so we have to get relatively high to do that.

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So we're hoping that we can, we can get through it.

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The Jabiru being a light sport, um, and I don't know if there are any

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light sports that are certified for IFR flight, but I know most of them

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are not, and that includes the Jabiru.

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It's not certified for IFR flight.

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So we have to stay VMC.

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And so of course that's gonna make it a bit of a challenge.

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And then we're learning today and yesterday that there's smoke all over

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Oshkosh, all over Wisconsin, so that could prove to be interesting, too.

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So obviously we'll be keeping an eye on all of that.

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what else?

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What else are you thinking about, about the trip?

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I've never flown in any sort of weather.

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It's always been clear skies, so that'll be interesting.

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Yeah.

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Good experience.

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What about our bladders?

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How are the- how are those gonna do, you think?

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Walk that fine line.

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Drink as little water as possible.

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Without getting dehydrated?

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Yeah.

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Yeah, that's a fine line we gotta walk.

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It's about 11 hours of flying.

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We're gonna do it over two days, or a day and a half.

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So we're gonna have three to four-hour legs.

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so yeah, we'll have to walk that line between dehydration and

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needing to use the restroom.

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Anything else?

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What else are you thinking about?

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Anything worrying you a little bit?

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Just the weather, but- Yeah.

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The weather and the smoke, right?

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What can you do?

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Yeah.

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All right.

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I think we're gonna make it.

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We're gonna make it somehow, sometime.

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And if we do, what are you looking forward to, Trey?

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I've, uh, never seen the Red Arrows, so that'll be a good demonstration to watch.

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Yeah, I never have either.

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I never thought I would care all that much about the bigger teams,

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but couple of years ago when, uh, the Canada demonstration team

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came, I, I found it really cool.

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It's kind of amazing to watch a larger team with smaller airplanes as

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close as they are going in formation.

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you might even know a little bit more about the Red Arrows than I do.

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What… How many, um, how many airplanes are there?

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It's a nine-ship formation.

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Yeah.

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And do they do most of the show together?

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Uh, I'm not sure.

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Or do they have solos like, like our demonstration teams

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do or- Yeah, I'm not too sure.

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Yeah.

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I guess we'll find out.

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I guess we'll find out.

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So yeah, that's gonna be really cool to see something new I've never seen before.

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Neither one of us have ever seen before.

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Yeah.

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Trey, I don't think you've ever tent camped- I have not … at Oshkosh before.

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What do you think of that?

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Yeah, first time airplane camping in general.

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It'll be- Well, I have taken you airplane camping when you were little.

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Oh.

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That I can remember?

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Yeah.

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You were probably seven or something last time we did that.

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Yeah.

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But mostly because I got too old to like tent camping anymore.

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But here we are.

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Yeah, it's worth it for Oshkosh.

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It'll… Try to stay dry.

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That'll be the main objective.

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Yeah.

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And, uh- The weather's looking pretty good for Oshkosh.

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I mean, temperature-wise.

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Yeah.

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Not as many rain days as are forecast here, which is kinda crazy.

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So yeah, that'll be fun.

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What else, besides the Red Arrows?

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Anything else you're looking forward to?

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It's all cool It's all cool.

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I should say, Trey works for a an upset prevention and recovery company.

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Uh, pretty well-known one here in the East Valley, and so he's around

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aerobatic airplanes all the time.

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So I'm guessing you're looking forward to some of that stuff.

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Yeah.

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It's always cool to see the new extras there, the, uh, gamebirds.

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I like those airplanes, and there's probably a lot of new stuff that

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I haven't seen- Yeah … that we'll be able to take a look at.

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Cool.

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And are you gonna do anything for your A&P program while you're there?

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Yeah, I'm planning on taking a couple classes.

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Hope we can get a avionics class, and do those workshops.

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Maybe electronics and that's what I'm working on in school right now, and

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I'm missing class to be in Oshkosh, so- … should probably, learn some things.

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Yeah.

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His, uh, his instructor told him, "Hey, while you're there, make sure you learn

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some stuff and do a report on it," since he'll be missing some classes.

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it's certainly gonna be an adventure.

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We'll take you guys along with us.

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Make sure you're following Student Pilot Cast on Instagram, and @billwill

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on X. I always want to say Twitter.

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and, we'll keep you guys updated through that.

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Uh, as I said in the last episode, we'll also be doing a recap

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show kind of recap everything.

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But the day-to-day we'll be putting out on social media.

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It's too difficult to produce and publish full episodes while you're there, so we'll

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be putting out little things on social media, and then we'll put out a recap

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episode, and then there's gonna be several episodes, uh, that are coming out of that.

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We've got some pretty cool stuff lined up some good interviews about

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those pilots who are always learning.

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The always a student mindset, of course, as everyone knows, is a

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big, big deal for the Student Pilot Cast, and so a lot of what we're

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doing is, kind of focused on that.

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wish us luck.

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follow on Instagram and X, and we'll keep you posted on how things are going.

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Thanks for joining me today, Trey.

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Yeah.

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It'll be fun.

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It'll be fun.

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All right.

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That'll do it for episode 92.

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And we'll see you at Oshkosh, hopefully.

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Reach out if you if you're gonna be there, and maybe we can get together.