Greg Brown: Cockpit Adventures from the Flying Carpet
Greg Brown, “the story-teller-poet-laureate of aviation” Ride along with renowned aviator, writer, and photographer Greg Brown in his light airplane, the "Flying Carpet," as he searches behind clouds for the real America, experiencing countless aerial adventures along the way. A former National Flight Instructor of the Year, Greg is author of five books, a former Barnes & Noble Arizona Author of the Month, and longtime aviation adventure columnist for AOPA Flight Training magazine. Some reviewers have compared his book, "Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane," to sixties road-trip classics like "On the Road," and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." Says aviation author and humorist Rod Machado: “Greg thinks with the mind of a pilot, questions with the curiosity of a philosopher, and sees with the eyes of a poet.” Observes Nina Bell Allen, former “Readers Digest” Asst. Managing Editor, "You don't have to be a pilot, or even a frequent flyer, to soar with Greg Brown in [his] Flying Carpet." So buckle in and join Greg for the ride! Website: GregBrownFlyingCarpet.com/podcast
Episodes
Lessons & Landmarks; Cross Country Odyssey During the ATC Strike
During the recent longest ever US government shutdown, airline traffic was restricted at 14 major airports around the country. But you may not know that those same airports closed entirely to General Aviation ("GA") traffic, meaning non-airline private, and business aircraft. That aborted a plan to pick up friends at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
The experi...
Any pilot will tell you that learning to fly an airplane is a challenging endeavor. So when you fly with someone who demonstrates a natural knack for it, that's a special occasion.
Well, I recently experienced the best "first flying lesson" I've encountered in thousands of hours as a flight instructor. Here is the inspiring story.
Runaway Autopilot! (Misadventures of a Corporate Pilot)
Happily I've experienced only a handful of scares over decades of piloting. But this one was a biggie!
So climb aboard my Flying Carpet, buckle up your seatbelt, and prepare for takeoff on today's episode, "Runaway Autopilot!"
Contact Greg with your comments and suggestions!
GregBrownFlyingCarpet.com (Find all of Greg's links he...
"This might as well be Oz," I thought, upon clearing the clouds approaching Paducah, Kentucky. I wouldn’t have been surprised to experience supersaturated sunshine, and perhaps a golden brick runway.
Tales of faraway lands work magic on youthful minds, and although I’d never been here before, the stories of a special person from my youth had cast a spell on this Ohio River town as real as any bright-hued fairy tale.
Flight instructing offers some of the most rewarding flying there is. We experience the joy of fulfilling our students’ dreams of flight, become better pilots ourselves in the process, and develop lifelong friendships with many of those we teach.
But among hours and hours of routine teaching and flying, there are occasional hard lessons, too, most often unanticipated. And those hard lessons are generally even more eye-opening and p...
There's been lots of news lately about possible extraterrestrial visits from other planets, other galaxies. And whether the government has been covering it up. In particular, many reports have revealed sightings from airplane cockpits.
So when a friend messaged the other day asking whether I’d ever experienced UFOs or extraterrestrials in the course of flight, I was reminded of an incident Jean and I experienced years ago in th...
How many pilots have seriously considered the safety implications of unexpectedly losing GPS navigation in flight?
Well it happened to us, in clouds over remote and rugged terrain, and as you'll hear, the risks are thought-provoking at best, and potentially deadly without forethought, positional awareness, and preparation...
This episode could save your life!
Greg
Contact Greg with your commen...
Grab your logbook, 'cause it's time for one of my wackiest flying adventures ever!
So climb into my Flying Carpet, buckle up your seatbelts and prepare to take off on today’s episode, “Waterbeds by the 1/2 Hour!”
Greg
"I just finished listening to [this episode] - while driving and LAUGHED Out Loud! OMG, I don’t know [which part] was funnier…😂 It’s a great reminder to all of us that there is so much more...
Cowboy Flying Lesson!
Perils of an Off-Airport Takeoff
You may remember meeting my buddy Baldy in previous Flying Carpet Podcasts, Flight #2, "Cowboy Pilot," and Flight #29, "Cowpuncher's Reunion." Well here's what happened when he suffered an inflight emergency, and then what followed. The precautionary landing went well enough, but not so the takeoff.
This episode you don't want to...
One thing I love about flying is that there are so many dimensions to it. It might be as simple as going from point a to point B... For a meeting... Or a "hundred-dollar hamburger."
But sometimes piloting takes you mystically and magically to faraway places—spiritually or across time. And that's what this story is about.
So climb into my Flying Carpet, buckle up your seatbelts and prepare to takeoff on toda...
As I record this, we’re just two weeks away from the 2024 total solar eclipse that will come up through Mexico and cross much of the Midwest and eastern United States.
I suspect that many of you plan on flying to see this eclipse, but if you’re not, you probably should be.
Plenty of people have experienced a partial solar eclipse, and a few have experienced an annular solar eclipse.
But if you’ve never experience...
One thing I’ve learned over many years of piloting is that rarely can we plan a flight, take off, and then not need to worry about anything until we reach our destination.
More often than not, circumstances arise before takeoff and en route that require planning, strategy, and tactics to get us safely where we’re going . A big part of this, too, is being prepared to land at any point… To turn around. To land at an inconvenient airpo...
You may remember meeting my cowboy buddy "Baldy" way back in Flying Carpet Podcast Flight #2, “Cowboy Pilot,” in which Jean and I were first invited to the annual "Arizona Cowpuncher’s Reunion." If you don’t remember that episode, or haven’t heard it, you might want to get to know Baldy via that episode before starting this one.
Regardless, I predict you’ll get a kick joining our flying adventure to attend a uniq...
There are many dimensions to piloting adventure: some are scary, most are educational, but all are memorable!
Contact Greg with your comments and suggestions!
GregBrownFlyingCarpet.com (Find all of Greg's links here.)
Greg Brown's Cockpit Adventures from the Flying Carpet Podcast
Greg's Book, Flying Carpet; The Soul of An Airplane "You don't have to be a pilot, or even a frequent flyer, to s...
“Lobe Plays Sedona; Skies filled with music.”
Along with cockpit thrills and challenges, plenty of piloting adventure arises from where flying can deliver us, both physically and spiritually. That’s what today’s episode is about.
Contact Greg with your comments and suggestions!
GregBrownFlyingCarpet.com (Find all of Greg's links here.)
Greg Brown's Cockpit Adventures from the Flying Carpet Podcas...
Some Lessons a Pilot Never Forgets
"So this must be vertigo." I thought. Nausea circled my gut like the snowflakes orbiting my propeller. I peered out the windshield for landmarks, but snow obscured all but a tiny spot of ground beneath me, even at an altitude of only a thousand feet.
To make matters worse, my navigational radio had obviously failed. How could I possibly have drifted so far off course ...
Ride along on Greg's youthful adventures in airplanes and automobiles!
Contact Greg with your comments and suggestions!
GregBrownFlyingCarpet.com (Find all of Greg's links here.)
Greg Brown's Cockpit Adventures from the Flying Carpet Podcast
Greg's Book, Flying Carpet; The Soul of An Airplane "You don't have to be a pilot, or even a frequent flyer, to soar with Greg Brown in Flying Carp...
I was recently awarded the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, for 50 years of safe piloting.
It’s mind-boggling to consider how short the history of aviation is, that I should have personally flown for over 40% of the entire history of powered flight!
In this episode I reflect on how general aviation flying has changed since I took to the skies in 1972. What’s more, today’s story kicks off a whole series of future ...
Piloting is a sophisticated activity that requires a good deal of training, hand-eye coordination, planning, and application of judgment.
But today’s episode focuses more on spiritual aspects of flying--that is, why we do it, rather than how we do it, and it's topped off by a crazy destination. This story is one of my personal favorites, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Okay, everyone, hop aboard my Flying Carpet...
As you’ve likely heard, the final Learjet was recently delivered following almost 60 years of production. I was a kid when the Lear 23 was first introduced in 1964.
Although a few other corporate jets were flying by then, most companies still motored around in relatively slow, unpressurized piston airplanes, many of them repurposed WWII-era bombers and freighters.
The Lear was so sleek, sexy, and fast in compari...
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