"There I was..." An Aviation Podcast

On the first flight home in a newly purchased airplane, pilot Dennis Steinbock experienced a total engine failure over remote forest. What followed was a dramatic crash landing and 54 hours trapped in the wreckage before ultimately being rescued by the Civil Air Patrol.

Sport pilot Ken Luna and his former instructor Toto Marchand discuss an emergency Ken experienced while flying home from a short lunch trip with his son. At about 2,000 feet, his light sport aircraft suddenly experienced violent vibrations when a propeller blade separated, causing the engine to fail and the canopy to pop open.

Father-and-son pilots Michael and Ethan Russo recount an IFR flight that turned critical when their aircraft suffered a complete avionics failure at 8,000 feet in heavy rain.

Coast Guard helicopter pilot Rick Kenin recalls a Christmas Eve rescue flight that nearly became an emergency of its own.

During a trip to Dry Tortugas National Park with his wife and two friends, Brandon Reissiger faces a challenging and nerve-wracking water takeoff in his Lake Amphibian.

Kansas City-based flight instructor Lennon Carlson recounts a night engine-out scare in a borrowed Cessna Cardinal RG while flying home after a Fourth of July weekend.

Arkansas pilot Greg Robbins is flying to lunch with his wife when the front windscreen and side doors of his Aeroprakt A22LS suddenly blow out.

To see the video of the incident, click here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu23j1DsPOU

Newly minted instrument pilot Chris Yalanis launches on a long IFR trip in his Sling TSi. ATC issues a clearance that doesn’t match his plan, and a routine climb turns tense when he begins to pick up ice.

Brad Cohen test flies his homebuilt Zenith Zodiac 601 XL. About 20 hours into testing, while working on departure and accelerated stalls, Brad enters an unexpected spin.

Flight test engineer Joey Brown recounts a New Year’s Eve flight in his Cessna 150 with his wife, when their trip is interrupted by violent engine vibration and power loss.

Tony Williams and Ben Taylor prepare to ferry a Cessna 401 that’s been resurrected after almost 25 years in storage. Despite meticulous planning, high-speed taxi tests, and pattern work, a loud bang on downwind reveals a left-gear failure. With support from ATC, the pilots plan a deliberate gear-up landing on a foamed runway.

During a mountain flying trip in a Cessna 172, Doug Tilghman and two companions become dangerously close to fuel exhaustion.

Bob Thomason recounts a tense IMC approach as safety pilot for a friend facing a cancer diagnosis. When his friend panics and fights the autopilot, Bob must intervene to stabilize the aircraft.

Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sergeant Justin Lillie shares the story of an engine failure in his Mooney during an IFR cross-country flight with his family.

Mark Sellers shares the story of a nighttime overwater flight in his Bellanca Viking where a landing gear issue arose during approach.

Mel Rushton recounts a harrowing nighttime IFR flight when the propeller of his Piper Comanche separated mid-flight over Florida.

While departing Tampa Executive Airport in his Thorp S-18, Mujahid Abdulrahim finds himself dealing with severely limited motion in his control stick.

Scott Wright shares the story of a flight he made as a corporate pilot in a B58 Baron with five passengers, during which he had an encounter with icing.

Erick Mahle tells the story of a night flight in his flying club’s Bonanza with his family on board that included a memorable landing and some lessons learned.

While flying in his 1966 Cessna 150F over Arizona, Chris Smith and his father must resort to some creative thinking to breathe life into a sputtering engine.

As a newly minted private pilot, Sara Gagné takes her mother on a sunset flight around the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Not expecting any adverse issues during her very first flight with a passenger, Sara finds herself unable to establish radio communication.

NOTE: We realized we omitted a key detail in this episode. When the guest discusses the remedy of shining a phone flashlight against the radio panel to make the display brighter, she is most likely referring to the panel having a faulty light sensor. Some avionics have an auto-dimming feature that uses a light sensor, which adjusts the brightness of the display to coincide with the ambient light level.

We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Peter Danzig hears a disturbing banging sound while flying his Bonanza A36 near Paso Robles, CA, and decides to make a precautionary landing at a small private airport. After landing, he must contend with less than ideal conditions in which to depart again.

While flying in his Piper Saratoga over the Mark Twain National Forest en route to Northeast Arkansas, Brent Reddick notices a subtle but disturbing drop in RPM, followed by a complete engine failure.

GA pilot Claudia Gibson recalls a flight on a late October night in Indiana, during her student pilot days. While on an extensive night training flight with multiple stops, Claudia and her instructor have an eerie encounter in the form of an unwanted guest on the runway.

While shooting an IFR practice approach in his Twin Comanche, retired Air Canada pilot Marc Arsenault loses electrical power to his landing gear system. After realizing that a manual gear extension will not work, Marc must resort to creative thinking – and the help of a Swiss Army knife – to get the gear down.

On the final leg of a cross-country flight from Mississippi to California, flight test engineer Joey Brown finds himself unable to maintain altitude in his 1967 Cessna 150G.

Climbing through 6,000 feet after departing Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, pilot and aircraft builder Steve Gross encounters severe icing in his RV-9. With his indicated airspeed falling to 60 knots and his climb rate dropping to zero, Steve must take quick action.

GA pilot Jonathan Fay experiences a laser strike while in the traffic pattern for a night landing. He tells the story of what happened, and how he was able to track down the perpetrator afterward.

On a night flight to Grand Strand Airport in Myrtle Beach, SC, pilot Greg Duckworth experiences an engine failure in his Rutan Long-EZ. With a sea of city lights below, Greg must resort to quick thinking and help from ATC to find a place to land.

AOPA Western Pacific Regional Manager Jared Yoshiki recounts the story of purchasing his first airplane - a Cherokee 180. While ferrying it from Indiana to his home airport in California, things went awry.

CFI Bill Tomkovic takes a Cessna 172 flight for the purpose of breaking in a new engine. In an effort to complete the break-in faster, Bill opts to fly longer than he originally intended. Unfortunately, the airplane’s fuel consumption is higher than he expects.

Student pilot Bradley Riedle was performing touch and goes with his instructor when they experienced an engine failure in their Cherokee 140. Bradley discusses the aftermath of the event, including a hard landing that resulted in aircraft damage and a back injury, as well as some unexpected anxiety during his first flight after the accident.

Retired airline captain and designated pilot examiner John Blum tells the story of giving a multiengine checkride in a Piper Seneca, when a loud bang from the tail section of the aircraft derailed the flight.

In part 2 of this 2-part episode, we hear the continuation of a story from a backcountry pilot who was involved in an aircraft accident at Mile Hi airstrip in Idaho. The pilot explains the aftermath of the accident in dealing with the NTSB, the FAA, and his insurance company.

In part 1 of this 2-part episode, we hear from a backcountry pilot who flew his Carbon Cub into Mile Hi airstrip in Idaho, and upon touchdown realized he was not decelerating as planned.

A message to our listeners regarding the tragic loss of our host, Richard McSpadden, and an update on the future of the "There I was..." podcast.

Father and son duo Chris and Michael Easton experience a bird strike while flying a Cirrus SR22 from Bedford, MA to New Garden Airport in PA.

Cherokee 140 pilot Carl Hancock recalls a go-around near disaster when trying to climb in high density altitude with full flaps.

Utah GA pilot Lee Trotter tells a story from early in his flying experience, when he got mixed up in a thunderstorm.

While flying in instrument conditions at night, Mooney pilot Bill Fredericks wrestles with a faulty autopilot.

Eric Hinson, CEO of SIMCOM and former Navy pilot, experienced an engine failure immediately after takeoff in his Bonanza A36, while departing Orlando Sanford International Airport.

When Taylor Hash, a 21-year-old student pilot flying solo, lost her nosewheel on takeoff in a Diamond DA20, an experienced pilot, Chris Yates, witnessed the event and got on the radio to coach Taylor through a safe landing.

737 First Officer Ben Zwebner tells the story of a tense flight early in his aviation career, while he was working as a flight instructor out of Montgomery County Airpark in Maryland. While flying a photographer over Washington, D.C. in the Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ), Ben experienced an electrical fire in the cockpit of his Cessna 182.

This episode features part two of our interview with ferry pilot Kerry McCauley. In this story, Kerry flies across Africa near the equator at night, facing thunderstorms, no navaids, and dead-reckoning his way across political boundaries.

On a cold January evening, pilot John Berman was flying his Velocity XL aircraft from Liberal, KS to Santa Fe, NM when he encountered severe icing.

NTSB Vice Chairman (and former senior leader of the AOPA Air Safety Institute) Bruce Landsberg comments on the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash findings by Ethiopian authorities who downplayed training and other human factors.

Ferry pilot Kerry McCauley recounts a night flight in a Cessna 210 over the Sahara Desert, en route from Morocco to Ivory Coast, when he lost his alternator.

After a November afternoon flight with his father in the Boston area, GA pilot Ken Urban has an unwelcome encounter with a deer on short final.

New Hampshire-based pilot Derick Jones was flying his Cessna 172 to Lawrence Municipal Airport in Massachusetts, in IMC conditions, when he experienced a complete electrical failure.

GA pilot Devin Miller, first featured on the podcast in 2019, joins us again to talk about a more recent incident – an engine failure while flying a PA-34 Seneca III.